How to eat ingenuity, the Pino(y) way

Tuesday, 08 November 2011 00:00 Jessica Salao

When looking for an eating junket, Teacher’s Village is the tsibog wonderland you would want to go to. Conveniently near UP Diliman, the place is a panoply of food places; it won’t let you leave without a full and happy tummy. Happiness as they say is found in small packages and it is true in the modest restaurants found in this spot of the city.

Happy was how I felt while eating in this restaurant serving local cuisine called Pino. Compared with the other Pinoy-food restaurants I’ve been to such as Crisostomo (a fine-dining place with a formal feel) and Kanin Club (where the attraction is stunning Pinoy fusion), Pino is smaller and more casual and comfortable. It felt almost like home.

pino_facade

If you wish to give Pino a try, there are a few things you’ll have to keep in mind. For one, if you’re planning to drop by on a weekday, you’d better get there before lunch or dinner hour starts. It only serves food from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm at lunchtime, and 5:00 pm to 12:00 midnight for supper. Visiting on a weekend shouldn’t be a problem because they accommodate customers starting at lunchtime until kingdom come. I went to Pino on a Thursday, and did my best to arrive there at 12, just to make sure I have enough time to order my food and eat. Which reminds me -- Pino is understaffed, so expect a lagging service even if the crew tries to make up for it by being friendly and accommodating.

While waiting for our meal, my companion and I indulged ourselves with a pitcher of iced tea, which made the sizzling weather easier to tolerate. Pino’s version of the beverage will not make it to any best list, but it is still a fine thirst quencher.

What is a meal without appetizers? Bitin! So that is what we started our meal with. Their longganisa-topped nachos was a delightful surprise. Instead of eating ground beef on top of your tortilla chips, cheese and mango salsa, there is diced, flavorsome, spicy longanisa. Ingenious!

Deciding that we wanted to try more of Pino’s appetizers, we ordered a whole platter of them. What was served were portions of Nori Cheese Sticks, Pino Fries, Crispy Calamares, Chicken Lollipop, and Tofu Balls. The cheese sticks came with with strips of nori, of course, but the highlight was the strawberry syrup topping. No kidding! The unlikely combination worked wonderfully! The tofu balls, on the other hand, were just round tofu with cheese inside. It didn’t make the earth shake.

Binusog na Pusit with Kesong Puti was supposed to be an appetizer, but I chose it for my entree. No regrets there, because it was scrumptious! The grilled squid lived up to its name, being stuffed with mango salsa and kesong puti (goat cheese), and served with barbeque sauce on the side. It was a chewy dish with a well-balanced mixture of ingredients, which went nicely with the Dilis Rice. This unique Filipino course is practically the rice version of our favorite sweet and spicy dilis snack, topped with a sunny-side-up.

pino-pusit

Pino’s Sisig Carbonara was a fusion of Italian and Filipino authenticities in a dish. It was not too saucy as anyone would expect from a commercialized carbonara, but it was definitely creamy, the way I like my pasta. The ham and sisig tandem gave it zest and zing and made it a winner.

But the hands-down champion in the Pino menu is the Kare-kareng Bagnet. It is also the restaurant’s bestseller. The sinful goodness of the liempo drenched in peanut butter sauce and eaten with a special bagoong rice still lingers in my mouth up to this writing, days after the eating experience. It was a sweet, sweet choice, and I would forbid anyone to leave the place without having a sampling of Pino’s bagnet. I have used the word 'ingenious' before in this review; I have to use it again.

At the end of the main meal, we tried their signature dessert: the Pino Chunky Choco Tempura. It was chocolate-coated wafer, sprinkled with Japanese breadcrumbs, crowned with vanilla ice cream and chocolate and strawberry syrup. It was in love at first bite as the concoction promptly melted in my mouth. The crunch that accompanied its eating only made me crave for more – even if my already imposed-upon tummy was groaning its surrender.

Overall, I’ll praise Pino with three out of five stars, for it has found a creative way of serving the Filipino customers with our favorite native dishes, with little surprises here and there.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the Pino interior, with unframed paintings, that somehow evoke youth and youthful thoughts, embellishing the walls. For that, I would give it an additional half-star.

Pictures were taken by Jessica Salao

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