Part of the Ultimate Pampanga Tour I joined was a breakfast at Everybody’s Cafe. It was definitely not a light breakfast because of the eat+all+you+can fare. The owner of the cafe greeted us and gave a brief background of their business. I didn’t pay much attention because I was busy photographing the food.

tsokolate eh

heavy breakfast

The breakfast included the following: pugon-baked pandesal, giniling na baboy, suman, another type of suman, tamales, and tsokolate. I loved the pandesal. It was heavy on the stomach and it tasted great. My favorite among the fare was the tamales. I would have gotten several servings of it if it weren’t a full-day of food binge eating.

For my American readers, the Filipino tamale is different from the Spanish/Mexican kind. Although it was introduced to the Philippines by the Spaniards, the ingenious pinoys back then substituted rice for corn since rice is abundant in the Pampanga region. The Filipino tamales is a steamed mixture of ground white and brown rice, ground peanuts, coconut milk, chicken, chorizo, and hard boiled egg (sometimes salted egg). 

tamales galore on the right

I am a big fan of tamales and I first learned of it when my mother brought them home from Santi’s Greenhills. Actually she bought them from a man who sells native delicacies in front of Santi’s. Anyway, I try to buy tamales whenever I can. It’s not common to find them in Metro Manila. Oh I digressed. Pardonne-moi!

I can’t really say I’ve tried Everybody’s Cafe because I only had the chance to eat their breakfast food and I’m not even sure if those are regularly served. Hence, I couldn’t rate the restaurant yet but for their tamales and pandesal, I give them

Rating:

Everybody’s Cafe
Del Pilar, McArthur Highway
San Fernando, Pampanga 

Everybody’s Cafe also has a booth in Salcedo Market every Saturday.

I’m seriously craving for lechon from Cebu because a certain someone sent me a text to gloat about the food there. Can you believe that I only discovered how great their version of lechon is 2 years ago? Before that time, I only thought Cebu is famous for danggit. If you haven’t tasted Cebu lechon, you are missing half of your life. Seriously!

What’s the big deal about this lechon, you ask. Well, the lechon mom brings home from her Cebu travels does not come with sauce. It doesn’t need a sauce because the flesh is already very tasty. She buys it an hour before her flight back to Manila so add the travel time plus Manila’s traffic, the skin isn’t crispy anymore when mom-bearing-yummy-lechon reaches our house. In spite of that, the skin is still edible. In fact, it tastes good and is not makunat unlike Manila lechon. Another thing, with Manila lechon I only like the skin. I have to drown the flesh in sauce before I eat it. With the Cebu version, the flesh is as good as the skin. Maybe even better and no, I’m not kidding.

I have no plans of going to Cebu any time in the near and not-so-near future. I do love food tours but I want to stick to drivable food tours mmmkay. Going to Cebu just to eat lechon is just insane and a waste of good money. The wonder that is the interwebs has revealed the next best thing – lechon cooked the Cebu way here in Manila! Huzzah!!!

Food Bloggers’ recommendations:

• Manila Man – Lechon Family and Gourmet Lechon (the latter is located really near my place!)
• Nimrodel – Jun Jun’s Lechon (very near S&R at the Fort, Taguig)
• Spanky Enriquez – the gloater recommends Sabroso Lechon

I’m planning to order for our family’s Christmas dinner because last year was a disaster (and deserves a separate post). I might go for Sabroso but if you have recommendations, tell me so!