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| Bale Dutung exterior |
My younger brother J who is the only sibling living in Manila was kind enough to organize my birthday celebration. Bale Dutung is by reservation only and requires a minimum of 12 people to dine before they'll open up the restaurant. There were only 8 people in our group, so J had been checking with them for availability since August (my birthday is in October) and reminded them each time that we were interested in getting the Anthony Bourdain menu. Thankfully, there were two other groups who made a reservation so we were able to go in with just 8 of us and since we were the first one to make the reservation, they chose to serve the Anthony Bourdain menu to everyone.
Bale Dutung was a long drive from Manila and it's in a residential subdivision, not your typical restaurant location, so it was more difficult to locate. The eight of us carpooled in two cars (thanks to Q for providing her driver, to C for providing a second car and of course, to J for driving us there himself!). We probably made three or four wrong turns before we got to our final destination three hours after leaving Manila. Everyone arrived hungry and eager to start the food fest.
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| Mary, our perfect hostess |
Mary, our hostess, gave us a little introduction to what we were about to experience before we started our meal. She also described each dish as it came out, instructing us the proper way of eating it, telling us about its history and sharing personal stories throughout the meal. It was such a unique dining experience!
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| Preparing our juice |
Our meal started with a refreshment. I think it was dalandan juice with a brown sugar ice cube. I've always enjoyed drinking dalandan juice growing up, so this was perfect, especially after the three hours we spent on the road.
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| Dalandan juice with brown sugar ice cube |
We also had some crackers with three kinds of spread.
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| Skyflakes? :) |
Our first dish was Ensaladang Pako or Pako (edible fern) salad. I'm not too fond of salad. The only salad I could really eat as a meal is the Field Fresh Chopped Salad from Trader Joe's. However, since we spent around 50$ for this meal (which, come to think of it, isn't too bad!), I finished my pako salad with no complaints. If I were given a chance to customize the menu, I would leave this out though.
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| Ensaladang Pako |
Our next dish was the BBQ Paldeut and Claude'9 Talangka Rice. In English, that's BBQ chicken tails with lemongrass marinade and crab fat rice. The chicken was very tasty, but I would like more crab fat with my rice, please.
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| BBQ Paldeut at Claude'9 Talangka Rice |
We ate the dishes slowly because we were also busy listening to Mary explaining the significance of each dish. In my case, however, it really just took me longer to finish eating because I was too busy taking pictures and then asking my friend L about what Mary actually said. My friends teased me once or twice for not paying attention to what Mary was saying.
Next came the Adobong Pugo or Quail Adobo. This dish came with pandesal - I love pandesal - and some liver sauce I think. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
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| Adobong Pugo |
I keep looking forward to the following dish. Each dish that came out so far had been so different in flavor from the previous one that it got me really excited. We had the Hito at Balo-balo sushi next, which is sushi of crab fat and cat fish. I don't think they gave us enough, but that's probably a good thing at this point because after the quail, my stomach was already starting to get full.
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| Hito at Balo-Balo Sushi |
The following dish was one of my favorites. They served us Pata Humba which is like braised pork belly. Very tender and delicious!
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| Pata Humba |
Next, we had the Fried Lechon Flakes binalot sa tortilla at Claude'9 oriental sauce or in other words, Lechon Taco. It was like a taco with fried pork flakes. The center table was laid out with a variety of toppings and sauces we could add to our "tacos." I think there was kimchi in that spread. Everyone loves lechon, so this dish was a winner. Plus, it was really fun preparing our tacos.
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| Preparing our Lechon Tacos |
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| My taco |
Bulanglang Kapampangan na may Tian ng Bangus, Ulang at Tadyang ng Baboy (Milkfish belly, spareribs, prawn soup flavored with native guava) came next. This was a good time to take a break from meat and poultry. The flavors in this dish were interesting. I've never had soup like this before. The soup was creamy, just the way I like my soups, and the guava added a unique flavor to it. Adding bagoong (shrimp paste) to it to give it some saltiness made it even better.
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| Generous helping of seafood |
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| Soup being poured in |
If there was one dish I went to Bale Dutung for, it was the Sisig. Sisig is a specialty in Pampanga and one of my favorite Filipino dishes. And because it's hard to find good sisig in Seattle, I'm always requesting for it whenever I visit Manila. Once I saw the big wok of sizzling sisig at Bale Dutung, I knew my craving would be properly satisfied. Suddenly, I was hungry again. Give me two plates of this, please!
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| Cooking the sisig right in front of us |
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| Sisig Babi (Sizzling pork in onion and liver sauce) |
After the sisig, I was already happy, but if we were to be served Kare-Kare next, I'll gladly take it too. Kare-kareng Laman Dagat was served next. It is seafood in peanut sauce. I prefer to eat my kare kare with beef tendons and eggplant, but this was cooked so well, I can't complain.
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| Kare-kare |
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| Individual serving of Kare-kare |
Our last dish was dessert! We had Tibok-tibok or pure carabao's milk maja blanca. It was served with Sinaunang Kape (coffee) - a great way to end our meal!
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| Our coffee and tea waiting to be poured |
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| I love this carabao pitcher! |
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| Tibok-tibok |
We were allowed to pick one dish to repeat as we wish, but in the end, we were all too full to eat anything else. There was a lot of guest book signing and picture taking afterwards. We took a picture with the Tayags and asked for autographs. The eight of us also entertained ourselves with signing the guest book.
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| Signing the guest book |
We also took our time looking through the products they were selling to take home. My friend Q gave me a dozen tamales to take home. They were the best tamales I've eaten - even better than Dona Juana's Mexican tamales in Wenatchee, WA, but I don't know if I can really compare them. The Bale Dutung tamales are Filipino tamales whereas the one in Wenatchee is Mexican.
The best thing about spending my birthday in the Philippines is I get to spend them with my best friends! They're the best friends in the world for taking time out of their busy schedules to make my birthday extra special!
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| Our group with the Tayags |
Bale Dutung was worth all the effort - to be honest, it was really worth J's effort because I barely did anything :). If I had a chance to visit it again the next time I'm in Manila, I definitely will!
Villa Gloria Subdivision
Angeles City, Pampanga
(02) 668-4038
reserve@baledutung.com
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