(this is posted as a separate entry as apparently recipes are supposed to be separate from restaurant reviews. ktnxbai.)

The other night I took visiting friends from Europe to K.K.K. Pinoy Food Revolution Restaurant at 74 West Avenue (tel. 371-9099), and they liked the Filipino food very much. I think the best thing about the place is the menu, lots of pretty historical pictures.

I discovered that a cellphone camera isn’t exactly ideal as far as taking photos of food in a dimly-lit place is concerned.

Our consumption, for four people:

1 Sinuglaw KKK style 145.00

The peculiar thing is that the Crispy Pata and Kare-Kare were served first, then the rice and Talong, then the Sinuglaw and the Laing. This sort of haphazard delivery of courses isn’t appealing.

Anyway, Sinuglaw is their version of Kilawin, except it’s made of diced tuna chunks, with coconut milk and bits of pork liempo. They use a sweet kind of vinegar which was a bit cloying, but the whole thing was fairly pleasant.

1 Laing 125.00

Nondescript.

1 Krisping Krispy Knuckles 440.00

Zero points for presentation, it looked like the pork knuckle was part of a victim of the Glorietta bombing. Tasty though, and for once, this seems to have come from a pig that was actually fat and not suffering from anorexia. Well-cooked skin, evenly crunchy and not oily at all. The sauce was conservative and that’s just to my liking, garlic, onions, vinegar and soy sauce, period.

1 Pinakbet 155.00

I have an irrational horror of Pinakbet so didn’t bother to try it. My European guests are, however, passionately addicted to it and proclaimed it some of the best they’ve ever tasted (this is their third visit to the country).

1 Ensalada Inihaw na Talong 100.00

This time, the sweetish vinegar the restaurant seems to prefer went well with the naked eggplants and the diced vegetables heaped on them: nothing fancy, or nouveau, about the dish, lots of onions and a discreet amount of red chili.

1 Kare-Kare 330.00

Pluses: made with fatty beef. Good sauce, not runny, lots of vegetables and they weren’t cooked to death; good quality tripe, well done and with no suspicious aftertaste. Minuses: the restaurant likes to use the kind of semisweet bagoong that has the consistency of bird poop. This tends to ooze around the plate. But as kare-kare’s go, while modest in serving size, it was obviously a dish made of good, wholesome ingredients and while runny, the bagoong was tasty.

4 Plain Jasmine Rice 120.00

Not the biggest measuring cups were used.

The restaurant has a pleasant outdoor area, and we actually moved there after initially settling in the airconditioned area, which is more brightly lit. However, the airconditioned area was full and the noises being made by the other customers made pleasant conversation impossible. If there’s a near-universal defect of Philippine eating places, it’s that absolutely no thought is given to accoustics.