Rekados

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Rekados
4063 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

In December 2008, I wrote a post on my visit to Deustches Haus, a German restaurant in Vancouver. In that post, I made reference to the odd statistics between propagation/popularity of a cuisine/restaurant type and their population associated to that cuisine. Although that visit was for German food, I made reference to Filipino, whose population is larger than what most of us think and have mingled really well. Needless to say, it was only a matter of time I visit one, right? Well, actually that was supposed to happen a couple of months ago but, due to odd circumstances, we ended up in another restaurant instead. Anyway, I managed to gather my group, one of them Filipino, and, somehow, other friends joined us and our small group of 4 ended up being a party of 7. And, unlike the original suggested location, Pinpin, we went to Rekados.

Thanks to some movable walls, they were using only half of the whole dining room. In a way, that created a good, interesting effect: it made the restaurant busy and the easier to manage for the staff.

When we were seated, we were given these prawn crackers. When I was a small child, I used to fight for these; nowadays, not that much. Sure, I would eat it; however, I am not as enthusiastic anymore. Anyway, after a bit of discussion, we left FL, our Filipino friend, to do the ordering.

Fork and spoon, rather than fork and knife, are the “usual” utensils.

Of course, there will always be some issues with the food: allergies, don’t like, etc. Needless to say, there was a bit of discussion (including a dish I mentioned I had to order!). But, once that was “fixed”, food started to arrive after a moment. And to start…

Lumpia Shanghai, which can be safely described as the Filipino’s version of spring roll. In this case, the filling include pork, shiitake mushroom, celery and carrots, served with chilli-plum dip. It was crunchy, not necessarily hot (spice-wise) and the dip contrasted the savoury side of the dish. It was quite a good way to start the meal. After these were cleared, then the dishes started to arrive:

First, Bagong Rice, which had pork (given it “fattiness”, I think it is pork belly), green mango, green onions, tomato, shrimp paste and hard boiled egg. Needless to say this needs to be mixed before serving. I found this dish to be OK, as I don’t think it had much flavour on its own. But, it served its purpose, i.e., that of being the carb side of the meal.

At the same time, the mangga ensalada came. Basically, it is the same dish as the bagong rice sans the rice part. It was useful in our case, since it made sure the bagong rice had enough topping for everybody.

Sizzling Sisig, which has pig’s ear and meat with some herbs and chillies. Well, the chili is there for display purposes, as it did not provide any “heat’ (at least to me). The execution was a bit lacking as well, we had to send it back the first time as it was not “crunchy” enough.

This bowl of garlic rice was ordered in the case somebody was not good with any of the components of the bagong rice and because, for some dishes, it would have been better some plain rice. What dishes? See below, hehehehe. And, oh, the fried garlic (top of the bowl of rice) gave a quite interesting twist to old plain white rice.

Kare-Kare, which, although looks like a curry, it is just a regular stew. Stew of beef and tripe from what I was able to gather. Well, if it is not a curry but it is yellow, what makes it yellow? Well, according to FL, it is peanut sauce. I can’t say I taste any peanut but, still the dish was good, mainly due to the selection of meats used. On its own, the way it was made, it did not made too much of a difference.

Palabok. Had you said “Pad Thai“, I think I would have agreed with you. It did not have that spiciness associated with Thai food. Of course, I would have liked it was spicier but, otherwise, it was OK.

Curry Piña Chicken which contains, as the name suggests, pineapple. Or supposedly it should contain. If it had any, it is possible my friends picked them up before I had it because I can’t say I tasted any sweetness associated to pineapples. Again, not that spicy, though (in my opinion). Still, it was a good interesting twist to the Indian/Japanese/Malay/Chinese curry I have had.

Grilled Bangus Belly, a fish dish, specifically, milkfish. It seems it is sort of a national fish of the Philippines. I will take it! I actually liked this one as the flesh is quite soft and the grilled skin was slightly crunchy, a good combination. Oh, no need to worry about bones, this one is boneless.

Now, this is the dish I wanted. But, before I get there, something “funny” happened. Originally, before we went to the restaurant, I mentioned LF there was a dish I had to have. However, after all the food shown upstairs, I had an odd feeling. So I asked LF if “that” was ordered. It seems it was not. As a result, I gave her a really serious look and said “can you, please, order it? I don’t care if I have to pay it myself, I will have it as a dessert if necessary”. So, there you go.

So, what is this? Originally, I wanted lechón, the Spanish name for suckling pig. I knew Filipino had their own version, which LF confirmed. It is called lechon kawali. However, they did not have it that day and we had to order the next best/similar thing: crispy pata, a slow roasted pork hock which is then fried. The chicharrón, or fried pork rind, was crispy heaven. Pieces of meat were at the bottom, attached to the bone. Otherwise, the chicharrón was the star of this dish. And, yes, everybody enjoyed it.

Finally, dessert. There were plans to share; however, the way it was grouped left me as the odd one out. So, here is what was ordered: Chocolate and Mango Crème Bruleè (top), which I did not had but everybody said it was good; Leche Flan (crème caramel – middle), which, again, I did not have but, once again, it was reported to be really good. And finally, the bottom one was sort of a dare. It is corn and cheddar cheese ice cream (though it was mentioned to be a sorbet). The reason of the dare? The funny combination of cheddar cheese in the ice cream. Considering the worst ice cream I ever had was butter ice cream, not to mention everybody reacted “funny” when it was mentioned, I couldn’t resist that date, hehehe. Anyway, it was better than expected. The cheese flavour was really subtle but the corn (I will assume it was creamed, rather than whole kernels) was sweet in its own unique way.

Overall, I will have to say it was a good meal, despite some dishes going sideways. Of course, the company made every dish better. And here lies a small problem: had I gone in a small group, I don’t think I would have tried that many dishes and, as a result, wouldn’t have liked it as much. But, I am glad we gathered together to break bread. Would I recommend this place? If you are going in a large group (4 or greater), I will highly suggest so.

Tagged under: Filipino • Vancouver