We recently had lunch at Pino Street at Maginhawa St., the famed food haven of Quezon City. We chose Pino from other eateries in the area because I read about their best seller, the Kare Kare Bagnet.
I love kare kare. It's a special dish for our family. For the uninitiated, it is a traditional Filipino stew in thick peanut sauce. It contains vegetables like eggplant, string beans, among others. We usually use ox tripe but some people prefer ox tail, beef, pork leg, even mixed seafoods. To give it an extra kick, we use bagoong alamang.
Bagnet is an Ilocano delicacy made from pork loin that is deep fried until the skin and outside layer of meat become crispy while the inside remains juicy.
The picture at left is the first thing that you will see upon entering Pino. It is actually a line drawing that filled an entire wall. We decided to sit under it. The place is rather small with just around 10 tables for three to four persons. It wasn't full when we got there but I immediately noticed that there were only three persons serving the tables and it looked like the orders were taking some time.
From the picture in the menu, the Kare Kare Bagnet looked like trouble for someone watching his diet. Two of us, including me, chose the Kare Kare Bagnet while the other two decided to try the seafood kare kare. Maybe they got scared of what they saw in the picture, It took almost thirty minutes before our orders arrived.
The Kare Kare Bagnet did not disappoint. It consisted of three slices of bagnet with vegetables on the side and the sauce in the bottom. The set meal also comes with a cup of steamed rice and a glass of ice tea.
It tasted good, even the bagoong that came with it complemented the taste of the food.
But it is so fat! I could only finish one slice of the bagnet and I already felt heady. If you have problems with your blood pressure like I do, I advise that you be careful with this one. In a word it is sinful - gloriously sinful.
At its price point, the meal is a good buy. But don't over indulge or you might get more than you wished for.
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