As we crossed the Coronado bridge, I looked at my Garmin to see if there was anything of interest to stop at on our way home. A "new" location caught my eye and I asked Bert if we could go there.
There was a new Filipino place on Main on the outer edges of Barrio Logan near the naval base.
Off of the 5, we took the Main St. exit and doubled back which was kind of irritating. There wasn't an easy way to get here it seemed. Main Street is in an industrial area and is right next to these high rises that serve as on base housing. We also saw this Cafe located curiously next to the Adult Emporium...
Hmmm, after buying your dildo, whips, chains, and lube, you can go get a meal or should it be vice versa? Ha ha.
At first I thought this was a random place to have a Filipino food joint, but it made sense since it was near the naval base, which has a big Filipino presence.
Still, this is pretty out of the way of where most of the Filipino joints are in National City.
The rather unimaginatively named (but straightforward) Filipino Food & Bakery has been here for about a year now, according to the gal at the counter.
They had a take out menu as well as prices for catering. They had some pretty competitive prices for pancit and lumpia trays, but we will most likely stick to our local Filipino place since it's only three minutes away instead of twenty.
It's pretty roomy in here. The shelves,which had Filipino snacks, baked goods, and candy, were very sparse.
In the corner was a DJ set up! Very cool. I'm sure this gets used on the weeknights when they are open 24/7. On the corner flat screen was the Charger game (in which they finally won against the Chiefs!)...
There was a "Silog" menu for Fri-Sat nights. Everything sounded good and the prices are right but I only wanted a snack here for today. Food will have to wait for a future visit. "Silog" refers to fried rice ("sinangag" not to be confused with "sinigang" which is Filipino sour soup) mixed with egg ("itlog") so the prefix of the silog dish will have whatever meat it will be, like tapa (tapsilog),tocilog (tocino) longsilog (longanisa), Spamsilog (Spam, duh), and so on. This is the classic Filipino breakfast I grew up eating, which was an actual meal, not that cereal and milk crap.
The baked goods on their counter - pan de sal, bibingka with banana leaf, putong puti, hopia and a few more items I don't remember the names of.
Our pan de ube (TC's choice) and my hopiang baboy (pork fat, wintermelon with green onions).
These hopia were not round shaped but half moon.The hopia pastry wasn't as flaky as I'd it to be, but it was still all right.
Although the name of this savory pastry has "baboy" (which means "pig" or "pork"), there isn't a lot of pork in here. It's usually mixed with wintermelon (also known as kundol) that are cooked in pork fat. If there's no wintermelon, then it's made with onions.
Below, the ube filled sweet bread.
This was not as good as Valerio's pan de ube, which is my gold standard. It was a bit too bready for me. I like that Valerio's actually has the mini size pan de ube now.
A Filipino store has to have a religious figurine and there he is, on top of the drinks cooler
Sorry, I'm a bad Catholic.
According to wikipedia's entry on the "Divino Nino" (Divine Child):
The Divino Nino, also known as Divino Nino de Bogota, or Divine Child Jesus, is a 20th-century religious wooden statue of the child Jesus originating from Bogota, Colombia. A cross originally in the back was removed upon purchase by Father Giovanni Rizzo. The statue...with arms stretched out wide and wearing a traditional pink robe or tunic has an inscription "Yo reinare" ("I will reign") at its base. It is one of the most popular religious images in Colombia, especially among Roman Catholics and it is claimed to have miraculous powers of fertility and healing."
Their menu board:
Their steam trays - menudo, mechado, some sort of soup, adobo and a few other items I can't recall.
Sinigang, fried rice, longanisa, tapa, and pancit...
Along with bistek, another kind of pancit, menudo, lumpia and fried fish.
I saw this sign and felt compelled to try some.
Their macs are on the pricier side, $2.50 each, but the girl sold me three for $7 (not sure why, but I'm not complaining).
I got one of each available flavor; the macs were in the fridge there.
From the looks of the macs, they looked very nice. Not misshapen or crappy like some places I've seen.
We sampled these later that evening, after they warmed to room temperature. Of the three, my favorite was the honeydew, followed by the ube. I am a sucker for anything flavored ube. There is a similar flavored mac at Brodard's, their "taro" flavor which is a light lavender hue. The macs from Brodard's are lighter and a bit more "soft" feeling than these macs.
I have to say that these macs were a nice little indulgence. The honeydew had an intense melon flavor that TC and I liked. Bert was impartial since he's not really a macaron fan. We are definitely going here again for a future visit so we can try the food and perhaps, the other mac flavors.
Filipino Food & Bakery
2852 Main St. (in Ballpark Square)
San Diego, CA 82113
(619) 546-5665
www.filfood.com and their FB page
and The Macaron Studio:
www.themacaronstudio.com
Our original plan was to go home and have lunch but after seeing the restaurant a few doors down, were curious to give it a go...
4 comments:
I know this neighborhood quite well. Will have to stop here for macs and Silog (or, as the menu states 'Not Silog') when I am here in February or so...). That statue is either Innocent Child or Divine Child; would have to look a bit closer.
hi cathy - i was hoping you would know about that religious figure. after your input, the figure is indeed the 'Divine Child'. thank you!
hope you get a chance to try this place. maybe you can stop by the dessert place by the nasty store too for 'research', heh heh.
I just read on facebook( yes, it is 4 a.m. On a Sunday) that a brunch menu is being tried here this weekend. If we aren't feeling too lazy, will be driving here early.
Cathym, You have to tell me how it is, good or bad. This place is not too far from Lezzet and a fried chicken place.
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