Mar
6, 2003 — It
was a bit like putting the cart before the horse.
Wilson Limvalencia and his wife, Marilyn, served traditional
Philippine food at their popular Bellingham Farmers Market
stand, the Manila House, for four years, but had no standalone
restaurant to complement their market menu. Fans who asked where
they could be found in the off season were disappointed.
Usually, it's the other way around: Area eateries add a
Farmers Market cart to their repertoires after they've made a
name for themselves at an eat-in location.
But that's finally changed. Now the Limvalencias, along with
Marilyn's aunt, Arsie Claeys, have opened a sit-down restaurant
where they can direct these Farmers Market fans to sample a
larger selection of the fare they learned to cook before
emigrating to the United States.
You can't miss the Manila House Restaurant, open since
November in the previous location of the Great Wall Chinese
restaurant on Ferndale's Main Street near Haggen.
Red vinyl booths fill the spacious dining room, with touches
of bamboo dominating the simple, clean, bright décor and
chandeliers dangling intermittently.
I visited on a recent Monday night, with my husband and our
friend Kris in tow. Mondays are often slow in the restaurant
business, and one friendly server was handling the entire
restaurant easily.
|
The Manila House Restaurant |
|
Location:
1851 Main St., Ferndale
Phone: 312-1799
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 8
p.m., Tuesday through Saturday 4:30 to 8 p.m., Sunday
Serving: The only Philippine cuisine available
in Whatcom County.
Menu items sampled:
Calamare $3.50
Combo 2 $7.50
Combo 3 $8.25
Combo 5 $8.75
Turon $1.50
Bibingkang kanin $2.50 |
The dining room was almost uncomfortably cold, although it
wasn't terribly chilly outside. This would prove to be the only
complaint we had
— a mild one, at that.
We all began with a bowl of split pea soup, the soup of the day.
None of us are usually fans, but all found the Manila House's
version quite tasty. Thinner than others I've tried and disliked
in the past, this soup had a broth-like consistency, with an
abundant, fresh-pea flavor and small pieces of carrot, onion,
celery and ham.
We then split an appetizer of "calamare,"
deep-fried seasoned squid rings, served with two saucers of
sweet and sour sauce: one hot and one mild. The small rings were
more heavily breaded and crunchy than the calamari I'm
accustomed to, but no less enjoyable.
We all ordered combos, small platters comprising two
entrées,
two lumpia rolls, steamed rice and lettuce salad. Sampling bites
from one another's plates, we each enjoyed pork adobo, sweet and
sour chicken, chicken tocino, pork menudo and pancit bihon.
Lumpia, mini egg rolls stuffed with savory meat and a blend
of spices, is one of the most popular Philippine dishes. I was
already a fan of the Manila House's lumpia Shanghai, having
enjoyed the tightly wrapped, crispy rolls at their Farmers
Market stand.
Kris' combo included pork menudo, a dish made with pork,
cubes of potato, tomatoes, peas, garlic and onion, flavored with
bay leaves to bring out the dish's aroma. It reminded her a bit
of curry. She found it a bit on the lukewarm side,
temperature-wise, but thought the portion size was just right.
Pancit Bihon was included in both Kris' and my husband's
combos, very slight stir-fried rice noodles tossed with
vegetables and strips of chicken. This was perhaps my favorite
of all the entrées we tried, but I'm an easy target for any
noodle dish.
My husband also enjoyed pork adobo, a tangy dish made with
chunks of pork loin simmered slowly with garlic, soy sauce,
black pepper and white vinegar
— another popular Philippine dish, which
can also be ordered with chicken.
Coming in a close second to the pancit bihon as my favorite
dish of the night, my combo offered chicken tocino, strips of
boneless chicken marinated in vinegar and sugar, then pan-fried.
The counterbalance of vinegar and sugar produced a pleasing
contrast of sweet and sour.
My combo included another Chinese-inspired dish, sweet and
sour chicken. A heaping mound of boneless chicken pieces were
fried and served with a pleasing sweet and sour sauce. Pretty
standard fare, this was nothing to complain about, but I enjoyed
the chicken tocino in my combo more, simply because it was new
to me and therefore more of an adventure.
We ended up ordering dessert three separate times. The first
time our server asked us what we would like, we asked for leche
flan and two orders of turon
— deep-fried banana fritters.
She returned to our table a short time later to inform us
that the kitchen was out of flan. We decided on bibingkang
kanin, a sweet rice cake.
This time, after another few minutes passed, Claeys stopped
at our booth to tell us the bibingkang kanin was also
unavailable. She helpfully suggested we try the cassava cake
instead, a yam pudding that, although it didn't really appeal to
us, we felt we'd better choose if we were going to sample
anything other than the banana fritters. At only $2.50 for the
cassava cake, it was an affordable risk to take.
The turon was served on a small plate, two slightly flat,
rolled fritters encasing a split banana, and then fried to a
dark shade and sprinkled with sugar. This was Kris' favorite of
the two desserts. We endured a mini comedy of errors as we tried
to cut a bite of the thick dessert with only our forks.
I was an instant fan of the cassava cake, a springy, sweet
concoction cut into a long rectangle and
— unlike the delectable but difficult
turon
— easily sliced into with a fork. Its
main ingredient is grated cassava, a shrubby, tropical,
perennial plant most commonly associated with tapioca. Coconut
milk and coconut cream add additional sweetness to the dessert.
Other dessert options include mango, purple yam, or coconut
flavors, halo-halo (candied tropical beans and fruits) topped
with leche flan topping, and fruit salad Philippine style.
We had ordered two helpings of turon, or four fritters, but
only one arrived. When we pointed out the error at the cashier
counter as we paid the bill, the server apologized and removed
it from the ticket. In the end, we were more than pleasantly
full from the meal and agreed that the additional order of turon
may have pushed us over the edge to uncomfortably full.
Fans of the original, albeit smaller, Manila House
incarnation at the Bellingham Farmers Market, have no fear: The
stand will be back next year. In the meantime, enjoy Philippine
fare year-round at the Ferndale location.
