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Serendra Piazza, Bonifacio Global City
June 3, 2010
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Abe is always abuzz – 8:45 pm reservations on a Monday night (!) was already backed up with the operator telling me there were six parties ahead of me. I suspect that Abé’s popularity is due only in part to its location at hotspot Serendra. The food is really its drawing factor – it’s just too good.
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Pronounced AH-beh, it’s a term of endearment, a Capampangan word for friend, and the nickname of Emilio Aguilar Cruz, legendary restaurateur Larry Cruz’s father. Abé was, aside from being an accomplished writer and artist, a gourmand. I read that he had a passion for eating out and looked down on what he called “fake” fancy food.
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The interiors of Abe remembers the man through a glass sketch situated at the entrance as well as looming snapshots of his life that adorn the walls. In one nook where I’m lucky enough to be seated is a memorabilia corner filled with Abe’s paintbrushes, his eyeglasses, and even some yellowed pages of script. It’s an impressive and reflective view of one who was obviously a great man.
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And the food is equally so. Sisig (p155) starts us off on an authentically Capampangan note together with the lumpiang pica-pica (P95) notched up with tangy vinegar worthy of a head-rattling HOO-AH! This seems like the right place to order kare-kare (P425) and I don’t regret it. Good kare-kare has to be meaty first of all, with a good balance of quivering fat (litid et al) and meat. Then the whole thing has to be swimming in a peanut sauce so rich and slowly simmered that it glues lips shut. Abe’s kare-kare satisfies on all counts and I want to just swoon to the floor. I order extra peanut sauce, the better to drown my green mangoes and bagoong in.
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For dessert we fought over Claude’s Dream (P105), which in reality has become my dream: gently softened macapuno ice cream is the pool in which buko strips and pandan gulaman swim oh-so-languorously, with an occasional crunch from pinipig kernels contributing crunch. And when I’ve reached the bottom of the bowl, I want to lick it clean. Turon (P65) never fails to please and this one has been glamorized with the addition of langka (jackfruit) and ube. The best part is when the crunchiness of the wrapper yields to the warmth of the banana giving in to the chill of the vanilla ice cream — a spectacular tour de force. The suman sa latik comes with coconut jam that has been heated, contrasting two levels of warmth and a sticky sweetness that is impossible not to surrender to.
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If you find yourself having to wait in line for a table at Abe, do so wholeheartedly. You won’t regret it.
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Private blog "My True Love in Life"
