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Several years ago, I attended the Center of Culinary Arts’ Kitchen Discovery Class, where I got an inside view of the kitchen and had a fine lunch at Cravings. I haven’t been back to Cravings since then, but last night I got to attend the grand launch of a Filipino restaurant from the same group. C2 Classic Cuisine on Missouri Street, North Greenhills used to be an events place, but they decided to include a restaurant that serves classic Filipino dishes with a contemporary twist.

C2 Classic Cuisine made me enjoy certain Filipino foods I’m normally not too crazy about. For instance, there’s lumpiang hubad – I rarely ever eat it because there’s too much vegetables and too little meat. But the semi-sweet garlic sauce was too good to resist, and I ended up wolfing down my greens and slowly picking at it after the meal was done. The fried lumpia wrapper chips also adds texture and a touch of unhealthiness to the dish, and gets delightfully mooshy when you leave it in the sauce for too long.

What I thought was pancit palabok was pancit bam-i – again, not a huge fan of it on normal days because I find it too bland. At C2, however, the pancit bam-i is definitely worth trying; the dish is generous with the shrimp and chicken pieces.

Tinola, however, is one of my favorite Filipino dishes. I actually didn’t think this was tinola at first because I’ve never seen it served inside a buko shell. It turns out that this was not just any tinola; it’s called tinolang binakol and it’s cooked with coconut milk. I expected the consistency of the soup to be a little thicker as a result, but it’s still the same thin chicken broth that I enjoy. Tinolang binakol is also a little sweeter than regular tinola, which took me a while to get used to. This turned out to be my favorite dish, next to the lumpiang hubad, but it got cold a little too quickly. The broth could also use a little more ginger.

Sisig rice is a Pinoy favorite I try not to eat too often because of its high fat content. Unlike other sisig rice dishes I’ve had at other places, this one did not feel the least bit oily; in fact, I didn’t realize it was sisig rice until I looked at the menu.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try the bangus belly because my dining companions got to it before I could. Bangus belly is another one of those dishes I stay away from; to me, fish belly tastes too oily and fishy. I wonder if the bangus belly at C2 would make me change my mind, the same way it did with lumpiang hubad and pancit bam-i.

C2 Classic Cuisine Greenhills can be found at 18 Missouri St. Northeast Greenhills, San Juan (near Anapolis St).

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Tags: Filipino Delicacies, Filipino Food, Food News & Events