Mesa: Filipino Moderne

It’s a weekday -- it had been one heck of a day; almost original in its unoriginality. What do you do? Why, try something new of course!

Met up with my favourite boys from work (erm, ex-work?) and the fun thing about eating with boys is that absolutely nobody will tell you to watch your portions. And the only reason they will remind you that chicken skin is fattening is because they want it for themselves! It’s refreshing, I tell you.

Just like that, it was boy’s choice, and they decided on Mesa. I tend to doubt restaurants that claim they serve “modern” Filipino dishes, because to me that means, “something similar to what I ate the other day.” But I trust the boys’ instinct (especially if one of them is a self-disclaimed gourmand, yes that’s you Ian whether you admit to it or not). Oh, and must I say, their eating utensils rocks.

















I let the boys choose what to order, which wasn’t very wise. We ended up with a slew of fried food and artery-blocking albeit incredibly delicious sisig rice. Now I know how it feels to be slain. Like a Christian losing consciousness during Sunday revival mass. Here are my fellow sinners:


















And here’s the list of our sins:

For appetizers, I ordered baked tahong with cheese. It has become my favourite ever since I tasted Tita Eva’s (our former admin staff) homemade baked tahong. Nothing compares to her cooking, but this is a competent runner-up. The shells were on the smallish side, but I guess that’s fine, knowing red tide is up. I’d rather have them small and safe than humongous and fatal.






Service is quite fast for a non-fast food. We ordered sisig rice and that’s when I fell in love. With the rice. It’s good. A quiet came over me like a veil of grace. I haven’t eaten rice in 3 days and this --- this is a worthy transgression.


We also ordered Chicken in Honey Patis. And this time, Ian fell in love. With the Honey Patis. I thought they were gonna make out right there and then. He was even talking about introducing Honey Patis to his mom, a feat which none of his previous girlfriends have ever accomplished. And this Honey comes along, and he’s a goner. Begrudgingly, I sampled it and have to admit: Yummy. But the rice and the chicken didn’t really go well together, so it made me kind of bipolar during the meal. Ian and I are okay afterwards, although the word Honey Patis is thereby banned in any of our conversations in the near future. :))











J, on the other hand, did not wax poetic about any of the dishes, but J… doesn’t really wax poetic about anything except Manga. Such a quiet guy, but he looked happy communing with the boneless tilapia and the chicken as well. (Ok, that sounded too weird). The tilapia wasn’t as crunchy as we would have wanted it, but for the quantity and the 4 sauces that came with, it was good enough. Not incredible, but okay.

The stuffed squid (stuffed with pork and vegetables) was a good idea. It sounds like a good idea. My problem is, I am a purist when it comes to squid. I like them in their own ink, or I like them grilled with tomatoes. When I eat squid, I want to taste squid. Putting pork inside just kind of distracted me from what I was actually eating. It’s good, but not my kind of thing. Did you notice that all our viands look alike? Fried, all of 'em.

In under 45 minutes, the boys and I were swooning with high cholesterol. No one was complaining though and we were even pondering on desserts. We were saved from inducing ourselves into a stupor when the better part of angels told us to hold off from the sweets.

Looking back, I realized now I did have fun. Hear that, Ian? So, kelan ulit? And should we go to confession as a team? :D Because I certainly would need help explaining the indulgence.