Ronnie and Ada drove Regee, me and Mama down to Tagaytay the other day for lunch at Sonny Lua's beautiful and quite exceptional Asiong de Cavite restaurant.
Sonny Lua, on the far left with Ada, Regee, Mama, Ronnie and I are all ready to eat a hearty lunch.
But first, Sonny gave us a tour of his garden where he grows all his herbs, including this arugula in an ancient kawale (iron cooking vessel). You can also dine out here in shady corners.
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Ada took the opportunity to gather some herbs and cuttings for her garden back home.
We started with a delicious and absolutely "straight from the garden" salad with a lemon vinaigrette and kesong putih cheese.
This looks like a baguette but it is actually a pandesal cleverly baked and cut to look (and taste!) like a baguette. Such culinary sorcery!
For me, this crispy pork kare kare was the absolute highlight of the lunch--in a lunch full of highlights, surprises and peerless heritage Caviteno dishes. The kare kare sauce is made from roasted peanuts and it was so much more delicate and tasty than the commercial peanut butter-based kare kare sauces which can be a bit heavy and overpowering sometimes. 15 out of 10 for this one!
The most scrumptious bangus I have ever tasted. Just the photo makes my taste buds ache! Ronnie was teasing Sonny that this was just a big tawilis (a very tiny fish)!
A blurry photo (my bad) but this is Sonny's signature pancit pusit (squid and squid ink blackening the noodles) with all the traditional toppings. Amazing.
Sonny has his own beef wandering around in the garden!
This "cheesecake" was heavenly and had magical ingredients which did not add too many calories! And this was not the only dessert--what about an ube suman made with cassava? To die for.
Regee presented Sonny with one of her cookbooks. Sonny should write his own cookbook based upon his amazing "home" recipes which were handed down in his family and which he learned as a child in his mother's kitchen.
The whole group including the chef (in black next to Sonny) all a little heavier but much much happier after an outstanding lunch.
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