Bagoong or Shrimp Paste is not really a favorite ingredient in a lot of cultures due to its smell and salty flavor. Here in the Philippines we have a club for it. Bagoong Club, located in Tomas Morato, is one of those new breed of restaurants who try to recreate your regular Filipino home-cooked dishes by tweaking one or two pieces of the recipe.
The place is obviously an old house that's been turned into a restaurant - it's like dining in your grandparent's place in the province with capiz windows and all wood furniture. The staff was very helpful with their menu and very attentive to the needs of their customers.
We first started off with their free radish and shrimp paste (pic below: lower left) which reminded me of those days in elementary/high school when we'd buy green mango/radish on a stick with bagoong from that sidewalk vendor right outside school.
We ordered Grilled Boneless Bangus (upper right) which was stuffed with diced onions and tomatoes and served with Bagoong Balayan. The fish was very flavorful with all the stuffing flavor but my husband thought that the bagoong was a little bit too salty. I added a few squirts of calamansi to the bagoong (just like how we do it at home) and he was totally turned. We also ordered Krispy't Kare-kare (upper left) which is basically Crispy Pata (deep fried pork leg) with kare-kare sauce (stew in peanut sauce - usually served with ox tail and tripe) and vegetables. During the meal, we couldn't stop raving about this dish and we both agreed that this is, so far, the best version of kare-kare we've tried - really flavorful sauce, perfectly cooked veggies and very good crispy pata.
We only had to pay a little over 600 pesos which was totally worth all the good flavor that we devoured. Bagoong may turn a few people off but I think that just like all the other ingredients, if it's cooked right and mixed with the right flavors, it can be really good. Bagoong Club knows how to do just that and we are definitely coming back to try out more!
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