- Hey everyone, it's Mark Wiens. I am in Quezon City, which is right next to
Manila in the Philippines and I'm at a restaurant today for lunch which is called Pochok Bangusan and this is a restaurant,
this is a carinderia, which is a local, food house eatery. It's a family-run restaurant,
it's a friendly place to eat and they serve some amazing
looking Filipino food here and especially on of their
main dishes is the bangus, which is a milkfish and it looks absolutely stunning. (upbeat music) (speaking Filipino) - [Mark] This is adobo? - [Server] Yeah. - [Mark] OK. - [Mark] OK. Ohh, what is this on top? - [Server] (speaking Filipino) - [Mark] Ohh! (speaking Filipino) - [Server] (speaking Filipino) - Along with a huge selection
of local Filipino food, that you can pick and choose from, one of the things that you have to order, when you eat at Pochok Bangusan
is their special bangus. Bangus, which is a milkfish, is grilled on an insanely hot fire and the charcoal is even
fanned to keep it flaming hot. After the milkfish is
grilled, it's flipped over and to finish it off, it's
topped in a thick layer of green tomato relish. It's an absolute stunner of a dish, that you don't want to miss. Pochok Bangusan. Pochcok? - [Woman] Pochok Bangusan. - Pochok Bangusan. - [Woman] Yes, sir. - OK, thank you. This local restaurant is in Quezon City, so it's a little drive from central, from the downtown area of Manila, but it looks like the food
is gonna be well worth it. I think it's about 11 a.m. right now, so most of the dishes are
freshly prepared for lunch. This is one of the best
times to come eat here and the food looks, you know,
the dishes are full too, so the, I think they're about
to get a big lunch rush, but we got here before the rush, but when the food is already made, I have to begin with their signature dish, which is the bangus. Bangus is one of my
favorite Filipino foods, it's something I love to eat, when I come to the Philippines. First of all, I really love fish and then milkfish has this
unique texture and taste and so they've grilled the fish, just topped it with a bunch of wonderful, I think it's green, mostly green tomato. There's onion on here and there looks like there's some green onions as well, but I think most of that is green tomato. You can see those grill marks. You can actually smell
the grill on it as well. You can smell that charcoal
aroma coming off of it. Get a really close up look at that. That looks delicious and I'm just going for a straight bite. Oh, that is good, mmm. The texture of the milkfish, I don't know if it's in my mind or not, but you can almost taste like a milky, juices coming out of
it, but it's a dry fish, so it has, similar to, if
I could compare it to tuna, it has that kind of dry naturalness to it. But it has an amazing smoky
flavor, as I could smell and then you've got that topping. It's really good , it's
like a sour, tomatoey... but it's not sweet at
all, it's mostly all sour and gives it a really fresh, freshness with those onions as well. Another signature dish they have here, which is called bulalo and this is a bone-marrow soup. What this soup is known
for is being a combination of the broth and then
they boil it for so long, so the marrow gets released into the soup, so you've got kind of a marrowy liquid, that should be rich and
flavorful and beefy. It has like a, almost like
a slippery feel to it, because it's a little bit oily, but what I like about it is, it's definitely not too salty at all. They've really controlled the saltiness, so it's not too salty. It is very rich and then
you've also got the contrast of the real beefy flavor,
yet at the same time, it's broken down by the
vegetables and cabbage. When you boil cabbage in a
soup, it usually gives the soup kind of a little bit of
a natural sweetness to it and that sort of breaks
the oiliness of that broth. Oh the meat, the meat is so tender. Next up, this is an eggplant dish and it is a whole
eggplant, which is roasted. So first they have a separate
pan of just the eggplant and then as soon as I ordered it, she put it onto a plate
and then she topped it with what I think are little
diced slices of green mango and then also what I think is
some peppered shrimp paste. I'm gonna ask them what
the name of this dish is. What is the name of this dish? - [Woman] (speaking Filipino) Alamang. - Alamang. - [Woman] Yes, shrimp, salt. (laughs) - Shrimp, is it bago-- - [Woman] Shrimp, salt. - Bagoo, bagoong? - [Woman] Bagoon alamang. - Alamang, bagoon alamang, thank you. Eggplant is just such a
wonderful thing to be roasted, so I'm gonna, I'm going
right in for the center here. Oh yeah, it's soft, it's... Ohhh (laughs) it just slides,
my spoon just slides through, like it's butter and you've got the shrimp paste there, you've got the green mango there and I'm not sure if that is a sauce or if that's just the gooey liquid, that comes as a result of when you, when you grill up, when
you roast eggplant. Oh that looks wonderful,
it's like a glaze. I might have taken a little too much of the shrimp paste in that bite, but I did manage to get
the full range of taste, tastes in that single bite. Again, that eggplant is
just so buttery-creamy and then it has a roasted flavor and then you've got that
salty, shrimpy taste of that fermented shrimp paste and then that's contrasted
by the sour crispiness of the mango. Wow, what a wonderful contrast of flavors. Just for my next bite, I'm gonna add a little less of the shrimp paste, 'cause that, if you take
too much in one bite, your mouth will just
be coated in saltiness. Adobo is one of the national
dishes of the Philippines, one of the most famous foods. This is adobo with, is it mostly liver, but also gizzards in here too, right? Is it all liver? It's like innards, chicken innards adobo. There's liver here, there's
gizzard, this is a gizzard, I'm going for a liver. Oh, and a heart, ohh! Oh, the heart is still
connected to the liver. Is that a heart, right? That's a heart, right Ying? Oh, this is the bonus
piece, heart and liver. I'd better put this onto my rice. I haven't even started on my rice yet. OK, I'm gonna cut half this liver and then add a little more
of that oily adobo sauce and I'm going for a liver
and heart bite all in one. Oh, double the organs. Oh that is so tender and so creamy and you know how liver has
that really, really creamy, really soft, almost like dry and sometimes a little chalky consistency, but then the heart has more of a, a bouncy texture, like a hotdog, but in the utmost, utmost
natural kind of way. So that's like having a creamy
liver with a bouncy heart, all in one bite. Moving to the front here, this is menudo and this is, this is a
dish, menudo is a dish, that is also very popular in Mexico. Normally, when I've had menudo though, it's normally the stomach,
so I guess this is the, maybe it's the, this is
mostly pork meat in here, but it's, it's like a stew. That tastes exactly like a tomatoey, kind of a little bit
tart like a tomatoey stew and then the final dish that
Ying and I ordered right now is grilled pork and
actually we just got this, because it looked good and it was fresh and it smelled so good
that we couldn't resist. So grilled pork right off the grill. You can see those char marks on it. Something that I love about Filipino food is when they grill, you can
just see those char marks, so you know it has an incredibly charcoal, roasted, fire flavor to it and that, yeah, the grilled
dishes here are so good. Mix this with a little
rice and some adobo sauce. That chargrilled flavor is undeniable and the pork has a little
bit of, some texture to it. It's not too, not too soft,
but it tastes like real pork, real pig here. (upbeat music) Oh different bowl? OK, but put it together. (speaks Filipino) (upbeat music) I didn't realize this at first, but I knew they had to have some chilies and some condiments, so
after trying all the food, I went over there and
I was talking to them and they showed me where the condiments, all the condiments are self-serve. I'm always happy to have
more chilies in any meal. For the sauce, do you normally, do you normally mix the--
- This is anchovy paste. - The shrimp paste, or anchovy? - [Woman] Anchovies. - Oh, anchovy.
- Yeah. - Ohh, OK, so it's fish. - Fish, fishoes, fishoes. - OK, and do you mix-- - (speaking Filipino) Chilie. - [Mark] OK, then eat with the bangus? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - OK, thank you. OK, squeeze in the calamansi. - [Woman] (speaking in
Filipino) calamansi. - Oh, OK, you can dip in it also? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - OK, and what about this sauce? - Fish (speaking in Filipino)
and soya sauce, lovely. - Oh, soya sauce, just soya sauce? - [Woman] Yes. - And then chilies. I'll just break these up in here. Moving over to this fish here. That addition of that green
tomato on top is just brilliant. Goes onto my rice and move over here, add some of this sauce and that chili. Oh yeah, OK, that is anchovy sauce. Ohh, oh, I know that flavor very well. Very sharply salty, fermented fish flavor, oh and with that chili,
and then contrasting with the fish and then sour tomato, oh, there's celery on here too. Oh, that's awesomely good. Oh, you have to eat this,
when you come to Manila and this time, I'm gonna go for a little bit of the soya sauce. A little soya sauce on there and then I'll chase it with a chili. I chased it with the chili. That's a brilliant combination as well. I think that's just straight soya sauce, so you got just that. It doesn't have that
fermented flavor to it and the chilies are a little bit spicy, but they feel wonderful. Oh, I love it. Ohhh (laughs) wow! OK thank you, thank you very. Thank you very much, what
is it, what is it called? - Lechon kawali. - Lechon kawali? - [Woman] Yes. Wow, and this is another one
of their famous dishes here. That is just ridiculously creamy and fatty and crunchy, all the textures. Those chilies went down so well, that I had to get more chilies. And then I've already
eaten some of the beef, but there's still a whole chunk of beef attached to the bone. Ohh (laughs) look at this. I'm gonna, maybe I should
just bite from here. Oh yeah! That is some real beef. It's tender, it's a little bit fatty. - 740. - Just finished with that meal and you can actually come
out here and buy ice cream right on the sidewalk, right
outside of the restaurant. The restaurant is packed right now, lots and lots of people and they are just smoking
out this entire area, it's just smoky because
all of the bungus grilling, the milkfish grilling on the grill, just that smoke is filling
this entire neighborhood. The, everything was delicious,
but that grilled milkfish, that was just next
level, unbelievably good. That's something you have to order, that's a Filipino food you have to order, when you come to this restaurant, but the, I love everything
about his place. It's friendly, the owners are very nice, the food is delicious, the atmosphere. They have both a few tables
out in the front patio area and then they have some
tables on the inside as well, but a fantastic, local
restaurant in Quezon City. I loved it and I hope
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