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Some of my friends get their kicks holding conversations while pretending to be hacienderos/members of the alta sociedad. Usually this happens when a) everyone's bored b) there's a lull in the conversation c)When Melo's around. Dumb phrases like, "OMG my yaya's only from Stanford. I thought she went to college with your yaya, pero she's from Princeton pala noh." or "Indio!!" get thrown around. It's harmless fun (well, for us at least).
The famous bread pudding.
Well another way to live out aristocratic fantasies is by making a reservation at La Cocina de Tita Moning. It's a charming restaurant right in the heart of Manila (it's inside the Malacanang Complex). The Legarda Mansion, an ancestral home, was converted into a restaurant in 1999 by one of the grandchildren. We're lucky, because the public was now welcome to savor the wonderful food of Tita Moning.
Dining at La Cocina de Tita Moning is like dining at Antonio's. Which is like eating lunch (or dinner) at your old lola's house. That lola who lives in a house where time seems to have stood still: there are furniture lying around that echo of a lavish past, there are servidoras at your beck and call, and you get to eat really good food (made with the freshest ingredients and prepared with over a dozen steps).
This was an actual clinic! And that's a real skeleton!
The experience starts off with a quick tour of the Mansion. You look around the paintings and the antiques while you nibble on slivers of quezo de bola spread sandwiches and lemongrass (tanglad) iced tea. After the tour, you are then ushered off to the table.
Each element on the table has a story behind it.
When you make a reservation, you're required to already select the menu you want for your meal. There are over a dozen menus to choose from. For us it was a toss between two menus. Luckily we were able to mix and match some dishes. We ended up with:
Tita Moning's Onion Soup
This is Onion Soup done the right way. It has just the amount of cheese, onions and bread.
Gambas Al Ajillo and Fresh kangkong and grilled pepper salad with caramelized walnuts and homemade walnut vinaigrette
Sorry for the photograph. :)
They said that this was the best gambas in town --and they were right. Big shrimps were lovingly tossed in with garlic. The kangkong salad is so good, you wouldn't look at kangkong the same way again. The char from the grilled pepper blended well with the sweetness of the walnuts (and the vinaigrette).
Lengua cooked in White Wine and Sauteed Fresh Ubod
The lengua was so soft (and so fatty). We also had Paella Valenciana (I failed to take a picture.)
Fresh fruits and assorted cheese platter
This was so cool, you cut the cheese (Brie, emmenthal and gruyere) with a *tiny* butcher's knife. It was perfect paired with grapes. (The mango wasn't ripe yet, so it was too sour.)
Tarragon tea (from their Garden)
You then had a choice of barako coffee or herb tea to go with the Breaded Pudding (pictured above, the first one). The tarragon tea was definitely something else. I didn't know you could actually make tarragon into tea. The Bread Pudding is so fine, it's like leche flan. We were surprised to learn that we had already tasted this bread pudding before, way way back when we still used to frequent the Salcedo Saturday Market. Of course, we didn't know that it was from La Cocina de Tita Moning back then.
Salsa de Monja
As specified in the print out of our menu (which even had burnt edges for effect!), the salsa de monja (which was served at the center of the table) was "what the nuns used to make for the Spanish friars to accompany meals. You are to eat it together with your dinner to make everything a little more delicious." It had small whole onions and some slivers of olives in it. (Think of it as something like atchara.)
What's really cool about this place is that it aims to recreate the aristocratic lifestyle of a forgotten era. To the hilt! You're even given a tiny bell to ring if you need to call one of the servidoras. And they serve you properly: food goes from the left and dishes are cleared from the right.
We were fortunate enough to have the whole place to ourselves. (A tour group led by Carlos Celdran was supposed to drop by, but they canceled at the last minute.)
La Cocina de Tita Moning is such a charming place. No wonder that someone actually thought of proposing here!
The ring popped out of the train set
Dining at La Cocina de Tita Moning is definitely a wonderful experience.
Here's the link to their website: http://www.lacocinadetitamoning.com
La Cocina de Tita Moning
315 San Rafael St. San Miguel, Manila
(632)7342146-41
The famous bread pudding.
Well another way to live out aristocratic fantasies is by making a reservation at La Cocina de Tita Moning. It's a charming restaurant right in the heart of Manila (it's inside the Malacanang Complex). The Legarda Mansion, an ancestral home, was converted into a restaurant in 1999 by one of the grandchildren. We're lucky, because the public was now welcome to savor the wonderful food of Tita Moning.
Dining at La Cocina de Tita Moning is like dining at Antonio's. Which is like eating lunch (or dinner) at your old lola's house. That lola who lives in a house where time seems to have stood still: there are furniture lying around that echo of a lavish past, there are servidoras at your beck and call, and you get to eat really good food (made with the freshest ingredients and prepared with over a dozen steps).
This was an actual clinic! And that's a real skeleton!
The experience starts off with a quick tour of the Mansion. You look around the paintings and the antiques while you nibble on slivers of quezo de bola spread sandwiches and lemongrass (tanglad) iced tea. After the tour, you are then ushered off to the table.
Each element on the table has a story behind it.
When you make a reservation, you're required to already select the menu you want for your meal. There are over a dozen menus to choose from. For us it was a toss between two menus. Luckily we were able to mix and match some dishes. We ended up with:
Tita Moning's Onion Soup
This is Onion Soup done the right way. It has just the amount of cheese, onions and bread.
Gambas Al Ajillo and Fresh kangkong and grilled pepper salad with caramelized walnuts and homemade walnut vinaigrette
Sorry for the photograph. :)
They said that this was the best gambas in town --and they were right. Big shrimps were lovingly tossed in with garlic. The kangkong salad is so good, you wouldn't look at kangkong the same way again. The char from the grilled pepper blended well with the sweetness of the walnuts (and the vinaigrette).
Lengua cooked in White Wine and Sauteed Fresh Ubod
The lengua was so soft (and so fatty). We also had Paella Valenciana (I failed to take a picture.)
Fresh fruits and assorted cheese platter
This was so cool, you cut the cheese (Brie, emmenthal and gruyere) with a *tiny* butcher's knife. It was perfect paired with grapes. (The mango wasn't ripe yet, so it was too sour.)
Tarragon tea (from their Garden)
You then had a choice of barako coffee or herb tea to go with the Breaded Pudding (pictured above, the first one). The tarragon tea was definitely something else. I didn't know you could actually make tarragon into tea. The Bread Pudding is so fine, it's like leche flan. We were surprised to learn that we had already tasted this bread pudding before, way way back when we still used to frequent the Salcedo Saturday Market. Of course, we didn't know that it was from La Cocina de Tita Moning back then.
Salsa de Monja
As specified in the print out of our menu (which even had burnt edges for effect!), the salsa de monja (which was served at the center of the table) was "what the nuns used to make for the Spanish friars to accompany meals. You are to eat it together with your dinner to make everything a little more delicious." It had small whole onions and some slivers of olives in it. (Think of it as something like atchara.)
What's really cool about this place is that it aims to recreate the aristocratic lifestyle of a forgotten era. To the hilt! You're even given a tiny bell to ring if you need to call one of the servidoras. And they serve you properly: food goes from the left and dishes are cleared from the right.
We were fortunate enough to have the whole place to ourselves. (A tour group led by Carlos Celdran was supposed to drop by, but they canceled at the last minute.)
La Cocina de Tita Moning is such a charming place. No wonder that someone actually thought of proposing here!
The ring popped out of the train set
Dining at La Cocina de Tita Moning is definitely a wonderful experience.
Here's the link to their website: http://www.lacocinadetitamoning.com
La Cocina de Tita Moning
315 San Rafael St. San Miguel, Manila
(632)7342146-41
Comments
i suggest you go to the ihawan in B. Gonzalez. it's right outside varsity hills! i don't know what the place is called, but they have really good isaw!
and go to mister kabab na rin!
You should insist that your boyfriend take you out for dinner at La Cocina de Tita Moning. :))
my goodness, you should to to mister kabab!!! hahaha. it's so good.
P1000 and up per head, per set menu. :D
Here's the link to the menu and the prices: http://www.lacocinadetitamoning.com/men
Have you tried King's Kebab along Katipunan extension?
And try the burgers dun sa area where Burger Machine used to be. Of course, I don't know the name na naman. Hahaha!
Once I set up my baking business, support me! Haha.
The skeleton is in the room on the first floor. The dining area is on the second floor. :D The owner of the house was a camera enthusiast, so there's a dark room with all his nifty antique camera. There's even a Leica, I think.