Just recently in San Pablo, I got to meet with our good friend, Dr. Ruel Reyes who has taken a respite from the wine and brandy trade to concentrate on being an educator and pursue his passion for agriculture. Besides fruit trees and organic vegetables, he is now experimenting on organic pork from free-range wild boar.  San Pablo seems to be teeming with a lot of quaint food establishments and could be a place worth exploring since it is coming out of its sleepy “small town” image. What used to be a grid of residential homes are now small shops and restaurants that are expanding into the commercial center of the city.

Thanks to Doc Ruel, I’ve never had a dull meal in San Pablo every time I visit since he is a source of excellent lettuce for some choice restaurants that he can take his friends to.

Below are two very good finds that are just beside each other on T. Azucena corner P. Zulueta Streets.

MIDDLE EATS BISTRO – This is a Middle Eastern restaurant started by some enthusiastic parents who got together because of their children’s passion for swimming as sport. Sylvia Ty and her partners are parents that are hands on in this restaurant where everything from the bread to the hot, fiery, dried chili sauce known as harissa, is homemade. The food is fresh, honest, and points to authenticity. We were so impressed with the menu that we decided to try almost everything there. What surprised our group was a visible container of sumac which was nonchalantly displayed on the shelf of the open kitchen. When I saw that, I already saw points scored as this is not available in your “middle eastern kebab” places that have mushroomed everywhere. I remember that it was about 25 years ago that the late Behrouz introduced me to this tangy and aromatic spice made from berries of a bush that grows wild in the mountains or Iran and Armenia.

Anyway, we started out with the Mezze Platter that had Hummus (chick pea puree), Baba Ghanouj (eggplant puree), Tzatziki (cucumber yogurt relish) and Fattoush (Arabic chopped salad with bread). These all came with warm homemade pita. For our main courses, we had the Kebab Platter which is a combination of Beef Souvlaki, grilled seafood, chicken and lamb meatballs called keftedes. We seasoned the freshly grilled platter with squirts of lemon and a generous sprinkling of sumac. Of course, each one was left to our combinations as we topped morsels of the items with the various purees and salsas from the Mezze Platter as we picked the food with torn pieces of pita. The meal was rather refreshing and cooling on the palate as we had Greek Salad with crumbled feta, diced tomatoes and cucumbers. The dressing was not at all your typical lemon, oil and vinegar. It carried touches of herbs that gave the vegetables a fragrant and clean tasting lift. The grilled keftedes or lamb meat balls with rice seemed to be a good combination with wood spice and herbal flavors in the mix; I just found it a bit too tender due to the lamb fat and felt it needed more bite. The Pastitsio which is a Greek version of baked macaroni served like a piece of sliced cake with pasta and thick cheese sauce congealed together turned out to be rich, creamy and immediately put us in our comfort zones.

To cap this Middle Eastern Mezze, we had the baklava served warm with crisp gossamer layers of buttery filo pastry collapsing on a honeyed filling of toasted nuts that caramelized and browned on its own butter.

Though my companions did not care for Turkish coffee, I decided to take the whole nine yards and ordered an authentic cup that I poured from an ibrik where they cooked the spiced, aromatic, coffee in.

TASTY TREATS – Doc Ruel took us here for two straight evenings for a few rounds of beer amidst a jazz duet performing keyboards and sax and an acoustic guitarist playing nostalgic songs. Best values were the Dinamita sticks. For below P10, a rather sizeable plate of fried battered chili fritters with ground pork was a great hit with some freshly grilled chicken and pork barbecues.

But what impressed me most about this place was a bar that seemed to produce very eye-catching hot and cold coffee creations together with a modest selection of pastries such as cheesecakes and tortes. Seeing that they had a very good Italian coffee machine, I decided to try their blend by getting an espresso. This turned out to be a well-balanced and well roasted blend and it doesn’t surprise me anymore why this place seems to be alive even after dinner and after the entertainment had already completed their sets.

You can email me at: chefgenegonzalez@yahoo.com