With ‘do-it-themselves’ ingredients, this restaurant is a notch in Malabon’s culinary belt
Chat Alejandro
Food is a serious business in Malabon. Everybody knows how to cook. I discovered this when I visited some friends in the "city of many contrasts". Malabon is old-fashioned but progressive and teeming with various businesses; its people simple but rich in talent and skills.
The Malabonians are warm, sincere, and loving. They express their care for you by making you
a part of the family and cooking good food. The tastier the food, the more they love you, I was told. But just in case the taste falls short of their guests’ expectations, Malabonians make sure that there is patis (fish sauce) standing by. A favorite is Rufina patis made in Malabon.
Starting from Dolor’s Kakanin, to the best pancit Malabon, Rosie’s in Kuatro Kantos and Nanay’s, the bakery products of Betsy’s, Alvin’s Tasty Bread, Ellet’s Sweets, and Reno Liver Spread, Malabon is just teeming with culinary gems.
Malabon is also famous for its fresh seafood catch. One of the places to be when craving grilled seafood is the Blue & Gold Grill and Restaurant at 8 Dizon St., Tinajeros, Malabon City. However, I had a hard time finding the place. I almost had the impression that the restaurant was hiding from strangers. But people seem to find the place easily because of the delicious aroma that fills the air in the vicinity of the restaurant. Even big celebrities have discovered the place and they even have the pictures to prove it.
Blue & Gold serves home-cooked recipes which the family of Angie Tolentino obtained from generations before. You will feel at home whenever you are there. The service is good and the menu is anything but fancy, yet I guess that is why one feels at home. The owners are very casual, moving about in their home clothes, asking around if guests are comfortable, and making sure they are having a great time.
The restaurant’s bagoong is a must-try with their kare-kare. It’s simply a perfect combination. The bagoong itself with plain rice, fresh tomatoes, and chopped raw green mangoes can make your day.
Angie says that she personally picks the alamang shrimp used to make the bagoong. She sees to it that the alamang gets the exact amount of salt squeezed into it, washed the right way, and preserved exactly the way her grandmother did.
Their Seafood Bilao (grilled shrimps, squid, fish fillet, crablets, mussels, and clams in a special sauce) can make a barkada out for a beer-drinking session forget beer and decide to have a feast instead.
There’s also their chicken in chili sauce, sizzling sisig, and bopis. Their paella, Okoyito, Empanadita Supreme, chicken pie, curries, and the equally popular bulanglang are dishes that shouldn’t be missed.
To top a Blue & Gold lunch, you ought to try their special bowl of halo-halo. The ingredients, which consist of creamy leche flan, velvety ube, silky nanka, red beans, sago, nata de coco, kaong, macapuno, pinipig, sweet potato, and saba banana, are all home-cooked, and not the commercially bottled ones. Angie’s newly added pandan pinipig in coco cream is also a good option.
Angie also has a special jam made of five pureed fruits, cooked separately then blended into one. The result is a velvety smooth, golden yellow, and fragrant spread of mango, papaya, pineapple, cantaloupe, and orange.
Blue and Gold also offers catering services for all occasions. Their catering menu includes dishes such as morcon, rellenong bangus, chicken pastel in bread cups, and grilled pla-pla in garlic sauce, among others. To sample these dishes, it’s best to head off to the Ateneo de Manila and Poveda Learning Center’s cafeterias where Blue and Gold is a concessionaire.
Simple as it is, Blue and Gold Restaurant has been awarded quite a number of times by entrepreneurial and civic organizations, not only for Angie’s cooking but also for her charitable activities. She gives free cooking lessons and teaches the out-of-school youths, housewives, and public school children how to start their own small business through culinary skills. Moreover, Blue and Gold supports some feeding programs in Malabon.
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