Kusina Teatro - going deliciously Spanish

For a foodie family like ours, a dinner is always a celebration, no matter the occasion. When a birthday of a family member comes by, it calls for a double celebration. That means double the fun, double the amount of food on the table already groaning with specialties of the house, and overall, an evening sated with good food and good company.

Recently, on the occasion of brother-in-law Eddie Boy Zandueta’s birthday, my sister-in-law Liz suggested we try a new restaurant where her young son, recent business graduate Mark San Diego had a stake as one of the owners and furniture designer. The place – Kusina Teatro in the fairly new Food Street of Ortigas Home Depot in Julia Vargas Ave. in Ugong, Pasig.

This newest fave destination is literally a food street, small-sized stalls side-by-side offering their own unique specialties, all with spill-over tables and chairs outside reminiscent of the tapas bars of Spain where vibrant crowds share tables, swap stories and share pitchers of ice-cold Sangria or beer. No wonder it’s the younger generation’s favorite hang-out these days.

First, a little background on how Kusina Teatro came about. Four young culinary graduates, Richie Manapat, 21; Myka Ibazeta, 22, Donna Arganosa, 21, and Arwin Bartizo, 22, all eager to test their mettle in the kitchen, came together to try their hand at modest entrepreneurship. They were tired of the limited choices which featured nothing more than the usual “inihaws” in the general area. They commissioned another designer friend, Mark, to design the furniture for the place, and Mark came up with a winning design of mosaic high tables outside and classic comfortable sofas and chairs inside.

Like all the other restaurants in the area, Kusina Teatro is small, cozy and youthful. It just opened in June 2009, so I guess it is still a work in progress, but already they have established a unique ambience with their rustic chandelier, framed mirrors and very clean lines, like most tapas bars go. It is bright and perky and immediately attracts notice.

It was our first time in the new resto, so we trusted the four young chefs to come up with a menu for us, a group of eleven, mostly adults and all ravenous, and the four were quickly put to task.

First to arrive on the table was the gambas, their version featuring large, almost prawn-sized shrimps stewed in virgin oil, gently flavored with paprika, roasted garlic and mild chili. Perfect.

This was followed by authentic Spanish chorizo from Salamanca which I enjoyed even more than the gambas because of its strong piquant taste. Beer lovers will really go crazy over this one. Incidentally, one of the resto’s handles is their fine choices of imported beer and their authentic Sangria which my wife loved.

And yet another appetizer came-the Chipirones Fritos which reminded us so much of our recent Barcelona gig. The deep-fried beer-battered squid rings were authentic.

To round off the appetizers, we had the house’s Champignones al Ajillo or mushrooms in olive oil. This one though is much better than the usual dish because it comes in a creamy sauce which is perfect with the bread they serve with it.

Then the paella came – in two variants: Paella Negra or Arroz con su tinta which came served with their own aioili sauce, a creamy, slightly spicy concoction that went best with paella, and their signature Seafood Paella, also served with aioli. These had huge prawns sitting on top, as well as juicy clams and tender morsels of fish and tender squid. Both variants were moist and flavorful.

The house’s specialties were coming yet, they tell us. With all that came ahead?

Then one of their best sellers arrived-the Pork Belly Confit which they describe as spoon tender Spanish Liempo. This was really the star of the show for me, thus far at least. It was a dish I was willing to break my no meat-diet for. The liempo was very tender, and the marinade, whatever it was, had steeped into the meat. The serving, though, was too small. No problem. Order another one.

Then we had garlic chicken wings, and another chicken/pork dish in skewers called Pinchitos Morunos which everyone said were both very good and tender. I was busy with my next serving of Pork Belly Confit.

Meanwhile, the four chefs said to make room for the main dish. Wha-a-t?

It turns out that the stellar attraction of the table was the cuchinillo, served smoking hot from the oven right into our table. We were all staring at it in awe and reverence, but everyone was just too stuffed by this time. Count the number of dishes that were brought to the table and you’ll understand why. It was grossly unfair to the pig but guess again. After resting for some ten minutes, time enough to let the steam out of the suckling pig, the group was at it again. The chefs carved out one side of the suckling pig for easy picking, but soon enough we were tearing out the crispy skin from the other side as well. Stuffed? No way, this was delicious, tender in the inside, crackling crisp on the outside smoking suckling pig.

The chefs prepared it Cebu-style, with lots of lemon-grass stuffed in the stomach for flavor. Like the Cebu lechon, it did not need sauce because it wasn’t bland like most Manila-style lechons. Best of all, the skin was also braised with flavor, a little on the salty side which made it irresistible. The skin was crisp with very little fat underneath, and the meat was very tender, almost creamy. How can you resist that, even on a full stomach?

As if taunting us to say no, they topped off the feast with two desserts. First was the Pastel de Queso Frito which was very intriguing because it was supposed to be deep-fried cheesecake, something very novel. It was served with classic vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Excellent.

The second dessert was their version of the classic Spanish Churros. Tejeringos con chocolat was deep-fried Spanish doughnuts served with chocolate tablea sauce. I had to beg off at this point because I was literally stuffed by then. The ladies in the group, all sweet-toothed, couldn’t resist a bite of the churros, dunked in the heavy dark chocolate.

It was one heck of a culinary adventure that we thoroughly enjoyed, shades of Barcelona dining as our kids remarked. Our compliments to the four young chefs and to Mark who tirelessly served us and brought all those dishes to our table. You guys definitely have a winner in your hands.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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