In an instant, I found that perfect crunch. It was a sheer delight to sink my teeth into something crisp only to discover a little bit of something tender inside. I may have just been eating fried fish. But here at Kanin Club, it comes to you, opened up like a slowly blossoming flower, with the fish’s head in bowed reverence to you.
Kanin Club pays homage to Filipino heritage and culture. From its stained-glass window touches of sea blue, Tuscan yellow, and jade green to its decor of rich wood tones and antique capiz-laden windows made into tables, this restaurant feels like an ancestral Filipino home that serves up good classic food, Filipino style.
Its chef Anthony Mendoza has been the sole master of the kitchen in this restaurant’s two-year foray. Joining Anthony on the management team of Kanin Club are his wife Emely, and Mariela Luna-Cancio and Antonio Cancio, who are also behind Cafe Breton.
How Kanin Club came to be is an interesting story. As weekend bikers usually make their way towards Cafe Breton for some hearty breakfast upon reaching Sta. Rosa, Laguna, these men would often ask if the restaurant was serving any rice. Upon observing them, Anthony commented, “Now, they are the Kanin Club.”
It has been two years now since Kanin Club first opened its doors in its original restaurant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. The restaurant has a second branch at Westgate Center in Filicity, Alabang. With the opening of this second branch, Anthony is spicing up the Kanin Club menu with more enticing dishes.
As you might expect, the Kanin Club menu offers various kinds of rice. There’s the regular staple, plain Mindoro white rice, which you can enjoy as “All You Kanin” or in unlimited servings. For a healthier alternative, there’s brown rice, which has quite a hearty bite in every grain. There are also different kinds of fried rice like tinapa rice, chorizo rice, garlic rice, loaded fried rice, daing fried rice, aligue rice, bagoong rice, and Anthony’s newest creation, the pork sinigang sinangag rice.
Of course, there’s a whole lot more to entice you in Kanin Club’s 10-part menu.
If you want to jump right into the seafood entrees, one name unfolds: Binukadkad na Tilapia. This dish gives you a perfect crunch, with the fish sliced butterfly style before dunked into the fryer. And as Anthony recommends, “Try this with some green mango salad that’s both a bit sour and sweet.”
Digging into the seafood repertoire, you must also have some seafood kare-kare. This is a plateful of prawns, mussels, and squid cooked in savory peanut sauce. Then there’s the spicy tahong or mussels cooked in garlic, shrimp paste, and coconut milk.
From savory, you can move on to something just a tad sweet. How about the all-time Filipino favorite lumpiang sariwa? This dish is a new take on the classic with the fresh vegetable spring roll featuring lots of sauteed beansprouts and served with some sweet sauce and peanuts. A must-try is the refreshing tomato, onion, cilantro, and kesong puti salad, which is mixed with some tangy vinaigrette.
Onto to the meat side, there’s the crispy liempo for starters, which comes with a trio of soy sauce, vinegar, and sweet chili sauce. Then try chef Anthony’s crispy dinuguan and his personal favorite, chicken curry.
Anthony is quick to confess that he was never a culinary student. Everything he learned, he learned from taste and from spending a lot of time in the kitchen with his family. And this burning passion for cooking and experimenting with food is evident in his well-thought-out menu at Kanin Club.
After all that rice and food, hopefully, you still have some room to yield to some sweet temptations. Like turon, that simple fried sweet spring roll with a soft banana (and sometimes, a piece of jackfruit) inside, which is a classic snack and/or dessert for many of us. But in the hands of chef Anthony, the turon is turned into an homage to yet another Filipino classic, the halo-halo.
If you order Kanin Club’s Turon KC a la Mode, you are in for a real treat. Served with buko, queso or ube Arce ice cream, chef Anthony’s turon creation features a melange of ingredients typically found in your halo-halo — sweet creamy ube, stringy coconut strips, monggo beans, banana, and jackfruit. These are all wrapped up in a delicate spring roll which is coated in sugar, then fried and sprinkled with some sesame seeds.
Wanna join the Kanin Club?
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Kanin Club is found at Westgate Center, Filicity, Alabang, Muntilupa City. Call 850-3516.