Ebun: Hatching an all-Pinoy resto

Since about a week ago, those who pass through the bustling Greenbelt Park in Makati must have caught a whiff of something refreshingly different. Make that refreshingly eggciting. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Ebun!

"Ebun in Kapampangan means egg," says Ricco Ocampo, retail prince-turned-kitchen eggspert.

Ebun is another delicious idea hatched by the inimitable triumvirate of Mangan’s Ricco Ocampo, Maritel Nievera and Rikki Dee who’s introduced good, five-star Filipino food at budget prices. It’s been quite a healthy relationship, with Ricco doing the concept and interiors, Maritel making sure of the quality of the food, and Rikki taking care of the management and technical side.

"This is our fourth joint venture," Ricco counts. "The first was Mangan in Robinsons Place Ermita, then Mangan Glorietta, Mangan Galleria, and now, Ebun Greenbelt."

Egged on to bring his eggspertise to this part of Makati’s sizzling restaurant scene, Ricco informally opened Ebun’s sliding doors a week ago to assorted friends and family. Seen were Tingting Cojuangco and her daughters, Donita Rose, Jericho Rosales, Eric Quizon, Dolphy, Francis and Mary Anne Lumen, among other celebrities.

"Ayala asked us to open another version of Mangan in Greenbelt 3 (fronting Greenbelt Park)," Ricco tells us. "It’s another modern Pinoy cuisine. But by modern, we mean only the aesthetics, not the food. We remain true to our vision of offering only authentic Kapampangan food, yung lutong bahay talaga!"

Thus, Ricco, Maritel and Rikki spread their culinary wings and soared with sheer delight as they came up with new dishes to eggcite Ebun diners. "That took only about two months," says an eggcited Ricco. "What took a while was putting the concept together ... Yes, my wife Tina was there to help with the food tasting. She never tires of Pinoy food, she can eat it every day."

Later, Ricco had to add the words kusinang Pinoy to the name Ebun because "people kept mistaking it for a Japanese restaurant."

It’s a different concept that the very innovative Ricco has hatched. You can see it, feel it, and taste it.

The signage with its glass full of plastic eggs (maybe the owners could put up a contest for diners to guess the number of eggs) gives a foretaste of things to come.

"It’s all-white and the interiors are very shabby chic," Ricco describes. We’re veering away from the other restaurateurs opening new restaurants. We want ours to look old, feel old, even if it’s very new. That’s why our brick walls, painted in white, look old and our shelves look worn."

Even the floor tiles, which look like old Spanish tiles, seem like they’ve seen better days.

"We want the place to look like one of those Sixties cafes," Ricco points out.

There are black and white paintings of eggs done by young artist Robby Mananquil with a mouthful of naughty sayings. The window frames, painted white, look like they’re made of old wood. The chairs are reproductions of Fifties chairs (sitting side by side Vietnamese ceramic stools). Even the washroom, which connects Ebun to Ricco’s other restaurant Kitchen, has a vintage chandelier that must have been salvaged from an old house.

Matching the restaurant’s clean and white ambience are the male attendants’ all-white uniforms (white barong tagalog with matching white pants and plastic aprons). In full view are racks upon racks laden with dishes – glasses, cups, plates, saucers, spoons and forks – just like what you’d probably see in a Pinoy home.

And the food is what the Kapampangans, ever famous for their cooking, probably eat at home.

"What makes Kapampangan food very popular even among non-Kapampangans is that it’s really very tasty," Ricco, himself a Kapampangan who grew up amid the aroma of good food, notes. "The way it’s cooked makes it very malinamnam. In everything, it’s a bit exaggerated; it’s very malasa, never bland. I remember when I was growing up, we had a cook at home who made all those Kapampangan goodies. And she didn’t have a cookbook to go by; she did everything by oido."

According to Ricco, the Kapampangans, for whom eating is always a grand production, are famous for their sinigang na maasim, pancit luglog, bibingka and their to-die-for halo-halo, to name a few native specialties.

"Opening Ebun is very sentimental for us because we’d like to bring back Filipino culture which is lost on our young people now," says Ricco with a hint of nostalgia. "Iba na ngayon. Pinoys don’t appreciate Pinoy food, they don’t know what Pinoy food is all about. They think that to be modern is not to be Filipino. We want Pinoys to go back to their culinary roots."

Gladly, we yield to Ricco’s invitation. But before we make our orders, we read the warning on our paper placemat that jokingly states: Babala: bawal magtsismisan, bawal mang-intriga, bawal manigarilyo at mangalumbaba ...

We notice that a lot of our Mangan favorites are on the menu. "The hanging dome lamps are the giveaway that Ebun is related to Mangan," says Ricco. "But on top of Mangan’s many specialties, we’ve added the Ebun specialties."

To eggcite the taste buds, there’s the all-day (patingapun) fare served with garlic rice, salted egg, tomatoes and burong mustasa: tapang damulag, tinapang bangus, tuyo, longganiza chicken and tocino. The sumptuously creative imbento (combo meal a la bento box) consists of your choice of any two dishes plus rice (Ebun serves only quality milagrosa rice), soup of the day, achara burong camias at burong hipon. Sure to be bestsellers are the adobong manok, baboy at ebun, binagoongan, tidtad (dinuguan to us Tagalogs), lechon babi (lechon kawali), crispy hito, sugpo sa aligue, inihaw na liempo and inihaw na ulo ng salmon.

Good old favorites are the kare-kare buntot ng baka (made with freshly ground peanuts), bangus belly in tausi sauce, sisig ni Mely, sinigang na ulo ng salmon sa miso and burong mangga.

The house specialties (ispesyal ning bale), of course, are the bibingka (with quesong puti and salted egg or with queso de bola and salted egg) and puto bumbong with mascuvado and grated coconut, which are our personal favorites. "Our bibingka is so popular that by early afternoon, it’s gone," says Ricco. "There are those who order 50 pieces for takeout."

Probably the best bibingka in town, it was concocted by Rikki Dee, whose lips, of course, are sealed when asked about its secret recipe.

"We’re also proud of our other Pinoy merienda fare like our pandesal panini," says Ricco.

For the panini palaman, you have a choice of camote with giniling, cheese pimiento, longganiza chicken, and tuyo with quesong puti.

Then there are the mga lutong Ebun, among which are sarsiadong ebun with pandesal, tortang ebun, bola-bolang ebun, balot ala pobre, inihaw na itlog ng tuna, asadong ebun, sarsiadong tilapia, adobong chicken liver, gizzard at ebun, morcon, atcharang ebun.

Everything is cooked fresh in the Ebun kitchen. The supplies are bought fresh every day.

The standard pampalamig include halo-halo Guagua (made only of homecooked macapuno, leche flan and banana, with its fine-as-snow ice made by a special ice maker imported from Taiwan), guinomis, gulaman at sago, minatamis na saging at sago.

For a more fruitful experience, try the katas ng prutas like buko shake, guyabano shake, mango shake, melon shake, pineapple shake, watermelon shake, papaya shake, guyamango shake, ubas shake, buko pandan shake, and the seasonal camias (yes, camias!) shake.

To cap an all-Pinoy meal (don’t forget to leave space in your tummy for dessert, for what’s a Pinoy meal without dessert?), try the sari-saring kakanin like the turon saging, cassava cake, pichi-pichi or tibok-tibok (gatas ng kalabaw).

Some muggy afternoon, you can sit outside the 60-seat restaurant, at the 20-seat lounge and enjoy the sights and sounds as you sip your salabat with camote.

"Soon, we’re coming up with our own version of tsokolate," Ricco announces.

What makes it all the more eggciting is the fact that Ebun prices are so reasonable they’re sure to delight the budgetarian. Where else can you enjoy a delicious full meal for less than a hundred pesos? Eat your favorite gulay (like gatang sitaw at kalabasa or gatang sigarillas with bagoong) for only P35? Or a good homecooked dish for only P45? Seafood pancit luglog is only P70 per plateful and is served with generous bottles of garlic, chives, patis and calamansi on the side. Tokwa"t baboy is only P25, a steaming bowlful of goto is only P35, a veggie-loaded lumpiang gulay is only P48 while arroz caldo with egg is only P50.

"Good times or bad times, we’ve never increased the prices in our restaurants," Ricco asserts. "We source our suppliers well and whatever savings we make we pass on to our customers. Even if we’re a Kapampangan resto, we also get from other places – where the specialty is, like our bagnet comes from Iloilo."

Certainly, at Ebun, you don’t have to pay for the ambience.

Ricco adds, "Soon, Ebun is opening at Alabang Town Center and SM Megamall."

Indeed, one delicious thing deserves another. Let’s all drink salabat to that!