The Most Delicious Quesadilla is in Greenbelt 3

I am in agony as I write this. With deadlines to meet and articles to write, I have forgotten to eat lunch. It’s bad enough that my engine is running on empty. I also have to recall the taste and smell of the most delicious Quesadilla I have ever tasted in order to compose this piece. That is pure torture for someone whose stomach is waging a revolution.

What is a Quesadilla, anyway? For the few who have been hiding under a rock and do not know anything about Mexican food, a Quesadilla is a flour tortilla filled with a savory mixture, then folded in half to form a turnover shape. The filling can include shredded cheese, cooked meat refried beans or a combination of items. After the tortilla is filled and folded, it's toasted under a broiler or fried. I had a Quesadilla with the filling called Pollo En Chipotle, shredded chicken breast meat cooked slowly over low heat in a special smoked Mexican chili called "chipotle". It melts in the mouth and the taste is nothing short of "malinamnam"! The prize Quesadilla can only be found in Taqueria Chilanga, an eating place that offers authentic Mexican cuisine.

I’m certain that every dish on the menu is just as good. The also serve Tostadas, Burritos and

Platillos and offer a variety of savory fillings. Customers have the faintest idea on the amount of work it entails to prepare the food. Taqueria Chilanga’s owner, Mexican-born and Chicago-bred Luz Martinez, says all the ingredients are handmade, be it filling or bread. Chef Estela Blanco, Mexican woman married to a Filipino, wakes up before everyone else in the archipelago and does the cooking in her Malabon abode. The food is then transported to both branches located in Pasong Tamo and the Greenbelt 3 Foodcourt. Luz and Filipino husband, lawyer Ricardo Fernandez Jr., decided to put up the Taqueria as a nutritious and healthy alternative to cholesterol-laden burgers and fries that Filipinos have grown to love.

Martinez emphasizes that Taqueria Chilanga serves authentic Mexican cuisine and opted not to adapt to the "Filipino taste" as some eateries have done. Another variation of Mexican food is called Tex-Mex, the blended flavors of Northern Mexico and the Southern US where Native Americans, cowboys and Mexicans intermingled cultures.  Many traditional dishes have been altered by one side or the other to create the cuisine style that most Americans consider Mexican.  Tex-Mex also encompasses the Americanized dishes such as Mexican ingredients used in a casserole instead of served with a tortilla. "Authentic" Mexican food, on the other hand, descended from the food of the Mayans. There are meats, seafood, corn and rich stews and sauces.   Small meals are often served wrapped in a fresh tortilla.  This is what Taqueria Chilanga wants us to enjoy. They use white cheese and no tomato sauce.

It’s been two years since the Pasong Tamo branch opened and it already has a loyal following among Filipinos. Americans and some Japanese also frequent the place. Of course, the Mexican community is among its devotees.

Whenever you’re in Makati, take time out to partake in the feast that is Mexican cuisine and find out how food prepared with love and care tastes like.

I don’t know about you but I’m starved.

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Taqueria Chilanga is located in Savanna Market, Metropolitan Avenue corner Pasong Tamo, Makati. Tel. No. 896-3098 loc. 26. They opened another outlet at the Food Choices, 3^rd Floor Greenbelt 3 Makati, Tel. No. 757-4071.