Eat Me!: March 2016

FB page: Drei's Modern Day Cuisine

Location: 51 Katipunan St., Concepcion Uni, Marikina City
Nearby Landmarks: Strip 70, Baytree

After a long time, I've decided to put a new entry on my food blog :)

A few days after my brother's birthday, I decided to ask my brother and his wife to try out a new place recommended by one of my former colleagues. It was in Marikina anyway so I thought, why not? It was kinda easy to miss even for a Marikina-born resident as you won't easily notice the narrow driveway turned resto just after exiting Strip 70. If you were coming from direction of SDS Hospital however, it would be easier to spot.

So it was a good thing that my former colleague Joseph was there (as it was only a short notice when we went there) and Darmie, his girlfriend, whose family owns the place.

The place was named after Darmie's late brother who goes by the same name. The restaurant aims to showcase reinvented traditional Filipino dishes for the modern taste. And it also aims to promote creativity through art as you would clearly see on how the place is designed inside out. They eventually plan to display artworks of people interested in sharing and selling their work to the public.

Let's start off with the food then I'll talk about the creative side of the place later...

Here's their menu for your reference:

As you can see (or read), even the names of the dishes are quite creative.

When we asked for their best-sellers, they recommended a couple of dishes, which of course, we were happy to consume. Let's begin shall we?

Name: Lumpiang Sisig (160php)

This was a dish me and my brother (and his wife) got a little contradiction with. For them, it tastes like sisig. For me, not much. They didn't notice the cheese, I did. It tastes good but maybe I'm looking for a more distinct sisig taste. But the serving size and the dip for me made this a well-worth appetizer to get. A filling appetizer.

Name: Inasal Salad (145php)

This is a nice, clean and refreshing salad. Right mix of greens, citrus taste and a juicy, chicken breast makes it a must-have for salad-lovers.

Name: Malunggay Pesto Spaghetti (185 php)

Now, this is my favorite. I make pesto myself and I also use malunggay (for a healthier version) so I am not really surprised this recipe is in restos now but what did surprise me is the amount of actual pesto in the sauce. I don't know if you've noticed but whether in small or big restos, the pesto sauce is about 70-80% olive oil and 30-20% everything else. I mean, c'mon, why do they have to skimp on the greens when that's really what pesto should be? Anyway, this is a very tasty and fulfilling dish. Not your typical just oily or taste-lacking version of pesto. If you've never tried pesto or have some sort of fear for the lack of taste, you may want to start off with this. It won't disappoint.

Name: Crispy Kare-kare (Single (with rice): 185php, Sharing (no rice): 300php)

For bad memory reasons, I will not comment on the serving size on this one as...I forgot if the one we ordered was single or sharing.

Now, my dad's an Ilocano. Pure-blooded. So me and my family are very much familiar (and in my case, in-love) with Ilocano dishes. And the bagnet, being one of their "healthiest" dishes, is one of my favorites. But the bagnet in kare-kare (or sinigang or dinuguan or sisig, etc.) isn't new either. A lot of people nowadays are converting already "healthy" food into "much healthier" versions. Anyway, I have to be honest, I was disappointed with this dish. This was one of their best-sellers in the main dish department and well, although the serving size seems reasonable, the bagoong was really good, and the vegetables were cooked nicely, the bagnet sadly lacked taste. It felt like it was just a semi-crispy pork belly in a neutral-tasting peanut sauce. The The pork belly didn't stand out nor did the sauce. They were all in the same level which contributes to the lack of character of the dish. Maybe either a bit saltier bagnetor a a more peanuty sauce?

Now to the artsy part of the resto: the place itself! That's what the EAT + ART means in Drei's: it's enjoying the food while getting to experience a place full of art (or even show-off your own art).

For me, this is really where Drei's shines the most. It's a small place with a big space for creativity. Almost every corner of the venue had an expression of some sort in it. I would love to go into detail on every single piece but I'll let the pictures talk for themselves: