I apologize for my lack of blogging. One of my BFF's asked why I haven't posted any recent foodventures and quite honestly, it's due to time and laziness:/ I know, they're poor excuses but it's the truth.
I'm going to rewind back in time to 2 weekends ago. I spent the weekend in South San Francisco hanging out with my cousins doing what we do best: shopping, eating, and partying. I love South San Francisco mainly because of it's plethora of Filipino restaurants. Drive down El Camino and you'll discover more than a handful of restaurants to choose from. Hmmm..maybe I should start a Filipino food crawl..
One of the best parts of the weekend was the discovery of Auntie Em's, a tiny Filipino-American infusion bakery. Auntie Em's display and packaging of Ube ensaymada (sweet bread with purple yam), mango squares (similar to lemon bars), cupcakes (ube, buko pandan, and red velvet flavors), and kopi roti bun (sweet bread from Malaysia with a coffee flavored crust) will keep you wondering what to buy because everything looks deeeellicious:) Auntie Em also sells the traditional Filipino desserts like Ube halaya, sapin sapin, maja blanca, and puto bumbong.
You'll most likely be greeted by Auntie Em when you walk into her bakery. My cousin and I loved this place so much that we went back the next day to buy more goodies to take home. "You girls are back!" was one of the first things Auntie Em said when we walked in. We're officially nieces of Auntie Em and hopefully she remembers our faces when we return. The drawback is there's no seating area due to the small space. Add a few tables and coffee menu and this would be the perfect place to catch up and gossip with your girlfriends.
Next door to Auntie Em's is my favorite Filipino restaurant thus far: Karilagan (Tagalog for splendor). It's my favorite because of the cute server, it's next to the bakery, and their dishes are reasonably priced and well portioned. My favorite dish is the crispy binagoongan. You're probably thinking, "WTF is that?!" I was wondering the same thing. It's crispy pork sauteed with bagoong (shrimp paste), tomatoes, and onions served with fried eggplant. Another dish I recommend trying is the sizzling bangus (fried fish topped with onions and their specialty sauce served on a hot plate). If you have high cholesteral, I don't recommend eating either of these dishes;)
I can't wait for my friends to visit. I hope they'll enjoy Karilagan and Auntie Em's as much as I do:)
