Ligaya Mishan is back on the Elmhurst Southeast Asian trail again. This week, she writes about Filipino restaurant Sariling Atin, which means "our own" in Tagalog. Here, the food is served "turo-turo" (point-point) style like in a cafeteria.
Rotating dishes may be kalderetang kambing, goat cooked until it shivers apart, in a meld of tomatoes, olives, pickles and — an essential of the Filipino kitchen...Seafood kare-kare is equally rich, with a base of shrimp stock thickened with peanut butter and tomato sauce and loaded with banana blossoms, long beans and eggplant.
Much of the offerings are pork. Mishan recommends nearly everything, but the sisig, which is "made with pork belly but no pig face, as is custom, and presented like a cold salad...the deep-fried nubs of pork lose their crunch."