I came to grab dinner to go last night. As soon as I walked in, the owner recognized and greeted me. I’m impressed that he recognized me, because as soon as I walked in, my glasses completely fogged up from how warm it was inside. Warm is good. I said hello, and proceeded to scour their hot table checking to see if my favorite kare kare was there. It was! YES! I also spotted some things I hadn’t seen before. After much deliberation, choosing between sticking to what you know and risking trying something new in the hopes of discovering something delicious is not easy, I decided to stick with the kare kare for dinner, and get the ube halaya(new for me) for dessert! Kare Kare + rice + regular pop can/bottle of water = $ 6.99. I upgraded my pop to calamansi pop for $ 0.50 extra. They used to put the kare kare and the rice in the same container. Now they put them separately. I don’t know whether I ate it wrong or not, but there wasn’t quite enough kare kare to go with the rice(In terms of portion, I got 2 good sized pieces of oxtail, and a tiny piece of oxtail tip? I also got two pieces of tripe).That being said, the kare kare was absolutely delicious. It always is. For those of you who don’t know and haven’t read my previous reviews, kare kare is, for lack of a better description, an oxtail and tripe stew in a really thick peanut butter sauce. The oxtail and the tripe are always super tender. There are also veggies in there(green beans, baby bok choy, eggplant?). It all might sound like an unusual combination, but it’s incredibly rich and creamy and savory. It goes incredibly well with rice(because rice is a conduit for getting sauce into my mouth). When I want something to make me feel all warm inside, this is one of my go-to’s. Ube halaya($ 3) — It comes pre-packaged and is about the size of a man’s wallet. It’s also a very, very, very deep purple color. Thankfully, it is ube, purple yam, so I’m assuming the color is genuine. The ube halaya looks like a cake, but a very dense cake. It had the consistency of playdoh. Here’s the thing. I don’t know how this was meant to be eaten. Kuya Willie’s sells an assortment of Filipino groceries as well as ready-made food, so I don’t know whether this was meant to be eaten alone or as a spread for something else. I decided I was going to straight up eat it. Thankfully, I didn’t pick it up and bite into it. I cut it into small bites and ate it with a fork. It’s got a vanilla-y taste to it. It’s not super sweet. However, it didn’t taste anything like I thought it would taste. I thought it would taste like ube and coconut(cuz that’s a very popular ube combination). That being said, it’s my first time having ube halaya, so I have no idea what it is actually supposed to taste like. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t dislike it either. I think that if I ate more of it, it would probably grow on me. Calamansi pop — this was my meal add-on. I’m not the biggest fan of pop, but calamansi is not a flavor I have tried(pop or otherwise, if I’m not mistaken). I knew it was a citrus fruit, so I figured I couldn’t possibly hate it. I still do not know what calamansi is supposed to taste like, but this was delightfully refreshing after my kare kare. It tastes like fresh oranges, but fizzy. I thought it was much lighter than regular pops(not as in more fizzy, but less viscous), and it didn’t leave that awful cloying feeling in my mouth after. All in all a very delicious meal. I’ll be back. I saw another oxtail dish I want to try, and I have a number of soups/noodles in soup that I want to sit down and eat as well.
