Filipino Foodie Find: Salakot Sizzle and Grill Restaurant

As a Filipina Foodie who frequently visited Manila throughout junior high and high school, I'm always on the lookout for Filipino dining establishments. In November 2008, Salakot Sizzle and Grill opened in Historic Filipinotown (Silverlake / Echo Park / Westlake area), and I've been looking to give it a try.

Filipino cuisine, like that of most parts of Southeast Asia, is influenced heavily by its native tropical environment. Rice is a main staple, appearing in various forms both savory and sweet dishes. Common ingredients include fish sauce ("patis"), fish paste ("bagoong"), vinegar, garlic, ginger, and soy. Seafood is highly popular, ranging from shrimp ("hipon") to mussles ("talaba"), catfish ("hito") to milkfish ("bangus"). Pork ("baboy") is also adored by our culture, and Anthony Bourdain has actually ranked Filipino cuisine as #1 in his "Hierarchy of Pork."

Local adaptations of the cooking styles of external colonizers such as the Spanish and of immigrants such as the Chinese also frequently arise. (For a conceptual parallel, consider the influence of the French in Vietnamese "banh mi" sandwiches or the Chinese inspired Hainanese chicken dish in Malaysia and Singapore.) Also, as in most cultures, regional differences in nomenclature and cooking methods exist play a role. For example, a dish that I might call "adobo," another Filipino from another area might call this same dish a "paksiw", while yet other Filipinos may consider these two terms and techniques to be interchangeable. (For instance, think of how what some Americans call macaroons, others would call meringues; similarly, in Southern China, "mantou" is a generic term for a steamed or fried bread bun, either with or without filling, whereas in Beijing, "mantou" is a plain steamed bread bun but "baozi" is steamed bread with fillings.)

Possible dishes that we'll try at Salakot include:

- Lumpiang shanghai (Filipino-style egg rolls)
- Sisig (diced pork with onions and pepper)
- Sinigang (a tamarind based soup with seafood, pork, or beef)
- Boneless bangus (marinated milkfish) on a sizzling plate
- Kare-kare (oxtail in peanut sauce)
- Crispy pata (deep fried pork knuckles)
- Adobo (NOT to be confused with Spanish adobo, but rather chicken and / or pork simmered in vinegar and garlic)
- Bikol "express" (from the Bicol region, seafood in coconut milk and a little chili pepper)
- Pinakbet (mixed vegetables in shrimp paste with shrimp and pork)
- Sinangag (garlic rice)

I'd expect about $20 per person for dinner, more if people decide to go for drinks or dessert.

Family-Style Dining: Dining for this event has been designated as Family-Style. The food bill will be split evenly between all attendees. Attendees will be responsible for paying for their own beverages. Please note that flexibility is an important part of family-style dining, and if you want to take a chance on attending, you have to be amenable to what the group/AO will order. You don't have to eat everything that is ordered, but everyone pays equally, whether you eat everything or not. Why this policy? The goal for family-style dining is to allow for the entire group to sample as wide a variety of dishes as possible. If one or more attendees choose to order on their own, that limits the group's choices, which defeats the purpose of what Family-Style Dining is all about. If this definition of Family-Style Dining doesn't feel comfortable, this may not be the right type of event for you.