Heirloom Culinary Delights at Bernie’s Kitchenette in Cavite City

Exploring Cavite City is fun and exciting when one visits Bernie’s Kitchenette. The home- cooked style dishes were the specialties of Ms. Bernadita Rojas-Fontanilla, She is called Bernie. She believes that one does not have to be a trained chef or a good cook just to present good food.

Bernie’s Kitchenette dishes

We met Tita Bernadita Rojas- Fontanilla few years ago during an organized tour of the city by Mr. Jhon Gorme in October 2016.  Whenever have a chance to visit the city. We always make a stopover at this place.

She was the granddaughter of Leopoldo Salcedo, who is famous Filipino celebrity and had been cooking traditional dishes for over 30 years.

l-r Mr. Philip Reyes, Ms.Vonnette Fernandez, Mr. Paulo Ortega and Ms. Lin Deres

Most of which are heirloom family recipes and popular dishes. They opened the place in 2015.

Manila Standard article, newspaper clippings and photo gallery

Dishes at Bernie’s Kitchenette

popular tourist spots in Cavite

The restaurant had a sitting capacity of between 100 to 120 people at any given time.

popular meal combination were the TAPSILOG meals, which never fails to satisfy one’s palate.

different kind of dishes

Another plus point were historical photos , batibot chairs and large wooden tables.

The atmosphere is like a fiesta with festive buntings which decorates the dining area.

restaurant interiors

menu board

The restaurant also sells Sukang Cavite ( Cavite vinegar), coffee and other specialties

heritage advocates, culinary walkers, bloggers and friends

Pancit Pusit or sometimes called Pancit Choco en su Tinta, Pancit Negra, Pancit Itim

Among the popular dishes served at the restaurant includes, Pansit (noodle dishes): Pansit Pusit, which includes rice vermicelli / cellophane noodles which incorporates squid ink in its savory sauce. There are bits of squid and it is topped with crushed chicharon (pork rind), kinchay (coriander), diced mangoes and deep fried garlic. (completing the terno-terno [matching] concept of mixing food of the same color). ( Php 250 good for sharing between 3 to 4 people).

deep fried lao-lao

These were complemented with crispy lao-lao (fried fish) best dipped in Cavite vinegar or Sukang Cavite. (Php 80 per order) Morcon (a savory meat roll), Bacalao (sautéed salt cod), a dish that is usually served on Good Friday or during fridays.

Beef Kaldereta with a lot of sauce is only Php 80 per serving . The meat is tender and mildly spiced.

Pork Asado is well seasoned and the meat is tender. It is also best paired with white rice . The serving only cost Php 80.

Bernie’s Kitchenette facade

For large group, it is wise to pre-order some of their well-loved dishes, since the dishes are limited. The place is also an ideal spot of events and venue place.

Bernie’s Kitchenette

Address: 843 Midtown Bldg., Molina Street, Caridad, Cavite City

Operations : 9:00am to 7:00pm Tuesday to Sunday. There were times that the restaurant will close a little bit early on Sunday.

Contact: (046) 431 2088

A Trip to Ambos Mundos at Florentino Torres Street in Santa Cruz

 750 Florentino Torres Street , Santa Cruz, Manila, Philippines

 Ambos Mundos

Whenever we have some foreign , local guest, students and convention guests from other parts of the country. We would try this restaurant in the heart of downtown Manila.

menus are written in black board

 Ambos Mundos means BOTH World  I must say , not just The best of East and West but the  best of Asia, Latin America and Europe ! The restaurant was founded in 1888 making it one of the oldest still existing in Manila.

students from Cavite province

I am very happy for this batch of students successfully defended their thesis and graduated few months ago.   One of them also collects postcards and stamps which is a common denominator of our hobby.  The team leader was the one who contacted me for a day tour of old restaurants that are located in Manila.

group of students from Del La Salle Univesity and College of Saint Benile and their balikbayan uncle from the United States

lawyers from the United States , Singapore , stamp collectors , heritage advocate

We would always pay this restaurant a visit , This is one of Manila’s best kept secrets . I personally thinks that what makes this good restaurant is it maintained its old world charm amid the hustle and bustle of modern metropolis .  We did a tour with some Postcrossing Philippines Eye Ball 2011

Some of the restaurant specialties

This seafood paella is a MUST for those people who crave for Filipino- Mexican- Spanish dish. According to some of my international guests and culinary chef, The Ambos Mundos variety had richer , more flavorful and more appealing to the eyes compared to their Cuban, Mexican , Peruvian and even Colombian paella.

The local counterpart had shrimps, mussels ( tahong ) , clam ( tulya ), shrimps, chunks of pork meat ,  hard boiled eggs and topped with marine crabs / blue crab ( alimasag ). I do not think that they add saffron in the dish.  The rice had some tomato sauce   , This is a bit different.

The only downgrade is the marine crab / blue crab which does not have much meat . The rice is a little bit mushy and  It would take between 20 minutes to 30 minutes before they can serve the paella dish .

Paella – Small cost around Php 650 large Php 1,250

Lengua estofado with camote  ( deep fried) in special sauce ( Ox tongue with sliced sweet potato ( deep fried ) in special sauce )

This is another dish which originated from Latin America and Spain . The Ambos Mundos version had thick sauce and sweet potatoes ( deep fried) .

Lumpiang ubod with think sauce

 Lumpiang Ubod is a type of spring roll that uses local coconut palm heart  as the main ingredient -( julienne, allumette or thinly sliced   )  with  carrots, picama ,ground pork , shrimps and fresh lettuce wrapped in crepe . It come with thick sauce and crush peanuts  .

Foreigner guests and balikbayans would compare the price and its taste between a commercialized version and this version still wins hands-down.

Related article: lumpiang ubod ng niyog

Lumpiang Shanghai ala Ambos Mundos

Lumpiang Shanghai ala Ambos Mundos – This is one of our favorite menus along with its asado and fried chicken .  It is meaty and prefect combination to their chili paste , matching calamansi ( local citrus fruit )  and a little bit of soy sauce !

Pork Asado ala Ambos Mundos- This is another MUST Try, Since it takes a long time preparing the asado , This is sold per kilo basis, smallest order is 250 grams or 1/4 kilo . It had a special sauce

Yang Chow Fried Rice– Morisqueta Tostada  is a  Hispanized  fried rice derived from the Chinese.

Kare-Kare – It is kind of ox tail stew with peanut sauce ,vegetables, which include (but are not limited to): eggplant, pechay , string beans and with shrimp paste .

Nido Oriental Soup– This is not the authentic bird’s nest soup which uses swiftlet’s nest made of saliva ( balinsasayaw )  as the main ingredient, They used pork soft tendons ( litid ng baboy ) with quail eggs, chicken eggs, corn starch and flour to thicken the soup.

Since early 2013 , Wah Sun / Sun Wah is closed , customers can order their menus at Ambos Mundos . Asado , Yang Chow Fried Rice are specialties of Wah Sun

How to get There :

The location of the new restaurant is near Claro M. Recto Avenue and about  5  minutes walking distance from  LRT line 1 ( Doroteo Jose station ) and about 8 to 15 minutes walking distance from LRT line 2 ( Recto- Isetann station).

Among this restaurant long list of celebrity clientele includes Dolphy, Chiquito ,German Moreno, Philip Salvador, Alona Alegre, Pacquito Diaz, Rene Saguisag among others.

Operations: Open Everyday from 8:00am to 9:00pm  except Holy Week

Address:750- 752 Florentino Torres St., Sta. Cruz , Manila 1003 ,Philippines

Phone Number (+63 2) 734-1160 / (+632 ) 734-41-08

Facebook Page: Ambos Mundos

Personal BLOG of Ms. Teresa Martinez : http://aletterwriter.com/saving-ambos-mundos-restaurant-name/

Note: portion of  Florentino Torres Street is still under construction