Happy Foodies

<figure class="wp-block-image alignnone"><img alt="" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2717/4055780002_18b5ee2617_b.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">La Cocina Lamb Shank</figcaption></figure> <p>We’re already 10 years into the new millennium but stepping into the foyer of <strong>La Cocina de Tita Moning</strong>, I can’t help but feel like I’ve left the 21st century at the doorstep and slipped back to another era.  The gleam of the afternoon sun and chandelier reflects off the polished hardwood floor.  Old paintings and photos hang all over the walls.  The air conditioning was on but I seem to smell (or imagine smelling) a faint musty odor in the air, reminiscent of the redolence of old houses. I pass by the souvenir/<em>pasalubong</em> shop immediately past the sliding doors and save for the air conditioners and big refrigerators, I can easily mistake the decade for the 1930s, not the 2000s.</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image alignnone"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/oggie/4315556320/"><img alt="" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4315556320_ecaf60c228_b.jpg"></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Bale Dutung Brulee</figcaption></figure> <p>When traveling to the north, making a stopover in Pampanga is always a sensible decision.  And why not?  Kapampangans are really known for their rich food tradition.   But eating takes on a deeper, and should I say cultural, meaning when you make a stop at <strong>Bale Dutung.</strong> Tucked in a residential village, the place looks more like a house than a restaurant which it actually is, being the abode of chef/cook/artist Claude Tayag and his wife, Maryanne.  That said, the treatment we got was more akin to dining in a friend’s house.</p>