Lunch Tuesday: Casa Manila
Posted March 2, 2010 8:33 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s a cold and snowy Thursday afternoon when I walk inside Casa Manila (879 York Mills Road).
Before I’ve had the chance to take off my hat, owner Lilian Velasco is standing beside me, asking me what I want to eat, pointing out specials on the menu and offering me a taste of everything that’s already out on a steam tray.
Chicken adobo is very vinegary and salty, she warns. I shouldn’t have it with noodles, but with plain rice.
She points to a vegetable dish, laing sa gata, which looks like spinach but taro leaves cooked in coconut sauce.
“We try to be like Baskin Robbins,” Velasco laughs.
“A lot of our customers, they don’t know what Filipino food is, so we say taste first. If they don’t like it, they won’t come back, so we give a sample of the sauce first.”
I’ve got quite the collection of small metal spoons now and I could have ordered one of everything. Handing back the last of them, I decide on pancit bihon (rice noodles, $7.99) and kalderetang baka (tomato-based beef stew, $9.99).
Filipino food, Velasco explains, is a mixture of Spanish, Malaysian and Chinese cuisines. But Filipino food is much more labour intensive.
“Chinese food, you can just sauté, sauté, sauté. But Filipino food, you have to let it simmer,” she said.
Just like her plans for a restaurant.
Velasco was a full-time mother before she and her husband Raymond opened Casa Manila three years ago. Now, her eldest is in university, and the second is in high school.
When their two daughters were first born, they would try to go out and eat Filipino food, but smoking was still allowed in restaurants. And none of it was like what she ate back home.
“I think I am soft, emotionally,” Velasco said.
“But I have a strong personality, which I didn’t know until I opened the restaurant. Exposure and opportunity is important.”
The food is ready: rich red broth with huge chunks of beef and potatoes, and clear noodles amid a pile of carrots, beans and cabbage.
For dessert, Velasco suggests buko pandan ($2.20), condensed milk with chunks of young coconut and gelatin made with pandan leaves imported from the Philippines.
It’s sweet and fresh and delicious. After that first taste, I’d go back.
erin.criger@citynews.rogers.com
Casa Manila
879 York Mills Road (York Mills and Don Mills)
416-443-9654
Hours: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: 11am – 8 pm
Friday, Saturday: 11 am – 9 pm
closed on Tuesdays
