Binondo, which is Manila's Chinatown, is known for its Chinese restaurants and food stalls. If you're looking to do something different on a weekend, why not go on a Binondo food trip? Here are our recommended food stops if you have a budget of P3,000 for two persons.
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00:00 [Music]
00:14 Binondo is known for its culture, its business, and its food.
00:17 So we're here today to try some of what it has to offer.
00:20 But we only have 3,000 pesos to our name, so let's see what we can find.
00:24 Binondo, or Little Chinatown in Manila, has a wide variety of food to try.
00:29 We started our food crawl in a nice restaurant with an advocacy.
00:32 Okay, so we are in our first location, Cafe Mezzanine, and we are here with our tour guide, Stephen.
00:36 Hi!
00:37 So Stephen, can you tell me about this place, what we're having today?
00:40 Yes, we're here at Cafe Mezzanine.
00:42 It's what we call the Volunteer Firefighters Coffee Shop.
00:46 The style here is that everyone who eats here is a volunteer firefighter for free.
00:50 Because it's their advocacy.
00:52 The "engbitin," which is the owner of this restaurant,
00:55 they're also into the firefighting volunteers here in Binondo.
01:00 The start of our journey in Binondo, especially the food trip,
01:03 why not start things off with soup?
01:06 We have this "gokong," meaning "gokong soup."
01:10 It's "go," which means "five" in Chinese.
01:13 Essentially, it has five treasures and five kinds of noodles,
01:19 accompanied by what we call "kyampong," or it literally translates to "salted rice."
01:25 So we complement the "gokong soup" with "kyampong,"
01:29 which is a typical Chinoy thing that is always a staple.
01:33 So starting off things light because we have a lot of stops today.
01:36 Yes, especially if you're going to eat on food trips in Binondo,
01:39 don't eat too heavy.
01:41 So how do you suggest you go about this? Do you try to have a little bit of everything?
01:47 Yeah, so it's slow-cooked overnight,
01:50 and then it has tonic wine and herbal medicine.
01:58 Those are the main ingredients.
02:01 Mmm, it's good. It's light. I like it. It's a really good way to start the trip.
02:07 And just to give you guys an idea, for spending P300 for both of these dishes,
02:11 it's good for around two to four people,
02:13 especially for a group just to try a little bit.
02:17 So we're here in Carvajal Street. We're about to order some fresh lumpia for P100.
02:24 This is one of their famous dishes here, and then people will flock to Carvajal just for this.
02:29 It's the fresh lumpia, famous in Puhagayong Lumpia House.
02:33 It's composed of carrots, cabbages, and then the other one is called "koti,"
02:39 which is your dried seaweeds, and then of course your crushed peanuts.
02:44 Walking around Binondo is great as we get to visit some local staples for snacks
02:52 and pass by cultural landmarks like the street-side altars,
02:55 something you don't often find around Metro Manila.
02:59 After walking enough, we reach our next destination on the corner of Ongpin and Salazar Street.
03:07 Our next stop is Veggie Select, which I believe used to have a different name, correct?
03:10 Yes, it used to be called "konyensya," especially for the old-timers here in China.
03:14 So nowadays, they also feature street foods that we cooked outside.
03:21 So we're going to eat it. This is tofu, and then rice cake, and then sausage,
03:26 and of course, their plant-based shawarma. Let's try it out.
03:29 So the whole deal here is everything here is plant-based, so perfect.
03:33 P120, P180.
03:36 You eat it instead.
03:38 It's not spicy, it's very flavorful. It's really a treat.
03:44 Typically, in Binondo, especially the restaurants here, they always have those vegetarian options,
03:50 especially to cater to those Chinese community members who are Buddhists.
03:56 So that's their nature, they eat vegetarian options.
04:03 Walking down Estero takes us to our next location.
04:06 So for something a little different, we're here at Estero.
04:10 Yep, people usually flock to Estero just for this particular thing.
04:14 More on the exotic side, which is what we call frog legs.
04:17 So they got different flavors in butter, we also have spicy, but for this round, we have my favorite.
04:24 It's salt and pepper.
04:26 Salt and pepper, so I'm excited for this one.
04:28 This was P350 and rice, P40.
04:33 For those looking to eat frog legs, there's something more exotic here.
04:36 That's with a lot of vinegar.
04:39 And then let me know how it is, especially first time I heard.
04:43 Yeah, this is my first time to have frog legs.
04:45 I really like it.
04:47 It's soft, the salt and pepper flavor is really there.
04:51 But of course, the meat, just as if it's chicken.
04:55 Usually, I'll prank my friends.
04:57 What's normally their reaction?
04:59 "Oh, we ate it already."
05:01 It's not really bad at all.
05:03 You always have that notion that it's something nasty.
05:06 But in the long run, it's actually what they eat also in the provinces, frog legs.
05:11 Yeah, and there's a sweetness to it, which surprises me.
05:13 I don't know if that's the frog or the...
05:14 They marinate it.
05:16 It's good.
05:17 Nice.
05:18 So we're here in the middle of our food tour.
05:26 And we're here in Ang Tunay Noodle House.
05:29 Which is your personal favorite?
05:31 Yes, because not everybody goes all the way here.
05:34 This is the place where you can go here without bothering with any lines.
05:38 The streets are nice.
05:40 This is my personal favorite, Secret Spa.
05:42 So you heard it here first, Ang Tunay Noodle House.
05:46 So remember, this is a food tour.
05:48 It's something that you can experience yourself.
05:50 If you want to try something like this, Stephen, where can we find it?
05:52 Yeah, you can follow my page.
05:54 It's called the Heritage Collective.
05:56 So we feature places in Manila that's not typically covered in tour packages.
06:00 In this case, we still cover Binondo food crowd.
06:03 And featuring spots that are maybe on my favorite side of things.
06:09 At the same time, covering some places that are not typically covered in many of the Binondo food shows.
06:14 Somewhere that only locals would know.
06:16 Perhaps.
06:17 Anyway, I'm excited for this. Let's try this.
06:19 We got here what we call mixed beef noodles.
06:23 In Chinese, we call it "Qianzi" and "Kangto".
06:26 Basically, the meat here is of course beef.
06:29 But you can see, it has tendons in the middle.
06:32 So that's the "Qianzi".
06:33 The "Kangto" is more of the actual meat.
06:38 So when you order here at Ang Tunay, make sure that you say the mixed beef.
06:44 Because this is what you'll get.
06:48 I have high hopes for this because it's your favorite.
06:51 I'm not ashamed of it. But so far, I've brought here, they seem to be okay.
06:56 It's really good. I like it.
06:59 It's not too unfamiliar.
07:01 For me, it's comforting. Especially nowadays, with this weather. It's a bit erratic.
07:05 So this is my secret spot to take this.
07:07 I love it.
07:08 So we have here on the other hand, what we call "Kidney Quesadilla".
07:12 So in Chinese culinary traditions, every time you eat an innard, for example in this case, kidney.
07:18 They believe that it will also heal your diseases related to kidney.
07:22 So if it's liver, it talks about liver disease.
07:24 In this case, this will be good for your kidney.
07:26 When you cook something like this, the kidney quesadilla, you have to make sure that if you cook it, you really have to clean it well.
07:33 So in this case, I believe they clean it well. And let's try it out.
07:37 It doesn't taste like other sort of innards.
07:40 Imagine the liver. It's not good.
07:44 The taste is different. The flavor. I mean, sorry, the texture is different also.
07:47 It's good. It's good.
07:50 Thank you for showing us the place.
07:53 With all this good food, I can see why Angtuna is one of Stephen's favorite locations.
07:59 Next, we make a quick stop to Apolog Cafe.
08:05 A cafe aiming to keep Binondo's traditions and vibes in this modern day.
08:09 If you want to know more about this, check out our article about them on spot.ph.
08:13 Link to that will be in the description down below.
08:16 And speaking of traditions, our next stop is a very special restaurant.
08:20 So we are here at Toho, oldest restaurant in the Philippines.
08:25 This was established, as they mentioned here, in 1888.
08:30 So there are people who say that our heroes like Rizal and Bonifacio actually dined here during their lifetimes.
08:37 What better way of introducing the oldest restaurant in the Philippines than by introducing pancit.
08:42 Very basic in the Chinoy cuisine.
08:46 And of course, we have their specialty, which is pork asado.
08:50 Of course, pancit is a staple in every Filipino cuisine.
08:53 Exactly. It's already spread out all the way to the Pinoy households.
08:58 Would you know if their recipes have changed since?
09:01 The most staple here is their pancit.
09:05 And it comes in different styles.
09:07 So I think that's the most standard here.
09:11 On the other hand, pork asado is the most common dish that people always recall whenever they go here.
09:19 I like my pancit to be saucy as compared to other kinds of pancit.
09:25 So this is the one that will satisfy my standard for pancit.
09:31 A classic.
09:32 So that is so far our running tab.
09:35 So we're almost done with our crawl.
09:38 We'll see you in the next location.
09:41 [Music]
09:43 So Stephen, we finally made it to our final stop.
09:49 Yes, finally.
09:50 The final stretch of our food trip here in Binondo.
09:52 And how can we end the day without having some dim sum?
09:55 Dim sum here at Ying Ying. It's at Dasmariñas Corner, Yuchengco.
09:59 So maybe you've heard already of your typical siomai, hakao, xiao long bao, and even chicken feet.
10:06 So let me introduce to you some of those other dim sum dishes here in Ying Ying.
10:11 We got the kuchai dumplings.
10:14 And this one is what they call hamswi ko, which is basically crunchy on the outside but inside it's like pillow soft.
10:22 That's how they present it.
10:23 But inside it has porky filling.
10:25 On the other hand, we have hot salad roll.
10:28 Basically, it's a salad but different.
10:31 So have you tried that before?
10:33 Personally, I have not.
10:34 Okay.
10:35 New experience.
10:36 Okay, try it for yourself.
10:37 Alright.
10:38 It's a glutinous rice with pork fillings.
10:45 Yes.
10:46 And I guess they have mushrooms.
10:49 Oh, that's almost like dessert.
10:51 Take a look at the texture.
10:55 It's funny because they have mayonnaise.
10:59 Yeah, you gotta try some, right?
11:01 Yeah, dip here.
11:02 But there's mayonnaise inside anyway.
11:04 So, like perhaps it's gross.
11:06 So each of these dishes is around 120 pesos each.
11:12 Yeah, on average.
11:13 And this is a good way to end the crawl.
11:16 Thank you so much.
11:18 We'll just finish this one.
11:19 Congrats for making it this far.
11:21 There you go.
11:22 So we've come to the end of our food crawl.
11:32 Thank you very much, Stephen, for having us.
11:34 If you would like to try his food crawl, go hit him up.
11:38 All his contacts will be down in the description below.
11:42 And if you like this video, hit that like button.
11:44 Comment down below where you'd like to see us go next.
11:46 And hit that subscribe button, notification bell.
11:48 And I'll see you guys soon.
11:50 Bye!
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