Sep 12

Sep 12 What's Your Trip? Simple Lang

METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES. I could not remember anymore why we ate out that particular night or why my mom asked if we could all have our dinner outside but I remember finding myself immediately searching for a place we could try out in Makati. I have always been the go-to person in our family for this kind of stuffs. Where can we go this weekend? Where will we eat after mass? What new activity is it in the metro that we could try? All these questions are not new to me and, most of the time, these questions extend to other topics as well. These questions do not stop with my family though as it has been a rather typical scene that my office mates and friends approach me out of the blue just to ask about the best buffets out there, the best Japanese restaurant in Makati or the best place to have a Xiao Long Bao. I usually have an answer but there are times also that I cannot look for any in my hard drive. The answers do not easily come by sometimes and that is when research comes in handy.

My mom never told me to look for a restaurant then but I did it anyway because I knew that it was my responsibility; digging up, searching for, looking hard enough to surprise the family. I could not remember anymore the other things but I do remember that it was then a weeknight when we gave this restaurant a go.

Simple Lang is what it really is. An unassuming restaurant in the middle of the Makati Central Business District that offers simple and typical-tasting Filipino dishes like every Filipino restaurant does. Or that's what I thought. Simple Lang is more than just simple. Taking aside the eye-catchy, red and white theme of the restaurant, the restaurant is much more than what meets the eye. Yes, the menu may not look like anything extravagant but wait till you read the name of the dishes and their descriptions. They are just interesting. Crispy Broken Ukoy? Crispy Palabok? Boom Boom Bulalo? Bina-Bet? Those will seriously make you curious in an instant! Some funny-sounding dishes that I have tried are often just that, funny-sounding. They spark some curiosity in you but they fail short on the execution. But here in Simple Lang, the dishes will surprise you like no other. The Crispy Broken Ukoy (Php 75) is not simply just an Ukoy. It tastes like shrimp and surprisingly crispy but you will go wondering where did the taste come from! Me, I would like to think that the shrimp was mashed to bits and mixed with the flour to be fried. But I do not know, it remains a mystery to me! The Seafood Bicol Express (Php 375) was something too! The soup thick and the seafoods fresh, it was just the perfect combination! I declare that it is one of the best Seafood Bicol Express out there, if not the best.

And how can anyone forget the Crispy Palabok (Php 265)? This is what we came for! The noodles fried to perfection, you will drool while the ever-attentive waiters pour the stock around the Palabok noodles, swirling and twirling it around that mountain of goodness, and finally topping it with bagnet, shrimp, tinapa and egg for you to enjoy. Once he finished doing what he got to do, you will surely look at the other people in your table and simultaneously ATTACK! That is just the most reasonable thing to do.

Simple Lang caught us off guard. I was never expecting it to blow us away like it did, but it majorly did! Our tummy was only limited to a few dishes but if we could only eat more than what we could put in, we will definitely order the other dishes too. If you are in for some Filipino dishes with a mind-boggling twist, then head on to this simple restaurant that serves not too simple fares. They will definitely knock you off your feet! See my pictures? They are blurry as I used my brother's GoPro without a macro lens but the moment and the food deserved to be captured so I took pictures of it. This restaurant should not be gone unshared, so here it is, a blurry ode to this wonderful experience.

SIMPLE LANG