Mamou

Finally, stepped into Mamou, a restaurant with one of the most gracious managers (Annie) and waiters. Later, we met the chef, nay "I prefer to call myself a cook" named Malou who was pretty as she was warm and charming.

Among the entrees recommended strongly was steak but at more than P1500 for a serving good for 2 or 3, I thought not. It being our first visit, I wanted to try as wide a range of dishes as possible.

My best friend (thanks for sending the pictures) ordered linguini with vongole, I decided on roast chicken and pork served with red rice
. As my husband was not with us when we ordered and I was famished, I thought of ordering one of his favorite dishes: fish and chips
, another recommendation of the waiter. In fact, everything we ordered was in their list of best-sellers. Was this enough? I asked our waiter and he nodded.

While waiting for our food, we were served 6 buns of 2 different kinds in a red basket taken in in the corner (I think a child's game with a hanky can produce the same result, if I remember correctly). One variety was the sourdough, the other was whole wheat so they looked good together: very dark brown bread and an almost white one. My husband liked them very much.

Then our orders came.

I could see my husband wasn't too enthused. I guess a wife of almost 20 years just knows. But personally, I liked the roast chicken and pork combination that came with black beans and rice served on one plate. Except that the chicken and the pork slices were rather small, so one could only eat so much, or make that so little, of each. Imagine this: the upper thigh of a not too robust chicken and a tiny pork chop, bone-in. The pasta was okay but the clams were rather spare and tiny. Cyma is more generous in putting in clams in their angel hair pasta. The fish and chips: there were 3 strips of fish, not as big as Fish and Co nor Chelsea but not finger-sized either, maybe a giant's finger, and 3 potato wedges. This was served with a slice of citrus (can't remember which kind). Midway through, I asked my husband if he thought we should add a dish and he nodded vigorously. Called the waiter who suggested the lamb dish. Now lamb is either tough or tender, but more often than not, tough, so I thought not. But the even bigger deciding factor against it was its price: P1300 per order I think. (the dishes we had ordered originally were in the "under P500" range). So I asked for another suggestion, the waiter said the duck flakes were good. Ordered that. This was served in a bowl, like rice toppings. The red rice was under and topped with duck flakes and scrambled egg (which I had chosen over fried so we could more or less share the thing. Had I chosen fried, one might get more of the yolk or white.) Earlier had also ordered an extra bowl of the red rice. Yummy.

Husband found the duck entree a bit odd tasting (he said maybe he wasn't used to duck), but I thought it was all right. In fact he found most of the dishes bland except for the roast chicken, everything was okay with me except for the pasta because of the paucity of clams.

Being a sucker for desserts, when we were done with the main dishes, we decided to order. After all, no matter how full one is, "there's always room for dessert" as one cook show host cum chef says.

Malou was talking to us then so we asked her for suggestions. She said people usually ordered the pecan and the key lime pie. She said their desserts were for sharing. I don't know now whether she meant one dessert only for the 3 of us but I thought of ordering 2. (My apologies to my companions but I completely decided on which to order so that Malou also said "what do they think?" pointing to my husband and best friend. Bad manners ko no?) Anyway, the suggestion of a pecan pie was quickly taken but lime pie, I'm not exactly for sour (she said "tart") desserts so I asked what other suggestions she had. She mentioned the chocolate sans rival, gelato etc. I was about to say "sans rival" but she more or less insisted we should try the lime pie. I looked at husband and friend, they nodded. And I'm glad we listened to Malou.

When the desserts came, the pecan pie looked forbidding. Very dark brown. Dense. The lime pie looked like a young lady, an ingenue - dainty and fresh, inviting, sweet. It was the lightest shade of green, almost light yellow and it looked so soft. Wow, one bite was like heaven -- very cool and just right for the hot summer night. The pecan pie was heavy but it tasted very good too in a graham crust.

Will we go back to Mamou? With its smiling waiters, manager and cook, and the key lime pie, I don't see why not. Oh, but I guess, husband will take some convincing.

The place was full, there was no empty table and everyone seemed to be having a good time. One had to raise one's voice, or at least I did, to be heard in conversation.

Should I make it a habit to rate restos with stars or spoons as others do? Hmmm, that's an idea. Maybe another time.

Or should I start with this?

Okay on a scale of 1 to 5:

Service - 5 spoons
Food - 3 spoons
Dessert - 5 spoons


Suggestions for improvement: improve acoustics, so people can hear their companions in the table without much effort on either the speaker or the listener's part?

A subtitle of Mamou's is "A home kitchen". Malou herself said the resto used her "home recipes".

If my best friend emails me her feedback on Mamou, I shall post it here. Or maybe, you can comment below? I'll also use the pictures she took.

I almost forgot: with the duck dish was served a small dipping saucer containing "betel nut" achara, or pickled betel nut. I asked the waiter, you mean "nga-nga"? (In ilonggo its' mama (accent on the second syllable). he said not, it was something from palay. It so looked like ginger I didn't try it. Neither did my friend. My husband was brave enough to take a portion and said it was bland. That was his favorite word last night.