Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

I was looking forward to the Lechon Degustacion at Pepita’s Kitchen.  I never knew that I would be eating so much food.  We ate a total of 15 courses!  Fifteen!  And that included 4 Lechon de leche!  It was too much wonderful food.  I had to stay awake for an hour because I cannot sleep with that state of stomach fullness.

I’m so glad that I attended Pepita’s Kitchen private dinner, or else I’d be drooling when I see or read the experience of the bloggers who went.

I arrived at the venue 7PM sharp.  I was greeted warmly by Dedet, owner of Pepita’s Kitchen.  Then I saw the beautiful arrangement of the dining table.  I was so ready to dive in but I had to wait for my dinner companions.  I was excited already!

I was in total awe with the bread that looked like a mini pig.  It was too cute!  The eyes of this cute lil pig is actually raisins!

The menu was put in each of the plates and there was a pig paper origami too!  I knew right there that we would be having so many lechon that night.  I had to make sure that I have enough space in my tummy for the food overload.

After 30 minutes, we were already complete.  Appetizers started to come in.  I was ecstatic!  Here’s what we had.  My attempt in sharing my experience at Pepita’s Kitchen.  Lechon Degustacion literally!

Appetizers

• Pinoy Pate & Pinoy Caviar with Crackers

The first course was the pinoy pate and pinoy caviar with crackers.  The owner didn’t tell us what comprised the spread yet as they wanted us to guess what they are.  We all made our guesses but we were all wrong! hehehe.

Pinoy Pate (the darker one) – balut & Wine pate.
Pinoy Caviar (the lighter one) – sautéed bihod or fish roe.

The pinoy pate was the clear winner.  I had to save my stomach space for the lechon though 😛

• Balut Salpicao

I love balut but I never dared to eat the chick inside.  However, I love the yellow part and the soup of the balut.  Whenever I saw restaurants putting a different twist to the balut, I ended up disappointed coz they didn’t enhance the natural flavors of the balut but changed it into a different one.  Pepita’s Kitchen’s Balut Salpicao surprised me!  They didn’t compromise the flavors of the balut but enhanced it by cooking it with olive oil and garlic.  It worked for me and I loved it!

• Rellenong Bulaklak

It’s sad that I was only able to eat one piece of Pepita’s Kitchen’s Rellenong Bulaklak.  It was one of the most delicious appetizer I have tried out.  I love that when you hold the toothpick and see the food, it actually looked like a mini-rat (I know I have weird imagination hehe:P).  What was it really?  The Rellenong bulaklak is pumpkin flower stuffed with native cheese & bagoong.  Truly unique but truly yummy!

Main Course: LECHON!

The star of the night was the Lechon!  Oink oink!

Pepita’s Kitchen’s Lechon has been available for quite some time but it was my first time to try it out.  Actually, their concept is so unique!  Imagine stuffing lechon with rice, mushrooms, meat and other food items.  I never thought it was possible!

The lechon was pugon-baked.  I still can’t figure out how Pepita’s Kitchen stuff the lechon.  It’s a big mystery to me.

What the heck, the lechon looked soooo good!  In spite of wanting to try out the lechon as soon as possible, I have to take at least one good picture with the lechon.

Stuffed Lechon is Pepita’s Kitchen’s style.  They made several variants of it.  There’s the Pinoy lechon, Chinese lechon, German lechon, French lechon, Hawaiian lechon and British lechon.  We tried out four of those lechon.  I can say that as of now, it’s the most unique and most delicious lechon I have eaten!

With Pepita’s Lechon de Leche, we are actually eating 2 meals in one — Lechon + international stuffing!

If I’m to describe the lechon, I can say that the skin was super crunchy, there wasn’t too much fat in the lechon plus the meat was so tender and most importantly, flavors were soooooo good!

Have a party planned soon?  I highly suggest you order the German lechon from Pepita’s Kitchen.  You won’t regret it!  You and your guests will have an awesome time sampling the dish for sure! 🙂  There are 2 sizes available for Pepita’s Lechon de Leche.  Depending on the number of guests you have, you can order either 7kg or the 12kg.

• Pinoy Lechon

This is most probably the deadliest combination ever!  Sisig and lechon but noone can ever resist this.  According to the owner, their Pinoy lechon is one of the best sellers.  That’s enough proof right?  Deadly but ooohh sooooo good! *burp*

• German Lechon

I never thought that I would prefer this over the other international stuffing.  German lechon is the only one without rice.  Instead of rice, Pepita’s Kitchen put potatoes.  Other ingredients were herbs and garlic.  I love the combination of flavors of the German lechon.  While the other lechon variants had the stuffing overpowering the lechon, this one made it clear that the lechon is still king!

• Chinese Lechon

Machang is a famous Chinese delicacy.  Pepita’s Chinese lechon has that machang inside!  The ingredients that put it all together in the stuffing were the herbs, chestnuts and mushrooms.  If you love chestnuts, you will love this lechon de leche chinese style.

• French Lechon

Most of us loved the German lechon but some of my dinner mates preferred this French Lechon.  This was our finale lechon.  I guess I was too full already that I couldn’t eat more of it.  This French lechon is stuffed with truffle rice.

Other Courses (Palate Cleansers, Side Dishes)

• Calamansi Sorbet

I’m a big fan of sherbet.  So this was a great way to take in between eating different international lechon.  I was starting to have too much of the lechon that I needed the break.  Good thing there was the Calamansi Sorbet 😀

• Sabachara

Banana is not my favorite fruit.  Achara is not a side dish that I’d like as well.  However, the unique combination of banana and achara works like a charm!  I never thought that 2 items that I don’t usually take individually would make me wanna eat over and over when combined.  This was a definite winner in my book!  I love how the dish was named too! — Sabachara (Saba + Achara).

• Pinoy Carbonara

Oh we couldn’t get enough of lechon!  Even the pasta has to have chicharon in it.  This pinoy-inspired carbonara is made of pasta, mushroom cheese sauce and chicharon.  We truly had a Lechon overload!

• Cholesterol Sweeper

We’ve eaten so much lechon!  I totally consciously tried to forget my diet.  It’s a good thing that Pepita’s Kitchen had something ready for us to sweep off the cholesterol from all the lechon goodness we’ve taken.  It’s called Cholesterol Sweeper and it’s a shot of an oatmeal!  If you know champorado, it tasted like it.

• Darna’s Surprise

It was a big surprise indeed as the name implied.  We were all pleasantly shocked at how good the shot is.  Darna’s surprise was created by the owner’s beautiful daughter.  She has a potential!  Imagine a cute teenager making such a beautiful alcoholic mix drink.  I must admit I don’t drink alcohol and I’m not a fan of cream but when I tasted Darna’s Surprise, I didn’t even feel the alcohol a bit and the cream was perfect!  We shall say it’s Pepita’s Kitchen’s version of butterbeer.

Desserts

• Pinoy Ice Cream

It was my first time to try out guava ice cream (which is one of the 2 flavors served to us).  However, I couldn’t help but rave about it.  The ice cream was so heavenly!  The taste of the fruit really came out in the ice cream.  It was so pure!

The pastillas ice cream was good too!  Similar to the guava flavor, the ice cream stayed true to its taste.  The pastillas ice cream was sweet and delicious.  Next time I crave for pastillas, I might go for the ice cream type instead.

• Dayap Cheesecake

I noticed that the desserts served to us are Filipino-inspired.  I wondered what famous Filipino ingredient would be used in the cheesecake.  Then I learned that the cheesecake was Dayap Cheesecake.  Dayap is our native lime.  I love the light flavors of the dayap which gives the cheesecake a refreshing taste.

Whew!!!  Each one of us surely tagged this dinner as one of the most memorable dinners ever!  How can we ever forget eating 4 different lechon plus 11 other courses in one sitting?  Thank you so much Pepita’s Kitchen!  I was practically sharing this experience with friends and colleagues the day after haha!

Pepita’s Kitchen will be offering private dining soon.  If I recall correctly, Dedet said that it’ll be ready in a month or so.  For now, they are accepting orders for lechon.  They do delivery as well through City Delivery.

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Pepita’s Kitchen
Magallanes, Makati City, Philippines
(02) 425-4605, +639178660662
pepitaskitchen@gmail.com

It’s always nice to try out new restaurants.  I’m just so glad that I took the time to attend the intimate dinner arranged by the newest group buying site in town, Brieo Deals.

Big Bad Wolf, a new restaurant in Fort Bonifacio is Brieo Deals’ first client and I am so blessed to be part of the few bloggers invited to sample their unique dishes.

Neil Paras, Ponch Del Rosario, and Mac Cunanan are the young entrepreneurs behind Big Bad Wolf.  They are high school buddies who had the vision of bringing us their favorite food in a place that we can consider as home away from home.  That was how Big Bad Wolf is born.

Since the location is a bit hidden, we can truly consider the restaurant as our secret place.  However, how can a restaurant that has good ambiance and yummy food be kept from the world?  Even if they are still on dry run, the place was fully packed last saturday night.

Big Bad Wolf is like a mini bar/restaurant where several groups of friends love to hang out.  I noticed everyone was enjoying all the food and drinks they ordered.  It’s really a fun place! 😀

The interiors are awesome too!  I found it astounding that the owners are a bit sentimental.  Several of the things in Big Bad Wolf are actually personal belongings of the 3 owners!  Wow!  The brown couch (see picture below) has been in the room of one of the owners but he took it to the restaurant to give it a homey and comfortable theme.

See the Brieo deals team sitting comfortably in the picture below.  I interrupted them for a few seconds and asked them to smile for the camera.  We have to thank them for featuring Big Bad Wolf as it’s really a good foodie discovery.  I’ll provide more detail of the deal later on in this post.

I prefer the couches but for bigger groups, you can opt to stay at the table near the entrance.  I also have to commend the great customer service that Big Bad Wolf has.  I was bugging the waiters to take pictures of us hehehe 😛  I appreciate them having to wait for us to take pictures of the food before they get it back to the kitchen to split it into 2 plates.  Since we were a group of more than 10, we have to split some of the dishes into two.

As I write this post, I noticed that we tried almost all the dishes being served at Big Bad Wolf.  Each of the dish has a certain twist and I felt that each recipe was made to perfection.  The owners were actually asking for our feedback every time we taste a dish.  I saw the eagerness to receive feedback and I’m sure they’ll put it into heart.

Drinks

• Malongo Coffee (Php 100)

Most of the drinks offered in Big Bad Wolf are alcoholic drinks.  Since I don’t drink, I didn’t bother trying.  There’s one item though that I really wanted to order.  That’s Malongo coffee.

There are 5 types of Malongo Coffee.  The waiter went to our table and presented to me the box full of coffee packs and asked me to choose which one I’d like to get.  Each type of Malongo Coffee has a different level of strength, acidity and bitterness.  I’ve chosen the Colombia Supremo where there’s only 2/5 strength, 3/5 acidity and 1/5 bitterness.  I love that the coffee wasn’t strong and there’s a fruity aroma to it.  I’m not a coffee lover but this was a good drink for me that night.

Little Plates

I saw this cute lil bottle at each of the tables of Big Bad Wolf.  I was curious so I took a closer look.  Then I found out that the bottle was written with all the appetizers the restaurant is serving.  They call it the Little Plates.

If you can still recall, I promised that I’d be sharing with you the deal that Brieo is offering.  It’s related to Big Bad Wolf’s Little Plates.  For just Php 566, you can sample all 5 Little Plates from Big Bad Wolf (that’s 45% off the original price of Php 1,030!).  I already have a voucher with me and I’ll surely bring my friends to enjoy the food with me soon.  I highly recommend that you get this limited time deal from Brieo Deals as you only have till sunday to purchase!  As of this writing, there are only 137 vouchers left.  So head on over to Brieo Deals site and get this beautiful deal! 🙂  You won’t regret it, I promise!

Here’s Big Bad Wolf’s Little Plates for your reference:

• Fresh Tuna Wraps with Wasabi Mayo (Php 220)

I’m not a fan of raw food so I only took a bite of this dish.  My companions loved this dish though.  Bea was even excited when she saw the dish being served to us.  I loved the presentation and how this appetizer was made.  A generous amount of fresh tuna was wrapped with lettuce then sprinkled with wasabi and mayo sauce.  I’m sure Japanese sushi lovers will like this dish.

• Honey-Soy Glazed Chicken Wings (Php 170)

There are 2 dishes from the Little Plates Menu that I loved.  One of them is the honey-soy glazed chicken wings.  I love the crispiness of the skin plus the very tender meat inside.  The salad compliments the chicken very well too!

• Potato Skins with Boursin Dip (Php 120)

Another favorite of mine is the potato skin.  I love that they sliced the potato so thinly.  I didn’t dip the skins into the sauce as I enjoyed the dish better without it.  For your information though, the sauce was a combination of cream cheese, butter and garlic.

• Bacon-Wrapped Dates (Php 280)

I’m not sure what item was inside the bacon but it was sweet (Dates I guess, hence the name, right? haha!).  It’s a great contrast of taste as bacon is a bit on the salty side.  The presentation was very unique too as the bacon roll was garnished with lettuce and bread.

• Goat Cheese & Chorizo Rolls (Php 240)

This dish looked like a spring roll but surprise, it’s not a vegetarian roll.  Since Big Bad Wolf serves comfort food, how can you expect all veggies in a dish? hehehe!  The main ingredients are actually goat cheese and chorizo.  How unique, right?

Light Meal

We had to try out Big Bad Wolf’s specialty…

• Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup (Php 230)

It’s a simple dish but it was a definite winner among Big Bad Wolf diners.  It’s basically white bread with gruyere (cheese) slightly toasted and served with tomato sauce.  So I thought, what would be the secret?  It’ll most probably be the honey and butter put into the bread or maybe the gruyere is just perfect for the dish.

 Pasta

• Poached Egg Carbonara (Php 270)

To be clear, that’s not the actual serving of the dish.  We asked the waiters to split into 2 so imagine having more of that when you order.  This poached egg carbonara is how the owner who created the recipe of this dish described as a reconstructed carbonara.  It’s mainly because the egg was put as a topping rather than mixed in the pasta.  Ingredients include Pancetta, poached egg, parmesan flakes, butter and truffle oil.

• Chorizo Spaghetti (Php 220)

I really love chorizo.  It doesn’t matter if you put it in rice or pasta, it taste just as delicious!  Chorizo just gives so much flavors to a dish.  For Big Bad Wolf’s Chorizo spaghetti, other ingredients were shitake mushrooms, olives and sundried tomatoes.

Main Dishes

• Peppered Chuck Steak (Php 490)

As soon as the steak was served to us, the owners warned us of its spiciness.  I don’t mind eating spicy dishes.  I actually like spicy food a lot!  Oh well, it’s good that we know what to expect when we sample the dish.  It does look like burger patties but it is actually a real steak.  The steak was marinated with pepper so you can definitely feel the strong flavors of the pepper.

• Santol-smoked Pork Belly with Dirty Rice (Php 300)

There were too many dishes to try out.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to taste this dish 🙁  It does looked delish though.

• Dorado Fillet Wrapped in Bacon (Php 350)

A lot of people consider bacon as their comfort food.  I believe it’s really genius that Big Bad Wolf created a fish dish with bacon.  This beautifully-presented dish has Mahi-mahi wrapped in bacon then served with pasta in Pommery Mustard Sauce.  If I have to order a main dish from Big Bad Wolf, I will order this.

It was a pretty long dinner.  We were there almost all night from 7pm to past midnight!  I guess we enjoyed the chit-chats especially since I was with my beautiful friend, Bea 😀  We both agreed to bring our friends to Big Bad Wolf so they can try out the yummy food we sampled at the restaurant.  I’ll be using the voucher I got from Brieo.  I suggest you get one too as only a few vouchers are left to purchase!

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Big Bad Wolf
G/F Fairways Tower, 5th Ave. Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Metro Manila, Philippines
(02) 822-5833