My first Time at Mang Jimmy's

E had long wanted to bring me to this ‘kainan’ at Balara. He is a graduate of UP Diliman so he knew the nooks and places where to eat at that area. The only place I am familiar with at UP Diliman is The Chocolate Kiss Café. When one of my close friends from college, Joanne, transferred to UPD from UP Manila, Zarah and I would occasionally visit her. We would spend hours at Chocolate Kiss, enjoying their iced tea, chicken fingers, taco salad and varieties of cake. I definitely miss those times. When I am with E, we would usually eat at Rodic’s then have isaw at Mang Larry’s and for more binging have balut at the Shopping Center. We have also tried Chateau Verde, where I also love the food.

Last Saturday, after attending mass, we headed to the ‘kainan’ that E has been telling me. As I found out, it was Mang Jimmy’s – a place which I know was famous for it’s eat all you kanin even before Tokyo Tokyo introduced that concept. I was really excited since it was my first time to eat at the really famous kainan ng lutong bahay.

The place has a typical carinderia setting. They have monoblock chairs and tables were set up on what I assume was the front part of the house. There were no tiled floors. The place was busy with students chatting and other young people who were perhaps graduates of the university already.

Once we were seated, we were immediately served with plates, glasses and a small bowl with calamansi and siling labuyo (chili pepper) as well as with the menu. I noticed that they have a limited variety of food and mostly were sizzling dishes. E explained that they have a promo wherein if you order three dishes, you get one dish free. We originally ordered sizzling pusit (squid), sisig, lechon kawali and bulalo. They didn’t have bulalo so we opted for beef with young corn. The sizzling pusit and beef with young corn were served first. I noticed that both dishes were topped with a white sauce. I am not sure what it was made of but it was not creamy. Both dishes did not taste good. The beef was tough and it was hard for us to slice through the meat. At first taste, the pusit tasted fine but somehow as I had more of it, I did not like the taste anymore. To add flavor to what I was eating, I was adding more of the toyomansi we made. We already finished the plate of rice which was served to us. We were waiting for the sisig to be served to somehow redeem those two dishes. When the sisig was served, it did not look like the typical sisig that we usually have at other restos. It looked dark and so I assumed it had too much soy sauce. When I had a taste of the sisig, I though that it was not made from the pig’s face but rather just that of the pig’s ears. I told E that I did not find the food delicious. I was also hoping that they’d have more lutong bahay dishes and not limited to those cooked sizzling. E said that it had changed a lot since his college days. He remembered that the space then was not that cramped and the food was more delicious. He said that perhaps they have expanded the place to accommodate more people eating there. I prefer eating at Rodic’s. The visit was really quite disappointing for me.

Mang Jimmy was there and we were able to have a shot with him. Mang Jimmy, san na yung 'good food' everyone was raving about?