A friend of mine told me about this new place that serves Bicolano dishes. That was a couple of months back and I said I’m going to visit the place. But because the conversation went on between buckets of my favorite beer, I forgot about the plan of trying out the place. If only my friend mentioned the place serves one of my favorite food in the whole wide universe, Kinalas, I would’ve paid the bill and left the bar we were at and transferred to Spicy Tongue located at Timog Ave., corner Scout Tuazon.
 |
| Photo from their Facebook Page. |
What is Kinalas and what makes it special? Kinalas is a mami version of the Bicolanos. Actually, it’s a better version of mami. They are made of fresh noodles (preferably pancit loglog), a very flavorful broth, thick savory sauce and meat pieces from a cow or pork’s head. The broth is made to perfection by boiling the cow or pork’s head. And it’s better if served with siling labuyo (native chilies). If you want to read on about Kinalas, visit this link.
The nonstop rain this past weekend triggered a sudden craving for a hot soup. I was thinking of trying out a noodle place that was featured in Yahoo Philippines a week ago. But deep inside, I know that a bowl of steaming Kinalas will be perfect for the weather. So I searched the web and try my luck if there’s indeed a place here in Metro Manila that serve Kinalas. After reading blog posts I decided to visit the Kinalas Facebook Page I “liked” months ago and there I found in one of the uploaded picture, a map of Spicy Tongue. And I suddenly remembered my friend telling me he did tried different Bicolano dishes in that place. Without second thought, I asked a friend of mine to drop by the place later that night.
Spicy Tongue is located at the corner of Timog and Scout Tuazon, Quezon City, which is a 10 minutes ride from my place. They open around 6:00 PM, I’m not sure what time they close but that night (Sunday), they close around 1:00 AM. Spicy Tongue’s version of Kinalas, though not par with Cha Kamot’s, Tiya Cely’s or Kinalas Twins’ standard (those from Naga City will surely agree that these 3 places are the best), did not disappoint my expectations. The moment the bowl was served, I knew that it is the real deal. The familiar taste of the broth and sauce proved that it is indeed made from someone that knows how to cook one. One thing that I noticed is that they are using a different kind of noodles (certainly not Pancit loglog). But the broth and sauce surely satisfied my taste. A major plus was it was served with siling labuyo, not those long chilis served at carinderias around the Metro.
 |
| Perfect on a cold weather with a bottle of beer. |
Funny thing is that my friend told me that a good indicator of having a good bowl of Kinalas is when sweat forms and drizzle on your forehead, which I completely agreed with. We both experienced that familiar feeling of satisfaction after eating a good bowl of our favorite noodle dish.
Spicy Tongue also serve other Bicolano dishes like laing, kinunot, Bicol express, baduya, etc. and other Filipino dish. They serve beer by buckets or below zero and usual pulutan like sisig, chicharong bulaklak, etc.
If you happen to try Spicy Tongue’s Kinalas, please don’t hesitate to hit the comment button.
