BF Homes' Kumba Gives Us New, Inspired Ways to Dig Into Familiar Flavors

Kumba 
92 Aguirre Avenue, BF Homes, Parañaque City
0995-106-2879
Instagram: www.instagram.com/kumbaph
Open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

(SPOT.ph) The food scene along Aguirre Street in BF Homes, Parañaque, always seems to be in a state of flux. There are so many places that seem to be on to something—places that one has gotten to know and love—but suddenly disappear for one reason or another. Sometimes its sad, but that is the food biz for you. So to be able to stand stong for a long time, to build a foundation, and be part of the fabric of your area, that is quite a feat. 

If you ask me, one person who is synonymous with Aguirre is Chef Tina Legarda. You may know her from her long-standing Bamba Bistro—a cozy restaurant inside a house along Aguirre that has been serving her highly creative takes on comfort food to a very loyal clientele for quite some time. It is as clear as day: more than her excellent cooking, I really think the good chef’s superpower is empathy. 

This is certainly in full display at her second baby, Kumba, just down the road from Bamba. Kumba, which is derived for the tagalog word “mapagkumbaba”, means to be humble, and down-to-earth. Chef Tina takes these values and wears them on her sleeve for all to see and feel: Kumba is a representation of her love for what she does on a plate. Hearing her tell her stories, you can feel her gratitude for just being able to be in that space, and that always translates to good eats. 

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Kumba at BF Homes, Parañaque

Here’s another little secret of Legarda: her creativity hardly knows any bounds, and because of that she always has tonnes of ideas in her head, waiting to be executed as a dish… which, of course, is a difficult proposition. After all, you still want to be grounded and clear about which direction you are going. 

Kumba helps solve this problem—it is her dive into more things local, as well as Asian inflected. That is the main driver of her menu. A little bit o’ Thai, a little Japanese, a touch of Chinese and Filipino—all wrapped up in the cooking language she developed for herself, and mastered. At Kumba she makes comfort food with a lot going on under the hood. 

As a resident who also plies her trade in the area, she knows the neighborhood like the back of her hand. She knows who will visit her, the vicinity of where they live, and the proclivities of their dining habits. This is a laid-back zone, where one can dine in shorts and tsinelas without the fear of feeling underdressed. While diners are adventurous to some extent, they will still gravitate towards familiar flavors. It is this point that Legarda is already a master of. Her food shows that she knows the Filipino palate very well—and her deft added touches to her food is her pixie dust. 

You will find a lot of old friends—fried rice, garlic, chorizo, bone marrow—dotting the menu, used strategically to enhance her dishes into the realm of Legarda. Take, for example, their Unagi Kabayaki (P695). Its traditional iteration (of eel that's split, skewered, brushed with a soy-based sauce, and grilled) is a perennial favorite for its sweet savory flavor profile that is easy to love. At Kumba, Legarda sits it atop shiitake- and bacon-studded fried rice, and pairs it with roasted bone marrow topped with whipped scallions. The move: scoop some of that marrow to mix into the fried rice, and eat with the unagi. Decadent, very Pinoy, and quite delightful. She doesn’t play around here. The Garlic Porkchop (P650) is an ode to a DLSU joint she would frequent in her school days, that served good old breaded pork and rice. Her take: she studs her pork chop with cooked garlic and serves it with a curry sauce and mango chutney. Sweet, savory, garlic.. You get the picture. I wasn’t sure about it til I tried it but was once again proven wrong. 

After reading all this, you may be wondering if all her food is so big and bombastic. I am happy to report that there are a lot of lighter yet equally flavorful options for those who wish to just want a nibble or are ahem watching their girlish figure. 

The Grilled Broccoli Salad (P395)—always good idea!—is tossed with dates, anchovies, orange, cashes and a bleu cheese tzatziki. Delicious. A chef’s special dish, cheekily called P.S. I’m Vegan (P640), pairs grilled eggplant with bananas in a “pineapple express” curry like sauce, Asian romesco, and scallion rice. Amidst all this food, this was my absolute favorite, driven by her flavorful sauces with i happily mopped up with… pieces of garlic pork chops.Trust me, you may wind up doing the same thing. And that is exactly what she wants you to do. Enjoy it your way. 

By no means is this any kind of “Michelin star” type eating. And she knows it. To be honest, I think that’s what makes it all so genius. It is cooking coming from the depths of her creative soul that was created with the express intention of simply spreading joy. One would think that that should always be the case, but well…. Not these days, if we’re to be honest. And to be able to step into rooms like this to eat this kind of food is downright refreshing. 

The trait of mapagkumbaba in her shows her humility and her gratitude at continuously being allowed to practice her craft, and her appreciation for those that go out of their way to partake of it. A beautiful story for a restaurant that embodies having a sense of place. 

This is the way.

Photos by Hans Fausto