Lobster Luglug + More: Chef Jorge Mendez's Pinoy Accent Is a Love Letter to Filipino Food

Pinoy Accent
The Ignacia Place, 62 Sgt. Esguerra Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City
Walk ins only. Visit Pinoy Accent on Instagram for more information
Open Mon-Thurs 5 p.m.-12 a.m., Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5 p.m.-1 a.m., Sun 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5 p.m.-11 p.m.

(SPOT.ph) Many Pinoys will likely still flash a puzzled face when asked to define what Filipino food is—but they’ll recognize it the second they taste it. For Chef Jorge Mendez, it often takes just one ingredient to be able to tell. Much like knowing, even with eyes closed, when a kababayan is in close proximity in a foreign country. A simple overheard syllable can give it away and send a homesick Filipino who hears it pining for home.

This is the idea behind Pinoy Accent, Chef Jorge’s latest restaurant. “I really love Pinoy food for what and how it is,” he tells Spot, “but I want to do something interesting by combining it with international techniques, and tell everyone that with just a single accent, or ingredient, or flavor, it will remind you of Filipino food.”

Which is what happens as soon as you take your first bite of the restaurant's Bopis Ragu (P450), which looks like your ordinary bowl of pasta but offers that unmistakably familiar flavor and texture of bopis, minced beef lungs, beef heart and all. Except this one is creamy because of the fondue and Gouda in the sauce, kind of like sisig with mayonnaise.

And then there’s his Prawn Sarciado (P980) which, if the name didn’t easily give it away, would look more fitted to Chef Jorge’s Some Thai menu, but this is definitely more Pinoy breakfast fare. Grilled tiger prawns sitting on a bed of tomatoey scrambled egg, and served with Pandesal. It’s an adult Jorge version of a breakfast his mother used to cook for him when he was growing up in Montalban, except this latter sarciado would be paired with sinangag or steamed rice, so good it sets young Jorge psyched for another day of school. (Food has always been his mom's love language; Jorge's inaugural menu at Modan was inspired by the Japanese dishes his mom would cook for him back in the day).

This isn’t exactly the first time the chef of Some Thai, Makanai, Mugen Ramenya and Modan is venturing into Filipino food—he’s had Tadeo, after all, the Filipino-Mexican joint that became quite known thanks to its Sinigang Burrito. Tadeo is no more and literally what’s taken over its spot in its QC address is Pinoy Accent, which is Pinoy, yes, but also not entirely. Chef Jorge has employed the techniques he’s learned over the years—from his forays into Italian, Japanese, and Thai cooking—to present familiar homegrown flavors in fresh, surprising renditions.

For example, his Puto Calasiao with Salted Egg (P380), inspired by our practice of pairing little rice cakes with dinuguan, sits on a creamy egg sauce that’s both Singaporean and Filipino—as evidenced by the addition of curry leaves, crab meat, and a drizzle of annato oil. Oh and the Puto Calasiao is ube, too, purple in color and shaped like canelés. They're the stars of what is easily the prettiest plate in the Pinoy Accent menu.

Speaking of annato, the chef’s personal favorite is the Annato Chicken (P650), which we didn’t get to taste but which he describes as “inasal served with tuba sour cream, lemongrass chili garlic or tanglad chimichurri, as well as lemongrass gravy.” The sound of it alone makes us question why he didn’t serve it during the preview, alongside the also absent Wagyu Pansit (P950) and Dry Sinigang (P550), the latter a reimagining of the aforementioned Tadeo favorite Sinigang Burrito. This one is Sinigang rice topped with crispy pork tossed in calamansi honey patis.  Again, a winner just by the sound of it.

But if you ask us what we enjoyed most among the dishes we tried, it’s the Puto Calasiao, the Siomai Nuggets (P350), the Hamachi Kinilaw (P650), and the Lobster Luglug (P1300). The Siomai Nuggets is crispy chicken and shrimp dumplings which comes with a reinvented sawsawan—calamansi sour cream—as well as chili garlic and hibe oil. We imagine it can pair perfectly with any of the bubblies and white wines house sommelier Ian Santos curated for the Pinoy Accent menu. (The restaurant has a loungey, clubby vibe, an implied invitation to peruse the drinks list more frequently.)

The Hamachi Kinilaw is an entry in the three-dish Raw section, and is a little more complex. The smoky aroma of the paitum oil has quite the kick (Jorge is a piyanggang fan), providing another kind of pampagising alongside the cold fish and the frozen sorbet. If you have to pick two starters, we recommend this and the Nuggets. The Lobster Luglug, meanwhile, is topped with real lobster and the noodles drenched in lobster bisque, so yeah that’s a crowd pleaser right there. What drives it back home to Filipino and Luglug territory is the tinapa flakes mixed with the rest of the seafood goodness.

As for the desserts, just order everything. They are, each of them, lovingly made, from the banana bread-inspired Sticky Langka Pudding (P280), which is a warm, moist-but-sturdy cake topped with muscovado toyo ice cream; to the Pastillas Cheesecake (P290); to the Espasol Tres Leches (P250). If you’ve never had espasol in a while, this last one will surely take you back but through a kind of roundabout journey. We remember the flavor, we tell Chef Jorge, but couldn’t quite place it. “That’s how Pinoy Accent works,” he says, laughing.

He goes on to explain how he got the essence of espasol into this Tres Leches—he soaked the still-warm pound cake in an espasol mix made of coconut milk, condensed and evaporated milk, and carabao milk. “But before we mix it we blend  some toasted rice and steep the pudding into the milk, so it tastes like espasol.” There you go.

Chef Jorge says he’s not after reinventing Filipino dishes with this latest in his ever-growing empire; he’s after the diner recognizing what’s Filipino in the food he creates. And not in a literal way either; it’s not a guessing game, just in case you think dinner here will turn into quiz night. It’s about coming up with new ways we can experience what’s always been who we are.

“Dati as a young chef, gusto mo magpasikat in one plate, dami kong nilalagay," he recalls. "Now I find I think more about the soul of the food, the concept, the cohesiveness.” Such a grownup statement for a chef tapping on sweet memories of childhood. “Tumatanda na yata ako,” he ends with a laugh.