Good Eats: FILIPINO FOOD!! (Manhattan Area)

We had dinner at CENDRILLON Asian Grill & Merienda Snack Bar (located at 45 Mercer St between Broome and Grand Sts.) last Sunday. If you're looking for steamed white rice with your meal, turn around and hop on the next train to 11th St./1st Avenue or Queens. This is not the place to go to. Here - they dish out Filipino food with some added sophisticated fusion twists, pairing most of their entrees with vegetables. Not that people seem to mind. By 8 PM, the place was packed. Not a single table was vacant. Cendrillon is also well known for its many varieties of Asian teas (I'll try the "Flower Craft Tea" next time). Interestingly, P remarked that they also had some pretty good German beer available on draft - but opted on bottled San Miguel beer anyway. That just shows how good Pinoy stuff is! Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck on the drinks department. The waitress announced that they had ran out of fresh "lambanog" (coconut wine/vodka made from from distilled sap of unopened coconut flowers) hence I settled on Buko (young coconut juice) Martini instead.

We started with 2 orders of Amys Spring Rolls while S tried the Squash Soup with Crab Dumplings. She insisted that she was still full from the corn that she ate at the Street Fair.
For his entree, P had the "Special of the Day": Grilled Whole Sea Bass with some steamed greens and grilled plantain. Who knew his favorite part of the fish was its "cheeks"?I had their Black Rice Paella which had shrimps, scallops, Manila clams and a crab sitting on top of a squid-tinged bed of black rice. As it turned out, the curry-flavored rice was a tad too spicy for S who ate some of the fish and crab dumplings instead. Personally, I liked the selections on their Sunday Brunch menu better and would most probably be back to try it soon.

LINKS:

http://www.cendrillon.com/news.html

http://www.inq7.net/globalnation/sec_fea/2004/may/06-02.htm