Tags: Exotic Food, Food Establishments, Truly Pinoy Food and Drinks
By KC Santos
SAN FERNANDO, PAMPANGA- If you’re craving for betute, buro and the all-time favorite sisig, this roadside carinderia fits the bill.
Located along Lazatin Boulevard, Cely’s Carinderia is considered an institution among locals as a go-to place for authentic native cuisine.
In fact, it’s that peculiar quality in their dishes and service that keeps people coming back to Pampanga.
During our recent roadtrip, we stopped by for a quick lunch on our way to Angeles City. I chatted with Michael Soriano, whose mother Arcelie (thus the name Cely’s) started her food business way back 1968, putting up a small food stall in the Angeles public market.
“We got used to seeing and doing that everyday. Growing up, we learned the ropes and now, we’re just really continuing what she started,” says Michael, who put up the current restaurant in Lazatin in mid-2000 in memory of her mother, who passed away 18 years ago.
His mother’s signature dishes remain and Michael said they make an effort to improve on these recipes but not straying too far from what locals have gotten used to.
Any given day, the turo-turo style carinderia serves 45 different dishes – including the adobong kamaru (stewed crickets), and betute tugak (stuffed frog).
“Being repulsed at first is part of the entire experience. That’s when you know that you’re challenged and that it’s only in trying it that you can overcome that,” Michael tells me, referring to these exotic dishes.
“Customers would often say it’s really tasty and more flavorful that what we would normally compare these dishes to.”
For a first-timer, the taste of their adobong kamaru I found quite interesting. A mouthful of insects would seem scary for some but being sautéed and seasoned gave it an earthy, almost tangy twinge to the tongue. I wished it was crispier but the experience of eating crickets was well worth it.
Everything else in the menu were all too familiar like the buro and ginataang puso ng saging but were no less of a treat, especially to a fan of traditional Filipino food who would go for lutong bahay over fast food everyday.
“If there’s one thing we value here, it’s that we make our service very personal,” says Michael. As the Kapampangans would say, “Mangan Tana!”.
Get more information in Cely’s Carinderia
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