Lucena and its Homemade Flavour
The local food scene in Lucena City has been in an upswing lately. Over the last two or three years, we have seen a rise to these several start-up restaurants owned and being run by no less than Lucenahins or Quezonian food lovers themselves.
These rather homegrown food destinations, amidst the sprawling fast food commercial outlets that have been growing in the city are an appetizing addition to the already familiar local household names that we have known and grown to love over the years.
Lucenahins are natural foodies – we are a group of people who find simple pleasure in bonding over a good meal; our conversations come alive while munching our very own Peking Chami; we catch up with our balikbayans over a homemade recipe of Bubbles’ Crispy Pata; our stories ring with laughter while stuffing ourselves with our favourite flavour of pizza from Ground Zero; a delectable treat of inexpensive cakes and pastries, and thirst-quenching juices and frappes in a number of cozy cafes in town are enough to make our nights complete.
We do not hold our annual week-long merrymaking Pasayahan Festival for others not to tell that we are obviously just easy to please people. Our laidback nature makes the words of the famous adage hold true for us – that the way to our hearts, and yes, our smiles is through our bellies.
Villa Javierto’s Catalino’s Restaurant — reminiscent of the old days, everything inside this place takes you back in time.
Now, with the recent birth of more of these several locally-owned restaurants, the menu is just about to get longer. Crafted in their own unique, stylish themed-interiors, the new entrants (at least the ones I have been to) to the growing food menu very much remind me of the famous Maginhawa food strip in Quezon City, where I used to live just a few blocks away.
As someone who loved to lounge her time away in fancy, artsy-looking coffee shops and restaurants in Manila, it delighted me to come back to my hometown three months ago and find the place in a newfound vibrancy. The new go-to dining locations such as Signorina Erlinda in Brgy.Iyam, Café Maceo Maceo along Enverga Street in Brgy. III, The Café Quay Resto in Abellanosa Street, Café Jungle and Ma Jo Kitchen Story along Diversion Road, the revamped Luisa & Daughter and Catalino’s Restaurant in Brgy. Gulang-Gulang to name a few are all keeping local restaurant goers abuzz, full, and satisfied.
Cafe Quay’s cozy interior makes for a perfect ‘first date’ experience. The house specialty is its burger that features a black bun.
There is also the seemingly emerging small food district in Pleasantville Subdivision where a few residential owners are re-shaping their neighbourhood, turning their houses’ gardens and garages into charming, quaint bistros. These have served, for a while now, as perfect dining retreats for hungry taste buds in search for some fresh and modern food binge experience.
The celebrated success of the restaurant business in the city gives a revitalizing taste to the city’s culinary tourism that remained bland in the latter half of the 2000s. It is refreshing to see that the once dark, empty spaces are slowly becoming adorable, lighted dining nooks suitable for hearty conversations with family and friends, or a much-needed, solitary ‘me’ time. Giving new flavour to some of the most popular dishes in Filipino and Asian cuisine, our homegrown cooks easily put Lucena in a desirable position in Quezon’s food map as an instant food trip destination for locals, balikbayans, and even our neighbours from nearby towns.
It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the city of Lucena gleaming once again with our very own restaurant entrepreneurs and chefs in the spotlight. This growing business provides our local cooks an opportunity to showcase their craft, and local practitioners in the food sector to find a sustainable career in their line of expertise.
The groups of families and friends dining happily at Ma Jo Kitchen Story just make these pictures on the wall more real.
Gifted with our very own port and fishing villages, and an abundant supply of locally-produced poultry and meat products, there is no telling as to why proudly homemade restaurants and cafes cannot thrive here. In this age of ‘selfies’ and ‘groupies’, word of mouth advertising is easy as a walk in the park. Plus, the continuing patronage of a native customer base only adds to the friendliness of the market toward this industry.
To keeping our nights younger and our hearts full, I say, we continue to support this rising trend for it to carry on in the next several years.As our attitude toward life must be, we are taste buds that cannot be completely satisfied – hungry is what we will and should always be.
Philippine Peso