Laguna's Kanin Club for Crispy Liempo and Aligue Rice

First, let me share with you that I'm writing this while doing intermittent fasting, meaning I eat only within eight hours a day, which ended at 3 pm, and now five hours have passed. I'm feeling quite lightheaded, but I need to shoulder on, since I've been remiss with this blog, and to make up for weeks of no posts I'm sharing with you a wonderful dinner we had at the Sta. Rosa branch of Kanin Club.

I've heard of this Filipino casual dining chain before, but I haven't tried it, until a colleague suddenly had an urge to eat it's version of crispy dinuguan. It took us quite a few missed turns before we found the branch at Nuvali, and was I glad it was teeming with people. A packed restaurant is always a good sign.

For starters, we tried the bacon-cut liempo that tastes like freshly popped chicharon. It goes well with the rich aligue rice and you could cut the richness when dipped in spicy sauce.

"the crispy liempo-light and crunchy belly strips ready for dipping in three kinds of sauces"

"aligue rice--fried rice sauteed in crab fat"

The liempo-aligue rice combo for me was already a winner. Definitely this is one reason I'd be back

To appease the craving of my officemate, we ordered the crispy dinuguan. It was interesting texturally, reminding me of the version we tasted at La Preciosa.  I love the sour, salty, and crunch mix.

"crispy dinuguan--pork deep-fried to a crisp then set in a semi-dry stew of pork blood"

We also ordered the seafood karekare, which was rich and flavorful, even without the accompanying shrimp paste. The squid (always a fave!) was buttery-smooth, and the sauce was made with real peanuts.

"seafood kare-kare--squid, muscles, shrimp, and vegetables cooked in peanut/anatto sauce"

If you're one big group craving for flavorful Filipino dishes, Kanin Club is for you.

Kanin Club
Paseo de Sta. Rosa
Sta. Rosa, Laguna
(+63) 049 544-0332