Among the essentials that a traveler packs for his trip is the hope and eventual joy of discovering the spirit—perhaps even the heart—of his destination. It is for such a discovery that he brings along rechargeable batteries, massive storage capacity memory cards, maybe even a sketch pad. Seldom is one place imbued with this heart, this spirit. Abaseria is one such place.Lalai Lava didn’t plan on being a restaurateur, she is a jet–setter and jewelry and furniture designer aside from being ilaw ng tahanan. Cooking and culinary experimentation is a hobby, an outlet of hers. Being that, she had a kitchen built into the showroom of her office. Atop her teak and narra tables lay everything from table runners to intricately silver-worked jewelry boxes, which later had to give way to guests as important as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) delegates. The long table was originally meant for staff meetings, but now serves the purpose of public dining.
Abaseria is especially known for their Tamales, a labor-intensive recipe which takes a whole day to make. Theirs is a family recipe gleaned from Lalai’s grandaunt Osang Bernardo who used to prepare them for visiting family. Tamales is a known Mexican dish made with flavored masa dough. While others like their dough plain, Lalai makes hers with pork and peanuts. The Mexican version uses dried corn husks; Lalai wraps her Tamales with the ubiquitous banana leaves.
Abaseria’s cuisine also takes inspiration from her frequent travels. Lalai’s jewelry-exporting business has her participating in trade shows worldwide. To her, cooking is a lot like jewelry making where she combines elements to form something new and exciting.
Born from these travels is another Lalai specialty, the Hunan Crab Dish. Hunan cuisine is akin to Szechwan cooking where fiery spices are used as flavoring. Aside from tailor-fitting the menu to her customers’ needs (and budget), Lalai also advocates healthy eating and infuses Abaseria with kosher vegetable dishes like baked okra.
When you check out Abaseria, don’t expect a restaurant-looking place. There are stacks and stacks of herby smoked herring, hard-to-find local civet coffee, etc. Because of the owner’s well-honed instinct for both quality and food, anything she stocks on her shelves are of the best quality possible unlike the hit-and-miss delicacy shopping offered at the groceries. In another corner are export-quality knickknacks from capiz jewelry boxes to picture frames and such. They had wooden kitchenware, too, and racks and racks of fashion jewelry. Much of the original jewelry and furniture showroom is still there, but Lalai somehow managed to incorporate a Filipino-fusion restaurant into it. Abaseria gets my vote for best place to take foreign guests to as their first foray into Filipino culture.
Abaseria Deli & Restaurant
39-B Pres. Roxas St. Kasambagan
Villa Aurora, Mabolo City
Tel. No. (032) 412 4196
Fax No. (032) 234 4160
Email: abaseria@yahoo.com.ph
Massive thanks to Benjie Ordoñez for the photos.
