Dining | No Need To Go Tagaytay For a Bulalo Tripping
Bulalo is a beef dish from the Philippines and it is a light colored soup thats made from cooking beef bones or shanks with marrow bones until the collagen and fat has melted into the clear broth. A specialty dish south of Luzon, maybe have originated from the same area as well. The area having a huge number of cows, this is the reason why people tend to think this is where the dish started from.
Tagaytay and in some parts of Batangas (south of Luzon) has these dishes lined up. People in Manila often drive 4 to 5 hours away just to get a taste of this salty beefy stew, me included. There are bulalo shops also in the metro but those are nothing compared to those being served in these areas.
Fret no more urbanites, we found one that is comparable in taste and serving size in Mandaluyong City. The restaurant is called R and J Bulalohan. Simple name also means simple cooking which makes their bulalo exceptional. Their Bulalo special easily fed my family of 5 and my kids (big ones) I have to fight off just to take pictures first of this dish. When it was served to us, we can already smell the great tasting aroma of the broth. So that's why it was difficult for this writer to stave off the hungry ones from me wanting to take photos of it.
Now smell wise, it was very inviting. A very big check on that one. Now serving wise, it came in a big bowl with lots of broth and with a big chunk of cabbage. yes a big chunk of cabbage. It was almost the size of the beef shank it came in and that shank was huge as my forearm. HUGE.
Meatwise, it had ample serving to feed 5 of us. I purposely left the brain or the brain marrow itself. Remember we have a big beef shank here, inside its huge cavern, you can see the marrow that's so huge that I remembered my age right away. Although my doctor told me I was in pink of health, I dissuaded myself from taking in that much of a marrow. I gave this to my kids with a sad face. I was happy after when I saw their faces when they ate it. Still a joyous moment for me.
Price wise, the Bulalo Special only costs Php369. What? Just Php369? Yes, I know, its cheaper than the Bulalo I took home from Tagaytay which costed me Php450 back then. Serving size was the same yet cheaper. Want to know how this is more cheaper than what we already know? We didn't travel all the way to Tagaytay or Batangas. We have saved the money from the tolls and gasoline expenses we didn't take. What a great deal.
This restaurant is located along the main road of Mandaluyong, Boni Avenue, and is near the circle near the Mandaluyong City Hall. A better landmark would be, they are opposite to that of Chowking.
If their bulalo is exceptional, this greatness might have the same effect on their other dishes as well (I hope). So for more information about them, you may visit their facebook presence here
