Meet the 'ambassador of Filipino food' in Mississauga and try the halo-halo
Carinderia by DFlores is located at 980 Eglinton Ave. E. in Mississauga
Following the advice of a long-time friend to seek out the "ambassador of Filipino food in Mississauga," I found myself at a small strip mall close to Pearson airport.
Carinderia by DFlores is Dolly Flores's love song to the cuisine and culture of Manila.
"Carinderia means food stall, and with this place I try to inject my love and nostalgia for the traditional foods of the Philippines," she said.
Flores's establishment brings the hustle and bustle of Pinoy Street and packages it in a restaurant.
"I wanted to mix the two. The street food of carinderia and the traditional at-home plates."
If you've eaten your way through the various markets in and around Manila, you'll notice some familiar elements. There's an express hot counter to the side with no more than a dozen types of meat and vegetarian stirfries and stews.
If you're in a rush, grab a plate of rice, top it with Filipino sweet pork sausage (silog), some grilled eggplant, skewers of chicken or beef and a spring roll or two.
The express counter is merely a tease for what Flores is trying to do with her restaurant. The large menu on the wall divulges more of the house specialties. This is where you'll find more regional dishes like the small fried snack plates (pulutan), grill plates served with garlic rice, and merienda-style dishes.
"Merienda means in between. These are dishes that we would have in between meals. Filipinos are known for eating all day," Flores said.
What keeps me going back to Flores's restaurant is the care that goes into the dishes that are prepared. Even with something like the arroz caldo, a comforting "merienda" soup that is surprisingly enjoyed as a snack. Thick like congee, it is rice that is slow cooked for hours and finished with your choice of chicken, beef tripe or tofu.
My favourite version is arroz caldo topped with crisped pork belly, where the pork adds a palatable crunch to the creamy, thick soup.
There's the liempo grill box which has become a recent favourite. Soy sauce marinated pork is grilled to char and then served with garlic rice, and is accompanied by sugar cane vinegar and green papaya atchara.
With the marinade there's a butter-like quality to the meat; the vinegar helps cut through the fat, bringing a little acidity. The papaya atchara rounds out the picture, bringing tropical fruit and a formidable amount of pepper heat to the plate.
I found out later on that the grill boxes are popular among travellers who will leave the airport for a quick meal and then go back to catch their connecting flight.
"We get many Filipinos in transit here. We're only 11 minutes from Pearson," Flores said.
She explained that when she was designing her restaurant, she wanted to dedicate a section to halo-halo.
"Just like in the carinderias I wanted to have our own little halo-halo stand," she said.
The iconic Filipino dessert has been in the spotlight for the last few years. For a few reasons, it is a photo-friendly dish of shaved ice stacked with no less than a dozen colourful ingredients of all shapes and sizes.
After your meal, walk over to the halo-halo counter and ask for one. Flores layers a cup with two types of beans, fruit jelly, pandan jelly, preserved banana.
Then a mound of ice is placed on top, followed by a chunk of ube halaya (ube slowly cooked until it becomes spreadable), a lobe of leche flan (crème caramel but with more egg), slivers of jack fruit and coconut.
Flores's halo-halo is far superior to any version you'll find elsewhere. Here's why: most restaurants that feature halo-halo may make some of the ingredients for the iced dessert, but inevitably some of the beans and jellies are store bought. At Carinderia by DFlores, each ingredient is made weekly in house.
"It's a lot of work, because there are over a dozen ingredients. But you can really taste the difference." Flores said.
The difference is a sense of freshness and a lack of syrup sweetness. Flores's halo-halo is refreshing with a plethora of textures from the flan to the beans.
"When I think of this, I immediately think of summer in the Philippines."
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