Honolulu Weekly

In spite of a large Filipino population in Hawai’i, advertisements for Filipino restaurants compared to other Asian restaurants (at least in English-language media) are few, far and between. It was a challenge to find out where a good Filipino restaurant could be. Eventually, inquiries led to a neighborhood Filipino restaurant in Wahiawa: Marilou’s. It was a pleasant surprise. Locals who grew up in Wahiawa have fond memories of the place for comforting Sunday family meals as kids, some dating far back as 20 years ago.

Marilou’s has been in the same spot for 20 years and to this day, has a steady flow of loyal customers. As you enter the restaurant, time slows down. The feeling is as if it was a diner on Route 66 straight from a Steinbeck’s novel. The restaurant has only nine booths (each capable of seating four) and a modest decor, but don’t let either be the judgment for the foods served here.

The allure of traditional Filipino cooking lies in the braising of meats-slow cooked for several hours to release the flavors. When a protein is heated or fermented, it breaks down to smaller units called amino acids. The smaller amino acids become small enough of a size for your taste buds to notice the flavor. The more combinations of different amino acids released in a pot over time from slow cooking tough meats and connective tissues, the more flavorful the dish becomes. Filipino dishes achieve this by simmering meats in a pot for hours with addition of acidic ingredients like tomato, tamarind or vinegar plus seasonings. The acidic ingredients also help in the break down of the proteins. As a result, Filipino cooking ends up with a flavorful pot through broken down proteins, vegetables and seasonings.

In addition to the flavors coming from the long simmered meats in Filipino cooking, rendered fat from pork (the meat of choice) or other meats in the pot brings in what is called a pleasant ‘mouth feel’ in the food sciences. The fat becomes the carrier for flavors but also delivers another dimension of the feel good sensation in the mouth i.e. ’savory flavors’ in Filipino cooking.

Furthermore, there is the long grain steamed rice drawing out the flavors to the next level up. One breaks down proteins into amino acid components for flavors and fat from the simmered meat to bring savory flavor in Filipino cooking. But to really take in Filipino food to its heights is to take a spoonful or two of the broth, cooked meat and vegetables over the steamed rice. The combination of savory flavor plus rice introduces you to the pinnacle of Filipino flavor no other Asian cuisines can compete with. How does this work? The combination of rice and savory flavor plus fat when chewed, creates a channel of savory slurry and actually ‘bathes’ your taste buds. Comfort food, anyone?

Two lunch/dinner combos ordered from the easy format menu. Each plate ($7.60) came with 4 items of your choice. The first four choices on the plate were: Pinapaitan (beef tripe & intestines cooked in bile) with rich broth came in a small bowl; pinakbet (a ’soup’ with long green beans, few pieces of lechon-crispy fried pork, bitter melon, egg, plant and tomatoes); dinguanan (pork cubes cooked in pork blood aka chocolate meat-but nothing is chocolatey about the dish except the color. The taste bore a striking resemblance to the French blood sausage boudin noir and the Korean blood sausage soon-dae; the last item, squid guisado, had sauteed garlic, ginger, tomato, and vinegar. It was good, but lacked the squid ink accompanying the squid. If there was any ink in the cooking, it was very faint.

The second lunch/dinner combo plate came with the following 4 choices. Pork guisantes (this one had pork strips with peas and potato); Pork adobo (pork cooked in vinegar, garlic and oil where sour flavor gently permeates the flavor on the tender pork); mungo beans (cooked mashed mung beans-the head of bean sprouts with a slab of pork); and pork menudo (diced pork cooked with tomato). All items on the combo plates were savory.

Marilou’s kare kare ($7.95), oxtail braised in peanut sauce accompanied by bagoong, a salty fermented shrimp dipping sauce. ‘Heavenly taste’ would be the apt expression for it. The fish sinigang ($7.69), a tamarind based sour fish soup with tomato and green peppers came with bangus (aka milkfish). This freshwater fish had a surprising natural fat flavor and texture akin to a mackerel, a saltwater fish. The shrimp sarciado ($7.95) came with an ‘egg gravy,’ a technique used in Italian (pasta sauces) and Chinese cooking (shrimp or lobster in black bean sauce) to thicken the sauce in lieu of starch. The flavor of tomato, garlic and onions on the whole shrimp was subtle and superb. All the dishes at Marilou’s gave that wonderful great savory flavor over and over again, each dish offering different flavor dimensions.

For dessert, the banana lumpia (three pieces for $3) turned out to be just a standard banana lumpia; and leche flan ($2), slightly lumpy but neither overly sweet nor soft. But the halo halo ($4), a Filipino shaved ice came in a saimin bowl size.

Marilou’s is the place to go for a real comforting home-cooked Filipino food. This is the only restaurant whenever the name is mentioned, fans of the restaurant have an immediate Pavlovian response of salivating. Something must be good. Prices range around $7.35 to $8.50 on dishes and others are well under $10. Each dish ordered is accompanied by five- to six scoops of steamed long grain rice. The price is excellent, the food is excellent and the cooking conveys the message from the cook, ‘this is what I enjoy, I would like to share it with you.’ what more could one ask for? Perhaps a larger stomach capacity? 

Walter Rhee conducts ‘A Cook’s Tour of Chinatown’ and ‘Taste of Chinatown Eateries’ every Saturday. Contact 391-1550 for reservations.