Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser, Vancouver

No more Spain vacation blog entries for the next little while.  I will fast forward to the week we returned from Spain and for the rest of this week, I will go back to regular programming.  It is like Back To The Future kind of thing, OK?

Before we left for vacation, Rey lent us a great book about Spanish culinary.  It’s called Culinaria Spain — excellent book with lots of pictures of traditional Spanish food.  Our list of Spanish food to try were mostly made up of what we read.  Go on, click on the Amazon link on the left and take a look at the “First Pages” of this book.  He he he … you will see three of the things we blogged about … La Boqueria and Pa Amb Tomaquet.

That book is actually part of an excellent series of books.  If money grew on trees, I would go buy every book in the series. And I had to return that book to Rey.

We decided to meet at Pinpin because we wanted Rey to tell us more about Filipino Cuisine, especially when we had just returned fresh from the vacation in Spain.  You see, Filipino Cuisine had a strong Spanish influence having been a Spanish colony for 400 years.

Pinpin is located on 6113 Fraser Street.  Rey told us that Pinpin is the name of the street in Manila’s Chinatown.  There is another Filipino restaurant in Richmond called Little Ongpin which is also named after a street in Manila’s Chinatown.  Both Pinpin and Little Ongpin are Chinese-Filipino restaurant.  Whew … that means that Rey will not be showing us Balut or Pork Blood Stew.

It appears that Pinpin had just recently expanded and went through a make over.  Rey told us that they used to be on one just shop lot.  The older section of the restaurant still have the cafe look but this newer section looks great.

We did not even look at the menu and left it to the expert to order for us.  Having eaten with Rey before we sort of knew he would order a feast … and he did!  *clap* *clap* *clap*.

Crispy Pata — deep fried pig knuckle.  Meat lovers will surely love this.  I have to admit too … the Chinese Roast Pig (Siew Yook) is nowhere compared to the Filipino Crispy Pata.

What makes it great is the two steps in cooking … it is first boiled and then deep fried.  So what you get is a really soft tender moist meat with an unbelievably crispy skin.

We asked for a small portion for 3 people but still they gave us quite a serving.  This is $9.95.  If we come again, we will surely order this.

The dipping sauce that goes with the Crispy Pata is a mix of soya sauce, chili and garlic.   The next dish is absolutely amazing … More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser, Vancouver (520 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. |
Permalink |
5 comments

Post tags: Filipino, Restaurant Review, Vancouver

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh