I'm in Manila, Philippines,

and for lunch today I am eating

at a Filipino roadside restaurant.

This is one of the restaurants

that I am most looking forward to eating at.

This place is on the corner of the road.

There's a mechanic's shop kind of surrounding.

It's a great environment,

and the Filipino food they serve here

looks absolutely incredible.

(lively music)

Hello, hello.

What is your name?

- Martina.

- [Mark] Martina.

Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too.

- [Mark] How old are you?

Four.

(sizzling)

(chopping)

Can I have leimpo, two.

There were so many restaurants I was looking forward

to eating at in Manila

but the legendary Aling Sosing's Carinderia,

located on the corner of a neighborhood street,

shaded by a giant mango tree

with an impressive array of Filipino food

was a local spot I couldn't wait to try.

Like most carinderias, or local Filipino food restaurants

in the Philippines, to order,

all you have to do is walk up to the front of the stall,

check out all the glorious dishes in front of you,

and pick and choose whatever you like.

- One tilapia?

- And one tilapia, yes please.

Oh, thank you.

Oh, squid, can I have squid also.

And also this, and also one plate of this one.

Pok med, yes.

Okay, and two rice.

The most challenging part

is not ordering everything you see.

Oh yeah, Mike is looking at all that food.

Michael, look at all that food.

I had read that this was place

would get just absolutely jam packed at lunch time,

so luckily Jing and I came right at 11 a.m.

We arrived here there were tables open

but right now as we sat down

it's completely full,

there no more tables left.

People are gonna start waiting

and it's not even lunchtime yet, it's just 11 a.m.

It is a carinderia-style restaurant.

It's a local Filipino food restaurant,

and you walk up to the front,

they have all of the dishes prepared,

all of the different stews,

and all of the different common, typical Filipino dishes,

and then they also are known for their grilled tilapia,

and they're also known for their inihaw na liempo,

which is the grilled pork belly.

So, this is one of those restaurants

where you could just stand up there

and pick and choose so many dishes,

and it's hard to know when to stop

because you wanna eat it all.

This is also a great time to come to this restaurant

because you see all the dishes are prepared.

And another thing I read about this restaurant

is that they don't recook any more food,

or they don't cook any more dishes,

so once that dish is gone, you're out of luck,

they won't have it again for the rest of the day.

I gotta start with the signature dish

which is their grilled pork.

They have it all in just slabs of pork belly

that they grill like that but then when you order it

they chop it up into bite-sized pieces.

Big bite-sized pieces,

and you can see the, oh, that's the skin right there,

that chewy skin.

Well, I think I'm just gonna go in with my fingers for this.

I want to get a piece for my first bite

that includes all layers of the belly.

Oh yeah, you can see the skin, the fat,

and immediately I can feel the juices coming onto my fingers

when I pick that up.

It's so smokey,

and then the meat is tender

but then the skin is pretty rubbery

but that's all part of the textural experience.

Next up I'm gonna try the fish

but I think I'm gonna make my sauce first

with calamansi and chilis.

I think this might be soy sauce.

I'm going to go for the soy sauce

and then I'm going to add this to my chili bowl.

And then squeeze in the calamansi.

Oh yeah.

This is the sauce of champions,

and then just kind of mash up this chili a little bit.

I'm definitely gonna ask them for some more chilis.

Actually at the front there

they had a whole panful of chilis,

so I think you can maybe go up there

and self-serve yourself.

Alright, that's gonna be perfect for the fish.

Okay, grilled tilapia here.

Oh, that feels nice and soft.

Oh, you can see how juicy it is too there.

Oh, wonderful

and I gotta go in for some of that chili

and that soy sauce and goodness.

Oh, look at that bite.

Oh, no I lost the chili.

The chili fell over.

Okay, I'll scoop that back into my spoon.

Oh, that tilapia is so nice and juicy

and it has a nice smokey flavor,

and then just that simple sauce, the soy sauce

with the citrus-y calamansi,

and the calamansi has a flavor that's,

I think it's somewhere halfway in-between an orange

and a lemon.

Maybe it has like little bit of a sweet tinge to it

compared to a lime or a lemon

but it still has that nice sour, citrus-y flavor.

It's just a simple sauce combination

that you can basically eat with everything.

This is a Filipino dish

that I think it's eggplant, there's okra,

there are long beans, and there's bitter melon as well,

and if I remember correctly

this dish there's some shrimp paste

or some krill paste that gives it its flavor.

So, I will dig into some,

oh, and I think we might have some fried pork in here

that gives it its flavor too.

Put this onto my rice.

Oh, that's awesome.

It has a really nice garlic-y taste to it.

That's really garlic-y and then you have,

I did get a piece of like crispy pork belly

I think in that bite.

And that pumpkin is amazing.

It's not like mushy at all.

It's kind of like, or maybe it's a squash

because it has a very silky texture to it,

rather than being that like

kind of mushy, dry texture.

That's delicious.

I gotta take one more bite of that.

Extraordinary actually, extraordinary.

And I'm gonna follow that with some of this soup.

Oh, wow.

I was actually expecting it to be plainer than that.

Oh, that's really good.

A little bit sour,

and it has a very meaty broth taste to it,

and yet it's not too salty,

and the next dish I ordered is kaldereta,

and this is another well-known Filipino dish

but this is like a stew.

Put this onto my rice.

Let me get a little bit more of that sauce.

Oh, I love that sour taste to it.

Kind of rich, kind of oily stew with a sour taste,

and then that meat is so tender.

That'll be really good with a chili on it.

As soon as you bite into that chili

that's just an eruption of chili.

Oh, that makes, oh yeah,

I'm a little bit of a chili addict

but that tastes really, really good.

And next I've got a squid dish.

Oh, a leaf has fallen into the squid.

Yeah, and I think it's black ink with the squid.

Let me just taste one of the little heads actually.

Put this onto my rice,

and oh, I'm gonna add a little bit more of that squid sauce.

Oh, look at that darkness.

That's very sweet

and a little sour and salty.

It almost tastes like sweet and sour squid.

And then the squid is very tender

but it almost has like, you can sense

that it has like a little bit of rubberiness

underneath the tenderness.

So, how they've cooked it, it's very nice and tender.

- How's the food?

- Awesome, man, very, very good.

We just ordered some of these grilled pork skewers,

pork barbecue.

Oh, look at that.

That looks wonderful.

Okay, let me reach into this pork barbecue.

They've just really packed on the meat

onto this skewer and then there's a piece of fat

at the end here.

Oh, that's right off the grill.

Oh, that is just ridiculously tender

without being too tender.

Oh, and that almost has like a little bit

of a sweet barbecue sauce to it.

We didn't order this at first

bu then Ying said we should order this,

so I'm glad we got it.

The texture of that meat.

Thank you, thank you very much, the food is so good.

Hello.

How are you?

Hello.

Nice to meet you.

What's your name?

- Jason.

- Jason.

- Kaldereta.

- Kaldereta.

- Margherita.

- Margherita.

Nice to meet you, man.

Nice to meet you, man.

(lively music)

Thank you, okay.

Oh yeah.

Now we're talking.

Okay.

Now we can do some serious chili eating.

Oh yes.

- Wanna soup?

- Oh yes, please, thank you.

Oh, hot fresh soup.

Is it beef?

Okay, thank you.

Okay, I gotta take a.

Oh.

Oh, that's so hot.

Oh yeah, it is so rich.

Put some of this over the fish.

Oh yeah.

And a chili.

Oh yeah.

That completes the trio of flavors.

Oh, and that's wonderful.

(talks in foreign language)

- $640.

- Thank you very much.

Sarap.

Lots of people are coming here

for the amazing food

and so we just finished our meal

and then we got up off the table

'cause people were waiting for our table,

so now I'm just standing around

just enjoying the aromas from the food

and from the grill

and just this awesome, awesome atmosphere here in Manila.

And yeah, if you're looking for some properly good

local Filipino food in Manila,

this is a carinderia,

a local Filipino food restaurant

that you don't want to miss.

The grilled dishes are good,

all the different dishes

that you can pick and choose from at the front

are good, the owners are really friendly.