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Review Mon Apr 09 2007
Filipino Feasting at Cid’s
Recently, I spotted a post on LTHForum about a relatively unknown Filipino place in Niles: Cid’s Ma Mon Luk. According to the post, there used to be about five places called Ma Mon Luk in Manila, all named after a legendary Chinese school teacher who started selling soup on the street to win the hand of a pretty girl. His soup was so good, he eventually opened a restaurant, gained great wealth... and an enduring legend. Yeah, he got the girl, too.
Knowing almost nothing about food of the Philippines, I hastened over to an unprepossessing shopping mall and found Cid’s almost empty on a Saturday night. Apparently, Filipino chow has yet to catch on.
This is somewhat challenging food, and we did have one dish — binagoongang barboy — which we found too unpleasant to eat (it was pretty much chunks of pig fat in what seemed a blood-based broth). That dish, however, was the exception.
My far and away favorite dish was the lechon kawali, a type of roasted pork that’s probably 50/50 meat and fat (i.e., really tasty). “Lechon” is the porcine equivalent of veal, and this delicious young meat hardly requires any help to enjoy, but just in case, Cid’s serves it with traditional liver-based dipping sauce. I had to stop myself from eating my recommended caloric intake for two days in one sitting.
We sucked down a number of unknown sea creatures in a coconut broth as well as in a fajitas-type sizzling platter (shown). There was stuff in there I’d never seen before: parts of blackish squid, what seemed to be octo-parts, and chunks of aquatic beings that I just could not identify. Like I said, this can be challenging chow, but we liked this and just about every other dish we had.
Cid’s seems an excellent place to introduce yourself to food of the Philippines, which is not commonly found in Chicago — just watch out for the binagoongang barboy.
Cid’s Ma Mon Luk
9182 Golf Rd., Niles
847.803.3652
Gino / April 10, 2007 7:39 AM
Filipino food is a little reviewed and emerging asset to the diversity of cuisine in Chicagoland, and I hope someone reviews Little Quiapo, Mom's Bake Shoppe, or the venerable Pampanga's soon. But I'm just curious, David: how is this "challenging chow?"