Mangan Tamu Or let’s eat at the newest Kapampangan resto

There is no other word in Kapampangan that is as overused as the word "mangan" (to eat). You wake up in the morning and ask, "Nanung oras tamu mangan?" (What time are we eating?) or "Mengan na ka?" (Have you eaten?) By the time you finish reading the papers, you’re asking again, "Nanung pamangan queng paugtuan?" (What are we having for lunch?) And while having dinner, you could be inviting a friend, "Mangan tamu" (Let’s eat).

Mangan, mengan, mamangan, pamangan. No matter how you conjugate it as a verb or use it as a noun – the root word is mangan. It is the first word to learn if you are to survive in the Kapampangan-speaking provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac. (The next word to learn is alí, which means "no," if you want to fend off more offers of food. Otherwise, you will be needing a bigger-sized wardrobe if you spend even just a summer in Pampanga.)

The Kapampangans’ reputation for good food – whether they’re cooking it or eating it – is well deserved. Theirs is a history rich in fiestas. Family bonds are tightened over food, fences mended over servings of bringhe and kare-kare, and friendships cemented by the time you’re having a dessert of maja blanca.

So the opening of the restaurant Mangan at the Padre Faura wing of Robinsons Place in Ermita, Manila, is a welcome event. Mangan brings the best of Kapampangan cuisine to a city already teeming with regional restaurants, but it doesn’t take the beaten path. Instead, Mangan holds its own among restaurants marketed to a younger audience as well as those to families.

Dyed-in-the-wool Kapampangans Maritel Nievera and Ricco Ocampo have collaborated with Rikki Dee for Mangan. Maritel is the dynamic owner of Cabalen restaurant, Ricco has the Anonymous chain and Black Shop for retail and is co-owner of Kitchen with partner Rikki Dee, who also has Chin’s Empress and other fast food chains.

At first glance, the restaurant looks anything but a Kapampangan specialty restaurant. The interiors are a far cry from the usual native restaurants with thatch roof accents. Designed by Ricco Ocampo, Mangan’s look is cosmopolitan and contemporary. The walls are whitewashed, the tables are white, the sofas are white. Even the aircon ducts in the ceiling are covered in white. The only other dominant color is silver – in the frames, metal chairs and the huge light dome above the tables in the middle.

According to Ricco Ocampo, the design is a send-up of the rich Kapampangans of yesteryear. "If you notice, the sofas against the walls are wrapped in plastic," he says with a laugh. We also noticed the plastic lace-like placemats underneath the glass on the tables – a very provincial touch.

Contemporary the overall effect may be, but Mangan still clings to traditional and provincial ideas of aesthetics. Even the choices of china and glassware reflects provincial taste.

First, you have the common feature in Filipino homes – pictures of every member of the family lining up the walls – wearing togas and mortarboards, weddings, baptismals, and, heaven forbid we forget, the diplomas.

Mangan’s version of this comes as portraits in elaborate silver frames. Painted by Robby Mananquil, the portraits lining up the walls are of famous historical and contemporary personalities from Emilio Aguinaldo to Nora Aunor, Jose Rizal to Elizabeth Ramsey, Cory Aquino to Imelda Marcos. And representing Juan de la Cruz is a doe-eyed boy with red cheeks who is actually Ricco’s youngest son Emilio. The portraits are hung behind a curtain of transparent plastic. Perhaps to emphasize the penchant for wrapping in plastic everything that is deemed valuable? Or to protect them from dust? Whatever it is, it is a nice touch that literally and figuratively adds another layer of element to the restaurant.

Mangan’s dishes may be familiar to non-Kapampangans, but there are still some that may take them totally by surprise. Partner Rikki Dee, according to Rico, finds Kapampangan dishes "heavily influenced by Spanish cooking. Malasa and malinamnam – even without using MSG. Rather, the taste is perfected from the way it is cooked."

It was Ricco and Maritel who worked together on the menu. Ricco explains, "Maritel and I have known each other for 10 years and been close friends for the last five. When we were doing the menu, we wanted to go back to the foods we grew up with, the Kapampangan comfort foods. Like the sinigang. In Kapampangan cooking, this has to be really sour, much more than the Tagalog style. With kare-kare, we don’t use tripe, we use cow’s tail. But being a semi-vegetarian (he eats fish), my favorite are the vegetables and soups."

Speaking of soup, the Kapampangan version of monggo does not include whole monggo; instead they are ground after being boiled. As for the halo-halo, Mangan’s version is the traditional Guagua (a town in Pampanga) halo-halo, which has only three ingredients – banana, leche flan and macapuno – and uses finer-shaved ice.

According to Ricco, one of the considerations of putting together the menu was the price points. They wanted something that would cater to all markets. Indeed, a meal at Mangan is like a trip to the province for an inexpensive, home-cooked meal.

The menu is divided into several categories. First is the Espesyal ning Bale (house specialties) with bibingka (P75), puto bumbong; merienda items such as seafood pancit luglog (P70), sotanghon guisado (P65) okoy (P65), tidatad at puto (that’s dinuguan for you! P70). Don’t miss the pandesal panini for only P50 to P60. Then there’s the famous tapang damulag (or tapa ng kalabaw, P150), tinapang bangus (P120), and longganisa chicken (P120).

Another menu selection is "Im-bento," where the customer gets a basic rice, soup of the day, atachara, pickled camias and burong mustasa and his choice of any two items from the meat, seafood, vegetable and grilled dishes. We tried the lagat hito with alagao (P45), which is sautéed with tomatoes and onions – a dish that isn’t as common as you’d think in Filipino restaurants. Gatang sigarillas with bagoong (P35) got an enthusiastic thumbs-up from my eating companion. Adobong baboy at manok (P45) is cooked without the usual soy sauce, although Kapampangan households are actually divided in that regarded – to put toyo or not to put toyo. Umba (P50) is similar to pata tim, kind of sweet tasting and the meat being very tender. Lagat ampalaya (P40) is surprisingly good even to those who hate the bitter taste of ampalaya.

Ricco says traditional Filipino fare is already a hands-down favorite of Filipino families but not so much of the younger crowd. Mangan hopes to change that. With spanking contemporary interiors that the younger set can relate to and appreciate – or even need – Mangan helps them rediscover their native cuisine.

Ricco puts it this way: "Instead of going to a foreign coffee bar, why not rediscover your roots?"