Cabalen comes home to Pampanga

Mark Twain might as well have been talking about the modern-day buffet when he said, "Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside."

That’s good advice to take when confronted by a buffet spread of over 40 dishes. Take advantage of the diversity, let the food stay in your mouth to savor its every flavor, hear the crunchy echo of vegetables being chewed, feel the texture of the feast.

Food, after all, like scent, brings us back to a place we want to be in. We instinctively turn to food when we need comfort, when we want to remember an event, when we want to nourish our bodies.

Best of all, some foods take us back home. No human memory is complete without food. We remember some events – good or bad – with a recollection of what we ate. That in part is what the Cabalen experience is all about. It takes some people back to the time when they were beginning to acquire their tastes, and takes some people to a place they had never been before.

The Kapampangan specialty restaurant Cabalen grew its roots in Pampanga, a province passionate about food. Owner and president Maritel O. Nievera has had this love affair with Kapampangan food ever since she was a child growing up in Pampanga. "When I was growing up in the province, we would have numerous fiestas during which we would walk from one house to another to eat and share in the celebration."

She was so in love with the province and the provincial way of life that when she reached college-age, she refused to study in Manila against her mother’s wishes. "I was happy with my life in Pampanga," she says. "I saw no need for me to go to Manila.

But she did, of course. She opened her first Cabalen restaurant on West Avenue. The rest, as they say, is restaurant history. Fifteen years, three children, seven company-owned branches and two more franchised outlets later, she is back in Pampanga. Just last month, Cabalen in Robinsons Starmills opened. It took long in coming but it was well worth the wait.

"In our Metro Manila restaurants, we would always be asked by Kapampangan diners when we would open in Pampanga," Maritel says. "Actually we had plans of opening a stand-alone Cabalen as early as 1991, and then Mt. Pinatubo erupted so the plan was shelved. I really cried when Pinatubo happened because I saw how my province mates were suffering. So we decided to concentrate on providing relief goods to those affected by the eruption and the succeeding, unceasing damage that the lahar flows brought. That’s how Cabalen Para sa Kabataan was born." Maritel’s pet project brings basic needs to far-flung barangays every year and contributes to charitable organizations that focus on helping Pampanga’s depressed barangays.

Today, Cabalen has come home to a province back on its feet and there isn’t a happier event for Maritel. "With the opening of Cabalen in Pampanga, Kampampangans don’t have to come to Manila anymore to experience the restaurant," she says.

Like all Cabalen branches, the Starmills branch offers the same feast of Kapampangan food. All-time, all-branch favorites like kare-kare, kaldereta, bulalo, adobong camaru, hito with burong hipon, pako salad, bopis, lechong bangus belly, dinuguan, asadong dila, sinigang na salmon, lumpiang ubod, inihaw na bangus, burong mustasa, aliggue mangga, bistek bangus, chicaron lechon, sisig, ginataang kuhol, inihaw na tuna and gindara, pancit, adobo, pancit. For dessert, there are the Kapampangan favorites such as tibok-tibok which is made of gatas ng kalabaw, halo-halo, ube, ginataan. Many more comprise its 40-plus selections.

The difference with the Starmills branch is that it has a younger look than the traditional design of Manila’s Cabalen restaurants. There are not much details or accessories. Instead, wooden furniture and white and glass walls surround the diners. Unlike other branches, there won’t be the usual mural behind the buffet counter – Manny Baldemor’s Christmas scene in the Blue Ridge branch and Robby Mananquil’s in the SM City branch. Instead, a large mirror will be placed behind the counter.

Maritel’s eldest son Ian Tiongson, who is the franchising and business development manager of the company, explains this change. He says the restaurant is reaching out to the younger set, not just families. "What we noticed in the Glorietta branch, where the design and the furnishings look young, is that we have a large young crowd there as well. Cabalen right now is more for families rather than the dating crowd, but we want to capture that market as well because we have a lot to offer them."

There are many things that make a business successful. It’s no secret, however, that Maritel Nievera learned these early in life. "I saw how hard my mother worked," she says. "This might explain why I am also very close to my grandmother. They were both mother and father to me. I saw how my mother never wanted to make us feel the hardships in life, yet we were all witness to it. She always impressed upon us the value of work and perseverance."

Ian also saw for himself the value his mother put into the business. A graduate of Human Resources Development of La Salle University, Ian went straight to work for the family company as soon as he finished college. He did the rounds in the different departments, from marketing to operations to human resources. He also got a much earlier training. "We were still young when we would practice waiting on tables, cashiering and dishwashing," he says.

He also had his share of difficult and name-dropping customers, which is why he understands how it is to be in the shoes of a waiter. "I guess it makes you more empathetic, you’re sensitive to their needs. I know for a fact that there are customers who cannot be pleased whatever you do and that you cannot argue with them. I also know that waiters sometimes make mistakes; it’s human nature. It’s not easy being a waiter when a restaurant is so busy."

He says Maritel never really lectured him on the do’s and don’ts of good business. He simply had to watch her at work. "My mom is very hands-on, she’s into the details of the work. She wants to make sure that everything is smooth. She taught me how to delegate properly and how to manage people to get the tasks done. Early on, I also had my own department to handle without her supervision."

If Ian is into the business side of things, it’s Maritel’s second son Adji Tiongson who is the cook among the three siblings (the youngest being Frances). From high school, Adji studied for two years at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, where he learned cooking and baking, and restaurant management. Like Ian, Adji also waited on tables in a restaurant in Chicago. Curiously enough, he has fond memories of his days as a waiter.

Adji is in the Cabalen product development team. It goes without saying that his memories of growing up with his mom are mostly of his disastrous early attempts to cook. "When we were young, Ian and I would try to bake cakes from scratch. We would follow the instructions from the cookbooks and yet we were never able to finish one." Today, the two brothers consult each other on Cabalen matters – Ian to Adji on food and Adji to Ian on operations. They have outgrown the childhood fights, they say, grinning. "Oh, yeah, we used to do boxing!"

Like Maritel, Adji seems content with living and leaving his mark in Pampanga. He wants to open a Japanese restaurant in San Fernando, along the Gapan-Olongapo highway, the same stretch of road where his mom opened her first restaurant.

It seems it’s not just a restaurant that Maritel Nievera is bringing back home.