In the San Miguel District of Manila, once Manila’s most elegant district, and just around the corner from Malacanang Palace, Lory Vi Valdes had a childhood brimming with family, where aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents lived in a row of six tall, Spanish-style houses on a leafy street. Don Alejandro Legarda and his wife, Dona Ramona, regularly threw lavish dinner parties, and the family flocked willingly to the house for her unsurpassed cooking, no doubt using the interconnecting doors in the garden wall.
Built in 1937 by Dona Filomena Roces Legarda, it was one of the first Art Deco houses in Metro Manila. Today the Legarda’s ancestral home has been converted into a restaurant so that everyone can enjoy Tita Moning’s superb cooking. Her granddaughter, Suzette Montinola runs the kitchen now, using many of her grandmother’s traditional recipes. It began as a simple experiment to immortalize her grandmother’s recipes, and it has evolved into a popular and highly respected fine-dining restaurant. Maintained in all the elegant, sumptuous splendour of its nineteenth century owners, La Cocina de Tita Moning is a living museum to the Legarda family history.
As the sun set, we gathered in the leafy back garden under the fairy lights to sip on iced tea, wine and beer, before taking a tour of the house. Don Alejandro was a gynacologist and a collector, with a real skeleton garnered from the local cemetery, a room full of cameras and another of antique radios. Every room is filled to overflowing with furniture, paintings and ornaments, many dating back over a hundred years: Murano glass centerpieces from Venice; Chinese hand painted crockery, and artwork by Luna and Hidalgo, renowned Filipino painters of the nineteenth century.
As we climbed the highly polished wooden staircase, it was like turning back the
clock to a by-gone era of elaborate elegance. The dining room was magnificent: two long dining tables had been decorated with embroidered red table cloths and scattered with rose petals; our names and the evening’s menu had been handwritten on parchment, and crystal chandeliers twinkled above our heads. Despite being part of a group of almost twenty, there was a lovely sense of intimacy that made everyone feel comfortable and relaxed.
The service was professional and efficient. Suzette, our diminutive hostess in her chef’s apron and a sassy blue and white headscarf, introduced us to her waiting staff many of whom have worked for the Lagardas for years, both centre stage and behind the scene. Leonor Techo, for example, has been the family driver for over half a century. And as far as the Lagarda family is concerned, the staff is as vital and important a part of the business as Tita Moning’s recipes.
Our menu excited everyone’s taste buds. Lory Vi and Suzette had chosen carefully to ensure we got a good sample of Dona Romano’s favourite dishes. The cuisine is Filipino, heavily influenced by Spain, and I have rarely eaten so luxuriously.
A tapas sampler came to the table beautifully presented on a serving plate of cups and glasses: a thick wedge of pork belly sunk into a glass of almond pili milk; a tiny 
teacup of gazpacho with crab and avocado; a dish of rich, shallow fried gambas (prawns) and chorizo with enough succulent oil to wipe the dish clean with the soft bread roll on our side plates.
A serve of pan seared lapu lapu was cooked beautifully in port and red wine demi-glaze, but a little too sweet a sauce to accompany the fish for my taste buds. The Chicken Ballotine, however, was unforgettable. Stuffed with herbs and nuts, this rolled chicken was so moreish, I struggled to get through the Paella Valencia and vegetables served on the side, but as my neighbour preferred the paella we were sharing, no dish felt neglected.
The dessert sampler was magnificent, but as I don’t have a wildly sweet tooth, I flagged a little at this point. A whisper of fresh mango tart and the Sagada orange icecream was sufficient. I could probably have managed a little more of that light, citrusy ice cream, but I had to leave room to test the bread and butter pudding we had watched Suzette create earlier. Fresh ‘American’ bread, spread thickly with salted butter, soaked in milk and punctuated with homemade marmalade, this desert will raise cholesterol levels to the moon and back, but it may just be worth the trip. I am not a huge bread and butter pud fan, but this was something special, topped in a crown of pili nuts dipped in toffee. The bread and milk had turned into thick, creamy custard and was comfort food at its best. It is also La Cucina’s signature dish, and well deserving of the title.
We finished off with a light tarragon tea, the herbs picked fresh from the garden, with a delicate taste of aniseed. ¡Buen apetito! and Tayo’y magsikain.
*Lory Vi Valdes is one of our gracious TourFlair hostesses, and the dinner at La Cocina was a delightful introduction to her family history at the end of a day spent wandering through Malacanang Palace and Intramuros.