(Chicago) – It is fairly typical nowadays to find restaurants offering fusion cuisines with Asian dishes. But the word “Asian”, in most cases, refers only to Chinese, Japanese, Thai or Vietnamese. There are very few attempts to fuse with Filipino food. Coobah is one of those bold restaurants in Chi-town that presents Latino dishes with distinct Filipino flair. To see traces of Philippine gastronomic terms, like “lumpia” and “Bicol” in their menu, thrills me highly and at same time, arouses my curiosity on how creative the chef is, in incorporating Filipino taste in their Latino-packaged dishes.
My friends and I paid a visit to Coobah one Saturday night to celebrate my birthday. The place is small and yet the ambience is festive and very Latino with terracotta mortar walls, oversized light fixtures and moss-green epoxy floor. Overall, the feel is very comfortable but the streaming Latino music is almost noisy, distractive but pardonable, since my party is much louder after a few pitchers of Sangria. Good times!
The food is very impressive. Chef Jimmy Madla should be commended for ingeniously mixing Filipino flavors in some of the dishes. The crispy “lumpia” with longaniza stuffing is scrumptious and the pork tenderloin Bicol is exceptional.
Pork Tenderloin Bicol – Lean pork tenderloin stuffed with shrimp, bacon, coconut and pineapple served with jasmine rice, seasonal vegetables and peppery adobo glaze
Short ribs with crispy polenta and habanero foam.
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3423 N Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 528-2220
www.coobah.com
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