BEAN AND YOLK
Bean and Yolk hones in on the sublime pleasures of the lowly yet essential egg.
Eggs. We all have a story about them. It’s impossible not to. Scrambled eggs was one of the rst things we all learned to cook as children, and have yet to perfect as adults. We all have our favorite kinds too: sunny side up for breakfast and the nighttime “balut.” Gigantic ostrich shells or tiny beads of Beluga. Sarsi mixed with a couple of egg yolks is supposedly tasty, and an excellent energy boost. Eggs are irresistible. Eggs are delightfully bright. And depending on your disposition, it can be a rich and decadent cooking ingredient or a very healthy and lling diet essential. Everyone loves eggs, and that’s why a small restaurant on Polaris St. in Makati has gained a growing following, in just a matter of weeks.
Bean and Yolk is a passion project of a young married couple with unique nicknames that, come to think of it, would actually make a pretty cool restaurant name too: Chukoy and Papo. Chukoy is a businessman, and a rst cousin to the Jorolans who own Pampanga’s most iconic restaurant, Everybody’s Café. Papo is a former PAL ight attendant, who loved everything about her favorite destination,
— including the all-day great coffee and terrific eggs brunch places in that city by the bay. Those became the inspirations for Bean and Yolk.
But they knew that passion alone wouldn’t see their project through. So they consulted two very highly regarded F&B professionals: one of the country’s foremost coffee experts, Jonathan Choi of Magnum Opus, helped them with the beans, and Chef Ed Bugia of Pino and Backyard fame, took care of the yolks. The team’s output exceeded even their most optimistic expectations; the reviews have been so good, that there’s now a clamor from B&Y fans to have the restaurant open on Sundays. After all, that’s the most perfect day for a long, lazy brunch.
But I like dropping in during work week afternoons, when the café catches its breath after the lunch rush and before the dinner crowds. It’s the best time to quietly enjoy my favorite on the menu, the Lucy sandwich, named after the owners’ six year old daughter. It’s built around a 5-minute egg, one where the yolk has set, but still golden and translucent and soft and succulent. It’s mixed up with the egg whites, cut in large chunks, slathered with a sriracha dressing and chives, topped with arugula, and served in a homemade brioche. It’s absolutely the best egg salad I’ve ever had. I pair it with the B&Y Mocha, a brew of Yellow Bourbon beans from Brazil and 65% Malagos chocolate from Davao. I take a bite, take a sip, and just like that, I’m transported to Darling Harbour. My next cup, inevitably, has to be a foamy flat white.
There are seven more egg-centric sandwiches on the menu — fried, poached, scrambled, even devilled. Each has its own loyalists. I’m slowly working my way through all the beans and yolks on the menu, and more and more, whenever I’m in the restaurant, I see the same faces that have since become familiar and friendly. Sunny and beaming faces, all loving the fact that at this restaurant, eggs just aren’t for breakfast or brunch anymore.