TWO RESTOS IN CALIFORNIA MADE ME PROUDLY PINOY
NINO LIM AND KRISTA RANILLO SHOW THEIR CRAB MENTALITY IN SANTA CLARITA
If you ever find yourself coasting along the many Southern California freeways, hop on to the 14N and enter the city of Santa Clarita, which boasts big, brandnew homes and a growing commercial area of popular stores and offices. A welcoming corner of the local commercial center is a sign that is sure to perk up Filipinos: a branch of the Island Pacific Supermarket chain, with a restaurant within its premises that may well already be a popular destination all by itself.
It’s a dining place with the witty name familiar to Filipinos, called Crab Mentality, a frame of mind that you may very well acquire once its bountiful dishes are set before you.
Amid the banter of old friends and happy introductions of new faces, we soon eased into place. We were anticipating a hearty feast of assorted seafood cooked in a variety of pleasantly savory sauces, all reminding us of the flavors of home on the other side of the Pacific.
Crab Mentality is known for its crabs, of course. But they served prawns, clams, oysters, mussels, crawfish, and shrimps, creating a medley of tasty, popular dishes that can give the famed Crustacean Restaurants in Las Vegas and Beverly Hills a run for their money at half the prices.
I focused on the crab submerged in butter, garlic, and pepper until I was stuffed and satisfied. We ate with our hands wrapped in plastic gloves, free to relish the finger-licking good fare while our eyes eagerly chased the new dishes that kept coming to our table and held us captive for more. Even the staple of any expatriated Filipino feast, the trusty classic pancit guisado, held up very well. The sauces that the main food dishes simmered in were given a variety of accompanying ingredients: potatoes, corn, sausages, and various spices. Each meal seemed to be a decadent concoction of the previous, a piece de resistance.
But if you want to have all of the restaurant’s fresh offerings in one go, ask for the Fisherman’s Bounty. Like everything else on the menu, this one competes for the top-ofthe-list position and is a prime palate pleaser, a steal at under $60.00. The rest of the menu costs even less, thus inviting customers of all appetites and budgets.
The restaurant and the supermarket, Santa Clarita’s pride, are owned by the most generous and engaging young couple, Nino Lim and his wife, the former Philippine movie star Krista Ranillo. Krista’s parents, their various Tupaz relatives, and a couple of other Philippine movie celebrities joined our group, adding a definite luster to a most memorable evening.
Matt Ranillo and his wife Linda Tupaz, who heads the planning of the excellent fare, are Krista’s parents. Together with the new manager, former Singapore resident-actress Donita Rose, they made sure everyone was happily well fed.
Famed Couturier for Hollywood and Las Vegas, David Tupaz, and Immigration Officer Tim Evans were entertaining. Meanwhile, through that boisterous melee of hungry gourmands-for-the-evening, I achieved the primary purpose of my trip, which was to reconnect with dear friends Matey Alberto and Naty Pappas.
We were pleased with the perfect food and boisterous company on that one nippy and happy spring night in Santa Clarita, California!