Photo by Katherine Hook

Most Asian food that scores high on my cultural accuracy index comes with varying degrees of intimidation. Some of it, like Japanese fugu, carries a real life or death risk, although most of it falls into the same category as duck feet where you might not be able to wrap your mind around it, but it won’t hurt you a bit. If you want to walk the highest angst level path through Asian cuisine I would suggest a Filipino adventure or two. In this world, don’t ask, don’t tell is probably the best policy regarding ingredients unless you’re gastronomically masochistic. There is a way to test the waters of Filipino food without Fear Factor consequences though by sticking with one of the most popular and varied Filipino dishes, pancit.

If there is one overriding truth about Filipino cuisine it would be diversity. The country is spread all over the western Pacific from Indonesia all the way up to Taiwan and consists of over 7000 islands. With that much separation between population centers and with as much visitation as the various islands received from trade ships, there is a real tangle of cultural influence. In a country that has 175 plus languages you have to figure that meals get fixed a bunch of different ways, even though they would start with very similar ingredients. All that means is that when a restaurant gets labeled Filipino, it really does not tell you all that much about what’s for dinner.

Pancit is a candidate for national dish status and so it enjoys the benefits of all that diversity. It could be considered as comfort food or as convenience food, and it is prepared in a myriad of ways. Its foundation is from the Chinese noodle culture where the etymology of the name works out to something along the lines of “quick, cheap and easy.” My most recent pancit indulgence came suitably in a food court of a Vietnamese strip center (Viet Hoa International) on the southbound side of West Sam Houston. Jonathan’s Grill features Kapampangan style preparations and while their menu is somewhat limited now, they plan on moving into a bigger space and expanding the menu dramatically.

Photo by Katherine Hook

Jonathan’s builds pancit palabok which is a subtype of pancit luglug. The luglug label is an onomatopoeic reference to the sound of plunging the bamboo steamer full of rice noodles into boiling water. That leaves many different preparations of pancit open to being accurately tabbed luglug. Their palabok has a foundation of rice noodle smothered in a thick day-glo orange shrimp based sauce. The sauce is then adorned with crumbled crispy chicharrons as well as chopped scallion tops and that is decorated with slices of hardboiled egg. Served with thick toast it definitely worked as both a comfort and convenience food for me. My dining partner went for their BBQ pork skewers with a side of pickled papaya and rice, which she found excellent. Eerily appropriate, even though we chose very tame options from the Filipino wheel of epicurean fortune, Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods was entertaining the dining area from a jumbo flat screen as we enjoyed our lunch.

The girls working the counter recognized novices immediately and quite charmingly advised us on all the various options Jonathan has to offer. It was easily the most engaging and helpful walk up service I have seen anywhere. Of all their suggestions I am most grateful for dessert. It looked like a large glazed egg roll but was actually more like a fried pie. They called them banana fritters but gave me the actual name turon when I pressed a little. Stuffed with banana and jack fruit they were sweet enough for a pleasant finish without overdoing it. Perhaps with a bit of guilt, I’d go back just for those.Photo by Katherine Hook: Banana fritter, outstanding!

I pass by Jonathan’s frequently, although tucked into the food court I was unaware of its existence. Now that I know I’ll be back for more pancit and who knows what else.