**** Chibugan has closed
Back in August I did a short post, noting that Eddels inside of Vinh Hung Market had changed ownership and was now named Chibugan. I recently finally got around to visiting Chibugan.
I did notice that the place had been cleaned-up a bit. Doors had been installed in the interior entrance, and the place has been painted a bright orange.
This place is a typical"turo-turo" (steam table) joint, featuring items like Pork and Chicken "BBQ", and a few desserts. Another big difference is the woman who works the front counter, who is a bit different from the the previous staff who were friendly and loquacious. She's more quiet and serious, and perhaps a bit more cautious. Not good or bad, just different.
The two item combo, with steamed rice rings in at $5.99. the portions aren't "Tita's sized" but are adequate.
Looking over the steam-table I made my choices, which ended up being pretty predictable. Sisig was one of choices of course.
For me, this wasn't a very pleasant Sisig. First, as you can clearly see, there was a ton of ginger, which overwhelmed most of the flavors, in a dish that's usually packed with sour, salty, and spicy notes. Second, the pork was much too waxy, and in this type of Sisig, I'd have enjoyed having some crisp pork skin which would have added a nice one-two crunch with the onions. The Sisig was also ice cold, which made it seem much more greasy.
The second item was something that I'd strangely never had before, Goat Adobo (Adobong Kambing):
This was pretty good, the chunks of goat was moist and tender. There was a hint of black pepper, but it didn't over-power the dish. In fact, this was pretty low on the salty-scale for Adobo, but not in a bad way. I did enjoy it.
Which gave me enough reason to return. The woman working the front counter, saw me entering, and told me "today this is the goat dish" while pointing at one of the trays. She had remembered me….. I guess I'm now the "goat guy".
Kaldereta was what she was pointing to. Which was one of the items I got.
This was a pretty mediocre version of Kaldereta; there were mostly bones in what I got, almost no meat. The goat flavor was too mild, and with the huge amount of tomato used to flavor this dish, it was almost like eating bony Filipino Menudo. Which was kind of a bummer, since I paired this with…… yes Menudo.
Fairly mediocre as well; fairly bland, an adjective I rarely use when describing Filipino dishes. The meat was dry and tasteless……. in fact just about the only thing that stood out in this dish was pervading taste of tomato sauce.
I did enjoy the Goat Adobo, but the other dishes really did nothing to inspire me to return. I'd say that Chibugan is a cut above Olga's and Ed's, but perhaps a notch below Manila Fast Food and Desserts and R & B.
Chibugan
10550 Camino Ruiz (In Vinh Hung Supermarket)
San Diego, CA 92126