Pancit noodles (foreground) are a Filipino staple consisting of stir-fried carrots, onions, yellow peppers and chicken. Chompicao, a simple stew of minced beef spiced with jalapenos, reminded the photographer of sloppy joe. It’s a great cold-weather meal. (photo by cary stemle) |
On the West Coast, Filipino cuisine has emerged as a hot tr/files/storyimages/in recent years, but in Louisville there’s only one option: Edna’s Good Stuff. And Edna’s Good Stuff offers a fine introduction to the food of the Philippines; a visit will almost certainly whet your desire to learn more.
Located in a Jeffersontown strip-mall, the restaurant has the bright, downscale feel of a bootstrap operation. Deep blue walls are adorned with a symmetrical array of mirrors and decorative fans; a TV plays in the corner; strings of blue lights add flickering accents.
The menu includes an assortment of standard American restaurant fare: chicken alfredo ($8.99), a marinated ribeye steak sandwich ($6.75), Southern fried chicken ($8.99) and the like. Side dishes ($.99) include familiar options like baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and corn on the cob. And for those interested in conventional Chinese fare, chicken fried rice ($5.99 lunch; $8.99 dinner), shrimp fried rice ($6.99; $8.99), or orange chicken ($5.99; $8.99) will suit.
But our reason for trekking out to J-Town was the Filipino menu — a dozen or so items that barely scrape the surface of Filipino cuisine. Though seafood plays a central role in the Filipino kitchen, Edna’s focuses on beef and chicken dishes like Filipino steak and onions ($5.99; $8.99), green beans and beef ($5.99; $8.99) and the like.
One afternoon I dropped in for lunch and sampled chompicao ($5.99; $8.99), a splendidly simple stew of minced beef, spiced with jalapenos, and wonderfully moistened with rich juices that soaked into the accompanying rice, making for a fine cold-weather meal. Lunch is an a la carte affair at Edna’s, but portions are reasonable and service was quick, considering that the dish was obviously prepared to order.
In the evening, portions increase and entrees are served with soup, egg rolls and bread. When my wife Mary and I visited for dinner, tamarind soup was on the menu; a zesty, acidic opener, it was based on a rich, beefy broth, chock-full of cabbage, and a big hunk of beef. I loved its sour aromatic bouquet, but it was a bit much for Mary, who isn’t a fan of hot-sour soups.
Our egg rolls, though served with no accompanying sauce, were an unqualified success. Filipino egg rolls, called lumpia, are on the menu as an entree, and if our appetizers were any indication, the entree portion should be a winner. A thick, crunchy wrap enclosed a piping hot filling of vegetables, meat and vivid spicy accents.
The accompanying bread was also a revelation. The golden loaves of enseimada bread were flecked with tell-tale sprinkles of sugar; the airy flesh had the fine texture of a well-made brioche, tender on the tongue.
Chicken adobo ($5.99; $8.99), Mary’s entree, is one of the signature dishes of Filipino cuisine, and Edna’s was superb. Though the name reflects the period when the Philippines were under Spanish/Mexican administration, the dish’s flavor profile is only very tenuously connected to Mexican adobo sauces. In Edna’s version, cubes of chicken breast had been marinated and simmered in a flavorful mix of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and herbs; the tender, moist result made for a delightful, light chicken dish, graced with slivers of raw onion, and served with a generous quantity of steamed rice.
My pancit noodles ($5.99; $8.99) were also fine. A melange of carrots, onions, yellow peppers and chicken had been stir-fried with what seemed a vast quantity of perfectly tender, narrow noodles. Gently savory and warmly satisfying, it was more than I could manage.
Still, I made room for dessert, an order of maja blanca, a remarkable white confection that managed to be both light and dense, sweet but not cloying. The cold white slice was, our server told us, a simple combination of coconut milk, condensed sweet milk and cornstarch. Even sans sauce, it made for a striking finish to an interesting, inexpensive meal.
Now, if Edna’s Good Stuff, which opened last spring, can develop a good customer base, maybe the promise of its limited menu can be expanded to include other elements of Filipino cuisine, and someday in the future we can look forward to lapu-lapu (grouper) or kinilaw, the Filipino version of ceviche (a dish that, based on archeological evidence, is believed to have originated more than a thousand years ago). We can wish, anyway ...
Edna’s Good Stuff is located at 9810 Taylorsville Road. Hours are 11 a.m.–9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Major credit cards are accepted. Smoking is not permitted. The restaurant appears to be completely accessible for people using wheelchairs. Call 267-7500 for more information. You might also ask them about deliveries.
Edna’s Good Stuff
9810 Taylorsville Road
267-7500
Rating: 3
