Cilantro: Flavors of Vietnam, Iloilo
My sister heard about this place last week and we looked it up online, and then my mom got crazy excited because she’s currently obsessed with Vietnamese iced coffee. Needless to say, we were all itching to go to Cilantro. I like how everybody in my family is into food.
My mom and I had already had dinner and were just really there for the iced coffee, so we only ordered the Pho Bo, Goi Cuon, Vietnamese Iced Coffee and fried spring rolls.
This was the Pho Bo, which is beef noodle soup. I didn’t eat much of it because I was still full, but my sister ate more than half of the bowl (big enough to serve a family) so I’m guessing she really liked it. Personally, I would have preferred more seasoning but that’s just my personal taste.
This was the Goi Cuon or steamed spring rolls, served with peanut sauce. I actually really liked this. It’s more of vegetable than shrimp, and could be a bit flavourless but coupled with the peanut sauce it’s really good. I don’t recommend it for the people who aren’t into vegetables.
Finally, we have the Vietnamese Iced Coffee, which is the number one thing we went to Cilantro for. So you have this glass with condensed milk at the bottom, and on top of it is a filter filled with ground coffee. You then pour hot water over the filter, and hot coffee will then drip into the glass and onto the milk. Then once all the water-turned-coffee has finished dripping, you can mix the coffee and milk together. It’s still hot so you should wait a bit before transferring this ‘mixture’ into a new glass filled with ice. Et voila! Even if you turn out not to like the coffee, it’s really fun and worth experiencing.
My mom liked the coffee fine but she said it wasn’t as good as the one she had back in Jakarta. Oh well. As for me, I did like it! Plus, it’s only P45.00. Our collective favourite was the fried spring rolls, which I actually forgot to take a picture of. The fried spring rolls actually only came as an afterthought, when, after biting into the Goi Cuon, my mom and sister felt like they needed a fried version. *shrug* I’m not sure how much each individual dish cost because, like an idiot, I forgot to take note of them, but our total bill was only around P300 so all in all, Cilantro is very affordable.
Sorry about the pictures. These days bringing my camera around is such a burden, so I used my phone.
Cilantro can be found on Jalandoni St., about a minute (walking distance) away from Fine Rock Hotel and EON Centennial Plaza. This is also quite near the University of San Agustin gym. Oh, and also really near Pizarro! The Molo-Timawa jeep going to Iloilo Doctor’s Hospital/College passes right in front of Cilantro, so you can take that jeep and keep your eyes peeled ‘coz Cilantro is actually sort of easy to miss.
Later tater!
Patricia
