Gobos Lunch Bunch 2011: 2011 Apr 27

2011 Apr 27 - Papa Urb's Filipino-Mexican Fusion Restaurant
Tracy, CA

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Today we originally had a full Lunch Bunch signed up to attend, all 9 members. But that was four weeks ago. And Mile's had invited his childhood friend Bobby and his wife Jo Ann to join us, which would have made it 11. One by one they began dropping out until finally we were down to three Lunch Bunchers, Miles, Ora and me. Plus our two guests made our group of 5 for today.

Papa Urb's door is where the In-N-Out arrow is pointing

Bobby and Jo Ann live in Tracy and have been to Papa Urb's Grill a few times before. But this is Mile's and Ora's first time, plus they are not familiar with Filipino cuisine.

Showing Miles and Ora the picture menu

The orders are placed. We fill our drink cups and wait for the food.

I am sitting at the end of the little table

The appetizers show up.

An order of Vegetable Lumpia and Shanghai (pork) Lumpia. Lumpia is similar to Chinese Egg Rolls, but the wrapper is fried more crisply

Then come the main courses. Now each plate or bowl comes with a hard fried egg.
I have the Lechón kawali which is pork belly deep-fried in a kawali, which is Filipino for a wok or a deep frying pan. Served over steamed rice with some dipping sauce — soy sauce with crushed garlic, chili paste and mixed with kalamansi or local Filipino lime. To make them real tender and juicy, slow-cook the pork belly slab in water, deep-fry and then cut them in strips.

I passed on the fried egg so they gave me some sliced cucumbers instead

Both Ora and Bobby have the Chicken Adobo, which is considered the Philippine national dish. The combination of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and peppercorns is delicious and actually preserves the chicken

Each plate comes with a cabbage salad and two scoops of rice and a fried egg

Jo Ann has the Papa's Breakfast Bowl, which has slices of marinated and fried pork.

A fried egg comes with every plate or bowl

Miles has the Beef Steak Bowl, which is similar to the Breakfast Bowl but the meat is marinated beef.

All the dishes are very good as we pass parts of each dish around to the others to sample

We finished everything but a couple of the Lumpia.

The table showing the aftermath of our feeding frenzy.

Time for a drink refill

This is part of their wall menu and the following text explains what most of the Filipino dishes are.

KARE-KARE: a traditional Filipino ox tail stew in a peanut-based sauce. The recipe varies from family to family and person to person.

MENUDO: a traditional stew from the Philippines. While it has the same name as the Mexican dish of the same name, it is not made with tripe but rather with sliced pork and calves' liver.

IGADO: a popular Ilocano dish made from pork tenderloin and pig’s innards such as liver, kidney, heart. This is definitely one of the best Filipino foods around.

KALDERETA: a dish made with cuts of pork, beef or goat with tomato paste or tomato sauce with liver spread added to it.

DINUGUAN: a savory stew of meat simmered in a rich, thick spicy gravy of pig blood, garlic, chili, and vinegar.

LECHON KAWALI: pan roasted pork belly.

FRIED BANGUS: fried marinated milkfish.

ADO-BOWL: Adobo is pork or chicken, or a combination of both, is slowly cooked in vinegar, cooking oil, crushed garlic, bay leaf, black peppercorns, and soy sauce, and often browned in the oven or pan-fried afterward to get the desirable crisped edges.
Papa Urb's only has the Chicken Adobo.

TOCINO BOWL: a cured meat product native to the Philippines. It is usually made out of pork and is similar to ham and bacon although beef is also used.

SISIG BOWL: traditionally fried and sizzled chopped bits of pig’s head and liver, but here it is chopped bits of roasted pork shoulder.

EMPANADAS: Filipino empanadas usually contain ground beef or chicken meat, potato, chopped onion, and raisins (somewhat similar to the Cuban "picadillo") in a sweetish wheat flour dough. There are doughy baked versions, as well as flaky fried versions. Often, to lower costs, potatoes are added as a filler.

After sitting around and talking for a long time at Papa Urb's to help our food digest we take a short trip over to Vita Dolce in downtown Tracy. The owners of Vita Dolce drive to Mitchell's Ice Cream in San Francisco every Sunday (Vita Dolce is closed on Sundays) to bring back many tubs of Mitchell's Ice Cream. So we are here for dessert of Mitchell's Ice Cream.

Since everyone else had cancelled out and Miles drove to Bobby's home. I decided to ride one of my motorcycles today.

My bike in front of Vita Dolce

A close up of their entrance.

Mitchell's Ice Cream.

More Mitchell's Ice Cream.

Vita Dolce also serves espresso and lunch and other desserts.

Here we are having an ice cream cone or a dish of ice cream.

Miles and Jo Ann decide to just have a cup of coffee

Ora, Booby and I have an ice cream.

My scoop of Mexican Chocolate ice cream

A customer offers to take a group photo.

Here we all are at Vita Dolce

Miles had parked his car at Bobby's and was riding with the locals. Jo Ann had baked a cake so since I was the only other person I decided to follow Bobby's car back to his home. It was only 1:00 PM since we had met at Papa Urb's at 11:00 AM.