It's been a while week: Tita's Kitchenette

Everybody know's Tita's right? I mean, really, it's an establishment here in San Diego. Cynthia "aka" Tita, has created a little kingdom for herself here in San Diego, now with a couple of places on Plaza Boulevard. Many folks, myself included brave the crowds to stand in line and pick out the "turo turo" favorites from the ever replenished steam table, beef mechado, adobo, tortang talong..... As I mentioned in my first post back in 2005 and other posts, I've yet to be able to polish off an entire plate from the place in a single sitting. The portions are huge and in terms of value, it's good. But over the years, I've been going less and less. The lousy attitude of the workers, in addition to not really going after quantity anymore, means that I really haven't gotten a meal there in quite a while.

Now this is with a couple of caveats. My good friend MG will get me lunch from there once in a while. Also, I dropped by looking for sisig as I mentioned in this post. Why sisig? Well, my recollection was that Tita's sisig just wasn't very good. In fact, when FOY (Friend of Yoso) and fellow food blogger Kirbie did a post about Tita's which included the sisig in 2009, "MrM"(I hope you're doing well) and myself commented on how bad the sisig was at Tita's. To me it just wasn't the thing you ordered there. And yet.......Tita's was on one of those food shows and the sisig there blew up....suddenly, folks were saying how good it was. At first I was kind of irked because changing the recipe for the purpose of publicity is basically admitting that you knew your sisig wasn't very good all these years and you did nothing about it. Whatevers. The strange thing about the lousy service at Tita's.....I'm glad I don't speak Tagalog, because the body language and facial expressions of some of the workers makes me really happy to not understand what they're saying...on the other hand, I've met "Tita" a couple of times and she was the nicest person. Go figure.....

So I finally hit paydirt a couple of weeks ago and actually got sisig. First I need to clear some things up. If someone got off the plane from Pampanga this morning and hit up a couple spots for sisig in San Diego, they' be wondering "what the heck?" What we have here is basically use of leftover lechon kawale, not the delici-yoso pig head and parts that make up traditional sisig. Still, when done well, it's porky goodness.

The photo above in a nutshell goes a long way in explaining Tita's popularity. You can easily feed two, or maybe two and a half with this $7 plate of food.

I chose the pork adobo because it just came out of the kitchen and was steaming hot. It was decent, sour enough, salty, not overly tough, especially at this price point. Maybe lacking in the black pepper department a bit.

The sisig on the other hand was as bad as the version I had in 2002, except not as soupy.

Not enough salt, sour, spice, very waxy and greasy in texture. All the benefits of using leftover lechon kawale lost in it's sogginess. Throw in the below lukewarm temperature and this just wasn't my thing. Which has me scratching my head....this can't be what folks have been raving about since Andrew Zimmern "tweeted" about it - "Tita's sisig, best I have ever tasted . San Diego Philippine food is crazy good".

You want bang-for-the-buck to feed your starving student, Tita's is it. You want good sisig? If this is an indication, I don't think Tita's is it. There are a good number of dishes they do make which are better.... I'm wondering if they still make the pancit palabok to order?

Tita's Kitchenette
2720 East Plaza Boulevard
National City, CA 91950

 

Comments

[TFD]

I really enjoy sisig at Conching but they never have it when I come for lunch so I have to resort to Tita's. I usually come really early for lunch and the sisig is semi decent. Have you tried the grilled chicken on the skewer then?

[Kirk]

Hi TFD - Of course I've had the Pork and Chicken BBQ from Tita's......in fact, if you look at my 2005 post, there it is. Last time I had the sisig at Conching something had changed and it wasn't very good.
http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2012/10/turo-turo-thursday-revisits-to-conching-manila-fast-food-and-desserts-and-rb-filipino-cuisine.html

[RightCowLeftCoast]

FYI
The Boston Globe had listed Tita's back in November 2012:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/food-dining/2012/11/13/southern-california-filipino-restaurants-crowd-strip-malls/cpbL3nOdtb3Q6QrO2eThcP/story.html

[Kirk]

Hi RCLC - Thanks for the link.