West Virginia has a pretty diverse display of culinary offerings. You can get Thai, Vietnamese, Kenyan, French, Mediterranean, Mexican, Italian, Venezuelan, Swiss, Indian, and Greek food - and more!
And, most recently, I discovered Filipino food in Parkersburg. Philippines Best Food Carry-Out, located on 7th Street, is dishing up classic Filipino dishes for take-out, dine-in or even buffet.
They started out as a simply a food stand, then evolved into a fully functioning sit-down restaurant. And, they even have a buffet available on the weekends.
Where you can enjoy authentic Filipino cuisine made with only the freshest of ingredients and house made sauces. Daniel and Elenita Lubuguin began this business 5 years ago with a food truck on Saturdays, then moving to a make-shift storage building just large enough for a few customers to place their orders for carry-out only. As their popularity grew, they decided to build a restaurant with seating for 40 inside and 20 outside. Daniel learned to cook during his time as a cook for a military base in the Philippines, and the Lubuguins enjoy bringing the authentic taste of the Philippines to their customers. The restaurant started with just the happy couple and has now grown to more than 10 employees with hopes of even further expansion in the near future. Their food truck still attends local fairs all over the east coast and seems to be a fan favorite no matter their location (OUR VISION).
So, I just happened to be in town on a weekend and stopped by to check this place out. I consulted with a friend, while looking over the menu, to see what would give me the best taste of this place. She suggested a few standards - siopa (a super soft bun with meat filling), lumpia (yummy egg rolls), longsilog (her favorite breakfast food), pansit (rice noodles), adobo (the national dish), sisig, bistek, maybe dinuguan for the adventurous (made with offal and blood) - but she said the menu looks good and just about anything sounded great!
But when I got there, I saw the buffet and figured that would be the easy way to go. Among the buffet were chicken afritada, pansit noodles, chicken stirfry, pork adobo, teriyaki chicken, sweet sour chicken, chicken curry, tilapia, sweet chili wings, and seafood paella.
Every single thing I had was delicious. The adobo was flavorful and warming.
The pansit noodles are thin and full of other yummy vegetables and onions.
And this spicy seafood paella was SUPER good. I kept going back for more.
Lumpia is so great - like a lighter, fresher eggroll.
The leche flan is a traditional Filipino custard - very tasty.
There were a couple things I wasn't sure of - like this thing that seemed like it was full of plantain. It had a caramelized outer edge and soft, vaguely sweet interior.
There were so many other items that looked delicious, too. I skipped the things that I was already familiar with - wings or kebabs.
It's pretty cool we have a little taste of the Phillippines here in West Virginia.
Have you been? What's your favorite dish?
Grade: A
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