A restaurant reminisces the 50’s
STEPPING into the District 50 transported us to a nostalgic era of rock & roll and the American dining concept of the 1950’s diners and soda fountains. A vintage Volkswagen Beetle, dominates one side of the restaurant with an open kitchen. If you are lucky on a busy night, the Beetle cozily sits two. Rock & Roll music permeates the dining room that extends to an al fresco area in the veranda. Fifties-inspired, the floors are checkered black and white tiles with red color prevailing. I liked the ads of long ago, especially Coke and Welch’s.
Chairman Libia Chavez of the Philippine School of Culinary Arts (PSCA) always takes pride in showcasing the pursuits of the school’s culinary graduates. A number of them have ventured into restaurants and one of the latest, which opened last January, is District 50 located at the Second Floor of J Centre Mall along A.S. Fortuna in Mandaue City. Culinary graduates Jenilee T. Jao and Christian A. Quiambao have pooled in their efforts in the new restaurant. Both are in their mid-twenties and have come to Cebu to pursue a Diploma in Culinary Arts Program.
Jenilee hails from Ozamis and Pagadian and her family is into hardware business. For his part, Christian who’s from San Carlos, Pangasinan, has a degree in Medical Technology from Siliman University and had planned to join her mother in America. His love for cooking derailed this.
While the restaurant’s theme is classic American, the food is, however, eclectic. They have gone beyond hamburgers, club sandwiches, and soups that are staple diner foods. The hamburgers have been restyled to give tribute to a few personalities: like Hicham’s Burger for Hicham Merouane, the Moroccan chef and professor of PSCA; King Felix Burger layered with ham, omelet, cheese, onions, bell pepper and cheese, for Jenilee’s father; D 50’s Classic Burger and Burger Overload topped with breaded chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Their signature burgers use pure sirloin, according to Christian who spends more time in the kitchen. Our tasting session
included the Spicy Belly, a Bicol-style dish with pork belly simmered in coconut milk with Pangasinan Bagoong (tiny shrimps or “alamang” pickled in sea salt, aged in earthen jars, which cannot be duplicated anywhere in the country) and red bird chilis (siling labuyo), green finger chilis and swamp cabbage (kang-kong). The Cream Dory with Pesto on a Bed of Peas tasted so fresh with the fish firm and plump, Barbaric Pork Ribs with BQ Sauce was fork tender served with buttered vegetables and choice of rice or mashed potatoes. For the red meat lovers, the New York Strip (Short Loin) was grilled with salt and pepper. We chose to have our piece of steak medium rare. We had to to have the classic Ice Cream Float to wash down the flavorful dishes—a tall glass of a sparkling 7-up with mint ice cream. Another PSCA graduate who is creating ice cream sensations, Tumbler’s, supplies their ice cream.
The desserts, which were more of Jenilee’s forte, have stories behind each dessert. All the creations were decadently tempting. But we chose to seal the nostalgia of the 1950’s by sharing the old-fashioned Gil’s Banana Split–slices of banana, scoops of ice cream, drizzled with chocolate syrup and topped with cherries.
