Here’s to five-hour lunches at Txoko

Because if we can be together, we might as well make the most of it. Plus there’s cochinillo and the mind-blowing cold starter pan con tomate y jamon

In Spain, a txoko, pronounced chock-o, is “a Basque gastronomical society, in which friends come together to cook, experiment with new ways of preparing dishes, and enjoy each other’s company.”

When Carlo Calma Lorenzana invited me to Txoco Asador Restaurante on a Saturday for lunch, it was clear I wasn’t being invited to a txoco, spelled as I write it here in lowercase letters. I’m no cook. Although I am not proud of it, I haven’t even cooked rice in a rice cooker in my life.

Nevertheless, because I was going to be with the likes of Pepper Teehankee, a foodie and food connoisseur, and Raul Manzano, whose own paella I have had the pleasure of eating once upon a time, I was confident I was going to experience what normally would happen in a txoko, at least the part where people would enjoy each other’s company and, better yet, the part where people would  get to share their passion for food. At least I knew I got the passion to eat.

But first things first, the company. Aside from Pepper and Raul, of course there would be Carlo, whose food credentials include Bar Pintxos, the Argentinian steakhouse La Cabrera, purveyor and new and old world wines Boca Juan Filipinas, and, well, Txoko, this Spanish restaurant nestled on a quiet, leafy street aptly named Esteban in quiet, leafy Legaspi Village in the heart of Makati City, quieter and leafier now in this pandemic. And there was also the Barcelona expat Miguel Vecin, who founded Bar Pintxos one year before Carlo joined him in the venture and set up with him the umbrella epicurean company Hijos y Hijas, where Miguel is on top of every kitchen in their portfolio of F&B concepts. Joining us too were Marga Nograles, Margie Duavit, and a few others whom I did not get to bond with as they were at the other end of our exaggeratedly long table for nine, thanks to the social distancing protocols that had to be put in place between us.

The moment I parked my car streetside on Esteban, in the shade of a lush tree, on a Saturday late morning, the txoko began. Txoko, the restaurant, is on the ground floor of a nondescript building and, if not for its door signage, it doesn’t really stick out of the streetscape, no canopied tables on the sidewalk like some of the neighboring restaurants. But the warm welcome that greeted my arrival, with cheers of hello and a couple of glasses of sparkling wine raised to me, already put me in a txoko mood.

And now the starters! I’m a small plates person, so unless I’m eating Filipino food, where even soups like sinigang or tinola is a main, I usually have a hard time getting past the appetizers, whether it is izakaya dishes, antipasti, mezze, banchan, or—since we are talking Spanish—tapas.

But the appetizers, prepared under the close supervision of Miguel, were indeed only a suggestion of what lay ahead, even as we were already gasping with pleasure with each bite. The selection included patatas bravas or fried potatoes with salsa brava and dioli and ensaladilla rusa or potato salad with truffle paste and caviar. Both were equally good, as good as the grilled tuna belly served in pimiento puree, tapenade, and crispy potatoes, which was very special, but then also served were chorizo ala parilla, the sausages fermented, cured, smoked, and homemade especially for Txoko, and—what to me was the surprise of the meal, which came too early in the game—the cold starter pan con tomate y jamon or the Iberico oil-drizzled, serrano ham-wrapped bread pillows that I was told to pop whole into my mouth, where it burst like a cloud of complex flavors, kind of like xiaolongbao, at least in the way it should be eaten.

Pan con tomate is a traditional dish, but it was completely overhauled into such an elegantly executed dish that pops complex flavors in your mouth. I’d say it’s one of the most special at Txoko.

—Carlo Calma Lorenzana

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From sparkling wine to white, we now moved to red, all wines, the Legarde Lungo Extra 2020, the Altas Cumbres Torrontes 2019, and the Marquez de Valparaiso Crianza 2015, care of Boca Juan Filipinas, which Carlo and Miguel also own. It was a signal that it was time for the meaty mains. There were two kinds of paella—the Paella Campero with chicken, chorizo, mushroom, and crispy chicken skin and Paella Verduras or vegetable and mushroom paella—and the rest were sinful meats, including a grilled lengua. The beef tongue paired well with the grilled pineapple with which it was served. The other meat surprise, Cuarto de Lechazo or suckling lamb quarter with potato panadera, should have been served ahead of the scenestealer, Spanish cochinillo or suckling pig flown right in from Spain, but by this time our little txoko was already a little lightheaded from all the food and the wine, that we just kept going, happy with the mélange of flavors lingering in our mouths, on our lips, and in our thoughts.

Proof that the lunch was an occasion not to be forgotten in a long while was that it lasted five hours, not including the time it took us to wrap it up over Espuma de Yougur y Fresas or yogurt foam with macerated strawberries and our choice of coffee or tea—or more wine.

Ah, long lunches and even longer dinners, like this one at Txoko, is among the reasons we are alive. To me, eating is a social occasion, a txoko or a sharing of passions. I lost so much weight in the early months of the pandemic last year because, in hindsight, I was in grief over having lost the joy of eating out with people whose company would be as much a delight to me as the items on the menu. Eating just to put food in my stomach would be like surviving this pandemic forever by staying stuck in my couch at home, never venturing out—safe, virus-free, and alive, but really dead inside.

Txoko opened in March last year just before the pandemic hit and it stayed closed until recently. It has a private room and two semi-private rooms you can have to yourselves worry-free, but the rest of the restaurant is guaranteed safe space following all the restrictions imposed by the IATF.

Now open for lunch and dinner, Txoko is at G/F, Erlag Building, #102 Esteban Street, Legazpi Village, Makati City.