Patpat's Kansi House

“Bulalo is a light colored soup that's made rich by cooking beef shanks and beef marrow bones for hours until much of the collagen and fat has melted into the clear broth. The seasonings vary from chef to chef with some using only salt and black pepper while other variations call for patis, bay leaves or even garlic. But at its core, Bulalo, a simple cattleman's stew, best made in a large cauldron with whatever (vegetables) are growing nearby." No Recipes: Cooking is More Fun Without Them

Kansi is what Illonggos call bulalo. There are a lot of Kansi Houses in the city but we think that the best restaurant to get them is at Patpat’s Kansi House located at Luna St., La Paz.

                        
  
I first ate there a few years ago back when I was still in college. My dad brought me and it was clear what he said that I shouldn’t eat there often. But since then, I started bringing my friends and they loved the food. We would have lunch every 2 months just to get a taste of their mouth-watering Kansi.

Before they serve you with a bowl full of broth and a large (yes, it really is large) bone with that soft marrow inside (this makes me hungry just writing about it) they provide you with a barbecue stick and a thin serrated knife. The barbecue stick’s actually for getting all that tasty marrow out of the bone and the knife’s for slicing off meat from it. They both prove to be very useful and it's a bit awkward to use at first but hey, with practice comes perfection. You do want to enjoy your first bowl of Kansi, right?


At the first sip of their special broth, one will be able to forget all of their worries about heart diseases. But we do recommend not eating here every day. The food is great but it really pays if one should remain conscious about their health. The soup is what we are all after. It has everything in it - the taste of the meat, the marrow, some vegetables (if there are any) and the spices.

Patpat’s Kansi is the “sabaw-pa-lang-ulam-na” type of food. The broth, after getting your first sip, will make you think about ordering another cup of rice even though you haven’t even started eating it yet. I’ve been trying to figure out for years how to properly describe the soup. There's this certain sweetness and sourness in it. The beef is so tender that oftentimes, you’ll find yourself nibbling to the very last bit of beef strip and cartilage on the bone. I’ve tasted bulalo from other restaurants in Iloilo City as well as those around Tagaytay but I have to say that nothing beats the taste of Patpat’s Kansi. It lacks all the other vegetables present in other bulalo versions but trading it all off for the soup is all worth it after all.