Cheese Rolls

Needing to kill an hour the other day, I wandered into the Eagle Rock Plaza for the first time in twenty five years and was transported to downtown Manila.  The term “Plaza” having been obviously drawn from the large public squares typically adjacent to a cathedral and common to Central and South American cities as well as throughout Europe.  Many of these traditional plazas are vast in size and all are spaces open to the heavens above as opposed to the Eagle Rock Plaza which is completely enclosed and can be entered only from the north side.  

The City of Manila has eight major plazas, five of which are referred to as “freedom parks” where no permits are required for demonstrations and protests.  Perhaps the name “Plaza” had something to do with the Eagle Rock Plaza evolving over the years into a place where all things Filipino abound including merchants, customers, merchandise, food, stores and even the muzak.

The Plaza opened in October of 1973 and was a very small version of what passed as a mall at the time.  There were department stores at opposite ends of the mall, said to “anchor” the layout.  During the 1970s developers adopted this approach anticipating that shoppers would likely travel the full length of the mall checking out the storefronts in between the two anchors.  The Plaza offered more parking than the Los Angeles Coliseum but never did enough business to fill even a quarter of the parking stalls.  

During its early years the Plaza lacked customers partly due to The Glendale Galleria which was a newer, bigger and classier mall two miles to the west, but with not nearly as many parking stalls.  The other thing that has always limited the Plaza’s ability to draw customers is its location which has it set between two hills, neither of which permit through traffic.  The Plaza can only be reached from 2 directions, east and west, via a single surface street, which is Colorado Blvd.  It might as well be sitting at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  In addition to the restricted access, there are a dozen traffic lights within a quarter mile along Colorado where it passes in front of the Plaza.  It is difficult to imagine a destination that is more punishing to reach during rush hour by car unless perhaps it’s Huntington State Beach at noon on the fourth of July.

There is the Glendale Freeway (also called the 2 freeway), 200 yards to the west of the Plaza which runs north and south.  However, the 2 is one of the world’s most truncated freeways, seven miles in length and cut off at both ends.  The 2 freeway serves to connect Atwater Village and La Canada-Flintridge; two communities of potential shoppers that couldn’t possibly have less in common.  Caltrans’ original plan called for the 2 freeway to continue south and then west to the 405 through Beverly Hills.  The intent was to prevent the Santa Monica Freeway from becoming the parking lot it resembles today but Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina (also known as Jabba the Hut) vetoed the project.

I expect Filipinos enjoy their food

just as much as people from any 

other culture. It’s fairly 

Filipino dish from the Magic Wok Restaurant

universal to develop a love for the food you grew up eating and the fond memories associated with it.  However, the food from some cultures seems to have a broader appeal than others.  Suffice it to say in some ninety years of Michelin ratings, no restaurant serving Filipino food has ever been awarded a star. 

Often called “Thai food’s ugly sister”, since both are prepared with many of the same

ingredients, Filipino food

is best described by starting

Thai dish from the Mai-Thai Restaurant

with Thai food and then removing various qualities.  First dispense with the clean and bright colors you are accustomed to with Thai food; do away with the mouth watering aromas, crisp vegetables, the light and healthy taste; and lastly, forget the delicate flavors achieved by flash-cooking the freshest of greens, meats and seasonings How is it that Filipino food is missing everything that's led to the overwhelming 

popularity of Thai restaurants when they’re made from the same things?  To my way of thinking it’s due mostly to a combination of extensive overcooking, too much oil, and a brutal mashing together of everything. 

While roaming about the central hall of the Plaza the other day and despite my thoughts regarding Filipino food, I found I was in desperate need of something sweet, so I went inside the Leelin Filipino Bakery.  I watched as about a hundred cheese rolls on large baking sheets were removed from the oven.  They looked great but ever cautious, and with a sense of foreboding, I bought only one, got in my car and was halfway home before I took a bite.  Spectacular! 

The next morning found me back at the Leelin Filipino Bakery at 8:30 a.m. where I was joined by an Armenian lady, also a devotee of the cheese rolls.  Never mind that we were complete strangers, she and I shared openly the somewhat frightening attraction we both had to these treats.  It felt a little naughty to discuss something so intensely serious and intimate with a member of the opposite sex that I’d known for less than ten seconds. 

Cheese rolls from Leelin Bakery

Covered with scads of jewelry, she was also wearing enough makeup to be considered a health hazard.  As much as I didn’t want to add to the awkwardness of the moment I was unable to stop staring at her, curious as to why she wanted to look like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. 

When the woman who bakes the cheese rolls told us that she hadn’t baked any, and to come back tomorrow, the Armenian lady took hold of the counter as her knees buckled.  Once she recovered from the news she walked off, looked back over her shoulder at me and said,  “See you at Porto’s”, raising the hair on the back of my neck.     

The next morning I return to the bakery and thankfully wait alone this time for the cheese rolls to come out of the oven.  I buy a dozen, half of which are gone before I get to Jean’s house.  Jean tries one and declares, “Yes, definitely yummy!”  Of course Jean’s opinion means little having grown up in New Zealand, which along with the Philippines will not be on Anthony Bourdain’s itinerary anytime soon.