It all started with a tip from a friend, JP Paz, about a dining place on Roxas and Banawe Streets in Quezon City. But he requested me not to write about it, “baka mawalan kami nang makainan (there might be no space anymore for us to eat).”

After visiting the place, I’m sorry, I have to turn down his request, because I have to tell readers about this wonderful discovery.

Tuen Mun is a small restaurant that serves delicious roasts from Hong Kong. I felt very excited about the place, I had to feature it for the Christmas special of my television show, “Foodprints.”

I met the humble owner, Nancy So, who has since become a good friend. We did a trip to Hong Kong once and I ate in restaurants I had never been to before. I had been to Hong Kong over 30 times in the past but never went to the places she brought us to.

She’s an authentic foodie. She should do a Hong Kong food tour. She happens to have a sister who’s married to an executive chef of a fine-dining restaurant in the new territories of Hong Kong.

‘Eat Fresh’

Recently, she opened Eat Fresh in Marikina. Just like her Hong Kong street food restaurants in Banawe and San Juan, Eat Fresh serves simple but good, affordable Chinese cuisine.

Eat Fresh has a variety of deep-fried, crispy balls of squid, lobsters, fish and shrimp. It serves the freshest fruit shakes and short-order food.

I love So’s roast duck, soy chicken, roast pork and braised noodles with tendon, salt and pepper squid, salted fish fried rice, stir-fried noodles with bean sprouts topped with peanut butter. She likewise makes a mean laksa.

Eat Fresh has good dim sum and mami, too.

I used to drive all the way to Banawe alone whenever I had a craving for So’s dishes. Now, since I’m closer to Marikina, I can just jump on my bike and satisfy my hunger.

Ever since Eat Fresh opened two months back, the place has been packed.

So said Eat Fresh would soon open branches along Xavierville and C5.

During the Christmas season, many families order roast duck and other roasts for takeout. Her pork barbecue is like the ones you find in the streets of Hong Kong. This place is a must-visit.

Nancy So has upped the standards of Hong Kong cuisine on Philippine shores.

We will be doing a Hong Kong food tour this February with her and my Japan food tour friends.

Eat Fresh, 32 General Ordoñez St. and Bayan-bayanan Rd., Marikina Heights, Marikina

Our Fukuoka/Hiroshima/Osaka
food tour is on Feb. 18-23.
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