Let’s lay it out there now … I am not unhappy. There are many things in my life that I’ve been blessed with and wouldn’t want to change. And it’s because I already have so much that I’ve always felt greedy for wanting more. So, for several years sayings such as “work shouldn’t be fun … after all, if it was they wouldn’t be paying you to do it” were always top of mind. To me, what mattered most in a career was ease of getting a job, of course the compensation, ability for progression and job security.

As I’ve grown older, this no longer seems enough. Sure, I change roles every 2-3 years to keep things new but inevitably it’s still working in a large corporation and going through the motions. Don’t get me wrong, the companies are great and offer everything I had wanted in a career. My managers are supportive and provide the right amount of recognition. And I’m good at what I do; I know the work is appreciated and “matters”.  

But, what about that intrinsic satisfaction, passion, simply put doing that thing that gets me excited? Sunday evenings shouldn’t be a drag and Friday afternoons the best thing in the world. Surely, there must be some of you out there who are nodding your heads right now.

Over the last few months, as a means of staying encouraged, I’ve started meditating (currently loving Tracks to Relax and My Meditation Station) and listening to motivational podcasts (try Happiness Five a Day and the Daily Boost). In the end, I’ve realized that to achieve contentment you have to do something that makes you want to move.

Writing at Gastro World is exactly that thing that makes me move. Despite a 45-50 hour work week, I want to spend more time writing at least two posts a week, connecting with others through social media daily and attending as many media events as my schedule allows. I’m energized by all these things and look forward to every moment of it!

Sure, I know this is just a hobby… but why does it have to be? Plenty of people work in the food industry as food writers, social media consultants and public relations professionals. Then why can’t I find my niche? 

Quite frankly, it all comes down to finances which has made me stop myself. The industry is competitive and not exactly as lucrative as corporate Canada. So, it’s taken a while, but the realization is I can’t have it all – is money or happiness more important?

If you haven’t been to Casa Manila since 2010, I suggest you plan a return visit. There are new owners in town, Mila and Rizalde, and they have revamped the restaurant from fast food to fancy feast. Having the pleasure to speak to Mila, I was entranced by the passion she showed for Filipino food. She had entrepreneurship in her blood running a successful import business. After selling this, she saw a gap in the Filipino food community - too often the eateries were fast food or ready-to-eat style, providing a lackluster experience. Having resided in Canada since childhood, she saw the rise of the public’s acceptance for other food cultures … but alas for Filipino food it seemed stuck.

So, finally she took the plunge and along with Rizalde purchased Casa Manila to use as a vehicle to showcase Filipino cuisine in the way it deserved: using fresh ingredients, leaving out additives such as MSG and making it healthier (less salt, oil, leaner meats and vegetarian options). They offer a la carte options, but for those who don’t know what to order and want the full experience, Casa Manila also creates a Kamayan feast – something generally experienced on special occasions in Filipino homes.

Kamayan is essentially a family-style “picnic” that’s laid out on banana leaves allowing eaters to gather around and pick and choose morsels to their heart’s desire. Eating with your hands is an intimate event. Mila put it best by explaining that it allows you to experience food with five senses – you feel the food as well.

Before the feast began, we noshed on some adobo dusted popcorn (imagine a sweet and salty kettle corn) and sipped on refreshing calamansi mojitos ($27 a pitcher or $7 a glass). The calamansi, a Filipino citrus that’s a cross between a lime and orange, offers a tart but slightly sweet balance. Against the heavier Kamayan feast it’s quite nice.

For those who are nostalgic for the drinks from the Motherland, Casa Manila also offers Sarsi (a root beer that has a pronounced licorice flavour) and San Miguel (a lighter lager).  

A great accompaniment with the drinks was the chicharon manok and atchara (chicken cracklings with slaw). The thick piece of crispy chicken skin was dusted with adobo seasoning and well drained so it wasn’t greasy. Topped with a delicious pickled green papaya slaw it balanced out the skin’s heaviness – a dangerous dish that makes you forget what you’re eating.

To start, bowls of sinigang baka (beef tamarind soup) were brought out to warm us up. It’s savoury but also sour from the tamarind. There’s a fresh clean taste to the broth from the plethora of vegetables mixed into it (okra, bok choy, tomato, jalapeno, eggplant, etc). Add a dash of fish sauce and it completely changes the flavour profile, enhancing the savoury part of the soup.

Then with a flourish people were bringing out great rectangular swaths of banana leaves adorned with so much food! 

The star of the show was the flying tilapia holding centre court amongst all the other items. The deep fried fish was served whole with the meat filleted away from the bone to give it the “flying” description. Consequently, it also helps the fish’s meat cook faster so retaining its juiciness despite being thoroughly deep fried.  Diners are offered six different sauces to dip to their heart’s content. I found the vinegar or the adobo was great with this.

Indeed, the tinuhog na manok (chicken skewers) was probably the best way to experience the sauces. Casa Manila branched into the sauces as an add-on item and now patrons can also purchase jars of them to go ($8.99). Honestly, each sauce had its own highlights: the garlicky sweetness of the adobo, the light creaminess of the coconut ginger or the aromatic savoury peanut sauce. They all went well with the chicken so really would be a matter of taste what to use.

Something that didn’t require any sauces was the inihaw baka (grilled beef ribs). They were already marinated in a flavourful sweet, garlicky soy sauce and finished off with a slight smokiness from grilling. If you like kalbi you’ll love these, I personally ate five slices of these and could have easily demolished a platter.

Mila explained that Filipinos love their crunch, and with the lechon kawali (fried pork belly) crunch is what you’ll get. Having been deep fried, the pork belly develops a crunchy exterior on top of its already crunchy skin. If you’ve had Chinese roast pork, imagine this but then deep fried as well. The layer of fat between the meat and skin gets encapsulated and melts slightly so that each bite is tender and rich.

Luckily, there was plenty of hilaw manga insalada (green mango salad) to help cut through the greasiness. Its “simple” as the flavours predominantly come from the tastes of the ingredients themselves – the tart green mango, slightly sweet crunchy jimaca, zing from the onions and juiciness of tomatoes. 

At the end of the dish was more of the atchara green papaya slaw, which is outstanding! I could eat this by itself or on top of grilled meats, such a great combination of sweet, savoury and vinegar.

If you’re interested in trying the Mabuhay Collection Kamayan feast yourself, round up at least three people and you can each experience the above for $28 (plus taxes and gratuities). Additional diners can easily be added and Casa Manila will adjust to ensure there’s enough food for each added person.

I highly suggest you add on the garlic fried rice ($1.50). Stir fried sticky rice spiked with garlic … do I need to say more? Plus, rice is what helps you truly accomplish the “eating with your hands” experience. Simply take a small mound of rice (pinching it together), top it with bite sized pieces of protein and voila bring it up to you mouth and enjoy.

If you’re still hungry after the feast (go you!), Casa Manila also offers add-ons. Some may enjoy the sisig pork mask (pig head meat; $13) or sisig bangus (milk fish; $15) served in a sizzling hot plate. The small pieces of protein are mixed with a vinegar, crunchy pieces of skin and other spices. These dishes went well with the plain rice they also offer.

Personally, I found the sisag too rich after having so much protein already. But, the Lumpiang Shanghai baboy (pork spring rolls; $9 for 10) may just be that last little bite you need to round out the meal. Filipino cuisine is influenced by other countries and this is from China. However, the spring rolls have their own distinctness with the minced filling (rather than slivers), being more meaty and held together better from the egg added.

Do yourself a favour and save room for the halo halo that finishes off the feast. It’s captivating to look at comprised by over a dozen ingredients: a shaved ice base, milk sweetened with pandan syrup, fruits, various beans, custard, coconut jelly, puffed rice flakes and topped with a big scoop of ube taro ice cream.

It’s whimsical and colourful – sure to please children but excites adults alike. I’ve seen pictures of halo halo before and somehow the thought of it never appealed to me. I’m not one for eating a messy slush of ingredients as it can be disastrous if the ingredients don’t complement each other. But, the server insisted that the dessert has to live up to its name (mix mix) otherwise you’re just eating shaved ice with toppings. So, I trusted him but looked dubiously at the purple slush presented afterwards.

Admittedly, it’s rather good all mixed in together. Certainly the shaved ice goes well with the creamy yam and taro ice cream. And there’s a playful element that comes from not knowing what you’re going to try next – one bite there’s a chewy jelly, another a plump plantain or a meaty red bean.

If you’d rather have something simple, they also offer a selection of ice creams ($4 or $12.50 for a take-out container). Made exclusively for them by Marble Slab, there’s interesting flavours such as ube (yam), coconut, mango or avocado.

At last, I’ve had my first taste of Filipino food. For a while, I lived near an eatery but they seemed to only serve fried chicken and little else. Thanks to Casa Manila, foodies finally have a place to try Filipino cuisine in the way it’s meant to be served – traditional, fresh and delicious. Certainly, they have changed things up a bit, offering vegetarian and gluten-free options to allow the cuisine to be more inclusive. Filipinos have a beautiful saying “mabuhay” which encompasses welcoming, celebrating (“cheers”) and blessing (“may you live”).  Thank you Casa Manila for the lovely evening where I certainly felt all three.

At the corner of a suburban plaza stands a stone house that’s distinct and unexpected. Co-owner Daniel Nguyen tells me that it's not just any house, it may be possibly one of the oldest one in Mississauga (built in 1850). So, when taking over the property, they really wanted to keep the character of the landmark, reviving it and naming it after builder Amaos Wilcox.

As you enter the Wilcox Gastropub, their interiors are definitely contemporary in nature with the mix of wood, leather, tree trunks and antler chandeliers. You sort of get the feeling of being in a hunter’s lodge that’s been turned into a lounge.

Wilcox’s menu doesn’t follow the Canadiana theme. Rather it’s a mix of shareables (sliders, nachos, etc), tapas type dishes, salads, burgers and larger composed dishes. Essentially, there’s something for everyone and enough sides to customize to one’s content. The owners wanted to offer Mississauga a menu that patrons may not find locally and also uses fresh in-house prepared sauces and ingredients.

The menu is developed by Chef Humberto Sanchez and his Spanish/Mexican influences were apparent in the starters. Especially in my favourite dish of the night, the fish tacos ($14). Yes, fish tacos are on everyone’s menus making it hard to stand out. Wilcox’s steps away from the typical baja style (albeit still has pico de gallo and guacamole) and instead incorporates great Mexican sauces (a tart tomatillo and fiery roasted poblano crema) as well.

Certainly, the dish does not shy away from flavours as the sauces were abundant and with each bite you experience refreshing and spicy properties. The deep fried fish was relatively neutral allowing the sauces to shine. Thankfully, Wilcox uses as chewy soft tortilla/pita mix which is thicker and holds up against the sauces.

The pulpo con ensalada Rusa ($14) is also worth trying with the star being the tendril of grilled octopus. It’s meaty, tender and has a hint of smokiness without overpowering the seafood itself. Below is a vibrant Russian salad, a hearty mix of creamy beets and potatoes. If there was a touch of something stronger (perhaps finely chopped onions or maybe even pickled vegetables), I would have liked it even more.

Unlike the rest of the burger loving table, I ordered braised short ribs ($23). The meat was flavourful and tender sitting in plenty of black trumpet mushroom jus. The seasoning on the dish was done well – savoury enough without being overly salty. Sitting on a bed of roasted heirloom carrots and parsnips and topped with onion frizzles (great addition) it was a nice well rounded dish.  The duck fat roasted potatoes could stand to be cooked a bit longer as the larger pieces were a tad hard in the middle.

Burgers seemed to be the popular choice amongst patrons and indeed my table as well. My husband’s Wilcox Burger ($17) consisted of a pepper crusted chuck beef patty, crispy onions, roasted red pepper aioli, goat cheese, arugula and crowned with a sunny side egg. Somehow it wasn’t a mess to eat as the egg was cooked just enough to allow the brioche bun and rest of the ingredients to soak it up. Perhaps it’s due to eating many flavourful dishes before trying a bite, but even with the plethora of ingredients I found it needed more seasoning (either in the meat itself or in the aioli).  

The California burger ($16) used the same patty but was topped with double smoked bacon, tomato, corn, salsa fresca, sour cream, pickled jalapenos and melted cheddar cheese. Again, I found the flavours to be somewhat muted, perhaps if the sour cream was substituted with the roasted poblano crema instead it may be even better.

As a matter of taste, I’ve really liked that most gourmet burger joints now serve their burgers slightly undercooked. Some may be squeamish about a slightly pink patty, but the end product is much juicier and flavourful. Wilcox Gastropub still follows the traditional thoroughly cooked method, which is fine and has its supporters but perhaps offering customers a choice of doneness would be nice (especially since they use fresh in-house ground patties).

To clarify, the burgers were good and everyone at the table enjoyed them (in fact inhaled them). But, for me, if two small changes were made they could be even better. The fresh potato fries were very good, I couldn’t help but steal more than my fair share off of my family’s plates.