There's money in bones

Philippine Daily Inquirer

 | February 10, 2002 | Copyright

Byline: Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

STO. TOMAS, Batangas-Reaching this town about 50 kilometers south of Manila, the gate to Batangas province, motorists can't simply resist the urge to stop at the unofficial but regular bus stop and relish the legendary Rose and Grace's bulalo.

For a worn-out traveler, the taste of hot, salty, slightly sweet, spicy, and beefy flavor of bulalo broth-that goes smoothly down your throat, warms up the cold stomach, heats up the tired body and brings cool perspiration-makes one feel more alive.

And the tender meat comes as a bonus.

The bone marrow? It's Christmas in paradise. It could be the taste, or maybe the timing.

But for restaurant owner Conchita Ascano, there is no secret recipe for her special bulalo that all the presidents, the presidents' men, and people who come to the restaurant since 1970 have enjoyed.

"It's just the same procedure as any bulalo you eat anywhere. I think what made our bulalo here so special is our location," 62-year-old Ascano said.

True enough, people who pass through Sto. Tomas on their way to Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, and the Bicol Region would want nothing more than good food.

Travelers find it amazing to be able to eat home-cooked goodness on the way to their destination.

"Most restaurants would offer low-quality food fortravelers because they think that hungry people would eat anything edible and hot," Ascano said, "but here, we're not just after the profit. We serve good food that travelers deserve."

In the family

Ascano, also known as Nanay Conching, learned to cook from her mother. She said cooking had been her passion from the very start.

Although she was a seamstress when she married her late husband Benjamin, when they lived at Sangley Point in Cavite City, she still cooked for the officers' wives.

When she opened up a four-table carinderia at the Sto. Tomas crossing in 1970, people called her cooking "excellent."

She named her small restaurant Excellent.

That time, a kilo of beef was only P3 and an order of bulalo was only 90 centavos.

In 1976, she transferred to the Maharlika Highway, also in Sto. Tomas. The new location helped Excellent restaurant grow.

She then changed its name into Rose and Grace, after her two daughters.

Later, they offered more Filipino dishes at the restaurant. But the famed bulalo would always take the center stage. Pinangat na tambakol and fried tawilis were also famous for the authentic taste found only at the restaurant.

Tawilis is the only fresh water herring found in Taal Lake, also in Batangas.

Since then, with more and more people coming to get a taste of the legendary bulalo, the restaurant expanded with more than 20 tables, bigger kitchen, more helpers, and air-conditioning units.

Ascano was also able to open up two more restaurants

as the years passed.

Hard work

Ascano believes she owes her success to hard work and dedication that have never waned since 1970. She still wakes up at 4 a.m. and sleeps at 12 midnight-sometimes, even at 4 a.m.-the same routine she had for the last 32 years.

Directly supervising her restaurant crew composed of 30 people, she says she never tires of training her people, that even if she leaves them for some errands, the restaurant would still work well.

The helpers, servers, and cooks who come to work at the

Rose and Grace never left. Some even have their children and grandchildren there.

Nanay Fining, one of the helpers, has been there since 1974.

What made the helpers stay, she said, is the family-style management of Nanay Conching, who treats them all as family members.

Celebrities dine here

During the Toyota-Crispa era, when most Filipinos were hooked on basketball, basketball player-turned-senator Robert Jaworski was hooked on bulalo.

He would always find ways to go to Rose and Grace and have a bowl of steaming bulalo before or after each game.

Former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago is a regular customer here every Saturday at lunchtime after her visit to her dairy farm in Lipa City.

The Ascano family has kept all the photos of the celebrities who have dined at Rose and Grace.

During the Apec Summit in 1996, the Department of Tourism awarded Rose and Grace a plaque of appreciation when the Apec members' espouses, on their way to Villa Escudero, stopped at the restaurant and were impressed by what they had found and tasted.

Presidents, senators, congressmen, truckers, travelers, and people from all walks of life have dined and returned to the restaurant.

Even restaurant owners from nearby towns would dine here and try to copy the taste, but as always, the authentic taste has remained original only at the restaurant.

"I think it's the Filipino's passion for good food that made us the leading restaurant here," Rose Ascano-Espina said, "and when you talk of delicious bulalo, they'd always come here and return."

Rose and Grace has also become a favorite landmark for travelers.

And as always, people would crowd at the restaurant, from early morning till dawn and get a taste of one of Batangas' legacy of good food right at its gate.