It was another Calle Real Pedestrianization Sunday and I found myself traversing the whole stretch of JM Basa street from Plazoleta Gay up to Freedom Grandstand. And like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, a gastronomic treasure awaited at the end of my journey - Roberto's.
Despite the long queue (it almost never disappears), I absent-mindedly lined up then took a while to decide what buy. The Queen was nowhere to be seen that afternoon and I wasn't really excited to meet (and eat) the King. So it was a toss between the regular Roberto's Sio Pao (pork adobo) and the Jumbo.
And it was a very delicious decision to get the Jumbo Sio Pao that time since it was the best sio pao from Roberto's I have ever tried - better than the Queens and Kings I had before. At PhP45 each, the Jumbo is filled with Chicken-Pork Adobo, Chinese Sausage and Hardboiled egg. In comparison, with the addition of ham, it would become King (PhP70) or if it has bacon (and become a little bigger) it become the Queen (PhP77)
What made me say it was the best ever Roberto's sio pao? No, I wasn't hungry that time, I was still digesting the 4-cups of rice lunch I had at Mang Inasal then - it was probably the fact that the filling was freshly made and the sio pao was oozing with the natural sauce of the filling. And see those bits of pork fat - sinfully delicious! I could have devoured around 3 of these in one sitting that time, too bad I only had two...
And don't dare ask for sauce at Roberto's for you'll surely get the playful "wrath" of Claude - if ever lol.