Quezon City: Fish & Co. (The Mexican and the Yankee)

July 20, 2013 was a dinner and movie Saturdate for me.

RESTAURANT: Fish & Co. (Trinoma Branch)
MOVIE: The Lone Ranger

Look how cute their "mats" are! But just so you know, the pans and plates easily slip on this. I'd rather just have it there for aesthetic purposes and not use them. At all.

We ordered the Chicken Pesto Quesadilly (Quesadilla) and the New England  Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl.

CHICKEN PESTO QUESADILLY for P290.

It is grilled flour tortilla stuffed with grilled chicken, cheese mix and pesto sauce. This is Fish & Co.'s version of a grilled chicken quesadilla.

The QUESADILLA (ke-sah-DI-yah) originated in Mexico. It is a tortilla, either flour or corn, stuffed with a mixture of cheese and other ingredients like meat, chicken, shrimp, vegetables, herbs, etc. The tortilla is folded to form a half-moon shape and then usually cut to quarters for easy eating.  The name came from the Spanish word for cheese -- QUESO (KE-so).

NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER IN A BREAD BOWL for P250.
Hot cream based soup with chunks of clam, served in a bread bowl.

The Clam Chowder is a thickened soup with clams and broth. It is often served with milk or cream and often partnered with salt crackers or bread (in this case, a bread bowl). 

The best known chowder is the NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER. It is usually made with chopped clams and diced potatoes, in a mixed cream and milk base, often with a small amount of butter. Crackers, instead of accompanying the soup, may be crushed and mixed into the soup as a thickener. 

Since New England is a coastal area, it is believed that clams were added to the chowder because of the relative ease of harvesting them. Clam chowder is also served as a non-meat option in restaurants on Fridays for those who abstain from meat, which once was a requirement for Catholics before liturgical changes in Vatican II.

According to sources, the origin of the name chowder is not really clear. There are speculations that it came from the French word CHAUDIERE (SHO-dyer), which means a type of stove on which the chowders were probably cooked. 

Another possibility of its origin is in New England, the CHOWDA. It is how the Breton fisherman would call a stew or soup wherein they would throw portions of the day's catch into a large pot, along with other available food.



Twas a simple yet very filling dinner for us. 

Overall, we enjoyed how the dryness of the Chicken Pesto Quesadilly worked with the creaminess of the New England Clam Chowder, and how the herb-iness and saltiness of the Mexican dish was tamed by the  richness of the Yankee soup.

Now onto The Lone Ranger! :-)