La Playa De Roxas: My Kansi Story

Alright, I was once again at Baybay Beach in this place called “La Playa De Roxas”. It’s a row of bars, barbecues and resorts by the beach that I had been to a number of times before, though ironically, this was the first time I was seeing the area in broad daylight! Nice place! But believe me, the strip smokes and sizzles with food and fun as soon as the sun attempts to rest. And I think the first time I’ve been in this place, there was even no such fine and clean road yet! Everything was a beach that I could walk to via pathways from Villa Patria!

Then I remembered I wanted to know what “Kansi” really meant, so I asked my driver. He said it’s a soup dish. I insisted on knowing what the word means or where it originated (hoping for some kind of etymology like I already know what is SuTuKil or HotSiLog). He did not (could not) answer but instead swerved to the left of the road and called out for the cook of Patpat’s to tell us what kansi means. Cook casually answered “baka, beef”! I clarified if “baka” (beef) is means “kansi” in Ilonggo. After a hefty laugh, cook educated us that “kansi” is the chopped “tiil” (foot) of the animal because if you don’t chop it, it will be called “pata”! Oh so it is a meat portion after all, not a cooking technique or something like that!

The topic got my gastric cage craving and my talkative tongue titillated! So I asked if they already have kansi that we can dive at. After another chuckle cook said they have not even opened for the day yet and some of the crews are still even not around. Argh! Anyway, I know kansi when I taste it. Its some kind of a “nilaga” soup dish but a bit darker (light brown or dark orange) and just a little bit sour unlike the sinigang (or almost every other soup) in Manila that get’s me to coil and recoil in sourness! The nearest that I can compare it to is the “pochero” in Cebu, though they are not the same. I think its with those halaman things that they add into the soup!

Kansi, just like Cebu’s pochero, is just a little bit thicker than Manil’s nilaga. But it’s a little bit lighter or thinner than Cebu’s Balbacua or Manila’s soup number 5. That’s what I think it is, and OMG I am getting hungry just telling you these!

Let’s go to the park instead?!