If we have Jollibee and McDonald's as fastfood staples here in Manila, in Naga, they have Bigg's Diner and you can find it in almost every corner of the city. I think it also has branches in other places in Bicol. So it was this place that we went to when we needed a bite and it's open 24 hours too.
What I really loved about Bigg's is that even though it's fast food, it doesn't taste that way. All the food I tasted were also satisfying in both taste and proportion. I don't know if it's because I'm in the province but the food here definitely tastes fresher instead of just being reheated like most fast food fare. And since they were served in ample portions to satisfy our hunger, I was very happy to go back and eat some more of what they had to offer on our 3-day stay.
Plus, they do not only offer all-chicken meals like most fast food places. Aside from the regular burgers and sandwiches, they also offer pasta dishes, seafood dishes, pizza, salads and shakes, cake and classic meals inspired by international dishes such as Korean Spare Ribs and local dishes like their Bicol Special. Oh, they have Goto as well.
So here are some of the tasty treats we sampled at Bigg's.
On our first day, we got ourselves their Country Breakfast (P132.00) which consisted of rice, German frank, fried egg and hash brown. Sounds rather traditional but it looks and tastes very satisfying indeed.
I'm pretty sure that this was the best version of this breakfast that I ever tasted. The rice was soft and warm and not too hot. The fried frank and egg was not swimming in oil and the hash brown seemed to be heated in the oven instead of fried. It was thinner than the usual hash brown but wider and tasted better. I was sure it was made up of potatoes and not something else.
For dinner, we went light so I sampled their Pizza Bread (P47.00) and a side order of veggies (P35.00). I've never ordered pizza with veggies like this before but I was in the mood to experiment and luckily this was a successful combination.
Doesn't that look errr, healthy? :-)
I love this pizza bread! It tasted delicious. The pepper strips were not wilted and the cheese melted just right while the pepperoni slices were crispy but soft. The sauce tasted like any other pizza sauce you'd taste in a resto, but somehow this particular one tasted better. Freshly prepared ingredients perhaps?
Next up is the side order of veggies. I know they had a name for this but I can't recall. Anyway, I have always been a fan of the carrot and corn side dish of KFC which they have sadly discontinued. So when I saw this on the menu, I had to try it.
So this isn't exactly like the one in KFC before but I think this combination is even better, especially with the beans added which just happens to be my favorite. Doesn't this look like a healthy treat after devouring a big bread of pizza?
On the second day, lunch was healthy too and it was in another branch of Bigg's. I didn't expect them to have fish on the menu but they did and it wasn't your usual tasteless, breaded piece of meat. Just take a look!
You'd think this was 2 pcs of chicken wings because of the size but this is actually Dory fillet with a very thin layer of breading. It looks fresh and healthy and it tasted that way too. The dish is called Louisiana Fish Creole (P152.00).
Again, I appreciated the veggies on the side. But the fresh salsa instead of the usual gravy or white sauce over the fish fillets really sold me. The salsa ingredients also had us intrigued. We we're trying to figure out one of the ingredients which we couldn't really taste at all. We knew it had tomatoes and spring onions but what was the white veggie?
It took us a few more bites to figure out that the white cubes in the salsa was actually radish because we could finally feel a little bit of spiciness on our tongue. I've never liked radish, especially raw but I'd go back to Naga just to get another taste of this!
My companion tried out one of the kiddie meals on the menu. It also had a side of veggies which just goes to show how easy it is to incorporate veggies so kids learn to love them too. The dish was named Thunder Steak (I think this was less than a hundred pesos.) and it looked really happy to be eaten. :-)
On our last day, we also got breakfast at Bigg's. As usual I got the Country Breakfast while my companion got their Crispy Chicken (P89.00 for 1 piece). This was not your usual fried chicken. Aside from looking delicious, the combination with atchara also gave this a delicious twist.
My friend was very satisfied with this and she knows her chicken. This was really crispy and the pickled veggies helped to ward off any oily residues on one's tongue, although the chicken didn't taste like it was drowned in oil. Obviously, their dishes are priced reasonably too.
Well, we had more food discoveries in Naga but this is it for this post. I'll show and tell you about the other treats we discovered in another post. Now, I'm wishing Bigg's comes to Manila so I can enjoy these flavors anytime. :-)
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