Kabayan

Kabayan means compatriot — a fellow Filipino — and this family restaurant next door to Tito Rad's cooks like it. The menu is long and unhurried, built for a family that eats breakfast at ten and is still at the table at one. The same family raised Giemay Manuel, who went on to open Barkada Social Club in Astoria.

Morning is silog: tapsilog, longsilog, tocilog, daing na bangus, each with garlic fried rice and eggs. Later, the kitchen does all the big dishes — oxtail kare-kare, sinigang soured with tamarind, bulalo, lechon kawali, crispy pata, sizzling sisig — and a pancit list that runs from palabok to bihon. For a celebration, book the kamayan feast on banana leaves with about a week's notice.