Bibingcrepe 101 at Halfmoon Asian Café

*This establishment is now CLOSED.*

This feature of mine was originally published on Spot.ph last April 20, 2009.

“A Bibingcrepe is actually a lot like the Indonesian martabak, except that it’s really suited for the Filipino taste,” shares Kiko Rustia, co-owner of Halfmoon Asian Café (which used to be known simply as Halfmoon Bibingcrepe). A martabak is a sweet, thick pancake topped with anything from cheese, chocolate, crushed peanuts, condensed milk, and sesame seeds and is a very popular snack in Indonesia. “What we have here is a fusion of the martabak, bibingka, and crepe,” Kiko continues. Hence, the Bibingcrepe is a distinctly Filipino creation resulting from a medley of different culinary cultures.

Kiko and Halfmoon founder Chef Dick Balajadia have been best friends for the last fifteen years and jointly manage Halfmoon Asian Café. Kiko was recently featured as one of the Castaways in GMA Network’s Survivor Philippines. Unknown to many, Kiko is also actually a chef himself, having graduated from Center for Culinary Arts Manila.

“Filipinos love desserts, but we didn’t want to make our Bibingcrepe too fancy. Its flexibility is what makes it unique since it works well both as a filling snack for merienda and as a dessert for sharing. It can be savory or sweet,” Kiko explains. “We really worked hard to develop and perfect our Bibingcrepe batter using only the finest ingredients, and we don’t use just any ordinary pan to cook it. We have specially forged pans that are custom made according to our specifications.”

At the moment, there are five different Bibingcrepe variants available — Cheese, Chocolate, Choco-Cheese, Corn-Cheese and Choco-Mallows. Servings come in two sizes, Mini (P60-P65) and Regular (P95-P100). For an additional P5, you can have it topped with ice cream.

Kiko claims that the all-time bestseller is the Choco-Cheese Bibingcrepe, and it’s not hard to see, or rather taste, why. The thick yet soft pan cake is served hot, crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. The tangy cheese and the semi-sweet chocolate fillings complement each other perfectly. You’d be hard-pressed to limit yourself to just one slice. “We really picked a specific kind of chocolate for our Bibingcrepe. We wanted it to be smooth with just a slight bitterness to it that can be likened to dark chocolate so it wouldn’t be too overwhelming,” Kiko elucidates.

With the success of the Bibingcrepe, Halfmoon has also started to offer a thin, wafer-like version called the Bibingcrisp. The Bibingcrisp variants include Cheese (P60), Chocolate (P60), and Choco-Marshmallow (P75), with Cheese as the bestseller. The Cheese Bibingcrisp is similar to a cheese quesadilla except that it’s crispy and slightly sweet since it uses the same batter as the Bibingcrepe. Kiko suggests having the Cheese Bibingcrisp with a nice tall glass of cold Green Mango with Basil Iced Tea (P55) for the ultimate Halfmoon experience.

Since Halfmoon has recently evolved from being a Bibingcrepe stand to a full-service café, classic Asian snacks such as Pork Siomai (P80), Char Keuy Teow (P165), Luscious Laksa (P170), and Cabbage Rolls (P80) are available as well.

Halfmoon Asian Café
238 Sct. Bayoran St. cor. Tomas Morato Ext., Quezon City
411-3105

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