Mention ‘Banawe’ and most people will probably think of cars.
After all, Quezon City’s well-known automotive hub is lined with shops and garages catering to just about every car enthusiast’s needs. But look beyond rows of automotive shops and you’ll find another, much more delicious reason to make your way to the neighborhood: its food.
From family-run eateries and neighborhood classics to Chinese-Filipino favorites passed down from one generation to the next, Banawe has plenty of scrumptious stories to tell. And with BANOWE, four local collaborators are inviting diners to pull up a chair and get to know the neighborhood through its most beloved flavors.
The five-course dining experience brings together Homebase, Now Now, Bar Hometown, and Jacque and Matcha for a collaboration that’s as much about community as it is about what’s on the plate. And at its heart is the simple idea that food tastes a whole lot better when you know the people and memories behind it.
Discovering Banawe Through Food
For Homebase founders Choy Calaquian and Bea Calaquian, Banawe is more than just a familiar address—it’s actually home. Choy grew up in the neighborhood, and both founders have built a connection to the area through its people, places, and, of course, its food.
While Homebase is best known as an automotive detailing garage, it also takes pride in its identity as a gathering place where cars meet creativity, food, art, travel, and other communities. So when the idea of a collaboration with Now Now presented itself, the founders knew exactly where to begin.
But rather than simply sending over a list of dishes, they took Now Now founders Brian and Maxine Kong on a food crawl around Banawe, introducing them to their favorite local spots. There were familiar neighborhood staples, little discoveries, and even the practical challenge of figuring out where to park or how to enjoy a to-go meal. All together, it was a chance to experience the neighborhood the way the founders do.
One particularly personal stop inspired the kikiam in the meal’s opening bites. It’s a small detail, but one that captures what BANOWE is all about. So these aren’t just flavors picked because they’re popular, they come with memories attached.
The Now Now team then drew on their love of fermentation and experimentation to give those familiar dishes a fresh spin without reinventing Banawe’s food traditions beyond recognition. Instead, they wanted to play with them while keeping their character intact. It’s sort of like giving an old car a meticulous detail, a new paint job, or a shiny set of wheels—upgrades that jumpstart something back to life without necessarily killing what got everyone hooked in the first place.
A Love Letter to the Banawe
The meal opened with an amuse-bouche trio composed of kikiam, buchi, and cuapao. These little bites set the tone for what was to come, bringing together recognizable flavors, contrasting textures, and Chinese-Filipino references reimagined through Now Now’s creative lens. From there, we moved on to an appetizer platter of chicken, pork, and beef cold cuts, served alongside Now Now’s fermented take on a jellyfish salad. There was also an eye-catching bowl of lotus steamed rice topped with plump, savory shrimp that made for an especially tempting addition to the spread.
While these were savory introductions to the meal, the real centerpiece was still to come: a massive bone-in pork chop served with a thick orange sauce that had the slightly sweet, slightly tangy profile of banana ketchup, and a pickled mash of chilies and radishes on the side.
It’s a simple dish, one you could probably cobble together at home with ingredients from your local grocery store, but sometimes, the simplest combinations are the most satisfying—especially when that combination consists of a crisp, golden-brown crust, a hearty cut of meat, and sweet-and-tangy pairings that bring everything together.
After the hearty pork chop, the next course offered a change of pace with soy milk noodles served cold in a slightly-runny broth that felt reminiscent of Chinese-style soy milk noodle soups. It was my least favorite of the lineup, but I appreciated how it balanced the preceding dish with a lighter, cooler profile that perfectly contrasted the pork chop’s richness.
Thankfully, the meal still had a couple of sweet surprises in store. There was the pichi-pichi topped with shredded cheese, a classic Filipino meriendaMeriendaMerienda is the Filipino tradition of an afternoon snack, bridging the stretch between lunch and dinner. Rooted in Spanish colonial custom, it can be as simple as pandesal and coffeeGo to Merienda Glossary that pairs chewy goodness with sweet and salty flavors. Alongside it was Kurimu’s delicately floral jasmine tea ice cream, bringing both fragrance and flavor to the finish line.
A Toast to Banawe’s Food Culture
Of course, good food calls for good drinks too! That’s why Homebase brought Bar Hometown and Jacque and Matcha into the mix to create exclusive pairings for the menu.
For cocktail drinkers, Prosperity was an easy pick. It brought together gin, sweet vermouth, clarified mango-lime cordial, kiat-kiat saccharum, and Campari for a citrusy, bittersweet mix, finished with a bright kiat-kiat segment as garnish. Those skipping the alcohol could go for Virtue, a mocktail made with pineapple, passionfruit, almond, Bicol honey, saline, and milk punch. Topped with honeycomb toffee for garnish, it leaned tropical and sweet without tasting too much like juice.
Matcha fans, meanwhile, had Lychee Blossom Fizz, which combined single-cultivar Yabukita matcha with lychee and osmanthus soda. Finished with an edible flower, it struck a balance between the matcha’s creamy richness and the soda’s light, refreshing fizz, making it a fragrant and bubbly companion to the savory spread.
Good Food, Good People, and A Little Teamwork
In the end, BANOWE was about more than putting together a good meal. It was about bringing people together to celebrate a neighborhood that has so much more to offer than its reputation as an automotive hub.
From the familiar flavors that inspired the menu to the creative twists that each collaborator brought to the table, every part of the experience offered a glimpse into what makes Banawe special. Equally important was how it highlighted food’s capability to tell the stories of a place by preserving little bits of its history and culture while still making room for new and exciting interpretations.
For Homebase, it was also a chance to share a side of Banawe that Choy and Bea know and love—hopefully inspiring more people to see the neighborhood through a similar POV along the way. After all, there are still plenty of local eateries to discover, stories to hear, and familiar favorites to try.
So the next time you’re in the area, don’t just drive through or stop by for your car. Stay a little longer, find a place to eat, and let one of Quezon City’s most underrated neighborhoods surprise you.
HOMEBASE is a multi-concept community space located in the Banawe area of 88 Apo St., Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City.
Frequently Asked Questions
BANOWE is a five-course dining collaboration that celebrates Banawe’s food culture, Chinese-Filipino influences, and neighborhood stories. It brings together Homebase, Now Now, Bar Hometown, and Jacque and Matcha.
The collaboration was inspired by Homebase founders Choy and Bea Calaquian’s connection to Banawe. Since Choy grew up in the neighborhood, they introduced Now Now founders Brian and Maxine Kong to some of their favorite local eateries through a food crawl. The dishes and flavors they encountered helped shape the BANOWE menu.
The menu takes inspiration from familiar neighborhood favorites and Chinese-Filipino influences, then gives them a creative spin through Now Now’s approach to fermentation and experimentation. Rather than completely reinventing these dishes, the team aims to preserve their recognizable character while introducing new flavors and textures.
Start by visiting its family-run eateries, neighborhood classics, and Chinese-Filipino restaurants. You can also take inspiration from BANOWE, which draws on the personal food memories and favorite local spots of its collaborators to introduce diners to another side of the neighborhood.
Banawe is a neighborhood in Quezon City best known as an automotive hub lined with shops and garages. It also has family-run eateries, neighborhood classics, and Chinese-Filipino favorites passed down through generations, which BANOWE draws on for its menu. Homebase founder Choy Calaquian grew up there.
