GRABE, OA sa sarap!” I texted Ping Medina as I waddled out of Pen Pen, the yummiest carinderia this side of Quezon City.

Ping is, of course, the indie actor nonpareil, who now operates the eatery owned by his mother, writer Chupsie Medina.

Ours was a spur-of-the-moment detour to the restaurant located just off the highend-ish restaurant row that’s Tomas Morato. Heading home from Greenhills, we briefly considered then quickly rejected lunch at the restaurants that came into view – JT Manukan Grill (roadside dining works only at night), Chow King (Chinese fastfood overload), Kebab (we wanted air-conditioning!).

Then remembering that I was supposed to have dropped in two weeks earlier for a look-see at the revamped Pen Pen (Ping’s dad, actor Pen Medina, first ran it as pan de sal sandwich place), we decided on the detour.

The place is small (seats 26) and bright with a menu that’s pretty extensive but priced modestly. In addition, there were food warmers lined up against a side wall that served the day’s lunch specials – sinigang na baboy, lumpia and rellenong bangus at P50 per serving, sans rice.

We chose our main ulam from the menu listing under the heading Pen Pen Comfy and shared bowls of fave standbys – caldereta, menudo and Bicol Express – which went from P75 to a little over P100. The food exploded in our mouths.

The caldereta actually had olives, the generously diced baboy in the Bicol Express melted into the gata and the siling haba, and the menudo was…sublime. Sige, OA na kung OA. But the menudo was prepared the old-style Kapampangan way – with the pork sliced instead of ground and using toyo instead of tomato sauce. Plus there were generous chunks of pork liver and peas.

We wanted to order more, eat more, but we had no more space. We promised to try Pen Pen’s specialties next time: the Crispiest Liempo (P105) and the Mini Cordon Bleu (P85 for 6 pcs, P130 for 10 pcs). But there were other things we wanted to sample first – the tinapa flakes pasta and the gourmet daing pasta, the recipe of which Ping told an Inquirer reporter he swiped from a brother who used to make it all the time at home.

Ping himself is partial to the Creamy Garlic Kalabasa (P45) and the pastas.

Making a Pen Pen indulgence a little more guilt-free is the fact that the restaurant donates 10 percent of its net earnings to a charity that changes every month. For August and September, Pen Pen chose Manikako, a group that aims to empower children through creativity. Manikako has brought its art workshops on the road.

And so goes another do-gooding reason to go OA on the food.