After treatments, a food chapter begins

Munarriz, glioma survivor, is now living the life

The greatest stories often involve survival. And some amazing movies have been made out of tales of surviving life-threatening diseases: The Theory of Everything shares the inspiring story of physicist Stephen Hawking as he battled Lou Gehrig’s disease, a disease that damages the neuromuscular system; A Beautiful Mind poignantly depicted John Nash’s battle with paranoid schizophrenia; Dallas Buyers Club, which won Matthew McConaughey an Oscar, tells a powerful journey of a man diagnosed with AIDS who refused to accept that he had only 30 days to live.

Life is not short

Last week, I was reminded of these success stories when I joined Dr. Julette Feliciano Batara, my father’s neuro-oncologist, for lunch with five former patients of hers – all survivors of various kinds of brain cancer. Each had his own story – some were diagnosed with primary central nervous system lymphoma, others with oligodendroglioma (I know, it’s a lot of syllables just to describe a kind of brain cancer).

They have all finished their treatments. They are all success stories. I was surprised that not one of them wore a mask. They just wore big smiles.

Comfort food at Lan Kwai Speakeasy of Carlos Munarriz

Patient to restaurateur

The most unique story is that of Juan Carlos Fernando Munárriz.

He was playing frisbee with his friends when his leg started feeling wobbly. At first he thought it was just an athlete’s problem. But it got worse.

“It was getting hard to control,” he recalls. “I wasn’t feeling pain so that triggered me to get checked.”

At 22, just about a year since graduating from college, with his whole life ahead of him, he was diagnosed with brainstem glioma, a kind of brain cancer.

But this did not dampen his spirits. He did his treatments and completed them in 2015. Now, at 25, without missing a beat, he has opened his own restaurant!

Partnering with his friends Marco Baluyut and Bea Policarpio, and later adding Chef Justin Barradas of Enderun to the equation, they invaded the Katipunan resto scene in August of last year.

By October, they were dubbed by an online site as “the new hip place you need to visit”, with its bar design closely resembling Pingpong 129, an underground bar cum pingpong place in Hong Kong.

The name of the restaurant cum bar is Lan Kwai Speakeasy and Hong Kong Cuisine. It is on E. Abada so the crowd is very millennial.

He recommends the Rib Finger Chao Fan, one of their most savory ricebowls, and the Lechon Macau because, he says, “it’s crispy, fatty and delicious with char siu sauce on top.”

For drinks, in true speakeasy fashion (although he clarifies they are not technically a speakeasy because the bar is not secret), Carlos recommends the Old Fashioned and Whiskey Sour.

Lan Kwai Speakeasy and Hong Kong Cuisine rocks

Gratitude

If there’s anything I learned from my lunch with Dr. Batara’s patients, brain cancer is not as scary as it sounds. For some, like these five, treatment was a trying time but it was just a temporary glitch. There is life after those treatments … and one that is filled with gratitude! You may even open your own restaurant!

Lan Kwai Speakeasy & Hong Kong Cuisine

42 Esteban Abada St., Loyola Heights, Quezon City

More details in their Facebook page (Lan Kwai Speakeasy & Hong Kong Cuisine)