Dining High

We escaped the heat last weekend for Tagaytay. And though the traffic going there was atrocious, the weather was simply gorgeous! Fresh and breezy, not hot and damp. It was so cold at night, my mom had to wear my shawl and we slept without aircon. Sweet reprieve!

The food at Tagaytay Highlands was pretty darn good, and its not just because of the altitude.

We had a light lunch at the Greenhouse Bistro, They offer a salad and make-your-own pasta buffet, sort of like Sonya's Garden but with more variety. Enzo kept asking for pizza and mango juice, both of which they didn't have any. So, they didn't have that much more variety. Here are the fresh veggies for the salad

You can buy the dressing and take it home, along with other veggies

And the ingredients for the pasta which you can pair with an olive oil and garlic, pesto, tomato or cream sauce. I opted for a salmon, caper and onion in olive oil and garlic but should've gone for the cream, as the kids had a very nice and light cream carbonara.

 Then we had a heavy dinner at the Highlands Steak House. One cute boot

Fresh bread hot from the oven

A sampler of soups: French Onion, Clam Chowder and Lobster Bisque. The best was the chowder, hands down, followed by the onion soup then the last is the gravy looking one.

Seven-ounce prime rib with corn, Yorkshire pudding, creamed spinach. So. Damn. Good. I see you salivating there!

Plus some potatoes au gratin for good measure

So you can understand how I slept like a baby there...missing the cool weather so much.

Tagaytay Highlands
+6346.483.0820 


For those who aren't members, you can try the steakhouse at Mall of Asia, equally good, minus the weather.


Highlands Steakhouse Mall of Asia
+632.556.0768

Me Want Coooookkkiiieee!

What do you think Cookie Monster would do if he saw this?

In the words of Rod Stewart: "Some guys have all the luck."

Matakaw for Taka

If you were to ask me what my very favorite restaurant in Manila was, somewhere I could eat everyday only if I could afford it, it would be the little known restaurant, Taka that specializes in kaiseki style dining. I treated my hubby here for our 8th wedding anniversary and have written an article about it in the Tatler. If you missed it, it was reposted on luxedining.com here.


I took my sister and brother in law there recently, and was I nervous. They have both been to Japan several times and tried authentic Japanese cuisine, from the small ramen noodle houses to the formal kaiseki meals. When Margie asked me why a place so simply decorated would garner a 10 out of 10 in a restaurant guide, she asked me if I was influenced by the food.


"Terribly," I replied.


It didn't help that Jack was very hungry since he did not eat breakfast that day. We were to have the basket meal. The first time I had the basket meal here was quite memorable too. In fact, every time I come here is memorable. I love the food so much, I don't even bother to bring a camera, which is why the ones here are from my crappy camera phone. 


In this photo, you have your perfectly battered tempura on the far left, served with calamansi. Then is o-toro, salmon and tuna sashimi served with chizo leaf. Next, in the blue covered bowl, is a silky soft tofu in broth hiding inside. Jack says it had that malinamnam taste! After that is super fresh and soft tamago. Next, on the bottom, is eggplant in a sort of plum paste then above it is a leafy green veggie with bonito flakes on top and the most tender octopus I've ever tried in my life on the right. Isn't the presentation so well thought-out? I get so excited when I see this.

Then our server Joy came out with this, sticky Japanese rice topped with ikura and some sort of seasoning. Love love love this!

These pickles were crisp to the bite and the right amount of sweet with briny.

Margie took a photo of the izugyu steak and the pot of root vegetables. As usual, no dessert photos. It was a pineapple sorbet refashioned back onto a wedge of fresh pineapple. My sister and brudder were impressed. "This is really just like being in Japan!" they said.


Every time I have eaten here, I get something different. This time, it was the rice with ikura and those pickles on the side, as well as the pineapple. When you leave, you are full, but not bursting to the seams the food is in your throat full. You are perfectly right full. I love how thoughtful everything is presented and how all the food is delicious and full of umami. The Japanese really got it right.


If you check out Suzuki-san's kitchen, it's so clean you think he created these dishes magically out of it. Can't wait 'til I get to go there the next time!

Yen for Japanese

So I've been a bad blogger (sorry Reb!) and haven't been posting as often as I should. Please forgive me for not being in the mood to photograph food, clean up the photos and upload them as I've been busy with my job that pays me, hehe.

To make up for this, i'm giving you a bunch in a row in honor of my good mood, it being my birthday next week and all. This, of course, will prompt a bunch more entries for next week. Watch out for them!

This post is about another Japanese restaurant, one that I always enjoy and can count on, like an old friend. Prices are affordable, the food is good quality and the service is the bomb--they always remember their repeat customers.

B was leaving for Boracay and the evening before her flight, I asked her what she might like to eat that she couldn't get on the island, and Sugi was it.

Since I had eaten something before going out to dinner, I was willing to share my food and not get my own dish, hehe.

I love the amuse bouche they give you before a meal, this was pickled cucumber. Lot's of times we order off the menu and this is a dish you will see later reincarnated in this post.

I love any kind of Japanese salad dressing but most especially the sesame and vinaigrette kinds. Marty, B and I ordered this interesting seafood salad, big on the seafood, small on the salad. Love the tangy dressing!

Now this sashimi is a Sugi specialty. Spicy tuna with tempura flakes and topped with dried seaweed. I always order this whenever I'm here.

B really likes this eggplant dish. Now i'm not a fan of eggplant too much, except in eggplant marinara and the Greek eggplant dip. Maybe that's why my camera failed to take a good photo here.

This was the spider roll and it was one hot beautiful mess. Delish!

I forget the name of this roll but its very good, and quite a bit of everything. There's salmon, unagi and tuna. I was just saying this day that I only like my unagi in small doses such as this. Otherwise I kind of want to throw up a little in my mouth, maybe its the oiliness from its fat or something.

Now this was what I was talking about earlier. When Marga arrived ala Jay or one hour later, she asked them to make this salad of the pickled cucumber together with sesame seeds and shredded chicken. So tangy and crunchy and light at the same time, perfect munching food. Try asking for it next time!

We ordered this salmon sashimi way before Marga got there. And this was our version

And this was her version. Which do you think looked more artistic?

When I eat here I always get either gindara, the steak with mushrooms, ten zaru soba or the chicken kakaage. I'm glad I have friends with different personalities to eat new things with...Missing B already. Hope she's having a blast in Boracay.

Sugi Greenbelt

+632.757.3678

Sugi Greenhills

+632.721.7111

My Inspiration Part 2

I have another group of friends, the second inspiration for this blog. I became close to them only in the past two years.


You never think that you will meet and keep friends in adulthood as close as your friends from childhood, but thankfully, I was proved wrong. 


We meet through my besty Kate. She was married, I was married. She had a baby, I had a baby. My hubby became the godfather of her daughter, her hubby became the godfather of our son. She was having marriage trouble, and can you guess what happened next? Well, she's a single girl and I'm not so that's where the analogy ends. But we have remained the best of friends through thick and thin and sick and sin!


So during this time, she had found a bunch of girlfriends, friends that not only GOT her but loved her for who she was instead of making her into someone else. And she wanted me to meet them.


Now I don't know what this recurring theme is with my girlfriends, but Kate is half-half (half British and half Filipino).  Estelle is British, Geri is British, Marga and Amy went to International School and Amy lived in Phoenix. I am Filipino but born in New York and always feeling a little bit like an outsider because my Tagalog still really sucks, so we all got along like peaches. 


Have you heard of the phrase Girl Power? Well, it seemed we were a little like the Spice Girls without the musical capability (oops, except for you Geri!).


We have a lot of things in common but one thing we all enjoy dearly is eating out at good restaurants. 


And it seems like we are always eating in Japanese restaurants. Well, we all love Japanese food but this was my first time this place, though I've heard so much about it...

 Marga, Amy and Kate had eaten there the week before, and when Jay, Geri's hubby who was in town with his brother, Little Jay, wanted to have dinner with us and get all the latest cheese, the group decided on here. Jay, as usual, was late, so we had ordered this extremely luscious salmon sashimi, so fantastically wonderful--and I was very hungry and on the verge of a brat attack--that I forgot to take pictures again.

When Jay and his brother finally arrived, we let him do the ordering and he decided an assortment of sushi that was very fresh and succulent.

Then we tried the chef's recommendation of assorted tempura which was served with a special salt. In Japan, they don't serve tempura with sauce, they serve it with different flavored salts like this. Don't you love the shapes of their ceramic ware? So pretty!

And last but not the least their meat. which was so melt-in-the-mouth it was like butta.

There was hardly anyone in the joint and we sat at the sushi bar, so the chef was all ours. Look at these knives! I wouldn't want to get on their bad side!

The experience was bittersweet for me. For one, I felt time pressure because I had a movie date with my sister later that evening and had to haul myself from Makati to Greenhills. Two, B wasn't in a very good mood because of some recent events that involved a job she had poured her whole heart and soul into, only to be crushed by a small Chinese man with no sense of style. Then three, Jay came late so I couldn't really chat long and it was bitin.  So the next time I plan to come to Sushi Kobikicho, it will be very, very different circumstances. If at all! The portions are quite small. As my sister says, she paid about P5,000 and was still hungry. 
Oh my! I know a better place :)


Sushi Kobicicho
150 Legaspi Street JAKA Building

Legaspi Village, Makati City

+632.752.1280; www.kobikicho.com

Bloody Hell

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

On Sunday, whilst we were helping B with her yoga exam, Marty made some Bloody Marys which I rechristened "Bloody Marty." I've never had one before and they were damn good! I never knew Bloody Marys were spicy, they always seemed like a sour sort of drink to me. I won't tell you Marty's secret recipe, but I especially liked its zing from the horseradish and I loved nibbling on the celery. I'd finish the celery way before the drink itself. Highly recommended! And I heard that its a favored brunch drink because it cures hangovers? Even better. :)


photo from skinnychef.com

Ooh la la Regalade!

There's something special going down at the French bistro La Regalade, and thank God I was there to witness it. Michelin starred chef Alain Raye is back in town fresh from Vancouver and will cook for you at the resto's first food festival up until April 18, 2010 since its opening in 2008.

He literally arrived at 5 in the morning of the first day of the festival, April 6, to oversee the ongoings in his restaurant. He had undergone surgery from a bypass the year before and had seemed a mellower version of himself. 

We had started with some wine at the bar. Since I started reading The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace, wine has become somewhat of an obsession with me. I had some white and then some red, and we were served some very nice pate on toasted French baguette. When we finally sat down to dinner at about 8 PM, we were shown the food festival menu, a plethora of choices that made it difficult for any discerning diner.

For the soup and salad menu, there was a nice gazpacho, perfect for summer; a cod soup with chorizo; crab remoulade and the crab bisque with pistachios which was winking at me from the menu. There was something about the tuna carpaccio with fresh goat cheese that needed my attention. I ordered it and was it a winning combination.

When it arrived I almost forgot it was tuna. I thought it was well marbled beef, a nice surprise for those who want to eat sort of light (for a starter). I absolutely loved the red onion and the fresh goat cheese.

 This was the bisque. It was heaven in a bowl, super delish! There are times when I would truly rather have two appetizers than a starter and a main, which is what part-owner Perfecto "Bubot" Quicho did. But in true journalistic fashion, I had to have a little of everything.

There were hot starters such as parmesan cheese tart with tomatoes, steak tartare, fried prawns with fresh thyme and escargot en crouton. I got the escargot though it was the steak tartare that garnered the most stories and attention at the table, that raw, wascally wabbit (I have to admit I've never tried it).


So the stories went that the persons who loved steak tartare the most in the country were President and Mrs Marcos. They had Hyatt cater a party for them at Malacanang and the hotel had forgotten to bring with them the revered dish. Upon discovering their ghastly mistake, they told security who had a car rush rush rush back to the hotel to get the dish for the President and First Lady.

As much as I love escargot, my favorite remains the classic style of cooking it, which is to say in lots of herbs and butter where I can dip my crusty bread in.

The mains were easier to choose from as I was craving grilled lamb chops (still thinking of Jack's ribs, yummmm) but on the menu was braised lamb chops. Either way, they ran out of this specialty so I opted for the beef cheeks (on the menu it is veal cheeks, but this too, was out of stock. damn those carnivores! Let them eat tuna!).

It was in a delightful sauce and served with the signature Regalade potatoes au gratin, creamy, cheesy, "last meal before the electric chair, they're so good" potatoes. A conversation ensued on how some Regalade regulars end up ordering the delicious boeuf bourguignon for take out just so they could eat it with rice, Pinoy style. Yeah, I could see that.

By now I was royally stuffed and forgot to take a picture of the chocolate tart I had for dessert. I could have had the tart tatin or the creme brulee but truth be told, I just couldn't fit anything in there anymore.

Going back to La Regalade was a fantastic dining experience and I will be going back there again real soon, maybe for other items on the festival menu or for the Steak Frites and perhaps for the elusive apple tart tatin. If you want to eat Chef Alain's food, go there for dinner and enjoy a long leisurely experience ala the Slow Food Movement.

La Regalade Manila
825 Arnaiz Avenue, (formerly Pasay Road) Makati City. 
Tel +632.750.2104/05
Website: www.laregalademanila.com

Lambie Pie Guinea Pig

About a week ago, Jack got into one of his moods. Cooking moods, that is! And I, along with Martin and Paula and Jay, our other lucky friends who live in the same area, got to try his latest recipe of lamb ribs.

Since it was an impromptu dinner and an even more impromptu dinner invite, I did not have my beloved camera and had to make do with my cell phone camera in its place. Lesson learned is to keep my camera in my car at all times!

DISCLAIMER: The black dots you see in the photos are from the camera phone and have nothing to do with the food whatsoever.

Moving on...

Jack got his inspiration from the Las Vegas Wynn's room service menu of lamb ribs, which came in a double rib serving. "I just hate it when you get only a single rib. That's more like a snack, not a meal," he said. I nodded in complete agreement, thinking how the Wynn was able to do a double lamb rib meal for room service.

He cooked a big batch of lamb ribs, medium rare, whose secret ingredient he said was cinnamon. They were paired with a wonderfully creamy and tangy goat cheese yogurt sauce. My seester ordered the bread and dips such as hummus from Behrouz, and if I am not mistaken, the grilled onions and tomatoes as well.

Jack made the surprise inside this too, can you guess what it was?

Tadah!

Fluffy little golden specks of goodness mixed with some raisins and cashews: couscous!

It was about 9 PM when we sat down to eat and Jack cut the ribs into pairs and served it to us, his guest guinea pigs. We ate the ribs with the couscous, a bit of grilled tomato and that lovely, lovely sauce. The food experience was just phenomenal! The ribs were tasty with none of that gamey flavor and I enjoyed picking the rib up and nibbling off the meat. When some of the ribs on the platter got cold, Jack had them flash pan-fried. We enjoyed the meal with a delicious Chilean Cabernet Sauv.

Our friend Jay had 3 ribs, one double and a single and I found out later that he didn't even like lamb! Talk about being converted!

I had two doubles. You know you are in deep food trouble when you're talking about doubles and you mean double lamb ribs. The outcome of this wonderful meal was my inevitable food coma.

After dinner we went to the music room and watched Kina dance her Michael Jackson moves to Fergie singing Beat It through the Von Schwiekerts. We talked about the upcoming Turning 40 vacay to San Fran in November a little bit after three-year-old Joaquinie left a wet reminder of himself on the floor as he was whisked to bed.

That night I slept like a baby too. It's fun to be a guinea pig.

Thanks for the fab meal, brudder and seester!

Pizza Man

Got a text on the way home last night from hubs : "Did you still want to order pizza for dinner tonight hubs?"

Hell ya.

So as I say saying yesterday, the craving did kick in. I guess going fast-food-free for 30 days does something to ya, like a delayed reaction. After eating my organic carrots sticks and the popcorn from 7-11, I decided to order a Shakey's party size sausage pizza with extra mushrooms. The great thing about this was they delivered it, and, I got to pay it with my credit card. "If its late, its free!"

I forgot to take a picture again, we were so hungry. Even little Enzo, who didn't want to eat his fish, decided to wait out the 30 minutes for the pizza.

And

it

was

heaven!

With a side order of mojos with Caesar dip, we sat in front of the TV together as a family and ate and watched. Ah, the little moments.

Shakey's Delivery 77777

Holy Poundage!

How can a four-day long weekend- with a one day fast- equate to chubby cheeks all of a sudden?

I swam. I played Band Hero. I watched movies. 

But I guess the fried chicken and lasagna, salami and cheese, Angus burgers with French fries, bouillabasse, scallops, grilled prawns, fish and chips, adobo, scrambled egg and garlic rice, spaghetti and barbecue and Krispy Kremes might have done the trick.

I brought my camera but was way too lazy to take photos of food. Besides, I think it would have been quite rude of me to take pictures of food while everyone else was waiting to pounce on it. As I said, we all went swimming and its a fact that swimming makes one hungry before making one sleepy. 

I only had one glass of sparkling wine (Bellagio) and that was it. A very relaxing time indeed.

When I got to Manila on Saturday, I had Pepper Lunch (hi Cecille!) for dinner with B and T. B gave Enzo lovely Cadbury chocolate eggs, which I ended up eating. Nostalgia candy from childhood is always a special treat.

I only got to take photos of Easter lunch, and only because Hubs reminded me to do so but I forgot to take the Salami with truffles from Munich. Here it is:

lumpia or fried vegetable springroll. we like to eat it with a vinegar dipping sauce

 roast beef served with gravy. I usually don't like to eat the fat but this was absolutely sinful!

 Japanese gindara. Dad had the other one and I just ate a fourth of this, because I was saving space for...

 mini cheesecake and mini chocolate cake from Mary Grace. Hello my lovelies!

Just look at the caramel filling. Isn't it heaven?

I watched Julie and Julia over the break. Found the Julia parts interesting, the Julie parts bor-ing. So what if she got a book deal and a movie deal? She's BORING! No wonder I waited so long to watch it.

My Lenten sacrifice of fast food is now over. Just waiting for my craving of pizza to kick in. 

What did you eat over the holidays?