Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Foie Gras Carpaccio and More

On our last night in Paris before leaving for Avignon, where the wedding was to be held, Malu Gamboa suggested a restaurant to eat at, a place we had seemed to have passed several times, Comptoir de la Gastronomie on the Right Bank. We ordered several dishes to share.

Escargot with handles for everyone

To check this off my list, I ordered the cassoulet, which was a rich, hearty dish perfect for a cold, blustery evening, such as this night we ate out

my cassoulet

Kat's delicious ravioli with truffle oil

Kat seemed to eat more of my dish and I seemed to eat more of her dish. Don't you love sharing food and stories together over a good meal? I was supposedly supposed to split this with Bea, but she was dying with delight over it. And the winner of the evening was....

the foie gras carpaccio!

Pretty flower girls testing my 80s music skillz


We were so full and nicely tipsy over the yummy wine that we decided to walk back to Hotel Therese and promptly got lost! It's a good thing we had our gloves and scarves and other items of that nature, as it was pretty windy that night. I worked off all the foie gras and cassoulet by dancing the night away at Bus Palladium with a former collague, Ria de Borja, who is now based in Paris. 

Au revoir to one of my favorite cities in the world....


Comptoir de la Gastronomie 
34 Rue Montmartre
75001 Paris, France
01 42 33 31 32

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

House of Mouse

Hello, dear readers!

Let me begin this entry by apologizing for my absence. You've always been in my mind and the photos in my hard drive, but I unfortunately ran out of time to post. I do hope to make it up to you with these new entries that will bring you back to your childhood.

When you were a kid, did you ever want to stay at a Disneyland hotel but never got to?

Well, my family decided vacay to the wonderful world of Disney but in Hong Kong, and was it an adventure!

First off, my yaya (nanny) didn't have the proper docs to get a passport so this was our first trip without one.
Secondly, there was an amazing deal on Cebu Pacific so we left through Clark.

Disclaimer: I will never again fall for an "Any Juan Can Fly Promo" of Cebu Pacific for it is all a sham, sham, sham! Hidden charges and inflexibility will make you want to wring their necks later on, aside from the fact that they play annoying games while you try to sleep on the plane. My only condolence was that Enzo got sick on the plane ride back to Manila so we left a goody bag for the flight attendants to find.

But it was a very good trip and bonding experience; a special one for Enzo's memory banks.

Since Enzo didn't know what he was in for, I think hubby and I were more excited than he was.

When we finally arrived at the hotel at noon (from a flight time of 7AM, don't ask), we ate at the Chinese restaurant, the Crystal Lotus. I was too tired to take photos of the food but here are the interiors:






They also provide special plate ware for the kiddos:



But Enzo had Burger King at the airport so he just pretended to eat. Pooped from the day's travels, we just had room service for dinner.


Early next morning, we headed to the Enchanted Gardens for buffet breakfast, and they say there is a queue so its good we went early. This is what HK$250/ adult, $150/ child gets you:

Mickey-shaped pancakes!


Mickey waffles!
Breakfast of champions (Caloy)

Breakfast of skinny Minnies (me)














But this is not why its so popular. Guess who we got to meet? Enzo took our photos:






Everyone got so excited to meet and eat with the characters that they, well, forgot to eat. Disney employees had to tell guests to sit down.

The next day, away from the mania, we chose to eat breakfast in the more dignified saloon.












By this time, we were quite tired of everything Disney, plus we had exhausted eating at all three restaurants and room service. I wanted to show Enzo the "real" Hong Kong (read: eat somewhere else and do a little shopping not Disney-related) so we took the train to Kowloon.

After checking out Muji at Ocean Terminal, we ate Japanese food. They had these awesome lunch deals! By this time, I had to adjust my order to what Enzo liked to eat, and what he wanted was beef. So I ordered the Surf n Turf for HK$188- what a steal compared to Disney Hotel prices where they charge you $100 for a hot dog!






When we got back to Manila, for lunch we had some good old KFC in the car. Nothing like some junk food after 3 days of hotel food!