Some Things Never Last: La Regalade Food Fest

Have you ever missed a film festival or a local run of your favorite play or didn't buy that specially-colored Balenciaga bag in Greenbelt 5 because you decided to wait it out? Many times we put off doing things, saying that, "I'll do it next week" or "I can't get a group together."

For those of you who got to partake of La Regalade's French Moroccan food festival that ended last month, consider yourselves very lucky.

LU's Luis de Terry guest cheffed for this special food festival and added his usual flair to freshen up the La Regalade menu for the months of December and January. All the dishes were brimming with flavors both subtle and strong.

Shrimp and squid rghayef

 Though the name is a mouthful, this rghayef was an interesting play of cumin, coriander and paprika combined with crispy filo pastry. Lots and lots of coriander were sprinkled on the dishes, a little too much for my liking, even though I do love it so.

escargot a'la harissa

 For me, this escargot trumps the escargot currently on LR's regular menu, as I do not enjoy it with tomato sauce very much. These hot buttery morsels get an added zing with the Moroccan spices, and I could eat a zillion of these little suckers (literally, haha).

 pumpkin soup with fennel seeds

This soup was interesting, a little bit on the sweet side, but what I didn't enjoy was the rice found in the middle of it, which thickened the already thick consistency. The the final dish of the evening, which takes hours and hours to cook, is the lamb mechoul. Here it is in its whole form:

 Then here it is in its serveable form:

Love love love the cous cous that came with it, so flavorful and delicately cooked. The lamb was, as predicted, tender and succulent, falling off the bone. Had I not been so full of the other apps that came before it, I would've had a bit more. This lamb is good for 6, so it's best eaten with fun company.

The night we ate here it was an unpredictably torrential rainy night. Some of us almost didn't make it, but did. Other who planned to come had to turn back because of the awful traffic. Hopefully LR will continue to do more food festivals as to bring new blood to the restaurant, and hopefully add some dishes to its usual roster so we can enjoy these seasonal dishes all year round.

La Regalade
820 Arnaiz Avenue, Makati City
+632.750.2104