The Milky Way Building Special

There are four restaurants in the Milky Way Building along Arnaiz Avenue (better known as Pasay Road). Everything you can find there is yummy.

A well-loved restaurant perfect for special occasions and ordinary ones is Cirkulo. It features Spanish cuisine as well as other international specialties.

Troupe Provence, fellow friends who were with me in France for Leica and Martin's wedding, had a reunion of sorts at Cirkulo, organized by the hostess with the mostess, Malu Gamboa, whose family owns the several restaurants in the building as well as the building itself. I wrote a story a few years ago on how her mother started Milky Way and how the reins have now passed to Malu and her chef brother, J.

Luckily, a box of goodies from France arrived, and Chef J cooked it up for us and arranged it beautifully for us to enjoy- heaven! Here were the apps:

 the tasty terrine (from Maru)

 the fabulous foie gras (also from Maru)

Spinach salad with chicaron 

Then came the mains that makes Cirkulo patrons keep on coming back for more. It's like they put magic dust in it so you think about your meal long after its over.

 steak frites

 crispy milk-fed pata

vegetarian portobello mushroom paella. All time fave!

Then the piece de resistance arrived. You thought you were stuffed? Think again. Here's the duck confit generously provided by Maru and lovingly cooked by J:

my portion- just a smidge. I've had it up here, I tell you....

Just when you though you were out, they pull you back in. For dessert, that is.

 meet deadly: flourless chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream

and his cousin, deadlier: bread pudding with vanilla ice cream

And these were the players. Reminiscing over good times and planning new times to come ahead!

Dynasty pose

That was a little before the New Year. Not everyone could attend, so Malusky made another date for 2011: January 10, at Azuthai (which we call Azuzu) to try the new menu. Game on! I never tire of Thai food.

When we arrived that evening, we ordered away. Isn't ordering so much fun when you are in a big group and someone will surely share with you?

We trickled in, but the first batch ordered this at random:

 catfish salad

 assorted appetizers. a good idea for first timers

 pad Thai, my favorite!

 pomelo salad

 shrimp cakes

green chicken curry

I love how each dish is presented and how it can be both exotic and comfort food at the same time. You can never say Thai food is bland!

This time, those who didn't make it to the Cirkulo dinner showed up. Always a blast! Tessa came bearing gifts from Korea, including a dolphin caller, perfect for Jon-jon.

 Cashmere Craver and Soul Train as one

 Kat, Jon-jon and Dustin

Malu, Patrick, Chesca

Nix and Rajo

Dennis, Tessa and Teenee

Manda and Nix

Teenee and Bea

The finally, yesterday, for a final farewell to my dear friend Lia (who I could say can very well make her own blog of what she eats when she comes home to Manila), we trooped back to the Milky Way Building to eat at Tsukiji.

Yesterday, Lia had planned to eat Japanese for lunch, a choriburger for snack and Korean for dinner. By the way, she absolutely adores Jolly hotdog! Talk about homesickness!!

Tsukiji has fabulous and very affordable set menus for lunch (Php495+), very surprising as Tsukiji is very famous for its utmost quality. I had the pork tonkatsu set.

feels like you're in Japan!

 appetizer starter of tuna sashimi

 miso soup

 this is for one person? Crazy!

 Very tasty edamame

 Lia's favorite: agedashi tofu

Chesca's set: grilled mackerel

 Sayonara Lia! See you on the other side!

So all that is missing is the Milky Way Cafe. Wish I had room for a halo-halo....

Cirkulo: Ground floor, Milky Way Building 900 Arnaiz Avenu; tel +632.810.2763
Azuthaii: Same address +632.813.0671

You can never have too much Japanese

Last week, my office mates and I decided to finally have the lunch we have been hankering for a long time at the Pepper Lunch near the office in Greenbelt 5. It was also a reunion as our dear Mario was home for the holidays, on break from NYU grad school. It was a fine time to catch up.

As Mia suggested, and to be different (I always get the same thing whenever I eat here) I ordered the beef teriyaki pepper rice (Php185) , though I was very tempted to order the yakiniku, which was new on the menu. If you add 60 pesos, you get a drink and choice of soup or salad or ice cream. What a great deal!

 Japanese version of tapsilog

 ice cream bonus...but hard to finish after that heavy meal!

bunch for lunch

Dinner that same evening, I had dinner plans. Whenever my friend Lia is in town, we always make it a point to get together at least once for lunch and once for dinner. Seemed like my Rotterdam-based friend was in the mood for Japanese, so we went to Seryna in Little Tokyo. Plus, it was Marga's first night out in ages!!!

feels like you are in a steam room

 with its wooden interiors...but you are not.

 With Lia: she's checking off her Manila list...

The siblings Cobbarrubias: Jose and Marga

Japanese partner in crime, Amy

This was my first time there as I was not really a big fan of shabu-shabu, but this restaurant changed my mind about it.

First of all, the shabu-shabu I've tried in the past wasn't very exciting. It seemed like being in a big steam room with your clothes on as you throw in as many things as you can into one boiling pot of broth. At least you get a nice facial from it, but the food to me was boring!

Seryna was classy- someone else cooked it for you and it came with two dipping sauces, and there were other things to order as well, such as:

 steamed spinach with bonito

 salmon sushi three ways

 salmon sashimi

 uni

 spicy tuna

 a strange mutation of a kani salad

chahan

and of course, the shabu-shabu. The things I showed you above were just appetizers for the main event:

 Now that's McSteamy!

quite a delish dish

I suppose ordering the right type of meat makes all the difference as well. And those dipping sauces! Sarap!

When this came out

grill it your way

I was too stuffed for anything else. It's nice to let other people order and you just eat, at least you try different things instead of the old favorites. What a laugh trip we had this evening!!! The place was packed like a mother! Defnitely must come back here. Aside from the company and the food, another yummy part of the evening was this:

Asahi super dry

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!

Pepper Lunch: 

Second level, Greenbelt 5

Seryna:

2277 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City

tel +632.894.3855

Eating and Shopping on Rue Saint Honore

Day 3 saw us moving over to the Right Bank, in a cute boutique hotel called Hotel Therese. It is here where Manda met up with her family and the advanced party for the wedding met up for shopping and more eating.

After settling into our room we ventured round the corner to Saint Honore for lunch and the after-lunch window shopping that is usually complementary to such meals laden with butter, truffle oil, or foie.

When I go to France I usually have a checklist of food that I must eat, and this was it:
Escargot; duck; lamb or rabbit; seasonal foods such as mushrooms, white asparagus or truffle; foie gras; artisanal cheeses; souffle; eclairs; macarons; crepes.

We stopped in a bistro along the way, Le Castiglione. You can always tell if its good if there are a lot of people eating there.

Surveying their menu, I was attracted to the ceps in a dish- so I had to order it.

 excited to shop!

 Bea, Kat, me and Manda

poached eggs with ceps in a truffle cream sauce

Kat's special catch of the day

So, macaron: check. scargot: check. duck: check. Seasonal food: cep!
Now onto window shopping at Chanel, Hermes, Longchamp...etc etc etc.