Weekend Food Choices Week 4: Consistent Satisfaction is the Key

We bought advance tickets to Imax to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last weekend and so before our 7pm movie date, we decided to have dinner.

Weekend Food Choices:
1. Don Henricos
2. Jatujak
3. KFC

Our Choice:

This is one of the best fast food Thai restaurant that hubby and i have been to and we just can't help but keep coming back. This time, we brought Tat along to taste their delicious dishes.

Because we were all absolutely thirsty from our walk around the mall, we all ordered refillable mint and lemon grass beverages

I love this beverage because it is so refreshing! Their Thai iced tea is delicious as well and is a must try.

We absolutely love their tom yum soup and is always on our table when we eat at JatuJak

The warm gingery broth of this dish makes for a great comfort food. Its kept nice and hot by the flame under the pot.

We ordered the mixed seafood tom yum and because hubby forgot to specify that he wanted the soup extra spicy, i happily slurped the broth without making my eyes water.

We decided to try their Pho Pia

These fried spring rolls had glass noodles, minced pork and mushrooms in it. It was nice and crispy and because the filling was not all meat, it doesn't really dampen your appetite for the main course.

I was craving for their Pad Thai

i love these noodles!

For the main course, Tat requested for the chicken pan dan

These tender chicken pieces infused with pandan flavor from the leaf covering them was a good choice.

and this was delicious with the bagoong rice that hubby ordered.

I had actually wanted drip coffee but hot coffee was not available at this branch and because my two dinner dates were not dessert people, we decided to forgo the sweets and enjoy the lemon grass beverages as we waited for the movie.

The movie was great but like majority of sequel movies, i think i kind of liked the first one better...

Not quite like our trips to JatuJak where every dining experience is consistent with the satisfaction of the previous ones!

Flying in a Cebu Lechon to Celebrate a Wonderful Announcement

It was a sunny morning, a beautiful start to a wonderful day! My tummy had been filled with butterflies since the night before. Whether it was from excitement, hunger or both, it really didnt matter because today, we were headed to d airport to pick up a special guest!

Last week was Tat's birthday & just around the same time, i received a notice that my work was accepted for presentation to an international conference. What better way to celebrate a birthday and the acceptance announcement than with family!

So this morning, hubby and i got up early (for him that is) on a saturday to pick up the main guest of our celebration.

At 7am we checked the flight status to make sure the plane was not delayed. And when we were sure the flight was nearing its arrival, we headed to NAIA.

The roads were still pretty spacious for a weekend. And in less than 15 minutes we saw the signboard.

A couple of kilometers from the first airport inspection, the cargo truck we were trailing turned a corner. We decided to follow it as we thought it must be heading the same place as we were. Sure enough, we found ourselves at our pick up area.

The anticipation was enough to make me giddy!

I lined up at the receiving window of the incoming packages and a cheery man asked for my name. Leafing through a couple of forms, he found my airway bill and was probably wondering why i was all googly eyed as he instructed me to proceed to the gates.

At the gate, i gave my airway bill to the lady in charge and as we waited for them to verify my documents, hubby and i searched the packages that might look like ours.

After a couple of minutes my name was called

I was so happy to finally meet our special guest!!

At home, the rest of the feast was waiting for our arrival

We prepared yang chow fried rice brought by brother in law

Beef with broccoli care of Tat

Fresh lumpia and mixed vegetables with shrimp & quail eggs made by Claring

Hototay soup from Tat

Seafood pansit palabok brought by sister in law

and maja blanca & leche flan for dessert bought from our favorite Filipino dessert booth at the market

Our special guest from the airport was unwrapped

and finally after all the wrapping were removed, the golden skinned whole roasted pork was revealed

Chopping was done by the birthday celebrant

The spices that filled the pork could be seen as it was chopped.

These spices infused the meat and skin with a distinct flavor as the lechon was slow roasted on all sides over flamed charcoal. That is, before it took its flight to Manila to become the main attraction at our buffet table.

The word lechon comes form a spanish term meaning roasted suckling pig. This is one of the most popular dishes in any celebration in the Philippines.

After Anthony Bourdain's visit to the Philippines he dubbed our whole roasted pig at the top of his hierarchy of pork.

Frankly, im not all that surprised!

The lechon on the buffet table was the signal for the hungry guests to dig in

Each got their share of all the wonderful dishes in the buffet

I ate quickly because i had to run off to my day job, (surprise, surprise, i don't eat for a living...).

But i left all the guests smiling

Now, whether their smiles were just for the camera or because they loved the dishes that touched their taste buds, in not too sure...

But what ever those smiles meant, it was obvious that life is good!

thank you to my loving hubby for the wonderful photos of the celebration

A Happy Duo

We celebrated 15 years as a couple (2 years of marriage and 13 years before) at the start of the week with a nice quiet dinner in Serendra.

I thought that Duo would be a fitting place as the name of the restaurant describes the combination of two.

Duo's ambiance was nice and cozy with beautiful paintings on the walls which were actually for sale. I take it that the decors evolve with time when these paintings are bought and sold.

we were entertained by our waiter felix who enthusiastically took our orders and as i was starving when we got there, i was ready for some good food.

the bread basket was served and emptied in no time. the warm bread and creamy butter was just to tempting to be ignored by the famished celebrant!

fortunately our soup was served and the warm dish calmed my grumbling tummy. hubby ordered the french onion soup, while i had the prawn bisque & tomato.

for our main course hubby ordered the surf and turf, a combination of blackened top blade steak and spiced grilled prawn.

the steak was deliciously juicy!

i ordered the steak and foie gras (hubby was not surprised at all at my choice)

the steak medallions were topped off with duck liver and port wine jus. it was delicious but i wish the duck liver had a more buttery consistency.

we both enjoyed Chilean wine, luis felipe edwards cabernet sauvignon for hubby and chardonnay terra vega for me.

and then ordered coffee and dessert to cap our dinner date

their brewed coffee had a real bold flavor, a little strong for a late evening cup for me so i poured on the warm milk and ended up with a little spill!

the dessert sampler, on the other hand, was perfect!

the chocolate decadence was smooth and delicious, the blueberry cheese cake buttery in consistency and the tiramisu soft and velvety! Definitely a great ending to a satisfying dinner!

And as we headed back to the car enjoying the serene atmosphere of the evening under the stars, i could not help but think that nothing less than a long happy life awaits our duo!

Weekend Food Choices Week 3: Not for the Lazy Bones

Last weekend was Father's Day and we i got all excited with the preparations.

Weekend Food Choices
1. Dampa
2. Dusit Thani
3. Home

Our Choice:

The Crossover Family Sunday Brunch Buffet is offered every sunday 11am-3pm at Dusit Thani. Hubby and i have wanted to try this for quite sometime now, and Father's Day seemed to be the best time for it.

The crossover buffet is called as such because you literally can cross over to the 4 different restaurants of Dusit Thani to sample each of the restaurants dishes. What makes it more fun is that there is always a kids zone at the hotel lobby so that while mom and dad are checking out the buffet tables, kiddies can check out the fun activities!

because last sunday was father's day, they added a couple of booths just for the daddies...but lets look at the buffet first!

we all had a hard time trying to figure out where to treat Tat on father's day and so when we finally decided on Dusit Thani and reserved, tables at umu were already all taken. The receptionist i talked to over the phone suggested Tosca, instead. She claimed that the ambiance was better than the others.

This italian restaurant is located at the mezzanine.

at buffets, i always head to the bread and cold cuts for starters

while hubby always starts off with salad

there was free flowing sparking wine for all the diners

yay! bubbly!

after a couple of plates of Tosca's dishes, we headed to Umu

this Japanese restaurant is at the ground floor of Dusit Thani. So down the stairs we went and through a hall. What greeted us was a restaurant with more subdued lighting and a line of people for the buffet table.

the sushi and sashimi display was a beauty!

but unfortunately, they ran out of my salmon sashimi when it was my turn to hoard.

i was roaming around Umu because i wanted tempura but i was told it was at Basics so i decided my plate full was enough for the time being.

Because we had to either take the winding staircase or the elevator to get back to our tables at Tosca, our game plan was to get 2 plates each so that we did not have to keep going down for our favorite dishes. This turned out to be a balancing act and we eventually forgot to get chopsticks! So after depositing our plates at Tosca at the mezzanine, hubby and i went down to Basics, an international restaurant, on the ground floor to get our chopsticks and tempura. But when we got there, the buffet table was just so tempting that we again started filling 2 plates each!

obviously, there was more than what's on these photos but we just got a little impatient going up and down the mezzanine that the moment we sat down, there was no waiting for the click of the camera...the food on our plates was immediately consumed!

The last restaurant we sampled was Benjarong, a thai restaurant at the same level of Tosca. By this time however, i was feeling a bit full and just wanted to taste their soup. I chose the Tom Yum Clear soup

while hubby got a plate of thai noodles and coconut based tom yum

After my gingery soup, i was ready for dessert! But the lure of the activities downstairs was just too tempting for me, so Tat and i went down to see what was in store for the dads.

all the dads got a bag of goodies

and a few minutes of free massage, which i may add was really good! See even the non dads could sample this relaxing treat and i was not one to miss out!

There were also other activities like the mini golf 3 hole course contest

i was prodding both the dad and the aspiring dad i was with to join but they were just not into it

there was also the darts contest but the shy daddies i was with were not in a competitive mood

winners got overnight stay at Dusit, GC for the crossover buffet, the Wanders show and a bag of goodies from Toby's.

it was almost 3pm by the time i had my fill of activity watching so we headed to the buffet table

unfortunately, the thai ice drop i wanted to sample was gone! so i just had to content myself on the belgian waffle coned ice cream.

the Crossover Sunday Family Brunch Buffet is a fun experience especially if you have kids with you who would enjoy the various activities. but frankly, because of all the long distance walking from one buffet table to another, this would not be my first choice of buffets to eat at.
im such a lazy bone!