AngelBQ

22.06.07.: I have had this in my draft quite a while, but so many things have come up. Anyway here is the rest of my food journey, 2007 vacation. I am in the process of making a new post that is about recent stuff. Hold tight, it’s gonna be a long one. See yah soon!

:::Fire Lake Grill, Cliff house, Tagaytay:::

I reserved the place beforehand when the date was finalized. I didn’t get the lunch and dinner opening time only so I didn’t put that much weight on the time. When your travelling with 11 persons, it’s hard to make everyone finish at the desired time. We first went to Nurture Spa. We went here last year before our wedding and remember liking it.

During the spa treatment, I knew we wouldn’t be at the resto on time. I called again and ask to extend, but they said that the reservation would be cancelled if we couldn’t make it. So the 1 hour treatment got cut to 45-50 minutes. For some, more or less.

When I called again for directions, I finally understood that they would close the kitchen because it would only resume at dinner. All along, I thought the main reason for the strict reservation is the great demand of seats and that it was fully booked and others on waitlist.

We made it on time. It was a fresh place! Airy, lovely view and light calming interiors. I am not sure what I felt about the waiters and the main attendant. He was kind of pompous and stiff. He was pro in one way, but so stiff. And somehow the place felt stiff too. So exclusive. It wouldn’t hurt them to pull the smile muscle. Anyway, in after thought I felt the attitude was caused by their anxiousness to wrap it all up, get us out, so they can finish their first shift. More about that later.

Menu was interesting. I love experimenting and exciting blends so I went for the coffee crusted sirloin steak. Coffee and beef, now that’s eccentric. I actually loved the combination. It’s just weird with the texture of the coffee. Filter coffee are made to be put in water. Try eating it without putiing it in the coffee machine and you’ll know what I Mean. I chose the potato wedges as siding. For starters I had the blackened beef salad with Asian greens, sesame Thai chili dressing, and blue cheese crumble. Yummy.

(love grilled tomatoes)

(mom’s pasta)

(hubby’s lambs)

For dessert we went outside to enjoy the fresh air and the view. There was a sudden change in the mood our main attendant. He was trying to be funny and more jiving with us, but still you felt that unsincere effort and trying hard. Like he was smiling and joking with us and inside saying : finish up already. I have been working service in resto’s and I do remeber that attitude in some of my colleagues, one face here and one face there. So I know how to read a sincere to unsincere service. Anyway, the notion got confirmed later (tell you about that later)

And I chose a wonderful dessert. Something eccentric as well. Pink peppercorns with the dessert. Specifically; pineapple carpaccio with Malibu rum and pink peppercorns. Just love the aromatic flavor when you bite into this peppercorns. I love green and pink peppercorns. And it went so well with the caramel basket and the tangy pineapple and the icecream.

More of the views and the company.

(zoomed in with the zoom lens)

We had left the restaurant and started walking to the car, and surprisingly, the attendant was already on top with his scooter. Which confirmed that he was really anxious in us being finished with our meals. In fairness I pity another waiter there. We suddenly heard glasses shatter inside and I didn’t see it, but they said that he was on the floor. That pooor man.

:::Boracay:::

Off we went to Boracay. One of our most treasured place. This is a food haven. And so many choice and wonderful ambiance to go with it. The sea meeting the shores sound and the light breeze in the evening. Walking barefoot, beach side massage and savoring the best meals and most refreshing shakes. This was Boracay to me.

I have other stuff to share about our stay there, but we’ll focus on food here. Actually, I wasn’t able to have my ultimate food trip. Since we were with companions, we had to be considerate to everyone, and not all the time, they wanted to go to station 2 from station 1 or eat exclusively or eat “street”. I enjoyed everything from isaw to fresh grilled seafood and strawberries with balsamico.

We stayed in the beach side houses, station 1, third house to the left of friday’s (facing friday’s from beach). Naturally, as we always do it, we have our first meal in Friday’s as well as breakfast the following day. It is most convenient and our arrival is always accompanied with hunger, big time. A too sweet pineapple juice in the airplane is not enough to fill our tummy for some hours.

I had the duck. Confit de cannard something with grand marnier. Delish. Both duck and lamb is my fave meat. I almost ordered the rosemary lamb something.

I couldn’t wait to taste me some choco banana shake, so I ordered it right away. It was called choco banana peanut brittle now. Good in one way, but there was some flavor there that was unfamiliar to my choco banan peanut experience from my past visits to the island. However bro in law seemed to be really enjoying his. Both hubby and sis in law had two orders of panini each (check pictures from pre vacation posts), while bro in law had mixed grill I think. They all were satisfied. Service was excellent. For breakfast the ff. day, they had 2 orders of paninis each (2 in each order, 4 paninis all in all). I had the smoked samon bruschetta and mango tomato salsa.

I have very few food pics for our Boracay trip so hope words can compensate for the lack.

First dinner was at Aria, the italian/mediterranean joint. The waiter recognized us from last year. Cause I remember we were very chatty with him last year too. I met an old friend who was in Boracay with colleague and work. So they joined us too. I had the spicy moroccan mashed eggplant. I also saw they had strawberry with balsamico in the specials. I have long been curious for this combination. I felt it lacked something. Like the flavors didn’t come to its full. maybe the strawberry should have been sweeter or they should have added something that would make the balsamico stronger or bind more. It felt a little bland. I don’t remember the 3rd small meal I had. I didn’t have any main course this time. Either I forgot or I learned my lessons.

We proceeded to the boom boom something beside where there was a band playing. They ordered shisha and then we had some sizzling gambas and calamares. The gambas was tasty and spicy.

We also had some isaw before we had dinner by the way. I love the familiar barbeque smell and so I just couldn’t resist having one. It was my fave back when I lived here. I could have rice and isaw for dinner.

Day 2 besides from lunch/breakfast at Friday’s, we had dinner at paradise grill. We decided to seperate, so it was just me and hubby there, while they finally decided to go to Gasthof I think it was called.

We both had prawns. His was grilled with olive oil and I had chilli. Loved the chilli sauce. And loved the 3 complimentary sauce. One was lemon butter, one was soy sauce based and the 3rd I don’t remember. I had ceasar salad as starter and banana shake to drink. Yum.

(Me at paradise grill.)

(Them at Gasthof.)

3rd day, we had a difficult time finding something for all of us. I had many wants, but so difficult when I don’t get feedback or help. So I asked if they wanted crepes like at cafe breton for breakfast. We went to Cafe Breizh, but ironically none of us had the crepe, but instead got the breakfast combos. It was ok, some hits and misses when it came to service.

On our way back, I had shake at Jonah’s shake in a take away bottle. I was so looking forward to this but I was kinda disappointed. The shake made me thirsty and I craved for water. A little too thick and in a bottle like take away with straw, it was not easy to sip. And the peanut was peanut. I would have preferred peanut butter which is more creamy in both texture and flavor and with peanut butter it would be closer in taste to one of my most fave candy in Pinas; choc nut. So when it comes to choco banana shake, my fave to date is still at club Paraw of those I tried. We never got to dine there. I like the jamaican jerk chicken there and the garlic beef. Seems like the puff pillows are not there anymore though which we lounged in with our books and shakes.

The last day, they decided to go parasailing and take 2 on the jetskis. Sis in law stayed at home to bathe and get some tan, and I went with the guys so I could have some dessert. As they sailed out, I went alone to d’mall. I had to try lemon cafe for dessert. The display and menu was filled with delightful things. I think I ended up with a choco peanut mousse and a mango oatmeal cracker and lemonade to drink. Nice with some lonetime.

Final dinner, our 2 companions, got the maids to buy meat, veggies and wine and had them grilled for them. While I was determined to try Cyma. Last dinner we went for Paradise grill since Cyma was full. I actually was tempted to have a new round of prawns, but we decided to wait it out to get a vacant table. It didn’t take long till we got a corner.

Saganaki. Cheese, flamed, paired with a muscle bunt of a guy shouting in true greek tradition; opa with the rest of the kitchen and giving you a little lift of the chair.

A hearty greek family salad. Bursting with flavors and textures. Full of herbs.

Lamb chops with potato boats greek style. They have two types of lamb chops. We asked which had less fat, and naturally, the more expensive one had less fat.

Lamb wrap. Hubby’s dish number 2. I can’t believe our apetite.

:::Dining in Singapore:::

In Singapore we stayed at Furama riverside hotel. It’s not far from the start of the riverside dining places that stretch all the way to clarke quay and boat quay. We were quiet hungry when we arrived and we landed on the rivercafe, specializing in australian dishes. I had soup to start with. Then had fish for main meal. Hubby had a meat dish. Food was good and presentable. It’s beginning to be awhile, so my memory at this point is vague as far as details are concrned. Light and airy interior. A big homey dining table on the side where the wall of wines were. Too bad I couldn’t enjoy the meal as I was freezing and had fever and a dampened apetite.

First day was a drag. We basically slept after the meal and when we returned to the hotel. Me and sis in law had fever and cold, while bro in law had a bad tummy from his too much seafood splurging in Seaside near Mall of Asia evening before we left from Philippines. We basically lost a day. Me and hubby woke up at around 1 am with hunger pangs. We decided to brave the night and go out to dine just the two of us. Daytime was hot and humid. I expected night time to be chill. Boy, were we wrong.

With denim jeans clamoring to our legs, we walked and walked to find an ATM. Previoulsy at rivercafe, the card became unreadable. It did work when we were in the Philippines. After a veryyyy long walk and with veryyy hungry stomaches, we finally found one ATM, and the card was still unreadable. Aaaargh. So determined to get some grub, I thought of eating room service since the card magnet strip would be irrelevant then. Oh why didn’t we do that in the first place.

I had spaghetti aoli olio. Basically a pasta with olive oil and garlic. The garlic cloves were fried so that it was a delight to eat as is. Hubby had both burgers and pasta bolognese. In a moment like this, we appreciated food more than we ever had.

The following day,

(Writing this 3 months later, so memory might be vague). This day, I was supposed to meet Jacq, but with the day we lost and this being our last day, I had to be there to guide them. Thay were a bit clueless and I’ve done the researching. We walked and walked through Orchard Road. We ordered roasted chestnuts and this really good shake for each of us and ate lunch at bruger king in one of those smaller malls. I was surprised how many shopping centres were in Orchard. Most of them looked exclusive, carrying exclusive brand. We ended up buying some soccer shoes for the guys and some souvenirs and stuff. This day, we drove cabs around and they are incredibly chatty and helpful! We went to Arab street which led to sis in law buying some fabric for kurdish clothes. The vendor was a bit pushy. I didn’t know that visa was available in these small rental spaces. We also went to Sentosa Island. We didn’t get to go much around as time was scarce, and we were supposed to hit Night Safari, but too late. We also went to quayside later after a quick stop by at our hotel. We were supposed to watch 300 as it haven’t hit Norway that time. It wasn’t that easy to track a cinema near Quayside. The guys were amazed by this remote controlled plane like stuff with lights that filled the dark sky of the night. We ate at a seaside restaurant, the one with orange sides and huge umbrellas in the picture above. I wanted to eat the black peper crab which along with the red chilli crab was Singapore’s specialty, but with problems with our card, I had to settle for chicken satay and hubby had this humongous oyster that you can see above, I don’t think this would go down in one slide without you choking. He even used kinife and fork and he can barely get a grip of the whole thing with his hand. He didn’t know it was that big. He was supposed to order a bigger portion. Good thing he didn’t. You all know that oyster is a known aphrodisiac, right, lol! Anyway, I was super disappointed for not getting my crab. I was drooling for this since we took off from the Philippines and the time I was planning the trip. So two of what was supposed to be my highlights; meeting Jacq and getting my crab didn’t come true. That’s why I hope we can come back again another time as a stopover destination or Asia tour, to tokyo (Yen), Hongkong (Caryl) and then Singapore (Jacq). Wouldn’t that be a nice tour, yoohoo. Too bad I ddin’t know Caryl back then. I went to Hongkong the last 2 years before Singapore.

The stopover tour gave us some benefits and discounts and that came well. Althought the card incident and our sickness made it a bit of a flop for this trip.