Emerald Garden

My cousins Mianne and Lianne came into town from Dumaguete to attend the Food Exposition which was simultaneously held at the World Trade Center and at the SMX Convention Center last week.  Since they were staying at the Roxas Boulevard area, Kong Kong decided to invite them for dinner at the Emerald Garden restaurant. near the corner of Padre Faura Street.  Anita and her family joined Vicky, Monique, Teppie and myself to welcome them; it was lucky that cousin Ed was also in town and he also joined in for the dinner.

We started our meal with fish lip soup, and I made sure that we had lots of dishes that Anita could eat (she has a shrimp allergy).  I got three kinds of fried rice--dried fish, yang chow and scallop, lo han chay (vegetable dish, but without mermaid's hair though), the special boneless Emerald chicken (slightly sweet, honey glazed), deep-fried spare ribs, pata tim with mantou bread (you eat this sandwich style).  We also had fish fillet in soy sauce and camaron rebosado (the only item on the menu that Anita was allergic to).  We finished the meal with the usual desserts--almond gelatin with lychees, buchi balls and mango sago (tapioca pearls).

While the food was generally edible, I honestly can't say that I was excited by the meal.  We last ate here some five years ago, and my memories of that meal were quite good--I was thus instrumental in asking Kong Kong to hold the dinner there.  This time, however, I found the food to be very much on the bland side.  The fish lip soup had a bit too much of pickled cucumber and this made the soup sweet (I like it salty, cooked the traditional way).  The only dish that was up to part was the chicken dish, and I think it is because this Emerald style chicken is the house specialty.  It seemed like the chef was recently reprimanded for excessive salt usage, and, as atonement, decided to halve the usual salt and flavorings for the day.  Well, the meal wasn't that expensive though, we spent something like P450 per head.  I'm hoping that it was just an off-night for the chef, but if this trend continues, I won't be recommending this restaurant anymore.