Blackbeard's Seafood Island

We went to Robinson's Magnolia Mall with the Callars for the Halloween weekend sale.  By 6pm, we were already famished from all that walking, and we decided to have dinner at Blackbeard's Seafood Island, which is the popular-priced seafood restaurant of the Red Crab group.  It was good that we arrived earlier than the crowds; by 7pm, the waiting lines were already evident.  The interior motif of the restaurant reminds me of beach resorts (with some surfing twist), and the Blackbeard angle was downplayed with depiction of the pirate as you would in kiddie cartoons.  We started off with some hot bulalo soup, which was what Panizzi wanted.

The restaurant is known for the boodle-boodle style of food service, which feeds from 4-6 persons.  Food is served on a large banana leaf lined tray, and everyone just uses their hands and eats on the banana leaves.  Trays are named after dishes that you would normally find in different locations around the Philippines.  We chose the Magellan's Landing, which according the waiter was among the more popular choices--grilled tilapia, steamed alimango & shrimps, some fried danggit, grilled squid and grilled pork--true to the Cebuano feast!

The girls had the Davao Gulf, which, aside from the seafood and BBQ, had some pomelo salad, steamed tahong, green mango slivers, red eggs and pako (water fern), all of which are common fare in Davao.  This came with lots of rice, in three different variations--plain rice, java rice and bagoong rice.

The meals came with more rice than expected, and the viands were simply lacking, given  our appetite levels.  We wound up ordering 5 more sticks of pork BBQ, which the kids wolfed down in around 2 minutes!  All in all, we spent something like P400 per head for the meal.  While the cooking was not exactly special, the novelty of the boodle-boodle style was something that the kids enjoyed.  I remember that we used to enjoy eating on banana-leaves during fiesta time in the province (that was literally onshore, seaside).  Since I haven't been able to take the kids to a real fiesta experience, this is just one way to recreate the experience in the middle of the concrete jungle.

XO46 Heritage Bistro

There were several reasons for us to have a Sunday lunch out with Lola Dee and the Callars.  First, while both Tito King and Tito Robert were in New York, we have made it an annual habit to celebrate their birthdays in Manila--any reason to get the family together is a welcome event!  Second, it was Grandparent's Day, and by some twist of chance, the maitre d' of XO46 Heritage Bistro sent me a text message that their restaurant would be open to celebrate the event (they are usually closed on Sundays).  This restaurant, together with their newly opened Visayan Room, has taken the spot previously occupied by Nanohana Japanese restaurant along Valero St. in Salcedo Village, Makati, and I've been wondering much about the cuisine (which is why the maitre d' had my number).  Perfect time to dine with Lola Dee!

I like the interiors of the place--comfy, well decorated, and just about the right side to be intimate, without being cramped.  It's a nice place to take Balikbayan friends, just to enjoy and reminisce about Filipino food.  The menu items for the Heritage Bistro were chosen from well-loved Spanish-Filipino favorites all around the country, and Visayan Room had specialties from that region.  I understand the owners are from Dumaguete City, and that gives some assurance of the authenticity of the preparations.  We ordered a lot--garlic beef, beef adobo Batangas style, calamares en su tinta, Bicol laing, crispy pork belly, seafood in gata, and two different kinds of pancit (Lukban chorizo style and Visayan Bam-i).

Food was very flavorful, came it piping hot and smelling like heaven!  I found the cooking style a wee bit on the oily side though; however the kids didn't mind at all and finished everything on the table.  With drinks, the bill came up to around P400 per head, and I felt that was very reasonable for the feast that we had.  As part of their promotional efforts, the management gave us desserts on the house--ice cream topped with nilagang saba).

The view of the restaurant from Valero St.--while both restaurants share a kitchen, the Spanish-Filipino dishes are served at the Heritage Bistro (right door) while the Visayan dishes are served at the Visayan Room (left door).  The interiors of the Heritage Bistro are like old houses in Laguna and Vigan, while the Visayan Room is a bit more modern in style.  Being a heritage-concept restaurant, the staff are dressed in the old turn of the century "Maria Clara" style.  You can actually order from either menu, and the staff will happily serve the food to your table, whichever restaurant you are seated in.

Mesa

It was the birthday celebration of Julian, and the clan trooped to Tomas Morato for a Sunday lunch at Mesa, which serves modernized versions of Filipino favorites.  Due to its popularity, the place gets to be full by 11:30 am, so if you don't have reservations, it is best to come early, so you can find parking space.  Their car park staff was efficient though, and we were immediately guided to on-street parking along Scout Fernandez St.

We arrived a bit after noon and found that Michaela had already ordered some appetizers--a platter full of seafood pica-pica (shrimps, dilis, oysters, fish & squid) and crunchy wraps, commonly called "bomba" or "sipa" in some other restaurants.  While the usual crunchy wraps are filled with typical lumpia shanghai filling (ground pork), Mesa has a different take, and their concoction was filled with sisig instead--I liked it!

The seafood sinigang (tamarind) soup was served on a candle top warmer, which was good for us since Erika and Kong came in a bit late, and despite that, still enjoyed hot soup.  The dishes came in freshly cooked and were quite tasty-- pork adobo, bam-i, tilapia cutlets and crispy pata.  They also had 2 kinds of laing, the dry version and the wet version (with rich coconut sauce); since I'm a fan of good sauce, I consequently liked the wet one better.  However, the best dish for me was the steamed beef with quinchay leaves, which was something new and delightful for me.

Not contented with all that food, Julian ordered an additional dish of a large crispy fried hito (catfish), which came in just in time for Kong's lunch.  Kong recounted how Erika had brought him to a chiropractor for his back-ache, and we were all glad that he he felt a little better after the back massage.  All in all, I understand that Julian spent something like P500 per head, and we came out much heavier in the process!

Karl's Koffee Korner

We had dinner around 8pm at Karl's Koffee Korner, which was located very near a flyover. As I got in, I was curious as the place was a coffee shop, and my friends had told me that the place served Filipino grill dishes.

Apparently, I missed the side entrance to the patio, where the grill dishes were being served.  As we got in, a guitarist was playing and apparently, the place was like a resto-bar.  We were welcomed by the proprietor, Albert Naidas, who immediately made us feel very welcome.

I could smell the aroma of delicious food!  When the lechon belly was served, absolute mayhem--it was gone in 60 seconds!  The skin was crunchy, and the meat was flavored just right with a variety of herbs and spices.  Very tender and juicy!

The grilled tuna and the adobo pork ribs were nicely done but what was new to me was the grilled bangus--this was stuffed with onions, tomatoes and salted duck eggs!  It was the first time I had tried the combination, and it was well worth the experience.

Our bill came to something like P650 per head, and that already included drinks (beer & other alcoholic drinks were flowing around left to right, all over the place).  We felt an intensity 4.5 earthquake around 10pm (epicenter in Samar was hit at an intensity of 7.9 on the Richter scale), and because of the drinks, we couldn't discern if it was really an earthquake or just a figment of our imagination.  By the time we finished, we were absolutely too lazy to move!

1521

The Forbestown area at the Fort Bonifacio Global City is fast becoming the "in" place for dining.  I came across the 1521 restaurant when I had dinner in nearby Melo's, and I told myself I had to try their cuisine, as the menu pricing looked pretty reasonable.

Our group got in at 12 noon on a weekday, and we could sense that the second floor was already full (our reservation was on the ground floor).  The interiors of the place felt relaxing, and the staff was quick to offer their specialty refreshment--langka casuy shake, which was a welcome flavorful treat for me!  The wall fresco reminded me of the paintings of Alvaro Jimenez, notably the letras y figuras as well as the banana stalk series, and these depiction of scenes from turn of the century Filipino life created a pleasant dining ambiance.

The dishes had interesting names, and the owners seem to have put a lot of creative thought into name association.  Recipes also had a different twist--the laing for example was made with spinach instead of the traditional gabi leaves.  For our group of 10, we had sisig, crunchy shrimps, crispy pata, beef tapa, garlic chicken, pochero, adobong pusit, ginataang sitaw at kalabasa, laing, stuffed boneless bangus.  For dessert, we had mango crepe and cusilva.

Our food check came to around P650 per head, which was understandable because of the number of dishes that we ordered (we also had extra food for take-home).  Not a bad lunch, food came in hot and tasty, service was attentive and helpful.