Dinner @ Grandfather's House

We had dinner at Grandfather's House at 6:00pm. I starved myself the whole day so I can eat a lot of lechon come dinner time. Hehehe!

THE Lechon doesn't look picture perfect but it tasted good! The meat was so tender and the skin was crispy - which I guess are the two criterias for a perfect lechon, right?


Grandfather bear ordered food from Apollo Restaurant - His ever favorite Chinese Restaurant in Bacolod City.

We had thier Pancit Canton (is it?) which unfortunately looked like worms because of poor photo quality. I apologize:


Morisqueta:


Beef with Broccoli: Favorite of everyone. At a blink of an eye it was almost gone...


And my personal favorite: Crab Fu Yung: Crab meat sauted with vegetables and mixed with beaten egg and fried:


Apart from the food he ordered, his personal cook, Criselda, made Chicken Pesa, Turbo-ed a whole chicken and cooked shrimps.

Chicken Pesa is a chicken based soup with potatoes, asparagus and cabbage: Another poor photo op taken by me. I'm Sorry... I assure you though that this soup is delish even though it doesn't look visually appealling.


Turbo-ed Whole Chicken and sauted shrimps:


Grandfather marinates the chicken with Knorr Sinigang Mix. He rubs the sinigang mix all over the chicken and let's it stand for at least an hour and stuffs the cavity with lemon grass. Lastly, knorr original liquid seasoning to achieve that golden brown skin onced turbo-ed. Try this at home! You wont regret it.

This is how my plate looked like. I shared this with Audie:


And of course, on a separate plate, ribs of lechon with matching skin!

Senior Citizens Table: (L-R) Lola Pacit Soliven, Behind her (not seen) is Lola Nena (Older sister of Grandfather), their nannies, grandfather bear and Tita Regina Zulueta (the only non-senior citizen on this table)


Lola Nena and her nanny Linda (Did I get her name right?)


Grandfather bear with his own nanny Eli

Yayang Susing: Still on the go at 80 years old! She's the nanny of my cousins (children of my father's eldest brother)

One of the desserts tasted wierd. The syrup of the fruit mixture was tangy. Little did I know grandfather bear put brandy on it. Grrrrr.....

My aunt, Tita Louie, is going back to NYC tomorrow. Have a safe trip and see you again next year!

Home Cooking @ someone else's Home

Was invited for dinner at Donny's house last night (Saturday).

I seldom decline invites like this. I always enjoy eating home cooked dishes at friends houses. You want to try their own version of chicken pork adobo, relyenong bangus, etc...

Donny called up around 4:30pm:

Note: Our conversation was in Hiligaynon; translated in English

Donits: What are you doing?
Me: Nothing. We'll go to your house before dinner.
Donits: Have dinner here.
Me: Can I request for Liempo? (Donits' mom makes the BEST Liempo!)
Donits: No time to prepare it. Next time you must inform me in the morning.
Me: Ok. Anything goes.
Donits: Poca and I will do marketing and cook dinner.
Me: See you.
-end-

Donit's lives in Talisay which is about 6kms from where I live. We got to his place around 6:30pm. Donit was lucky that our old friend Poca Hontas was at his place to help him out.

Donits prepared his own version of pancit and chicken tinola. Poca brought lemon grass for the tinola.

Here's Donits' home-made Pancit which has slices of chinese chorizo. YUM!


Chicken Tinola: Lemon Grass was brought by Poca from Mountaiw View (Subdivision where he lives):


Poca made his own version of burger paties with mushroom-based gravy:


The Perfect Couple: Poca and Donits


After dinner we watched X-Men Orgins: Wolverine then called it a night. We brought Poca home. Poca invited us to go down when we got to his place. There was a party. We were so not dressed to the nines; not to mention that we were so tired. We declined the offer and went home instead. Next time. Next time. :)

Thai Inspired Dinner

I brought some green curry paste from Bangkok a few weeks back. And it was just two nights ago that brother chef got inspired to cook dinner with green curry as base. He prepared two dishes:

1. The very popular Chicken with green curry.
2. Banana-wrapped tilapia fillet with green curry & coconut milk

Chicken with green curry was the easiest to prepare.

Ingredients:
70g green curry paste
400ml coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
500g chicken (cut into bite size portions. note: you may use chicken breast)
basil leaves
180ml water
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Procedure:
In a pan, saute green curry paste in oil until you can smell the aroma.

Add coconut milk and water.

Add chicken.

Simmer until chicken is cooked evenly.

Add sugar and fish sauce.

Last to add is the basil leaves.

Here's the finish product:



And for the Banana-wrapped tilapia fillet: I don't have the exact measurements of each and every ingredient. Just use your imagination... hehehehe...

Right at the bottom of the tilapia fillet is a slice of lemon. On top of the fillet is a combination of spices (onions, ginger, green chili, tomatoes)



Pour over the green curry/coconut milk mixture on top:



Then, wrap with banana leaf and hold the leaf with a bar-b-que stick:



Bake for 10 to 15mins on high. Remove from oven once done:



Let it stand for 2 to 3 minutes. Get one wrapped tilapia fillet and open to get your surprise:


The fillet is so soft and creamy. You can feel the heat of the green curry paste. After a few bites you can feel your sweat pouring down from your face. hahaha! But It's totally delish!!!

Astralis

Upon arrival from our Bangkok Trip, we were again picked up at the airport by cousin dearest. We landed at 615pm. However, since cousin dearest's car is color-coded that day, she can't leave until 730pm which is just about right considering that we still need to pass through immigration and wait for our luggages.

We were picked up at the international airport around 830pm. Cousin dearest was insisting that we try out "Brazil Brazil" in Rockwell for dinner so we headed to that direction. I called up "Your Highness" thinking that he might want to join us for dinner. However, he was engrossed with a basketball game on TV and ended up sleeping instead.

Upon arrival at rockwell, Brazil Brazil was already closed. Cousin dearest opted to have dinner at Astralis instead, located right beside Brazil Brazil. IT WAS SHEER PERFECTION!!!

We ordered the following dishes:

I order Lobster Bisque with lemon foam for my soup - TO DIE FOR!!!


We had baked oysters as our appetizer:


Our Main Courses:

As for me, I ordered Roasted US Tenderloin - Gratinated with quezo de cabra & tamarind pan au jus


Donny had Pork Scallopini with pears, figs & gorgonzolla served with rice:


Cousin dearest had Chicken stuff with gorgonzolla, mozzarella, stilton, with mashed potato and grilled zuchinni


Stan Anson arrived 30 minutes late and ordered something quick. He had the Tagliatelle & beef strips with fresh tomato wedges & black olives:


Cousin dearest not contented with all this wonderful dishes ordered Sato-san's Japanese mentaiko spaghetti with spicy cod roe, nori on cream sauce to share:


Carlo R. pretending not to be hungry and sucked on a slice of lemon:




and ended up finishing the entire plate of Sato-San's Pasta:



And here's the happy and very satisfied customers:


Astralis is located at Lopez Drive, Power Plant Mall
Along Rockwell Strip, Besides Via Mare
Telephone Number: +632 703-2688

Dinner the Parisian Way

I can't help but reminisce good times with old friends everytime I feel melancholic especially when good times happen in the most romantic place in the whole wide world - Paris!

Last March 2009 I left for Paris and stayed with one of my dear friends, Louie - The most gracious host ever. Two days after I arrived, another good friend of ours from EL-AY flew in to bond with us. Let's call him "Super Mowdil". On the first night of "Super Mowdil" in the city of Lights, Louie treated us to one fantastic Parisian Dinner at the CHEZ FRANCOISE RESTAURANT.




Chez Francoise is a french gastronomic restaurant that is located in Les Invalides close to the Eiffel Tower. Louie made reservations online. We got there five minutes early and were greeted by their Maitre D' who was so gracious to lead us to our table.

Browsing through the menu, three of us decided to order different dishes so we can try it out.

We had the following Entrees:

Oysters from Marennes Oleron


Rabbit's Meat with Espelette Pepper Jelly (this made Mowdil's tummy turn upside down.... vomit moments? hehehe)


Foie Gras, Apricot & Fig compote


For our Main Courses, we had the following:

Monseiur Castaing's Duck Confit


Whole Sole Meuniere


Fresh Catch of the Day: Mowdil's choice!


And who wants to miss dessert? Not I! I cannot really remember the names of these desserts but I assure you It's TDF (To Die For!!!):

If I'm not mistaken, I think this is Warm chocolate fudge with Fromage (cheese) ice cream


This one, I really forgot. But I can assure you it was stellar! :)


Louie had these unpasteurised farm cheeses that stink like crazy! (super pangsot galore... I swear!)


Just like in a movie, all good things must come to an end. *sob* After dinner, we strolled our way back to Louie's Apartment. I wish everyday I'd wake up in Paris. *super sob*