Since I started taking pity on the car I decided to park somewhere, and I was thankful that the A.Venue Mall was a good temporary shelter. And I thought, well, I could have my dinner here.
Two consecutive nights of pizza already strikes out anything Italian, hence I was left with burgers, the local fare, and... Japanese. As much as I was trying to stay away from rice, I kinda disregard that maki in fact has tons of rice as well. Hmmm. The heck. Japanese it is!
I want my sushi, any day. Image from Wikipedia. Author: Laitr Keiows. |
I decided to order the salmon sashimi and maki rolls; I can't remember if I told the waitress I wanted the all-vegetable roll, but I might have said I wanted the shake too or I pointed at the crazy rolls. Anyway. I chatted with a friend over the phone as I waited for the food. The restaurant wasn't full but there was a good sampling of customers: foreigners, a yuppie group, a couple, a small group of male seniors, and three tables occupied by a woman. Wow. How come it's a rarity to see a guy eating out alone?
When the sashimi arrived I told my friend I would have to order another serving as I thought the raw salmon wouldn't be enough. And then the rolls finally made it to my table. OH MY GOODNESS.
They're huge and topped with heaps of strings of crab meat. It was probably six pieces. And it was good. It was more than enough.
I paired the food with a bottle of San Miguel Pale Pilsen (none of that light beer for me!). The stuffing had some crunchy fish inside it topped with a thin layer of mayonaise; the sliver of fresh cucumber made the heaviness breathe. Dang, those crazy rolls. The salmon was fresh, the soy sauce was light. I wish I could have more but I was full.
Price-wise the food is above average; but for all the stuff I ordered my bill was somewhere along
P 550.00; it wasn't bad, considering, but it's a not the usual daily budget for a meal.
When the roads finally cleared at 9PM I went to the Fort to meet a friend. Instead of hanging out in a coffee shop I dragged his happy ass to go out walking. We walked from Burgos Circle to Serendra, thinking we would have a bottle of red. We were disappointed to see one of our favorites, Cuillere, has closed. Ah, memories in that French restaurant. We went straight to another favorite, Chelsea Market, but alas, a waiter told us they would close by 11PM. OH REALLY --- on a Friday night.
I told my friend we should have cake instead but we passed by Slice earlier and it was full. He said there's another place beside Aria, and of course, and finally, we settled our craving asses at The Cake Club by Diamond Hotel.
The dessert selection at The Cake Club was heaven: cakes, pastries, ice cream, some wine selection, the usual coffee. I was deciding between Le Reve, a parfait, and Le Royale, which is pretty much a chocolate cake. The description goes like this:
Le Reve
This dreamy parfait is guaranteed to make you happy. Made with dark chocolate mousse, orange, hazelnut crispy topped with our Supermoist Chocolate Ice Cream.
Le Royale
Chef Pang Kok Keongis' signature cake is made of Valrhona dark chocolate mousse, almond meringue, and hazelnut crispy.
Hmm. They're pretty much the same, no, except one is a parfait, the other is a slice of cake? But Le Reve wasn't available as it was "Weekend Treat" at which point my friend had to say, quite haughtily at the cute waiter, "But isn't it weekend yet?"
So I settled with Le Royale while he ordered the Baked Cheesecake. Price: P 250.00 each. The price of a glass of wine (minus taxes, basically).
The great thing about these cakes is that they are not too sweet and they are just enough to last about an hour of conversation. This is the kind of cake one savors because one small bite is enough to give you the all-much needed sweet from the usual sour. The consistency of the cheese cake is firm enough but not cakey, and there is that slight tang and sweetness that can stand on its own without the supplement of the topping. Like a nicely-made New York cheesecake.
My cake was heaven. The hazelnut crispy and the meringue was a nice surprise to the bite, and these two nutty flavors take their turns in your palette... which is to say, when you bite there is that dark chocolate flavor, and before that there is the almond, taking turns with the hazelnut, and then the back finish is the symphony wrapped in dark chocolate love. The solid mousse was like a fresh ice cream in terms of consistency without the melting point.
I guess after this stint I became more inspired, especially in combining my two favorite cuisine: Japanese and chocolate. Yes, I just said that chocolate is a cuisine. The same way you can probably describe a filmmaker as a genre, you know, like when you say, "It's a Woody Allen movie" and you already know what that is.