Seems to me like I've done nothing but eat. My week in review:
Monday.
Late lunch at MAKATI SPORTS CLUB (LP Leviste St, Salcedo Village.)
Stuart's favorite pinakbet- authentic, steaming, fragrant. For me, steamed baby lapu lapu, Szechuan style.
Tuesday.
Birthday lunch for Venus with Cecile and Mila at ROMULO'S (Jupiter St)
Creative takes on traditional Filipino favorites. A loving homage to a father/grandfather, who was a senior statesman in a bygone era of elegance and diplomacy. Fabulous decor by the Almario sisters,
Wednesday.
Lunch at APARTMENT 1B (Sedeno St, Salcedo Village)
A hop and a skip from home. Self proclaimed home of gourmet comfort food. My virtual kitchen. Favorite takeout: grilled marlin served with grilled vegetables and spaghetti with pesto sauce.
Laura's birthday dinner with family at SEA DRAGON RESTAURANT (Daang Hari, Alabang)
Great seafood. Bonus: fabulous sunset and a crazy bastardized game of Charades with the kids.
Thursday.
Lunch at SALA BISTRO (Greenbelt 3)
Longstanding favorite, Chic and lively. They have a prix fixe business lunch, unfailingly excellent. Good wine selection with a 2 for 1 deal throughout a long happy hour. Personal favorites: salmon fish cakes with green pea sauce, rhubarb crumble, and Sunday breakfast fry up.
(Mommy loved the place, specially the garden. If you talk nicely to nearby VIA MARE OYSTER BAR, they'd deliver to your table at SALA. Mommy once asked a fresh-faced waiter "How come all of the waiters here are handsome?" Henceforth she was treated like a queen, the garden her kingdom.)
Dinner at CHATEAU 1771 (Greenbelt 5)
Our weekend favorite. Our order hardly veers from grilled fish of the day with Neapolitan sauce and sautéed broccoli and string beans, followed by a towering lemon meringue tart. On this visit though the chicken rollatini was a welcome change. Wine chief Cecile attended solicitously to our wine choice, a rather sweet gesture for a very banal order of a carafe of house red.
Drinks and a vigorous workout aka dancing at CHEF & BREWER (Ortigas Center)
Fun with old friends Family Birth Control Band. After all these years, they still sound great! They can still do a mean Boogie Wonderland, Stuarts's dance anthem.
Friday.
Late late lunch at BRASSERIE BOHEME (LP Leviste St, Salcedo Village).
We used to call it our dining room; we lived a block away. It was our default party venue, caterer, and order-in place. After a long absence, we found the place really nice and the food very good. The pavlova dessert was delicious.
Wines & Tapas Evening at the MANDARIN ORIENTAL DELI (Makati Ave)
A monthly event, every last Friday of the month. Our first time.
Friend Alu, the Mandarin's Sales Director breezed in looking bright and cheerful, carrying a huge bunch of flowers for me! What an unexpected delight!
Enjoyed the French wines and the small bites. Will definitely be back for the next one.
Labels: Alabang, Makati, Mandarin Oriental Wines and Tapas, restaurants
Storm has come and gone, the typhoon signal is down. The sun is making a tentative appearance and there are bright patches of blue in the sky. There are still too many heavy clouds though, enough to keep the Dragon Boat Race people nervous.
Labels: Dragon Boat Race, Hong Kong
I've been keeping myself to myself lately, staying indoors
for most of the month. In and out of hotels and airports, but staying mostly indoors.
So it was a bit of a shock when I stepped out of the car and smelled wood burning. Then I noticed the smoke. I'm in Kuala Lumpur, at the airport, leaving after a week's stay (the second time this month). Until today, I've had no sense of this haze that everyone is talking about around these parts.
Meanwhile, according to the Office of Air Pollution, (or something to that effect, I forget the actual official name of the government department involved) the country is on high alert. At least 200 schools have been closed, several major sports events have been cancelled, and hospitals and clinics have reported record admittances of cases of flu, colds, and coughs.
I was in Singapore the week before but left just in time to miss the thick haze that has enveloped the city all week, triggering an official top level complaint that in turn prompted a not very diplomatic response. Indonesia told Singapore to stop being childish, quit complaining, and just breathe in the acrid smelling, throat scalding, lung clogging air like everybody else.
I'm now headed for Hong Kong, hoping the air there is more friendly.
I've decided it's time for me to rejoin the land of the living and the healthy, so I'm stepping out of the haze, as it were, that I've been living in during my self-imposed exile. Chicken pox is now long gone, save the memory. I'm now officially erasing the memory. 😊
Labels: Haze, KL, Singapore
