Birthday Celebrations

I flew to Manila to celebrate a friend's birthday. We wanted something different and arranged a special dinner at Chef Jessie's Top of the Citi Restaurant, located on the 34th Level of the CitiBank Tower in Makati.

As it was raining that evening, we did not get a table with a view (there was a private party, originally meant for the roof garden that was moved indoors). Nevertheless, the dinner was a very memorable one.

We ordered a bottle of red wine, a South African 2009 Nederbourg Pinotage, which was a chef's recommendation for the month. It was not too dry, slight fruity bouquet and quite easily palatable, with 14% alcohol content.

Our first course of French Onion Soup was excellent. The melted cheese just golden brown and the soup was tasty and the sauteed onions not overpowering. Loved it.

For the next course, we ordered the highly recommended Bacon and cheese savoury soufflé, which is Chef Jessie's specialty.

It was truly excellent. Soft, fluffy, tasty and melts in the mouth, with tiny bacon bits and creamy cheese flavour.  I strongly recommend the savoury soufflés here.

For the main course, my friend had his favourite Spaghetti Carbonara. He claims it was the best he had ever eaten. I had the Roast Duck with Orange Sauce, which was very tasty. However, I found the duck alittle overcooked and the meat was dry and tough, but the orange sauce was tangy and went well with the dish.

 

 

After the main course, there was a surprise awaiting my friend. All the waiters came singing the birthday song presenting him with a slice of chocolate cake and wishing him a happy birthday. The surprised look on my friend Raymond's face, was worth every cent of the cost of the dinner.

My special thanks to all the waiters at Top of the Citi Restaurant for making it a truly memorable and unforgettable evening.
   

A Different View of Manila

After my last visit to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, where I tried street food and visited street markets, I made a point to see the other side of the city. This time I stayed at a hotel on Makati Avenue, minutes from the business and banking district of the city.

We went into downtown Makati for breakfast early on a Friday morning. Luckily traffic was still bearable. We found this interesting little UCC Cafe situated within a small island park in the middle of all the big shopping malls.

 

 
The food was surprisingly good and we enjoyed the breakfast thoroughly. I ordered the corned beef with french toasts, Ray ordered ham and scrambled eggs, and we shared a fruit platter.

After breakfast, we walked around and did some shopping at the neighbouring Glorietta Shopping Malls. Then we took a taxi to Roxas Boulevard and went for a walk in the park.

When was it time for high tea, we went to the famous Manila Hotel and tried their "Chocolate Buffet" at the Cafe Ilang Ilang.

 

 

 

 

Simply loved it!
         

Not such a wonderful dinner

As some sort of reward for my son for doing quite well in his prelim exams, we brought him to satisfy his craving for lobster salad and sharksfin soup. After searching around, we picked the No Sign Board Seafood Restaurant at Vivo City on a Sunday evening.

The restaurant was quite crowded for dinner, but not full. And after tasting the food, we sort of knew why.

We ordered the Lobster Salad (local lobster, the Australian lobster weighs like 2kg and costs over S$500 for the dish which we found absolutely ridiculously expensive). Even at only about 600 grams, the lobster dish came up to over S$120. Fruity and reasonably tender, the dish was passable.

We also ordered the Sharksfin Soup with Crab Meat. The sharksfin soup was rather pale in comparison to those served at other restaurants, but was not bland. After adding vinegar and pepper, it tasted much like other sharksfin soup. This small serving cost S$40, but enough for 4 persons.

I liked this dish best, Deep Fried Soon Hock. Crispy and tasty, and the meat was crunchy proving that the fish was freshly slaughtered. My wife complained that the fish was tough, even though she finished almost half of the fish by herself.

My son wanted the Yam Ring with Spicy Sauce, so we ordered it. Not really up to my standard. The yam was not fluffy enough and the whole dish did not look appetizing at all.  Even the taste was nothing special. Quite a disappointment.

The Pea Sprouts Fried with Sambal was tough and dry and not spicy enough for my liking. Another disappointment.

And finally dessert. We ordered 3 different desserts from the menu, costing between S$6 and S$8 each. See how miserable they look for that price.  The most expensive and not really very good is the Herbal Jelly (S$8 for such a small bowl).

The Mango Pudding did not fare well too. Quite bland and without any taste of mango, even though there were tiny mango cubes sprinkled sparingly on the pudding. My son's choice of the Lemongrass Jelly fared better, thanks to the lime.

All in all it was an expensive and not such a wonderful dinner at all. Total disappointment. I would have preferred to go to my usual haunt Little Red House at the East Coast Lagoon. Shall go there soon when my friend from the Philippines visit next week.