Our best food finds of 2013
Here are the dishes we find ourselves craving throughout the year from the top 10 local restaurants we have been frequenting.
MILLIE: The year that just ended was one hell of a terrific year! It had its ups and downs, its twists and turns, sad and happy moments, but the most memorable were centered around food, glorious food! Karla and I traveled and ate a lot in 2013 and now it’s time for some serious dieting! Ssssshhhh! As we relive the memories of happy eating, we would like to share delicious stories of yummy food finds that have lingered and stayed, not only in our taste buds, but also very apparent in bulges and inches from extra poundage gained, which we are having great difficulty shedding. So, as promised, we are committed in 2014 to daily brisk walking and rejoining the thrice-a-week Zumba classes at Joy Tan’s home with buddies Joy Tan, Cathy Tan, Evelyn Young, Meg Figueroa, Malou de Venecia, Patty Arambulo, Mandu Canlas, and my sister Dorcie Guingona, among others.
As early as January 2013, our doctor told us to lose weight and just have simple meals like salads or soup and a sandwich. It started out well as Karla and I tried the Cajun chicken salad at our favorite Santi’s deli right outside the Power Plant Mall. We often stop there for coffee on the mezzanine level overlooking all the cheeses, salamis, hams and sausages displayed in the deli counter.
The thing is, our doctor didn’t say what kind of sandwiches we were allowed to eat.
As it turns out, we eventually experimented on sandwich combinations, the best one being the Italian salami with Brie Bridel cheese or thinly sliced prosciutto with truffle noir cheese, some lettuce leaves, slices of tomato, green pepper, pickles and what have you stuffed in a mini-baguette and it was so good, it became a habit.
I envy my best friend Verne Santos-Cuyugan Reyes who lives in Los Angeles. She is so skinny and yet loves to drink good wine and enjoys fine food such as foie gras and cheese. Her secret, of course, is regular exercise and dancing to her heart’s delight so she can eat whatever she wants. Ah, if only I had the same willpower and determination!
Soon after a trip to the US in March 2013, Karla and I went to Switzerland in June to gain more weight eating fine food, Swiss chocolates, and cheese! Among the unforgettable dishes I tried was the simple, exquisite, perfectly prepared and deboned-at-tableside fillet of sole meuniere at the Brasserie at the Lausanne Palace where we dined with friends Susan and Franklin Bertschy, who were our hosts during our stay in Switzerland.
During the same trip, Karla, Susan and I took a day trip to Zermatt for the Gornergrat-Matterhorn experience to visit the glaciers. The train ride from Chigny to Zermatt was about two hours so we started the day with a light breakfast of good, old-fashioned cheese ramequins, which were served freshly baked, and a cup of coffee. Arriving in Zermatt, just outside the train station, we witnessed a mini concert with the alpine horn, and walked through the beautiful village buying postcards and little souvenirs along the way. Karla stopped for some bratwurst before we rode the cable car to bring us to the Gornergrat 3,089 meters above sea level.
Susan and I felt woozy when we got to Gornergrat and decided to stay put to get acclimatized, so it was only Karla who braved the cold and entered the glacier. I took special note of the cable-car schedule for the ride back to Zermatt as, once upon a time, I went on a picnic with school friends Frank Ansel and John Millican and we missed the last cable car down so we had to walk down the mountains for at least seven hours in the dark!
Upon our descent, we decided to have our fill of typical cheese fondue at an outdoor café so we could enjoy the cool Alpine mountain air before heading back home. Since it was summer, the days were longer as the sun was out until around nine in the evening.
KARLA: My most unforgettable dish from the Switzerland trip would be the entrecote dinners we had. In fact, it was the most unforgettable meal from my first trip to Europe back in 1998, together with the fettuccini of Alfredo’s in Rome. We tried both the Café de Paris on the Rue du Mont-Blanc in Geneva and Le Relais de l’Entrecote on Rue du Rhone in Geneva for comparison. The dish consists of three parts: a steak cut in strips, French fries or pommes frites, and the sauce. Each restaurant has a different take on the sauce. Both have a different compound butter mixture made with secret herbs and spices. So, when put on a platter over a candle or burner, the butter slowly melts and the meat cooks further in the butter as its juices incorporate with the melted butter for the sauce. You can put the sauce on the pommes frites or dip a piece of bread in it. Both mom and I agree that we like the entrecote at the Café de Paris better.
2013 was such a fun year for us, especially in terms of food and travel. But we also had some awesome discoveries locally and have stuck to our favorites. Listed below are the dishes we find ourselves craving throughout the year from the top 10 local restaurants we have been frequenting, in no particular order.
• Brotzeit’s cheese spaetzle, sausages and the Bayrischer Longdrink – We’ve probably been back to Brotzeit at least eight more times since we featured them last October. Although there is always something new on their menu, we tend to stick to our favorites.
• Gloria Maris Greenhills for dim sum – Our comfort food
• Healthy Shabu-Shabu – When we feel like having something light for dinner, we end up at the Healthy Sahu-Shabu at Power Plant Mall. We normally spend an average of P350 per person, which isn’t bad. Then again, we’re very easy to please. We just get one set and order additional squid balls and noodles. I normally also cook the egg and make it hardboiled instead of adding it into the sauce.
•Ginzadon’s Mandu and chicken yakitori – One of our favorites! Not only because it’s yummy but also because of the friendly staff at Ginzadon at Resorts World Manila.
• Hai Kang’s Sotanghon Crab – When we feel like we deserve a good meal, although pricey, we cant help but get a jumbo crab with sotanghon.
• Hainan chicken rice at Tao Yuan – The best in town! The black pepper crab is also superb.
• I’m Angus’s prime rib – When we feel carnivorous and want a prime Angus beef, on Wednesdays, I’m Angus on Yakal Street, Makati, offers a promo with salad, a juicy piece of Angus rib eye with sidings and a glass of red wine for only P960 per person, so Mom and I split and share.
• Chef Jessie’s bouillabaisse – Our favorite place for special occasions
• Champetre at Bonifacio Global City – Chef Marc Aubry offers the best French onion soup, quiche Lorraine and superior duck foie gras terrine.
Sugi’s spicy tuna salad, Tori Kawayaki and Tai Kabutoni
MILLIE: So you can’t really blame us for all the weight gain because we really have been feasting as if there was something to celebrate every day. But then again, there is. Life is a blessing and we owe it to our Creator to share that blessing, to give back, to bring joy to others.
* * *
Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.
