Saturday, August 27, 2011

Antonio's

Milestones should always be celebrated. So when Tita Lac turned 60, we threw her a surprise (semi) in Antonio's Tagaytay. Antonio's is currently the best restaurant in the country according to the Miele guide. With great food, service that reminds you of home and the nice cool air of Tagaytay plus a beautiful view of their gardens simply makes this place perfect.
They reserved a room for us to have the party. My cousins got balloons, red and white wine and a to-die-for caramel cake from Estrel's.



Our table set up looks very elegant yet simple. It looks like a nice table for all of the chismis to be shared that night.
Since we arrived early, we had the place to ourselves where we can take portraits. My niece, Isla was in a great mood to be a model that day. We had other pictures too but I think you be the judge. Isn't she something?

With plants everywhere and very good lighting, it seems that every photo is picture perfect.



We started our meal with some squid ink bread. The black color makes the whole thing very interesting. The ink did not over-power the bread at all, it just gave it a bold character. Each bite was like heaven. Warm and slightly toasted on the inside and very soft on the inside. Smothered with butter, it seems that you are already done for the night, but this iss just the beginning.
We were given options for our drinks like soda and tea. I opted for the freshly squeezed dalandan juice and some white wine.
My cousin Babits ordered this Carbonara for Isla. The pasta was al dente and is one of the best carbonaras I have tasted. Isla's expression while eating can attest to this.

Next up was the liver pate with rasberry coulis and white truffle. The pate was very smooth and velvety. There are no words to describe it, I will just qoute cousin-in-law Graham "That is a very beautiful pate."
Salad was mixed greens with walnuts, ricotta and rasberry vinaigrette.
Our soup course was cream of khlrabi. Everyone was wondering what is khlrabi. Turns out it's a type of turnip. Since we all didn't know what to expect, we were greated with a rich and creamy soup where the salt only came from the pancetta. Very much my type I would say.
Our main course choices were Steak frites.
Roasted leg of lamb (with a blurred picture).
I opted for the Foil baked Chilean Sea Bass. My plate looked very colorful with the black olives and cherry tomatoes. The textures very a good variety and every flavor will suddenly burst into my mouth--the very soft and smooth sea bass, olives and tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts for some crunch. This all came in a small bed of Antonio's famous mashed potatoes. Now why would I say this is famous? It is being talked about as to what is the secret behind it and I was told it was truffle oil. Yet, who really knows?
I chose to have the chocolate terrine for dessert. This is the dessert that I recommend. Very smooth chocolate in every spoonful yet it is not iritatingly sweet.
The other desserts are mango yoghurt panna cotta.
Chocolate mint ice cream.
Great milestones should really be celebrated. I think my Tita had a memorable 60th at a great place.
We pretty much had a blast from this little lady too.
Antonio's is located in Tagaytay. They also serve breakfast and they have a Filipino restaurant called The Grill at Antonio's.

Isdaan sa Gerona

On our way down from Baguio, we stopped by Isdaan in Gerona Tarlac for some dinner. I liked all the humor they were able to inject in the interiors like sleeping security guards and the former president Estrada.


Upod entering the place you will immediately notice the number of fishponds that have along with several fountains.

They also adorned the place with different Buddhas like the ones you see in Thailand. This place is a nice spot for photo ops well..nice photo ops if you're with great company.
The highlight of this place is definitely tha tacsiyapo wall where you can release all your anger and simply throw stuff in the wall. Up to you if you're ok with throwing a glass or a plate at Boss, Managers and supervisors or even hurl a tv at the Ex-Wife.
The food is typical Filipino fare like Grilled bangus and tilapia, squid, green mango ensalada and your pinakbet. I would have to say these are alright and have some room for improvement.




Isdaan is a great stopover from Baguio going back to Manila especially if you have kids travelling with you. Rest assured you will be entertained.
Isdaan is located in Gerona, Tarlac.  

Monday, August 22, 2011

Baguio City

It's been quite sometime since I wrote anything in here--ok it wass a very long time. So this would have to be quite some time to make up for all the time that I missed updating anything in here and basically write down anything I've been up to for the last six months.

So let us go back to February to our Baguio trip for the Panagbenga festival. It seeems to be my first trip with my new colleagues well at that time I still felt pretty shiny and new.

We arrived early morning in Baguio at 13 degrees celsius and never thought will ba that cold. We had a taste of what to expect for the weekend when we saw some of the participants for the street dancing. And with that attire, I don't even know how they can survive the cold temperature!


We had a nice breakfast at the Manor in Camp John Hay courtesy of Janice our boss. Camp John Hay reminded me of my first and last real trip to Baguio back in 1993. Fine I know it may be quite loser-ish for staying in Manila this long and neer ever thought about going back.Anyway back to the breakfast buffet, it was pretty good but I wa expecting more selections at that time.


After breakfast we tried getting into Baguio Country club pretending to try and buy their famous raisin bread but honestly I was just there to meet the Azkals as some of my friends were with them at that time. So much for raisin bread they won't let us in.

We briefly dropped by to see the president's summer vaction house and posed for a few pictures.

And of course we stoped by Mines view and good Shepherd to get our Baguio goodies like ube jam, choco flakes and peanut brittle.

We went to Cafe by the ruins for dinner. It seems to be a very long night since the wait for dinner was pretty long too.
Up to this day, I would still swear by that camote bread and the liver pate. The soft warm bread with the subtle taste of camote just melts in your mouth but the taste of the liver pate would just burst in your pallate.

Their salads were pretty good too where every vegetable from the country most likely came from Baguio or just nearby. The Baguio Bountu offered different tastes of fruits in your mouth with delicious strawberry vinaigrette. The fern salad with shitake was simple but the mushrooms were just impossible to resist. They were very meaty and was the life of the salad.


Our main courses arrived and had a good variety of everything we ordered like Bagnet, Daing na Bangus, Palawan Chicken. However I was pretty disappointed with my grilled chicken with lemon ricotta tagliatelle. Chicken was served raw to me. Good thing I still have that camote bread in my head.





We got to see the parade of the floats the next day. Too bad we couldn't get that close to get pictures. some of the floats were pretty with a nice veriety of flowers used. I was weirded out with one of the floats though which was inspired by avatar but suddenly shoots up the santo nino. I couldn't connet with it honestly.




Before heading home we had lunch at Forest House. This restaurant is quite known in the city for their steaks. Unfortunately no one has the appetite to have one. The view from the restaurant's balcony was beautiful and a fine meal with that view was good enough to cap a weekend in Baguio.

I liked the touches that the put on the soup on a bread bowl with the nice little qoutes. The soup itself was hot and tasty, pretty good for a nice cool weather.
I had their sausage with mashed potatoes and it was pretty good. Same as the others that we have ordered like their House salad, Kare Kare, Spicy squid, Shrimp with broccolli, salpicao and mini burgers.







Over all I felt that there was still more of Baguio that I haven't seen or tried yet. I have yet to try out strawberry picking though. I would want to go back to this place again but maybe not during Panagbenga so at least the traffric wouldn't be that bad and there's more to do.