Homecoming Dinner at Emerald Garden

Ugh I feel like I haven’t been drinking enough water. My kidneys must be failing me right now. (Lower back sore) So now as I type, I am gulping down a gallon of water to make up for the lack of water in my system for the past week. You see, I’m so lazy when it comes to drinking water. I always feel like I’ll drown if I drink too much. I must’ve been a prisoner who went through serious water torture in my past life *muwahaha*.

Anyway, I had a wonderful weekend, which followed a not- so- wonderful Monday (pfffft). I was swamped with so many things to do today (here I go again, I don’t know what I’m busy about , really haha) that I missed out on an afternoon event (happy birthday J!).

The other day though, I had plenty fun with three gals, ClaudyV, CR, and her daughter AR when we all went to dinner at Emerald Garden all the way in Roxas Blvd. Emerald Garden food is my comfort food. I grew up eating here all the time. Here’s the story. My family owns Emerald Garden (no, please don’t think I’m bragging here– I would have if I got discounts and free food, but like everyone else, I hafta pay for my meals *sob* haha no fringe benefits!!). Anyway, we’ve had this restaurant for over 20 years already. How did we engage in the restaurant business? Ok, a little personal revelation about me here– my family once owned the department store at Harrison Plaza before the mall burned down back in the 80s (sad, isn’t it?). Anyway, the succeeding months after the fire were spent by my folks with business partners in either Manila Hotel or Philippine Plaza, as they pored over the books and assessed the financial damages brought about by the fire. At some point, my folks realized that they were giving too much business to the two hotels. That’s when they decided to put up a restaurant– this was an attempt for them to save on food and beverage costs with all those meetings they had. 🙂 *hehehe*

And so, Emerald Garden was born 🙂 We’ve been eating there on a regular basis since the restaurant opened. My uncle PO has pretty much been running the show since the restaurant started. I remember eating there at least once a week. That was until my father passed away. We rarely go there anymore since it is a tad too far, and if we do eat Emerald food, we usually get it to go early in the afternoon and eat it at home. So going to Emerald Garden was a real treat for me. The old servers and waiters are still there with us– we are actually all like family already. I will never forget the kindness of these folks– they sang at my father’s funeral. They all mourned for our loss (a lot of them cried!), and that touched me the most. So these people who’ve stayed with the restaurant since its opening, are very dear to us. For that, I am grateful. There is a thing called loyalty and they’re a testament to that. 🙂 *To the Emerald employees, thank you!!*

Seeing them again that night, after a loooong time of not having had lunch/ dinner there, warmed my heart. They’ve always been so kind… and we even swapped stories– they hardly ever see me anymore, so it was nice to catch up a bit 🙂 Sorry I’m getting all mushy here. I never forget the goodness that people do for our family 🙂 Anyway, it was like some kind of a homecoming for me, to be able to eat in the restaurant again.

My company that night was fantastic too, so it made the dining experience all the more memorable. And so, dinner was served 😀

Steamed Lapu Lapu, Garlic Prawns
My favorite, fried pigeon
Emerald birthday noodles… no need for birthdays to have birthday noodles 🙂

I know, this doesn’t photograph well at all (it almost looks like puke haha), but this is one of my faves coz it’s soooo good! Ma Po Tofu with Minced pork.
So I went home that night super happy and full 😀 I hope my dinner companions enjoyed the night as much as I did 🙂

EMERALD GARDEN is located along Roxas Blvd, (1170 Roxas Blvd to be exact) across the US Embassy. For reservations, call (632) 523-8510. Must try: Our Siopaos (which I can never finish coz it’s huge!!), Fried Giant Crabs, Emerald Pigeon, Buddha Jumped Over the Wall soup (what a mouthful :D)

On another note, I had to share this photo with you all. I thought it was alarming (and interesting). First, this is no offense to the owners of M Tech Medical Center along Jupiter Street (I’m sure they’re nice people hehe). So please don’t get upset that I post this, but people who pass by your building see this daily. And it came to my attention tonight.

Hospitals are around for one thing– its a place where lives of people are saved, right? So it’s sooooo weird that there’s this HUGE sign that said, DANGER outside the hospital. It warned people that the building is a potential seismic hazard! The structural consultant has advised to have the building vacated! It also said that anyone who enters the building puts his/ her life at risk!!

So tell me this, who’d wanna go to a hospital with THAT huge sign outside??? It certainly freaked me out! And I wouldn’t be caught dead inside that building *hehe no pun intended*. I hope the people behind M Tech take the advice of the structural consultant and vacate the building. They’re endangering other lives instead of saving them!

That’s all for tonight 🙂

P.S. Thanks for the kind words, Vhanya— I was stressed out hahaha. And I love Longchamp 😉 I haven’t used Longchamp in a long time so I thought it was high time to go back to the bag before that serious bag addiction came along hahaha.