Mrs.T= No good to talk, but always good to eat :)

*Screaaaaaam* (and nothing comes out). Ok so I have no voice yet. It’s what, day 3 now? I think I really have this tendency to overtalk, so someone must be punishing me for that 😀 *bawl* I’m sooooo sorry if you hags think I’ve been neglecting you all by keeping my posts short, but I am trying to regulate my sleep schedule. If you notice I’ve been blogging usually either before midnight, or already sometime in the afternoon. I’m not neglecting you *cries*, why do you think that? But really peeps, this baghag needs to rest because I’ve just been getting sick a lot– it’s just March and I’ve already gotten sick THRICE. 3 months= 3 times. That’s just not good. 🙁

Sooo what’s been up with this baghag? For starters, this week’s just been full of good meals!! Muwahaha, talk about free food!! Monday, the famille members (my DB, DSIL, and my DH) all celebrated their birthdays together and well, we had a nice dinner party at Florabel’s at The Podium. (For reservations, call Tel. (632) 6387527) And if you haven’t been there yet, I highly recommend going there. The meal for 8 cost them something like Php 19k *A BAG ALREADY hahaha!!!!*. And we didn’t have wine, but I will tell you, we had HEAVENLY food– and it was worth every cent (especially since I didn’t have to shell a single cent out hahaha)!!

Here’s what most of us ate *I know, I know, you wanna see bags, but psst FOOD is my great love too, so pfffft :D*

For starters, there were two platefuls of oysters with melted cheese. I was honestly not too fond of the dish because eyyy donde esta the lemons??? If there were lemons, I think I would’ve eaten both platefuls of oystahs.

But ahhhh here’s the Portobello mushroom with mesclun greens and foie gras. Now THIS is what I call a salad! *You’re missing out if you didn’t try this dish!*

My main course is the Wagyu Rib-eye steak, cooked Medium, and topped with yet another piece of foie gras *oh my Lawrd there goes my cholesterol level… but pfft who’s counting when you get a meal this good???*

DH who had to watch out for his cholesterol had to go with the Sea Bass. I’ve had this dish a number of times and I know for a fact it’s a superb alternative to red meat. But I didn’t wanna give up my fill of Wagyu for fish, so the sea bass had to take a back seat and will for sure be my choice the next time I head back to the restaurant.

Chef Florabel made us try a shortribs dish that she had prepared just for us, and you know me, I was never really a fan of short ribs until I tried this dish. The meat was very tender and the sweetness was just right. Very good dish indeed! This dish has won me over.

And here is a special dessert that Chef F herself made for us. It’s this warm chocolate button cake and it oozes with warm melted chocolate on the center (with a generous dollop of whipped cream!) This is the best chocolate cake I’ve had in Manila, ever. DH even had two of these *muwahaha and he was worried about cholesterol hehe*.

I went home that night with a full *and huge* stomach 🙂 *Sigh* I wish I could eat food like that everyday…. hahaha!!

Day 2 of my food fest, I was part of an intimate dinner that DaphneP hosted (her post-birthday dinner) 😀 I was only too happy to attend, knowing that with DaphP and friends, it’s always a wonderful marriage of good food and good company. Of course I was right 🙂 We had dinner at Chef Laudico’s Bistro Filipino (Ground Floor, Net 2 Bldg, 3rd Avenue, Fort Bonifacio global city, Taguig. Tel. (632) 8560634/ 8560541).

This was the “notorious” (in a good way, natch!! Haha) dinner gang 🙂 JeromeG (Metro Society Mag), PatrickP (ABC 5), DaphP (Urban Zone; the celeb= celebrity and celebrant haha), Mrs.T (the freeloading hungry biatch *snicker*), JamesO (Metro Mag), and on the right side was YvetteRI (Religioso), MelC (Metro Mag), ImeeM (Imelda Collection), and ChocRD (Religioso). Our other friend JoanS (Metro Weddings) also dropped by but had to leave after the starters were served *heehee I didn’t know how short a time she stayed, I just knew the time frame in food terms hahaha*

The food was also very good. Chef Laudico has been a personal favorite of mine since his days at Urdaneta. I still remember the first meal I had there was an intimate dinner that eventologist TimY threw for some friends to celebrate the birthday of his friend JonJon. Then while I was still with Metro Weddings, DaphP and I featured Chef Laudico’s place and food as a venue for a bridal shower. Ahh those were the days. But eck wait, who wants to hear about the good ol’ days that I had, when the present dinner is more interesting to talk about 😀

Starters was this Fried Lumpia (fried springrolls) served with frozen suka (vinegar). It was very different, and it was definitely very good!

Also served was the Ukoy (fried shrimp cake) atop ripe watermelon slices. This is a very innovative dish, pairing the shrimp cake with watermelon. Again, a very good dish.

There’s also Sisig (oh gosh, here’s something I can’t translate! Anyone? Help please, what’s sisig in English– innards?) in some type of pastry shell, served with a spiced pugo egg (quail egg).
For the main course, JamesO and I decided to share Beef Pochero (it’s Beef hehe), and he also had the Tortang Talong (eggplant). (He was in the middle of eating this dish when I took the photo heheh sorry James!) This was actually the first time I was to eat Pochero. I’ve never had it before. It wasn’t so bad, although when I glanced over at DaphP’s plate, I wish I had her dish *hahaha covet covet thy neighbor’s food*. She had prawns with laing (gabi leaves). It looked real good 🙂 I guess I didn’t realize but I still had the wonderful aftertaste of the Wagyu steak of the night before haha. But in fairness, the Pochero was very good too, served with bananas. Yum! It’s really one of those more “native” dishes with the Chef Laudico twist.

Forget talking about dessert. They were all SOO GOOD that I neglected to take photos of them. We were all too busy chatting up a storm and devouring the sweets *sugar fill!!!*. We had some pretty wild conversations while in our neighboring table were the guests of Ricco and TinaO (of Celestina). Joyce Ma of Joyce (Hong Kong upscale boutiques!) was there with them too. Whoa, I got to sorta be in the same space and breathe the same air as the retail queen of Hong Kong *muwahaha see, the socialclimber in me lives!!! I’m really a pathetic namedropper, aren’t I? haha* Oops speaking of Celestina, there will be a private preview of the collection featuring handcrafted minaudieres and jewelry on March 29 and 30 (Thur and Fri) from 2.30pm-6pm. If you are interested to attend, SMS me at (+63916) 758-0857 so I can submit your name 🙂

Anyway, the dinner went very well. I have to hand it to DaphneP for throwing such an excellent dinner party. She is really a great host (both on tv and in real life :D). The dinner is definitely worth talking about and sharing on this blog 🙂 Bags of the night included a Chanel (YvetteRI’s), Louis Vuitton (ChocRD’s), Gucci (DaphP’s), and moi? I used my “workhorse” bag out for a spin 😀 *guess the bag!*

And speaking of bags, here’s the Large White Chanel lambskin Tote I was talking about in my past post. This bag is available for Php 110,000. It was only carried minimally, and there is hardly any evidence of it being carried because it’s in immaculate condition. Only a very small scuff at the bottom corner at the back of the bag, which isn’t even obvious unless pointed out. It’s really a beautiful bag and the leather is so buttery soft! The added features are the unmistakably large signature of Chanel which is stitched in prominently on the front of the bag and the Chanel signature chain-leather handles. The box and dustbag are included! *This bag is not yet posted on TRESORMAKATI.COM*

Ooh ooh Update Update!!! Travel plans to Japan have been scrapped by la famille. DM’s passport which was issued back in 2003-2004 belongs to the crappy batch of passports that our good ol’ Dept of Foreign Affairs issued. *Thank you DFA for issuing real substandard passport booklets to those who sought one. Shame shame for adding more “injury” to our already battered nationality!* The Japanese Embassy rejected the passport of DM, saying that DFA should reissue her a new one before reapplying for a visa again. THANK YOU DFA for ruining our travel plans *steaming with anger.. Grrr!!!*. There’s no more time to renew the passport so we are now left with the option of traveling to a country that requires no visa. So ,more update on that soon. Ugh. And here I was, looking forward to the sushi and sashimi meals (including the Fubu blowfish!!) in Tokyo. So, as my friend and *woohoo* lawyer CAC says, this should serve as a warning to those planning to travel this Holy Week– check your passports and make sure your passport photo is alright– no cracked corners in that area (just make sure it doesn’t look “tampered”) because some people have had problems with the immigration people of other countries because of it.

Gotta get going now, have a meeting again for my upcoming “project” *if it can even be called a project :D*

xx