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Monday, April 18, 2011

Omakase (ATG): "Oiishi?"

Rating:★★★
Category:Restaurants
Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi
Location:Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati City, Philippines
Googling, I found out that Omakase (お任せ) is a Japanese phrase that means "It's up to you" (from Japanese 任す, entrust).

I guess this is like being at the chef's mercy and whim. Hmm...another food adventure then!

True enough though, it was a rewarding gamble to have dinner here with a long-time friend from the good old days of Sara Lee. Jerry has been living in the US and the last time I saw him was in my visit to Sanfo where we also had a round of wine-and-dine with other ex-officemates of ours who have settled in the US.

I've always been fond of Japanese food, though am not a sushi person.
However, sashimi and tempura are the usual favorites and they do not disappoint in this arena. I only found out later that Omakase also has recommended spicy tuna salad, tofu steak, seafood crepe salad and other designer sushi.

I guess since Jerry and I were swapping stories animatedly and drinking hot and cold sake, that I wasn't really taking notes on the food, except to say some of the sushi I liked, some I didn't (due to the fishy flakes), but overall, it is worth a second visit for a closer look.

I was stuffed to the gills, but I stubbornly dug my heels in, and tucked away a serving of green tea ice cream. Happy tummy!
A perfect closing note - and this was the only time I could recall that I was complaining from being too full from a Japanese meal :-)


Omakase at Ayala Triangle Gardens
Operating Hours: 11:00 AM - 2:30 PM, 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Contact Number: + 63 2 467-3150

The camera never lies....or does it?

Friday, April 15, 2011

Cat's favorite Kit Kat: matcha (green tea)!


April 15, 2011
Makati City
mood: catnip-happy-cat!

A very thoughtful and lovely birthday present from my kumare Benjie and her hubby Joy (poor man, probably had to madly scour for this in Japan because I mentioned to his wife how I adored to bits this chocolate and she got the idea of sending some to me!).

And to think it was their daughter, my first-godchild, who graduated, and I got the chocolates! LOL!
Thank you to the Suan-Logon family!


This picture of the unopened pack was taken from my iphone when I first scrabbled through the package my mom sent to me from Cebu.


That package had some of my "gipanghandum" (yearn for) food like
salvaro, broa, rosquillos etc. - you know how it is with my hometown, we really have lots of good eats. But I got the idea of not waiting for the chocs till later and luckily it got included (though my dad craftily had one of the packs remaining in Cebu..hmm....)

I had to immediately take a picture with my phone, then post it right away to Facebook in order to let others drool over it *wink*

As it was pure temptation sitting inside my ref, I opened it right away.
Its only around 13 pieces *sobs* and I'm counting them out each time I find a reason to eat 'em (which is not really that complicated a reason - could be something like "its lunchtime already", or "hey,I just sent my 299th email for this hour!", or "its 5 pm!" or even...I restarted my laptop! ooops..be right back!)

[5 minutes later....]

And so, I have to take a picture of the individual piece before I demolish the lot of it :-)

[I will add a picture later of the chocolate inside when I get to my last one]



I may have a rep for loving good food, but to those who have invited me to have a meal/eating binge this weekend, can we just distribute those over the next 3 months? I'm on a diet..hehehe..or else, at least until I can clone myself...

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Legaspi -> Donsol, Sorsogon: Whale Sharks Encounter

Start:     May 1, '11
End:     May 5, '11
Location:     Bicol, Philippines
A chance to experience puttering along with these gentle creatures...

I hope the weather cooperates!

Its been ages since I've been to Legaspi City (back in the good ole 90s).

Relying on my friend Che to help me go around by myself in Legaspi while waiting for 'em to arrive and then we can go to Sorsogon :-)


From the internet -
Whale sharks live in tropical, warm waters all around the world. For eating, they swim quite near the water surface.

Whale sharks are not dangerous for human beings, on the contrary.
Though their mouth is about 1.5 meter wide, the opening to the stomach is very small. So, they are not able to swallow a human body. Whale sharks only live on plankton and krill.

When they have a length of 4.5 meters, the weight is about 750 kg. The maximum length of a grownup whale shark is 13-14 meters. The whale shark then has a weight of approximately 1500 kilograms.
Oh, it can reach 9 meters :-) so its the biggest fish in the world!!