Birthday Treat!!

     Yesterday was a fun day for me. I had just heard Mass at Quiapo Church and as I was on my way home, my dear friend Sarita called to ask me out to lunch. I readily agreed. I merely freshend up when I got home and proceeded to another friend's house - June Recto- or Mudra/Mother as he is fondly called.

     In a few minutes we were on our way to Greenbelt3 to go to the designated place. Whilst we were walking around G3, we chanced upon a special sale on different types of bread and we decided to purchase some on our way home from lunch. We found a pack of foccacia for P60.00 and Malunggay bread buns for P55.00. All sorts of local kakanin like puto pulo, bibingka, biko and sapin-sapin and leche flan cake can be found... but that's another story entirely...

   

  We met up with Sarita at Thousand Cranes on the second floor of Greenbelt3. The restaurant prides itself with its shabu-shabu cuisine as well as other Asian fare. This particular lunch was very interesting as they had a free hand in picking from the menu. So for starters we had edimame to  whet our appetite. Then  we had kani salad and seafood salad. The edimame was perfectly seasoned; not too salty and tender to the bite. The kani salad was so refreshing you could eat the thing without the asian dressing that accompanied it. While the seafood salad was surprisingly fresh with different cuts of tuna, kani, squid and some boiled shrimp pieces thrown in.

     Then one by one the dishes started to appear. Grilled dishes were cooked tepanyaki style and served with side garnish of  some raw veggies. The pieces of meat were well seasoned and well-cooked. We gorged on grilled ox tongue, grilled pork belly, grilled lamb and grilled prawns.

     I just had to try a little of everything. Their soy sauce dip with a little amount of chili and tempura sauce were just perfect for the viands they came with. The tempura batter was light and crisp some crunchy flakes made it to my plate as I was munching on it.

     Jojo came as we were starting to eat so he got another plate of kani salad and proceeded to take the rest of the food with us. Meanwhile, Fides had not arrived. She was coming from a meeting held in Binondo and was arriving late. We had such a great time eating, I had forgotten I had a camera and started taking photos. The downside with a camera that isn't point and shoot is that waiters may not know how to take a photo of your group. but I managed to take 16 photos. Too bad I wasn't able to take shots of the grilled prawns.

     The grilled beef had a bit of caramelized fat in it which made the slices very tasty. The cooked beef had a nice gamy taste to it and made a nice contrast to the taste of the rice. By the end of every dish we had the waiters clearing out and changing our plates. Fides arrived after Jojo had left and she asked for a plate of Gyoza. She was also wearing one of her now famous cocktail rings so i took a photo of it as well.

     After lunch, we headed down to our favorite spot on the ground floor level. It was Cafe Breton for a cup of coffee. While there, Mudra ran into some clients and changed tables for a while. We were having so much fun, we left the scene at four in the afternoon. But first we had to go back to Greenbelt1 to buy the bread... =)