Curry at the Penn

The only other time I've had Indian food was almost 10 years ago when I was in London. There was a small hole in the wall place near our hotel & I clearly remember having Tandoori chicken, sadly I was not impressed with the food, and only recalled that the chicken was marinated in something that made it turn bright orange. Fast forward year 2005, having had no Indian food in the years in betwee. A few months back I tried a new restaurant in Makati called Bollywood, the food was pretty good despite having only tried the Lamb Curry with Naan. Then the other day the Grub club went on a mission to try out the Curry festival at Manila Penninsula. Word from the local Indian community is that the curry served at the Penn during the festival is pretty authentic. Tita Loy was given the task of ordering for the group. She ordered Tandoori chicken as appetizer, along with the buttered & wheat Naan that came with 4 different chutneys, then we had their excellent fish curry, mushroom curry, lamb curry & paneer in tomato gravy. Some dishes were surprisingly hot but each had their own distinct taste. Everyone complimented tita Loy on the excellent selection she made for our truly Indian feast.

Mideast Feast

This was the sight that greeted us last Saturday night when a double birthday celebration for Jackie & jigs was held at the home of the Jimenezes. Exotic smells & sounds immediately invaded our senses us as we entered their ever inviting home. Small platters of olives, dried fruits, & sundried tomato with feta cheese and pita bread were served as a primer for the evenings feast. I had to control my intake of all the lovely appetizers to have room for the nights main event. Tita Loy as usual pulled out all the stops with all the wonderful dishes she painstakingly researched & prepared for us. There was the cold eggplant with yogurt sauce, Cheese with tomato sauce ( so yummy), Chicken in walnut sauce (which was fabulous), the rice with chickpeas & the lovely Lamb kebabs. Everyone literally stuffed themselves silly with all the great food.

Double birthday bash!!!

Jigs & Jackie blowing out the candles of the 6 Layer chocolate cake a la Lavigne made specially for them by Melanie.

All Dressed Up

The bank group got the chance to play dress up for the 60th wedding anniversary of Marc's grandparents. Everyone was dressed to the nines including moi, but after seeing my pictures I have to finally admit that I am sooooo disgustingly FAT!!! Aaaarrrgghh!! Bad thing is that my two gal pals Tif & Grace are really thin so standing next to them makes me really look even bigger!!!! Aaaaarrrgghhhh again!!! But despite all this, the evening was filled with good food, lovely music & entertainment, the ballroom was beautifully decorated. Marc & his mom H. really did a good job getting everything together. It was truly a labor of love.

South Beach Sin

That's me ready to attack the 6 Layer Chocolate Cake while Tita Loy is waiting in the wings!


I am starting to notice a trend lately that whenever I start on a diet, it's as if the gods are testing my will power by purposely creating opportunities for me to be experiencing really new & yummy dishes that they know I just cannot resist. I started my South Beach Phase I diet just this Monday and so far so good, I had so far behaved, I was totally devoid of any carbs and was able to follow the diet with little discomfort, that is until Friday night when I joined the "grub club" to try out this restaurant/wine cellar on Yakal Street, Makati. I knew I was in trouble when I entered the premises and saw all the beautiful bottles of wine displayed all over, they still had remnants of the actual wine cellar still there that was filled to the ceiling with boxes & boxes of vino. I knew that I would be breaking a lot of rules tonight. When the group came we decided to order family style, we all shared Bouillabaise served with rouille, ravioli with mushroom (pasta- a big S.B.No NO), mushroom salad, Escargot, shrimp with curry, pork knuckles and Foie Gras. I was bad, aside from having a "healthy glass" of red wine (Also a S.B. no no), I ate some of the crostini bread and committed the ultimate South Beach Sin by eating dessert. I must say their 6 Layer chocolate cake has to be one of the best if not the best dessert I have ever tasted in my thirty something years, it was a cross between a chocolate sundae & a brownie. It was truly heavenly and I vow to go back again with Tita Loy where we plan to just have our cake with some lovely champagne (after my I'm done with my diet of course!).