The Ultimate Food Experience Vol. 1 (Meat, Salad and Buffet-style Restaurants Galore)

note: this was an email i sent to my friends when i was on vacation in the US two years ago (sent on 22 septepmber 2004).

warning: before you read this, make sure you have all the time in the world!

when i left manila, i was about a hundred and twenty-three pounds. when i go back there, i don't know...

i did not eat much on my first days here. but now that almost two weeks have passed, i just have to eat. i just made a resolution to restrict myself in buying the 99 cent chips (read: doritos, lay's) and king-sized chocolate bars in every corner store i pass. (ain't it a coincidence that right now i am listening to lea salonga singing, "o tuksooooooo, layuan mo akoooooohhhh!!!!!!!"

after the birthday party of my lola, there were a lot of leftovers. mostly lechon, embutido, menudo and callos. meat galore! my tita made lechon paksiw out of the leftover lechon. all of those food lasted for a week, and that's what we ate for lunch, for dinner... *groan*

souplantation:
last friday though, tito fred took us to this nice buffet-style restaurant called souplantation in monrovia for lunch. when you enter the restaurant, you are greeted by the salad bar. besides lettuce, there are other kinds of veggies you can't imagine are there --spinach, arugula, red beets, red beans, garbanzos...that's besides the ready-made salads and different kinds of salad dreassings. there is also the bread line -- cheesy foccacia bread, foccacia pizza, blueberry muffins, cherry-nut muffins, chocolate lava cake, buttermilk cornbread... i didn't pay much attention to the soup buffet but what i got was the yankee-style clam chowder and tomato-basil soup -- this is very chunky -- with lots of celery, carrots and small pasta. for dessert there's fruit -- melon, honeydew, grapes, watermelon plus very yummy cottage cheese. you can also make your own sundae. chocolate, vanilla and swirl (combination of the two flavors), then just add chocolate syrup and nuts or fruits -- just let your imagination go! you might notice that i didn't mention any meat here. that's because they don't serve it as an entree, just as a side dish. to all you vegetarians out there, this is the place to go!

tita emma's house, sun city:
my tita is allergic to everything you can imagine. besides nuts, dairy and some veggies, she also cannot eat meat. so you can just imagine what kind of food i eat here. mostly green salad, but anyhow, she bought food that we can eat, so that we won't be like cows grazing. hehe. we had very yummy dried tomato and cheese ravioli with pesto sauce, steamed asparagus (green and white) and string beans on our first night here, which was just last saturday. actually the food lasted until monday but what the heck, the ravioli tasted good as the days went by. ginja! yesterday we opened another package of ravioli, this time cheese and spinach... it didn't hearken to my taste. we also had baked fish, chicken potstickers, which are dumplings, and more salad. for as long as we are going to stay here, this will be how we will eat.

lael's restaurant, hyatt hotel san diego:
last sunday tita emma, my cuz christine and of course, my mum and i, drove over to san diego (christine lives and works there) after church. it was quite along drive but actually in was only for an hour but it felt like hours because we drove straight, there was no traffic at all, and the vista was almost the same, endless desert and hills with the occasional town. anyhow, we were very hungry for lunch by then so we drove straight to the port. we had the brunch in lael's restaurant in hyatt (yeah, baby!) because it is buffet-style. again. not that i'm complaining, coz at least they serve meat, which, of course, i got on my first plate --rack of lamb with mashed potatoes, blintzes with fruit sauce (cottage cheese-filled pancake and blueberry sauce), chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce, and ham with 2 cheese slices. there are also these cute tiny 3 oz. bottles of tabasco sauce for the fresh oysters. one bottle i took, but not the oysters. for my second plate, i had -- well what would it be but dessert? amaretto cheesecake (mas ok ang chocolate kiss!), this creamy-crunchy pie that i forgot what its name was, 2 coffee-chocolate truffles AND chocolate mousse in champagne flute. hungry now????? i really wished you were also here so we could all savor the creamy texture and light flavors of those divine desserts. when i took my first bite of the cheesecake, i was the only one at the table with closed eyes, savoring it. good thing they didn't pay much attention to what i was doing. after that second plate i resolved not to eat again. in the afternoon christine treated me to snow bubble. lost in translation? this is, in plain tagalog terms, zagu/quickly. :) i had choco-cinnamon milk tea with bubble (black sago)

home style buffet, temecula:
i think i am getting sick and tired of buffet-style restos. last monday we had dinner at home style buffet. this was another of the many buffet-style restos here. at least the food is different, and delicious! here i had potato-cheese soup, bbq beef brisket (very tender and juicy) with sweet corn on the cob (m-m-m!) and cowboy grilled potatoes. second plate i had homestyle meat loaf, mashed potatoes, fried fish, and steamed carrots and string beans. at this point my tummy is practically hanging out of my jeans' beltline, i was that full! i just rested for a while for the food to go down and make some room for dessert -- chocolate pudding. ahh, heavenly!!! after that i made room for just one more -- frozen strawberry yogurt on cone. after that i cannot breathe anymore. i just had to undo the top button of my jeans just to breathe! i will never eat again. (of course you know very well that's so not true, but you know what i mean.)

ooh-kay! so ends the first part of this food experience series. there would be more to come, that is, if i would eat yummy-savor-deserving delights or be force-fed alien globules of unidentified food. hehe.