Cafe d'Asie Breakfast Buffet

Cafe d'Asie
2nd Floor, Main Wing - The Bellevue Manila
North Bridgeway, Filinvest Corporate City
Alabang, Muntinlupa
+63 (02)771-8181 local 8020

Breakfast at Cafe d'Asie starts at 6am, but it was nearly 7am when we went down to eat breakfast, simply because we wanted to stay in bed longer as we just had a very relaxing massage the night before and the fluffy sheets and the good air conditioning system made us bargain with the alarm. :)



Anyway, we knew our time was limited (as sister has to be at work by 3pm and we have to consider traffic) so we fixed ourselves for breakfast. We didn't check the cafe the previous day so seeing it for the first time blew us away. It was spacious, it provides a good view outside (depends where you're sitting, of course) and they have a wide selection of food.

What was for breakfast that day?


Salad Station. Typical selection for salad, but I was happy that they provided six sauces to choose from (all labeled for easy identification). Well, salads tend to fill me easily, and because I wanted to taste as much food as possible, I skipped this station.


Cereal Station. Koko Krunch, Corn Flakes and Bran Flakes were available - milk can be seen nearby, but  even if I do eat cereals from time to time, I skipped this station as well as I don't want to slurp some milk.


Japanese Station. Sushi for breakfast? Why not! I told before that I am not much into Japanese food, but little by little I am training myself to like it, and I did like this sushi. I realized, it was the wasabi that I don't like much of, so eating the sushi just as it is made me appreciate the flavors.


Filipino Station. Filipino breakfast is something so rich and flavorful - that the cafe had a lot of choices - steamed and garlic rice, longganisa, scrambled eggs, corned beef... and these - dried seafood. Well, guests can just take some from the plate, but there are cooks on stand by if you want to have freshly fried danggit or pusit.


Bread / Cheese & Spreads Station. I wasn't able to photograph the breads, but they do have different types of bread, which guests can toast, if they want to. Aside from these cheeses, they also have individually wrapped small packs of butter and jams to go with the bread.


Bacon! Something that made sister and I salivate. :) It was so delicious, but I only had one small strip (just to taste it) because I am not really fond of crispy bacon.


Pastry Station. Yes, there were breads, but there were also different pastries. I was able to try the Danish Breads as well as the Muffins, and my favorite would be the Chocolate Muffin. It had a lot of choco chip toppings, and more choco chips inside the muffin.


Fresh Fruits. Some of the pastries are great enough to cap off the meal, but for some, fresh fruits are a must. Seeing the pineapples and the papaya was difficult to resist. :)

As for the drinks - staffs roamed around to ask guests for coffee refills, but they also have a drink station - with different kinds of fruit juices. If it's tea that you want, they can serve it to you, too.

I have had breakfast buffets during travels, but this by far was the best breakfast buffet I have experience.

     

ABC Wednesday | W and X

I still am coping with slow Internet connection, but I feel optimistic that the 30th is about to come - means the contractors will be here to check the problems. Hopefully come July I will have faster connection, giving me the chance to update my blogs regularly.

Today's Wednesday, here's my share for letters W and X.


W is for Wintermelon.

I thought for this round I'd share another watermelon picture and this morning I thought of taking a picture of the Worcestershire Sauce bottle we have at the pantry, but while eating dinner just a few hours ago, I remembered this picture I took last March.

My sister and I were in La Union that time for our cousin's wedding. They live in a house near the farm lands,  and while roaming around she saw this and asked me about it. Told her it's the Wintermelon, or Kundol as we call it locally. I heard this vegetable/fruit is used for soups, but I still haven't really eaten big chunks of it. The only Wintermelon by-products I got to tasted were the dried wintermelon candies and the Hopia Baboy (a type of pastry), which uses Wintermelon tidbits, which gives the pork fat texture. Nowadays, there are a lot of raves about the Wintermelon Milk Tea, something I am quite fond of.


X is for X.O. Candy.

This is probably the only "X" food I can think of and I was glad the nearby store sells it. I am not sure how many flavors there is now, but my favorite would have to be this, the Butter Caramel candy. Although I don't really consider this as something I'd pop in my mouth most of the time, whenever  we are expecting guests here at home, I tend to buy a bag of this candy and serve this at the coffee table.

Two more letters left... I think I am going to finish this round of ABC Wednesday.



 

Early Dinner with the Family

My Internet was a bit unstable the past few days. Seems our antenna is having a difficult time receiving signals, but contractors will look into it by the end of the month. Hopefully by July our connection will be better than ever.

Sister's schedule at work allowed her to spend Saturday afternoon with us, so the family decided to eat out. Biggest craving we had was Halo Halo, so we went to the nearest Chowking branch to have our Halo Halo fix as well as eat early dinner (as sister has to be on the road by 6pm).


Chicken Lauriat. Sister's meal. She just went with the typical fried chicken (which I always believe to be dry), because she just love fried chicken.


Beef Chow Pao. Newest food on the menu... mom went for this instead of her usual siopao just to try it out. I wasn't able to taste it, but mom didn't like seeing just 4 strips of beef inside mixed with some slices of tofu.


Chicken Supreme. Brother's meal. I personally like it especially the sauce, but I don't usually go for this as I love their Chinese Chicken the most.

Chorizo Chow Fan + Lumpiang Shanghai. I initially wanted the Shanghai Lauriat but I thought it would be way too heavy, so I just went for the Chow Fan. I love chorizo and this was something I haven't tasted yet, so I chose it. Not delicious as I hoped it would be.. it was called Chorizo Chow Fan yet it didn't have that much Chorizo pieces.

Halo Halo. Us three girls had a glass each of Halo Halo... and despite the rants I had about my Chow Fan, this Halo Halo cooled me. I really love Chowking's Halo Halo, but it was the Ube ice cream that I loved the most. :)

It was an okay dining experience (not the best, but not worst), but I loved it because I was with my family.

Phoenix Court Bellevue Manila

Phoenix Court
2/F Tower Wing - The Bellevue Manila
North Bridgeway, Filinvest Corporate City
Alabang, Muntinlupa City
+63 (02)771-8181 local 2211



For dinner during our visit at the Bellevue Manila, sister and I headed to the Phoenix Court for some Chinese dining. Opened last May 26, 2012, the Phoenix Court is the newest dining hotspot that boasts a spacious and cozy area.  Aside from the big dining area, they also have four private rooms that can seat up to 25 persons.



The Phoenix Court do have an extensive menu that offers a lot of variation including Cantonese and Szechuan dishes. Malaysian born chef Cheong Kwan Loong is the restaurant's executive chef, who has had  a lot of experiences in Chinese cuisine.



The table set up was very simple, and I personally liked that there's no lazy susan (I am just not a big fan of it). Anyway, there was this plate of peanuts on the table for guests to munch on while waiting for the food to arrive. Sister didn't like it, but I did - it's not the typical boiled peanuts, there was something used to season it and it was interestingly good.



Poached Hainanese Hong Kong Chicken. Thinking what to eat was difficult because there was just a lot to choose from. Our family's a big fan of the Hainanese Chicken, so when the waiter asked us to choose something from the appetizers, we quickly agreed to get this. This was the half serving (whole serving is available, too), and we loved it so much, my sister and ate it all! Of the three dips, I love the herbed ginger the most.



Yang Chow Fried Rice. Sister wanted to eat rice for dinner, so we went for this. The rice was actually a meal in itself, but despite the many flavors in the rice, it was still nice to eat together with any of the dishes we ordered.



Roasted Duck Hong Kong Style. Believe it or not, I still haven't really tasted duck (apart from this spoonful of minced duck rice bro had years ago), so when the waiter asked me what else would we like to eat, I told him I might go for duck as well. Duck meat sure tasted different than chicken, and while I still love chicken more, sister and I did love this choice. The meat was tender, the skin still had a little crisp, and the sauce was just fine.



Sauteed Fresh Scallops with Asparagus. I may be a little off track from my weight loss program, but even if I wanted to taste a lot of dishes, ordering two was already enough for me as I knew my sister and I couldn't eat that much. However, with two meat dishes, I wanted to taste a little different, so I went for this as I miss eating scallops and I want to have a bit of vegetables. I was surprised at the size of the scallops - the other Chinese restaurants we went to didn't serve scallops this big. It was a very simple dish, but it was good as well. The scallops can be overwhelming, so my sister only were able to eat 2 each... but I did eat a lot of the asparagus because it was so crunchy!



Green Mango Shake | Grape Yogurt Smoothie. My favorite watermelon shake is available, but for this dinner I went for my next favorite - green mango shake. I knew the meat dishes would be rich, having something tangy might help clean the palate. Grapes aren't our first choice for fruit drinks, but the yogurt was the thing that caught my sister's attention.



Mango Sago. Tummies full, we were asked if we wanted to have desserts. I was a bit apprehensive if I'd go for it or not as I am not really into Chinese style desserts, but the server suggested we try this. Sister had the first slurp (we had separate bowls, by the way) and her eyes went big. I asked her if it was good and she told me it was delicious, but I might not like it because she knows I am not into ripe mangoes. It made me a bit interested hearing her comment and seeing her reaction to it, and when I tasted it, it was indeed awesome! It was creamy, it was full of mango goodness as if it was melted ice cream with sago! It was a wee bit sweet, but overall it was something I hope I can re-create at home.



Butchi. Our very friendly server really wanted us to taste their butchi and gave us a piece each. It sure was different from the other kinds I tasted - this one had a black colored filling compared to the light brown fillings.

This dinner was truly something I'd cherish. It was a little bittersweet as I wasn't able to share it with mom and brother... but sharing this with my sister made me happy. Our tummies were really full after eating, and the leftovers they offered to wrap, which I gladly accepted so I can take it to mom and brother.

This month - June 2012 - the Phoenix Court is having their Prawn and Crab Special. Among the choices are King Tiger Prawns  baked with Chinese mayonnaise or garlic butter, Live male crabs cooked with Singaporean Chili Sauce, as well as Crab Shell stuffed with crab meat and butter mushroom and cream.

Now that is something I hope to taste - I just love prawns!