My birthday lunch
More than a week before my special day, my husband asked me where I want to have my birthday lunch. I immediately ran through my "Eat List"–restaurants that I wish to try this year. However, I had to consider that my husband is not as adventurous as I am when it comes to food, so I decided to choose from my/our list of favorite restaurants instead. Emperor Court easily came to mind. When I thought of the scallops wrapped in bacon with creamy sauce, my mouth started to water already. So I called up the place to make reservations. Unfortunately, there was a function in the restaurant that day so I was faced with a mighty big problem: where shall we dine?
My husband Caloy suggested Duo but we just had lunch there fairly recently. So we ended up having a very late lunch at Serendra’s Portico 1771. It’s the newest one operated by the Chateau 1771 group that has been making a buzz in the restaurants scene. I chose it because Chateau is well-known for its desserts. Yeah, happy birthday to me!
For starters, Caloy had a cucumber and watercress soup (P90), a creamy puree that he slurped with great gusto. My Bea and I had a clear soup with scallops (P90), which was a good enough hunger-buster. Cara had a crabstick salad (P280), which was also quite good but, for its price, I would have expected a much bigger serving. I also ordered the spring tofu (P180), which is one of the house specialties. It’s a very simple and light omelet with a beancurd filling and a special sauce. At first bite, it was delectable–the sauce lending a burst of flavors to the otherwise tasteless omelet. But as I ate more, it reminded me of taho and I soon felt a bit turned off. It’s not so bad, I tell you, it’s just hard not to imagine eating taho minus the tapioca (sago).
The shrimp cracker salad (P280) is a very interesting mix of greens, shrimps, shallots, lemongrass, chopped heart of palm (known locally as ubod) with a citrusy mayo dressing. The curious twist to this appetizer is the prawn crackers or kropek, which we used to scoop up the salad. It was a lot of fun to eat, and the taste caused a deja vu of sorts–I remembered a similar dish that my Indonesian classmates in Germany used to prepare for our class parties. Yes, that’s it!
For our main dishes, we had pan-fried lapu-lapu (P240), chicken extravaganza (P280), and tic tac prawns (P450). The first was delicious–tender lapu-lapu fillets topped with onions in a flavorful sauce. The second was also good–deboned chunks of chicken with sliced button mushrooms and asparagus spears in heavy cream with a hint of oyster sauce. The last looked absolutely enticing: six pieces of prawns cooked in olive oil, seasoned with herbs and spices, and garnished with caramelized chopped pistachio nuts. The presentation was superb and the concept was promising, but strangely, they just didn’t do it for me. The prawns were kind of tough, too.
We were so stuffed already, and it was half past three (we started eating at 2:30), but I still got to have my desserts. I’ve been longing to try the fruit pavlova, so I ordered the meringue set (P220) from among the several "Blissful Endings" choices. It had a floating island (similar to canonigo), some marshmallows prepared by the restaurant, and the pavlova. The first two were just so-so, maybe they’re not even worth mentioning, but the pavlova was great! It had a meringue base, some heavy cream in the middle and chopped fruits (strawberry, kiwi, mango) on top. I loved it.
And because it’s my birthday, the restaurant gave me a complimentary slice of its famous coffee pie. It’s perfect for coffee lovers as it has a very strong coffee flavor, but I wouldn’t say no to free dessert so I devoured it. Oh, burp. Overall, the food at Portico was good, not excellent, just good. I guess I’m really not a fan of fusion cuisine. But I had a wonderful birthday because I was with my family and so many people remembered my birthday. Am truly blessed.
