Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The Recipe To A Happy Tummy

Three months in the making and still, we were clueless on where to eat.

My friend and I have been planning to have dinner for the longest time. It took us 3 months before we finally got our schedules right and decided to push through with our dinner date. The problem though was that we had no idea where to eat. We met up a bit late so most restaurants were already packed with diners. Then I remembered one restaurant that I haven’t been to and told my friend about it. We both agreed to have dinner there and soon we were at Recipes by Café Metro browsing through the menu.
Fresh from the salon as I had my hair trimmed (not cut as I really want to have a perm this year) I ordered the Lechong Kawali with Kangkong (PHP215) and Gising Gising (PHP170) simply because both were tagged with M meaning these are among the restaurant’s specialties or bestsellers. My friend, fresh too, from Binondo, on the other hand opted for the Crispy Tilapia (PHP215), yet another restaurant specialty. I was planning to have calamansi shake as it burns calories faster but they were out of calamansi so I had Green Mango Shake (PHP85) instead.

The service was quite quick and it was good since I was starving! It was already around 8 when we met so my tummy was doing its grumpy alarms to notify me that it’s angry. 

All orders were served right away so we didn’t have to wait for each other. I was surprised though that the plating was very simple that it seemed like we were just eating at an eatery. Anyway…
Surprise again! I was bewildered that the lechon kawali was served in a bowl. I was used with it being served on a plate. Apparently, Recipes serves its lechon kawali differently. It was served with a sweet and salty (veering more on salty) sauce where the kangkong was literally swimming. Too bad I wasn’t able to take a photo of the kangkong because I was, as mentioned earlier, really famished.
The lechon kawali was not as crunchy as how other restaurants serve it but it was still very good and it was more “throat friendly” because of the sauce. The kangkong was really crunchy and I enjoyed munching it along with the lechon kawali. 
The Gising Gising was also a surprise dish for me. I wasn’t expecting it to be a bit spicy. It was Baguio beans and minced pork cooked in gata (coconut milk). The spiciness was from the chopped chili. You might saying “duh!” just about right before this sentence. Well, I never had this before so I didn’t know what to expect. I just found the name cute. It seemed that it was telling the diners to wake up! 
As for the Crispy Tilapia, it was really crispy. It was a tad dry for me though. I only had a bit of it and resumed eating my lechon kawali while devouring the kangkong and gising gising.

I asked the server what their dessert for the day was and I was (again) surprised with his reply… buko pandan and banana fritters. Wondering why I reacted like that? Well, I went there before just to have some dessert and I didn’t know that they only had two choices thus I went to Dome instead. Apparently, the dessert for the day doesn’t change as often as it should.
My drink was nothing spectacular. Though it tasted a bit like apple to me. Odd.

I’d definitely visit Recipes again for more of Gising Gising and Lechon Kawali. I love how they serve simple yet very enjoyable dishes. No wonder the place is always packed with hungry diners.

Recipe by Café Metro is located at the 5th Floor of Shangri-La Mall. It is right beside Secret Recipes and in front of Bayo.

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