(Manila) – As soon as I luckily booked that cheap Singapore Airlines flight (yes, cheaper than my fave budget carriers!) all I can think about is – aside from seeing my family of course – FOOD! Living in a foreign country makes you really excited about gastronomic delights from home sweet home. Plane landed in the afternoon, even if I had my free meal aboard, I kept on thinking, where will my sisters and husband take me for dinner this time? Last time I went home was Christmastime, which means 3 months long without authentic, delicious and mouth-watering Filipino cuisine!
We ended up having dinner at an area near Makati called Fort Bonifacio – the national headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. They have developed an area within “The Fort” perhaps 5 years back called Bonifacio Global City. Here you will see high-rise and upscale residential condominiums, shopping complex, a recently completed hospital called “St. Luke’s Hospital” and more. Within the hustle and bustle of the Fort, lies a development called “Serendra”, a condo with a lot of restaurants and café shops at the base. I liked the place right-away, and the place was packed! After going around and checking out the place for somewhere to eat, we managed to get a table (where a famous presidential candidate was also dining at the same time) at a restaurant called “Sentro”.
Sentro serves modern-Filipino cuisine. I must admit that the place is a bit classy; dinner is a sit-down-ala-carte style. I asked my siblings, my husband and the waiter to recommend the best selling dishes to us, so here’s a list of what we have tried (and I recommend that you do too!):
- Crispy Pata – every Filipino is dying to have this! Called Pork Knuckles in foreign lingo – deep fried and crunchy pork knuckles, which is best with vinegar and garlic
- Ensaladang mangga – salad consisting of green mangoes, salted egg or itlog na maalat, shrimp paste or bagoong, tomatoes and onions
- Sinigang na corned beef – I was taken aback at first, it’s not common to cook sinigang (refer to previous qwek post by Mark “Sinigang Con Limon” for the recipe!) with corned beef! Nevertheless, I loved it!
- Bottomless Sago and Gulaman –after being spoiled abroad with soft drinks, kopi-c, kopi-o, teh tarik, of course, I had to go with one of our local drinks. Sago and gulaman is a sweet-flavored drink with agar gelatin and sago pearls.
Right after dinner, my sisters cannot stop raving about a certain cute store selling cupcakes. So we continued our eating sessions at “Cupcakes by Sonja”. For a lady who likes dainty, pastel-colored, nice little things like me, I fell in love with the place right away. Then I fell “madly” in love when I tried their cupcakes! Real sugar rush for a sweet tooth! The cupcakes are not commercial, tastes more like homemade, and it reminded me of my sister’s favorite birthday cake being sold only in Clark Air Base when the United States Air Force still inhabited the base. From the flavors I have tried, I recommend in this order (I don’t remember the exact names so bear with the pictures.):
- Red Velvet Vixen
- Mint Chocolate (Green)
- (Chocolate Brown with candy sprinkles)
- (Strawberry tart)
- (Lemon Yellow with sprinkles – a bit sour but sweet)
After I had my fill, I swear I gained a few xxxxx lbs!
(Note: I dreamt about the cupcakes for the succeeding nights, so I went back 3 days after!)
Happy Easter everyone! I soooooo love the Philippines!
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