TASTING MENU AT CATALAN ROSEWOOD HOTEL

What is a Tasting Menu? a tasting menu offers several dishes with small portions. A french term for Menu tasting is Menu Degustion. Tasting Menu is offered in restaurants to provide a sample of house specialties. 

I've always wanted to try CATALAN at Rosewood Hotel as they have two Michellin Star Chef Antonio Saez. They offer a tasting menu plus carefully selected wines that goes along with it. It is the first Catalonian restaurant in Abu Dhabi which is from the northeastern region of Spain. 

CHEF ANTONIO SAEZ

The place is small and very intimate probably only caters to not more than 50 people as they want the place to be really intimate and I believe it doesn't compromise the preparation of food for a specialized chef.

CATALAN ROSEWOOD HOTEL ABU DHABI

They have 2 kinds of tasting menu. One is priced at 345AED plus 175AED for wine pairing or 275 with connoisseur wine. It comes with a starter, main and dessert

The next tasting menu is chef Antonio's 7 course tasting menu which is priced at 495 plus 275 wine pairing and 375 with connoisseur wine.

We tried the Catalan Tasting menu priced at 345 plus wine.

They serve a house bread with a glass of champagne.

Then they served a pumpkin hummus

Followed by the Roasted Steak of FOIE GRAS that comes with baked capsicum, eggplant in extra virgin olive oil that is served on toast. 

FOIE GRAS

I am not a fan of wines nor a wine connoisseur  but the wines they serve in each meal are so refreshing on the palette that doesn't have any "disgusting" (excuse my language) bitter taste

Then comes the Seafood Paella which comes in really small portion but very filling.  My friend enjoyed the seafood paella but for me I really enjoyed the FOIE GRAS

SEAFOOD PAELLA

They served the beef tenderloin which they will ask you in the beginning how you like it cooked.
I prefer medium rare. The beef is a bit dry which we didn't enjoy much and asked extra sauce for it.

BEEF TENDERLOIN

My favorite part is always the dessert. I feel every meal is not complete without it. A must try in this restaurant is Extra Virgin Olive Oil Ice Cream which has cardamon soup and pistachio biscuit. 

EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL ICE CREAM

I know what you're thinking, what is an olive oil doing in the dessert? Well it taste like a dulce de leche cake with cardamon soup thats what it exactly taste like.

Service was excellent and the servers were all very friendly, attentive and knowledgeable about the food and wine.

Complimentary chocolates and biscuit 

I really recommend you to try CATALAN in Rosewood Hotel if you are in Abu Dhabi. A bit pricey but well worth the food experience.

DOOR TO CATALAN

                  BUDGET: For menu tasting: minimum of 500AED per person without wine

                       For Ala Carte: Approximately 600AED for 2 people (main plus dessert)

HAVE YOU TRIED PINK PANDA IN MANILA?

I had a 17 hour layover in my favorite place Manila and of course the main agenda is to try new restaurants in town so I can have great ideas for food presentation. I was supposed to attend this COOKOUT CHALLENGE of ETIHAD AIRWAYS because I want to beat my friend (ANGELINA) who is a chef wannabe!

Going back to my story of my PINK PANDA experience, I really wanted to try it because it is one of the restaurant of this super cool French/Filipino guy ERWAN HEUSSAFF who is very fond of cooking.

I went there with my mom, I had a bit of a hard time going to the place because of traffic and parking was a bit scarce but nevertheless it was worth finding it.

I believe it is one of ERWAN's best restaurant compared to his other restaurants HATCH 22, Hungry Hound, Premio and NINER(i love NINER tho).

Pink Panda is a Southeast Asian Diner featuring THAI, VIETNAMESE, INDONESIAN, CHINESE and FILIPINO cuisine.

Located at the G/F Y2 Residence hotel, 4687 Santiago Street Corner B Valdez and Singian streets 2981 Makati. If you still can't find it, just google map it or call them at +639062053898.

Anyway I really love the service at PINK PANDA. The waiters were all attentive and welcoming.

For my drink, I ordered the KOPI PANDA which looks like this….
 

Then we had the super cute Panda Buns which consists of steamed pork buns, mushrooms, salted egg and Siracha Hoissin.

 I love their Prawn and Pork LAKSA which comes with a BUCHI dessert. But I asked the waiter to kindly remove the pork and put fish instead since I am not a PORK FAN.

                                                         very yummy laksa

I am craving for some more cargo loading that time so I ordered the Crab Fried Rice as well which consists of yellow rice, crab meat, green peas, broccoli and peppers.

Then for my vegetables I tried the TAHU TELUR which consists of soft tofu, crunchy eggs, shredded cucumber, keycap garlic manis.

I really enjoyed their variety of Americano coffee. I picked the subtle coffee chocolate flavored bean coffee.

With Mom

I enjoyed our lunch. The food and service were excellent, just the location was a bit of a drag. But overall experience was awesome.

MINIMUM BUDGET: 1500 PHP for 2 people.

HAKKASAN ABU DHABI

Have you tried a Michelin star restaurant? Well if not then you better try HAKKASAN, a world renowned Michelin star restaurant that offers a unique modern Chinese Cuisine. The restaurant is glamorous, very modern with the Asian contemporary ambiance, ambitious cooking plus excellent service.

Hakkasan have branches around the world, they have in London, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and Mumbai.

If you pass by Abu dhabi, Hakkasan is a must try restaurant located West wing of the 7 star Hotel Emirates Palace.

I've been in this restaurant 3 times already and they have the best view and the best Chinese food plus unique cocktails if you feel like having drinks with your friends.

I love the their bar area because the lighting is very cool in the eye and the place is not suffocating, you won't feel that it is crowded. They have excellent ventilation so you won't feel that someone is smoking.

The restaurant have terrace where you can wine and dine and have a great view of the Etihad Towers and is usually occupied already, so better make reservation especially if you want to sit outside. We were lucky one time that there was an available table outside even without reservation but most of the time it is full.

The foods that I always order here which are already a personal favorite are the 

Fried vegetable dumpling

HAKKA hand pulled noodle with mushroom and chive

Duck spring roll (super delicious)

A bottle of Shiraz from South Africa won't hurt to go along with your meal 

THE HAKKA (Belvedere Vodka, Sake, Lychee Juice, lime, coconut and passion fruit)

ROSE PETAL MARTINI

(Martini Rose Syrup, Tanqueray No.10 Gin, Lychee Liqueur, Parfait amour and peach bitters)

If money is no objection for you then you can try this whisky shot for 10,000 aed (100k pesos) per shot…CRAZY PRICE I know..

Or 

some unique pear tequila from France 

Great place to wine and dine with friends

MINIMUM BUDGET: 250AED per person (starter, main plus drink)

HAKKASAN EMIRATES PALACE ABU DHABI

The Red Cabbage

I couldn't sleep as I am on home standby tonight. I'm a flight attendant, for some of you who is not familiar of home standby (maybe because you don't have a flight attendant girlfriend or friend or daughter) it's when we stay at home for 4 hours or so and wait to get called for a flight….The question is "if" we get called for a flight. If all goes well, I will just be staying home tonight watching my favorite series Modern Family. Its 12am (Abu Dhabi TIME) and my stomach is growling.

I did my grocery this morning and I had the curiosity to try this purple cabbage. Just for a change, since I always buy GREEN. I am a woman of habits and I tend to stick to what I am familiar most of the time when it comes to food and this morning I tried to be adventurous by not buying GREEN CABBAGE but trying out PURPLE CABBAGE instead…HOW ADVENTUROUS…

I had this gut feeling that purple cabbage is good for you, which I ended up to be right because according to research purple cabbage is much easier to digest and has higher antioxidant level than other vegetables. The deeper pigmentation in purple cabbage the richer supply of anthocyanins, which helps in lowering your risk of cancer (which most vegetables are), heart disease, macular degeneration and many other diseases. 

Best way to eat it is when eaten raw and cooked but avoid boiling it as it zaps the nutrients. Best way to cook it is by sautéing. UNFORTUNATELY I boiled my purple cabbage along with my brown pasta which made the boiling water turn PURPLE. (so I lost all the nutrients there already, so whats the point of eating this) I topped it off with my EASY CHEESY RAGU that I got from the grocery store and VIOLA!! I am already a genius in cooking. You can now call me a chef! I'm kidding. Big respect for Chefs as they are a genius in food preparation. I wish I have a personal chef at home so I can eat good food 99 percent of the time…

    

Which you remind me, I am traveling to New York tomorrow and in MANILA in a few days. I've got some restaurant on my list that I want to explore in MANILA. While in New York? I am planning to go ICE SKATINGGGG in Central Park and eat lots of spicy chicken wings and cold DARK beer which is what I mostly enjoy eating in the States. Excited! 

SOUL SEARCHING: THE BEST CAFE MOKA IS AT PAUL

Who can resist a dessert? In my opinion, a meal is not a meal without a dessert. It typically concludes a meal, paired with a great coffee or…? well I am a little biased with tea, as I am not really a tea drinker so I will not include it in my list but let's say a hot chocolate perhaps? COFFEE or HOT CHOCOLATE? I LOVE THEM BOTH! I usually order them when the waiter ask me, coffee or hot chocolate ma'am ? It's sooooo mind bugling wasting the cells in my brain to decide which one is the best so I just say I'll have them BOTH. Coffee AND Hot Chocolate.

                                                                COFFEE

OR

HOT CHOCOLATE?

While walking around SM AURA, I happen to end up having dessert at PAUL. YES you heard me right, they have PAUL BOULANGERIE already in MANILA. No I am not talking about in PARIS, but in MANILA.

         

PAUL BRANCH in PARIS

PAUL BRANCH IN SM AURA MANILA

 I remember whenever I have a flight to PARIS I always buy their COCO FLAN before riding the TRAIN (GEEZ I hate riding trains).

But going back to PAUL, some rich guy brought it to Manila named BEN CHAN. He franchised it from PARIS and brought it all the way to MANILA.

BEN CHAN

PAUL is always packed but there is always a seat available for everyone. I went here twice already and it's always the same story.

I sat in a little nook just beside the window which is always my favorite spot so I can have a better view outside the window and observe people's behavior while I talk about them with my mom. haha!

I ordered the usual COCO FLAN which is what I usually order back in PARIS and……and here is where the mind boggling starts.. to have COFFEE or HOT CHOCOLATE????

I observed in their open kitchen, that their hot chocolate seems very dark and thick, just like how I want it. AND IT DOESN'T seem POWDERED!!!

While at the same time, I always want a coffee every after meal, so the kind waiter told me why not try our CAFE MOKA? A mixture of coffee and our version of hot, dark and semi sweet chocolate. I gave it a go.

The drink was like made in Heaven. I've never had this perfect cup in years. Its semi sweet, little bitter but creamy and extremely delicious combination of hot chocolate and coffee. I tried making them at home but the taste is not the same.

I came back again at PAUL to have lunch and got intrigued with THE CROQUE MADAME PHP 420 which consists of farmer's ham, Emmental cheese, cream, pain de mie topped with a fried egg.

I am vegetarian so i asked the waiter to remove the farmers ham and put mushrooms instead. I got what I requested. Of course my order won't be complete without my CAFE MOKA.

My cravings were satisfied and I can't wait to go back to PAUL and RAMEN NAGI again and again. And I encourage you to try it as well as my SOUL SEARCHING for food was deeply satisfied.

Till next time!