fish Archives ⋆ Leia Khu

Davao-Gensan Trip Part 15: Bon Appetit La Boutique

Posted on November 10, 2013January 22, 2019 by Leia Bartolome

It’s Day Five and we’re back in Davao once again.

In my quest to explore new gustatory territories, I already had my radar on Bon Appetit La Boutique weeks before our trip. They serve authentic French cuisine in a public square located at Plaza del Carmen, Loyola Street.

I never had a legit French meal in my life so I figured it would be a good place to start.

Sophisticated, elegant and charming, the interior of Bon Appetit La Boutique is a beautiful reflection of France. It is a perfect setting for romantic dinner dates, anniversaries and other special occasions.

Displayed on their walls are artworks and some French products for sale.

Sketches

Foie Gras
Fat Duck Liver

Canned French Delicacies

Fragrance Pillows

Fragrant soaps in Pomme (apple), Lavande (lavender) and Cannelle Orange (cinnamon orange) scents.

You know they’re the real deal because the menu is written in French. It’s okay, I can’t read French too. Hehe 🙂

Okay, nuff jabbering. Food. Now.

Baguette et Tapenade
Homemade French Baguette with Tapenade

Made with ingredients imported from France, this baguette can’t get anymore authentic in taste.

I’m very picky and hard to please when it comes to bread. You can ask my boyfriend. So when I say that I actually enjoyed eating this means a whole lot.

The baguette didn’t have that awful starchy aftertaste that breads made in local bakeries here in the Philippines tend to have.

Upon closer inspection, you can tell that the baguette has a light and airy texture with a thin, crispy golden crust.

Tapenade was something I never heard of before. It is a gourmet condiment usually used as spread for bread and is made out of black olives blended with herbs and olive oil until it forms into a thick paste. Its robust and distinct taste adds a unique flavor to the baguette.

The baguette and tapenade were actually on the house. Yey for free bread basket!

Crêpe Sarrasin, Oeuf, Jambon et Gruyère
Buckwheat Crepe with Fried Egg, Ham & Gruyère Cheese

While normal people would have this for breakfast or brunch, we had it as an appetizer simply because we can (fit lotsa food in our bellies). 🙂

Folded inside the crepe is a sunny-side up egg with slices of ham and melted Gruyère cheese.

Gruyère cheese has a rich, creamy texture and tastes sweet and salty at the same time. There is really nothing like it.

This is something I can have everyday! Light, savory and decadent. That’s what it is. It’s one of those things you have to try!

And yes, the salad did go very well with it too.

More free hot bread. They won’t stop serving free bread until you get to the main course or until you say so.

Penne Sauce Roquefort et Noix
Penne Pasta with Roquefort Cheese & Walnut Sauce

Roquefort is a type of blue cheese characterized by its blue veins of (edible) mold. It has a strong characteristic odor and taste that may put a lot of people off. But if you happen to like blue cheese, you will surely enjoy this dish like we did!

Served al dente, the penne was pasta perfection.

Steak de Gindara Grillé Sauce Beurre Blanc
Grilled Butterfish with White Butter Sauce and Potato Gratin

Tender and moist, the grilled butterfish was a delight to eat. The beurre blanc sauce was rich and buttery and it helped elevate this seemingly simple dish.

And the potato gratin was AHMEYZING. I could eat a casserole of that all by myself. It’s rich, creamy and tender. It’s so good that I’d rather have it over pizza any day! And yes, I still can’t believe I actually said that.

Bon Appetit La Boutique is a restaurant one should not pass up. I will not hesitate to recommend this place. Warm service, outstanding meals and fantastic dining experience.

Open Mondays thru Saturdays, 11AM to 11PM. Prices usually range between 300 and 500 pesos.

Let Sprockets Cafe Color Your World

Posted on January 27, 2013October 7, 2018 by xerox

In two separate occasions, I invited my friends and family to a restaurant that my friend Rachel owns…

Introducing Sprockets Cafe, a colorful restaurant that exudes fun, creativity and positive vibes in Cebu City!
I can’t think of a better place to just chill and camwhore all day.

Seriously, no Sprockets trip is ever complete without an obligatory photo op with the rainbow lomo wall, camera cardboard menus and pillows!

L to R: Ferocious Brent, Bombshell Erica, Quirky me, Drop-dead gorgeous Rachel

Oh hello there, Gluttony. Nice to see you again.

By the way, I accidentally spilled my wintermelon tea so… Let’s just rave about their food, shall we?

Moby Fish and Chips. Don’t belittle this seemingly simple dish. I enjoyed it very much! And yes, the dips do go very well with both the fish and fries.

Crispy, crunchy nachos topped with savory salsa. I swear I could finish a bucket of this deliciousness. Yum yum yum!

Fettupasta in Pesto Cream. One word: NOMS. Pesto cream sauce is, well, creamy and the pasta is al dente. *finger kiss*

Oreo Crepe on the house! Crepe topped with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and then drizzled with caramel and crushed Oreo cookies. There is nothing else I can say except that this is, by far, the best dessert I’ve put in my mouth! ‘Twas gone in a flash!

I am a self-proclaimed certified Sprocketeer and I highly recommend that you try any of the dishes I mentioned above. I promise you’ll thank me!

*My boyfriend took the first photo
**Not all photos here are taken on the same date

Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant

Posted on December 31, 2012October 7, 2018 by xerox

I never realized how much I missed blogging till now. Please excuse my month-long absence. It’s been the holidays. A belated Merry Christmas by the way to you my dear readers (if you don’t celebrate it, Happy Holidays) and have a Wonderful and Prosperous New Year ahead of you!

Anyway, I have been to Cebu twice this year actually but I never really got around to blog about it. Why? I really don’t know.

Now, since I haven’t been posting a lot of food stuff lately (in fact, I haven’t even blogged about some of the food that we had in Manila)… I think it’s about time to share to you again some of my food adventures.

Without further ado, as the title of this post suggests, I’ll be talking about Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant.

This Cebu-based restaurant serves you the freshest selection of seafood. And when I say fresh I mean swimming-in-front-of-your-face kind of fresh.

You can just point at what you want to have for dinner and they’ll prepare it for you. That easy.

Normally when I look at any live creature I don’t think of them as food but these crabs… HO HO HO *tents fingers*

Kids will love it here! My two nieces were gawking, smiling ear-to-ear as they were pointing at all the food, urm, fishes…

This is one of my two nieces, ‘Lienne. This was her first encounter with eels. You can definitely sense the amazement in her eyes.

Also, you can feed sharks. Pretty amazing right?

That’s my cousin Gen on the left and my sister Anna on the right by the way.

Feeding is free of charge. Without even asking, we were given a bowl full of fish to feed the sharks with.

Look at me! I’m feeding! Those two tiny “shadows” you see in the water are the sharks. Oh, I’m sorry. Were you expecting this?

Dinner time with family, relatives and the boyfriend! Click here if you want to find out what’s on their menu.

We had two servings of nicely seasoned steamed oysters served with a slice of lemon and topped with a sprig of parsley. The texture of the oysters were very soft and almost creamy. I could never have had enough of it. Really, really good!

Here’s is a small tray of crunchy Chicharon Bulaklak. Basically, it’s pork rind that has been cleaned, salted, dried and then fried. I don’t think it was the best chicharon bulaklak that I had but it was also good nonetheless.

This is a dish of fried soft-shelled crabs. Both delicate and crunchy. I enjoyed it very much. From the photo above, you can tell that at this point the table was getting crowded (you can see a piece of cutlery peeking at the left hand corner). And since everybody was getting hungry (me included), getting “artistic” food shots was the least of our concerns.

Delectably fluffy crab omelette. I was never a fan of omelettes but this has made me a convert.

And finally, “Kinilaw na Tangigue”. That’s Mackerel Ceviche in English (I think). I love how it had a refreshing twist on the traditional kinilaw. The freshness of the fish, sweet notes of the vinegar and citrus flavor of the calamansi blended perfectly together with the other ingredients. I’ve never had kinilaw like this before and I think, by far, this has got to be my favorite!

Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant isn’t only a great place to enjoy a great meal but it’s also a perfect place to just hang out and chill.

Três Marias reunited once again.

Please don’t mind the photobomber behind me.

Same spot. And yes, that is sand.

I invite everybody to come and try the food here at Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant! Located at Bridges Townsquare, Plaridel St., Alang-alang, Mandaue City, Cebu. Great dining experience is definitely guaranteed!

Delecta Diner and Cafe – A Sooo Pinoy Search for the Ultimate Food Blogger Entry

Posted on November 21, 2011January 15, 2019 by Leia Bartolome

I am a food enthusiast and a shutterbug at day and a blogger at night.

It is the marriage of my passion for food and photography that has developed my love for food blogging.

Blogging about food is definitely not something new to me but it is just lately that I have started to become really religious on coming up with new content every now and then.

To share about all the fantastic restaurants in our humble hometown gives joy not only to me but, apparently, to my friends too.

However, I believe it is about time for me to venture out and go what is beyond my horizon.

It has always been my dream to go to around the Philippines (and hopefully, soon, the world) to sample authentic delicacies from various regions.

For me, this is a different kind of learning experience because it helps me to be more open and appreciative of the unique notes of flavors and tastes from all over the country.

I believe that I am the Ultimate Food Blogger because my passion for food (especially Filipino food) simply runs into my veins and I can translate my thoughts and experiences into words and photographs.

Blogging about food is not only something that I do as a pastime but slowly it is starting to become an extension of who I am.

It is a lifestyle. My lifestyle at that.

Now, allow me to narrate about what my boyfriend and I had for lunch the other day at Delecta Diner and Cafe…

We had “Kinilaw” (a classic favorite of mine), Humba (“Pork Adobo”), Smoked Bangus and Halo-halo Supreme.

I like how Delecta’s “Kinilaw” had a wonderful nippy mix of fresh raw fish marinated in vinegar with some spices. The heat from the chopped chilies was perfect. Just thinking about how this dish tasted makes me slobber.

The Smoked Bangus was something I never had before so I really have no clue what to expect of it. I was quite hesitant to give it a try. But curiosity won me over, so I took a bite and boyyyy did it blow me away! I instantly wanted more! I love its woodsy smoke flavor which really elevated the flavor of the fish. Plus, the salad on the side was a bonus.

Here’s a closer look of the Smoked Bangus. Yum.

And there I am looking dead serious. Seriously dead hungry that is. Beside the platter of “Kinilaw” is “Humba”… Another delicious heart-clogging dish which I failed to document due to hunger. Pardon.

Lastly, here is their massive bowl of Halo-halo Supreme which pretty much had every essential ingredient to make heavenly halo-halo. All it lacked was Cornflakes. But I enjoyed it very much nonetheless. The perfect dessert to end a DELECTAble meal. Pun intended.

Closing this post with a wacky photo of my boyfriend showing the enormousness of Delecta’sHalo-halo Supreme. Please compare it to the size of his head. Kthxbye.