Cafe Marco at the Marco Polo Davao Hotel

1999 - That was my maiden experience to be in Davao City where I enjoyed the comfort of my stay at Marco Polo Hotel. Fast forward until today(15 years later), I made a come back, like a swashbuckling stalwart out on a secondary culinary conquest, and this time account for what I have amassed, gastronomically. 

Sure enough to tickle one's gastronomic fancy and leisurely dining, Cafe Marco, serves an amelioration for both gourmand and gourmet with their festive buffet, exotic drinks and mouthwatering local cuisines. 

Replete with a wide range of season fruits and on top of its supple and eclectic entrees, Cafe Marco is heralded as the best of its kind in Davao. 

Now let's see where this smorgasbord extravaganza will lead us:

 Wine festival. 

Premium cookies on sale at the lobby. 

Bread. I just couldn't see any cheese.

Bread. 

Salad corner, the Korean way. 

Salad corner, the Western way. 

Salad corner, the Filipino way. 

Sausage. 

Pork, mix it with your salad.

Tandoori corner. Have them do it the Mediterranean way. 

Maki, sushi and sashimi corner. 

Salad toppings, sauce mix. 

Assorted bread.

Fruits, was planning of picking one when I go out as I always do in a buffet.

Green salad with my favorite mix, deep fried Anchovy. 

Condiments, oh they're very fresh.

Okra with Shrimp Paste. 

Pork. 

Bitter melon and chicken. 

Pork. 

Beef. This is how we do beef at home. 

Roast chicken. 

White fish. 

Assorted seafoods. 

Vegetables. This is my specialty at home, in my ancestral home in Cebu. This is probably how the Visayan lumad cook their veggies. 

Potatoes. 

Chicken at their carving station. 

Grilled Tuna.

Salad mix for the Korean in me. 

Fruit medley. 

Desserts. 

Desserts. 

Desserts. 

Durian Cake. Try it. 

Cake.

Desserts. 

Rolled chocolate cake. 

Rolled cake. 

Crepe. 

Blueberry. My did wife surely love this. 

Cookies corner. Dunk them into your ice cream. 

Jackfruit. 

Crepe. I wish they have a crepe corner to mix and match your crepe mix preference. 

Delicious indeed. 

Dessert ball with sesame seeds. Some fondly call this "Bochi."

Match this up with your mango crepes and you're all set. 

Ice cream mates. 

Ice cream toppings. 

Halo-halo corner. Do it yourself, make it a perfect blend of shaved ice, milk and toppings. 

Ice cream corner. 

Roast chicken with potatoes. 

Roast chicken with veggies. 

Tuna, grilled to perfection. 

For the 10% pork lover in me. 

It's a fish. 

Japanese maki. 

Do-it-yourself salad.

Fruit medley. 

Crepe.

Scoops of ice cream. 

Halo-halo(Filipino flavored shaved ice) with ice cream on top to satisfy the gourmand in me. 

Because the carving station lacks beef products, I was thinking that this buffet will not be at par to the buffet standards in its counterparts in the Metro Manila, but their extensive dessert lines raised the bar. 

Jim Thompson Restaurant at the Jim Thompson House, Bangkok

It's Thailand's lovely garden-enclosed complex, sitting at the banks of one of Bangkok's huge water canals. It's also a hallmark of a silk business iconography in the name of the American James "Jim" Thompson, whose legacy left a leisure enclave comprising six traditional Thai teakwood houses, including a museum, a silk boutique and a restaurant. 

Being a food pundit, where else can you find me but in a restaurant, and being a purveyor of fashion, where else can you find her but in the boutique. So we tried both. But let us take you for a tour first:

The teakhouse villa is filled with incongruous collection of Thai ancestry and marvelous antiques which embodies Jim Thompson's lifelong passion and whimsical design preference. 

Silk spool display so guests will have an idea how intricately delicate the job is. 

Silk loom before they gets delivered to local shops and international fashion trades like Paris, New York, London and Milan. 

Water lilies in front of the restaurant. 

In the midst of surrounding trees, the restaurant's inconspicuous facade bellies a tastefully designed entry foyer, with LED TV and boxes of chocolates and cookies, itself an iconic blend of East meets West, and a definite preamble to the glamour of Jim Thompson permeating all the way into the interiors of the dining sphere.

Tom Yam Goong(THB 240) - Hot and sour soup with mushroom, galangal, lemongrass, shallots, bird's eye chilies and prawns

Gai Hor Bai Toey(THB 240) - Marinated chicken wrapped in pandan leaves, deep-fried and served with special Thompson dip

Neau Phad Prik Thai Dum(THB 220) - Stir-fried beef tenderloin with three color peppers and white onions in a black pepper sauce

Phad Broccoli Goong Sod(THB 180) - Wok-fried broccoli with prawns and oyster sauce

It's a real Lemon Grass Juice(THB 100) with a straw that is definitely a stem from the grass itself. That's authenticity 101. 

Apparently, the restaurant is also one of the expats' and foreign dignitaries' favorite, even those foreigners working nearby the area, given most of that day's customers being Caucasian.

So do I.

On The Table Tokyo Cafe at the CentralWorld, Bangkok

Thailand is a potpourri of modern architecture and traditional elaboration, with Buddhist temples amidst the burgeoning skyscrapers and Byzantine buildings, and the fusion seemed communal in the urban landscape.

Same way as fusion restaurant, On The Table Tokyo Cafe, fused well into the mall's dining sphere. I normally put less penchant on restaurant found in malls because they tend to incline more into commercialization than into authenticity and quality entrees. On The Table veered from the norm. 

Elegantly tuck inside the mall's shopping section, On The Table Tokyo Cafe is a welcoming gustatory haven that raised the bar when it comes to taste and cultural concurrence. 

Pork Melted Cheese Curry Rice(THB 220).

Chicken Teriyaki(THB 185).

Salmon Teriyaki with Butter Rice(THB 255).

Seared Black Pepper Tuna Salad in light Japanese dressing(THB 240).

Strawberry, Banana and Peach Waffle with Vanilla Ice Cream(THB 110). 

The price were relatively ok given the quality of food. The verdict is hands down, I would definitely recommend this to the dining populace. 

Jeffer Steak at the Pantip Plaza, Bangkok

My tongue is chiseled such that it can only accommodate, let alone devour, common continental cuisine. I have been adventurously dining far and wide, restaurants to restaurants, city to city, country to country, but these are of austere and mainstream luxuriation, and I barely have any idea how it taste like in streets and suburbs. 

When we are in Thailand, if we are not in malls, we usually end up in fast foods with sparse and acclimatized food choices. 

Luckily, while happily cruising around a gadget-superlative and fashion-exuberant mall, we found this goldmine of gustatory goodness. 

Jeffer Steak is a local steakhouse in Thailand with branches mushrooming all over. They specialize in beef and steak dishes, plus some dashes of salmon, tuna, and chicken entrees too. it's a definite welcoming alternative to the usual fast food flair.

Fish fillet with spaghetti in mushroom sauce. She's really a spaghetti person. 

Porkchop and Chicken with veggie relish. 

Shake to conclude our meal. 

The food may not be that spectacular as compared to known steakhouses local or abroad, but they have a wide assortment of things that you can choose, from the safest selection to the most adventurous tongue. 

A&W at the Pantip Plaza, Bangkok

Mighty Kid, Menudo, Game & Watch-- these were things that we have outgrown with. Mighty Kid for a spanking new Nike shoes, Menudo with Maroon 5, and Game&Watch with Xbox. 

But there are things that we just can't leave out of the dusty myriads of our memory.

When we saw A&W Restaurant in a gadget mall(literally a gadget mall where everything being sold were just electronics and gadgets, a mall I fondly call a "gadget paradise"), we took no apprehension in going inside. 

Inside everything came into flashback, but the most vivid I can recall was their draft root beer and rot beer floats. 

Crepe. Nothing fancy if not because of the ice cream. 

Deluxe Cheeseburger and fries. 

Spicy curly fries. 

Chicken fillet with honey lemon sauce. 

Double Crunch Honey Garlic Chicken with barbecue sauce. 

Never leave home without their signature draft root beer. This is where it all began. 

The road unlikely travelled

I took the road unlikely travelled, at least for a guy like me who has been living with single comforts. But I had to. I know her almost 7 years ago and she just captured my heart with unexplained loftiness and inviolable buoyancy.

So here are the excerpts of that event last Nov 27, 2013.  

In her humble abode. She was busy all morning for her hair and makeup. 

In our office. Yes, I was fixing stuff at the office at the day of my wedding. 

In the altar. 

Wish us the best of everything as we take this path together. 

9 Spoons at The Bayleaf Intramuros Hotel

Tucked in the old ruins of the walled city that has been a staunch reminder of our colonial past, The Bayleaf Intramuros Hotel is an urban sprout of what is conventionally classic and a timelessly traditional landmark. 

The unbeatable spectacle of the metropolitan Manila through its sky deck dining has been on the news and is enough to tickle your fancies. When my then-girlfriend invited me over, I was ecstatic to try out their penthouse dining with the panoramic view of the city skyline and the vast greenery of the golf course. 

The interior is replete of a uniquely thought design element of laurel leaf and a piano section where guests can saunter around, hear out the smoothly played jazz music. The lobby is already both a visual and auditory treat of their lives. 

Salad station. 

Omelette station. 

Assortment of bread. 

Noodle tops. 

Grilled tomato slices and a snake dog as i fondly call this sausage type. 

Croissant. 

Dimsum.

Steamed vegetables. 

Bacon and beef. 

Noodles to flush down the iffiness. 

A little bit of everything. 

I wished for an egg paradise. 

I have a profuse amount of bacon because of its crispy goodness. 

All in all, there were only a few choices to choose from as compared to a regular buffet restaurant that I have been into. But the choices are good enough especially if you're the type who may not have the time to relish morning appetite with wide  assortment of continental cuisines. Lucky me, I woke up late so I don't have the same amount of time the way I have when I'm in Spiral or Circles or Heat.