Celebrating our 15 Years of Marriage With a Lunch at the Crystal Room

This has been a much awaited lunch not only for me but also for my husband.  

 As a husband and wife , we fought a lot of hardships, heart-breaks and infirmities, and we endured all with the Lord as our fortress and source of everything!

To make our relationship more of enjoyable ride we had tried a lot, and took our dining up a notch.   We have been sharing a lot of first-times lately, and here, this was the first time we had a "fine-dining experience."   Happened at the heart of  Bonifacio Global Center, The Establisment.  

I would love to chat about all that had gone through my life with him playing the biggest part of it but this will interest you more, since this is a food blog.

The Establishment is composed of three avant garde restaurants, the Hall, Tulipan and the Crystal Room.  

• This seemingly private but not really hush-hush place looks like a hallway, with glass panels dividing a quaint wall, where the sunlight gives off striking radiance from the outside, is how I can summarize the place.   How I wished I could make a poem out of this but alas, a less poet am I.   So to a natural person like me I can descriptly summarize the  place as elegant!    The white background and the whimsical chandeliers, and not to mention the semi-circle dining table says it all.   And the service, top class, everyone are polite and warm-hearted.   

This February, they have launched Guest Chef Lunch

 Specials were Chef Him Uy de Baron was featured.

Chef Him has prepared a delightfully delicious lunch menu, as expected from his extensive training from Le Cordon Bleu, experience as Executive Chef of Chef Cuisine catering and consultancy, his stints at East Creative Asian at Rustan’s, Le Souffle & Edsa Shangri-la Plaza and as a Chef Consultant for numerous large food corporations.

 For our anniversary lunch we started of with  a basket of baguette, their French bread  to be dipped in herbed melted butter or pesto, then followed immediately with Tempura of Squash Blossom filled with Prawn Mousse and Plum Chili Dressing.    A mixture of prawn and herbs possibly floured and egged, filled the flower of squash and crusty fried, then smothered with a light clear pink sweet sauce.

For our entrée, Pan Roasted Chicken with Asian Mushrooms Ravioli and Chicken Jus, skillfully prepared.   I love the Jus.   It has a different taste, unlike any other chicken soup or stock, maybe it has wine or a spice I haven't discovered, and yes it was superbly cooked.   The chicken is tender and juicy without the meat being raw.  Their own made ravioli really goes well with the roast chix submerged on the Jus, but still in perfect texture.   I've eaten a lot of raviolis but never have I tried it with a stock, so this is another first.   However, funny though, we tried to eat    the leafy thingy on top of the chicken, but we really can not, Bhogs even joked about it being skinned from the palmera or bamboo found around the resto, we never really could tell what plant or veggie that was.

Bhogs enjoyed it anyway!
He missed the rice though










And for the dessert, our second first,  Mango Panacotta with Pandan Cream, Muscovado Syrup & Fresh Fruits.  Our first ever Panacotta (it's an Italian dessert) which I've been dying to try for centuries.   Topped with slices of strawberry, passionfruit, kiwi and pomelo saps.  I found the mango panacotta a bit sour but still delectable.  You have to try the panacotta with bits of  fruits and syrup.
As recommended we had our coffees with the desserts.   For my Daddy, the good ol' Gourmet Capuccino, and I had a cup of English Tea Latte.   OMG, my first tea with milk, that's another first.  And I found it very comforting and very tasty.  I was a bit hesitant about having it, good thing I tried, I broke my own notion of a tea with milk is yucky.

See how big the serving of this dessert is, hmmm really a value for the money, It is very smooth, when it touches your mouth mmmmmmmm, and  shooked head.

S 

See how frothy the milk on the cappucino? 


Gourmet...

It really was meant to be a well-deserved firsts for both of us, hopefully not the last.

After which we headed to Market, Market which was near, and there was the Panagbenga celebration, a good thing to those who weren't able to visit Bagiuo, they brought Bagiuo here in BGC.  Then we watched Unknown, lead by Liam Neeson.   A very memorable advance anniversary celebration capped with a good and intriguing movie.  We are 15 on February 26. 

The Establishment
Unit A The Fort Entertainment Complex
26th St. corner 5th Avenue
For Bonifacio, Taguig City
Phone: (632) 844 6364