Ruby Jack's at City of Dreams.

The long wait is over. Ruby Jack's Steakhouse and Bar is open and I was lucky enough to have been invited by Tiff Sy to sample their famous dishes.  

The place was packed but since we had so much fun catching up, we nearly closed the place down for the night. 

The cozy ambiance makes the place good enough to bring your children for dinner and/or have a romantic date with your honey. 

A private room is available for a big party of 12. 

They have all the wines you could ever want. 

Our meal consisted of the following dishes that's truly to die for. 

Tomato Salad with blue cheese and shaved onions. 

The best Ceasar Salad I have ever had. 

Crab Cake Donut

Wagyu Japanese Steak is so darn good. 

Seafood platter consists of lobsters, scallops and market fish and oysters.

Always have space for dessert. 

The true dessert, however, was restaurant manager, Thiago Harada. 

Tiff, Tess, Christine, Thiago, your bloggerina, Jasmin and Santi

Cannot wait to go back with my gang. 

Thank you so very much Tiff for the wonderful evening of laughter and amazing food!

Ruby Jack's Steakhouse and Bar

City of Dreams

Open for lunch, M-F, 11-2:30 pm

Dinner, 6 - 10 pm

Bar, 11 am to midnight.

8018888

The Beauty of the Conch Shell.

Conch is a common name that is applied to a number of different medium to large-sized sea snails or their shells. The term generally applies to large sea snails whose shell has a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal. - Wikipedia

This is what Jul Dizon created out of the shells. We adore the color, texture and versatility of the material and adding diamonds and precious gems to it brings the finished piece to another level of rarity. 

Two kinds of leaves and oval shaped Conch shells in yellow gold with diamonds. 

A single Conch shell ring with a perched diamond studded butterfly in yellow gold. 

Rose cut diamonds with graduated Akoya pearls and roundish Conch shell in white gold earrings.

A "Fleurs" Bangle with Conch shells, diamonds, tsavorite, pearls in yellow gold. 

A pair of semi-heart shaped Conch shell with two different shapes and colored butterflies in yellow gold earrings. 

A formal pair of Conch shell with diamond earrings in white gold. 

My favorite? This pair of dangling Conch shells with diamonds in rose gold earrings. 

View the whole collection at Jul B. Dizon Jewellery, The Peninsula Manila, 2nd floor. 

Call 8864638 for more information. 

Wine and Dinner Pairing at Marco Polo, Ortigas.

Marco Polo Ortigas recently celebrated its first year in the Philippines. I was hearing a lot about how good the Chinese restaurant is and luckily was able to try it out last July for my brother's birthday. It was indeed very good. 

It also gave me an opportunity to reconnect with Mirko! I met him in one of my lunches in Tivoli, Mandarin Oriental a few years back and I am happy to know that he is now Directory of Food and Beverage of Marco Polo. Congratulations!

Anyway, he told me about a Wine and Dinner Pairing that they are launching and I was very happy to go and and experience this Marco Polo style. 

My forever date, Dennis Lustico, Executive Chef Lluis Cantos, Mirko de Giorgi and yours truly. 

Thank you so much for your amazing hospitality. 

A table for two, 9 course dinner, 4 kinds of wine and a whole lot of excitement! Since I don't drink red wine, I made Dennis enjoy it. 

Deep fried US Oyster with sweet and sour sauce. 

Steamed egg white with Alaskan King Crab leg. 

Cog Fish in Chinese wine with Ginger Onion.

Chef Sunny's Special US Roasted Duck. 

Steamed Scallop in Lobster Creme

(sorry no photo)

Sliced Garlic US Beef Cubes with Vegetables.

Dried Scallop Fried Rice in Egg White. 

Tian Tao Jelly. 

The wonderful team that created our dinner takes a bow. 

Marco Polo Ortigas

720-7777

Candy x Bella.

I finally got my foodie lover friends together for a dinner at Ms. Bella Yuchengco's residence. 

This is the only reason you can make me go to Ayala Alabang. 

Tita Bella's cooking is SUPERB. You have to understand, she never studied in some fancy schmancy school. She just learned how to cook by trial and error by putting this with that. I WANT TO BE AS TALENTED AS HER...but since I can't I will just have to wait for the next invitation or organize another dinner with amazing people as I have done last week. 

Amuse

Melon, Pecorino, Prosciutto

Appetizers

Cauliflower Steak, Organic Egg, Bacon Jam

Twice Baked Souffle

We put some bacon jam on top of the souffle and it just blew our mind. 

Main Course

Seafood, Farlic, Olive Oil

Ribeye, Roasted Grape Gravy, Garlic Apple Compote, Cilantro Dressing

Dessert

Salted Chocolate Caramel Pots

Thank you Sunshine for the Quezo de Bola Cheesecake. Really very delicious. 

To my gang, thank you for doing the trek. I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did. 

We really missed you Iza. 

Rajo, Charisse, Lucy, Jacqueline, Tita Bella, Sonja, Tess, Cecile, Nix

Ben, yours truly and Jeroen. 

Inspecting the kitchen where magic happens. 

To order the quezo de bola cheesecake, please follow Sunshine Pengson on Instagram. 

@sunshinepengson

Candifier Gets Crowned.

Last year, I went AWOL for my birthday. I hibernated. 

This year, I didn't. 

I can't even begin to tell you how much weight I gained from all the dinners hosted by me and hosted for me. All in all, I felt the love and I am grateful for all the people in my life and those who allowed me in theirs. 

On the day of my birthday, Friday, SV and I played hooky. We left work at noon and headed to City of Dreams where my darling Charisse Chuidian planned a lunch for us at The Crystal Dragon. 

It was just the three of us so a printed menu made me feel extra special. 

A six-course lunch, how wonderful is that?

Birthday noodles!

Crystal Dragon is definitely my favorite Chinese hotel restaurant.

Thank you for the awesome lunch CC!! 

After our lunch, we headed to a surprise planned weeks before my birthday. 

Now, you must believe me when I tell you that my photos do not do justice to what I am about to show you, the Presidential Villa of The Crown Towers. 

As soon as we open the doors, Camille, our butler, asked me what kind of toiletry I would like for the bathrooms. Since the villa has three baths, I chose three different kinds. 

I checked out the villa and all I could hear myself say was "Wow!"

Because they heard I was checking in with my two children, they put teddy bears on their beds.

They also had two cookies and marshmallows platter for them. 

The massage room.....because...why not? 

But because this is a two-storey villa, they put in an elevator because that's how they roll. 

Since we stayed at The Crown two weeks before my birthday, Camille printed out a photo of the our group that she found on Instagram. She surely knows how to make us feel at home. 

Could not believe how amazing the villas are at The Crown. I was ready to just pop in a movie and vegetate when SV told me that we needed to head over to the Spa. This day keeps getting better and better. 

Two hours of bliss. We both feel asleep and woke up with super smooth skin, relaxed muscles and a general sense of well being. 

It was nearly 7 pm and the gang started to trickle in. I treated the girls to dinner that we ordered in from Crystal Dragon. We found ourselves laughing at the silliest things and truly felt so happy to be surrounded by them. It was a good bunch of people that took time out to be with me. 

Tess, SV, Jasmin, yours truly, Grace, Charisse 

Jaqueline, Liz and Jody. 

After Grace and Liz had gone, we all went to the outside and soaked ourselves in the outdoor jacuzzi. 

Here we are at 3am because it was time for Tess to go home. 

In the morning, we had breakfast at the Lounge and after, we headed to the hotel pool. We were given the cabana to use and boy, did we love it. 

A great big thank you to SFV for arranging everything and for giving me a birthday celebration that I will never forget. 

To Charisse, you are a gift from my Mom and I will always treasure our friendship. 

Thank you so much Crown Towers for making sure that we bring home only wonderful memories of your awesome hotel.