BIRTHDAY LUNCH OF MY SISTER ANNIE

Whenever I go to a buffet in a restaurant, I have a definite menu every time. I followed that for lunch today at Medley Buffet, Okada Manila; the birthday celebration of my sister, Annie. 

For starters, I always go Japanese. Today I took 3 pcs of shrimp tempura since they served the smallest that I’ve ever seen; though small however, they were so crispy and delicious. I added 4 pieces of tuna sashimi; I prefer tuna over salmom. Here, I restrained myself for I love sashimi. I took 2 or maybe 3 of California maki . I ate these with some pickled red ginger. Sorry, I missed taking a photo.

For my entree, my regular menu is a meat dish or two; usually roast beef and lechon with salad greens. But today and for almost a week now, I stopped eating raw veggies because they are hard to digest so I am being careful.

Look at my plate below where I took small pieces each of lengua, pork osso buco, lamb stew, 2 cubes of lechon makaw and 2 thin slices of Chinese style asado. 

I ate the meats with pickled veggies among which are sun dried tomatoes, pickled cucumber, beetroot in vinaigrette, pickled yellow zucchini and tomato salsa. 

Then I had a dish of assorted seafood, I love the mussels in lemon butter sauce; different from my Belgian recipe in white wine-lemon-cream sauce but equally delicious. 

It took a lot of restraint not to eat halo halo and cake; my companions had halo halo but I tried not to look. Instead, I went to the cheese room and took small pieces of cheese and 3, yes, just 3 thin slices of prosciutto. 

I ate these with pineapple and melons. 

My drink was half a glass of water infused with cucumber, and half a can of soda water with ice. 

I gave myself a high five for not touching the pasta, the paella negra and the dessert galore. It was a challenge to pass up on dessert, the spread was an array of cakes that you could imagine, it was the biggest station in the entire buffet, I even took a video of that station. 

We capped lunch with brewed coffee with a little warm cream, sans sugar. 

Once again, thank you, Annie for a wonderful birthday lunch for an amazing sister. We had a great time.