Abé, Quentin & Camille

There's this document that I needed to finish by the end of the month. I know I can accomplish this task on time. All I needed was to start the first page. For me, that's the challenge. I've been scheduling, rescheduling, visualizing, preparing and analyzing the initial paragraph. Been doing this since Aug 01. Definitely this weekend I will finally do it. Mike, just do it.

Anyhow, off to lunch first with some couch surfers. The website's name is actually Couchsurfing so members are obviously referred to as "couchsurfers". One word. But those red dots underneath the word which signified a misspelt word was bothering me so separate words will have to suffice.

Aug 18, lunch at Abé ( p. 134, Guide A 2010 & p. 131, Guide A 2011 ) - I've heard so many rave reviews about this restaurant so I was kinda excited to finally be able to try their dishes. I purposely reserved visits to Filipino establishments for when I have appointments with foreign guests.

My dining companions were a French couple, Quentin and Camille. There's just something about the French making cigarettes look so appealing. Ok, I'm a Francophile so they could do nothing wrong. They met in Greenland years ago, when Quentin used to reside there as a glaciers tour guide. Greenland is under the jurisdiction of Denmark but Schengen visa wasn't required for a visit.

Maybe a Philippine passport was good enough to enter, similar to Brazil and Morocco according to some friends. The reason being that they had no idea where we're located. I'm just relaying what I heard.

For starters, we had the Paco, Fern and Tomato Salad - "young rainforest fern with tomato in a light salad dressing" and

Spicy Sisig Pampanga - "minced pork jowl and chicken livers sauteed in garlic, spices and chilies".

The kind waiter gave us some Atsarang Papaya to taste - "pickled julienne of green papaya, carrots and shallots".

We also had the Adobong Puso ng Saging - "heart of the banana plant stewed in palm vinegar". I loved this dish.

Next came the Bicol Express - "not to be outdone, this Bicolano dish is guaranteed to blast off to Mayon Volcano in this spicy coco cream vegetable medley". This contained ampalaya so I removed those. I found out that I shared a dislike for ampalaya together with Camille and Quentin.

Binukadkad na Pla Pla followed - "a Bistro Remedios original, overgrown tilapia butterflied and fried to delightful crispiness, served with balo balo relish and mustasa leaves".

Steamed Rice was limitless.

Our desserts were Maja Blanca and Halo Halo.

Quentin is a freelance photojournalist and after Manila, they were off to General Santos to film a documentary on Philippine tuna fishing. They're frequent travelers to the country and have other projects lined up to accomplish on this trip.

Camille is a writer and used to be connected with Les Echos, the first French financial newspaper. So their occupations made them a perfect match. Another piece they were doing was on homosexuality for Têtu, a leading gay and lesbian magazine in France. Strangely, there is no gay political party like Ladlad in their country. Probably because they don't label anymore.

We had so much fun talking and laughing about an assortment of topics - Camille being some sort of social pariah back home since she doesn't drink wine or any other form of alcohol, the admirable patience of Quentin when he had to endure long hours just to shoot a few minutes, eccentricities of quintessential French chefs and their wonderful diverse cuisines.

Now there was this one gastronomical dish that they informed me about that will forever stick in my mind. Simply called Ortolan. This was supposedly a favorite dish of former French President Mitterrand. So this was how this meal was mercilessly prepared :

the beautiful Ortolan relaxing (pic from The AV Club)

1. Catch an Ortolan, a migratory bird, alive.

2. Keep the bird in a cage. Pierce the eyes.

3. Force feed the bird till it fattens to twice or thrice its size. Quadruple if possible.

the bird fattened and drowned forcefully (pic from uniquefoods.org)

4. Drown the bird in brandy, preferably Armanac, till it dies.

5. Remove the feathers and feet ( optional ) but leave the head intact.

ready to eat (pic from The Daily Telegraph)

5. Roast the bird till tender.

6. Get a napkin, put if over your head and eat the bird whole. Not in parts, but whole. Some say this is to hide the diner's greed. But others believe this is done because it's messy.

7. Convert to being an Anglophile instead.


Cost of Meal : 1885