A wonderful surprise at 168 Mall Food Court

My friend and I went shopping in 168 and the highlight of our day was the delicious lunch at Chopsticks and Spoon, located at the Food Court.
We had to wait 45 minutes for our lunch but it was worth the wait. We ordered Miki and Cereal Prawns and both were excellent. The Miki was good enough for four people and very very reasonably priced. The very very says it! The prawns were fresh and tender and tasty....six or seven pieces in the platter.
We also had a very filling halo halo, perfect for cooling off after the bumper to bumper human traffic experience in the shopping mall.
If you should go to Chopsticks and Spoon, I suggest you bring someone to fall in line for you while you do more shopping below. And the someone should line up an hour before the lunch time crowd descends as they have a really long queue at Chopsticks and Spoon.
We were told that the oyster cake in the restaurant beside is also very good. We are saving that for our next trip. Now we have a good reason to go to 168!

Jumping to another topic, May is around the corner and I am contemplating whether to go to Lucban for the annual fiesta of San Isidro de Labrador on May 15. I have fond memories of pancit hab hab, pork hardinera and soft and tasty espasol. And then there is the Lucban longaniza and the famous broas to take home.
I would not advise going without arranging your lunch accommodations. There are not too many restaurants in the area and the little that there are become quite full during fiesta time.
I joined a tour one time and that provided us with a passable set lunch and toilet facilities. The next time I went, my friends and I had to share stools in a little restaurant with an iffy comfort room. Still, the color and atmosphere of this fiesta makes up for all the inconveniences! One of the thousand things you should do and see in the Philippines before you die.

LOLO DAD'S BISTRO IS ONE BIG DISAPPOINTMENT

The cold spinach soup and the gummy breadsticks!
Is this stuffed Cornish Hen or stuffed chicken?

I celebrated my birthday by having dinner at Lolo Dad's Bistro at 6750. It was such a disappointing dinner and I invited a balikbayan couple with the intention of showing off our fine dining.
Well, to start off, despite having reserved a table a couple of weeks prior, we were relegated to a table on the second floor level. The ceiling is rather low and the aircon was pretty weak. There were some plastic bags in one niche and plates and cutlery were piled in a table and the whole room made you feel that this was an area utilized for storage and converted into a makeshift dining venue when the main floor was full.
And the service was poor and slow! The waiter could not answer our queries about the stuffed Cornish Hen and referred us to a waitress who just repeated what the menu said. We can read, HELLO!
My lady guest, my husband and I ordered a la carte and my son and his girlfriend and our male guest ordered the set menu. Our salads came way before even the first item of the four course set menu so we had three hungry diners in our table. When they finally got their appetizer platter, it came one by one. I don't know why they could not bring all three together since they must have come out of the kitchen at the same time. The soup was cold and the breadstick that accompanied it was gummy....probably undercooked.
The stuffed Cornish Hen was did not resemble Cornish Hen...it was a leg and thigh and not a whole hen. My guest who owns several poultry farms and a chicken processing farm in Australia says that it was chicken and not Cornish Hen. He was really looking forward to the Cornish Hen as there is none available in Australia.
The poached pear dessert was sour....
On the positive side, I must say that my soup and the rich man's salad and the chocolate semifreddo were excellent.
Now I wonder if the original Lolo Dad's in President Quirino Avenue will be disappointing as well.

I have been following so many food blogs that I thought I would have one of my own and share experiences and recipes.

I also thought I could use the blog to vent my occasional frustrations with servicemen, utility companies and their billings, etc.etc. Well, that will come later when I am more familiar with this blog. Right now, I am still feeling my way so I'm a bit shy.