Kanyoen Yakiniku Restaurant ♥ ♥ ♥

 

We were not hungry. Really.

We were just sticking to our schedule which said dinner at 8pm.

It wasn't our fault that we finished lunch at 5:30pm. Rico was to blame. His pigs were late.

We just had enough time to check in at the hotel, laze around a bit, shower and change for our yakiniku dinner. 

 

 

At 7:45pm, our bellies were still stuffed, but more than ready for Kanyoen

 

 

Yukke Sashimi - this chopped sirloin marinated in sesame oil and mixed with raw egg
was so divine it was gone in a flash

 

 

Senmai Sashimi - the raw ox tripe had no distinct taste, I think you eat it more for the texture 

 

 

Namayasai Salada - simple but satisfying

 

  

 Kimchi

 

 

The non-beef eaters had Tontoro Yaki, a special Japanese marbled pork
(They grilled this first, of course.) 

 

 

 And Wakadori Momoyaki, chicken thigh in mixed sauce

  

 

The rest of us went on a beef-eating spree:

 

Tanshio - ox tongue seasoned with salt and pepper

 

 

Leba Yaki - veal liver with mixed sauce

 

 

Jo Karubi - special boneless short ribs with mixed sauce

 

 

The Jo Karubi was excellent. We made sure each of us had his own plate of this tender beefy
goodness to avoid any fighting and name-calling and kicking under the table.

 

 

Some vegetables to balance the meal

 

 

Yakiniku time!!!

 

 

Until now the sight of this makes me drool

 

 

This is how I like to eat my beef - topped with kimchi and wrapped in lettuce

 

 

Some sake to warm the stomach

 

  

And hot tea for the kids. I wanted to take home the super cute teapot!

 

 

We were sad that Kanyoen doesn't serve desserts, and raised our snobbish eyebrows (some of
them eyebrows were fake, lol!) at these complimentary lychee jellos. WTH! They were frozen! 

 

 

But turned out they were extremely delicious frozen! It was like eating lychee sorbet in little cups.
I vowed that when I get back to Manila ima freeze all that jello at home! 

 

 

It was a perfect first dinner in Cebu.

Everyone had an amazing time cooking and eating.

 

Obviously, someone enjoyed it more than the others.
If Jin loves to eat, her cousin-in-law Ton undoubtedly loves to eat more!

  

Kanyoen: Ground Floor, Castle Peak Hotel, F. Cabahug Street, Mabolo, Cebu City. Tel: +63 32 232 2989

Rico's Lechon ♥

 

Fresh off our delayed noontime flight with only a Cinnabon roll in our stomachs, we were dying to get to our very first destination in Cebu - Rico's Lechon.

And guess what? Our very smart driver Ricky brought us to Rico's roasting factory on Highway 77.

 

 

Ano ba, Ricky?!?!?!? Lelechonin ka namin eh!!!

 

 

The smell and sight and sound of roasting pigs got us very excited for our lunch.

 

 

It took us 1.5 hours to get to the restaurant. Don't you just love Cebu traffic?

To keep ourselves alive during the hunger journey, we snacked on crackers topped with cream cheese and guava jelly. 

 

Thank you, Cindy, for the goodies, and Achi Donna for the 5 star assembly service!

 

 

AND FINALLY!!!

 

 

Our biggest nightmare came to life. Rico's was empty and THERE WAS NO LECHON IN SIGHT!!!
HOMAYGULAY!!!

 

 

We were famished and decided to order whatever lechon dishes they have, eat slowly (NOT), and wait patiently (NOT) for the 5pm fresh lechon delivery.

 

 

We ate more cream cheese and guava jelly while waiting for the food

 

 

And ordered silvanas because they were the fastest to be served

 

 

Lechon Sisig - quite tasty but a tad too salty. I ate a lot of rice with this.

 

 

Lechon Paksiw - the meat was tough and the sauce spicy

 

 

Lechon Carbonara - margarine overload. Ugh.

 

 

Lechon with Taosi Sauce - ok lah

 

 

Lechon Lumpia - nothing fantastic

 

 

Tanguige Steak - this was so tiny and paper thin!

 

 

Pancit Canton

 

 

 Garlic Rice

 

 

There was a lot of time to kill so we walked around the area and bought Orange Twin Popsies -
a childhood favorite - to cleanse our palate

 

 

And finally, a little before 5pm, the pigs arrived

 

  

They weren't pretty to look at. This was Mr. Original.

 

 

This was Mr. Spicy

 

 

But all of the people in the restaurant were gawking like they've never seen anything more
mesmerizing in their lives before

 

 

Please hurry up na, Ate! 

 

 

We ordered half kilo of Rico's Original Lechon

 

 

And another half kilo of Rico's Spicy Lechon

 

 

Well, let's just say. I wasn't impressed.

The meat was moist and tender, but it lacked that distinct flavor of Cebu lechon.

The pieces of skin were mostly soggy, but the few still-crunchy pieces tasted really good, like chicharon on steroids. Unfortunately, there were only about 2 pieces of those (and I believe I ate both), so the others were not able to experience the glory. :P

The spicy lechon was really just okay, not deserving of all that hype, methinks. 

I don't think we'll be back.

But I'm sure Rico won't mind. We heard Erap is his number 1 fan.

 

 

Just a bunch of no-bodies. As in mga walang katawan! Ha ha ha :P

 

Rico's Lechon: Unit 4-5, The Ridges Commercial Building, F. Cabahug, Mabolo, Cebu City. Tel: +63 32 344 0119, +63 32 239 2830, +63933-6322248

Rico's Lechon Website

Rico's Lechon Facebook Page

Long Bar at Raffles Makati

 

Ya, I am a hard-headed spoiled brat who will throw peanut shells on the floor if and when I want to.

I don't care.

There is no stopping me.

I. Am. Just. Go. Nna.

 

Yes, even in a hotel bar like this

 

 

Even if it is the ONLY Long Bar in the world outside of Singapore

 

  

Where they make the famous Singapore Sling

 

 

And serve 24k gold leaf-adorned drinks aptly called the Makati Luxury Sling

 

 

Where you can also choose to concoct your own poison

 

 

I DON'T CARE!!!

 

I am gonna eat lots and lots of peanuts

 

 

And throw each and every piece of shell on the floor.
If you plan to stop me, you know these heels could kill. YA?

 

 

JUST KIDDING!!!!!

You are allowed to do that at the Long Bar at Raffles.

In fact, they encourage you to. 

It was fun for a while, but after about 28.5 shells, all I wanted to do was get a broom and sweep the floor. #ImaNeatFreak #OCqueen #peanutshellsbelonginthetrashbin

 

Long Bar: Lobby Level, Raffles Makati, 1 Raffles Drive, Makati City. Tel: +632 

Raffles Makati Website

Raffles Makati Facebook Page