Frank’s 22nd Birthday

We celebrated Frank’s birthday late, as usual! But it was still so fun. FOOD TRIP!

A while back, Frank and I decided not to repeat eating at restaurants we’ve already been to so we could explore the local dining places. Last night, we decided to have dinner at this new restaurant, BUONA TERRA Deli and Creperie. According to their menu,

“Here at Buona Terra, we attempt to provide you with a glimpse into the regional Southern European flavors, where the taste is robust and clear, unfettered by complicated sauces and heavy dollops of cream and butter.”

As usual, Chic, Lady and Jude are not around to celebrate with us.

That aside, let me rave about the food in Terra.
Enjoy the food porn!

For starters, we had the Antipasto Platter made of Prosciutto, Morcilla, & Salami with peppato & Provolone cheeses.

To tell you the truth, we didn’t really know how to eat the appetizer. HAHA. We had a great time guessing and laughing at our ignorance. When we couldn’t keep up the charade of trying to eat so we asked the waiter how to go about it. It turns out that we dip or smother it with Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil and then eat it with bread. ELEAT IGNORANCE FAIL. haha.

The pastas we ordered, in my opinion, are the highlights of our dinner. We’ve chosen stuff that we have never ever tasted before: they were funky – but still delicious!

 

We had the Black Tagiatelle with Fried Calamares (home made black pasta cooked in ink sauce & topped with fried calamares). This one is going to be most unforgettable. ONE MUST REMEMBER NEVER TO ORDER THIS ON A ROMANTIC DATE if you don’t want your date to see your whole mouth covered in black ink! HAHA. We had a lot of fun eating this one though! And oh. It’s delicious! SWEAR!

The most unpopular meal, however, is the Linguine Pesto alla Genovese (basil paste & sauteed French beans). The herb smell was too pungent, and it reminded us a lot of vegetables. Omay, Abe and Donna only ate a little bit of it, but personally, I liked it! Donna and RB both agreed that it reminded them of flowers during wakes for dead people. WEIRD. Haha.

The entrees we had were really good (and normal looking and smelling! HAHA).

Roasted Chicken Pyrenees.
The chicken was tasty and juicy, but the mashed potato was kinda bland. It’s okay though because it balances the savory flavor of the chicken.

 

Chicken *something* Milanese.
Oops. I forgot the whole name of this meal since Donna ordered this, I think. This is an entree, but the sidings were pasta so CARBS OVERLOAD still! I love the sauce for this pasta. This one is the first one to get completely devoured as it is the most normal-looking one. LOL

 

Beef Scallopine
is made up of thin slices of tenderloin w/ prosciutto served with Spaghetti aglio e oglio. I LOVE THIS PASTA! Simple and subtle!

And then finally, we had the Adobado or something that sounds like Adobo which is roasted duck with potatoes and some other else. Omay didn’t want us to order this because she doesn’t eat duck, but we did. I think she tried a little bit though, after much encouragement from all of us, including Abe. This meal tastes more like fried lechon with lots of garlic. SWEAR. This is best eaten with rice because it’s salty/garlicy, and the rice would put a little blandness to the flavor.

And since we were in a CREPERIE, of course, we couldn’t miss out on their crepes. Our dessert crepes were delicious but after ordering almost the same things, they tasted the same as well. HAHA.

Bango Crepe.
The name gives it away. It’s a Banana and Mango Crepe topped with vanilla ice cream. RB was surprised to find it was served hot, but for the ice cream.

Gerard Crepe.
Mango Crepe with almonds, chocolate syrup, and ice cream – I think. That’s all I can remember. This one is my favorite. Though I’m not a fan of nuts, the thinly chopped almonds tasted like Corn Flakes and gives an added crunchyness to the dessert so YAY!

La *something*
This is one of them foods that Frank and I were not able to pronounce. HAHA. This is a banana and mango crepe with caramel syrup and two scoops of ice cream: vanilla and something that tastes like Selecta’s coffee crumble. NOM NOM.

So yes, as you may have observed, all our crepes were mostly MANGO. So there really wasn’t much difference in the taste! So much for variety. HAHAHA.

I wanted to order wines but they were a tad to expensive for us so we settled for water instead.

Frank paid around Php2,700 for everything. Not bad for the 6 of us.

Will definitely bring my family there one of these days!

Anyway, here are some photos of us during dinner:

We had so much fun eating the Black Tagiatelle! BLACK INK!!! Haha. *tissssssue please*

(a) Frank eating the Black Tagiatelle (b) AbeOmz (c) RB (the late one who arrived in style riding the tricycle) and Donna (the one who left early for her Pastora duties.)

I love the place. It looked so posh. HAHA.

AbeOmz had to leave after dinner because Omay needed to prepare for some school works the next day. RB, Frank and I didn’t want to go home yet (it was only 8PM!) so “partied like a rock star” ala RB.

We brought RB to Beer Avenue. Frank and I had been planning to return there for a while now, and it was RB’s first time at the place. We ordered the not-usual drinks this time. Frank had the Vodka Mudshake in Caramel because they didn’t have the Cappuccino anymore. I had the Heineken Beer which is from Holland, and RB had the Stella Artois Beer from Belgium. We spent a good hour at the place just drinking, munching on Piattos (which Frank said he wouldn’t eat but ended up eating anyway), catching up on the happenings in our lives, and mostly just bashing the slut who can’t even spell Switzerland. I love it!

We also saw Zhaun (I always see him when I go there!), the man behind the radio show and blog “Confessions of a Partyphile.” We chatted a bit about Tumblr and anything else under the sun. He was with one of our (Frank, RB, and I) batchmate, Camille Rosales. Anyway, he’s irrelevant so let’s move on. LOL.

From Beer Avenue in downtown Davao, we decided to go to Damosa for some Ice Giants goodness. That’s waaaay north of the city, and after that they were going to bring me home on the other side of town, waaaay down south! But whatever.

It was RB’s first time (again!) there. Frank and I had been there before with Chic and AbeOmz.

We ordered the Mango Strawberry shaved ice (the one we had the last time we were there) and the Blueberry and Peaches one. The three of us agreed we liked the latter one best.

So there you go. It was another successful Eleat Food Trip!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANK! Thank you for the great dinner!

 

EDIT:

Lady gladly informed me that one of the Entrees that I couldn’t name is actually “Chicken Parmigiana Milanese.”