her birthday dinner surprise

There was no real plan. When I asked her months ago what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said that a quiet dinner with me would suffice, followed by another dinner with her family over the weekend. So I had it pretty easy, just handle dinner reservations and don’t screw up. Give the birthday girl what she wanted. That’s it.

We arrived on time (7 PM) for our dinner reservation at Cafe d’Asie. It looks good, as described in Southbound:

The buffet area has a few defined sections: a Japanese area, with assorted maki, sashimi, and salad (tuna and kani); a salad bar with the usual veggies and processed meats; a fresh seafood section with prawn, mussels, clams, and salmon sandwich rolls; a bread and cheese table, which also had some dried fruit and nuts; a Chinese food section with mushrooms, squid balls, and steamed siomai; an entrée table with a selection of Asian main courses and some grill-to-order steak; and a dessert bar, which had various cakes, mousses, pastries, ice cream, and an assemble-it-yourself halo-halo and crepe counter (this may sound like a lot, but compared to the huge buffets at Spiral, or even at Circles, it’s quite modest).

I started with an antipasti that included some cured meat slices and olives. My wife had a salad (which was very much like the salad that we had on a Christmas Dinner with her friends and that she recreated for Noche Buena) sans the hito croutons. We also had multiple servings of an amuse bouche that had prawns and another that had asparagus wrapped in bacon. It was really delicious.

My wife’s next plate had an assortment of bread and cheese, some butter, dried mangoes, and almonds, whereas my plate had maki, raw salmon and tuna sashimi slices, and some steamed hakaw and pork siomai. I also took another helping of the prawn amuse bouche (it was that good!). It’s a buffet after all.

For the main course (and the highlight), I had some adobo rice, a bit of the steamed hito, and some grilled pork chops and prawns. There were also some beef dishes that I, of course, avoided. My wife had mashed potatoes and some slices of the roast beef. It was one of the best roast beefs that she  ever had. It literally melts in your mouth. But this time, her surprise was up. Good thing she was seated with her back at the entrance or she would have seen her close friends quietly filing in. I whispered “Look behind you,” and she laughed when she saw them. The pianist took the cue and played “Happy Birthday” just as the waiter came with a candlelit cake.

So we transferred to a bigger table, ordered more food (including dessert), and regaled each other with stories. We seem to always have good conversations, from funny things like Dodong and Inday’s love story to something serious and political like the Alabang Boys. All in all, I think I did a pretty good job. Good food with great friends on her special day. I couldn’t think of anything better.

Cafe d’Asie

The Bellevue

North Bridgeway, Filinvest Corporate City

Alabang, Muntinlupa

http://www.thebellevue.com.ph/

Photos from Southbound.ph.