I'd been meaning to post this much earlier but as you have it...
life gets in the way and thus, I have a huge backlog of posts...
A belated Valentine's dinner with the Educator GF's was pushed back to early March...
Only 3/4 of us were here, me, D and KD with TORC M.I.A. due to being sick. Our plan was this - we would do the Prix Fixe menu and order a different dessert each.
We were served complimentary edamame and being the lone alky of the group (seriously, I don't drink all that much), had the blueberry lemon drop martini (which was excellent by the way).
There were only two choices for starters so D and I both ordered the clam chowder while KD had the papaya salad which ended up proving too hot for her. D really enjoyed the clam chowder. It was refined in both appearance and flavor, served with two toasted garlic toasts. The clam pieces were meaty and the broth itself had a creamy but not overly thick texture. The fresh herbs also made this chowder stand out.
The papaya salad (this was a fusion take on "atsare", a Philippine pickled relish involved green papaya) had some kick to it. There were lightly dressed green, green papaya shred, peanus, fried won ton strips, red onion and what have been a very potent pepper or two. If it didn't have the pepper, we all probably would have enjoyed this more.
Our Prix Fixe trio:
Back by popular demand, the Slow Braised Short Ribs (a fusion take on traditional Kare Kare, Philippine oxtail stew with a peanut butter base); served with a triangle of rice, long beans, bok choy and crystallized bagoong (salted and fermented shrimp paste).
Calamansi soy grilled salmon served over pancit (they used glass noodles). While it tasted good, I didn't like the mixture of fish with wet pancit.
Adobo style pork belly with carrot salad and celery root puree:
This was the winning dish of the night for me. Look at those layers of meat, fat and skin...OMG.
Our trio, wait, QUAD of desserts. We were originally going to go with the duo of desserts offered (vanilla flan and chocolate dome), but we really wanted two of the other choices not listed on the fixed price menu. What the hell, right?
Yema - an egg custard cake with strawberry pureer, berries, whipped cream and lemon zest. This was D's choice.
KD recommended the Chocolate Dome which waas surrouned by white chocolate haupia (young coconut) and filled with a gelee of passionfruit. The dome itself had to be cracked to reveal the goodness within.
Vanilla bean flat with fresh berries and chocolate crunchy balls.
This....now THIS was the most interesting take on turon we'd ever seen. When we saw the banana jackfruit turon on the dessert menu, we all thought, "Cool, he put it on the menu after all". When we visited for brunch in January, it wasn't yet offered but we were given a more traditional version of the turon, which is rolled up and fried like a lumpia. As you can see, this is NOT rolled up. The lumpia is served open faced with the pastry wrapper open like a star flower. The bananas and jackfruit were so sweet and perfect with the vanilla ice cream topped with caramel sauce.
I would hesitate calling this turon but then, that's the Filipino in me wanting to be accurate because the word lumpia conjures up something that is rolled up. The chef came out to greet us and we told him we enjoyed every item we had that evening, especially this last dessert. We like how he changes things up with Filipino cuisine.
Previous visit to Ocean Pacific Grille
January 2016 - when we, the Educator GF's went out for brunch
During our January visit, we were all given $10 off cards to use for the future. We used one of them for tonight, which helped out. D is a generous friend! KD, TORC and I will have to plan our next dinner out. Looking forward to coming here again.
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