tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42809725625944553802011-11-28T09:15:31.906+08:00(pronounced: ˈdie-nuh-krat)<br> Dining around Asia, looking for the best food, service and wine selections.roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.comBlogger81100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4280972562594455380.post-57577807254476714922010-10-22T17:15:00.004+08:002010-10-22T20:48:29.222+08:00

Chef Olivier Rodriguez, a French chef who's received Michelin stars for his work at many restaurants around the world, most recently at the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo, is on a special stint at the Mandarin Oriental Manila through October 23, 2010. I and my dining companion visited The Tivoli, the posh restaurant inside the hotel, to find out if all the ado about the chef was indeed about

roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4280972562594455380.post-62134665790745351552010-09-07T11:09:00.028+08:002010-09-08T11:57:18.490+08:00

I crave Chinese food. I mean, more than most food. I wasn't always conscious of that fact till my be-Rei Kawakubo'ed foodie friend pointed it out. We had been going to several Chinese restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area by that point pretty much regularly. By the grace of our imaginative hairdresser, I was a blond, she a redhead. Over tender bits of pork belly with preserved vegetables and

roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4280972562594455380.post-33159326124034926902010-08-27T20:19:00.006+08:002010-08-28T12:06:59.161+08:00

The French Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine wrote in verse of his dream lover as someone who is "never quite the same ... nor wholly different" ( "Mon rêve familier"). A cheese expert from France, interviewed by Jeffrey Steingarten, used the same line to describe Camembert, the great and legendary unpasteurized raw-milk cheese. He used it to describe its complexity, how the cheese would taste a bit

roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4280972562594455380.post-54898797851812837142010-08-19T10:52:00.005+08:002010-08-22T15:52:16.371+08:00

Here's what Wikipedia says about soufflés:"A soufflé is a light, fluffy, baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means 'to blow up' or more loosely 'puff up'—an apt description of what happens to this combination

roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4280972562594455380.post-61666719197838914602010-08-14T18:39:00.000+08:002010-08-16T15:03:29.504+08:00

I first read about Terry Selection, a Spanish restaurant and gourmet deli, in a book called "Manila's Best Kept Restaurant Secrets." At the time, I had just moved to Manila and was looking for a variety of restaurants that served international cuisine, including Spanish. I had already eaten at a Spanish restaurant in Quezon City (what I call the country's entertainment hub) and had been somewhat

roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4280972562594455380.post-27550057627551526952010-08-06T15:05:00.000+08:002010-08-16T14:08:37.454+08:00

Buffets were my nightmares. Seriously. My first experiences of them were back in the late 80's, in the form of American all-you-can-eat chains and the Vegas strip. Thoughts of these fluorescent-bathed establishments deliver to my mind plates of dark-edged lettuce, grease-laden meatballs and all-you-can-eat spaghetti with dubious meat sauce. Little did I know back then that these were merely

roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4280972562594455380.post-89463011234139488842010-07-31T10:35:00.000+08:002010-08-16T21:01:27.305+08:00

I'm new here in Manila, having moved back after 22 years of being away, so I've had limited experiences with the wine scene. I've had enough encounters with it, however, to give it an initial assessment of moribund, at least compared to what I had access to in California. In my first month here, I visited several wine and liquor places in Quezon City, the entertainment hub of the Philippines.

roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4280972562594455380.post-87966270485804422752010-07-23T21:44:00.001+08:002010-08-16T21:02:41.744+08:00

Aubergine, the French restaurant in Bonifacio Global City, is the kind of fine dining place that attracts certain food writers if only for its location. Above a McDonald's in what is basically a strip mall, it could be missed if you were merely driving around or were distracted by the smell of French fries. Or you might detect it in the corner of your eye on the way to St. Luke's Medical Center

roy (twitter: @dineocrat)http://www.blogger.com/profile/00679462368778520179noreply@blogger.com0