Every year, one of my most anticipated celebration is Valentine's Day but in our family, we call it VALENTIMES! Judge me all you want but I love being cheesy and using up all the cliches on this day of hearts. You know the couple that you would like to hate on this day? Yup! Yup! That would be us: We wear red... I get the flowers... We have a very corny dinner. But in the end, it is always VERY fun for us! And that's what matters.
It is also this day that my little family and I have whipped out another tradition to our list (yes..... yes... another one!): Instead of just having a Valentime's with my husband, I also have a date night each with my boys. It was last year that Mati promised that he will take me out every Valentimes and give me P150.00 always. Hopefully when they grow up to be tall gentlemen, they would still treat out their little fat mommy for a one on one dinner and possibly give me a red rose or two.
For this year though, almost everything went wrong and did not go as expected. But still, if there is something that I have learned in life especially with my silly little foodie blog, the restaurant may be dingy or crappy but the night will still be fun if we are with the people we love.
But then again...
When your date is snoozing on you... you know that the night will be an unforgettable one. Ha ha ha ha!
Poor little Andrei just came from a field trip on February 13, but did not want to cancel out on our VALENTIMES date! He was so excited and talked about a lot of things of what happened to his day but then after I ordered, he closed his eyes and snoozed.
Ain't he still cute though?
After our very quiet dinner, he woke up and was energized at my promise of letting him play at Kidzville. Oh well... Once again, I paid for dinner and my date got his way.
Good thing he is a very cute date!
And when my date is happy, I'm happy!
VALENTIMES DAY!!!!!
Lately, my husband has finally learned his lesson and would give me flowers ever Valentimes. What he would do is usually wake me up while holding the big bouquet and wait for me to either AWWW in excitement or flare up because he cut my sleep. This year though it was different. There was NOTHING in sight. So there I was, doing my usual mid-life drama and getting all woe is me since not everything is as firm as it used to me.
When I got to the office, yohooo! The flowers were there. Turned out my husband passed by TAPE inc to leave the bouquet on my table. Now that was an unexpected surprise!
Come night time, my husband arranged the dinner which has been cancelled for many years now.
So tonight was the night we will be celebrating at CHEF TATUNGS!
The Chef Tatung VALENTIMES meynuh!
My husband called to make reservations and this greeted us on the table. I guess my husband needed to be more slang when pronouncing his name!
I was so excited for the dinner ahead!
As well as Mr. "Yup"... he he he he!
Interiors of CHEF TATUNG was a page off a modern local magazine where the feel was something new but with hints of Filipiniana.
First served in CHEF TATUNG was the Herb Tomato Soup.
The soup was very light and somehow a bit watered down to our taste. My husband was still able to have most of it though because he was hungry.
The soup was served with this crusty Ciabatta bread with butter.
The bread helped me in finishing the soup because I just love carbs and carbs love me.
I just found it a bit odd that while we were still having our soup, the waiter immediately served the second course which was the Passion Fruit Glazed Prawns with Mesclun Salad. He justified it by saying the salad was "chilled" anyway hinting that it was okay for it to "wait" for us.
The greens used were just ordinary while the shrimp was a bit under done and not deveined. The Passion Fruit dressing was good though.
My hub does not eat vegetables so he just ate the shrimp!
Again while we were still eating our salad, the waiter served us our Main course. The old me would send it back and demand that they follow the right pacing in serving courses. But since I was once recommended to take anger management classes, I tried my best to just control my temper and stay quiet. I didn't want to spoil the night anyway.
There were supposed to be 3 choices for the VALENTIMES dinner but our server said only the chicken and beef was available. Poor Yub! He was really leaning towards the fish.
Anyway, he got the Herb Chicken with Ratatouille Gratin and Rice Pilaf.
As for me, I got the Beef Stew with Grilled Vegetables and Mashed Potatoes.
I know I shouldn't be expecting much but I missed my mom's beef stew after having this. It WAS edible I could give it that, but there was nothing really special about it to be included in their Valentines menu.
The mashed potatoes were very creamy though and I loved the crunchy greens.
Happy VALENTIMES!
I don't really drink but I do want to learn to appreciate the taste of red wine.
My favorite parts in movies usually involves the actor wolfing down a plate of steak while sipping goblets of fine wine. There's a scene like that in THE MATRIX and QUIZ SHOW if you want to see what I mean. He he he he he! Yup! Told you I love food THAT much!
A toast with my handsome date!
Halfway...
Done! Well I WAS hungry and it tasted okay anyway.
I needed to "hurry up" because the "Godfather" was staring at me!
Last course for the Chef Tatung VALENTIMES dinner was Chocolate Mousse topped with Fresh Fruits Brunoise!
The Chocolate Mousse again was just okay and I only loved the marshmallow icing. However, I was a bit disappointed that the fresh fruits were straight from the freezer and it was like I was eating a fruit popsicle!
Our CHEF TATUNG bill!
I have to admit though that the food was not worth the price. We really don't mind paying more as long as the grub and service was worth it. After this we thought that we should have just ordered CHEF TATUNGS regular menu since we heard a lot of raves about their food. Oh well...lesson learned.
Good thing that my husband and I still enjoyed each others company as we laughed and played footsie all through out the night. That definitely made the dinner more enjoyable!
When I got home I saw there were MORE flowers for me!
I got one from my dear Kuya Jon.
I was looking for my usual bouquet of roses from my :"secret admirer Roger" who gives me red flowers every year even before I was married.
This year though I guess "Roger" was consumed by his naughty grandchildren and did something else. Ha ha ha ha!
Oh well... I hope he makes a return next year.
Next day, it was my Mati's turn to take out Mommy for VALENTIMES day and his choice was HUAT POT!
My little lord was able to see my first visit at HUAT POT (SEE HERE) and really wanted to have our VALENTIMES date here!
My plate...
Mati's plate!
Oh I forgot. My husband tagged along since he also wanted to have some HUAT POT.
Pshhh.... 3rd wheel!
While waiting for the soup to boil, I had some Braised Pork on rice!
Mati liked it too!
HUAT POT now has thin noodles which cooked faster!
That's good news because my boys were HUNGRY!
Burp! All done!
My husband made the most out of HUAT POT's all you can eat Magnum!
I for one had 2 bowls of their delicious taho for dessert!
Happy VALENTIMES my love!!!
Today my little guy Mati wrote me a letter and excitedly gave it to me after dinner. My he gave me such a tight hug afterwards!
Not to be outdone, little Andrei made not just one but TWO letters!
The first one was his own VALENTIMES note where he combined Christmas, New Year, and Easter at the same time.
Ooops there's Mother's Day too!
He also reused Kuya Mati's letter and just added some drawings and changed the name so that it would come from Andrei.
Ha ha ha! Life's simple joys this VALENTIMES!
Like I said above, everything did not go as planned but it was still a very fun and unforgettable VALENTIMES celebration for me and my boys, my husband, and my Dad.
I hope you all had a good one too!!!
HAPPY VALENTIMES!
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