Something New, Something Good

I noticed I have been going to a lot of the same restaurants lately, so I was happy to be able try 2 places I'd never been to today.

H took me to 8 Spices in Tomas Morato for some Thai lunch. The Pad Thai wrapped up nicely in scrambled egg.

After cutting it up...

Sauteed eggplant with chicken, sometimes, I simply have to make compromises, so I just picked the eggplants.

I liked the thickness of the curry sauce in this vegetarian dish.

Delightful dessert: black sticky rice topped with custard pudding and condensed milk

Then we stopped by Lia's Cakes to buy a slice of avocado cake for Ma to try. I noticed free Wi-Fi is everywhere now. When will the whole Metro Manila become a free Wi-Fi zone?

For dinner, I was determined to find something new that our family can try in Serendra Piazza. Knowing Queen J, I was sure she would insist we dine in Abe yet again (and she did).

My first choice was ArAma. For a restaurant that serves only organic food, ArAma has a very limited selection of vegetarian dishes. My second choice was Balducci, which is also in the Abe area, but Queen J was starting to bug us to go to Abe, which is just across ArAma. I had to lead everyone away from the Abe area and so off we went to my third choice, Gaudi.

Dad and the maitre d from Gaudi chatted for around 5 minutes about the vegetarian selection there. In the end, the maitre d suggested Healthy Kitchen to him.

While browsing through the restaurant selection in ClickTheCity, I already came across Healthy Kitchen but thought it to be more of a fast food place. Healthy Kitchen is actually both a bakery and a sit-down restaurant with a lengthy selection of vegetarian and even vegan (non-dairy, non-egg) dishes.

Ma liked the kitschy mismatched theme. Growing up with a lot of mismatched plates and bowls, I know this is exactly her kind of thing.

But even if mismatching were the theme, I liked that their teacups and saucers matched.

I also liked the slogan and how the place has a lot of details if you look at it closely.

Monsignor salad made of romaine leaves, cucumber, mango, tofu with a unique blueberry vinaigrette dressing. The cheesesticks reminded me of my favorite afternoon snack in Tocans across Uno. Haha but HK's cheesesticks are fully loaded with cheese while Tocans' was just fried lumpia skin.

A sweet and sour brown rice with tofu adobo. Yum!

The most unpopular dish was my order, vegetarian wrap, which is made of all fresh vegetables. Think uncooked bean sprout.

Vegetarian Ukoy (traditionally ukoy is shrimp fritter) and Iced Tea

What's inside the ukoy?

My rather anemic Green Tea Frappe

Mom took home a box of oatmeal cookies. It's really pure oats bound together by some edible adhesive.

I loved everything about Healthy Kitchen. Finally, a vegetarian place for the whole family when we go to Bonifacio High Street; a place where Queen J has the choice to order dishes with "living things" like Chicken Adobo.

Lastly, the service here was excellent. Our server, Rodel (below, right), is very knowledgeable about the products and very accommodating in a totally non-creepy way. Pic by Dad.

When we passed by Gaudi after dinner, the maitre d was already closing up. He greeted my dad and asked him how his dinner went. Funny.

Self-indulgence is just addicting.