Revisiting Diamond Hotel

Guess where I was last weekend?

Okay, this might give a better clue:

Slices of the most epic Diamond Hotel ube ensaymada as the actual size is bigger than my fist times two. Revisited the Diamond Hotel last weekend and not only did I get to enjoy a lunch buffet and stuff myself to the brim with seafood but also their breakfast buffet. I stuffed myself with so much prawns I had prawns in my breakfast and lunch and would have had so at dinner but I was so full already by lunchtime that all I could afford was a cup of soup at SM MoA. But here are snapshots of what's new from 2 years ago:

Smoked salmon to me is pork. I don't eat pork or allow a sliver of pig meat to enter the house. Salmon is my guilty guilty pleasure.

A bowlful of cereal used to be my foolproof breakfast when I was a kid. I never seem to rid myself of it. <3

I never fail to miss dessert because they have the best dessert buffet EVER! I love chocolate fountains and I'm glad they added one complete with goodies to dip to. The one on the left is mint-flavored marshmallow that's made from scratch and not bought from a candy supply store.

Pastries in the morning too! I'm a sweet tooth and can't help it. :)

Don't forget for buffets to order just water for drinks (juices and soda fill you up with sugar, which occupies space for more food) and not to load up on rice (which you could have everyday!) variety instead of quantity is the key.

Diamond Hotel, I am so seeing you again. Keep those soba noodles too for me!

Stuffing Silly on My Wedding Day

Wedding coordinator texted me the moment I woke up to go have a heavy breakfast. Erika and I complied with feeling. We usually thought that Vivere Suites' buffet breakfast was at the lobby. Turns out it was at the sky lounge, at the 31st floor overlooking Laguna De Bay.

Breakfast al fresco on the morning of my wedding day on a chilly January morning.

Erika opted for a high-carbohydrate brekkie.

As for me, since I get hungry easily, I loaded on them proteins.

It's a definitely no-diet wedding. I know full well that this is the time where I could eat to my heart's content and so I did.

Vivere's breakfast buffet starts with the usual viands of steamed rice, fried rice, fish, meat, eggs, and even a waffle, french toast, and pancake bar with a DIY omelette mixed together by a chef for you. Just when I thought that that was the only choice they had, I saw in the inner room that they had a cereal and fruit bar plus an Asian corner where I got myself a bowl of hot and steaming ramen.

Very few cheese on my plate as I wanted yogurt and granola instead. I skipped bread since I'm more of a rice girl.

So thinking that I couldn't eat come lunchtime, guess what I wolfed down after my makeup was done?

Greenwich Pizza squares that's what!

Revisiting Dad's Ultimate Buffet

If you're a kid of the 90's we'd always remember that every graduation dinner would be celebrated at DAD'S. Back then, people would line up at the sushi bar, have their pastas custom made, or line up for turkey with cranberry sauce or steak.

It's been more than a decade since my grade school graduation and now I've decided to visit the Makati branch and give it a go.For Php645.00 you do not only get to the Dad's Buffet but also the Kamayan and Saisaki Buffet. Anyway, so my first stop was the Dad's Buffet where my servings were devoured first before I got to take a picture of it. I had the Dad's Paella, which didn't disappoint me with the seafood servings, and lots of vegetables as usual. The buttered vegetables have always been my favorite so I got quite a large portion of that. I noticed also that they've added tomato and mozzarella at their bar. Meat was not scrimped so I asked for the steak and piled up on pepper sauce. The pepper sauce overflowed to the buttered veggies section on my plate, but they tasted well together.

Halfway through munching on my nachos, the waiter asked for our drinks. And you know what? Each drink you order happens to come with a cute little critter like this:That's an upgrade from the Triple V balloons back then. And yes, I gotta take this little doggy home. Dad's also has their merienda buffet for Php 149.00, available from 3 to 5 pm, which are perfect for late lunchbreaks. The stuffed creatures don't come with the drinks at that time though.

Anyway, after my trip to Dad's it was time for the Japanese corner. Of course, with me and Japanese food, the first thing I look for is the sushi bar. And into my plate went the melt-in-the-mouth salmon sashimi, kani sushi, tuna sashimi, and sashimi that I never had in my neighborhood sushi place. Then, I hopped over the tempura section and got myself my prawns and kani tempura. The salmon sashimi practically melted in my mouth so I had to go back for it. Saisaki though was the first resto that made me love sashimi and sushi, and I did know for a fact that they were raw fish.



This is the view from my seat. The Kamayan or Filipino section, and that's a halo-halo bar I'm staring at, beckoning me that there was still a third section.

I had to choose the thick corned beef sinigang as my soup, which tasted like it was made from real tamarind instead of the powdered kind. The chunks of corned beef were present for the carnivores too, and I'm talking big chunks of beef.Staples in my plate in the Filipino section is kare-kare, seafood, and bagoong rice. Why the small portions? I'll tell you so later.
When dessert came, I immediately went for my favorites:Cream puff, leche flan, gelatin, and sapin-sapin. That's one piece of puto bumbong in the lower left, that they cook right on the spot with those smoking pipes thing that they do every Christmas. Not shown again is the gelatin and pinipig concoction I created from the halo-halo bar.

For buffets though, my tips to really enjoy the experience is to go for small portions first, so you get to experience everything without going overboard. That explains why my plates aren't filled. Since this is a no-leftover buffet, I went for small portions of what I like, hence seafood and vegetables. If there's something that I like, then I go back to it. Another tip I share is that I skip rice. Rice tends to fill me up more and since I could have rice anytime, I'd rather make room for those that I can't have everyday like the steak or sashimi. For specialty rice like paella or bagoong rice though, I still go for small portions, albeit a spoonfull or less. My philosophy though in experiencing buffets is rather than going for quantity of portion, I'd rather go for variety, so I get to taste more. Normally too with buffets, I go for just water since the sugars in drinks like soda and iced tea tend to fill up my stomach more.

Php645 isn't actually bad for the buffet. It's for those who are on a budget who want to treat out their friends visiting from other countries. It's smaller compared to buffets I see in hotels, but it's good enough. I still like that it had its family-friendly vibe over the years and it gives children the chance to explore food aside from cheeseburger and fries.

Thesugarbug's Spiral Experience

Spiral Restaurant at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila is known to have the widest array of food choices available to mankind. If you're a foodie lover who loves good food and lots of it, then this is a total indulgence for you.

The sugarbug on one Saturday was surprised with a lunch at Spiral and of course, being the food lover that I am could not contain my happiness. I've been wanting to dine there since forever and do reviews about it.

So there, we drove to Sofitel (formerly known as Westin Philippine Plaza). When we got there, here's what I saw first:

Well whadya know? A spiral staircase! I was told that that's why it's called Spiral, but uhmm... could it be coincidence too? Plus the staircase is a good place to walk off what you eat. By the way, if you look at the architecture of Spiral, you'd notice its similarity to CCP, PICC, and NAIA. The reason? The architect is all the same - Leandro Locsin, so notice the ceiling, the columns, and everything would remind you of the airport.

From French, Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Indian, and a truckload of desserts, Spiral had it all... it was impossible for me to try every single dish, so I tried a selection of dishes. As I learned, I opted for water as my staple drink and to forego rice (although I had a little bit of paella, which I could not resist)

An ice mountain of crabs, shrimps, and oysters.

Hey dork, you pry the meat from the shell!

I could not resist the sushi, which they served fresh and slice in front of you. The salads were crisp and fresh. I indulged on crabs and shrimps and the grillery, which they gave me a choice of lamb, fish, poultry, or tiger prawns. I opted for grilled salmon head, which they grilled into melt-in-the-mouth flaky goodness.

They also had a pasta bar where you could customize your own pasta from their choices of sauces and fillings. Here's my take on tomato-base pasta with sundried tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, and capers (dang I forgot to add shrimp!)

After my round of dimsum and grill, I took a rest from eating and ordered a cup of tea. Then, the server approached us and asked us if we would like anything because the buffet would close by 2:30. Thesugarbug just had to run and get her most favorite part of all - DESSERT!

Desserts were cuplets of various cakes and pastries including tiramisu, chocolate creme brullee, christmas pudding, freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies, candies, fruits, and the highlight of my day were two chocolate fountains, one white and one milk, both I didn't skip and I dipped 2 marshmallow skewers and a mango slice each.

Plus I made my own sundae:

Chocolate droplets on strawberry ice cream (made from scratch!) with a PINK marshmallow, and red and white gummy bears.

Feature beauty: Strawberry Panna Cotta with champagne jelly. Of course the magic word "champagne" made me grab the treat. I love the balance of the sweet-tart of the strawberry with the flavor of champagne. Very sexy!

The almost-two hour meal was capped off with another round of tea and 10 minutes of rest since both our tummies were distended from eating. But sure, it was definitely worth it! So much fun and so much food. Plus... guess who I saw?

Stanley Ong and his adorable baby girl, Naima!

I recommend Spiral for food lovers and who would want to indulge once in a while. It's definitely a mind-boggling gastronomical experience you would surely enjoy. I recommend too, not to miss out the chocolate fountain! :) Yumm yumm yumm!

Weekender Italian Buffet At Fromaggio

Php145 pesos for an all-you can eat pizza-pasta buffet! Everytime I go home, I pass by a quaint little Italian Restaurant tucked here in Las Pinas.

Fromaggio (located near Chinabank Las Pinas Manuela Branch) has been around but it was only lately that I was able to try it. I love its affordability and how their pizzas are not bloatingly oily and the at-home atmosphere. When I saw them advertise their all-you-can-eat Sunday buffet for Php145.00 --> of course I'd try it.

So this Sunday, I hurried from Makati to Las Pinas. The place was stuffed we were lucky to squeeze in a small area. Nevertheless, we were attended well and the attendants even answered our questions about the food and the ingredients (perfect if you're allergic to seafood).

The buffet table had 3 kinds of pasta, 3 kinds of sauces, and 3 kinds of pizza, but we could go back as many times as we wanted provided we don't have any leftovers.

Oh... the food...

Angel hair, fetucinne, and spaghetti for the sauces. Pomodoro, Carbonara, and Bolognese for the sauce. Pizza had tomato-garlic (which i love), pepperoni, and margherita. The buffet table didn't have much choices as you would expect, but at least they picked it right, as these are familiar ones, rather than the foreign-sounding ones that could intimidate others who are not used to adventure

I've decided to venture on pasta-fest, and just take a slice of cheese and garlic pizza.

The sauces didn't dissapoint me although I was hoping they'd heat it up a bit as it was a bit colder. I like the fact that carbonara wasn't too heavy on my stomach and the cheese and garlic pizza wasn't too bloating.

Authenticity-wise, I like the taste since it wasn't the sweet-style spaghetti (even the bolognese). The cheese-and-garlic pizza even had a surprise of basil in it, which I found interesting and it masked the richness a bit. The taste of pomodoro won me though, enough to buy me two rounds of pasta.

Will I have this? Well not every Sunday since I don't want to pack on more pounds... maybe on occasion. :) Price-wise, I love it, the bill did not reach 500 pesos and that's buffet+bottomless iced tea for two. :)

Affordable Buffet at Poquito Mas

Every Friday and Saturday if I want a robust buffet that would not break the bank, I'll go to this place....

The literal translation would be "A Little More". This quaint Mexican restaurant is located at West Gate in Alabang. Since we both wanted something Mexican, we went here. The usual programmed order was a couple of fajitas. I saw the buffet platter but here's the thing, I usually associate "buffet" with "expensive and an excuse to pig out and be guilty after just to get your money's worth".

The waiter asked us, "Would you like to try the buffet?" I decided against it but when we were told it was Php 199, we were like sure! I even had to ask the waiter, what's the catch for the Php199 All-you-can eat buffet or if there are any hidden charges. He assured me there was none and just enjoyed our meal.

I think I had like double servings of mexican seafood soup, mini-burritos, cheese macaroni, enchiladas, and taco pizzas. I especially loved the chili corn, which I had mucho servings of. I asked how come the buffet was so cheap (don't expect a smorgasboard though, like hotels. It's just like 3 tables long, but all worth it since we could keep going back), and the waiter replied they usually have this only on Fridays and Saturdays.

You know what I love about this type of Mexican food? They didn't go OA with the refried beans. Although I still pick out the beans from my quesadilla and chili, I still get my Mexican fix.

And remember my tip with buffets people! JUST ORDER WATER! You can have soda anytime. Soda and fruit juices will just fill you up with sugar. So to really enjoy the buffet water is the key. :D

The beef empanada (On top of the Chili Corn) reminds me of samosas. And their enchilada had the right amount of creaminess to it. The corn is just love. I love the spice it has.

Yep, we just would love to have a little more ofthis. :)

An Extended Birthday Treat

The Diamond Hotel seems to see a lot of me in my birthday. Aside from being my birthday cake supply (Had the Supermoist Cake), I finally used my lunch buffet for two complementary GC yesterday. I did all the reserving on Saturday afternoon, which was surprisingly easy because I thought, being a Sunday, the place would be jampacked with patrons. When we got there though, we had our table waiting for us. And after checking and appoving my GC... let the feast begin!

The Palm Court Cafe International buffet had rows of appetizers, food, and seafood that I always dream of eating. After breezing through the appetizer section, I helped myself to their selection of seafood and japanese food. You guys know I'm such a seafood lover so I devoured prawns, mussels, sushi, and fish to my heart's delight. And of course the star of my meal was:

This humongous crab that will scare the living daylights of non-seafood eaters but seafood lovers would eat with gusto. And since I had this baby all to myself, I wolfed it down in 30 minutes.

Dessert was just as scrumptious. I was reunited with the Supermoise cake, but I traded it for Le Royale instead and brazo de mercedes. Since I'm not a halo-halo fan, I made one of my own using leche flan, fruits, sago, and I topped it with chocolate and cream. YUMMM!!!!! I guess this is the longest lunch I had in my life, a 2-hour lunch that had to be capped of with a cup of tea. What "trick" I did so as to enjoy a buffet without feeling bloated is to go for variety instead of quantity. I put small amounts of food on my plate so I can sample a variety of treats. Also, I forgo rice (unless it's rice on my sushi) since that would stuff me more. Water too would be a better option to juice. And never go to a buffet in a super empty stomach. What I do is I do have a light breakfast so as not to overwhelm my tummy.

And the crew really was accomodating and they knew the meals well. I love how they cooked the crab. Yummm!!!!!!!! This would be fun too with friends as well, especially the seafood lovers like me

Did someone say Dessert?

Who does not love dessert? Dessert the course that "seals the deal" in a meal. It's a meal's own way of bowing out. Every country has its own dessert. Here in the Philippines, we have our halo-halo and buko pie. Go to any Chinese restaurant and you'd order Almond Jelly after a smorgasboard of dumplings and lemon chicken. Certainly dessert is there to complete a meal. Sometimes, it's what some people look forward to.
At the Diamond Hotel, they took dessert to a new level by creating their version of Dessert Nirvana - a scrumptious dessert buffet offering

"one of the most extensive, if not the most extensive, stand-alone dessert catering service in the metro by putting together an array of treats concocted with skill and expertise borne out of its five-star heritage."

The event was held at the Cake Club at the Powerplant Mall where food bloggers and bloggers met, dined, and enjoyed a night of good food and good fun. When I got the invitation to join this event, I couldn't say "no." I'm a sweet tooth myself (hence my blog's name) and what better way to start my new baby food blog but an event such as this? Despite that I had a marathon photoshoot the day before I made it a point to attend this event.

I got to Rockwell a little past 6 (the event was at 7 pm) bearing Makati Friday traffic so the cab had to take a detour to Kalayaan just to get me to Rockwell on time. When I got there, the event was just being set up so I did some window shopping first. When I got back, I spotted Sophie of Beautynomics.com, looking radiant with her newfound makeup skills. I also chatted with the event host, Val.

While I was chatting with her, the makeup artist in me was tempted to ask her if I could be her makeup artist some time. I wanted to put makeup on her! Her skin is flawless!

Okay... Back to our event. Diamond Hotel also provided us with a light dinner of salad, cold cuts, fruit slices, and a croissant.

There were also games, where a mystery cake was presented to the bloggers and a bloggers' team was asked to guess 5 ingredients on the cake

It's a cheesecake actually, and we were asked to guess the 5 nuts in the cake. Our expert food decoder, Phoebe was able to distinguish walnuts, pecans, almonds, and confirmed my theory that the dessert had pine nuts. Fran also confirmed walnuts. When we submitted our answers, guess what? We won the game! The prize was a gift check for one whole cake for each winner!

If the happiness was not enough, they also raffled out GCs and I also won another GC for knowing what a Mont Blanc dessert was. I managed to sample out a Mont Blanc, which was a

"French chestnut paste with dark rhum on almond tart"

So that's what the familiar taste was! And it really looks like a white mountain, hence the name.

Speaking of trivia, I also found out trivia that a famous Christmas icon actually originated from Egypt and was believed to be food for the afterlife. Guess what it was? Fruitcake!

Also, if you want this Dessert Buffet at your next event be it a corporate event or wedding or debut, Diamond Hotel also offers specially-created dessert buffet packages. All you have to do is to call Diamon Hotel or go at The Cake Club to place your order. You don't have to pick all the desserts up yourself- they'll be delivered right to your door by Diamond Hotel's temperature-controlled vans. Yeah!

Okay, so after which, the dessert buffet was open and we got to take pictures and sample out all the lovely desserts Diamond Hotel has to offer...

The macarons are classics! I got a rose macaron, which I've tried before. The rose actually has this interestingly exotic flavor associated with it. Sort of like a florally sweet type. You just gotta try it!

I was also able to sample their sugar-free desserts - green tea pannacotta and aloe vera jelly. The aloe vera jelly is another interesting delight. It was light on the stomach with an exotic sweet fruity taste. It was amazing how they put something I usually associate with skin care and makeup into a dessert.

Green Tea Pannacotta fuses both East and West with the creaminess of Italian Pannacotta with Japanese Green Tea. I just could not believe it was healthy! I also fell in love with the Green Tea Creme Brule and the Baked Cheesecake, a classic Diamond Hotel favorite. In fact, I had the Baked Cheesecake for breakfast this morning!

More dessert pictures that let them speak for themselves....

I also took the time to chat with other bloggers. Jane of The Yogini from Manila was with her son and her son said that the event was worth missing all his favorite shows. I also met Arpee Lazaro, a food blogger who shared with us his insights on food, good eats, and all. I also managed to share a few of my own makeup tips and reviews. It was really cool meeting different bloggers from different genres.

After all the dessert has gone, it was time to call it a night. Definitely, I'm sure to catch some more desserts at the Diamond Hotel or its extension coffee shop at The Cake Club at Rockwell.

(Diamond Hotel Philippines is located at Dr. J. Quintos St., Manila 1000 Philippines. Tel. No. (632) 305-3000)