Came the first week of this month of June, I found sitting unnoticed were Amalia's Spanish Cuisine vouchers inside a locker at home. I had them purchased over the net months ago and about to expire in a week or so. That was in anticipation of my own and daughter's (the older one) birthdays happening on Aprils. The vouchers were intended for random treats for some friends and family. It just happened that the whole April and the rest of summer break, we were always out of town and did a little overseas holiday trip.
Anyway, I was able to consume the vouchers and split them with a lunch with my girlfriends and a dinner with PIL (parents-in-law). Not on the same day ofcourse :)) With few days interval actually.
lunch with gfs
dinner with PIL
Amalia's vouchers appealed to me cos of the Mingoy's popularity. I read somewhere that the chef of the latter owned this Spanish restaurant, therefore this must be as good as the other. I'm not digging so much Spanish cuisine but with those special people in mind, I thought they would enjoy some paella etc.
Amalia's has two branches, one in Magallanes (Makati) and the one more accessible to us in BF, Paranaque, which was our default branch.
Haven't seen the one in Magallanes, but this one in BF was tired and quite small yet cozy with very attentive and homey service.
I wonder how long it has been in the business. Up on the wall, were framed printed write-ups. Had I taken time to read them, I'm sure I'd get answer to my question, haha. But I couldn't waste time on them as. .
. . I was busy camwhoring with my motherhoodness friends, haha, ..
. . neither during the dinner with PIL cos we did the same thing , haha again.
Okey, let's go to the table now.
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The lunch and dinner were both initiated with complimentary garlic breads which were tasty and youngest daughter loved them most.
For lunch tapas (appetizers) we had the following dishes which I connived with the waiter to serve them along with the main-courses cos hello_ us? we don't really care about appetizers, haha. Those tapas?, at home we eat them with rice too, haha. Don't tell me you don't? Tell it to the marines! haha.
# I called them by the way I knew them, sorry the dishes in the menu were in Spanish thu'. forgotten by this time.
calamares. good. crispy with very neat breading. meat (squid) inside was too thin for me. dip was tasty.
garlic mushroom. so garlicky I could still taste the garlic in my tongue after some weeks,haha. one of my favorites actually.
baked tahong (mussel). modesty aside, I do better than this at home.
croquetas ( chicken meat inside). I didn't taste a piece, but the young ones ( 2 teens) finished them all by themselves. But didn't touch other tapas on the table thu'.
For dinner, I skipped those deep fried appetizers and had a healthy soup and salad for the senior citizen in the table.
We had this all lettuce salad which was a hit for everyone for its simpleness and familiarity.
We had two common main courses :
1). paella espanola. a best seller we all partake over a pan of an eyecandy dish so colorful all we wanted was to take a photo of it. I'm not so much into rice dishes but this one was okey to me. The parents liked it a lot. I thought the rice was a bit over soy sauced. Okey, that's why there were calamansi (citrus) to balance it. We didn't use them thu', haha.
2). beef caldereta. we had this at lunch and again at dinner. One of the resto's specialties. This was as expected a perfect caldereta we would cook at home. Beef was tender. Sauce was spicy and flavourful.
the caldereta came with plain rice on the side but I asked for it to serve separately for the teens who still preferred plain rice over paella.
At dinner, we also had :
lengua ( toungue). perfection. no foul odor taste. very tender. sauce so perfect. loveth! came with mixed vegies on the side and a cup of mashed potato which I also asked to be served separately for anyone who wanted potato which happened to be only me, haha.
calamares again. we ordered calamares again courtesy of daughter one who had liked it during the lunch.
For dessert_ we didn't have any duirng the dinner, but at lunch we shared a slice of cake. .
. .forgot the name but it was like a brazo de mercedes with milky cream and some mango cubes. del-i-ciouso!!!
Thankyousomuch cos it was complimentary, haha. Technically it was my birthday treat to my friends and I wasn't sure if I or one of my friends had mentioned that it was my birthday or just overheard from our table, but just the same we were caught by surprise when the sweet slice was served.
Thanks a lot.
-fin-
