Leslee's, Alabang

Aside from it's famous bulalo (sorry, couldn't find English word translation) and other Filipino dishes , Leslee's is notable for its interesting resto buildings. So far I only saw three branches_ Tagaytay, Alabang and Sto. Tomas, Batangas, all of which are intricately interior-ed.

side entrance of the Alabang resto

main dining hall

Leslee's, Alabang is huge. Made of stone, it looks like a medieval castle. The main dining hall is quite big and can hold a lot of guests. There are also tables upstairs and dining huts outside.

wash room

Ladies room is equally interesting. Also, everything is made of stone and wood.

over-exposed kare-kare

tuna kinilaw

We usually drop to Leslee's if bulalo cravings arose. But this day, we didn't feel slurping the soup. The girls actually wanted their eternally favorite kare-kare and the the dad (it was Father's Day!) was salivating for kinilaw. So off we went to Leslee's , Alabang.












Ofcourse, if you knew me by now, I love assortment of foods on the table, so I went for the buffet.



Seemed like the dad was happy with his kinilaw plate.

sa Gerry's na lang . . .

One of the restos we frequent most often is Gerry's Grill. It's like our safe ground when we are in the pit of appetence.





It's not really a favorite, it's more of "sa Gerry's na lang" .

kare-kare

pork bbq

pork sisig

The familiar dishes makes it our comfort zone. It's like Mcdo when we want to eat Filipino dishes.

beef stew w cheese

tuna kinilaw

It's like an extension of my own kitchen where I cook common pinoy dishes and toppings came from my own experimental cook book.

balut & tufo

It's like when we try new resto and foods disappoint us, we say : "sana nag Gerry's na lang tayo" ( we should have gone to Gerry's instead).

sago

No complications .

Oyster Sunday

Sunday mornings are always fresh lumpia trip to Bacoor and one of these Sundays (of this month) while I was at the peak of nibbling a piece of rolls,I stumbled upon a vendor who sold real fresh oysters which personally harvested by her husband. The vendor was referred to me by the lumpia vendor, but I was having second thoughts about buying or not.



I have never prepared/cooked oyster at home. The few times that I remember eating oysters were at the parties and oyster bars/restaurants.I took a minute asking instructions from the vendor on how to clean and prepare the oysters:

- wash and clean the oyster's shell (I didn't just washed it,I intricately brushed each!)
- boil water
- pour over the shelled oysters
- remove the water
- the oysters are now ready to be opened

For recipes, I had one or two ideas, digging up from my recollections of oyster concoctions I had tasted from the past.

I went home excited with one huge can of oysters.



At home, I whisked each shell to prettiness. As instructed, I soaked them in hot water and witnessed the death of these species.




The water bubbled,as if the oysters were fighting for their last breaths (soft melancholy music
please..:<)
.


My brother opened one and we were satisfied to the freshness of the meat.







I was willing to try opening the shells myself, but my kind brother took the task as he thought it wouldn't be easy for me. He used a bread knife and watching him doing it seemed easier as it actually was , that was according to the one doing it







I did vinaigrette dip (see recipe on the next post) to garnish the oyster.



We gulped one after another and had to remind my partner in crime to slowdown because I wanted to try some baked oysters.



I prepared the oysters for baking.I arranged them on top of salt bed the way I saw them presented in a cooking show I recently watched on television.



After less than 20 minutes_tadahh!!_Baked oyster (see recipe on the next post),
sooo delicious! We finished them all on the spot and I headed on my 3rd recipe.



Kilawin na oyster. (see recipe on the next post). This one was my brother's pick among the three.



Empty shells.