FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Seafood Lovers, Rejoice! From Tuna Sashimi, Baked Salmon and deep-fried Lapu-Lapu to poached Crabs and Shrimps plus a wide variety of shellfish like clams, scallops, bay-ad and more - the Runway Kitchen becomes a seafood-lovers paradise every Friday night this March! With the freshest catch all the way from the seafood capital of the Philippines - Roxas City , Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo brings the bounty of the sea every Friday this whole month for its special Seafood Night Buffet ! Under the helm of its Executive Chef, Chachpol Suaisom , a Thai national who has been with Marriott International for more than 20 years now - each dish and fish (and other specialties) comes with  his utmost culinary scrutiny. But you can have it your way like these crabs as you can choose the fattest and the biggest one and have it cooked anyway you want. Or just follow what is suggested - cooked in Sweet Chili Sauce. Aside from Alimango , there's also kasag or alimasag ...

Desserts always come first at The Promenade at Days Hotel Iloilo - that's at least for me. And the best time of the year to really indulge in all the sweetness it has to offer is Valentine ! The annual Valentine Dinner Buffet " Romantic Interlude " is no doubt among the top Valentine gastronomic events in the city during Hearts' Day. With its wide selection of food - hors d'oeuvres, soups & breads, organic salad bar, sushi & sashimi, pasta & pizza, entrees, carving station and, of course - desserts!  And where to start on these desserts? The Heart-shaped Nutella and Strawberry French macarons proved to be the most eye-catching and simply indulgent. My personal favorite in the past few years - chocolate dipped fresh strawberries. Lost count how many I had tonight... Towering above the rest was  chou à la crème display.  Commonly referred to as cream puffs, it came in chocolate (Nutella!) and strawberry variants too! How about thes...

With Chinese New Year, Dinagyang Festival and Valentine's Day - all within a week of each other, there's really no stopping the food coma we will be experiencing from all the buffets, dimsum and street food.  So despite the personal goal of dieting, I cannot say no to the invitation extended by Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo for it's latest gastronomic offering - Best of A la Carte . Replacing the lunch and dinner buffets every Tuesdays and Wednesdays is a four-course set meal with a pre-selected menu that comes in 4 "themes" - Healthy, Italian, Thai and Filipino .   And we got to taste two of these sets a few hours ago - Healthy (personal choice) and Italian (just sharing with my co-bloggers) Each set starts with a SALAD . For the Healthy menu it was a mix of vegetables and fruits - tomato, cucumber, onion, carrots, onions and lettuce with feta cheese and lemon dressing.  The Italian side had the Caprese Salad - layers of tomatoes and fresh ...