Food Trip! - Casino Espanol

the past week i've celebrated fiestas in honor of the catholic pantheon of saints aside from the multiple variations of the Blessed Mother, the Holy Trinity, the Multiracial Jesus incarnation etc. and when there's a feast, there's always food. i shouldn't be complaining, but this is really bad for the diet.

no matter how i repeat the mantra "no more lechon, no more lechon...." my feet scuttle towards the table where the crispy roasted pig calls out my name. eat me. eaaaat me.

a couple of nights back the tempting call of lechon whispered my name and the temptation would have been complete if not for the aromatic smell, no, make that, intoxicating aroma that grabbed my nose ring and led me towards the buffet table.

lengua and callos.

Casino Espanol de Cebu lay claim to being the last bastion of the colonial hispanic conquistadores of Philippines - despite the fact that most of its current members have family names with three letters or less: Du, Yu, Tan, Lim, Kho, etc. ("etc" is not a family name okay?!)

But true to its "heritage", Casino Espanol serve castillan dishes rich with flavor and aroma.

Lengua Estofada - Picture courtesy of
www.marketmanila.com
Callos - Picture courtesy of southbound.ph

Casino is popular for its lengua estofada more commonly referred to as lengua (ox tongue softened and simmered in thick creamed mushroom sauce) and callos (ox tripe, ham, sausages, chickpeas, assorted vegetables cooked slowly in thick tomato sauce). on the down side, the Jamón Serrano and Chorizo de Bilbao used in the callos were sliced veeeerrry thinly. perhaps it is because i joined a catered event, my previous experience in casa usually have generous cuts and servings of these meats in my callos.

in any other place, lechon would have won the battle for my bulge... err appetite. in casino, lechon takes a backseat. had to go back for seconds. that's another hour in the treadmill the following day.

getting to sample this food is a major treat considering that it is a members only venue and the only way to get in is to get invited or work for Casino. am just glad that they haven't decided to replace Jamón Serrano with Ma'Ling and Chorizo de Bilbao with Chinese Sausage. I just hope that kimchi never finds its way in Casino - that would be the day the korean invasion would have succeeded.

Casino Español de Cebu, Inc.
107-109 V. Ranudo Street
Cebu City 6000, Philippines
Phone +6332 253.1260 to 64
Fax +6332 253.3131, 253.1265

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

the sign

"Lord, give me a sign..." no, i haven't fallen victim to overly melodramatic movie lines. on the other hand, i actually did use these words while attending mass last sunday (Redemptorist, Cebu City). you see, i have been increasingly dissatisfied with matters regarding the church but not necessarily my faith. to a point that i am debating whether i should even attend mass. i was asking myself if i wanted to attend mass given the fact that the church is getting more political. sure, i understand liberation theology and standing up for what is morally right. but that is exactly the same thing that has been bothering me, the moral thingy. the local church is proclaiming that the current administration has no moral leadership. i am not refuting that claim, on the other hand, the church could have said the same thing about itself. except that they rather not comment on anything when it comes to issues facing the institutional church. and there are tons of dirt, make that hun
Read more

a most unusual saint

Image
the title Black Magic Mary is enough to conjur images of a witch draped in black robes similar to that of the Virgin Mary albeit with a more sinister aura. in Sta. Maria Church in Siquijor, a saint wearing a black habit holds a skull in one hand and an "inverted cross" in another is fast gaining a reputation that is probably influenced by the mystic history of the island itself. locals have speculated that the skull is actually her husband's and that she murdered her husband for reasons that seems to have been lost in history. a bit of research show that the locals refer to the saint as Santa Rita de Siquijor, probably a Filipino convention where we name the Virgin Mary with annexes related to places (e.g. Our Lady of Guadalupe). my own research led me to discover this particular "myth" in an effort to know more about Santa Rita de Cascia who is the patron saint of a church and town named after her in Pampanga. The first thing that caught my attenti
Read more

cebuanas.com again

Image
one of the most popular post in this blog is cebuanas.com . for some reason, when someone does a search on the web for "cebuanas.com scam" they end up in my website. i guess my write up about their special romance package caused such a ruckus that they took it out of their website. i felt like doing a sherlock holmes and decided to visit the site to pose as a customer. here's a snapshot of my interesting, grammatically challenged conversation with kai: that's not all, in the course of my "investigation" i stumbled across some literary gems of advice for the foreigner interested in looking for a wife: WHY FILIPINA SEEK A FOREIGN HUSBAND? Filipinas seek a foreign husband because… Filipinas seek foreign husband not just for MONEY, GREEN CARD or a citizenship. It is because they feel that foreigners can make a good husband and a partner. - but the MONEY, GREEN CARD and citizenship must be there as well. they feel that too. They want to marry a foreigner becaus
Read more