This is the reason why we are definitely eating in Yabu again...
When we are already filthy rich that is XD
WARNING! Photo heavy post!
Today I finally got to celebrate my birthday with the most important person in the world for me. And while it had been a great and full day, it didn't start quite okay. I was late because I decided to thoroughly clean my room and the outside of our house because I was expecting my girlfriend to come and check out my place after we had lunch. This caused me to be late, however, and because I already was, I ended up making bad decisions like not sending her a message telling her I'd be late among other things. This really upset her; a really bad way to start the day.
This kinda affected me throughout the whole day. It felt like a combination of anger at myself for being late, of depression because for some reason I began to feel the crushing pressure of everyone getting mad at me on a day that I felt I was entitled to be happy and then of fun because I was indeed having fun. I know I was wrong - I definitely disrespected both her time and mine - and I was the only one at fault here, but after yesterday's tiring day, I really just felt crushed, like I was ready to just run home anytime and sleep the whole day off.
I kinda hate myself for feeling that way.
Anyway, whew, way to start a birthday celebration blog right? While I would often only write about the major positive highlights of the day, there are times where I would feel like writing something negative, just to get it off my chest. I would never, however, write a blog that's only negative, because if I do so, I feel like I'm breaking an unspoken cardinal rule about my blog.
Now that that is out of the way, let's talk about Yabu, the restaurant we had our lunch in after we arrived at the mall, because damn, this restaurant has got to be the best katsu place ever in the whole wide world... Until I get to Japan at least! Their katsu is just, for a lack of a better term, just beyond excellent!
Prior to Yabu, the best katsu place I have ever eaten in was probably Ichiro, a restaurant close to the University I work in. Yabu's katsu is like ten times that, and I don't say that to belittle Ichiro, because their katsu is mighty fine too! The pork was tender and exquisitely delicious, the rice was perfect, the cabbage they serve the katsu with was fresh and light and the miso soup was yummy to say the least! It's like, they took the perfect combination of ingredients to create a katsu meal and prepared it using the perfect combination of cooking and food preparation techniques to create the most perfect katsu I have ever eaten. And have I mentioned that their rice, cabbage and miso soup is unlimited? Because yes, their perfectly cooked rice, fresh and light cabbage and yummy miso soup is unlimited.
Of course, all this perfection does not come without a cost. Me and my girlfriend's order of one curry katsu and one menchi katsu plus bottomless iced tea and bottomless lemonade was about more or less 900 pesos. It was 900 pesos well spent however, because you are paying not only for the katsu dish itself, but for the whole Yabu experience.
Let me explain.
So after their friendly staff takes your order, they start you off with what they call the Yabu ritual, which I think is the traditional way of preparing the katsu dip. They give you a mortar-like bowl of black and white sesame seeds, which you crush using a pestle.
Once you have ground your sesame seeds into a fine powder, you take two to three dippers (I really regret not taking a picture of this, but imagine a tiny wooden shot glass with a stick the size of a chopstick skewered right across it, forming a dipper of sorts) of katsu sauce and mix it with the ground seeds with your chopsticks. By the time you're done with the ritual, your food arrives, which means there is almost no wait time.
While you eat, their staff are always ready to attend to you. They'd even offer to give you more rice, cabbage or miso soup if they notice you're almost out of any of them. And they do this with utmost friendliness and courtesy; they make sure you enjoy every minute of your stay in the restaurant. It was really quite an experience eating in Yabu.
However, they did one more sweet little thing that made me feel like the 900 wasn't enough. After the meal, the waiter gave us a feedback form of sorts, the kind restaurants use to gauge customer satisfaction. He also chatted a little with us, which led him to know that it was my birthday yesterday. We were filling out the form when he suddenly came to us with some free desert! Yes, the reason why I did not mention the desert in the items we ordered awhile ago is because the desert was free. Free.
Free.
Yes. It was free.
Anyway, we left the place with a smiles on our faces and with satisfied tummies. Will definitely eat in Yabu again, once we can afford it XD
After Yabu, we spent the entire afternoon hunting for materials for my girlfriend's tiangge stand. We bought materials to create dolly books, and for scarves and other things as well. She also bought me a bag as her birthday gift (and anniversary gift too, haha)! It's a laptop backpack bag, which is something I really really need because my current work arrangement demands that I always have a laptop on hand, and lugging one using a handheld bag can be a pain sometimes. Thanks a whole lot for the gift Kass!
All that walking got us both very tired. We were gonna have dinner, but since we were still very full with the katsu we ate from Yabu, we just had some Cha-time drinks instead. She ordered Grass Jelly with Winter Melon Tea and I had Mango Au Lait. Afterwards, it was time to go home.
And I guess that's it for my late birthday celebration. I had a grand time, and I feel really blessed. Hopefully tomorrow would be just as awesome.
Have a great Saturday tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment