Continuing with my food encounters in the Philippines….
It was a long long day and everyone was tired .It was a relief to finally head back to the hotel and a second relief was that we are eating at the hotel.. ..i know what we usually say about hotel food ..i.e. in a negative sense…but sometimes you just wanna fill your tummy and get over with it , so that you could move on to other things like : get a shower and extract the grime and sweat out of your hair in the quickest time possible and then glue yourself to the TV before getting some shuteye..
La Parilla is one of the restaurants at the Waterfront Hotel. Seafood seemed to be the main star of the menu…my hosts did the ordering at the counter…
First up was Fish soup..the fish was lapu-lapu- which is a type of grouper . Fish soup is not a common ingredient featured in Cantonese soup ( I am saying this based on what came out from my mum’s kitchen) but as we are in the Philippines, we are not talking about Cantonese food here, are we ? Apart from the fish, I spotted Chinese cabbage, tomatoes chili and slices of ginger in the soup. The soup was sourish with a rich fishy fragrant . hmm..it’s comforting and warm…I enjoyed it…
Pinakbet – Stir fried vegetable – a mixture of bittergourd, brinjal, ladies fingers, longbeans, and maybe pumpkin or some tuberish plant ? the gravy taste like bean paste ( tau cheong), which I later found out to be bagoong , which according to Wikipedia is a Filipino condiment made from fermented fish or shrimps and salt –kinda like budu ? It was a bit salty but I find this dish rather tasty and the vegetables were cooked just right without been over or under-cooked. 
Mangrove Jack, a.k.a. managat or red snapper this is another name for , the fish was deep fried and oh so crispy..in the picture below, you can see some blackish cubes under the fish- that’s Pork Liempo , grilled pork belly – these tasted like char siu ..
The last dish to arrive was crabs – looking perfectly beautiful drench in gravy and garnishing. I took a piece and found the meat to be very soft, err…a bit too soft that left me pondering the freshness of these creatures. Maybe Filipino crabs has a different texture than Malaysian crabs ? I dunno… I finished that one piece while saying a silent prayer for protection against food poisoning
The total bill, plus rice and drinks came close to 5200 peso , which was kinda pricy but then again- this is probably hotel rates…Overall, an average meal and happy to report that my stomach was perfectly ok.the ambiance was cozy 
Spotted at the entrance to the building housing the rooms…( a familiar sign for some of us )
Bual Bual Kosong 