Marina Seafood Restaurant

We always have this dilemma in the office – where is lunch? Today was no different. What has not changed is that, Mimi still wants her salad and Maidette craves it as well. I was not fond of hitting the Food Court again, we have had a couple of lunches there already. On the way to G4, Chay suggested Luk Yuen. Everyone was looking at me if I agreed with the place and don’t feel like eating Chinese. I blurted out Marina, if anyone was crazy about eating seafood for lunch. Yippey, everyone agreed!

Marina Seafood Restaurant serves fresh seafood in affordable prices and is located near the entrance in G4. It was not crowded a place on a Wednesday lunch, thank God. I suggested clam soup and grilled squid. Mimi suggested we order adobong kangkong (water spinach) and grilled blue marlin belly. Rene pitched in the baked scallops. Everyone was happy with the suggested food combination and we proceed to order.

The clam soup was so good, there must be enough ginger, it almost eliminated the fishy taste. The soup was clear even with the ripe tomatoes, onions and certain spices that goes into its cooking. Next came the baked scallops topped with crisp garlic which was luscious to the taste. It was baked with just enough time, the scallop meat remains tender to the bite. The adobong kangkong was crunchy and the abundant green leaves and young stems were sautéed in garlic and soy sauce. Grilled squid was cooked to perfection, never rubbery nor soggy and you can tell from its taste, the squid was fresh when it was cooked. It took some time for the dip to get prepared as we awaited for saucers to be distributed. However, it was worth the wait as the siling labuyo, (native extra hot peppers) with extra hotness lending credence to the squid’s staple as a favorite drinker’s fare. The grilled tuna belly (blue marlin belly) is cooked medium well and was juicy inside but crispy and slightly burnt on the outside. This I consider a perfect Filipino meal, all seafood and vegetable. Truly a cholesterol buster and easy on the body type of food.

I ordered the native sago-gulaman drink (sweetened tapioca with jello drink) as well. Today lunch was not expensive at all. We divide the bill equally and my share was only Php280.00 or US$6.36.

Our mission today was to find Eric a parting gift. It has been decided that we will give him a wallet. Since Mimi was going to buy something somewhere and Chay was buying her baking ingredients for Eric’s cake, me, Maidette and Rene were tasked to find the wallet. Chay suggested that we check out Marks & Spencer first.

We checked out the Autograph series of M&S, we could not agree on the wallet design, we decide to check out what Rustan’s carry. We passed by Lacoste, we found one good wallet, however, it was pricey at Php4,700.00. Reaching Rustan’s, I checked out Montblanc, their men’s wallet ranged from Php13,000.00 to Php15,000.00, I thought well to say good bye. We looked at Colehaan, Burberry, Bally, Oleg Cassini, Debenhams and even Oakley, we still could not find the right wallet gift.

Maidette suggested we try Bass. On our way, we passed by Travel Club. We debated whether they carry wallets as well and they do. There was one decent wallet, the only thing is, it’s made of suede. Eric will probably not like it. We found one good one at a very reasonable price at Bass. We did not buy it at once, as we tried to compare it with Pabder Uomo. We liked the Bass wallet more, hence, we went to purchase of gift at Bass. At Php1,850.00, it’s not what you can call an expensive wallet, but not at all cheap. We put the initial Php100.00 bill inside the wallet before it was wrapped by the store attendant. We agreed to share amongst us managers at Php325.00 per person. I will be collecting from this group pretty soon.

The group met up at Bass and went back to the office thereafter.