5.356 Soya Cake with Three Kinds Mushrooms

5.356

27 (Sat) December 2014

Soya Cake with Three Kinds Mushrooms

4.0

at Golden Fortune Restaurant

-Ermita, Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines-

with the Family

Winter Holiday with the Family: Day 4 of 11

For our first extended family time since I left home to work overseas, we’ll be spending the winter holiday together.  Starting with Christmas in the Philippines, ending with the New Year in Korea. Having everyone around, just hanging out, makes it feels like home, wherever it may be.

LUNCH

At the crack of dawn, we packed our bags and left Eagle Point like bats out of hell.

We drove down the street to Anilao Scuba Dive Center.  I would’ve taken them there from the start – warm hospitality and great food and good times and reasonable prices, guaranteed -but its sparse facilities don’t seem very family, at least not on first impression; W wouldn’t have appreciated it without the crappy experience of Eagle Point for comparison.  Awesome Korean home-style breakfast, snorkeling in the ocean all morning (I managed to squeeze in one dive), Korean BBQ lunch on the beach.  A most fulfilling day, wiping out all memories of Eagle Point, totally worth the trip.

Next time, ASDC from the get-go for sure.

Nowadays, I can’t imagine eating anything but this after a dive.

DINNER

Golden Fortune Restaurant is a Chinese restaurant.  Specializes in Cantonese cuisine, particularly seafood.

A perfectly respectable establishment, somewhat on the high end, not just some local lunch dive; in fact, the second and third floors consist of large banquet rooms that are often reserved for big parties on special occasions.

Located across the street from WHO, the closest/only real restaurant in the area, it’s a popular place for us to have lunch, especially Korean staff.  I’ve already been there a dozen times for lunch, tonight the first time for dinner, the first time for a personal occasion.

For some reason, we never think about having dinner here, probably because (a) we go for lunch so often and (b) we want to get as far away as we can from work after work.

The WHO Korean staff’s history with Golden Fortune goes way back before my time, so there’s a list of vetted dishes that they order from, most of them quite good.  I was happy to share a few of my favorites with the family.

Crystal Prawns (3.0)
Minced Pork in Lettuce Cups (3.5)
The lettuce cups, with a splash of hoisin sauce, make the dish.

My favorite dish at Golden Fortune is the Soya Cake with Three Kinds Mushrooms.  Egg tofu, silky and sweet and creamy.  Lightly deep-fried for a delicate savory skin.  Enoki, shiitake, button mushrooms, each providing a distinctive chewy texture and woodsy flavor.  All doused in a pitch-perfect oyster sauce gravy.  Divine on its own as an appetizer, even better as a main dish with steamed rice.  Maybe my favorite dish in all of Manila, certainly the one dish that I’ve had more than any other here, can never get enough.  The family liked it.

(See also FOODS)

(See also PHILIPPINES)

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