10.105

20 (Fri) April 2019

Salt & Pepper Crab

2.5

at Jade Garden

(see WHERE)

-Glorietta 2, Makati-

with the Family

As a reward for DJ passing the entrance exam for honors math next year – congratulations, DJ! – we had promised him a crab dinner.  This evening, after wandering the vast Glorietta Complex shopping mall for several hours, we were walking back to the car and debating where we could score crab within easy reach.  When lo, we came across this sign for crab at Jade Garden.

I’d never heard of the place, but Zomato gave it a passable score of 3.8, the menu leaned Cantonese, the prices were reasonably high – in the Philippines, cost and quality are often correlative – the drink menu offered hard liquor by the glass, and we were too exhausted to go much farther.

When we were seated, we found what clearly looked to be a rat turd on the table, even though the manager tried to convince us that it was chocolate.  Though completely and unanimously unconvinced, we were so tired that we didn’t bother to change tables – at the time, we were the only people in the place.  We didn’t even ask for them to wipe the table.  We just shrugged and agreed not to eat anything that fell on the table.

Spinach with Crab Meat Soup (3.0)

Hakaw (2.0)

Kangkong in Chili Bean Curd Sauce (1.5)

Garlic Chicken (1.5)

Beef Tenderloin in Black Pepper Sauce (3.0)

The food was hit and miss, net mediocre.

At least DJ enjoyed the crab.

I recently instituted a complete ban on all non-alcoholic beverages at home – except water, carbonated water, tea, coffee, milk, and smoothies made by hand with whole fruit but no added sweeteners allowed – which means no more fruit juices, sports drinks, Yakults, flavored milks, and – yikes – Coke Zero for me.  In addition to the health benefits, I look forward to our family living a greener lifestyle, producing significantly less waste from all those bottles and cans.