Last posts on restaurant

A Big(g's) Birthday

2009-02-01T08:34:00+01:00

It had been quite a long time since I last celebrated my birthday in Naga City. The last time was probably when I was still in college. Last January 6, though, I had the chance to experience that again, and I found the experience relaxing and satisfying for a couple of reasons.

First, it was relaxing because I’m not at the office; far from work and even farther from the cries of “LIBRE” from my officemates. My friends and acquaintances in Naga have also gone back to Manila for their respective works, so I am free from the same wails they might have shouted. And finally, there was the satisfaction of having my birthday dinner at a Bicolano restaurant, with a choice of provisions that I have grown to miss.

So during my 26th birthday, I and half of my family (my brother and mama) had a dinner at Bigg’s Diner. I could have celebrated it on any of the other restaurants at the city’s Centro. I could have enjoyed either way because I missed all of the foods that the city’s restaurants have to offer. But I think I missed the taste of Bigg’s so much that I opted to dine at the restaurant for my birthday, even if it was already the second time in a week that I would be eating at the place.

A Bicolano Fast-food

Before divulging my eating adventures at Bigg’s during my birthday, let me first give you to a brief history of the Bicolano fast-food chain.

Bigg’s started as a burger stand in 1983, when it was still called Mang Donald’s back then. It had a funny name, but it probably helped make the stand a hit. I can still remember their store located near the now defunct Advent Cinema (and current location of one of their outlets). We even ordered a burger there a couple of times, and I loved the taste even though it doesn’t have much in it compared to the high-priced burgers we have now. It was just pure burger goodness.

After the burger stand became a hit, they started to target a different set of audiences when they opened Nalds shortly after. If Mang Donalds catered for the foreign-food-loving locals, Nalds was specially built for the Filipino-at-heart goto lovers. Actually, Nalds has been in business until a few years back. And back then, I would really visit the place whenever I can just to sample their delicious goto. Of course, one can still take a taste of the same flavor in the current line of Bigg’s Diner outlets.

Then, in the 1990’s, Carl’s Diner was born. The American-themed dining place is actually the direct ancestor of the current Bigg’s Diner. In fact, the current restaurant is themed basically the same, and the set of main food choices are practically the same although a dozen or more food choices has already been added to the menu.

For years, the establishment has been known to us as Carl’s, until some problems with the foreign brand Carl’s Jr. has probably forced the owners to replace the name with Bigg’s. But only the name has changed, because the quality of the food remained the same.

Bigg’s Today

Currently, there are three Bigg’s outlets in Naga City. One is located along Panganiban Drive, in front of St. John Hospital. Another is located at the ground floor of the old Advent Theater, and their newest branch is located at Jacob St., in front of the Plaza Quince Martires, between McDonalds and Cabby’s Cabana. Aside from their Naga outlet, they also have restaurants in other parts of Bicol, some still bearing the name of Nalds to emphasize that they still cater goto for their customers.

My Bigg’s Birthday

So I celebrated my birthday at Bigg’s. Quite significant, because I was born on the same year when the first version of the fast-food chain was established. We had our dinner at the Advent Theater branch because the new outlet is often filled with their patrons at night. And the food on our table? Pork cordon bleu for me, pork kebabs for my younger brother, and the Bigg’s budget meat (fried chicken + barbeque) for my mom.

Now, you may wonder why we had individual meals on the table and not a set meal for three or more persons. The reason: they simply don’t have meal sets for multiple persons. The restaurant setting is similar to a fast-food restaurant, except for the comfy dining atmosphere. You would have to queue up to order your food from the counter, pay there and wait for it to be served at your table. But while the setting is similar to fast-food restos, the taste of the food is quite comparable to the high-end restaurants here in Metro Manila.

Whenever I eat at Bigg’s, my usual order would be their pork tenderloin tips. I just love the meat, which, as I have noticed from our last visit, tastes just like a very expensive steak that we tried at some high-end outback restaurant at the SM Mall of Asia. And that’s minus the very high cost! But since we had just sampled their tenderloin tips when we had lunch at their other outlet the previous Sunday, I opted for something I haven’t tried yet.

So during my birthday, I sampled their pork cordon bleu. The taste is quite different from the cordon bleu I was accustomed to, which is quite sweet because of the bread crumbs. Theirs has none of that sweetness, but the meat tastes really good, as if made to impress meat lovers.

My mom and younger brother opted for the safer option—something which they have already sampled during the many times they dined at Bigg’s. The pork kebab is basically a barbeque, and I wonder why they have to rename it as such. But their barbeque has always been a bestseller, so you really can’t complain much about the food palatability as it really tastes good. The same thing is true with the fried chicken (which comes in generous proportions, may I add) that comes with the budget meal. When I was in grade school, the budget meal is my usual request whenever my parents would bring us to Bigg’s.

The End

So that’s my Bigg’s birthday story, which turned out to be some sort of promotional job for Bigg’s Diner. Hehe. But with a food that great at an affordable price (compared to similar restaurants here in Manila), I wouldn’t mind promoting their business here in my blog site. After all, theirs is a restaurant every Bicolano can be proud of.

Image credit: Facebook | Bigg's Diner

A new rosé wine on the menu

2008-04-23T06:33:11+02:00

The rosé Chateau Haut-Musiel 2007 has just been added to the wine list of La Chassagnette. "This wine combines the festive spirit and the sharpness that one expects of a rosé wine, yet it is full-bodied enough to hold its flavour with any meal. It marries extremely well with Armand Arnal's cuisine", summarizes the wine-grower Jean-Marie Popelin. So, what's the secret? This rosé comes from two separate vinification processes, which are then bottled at the Chateau Haut-Musiel, at Domazan in the region of the Gard, which is 45 minutes away from Arles. It is to be tasted by the glass or by bottle at La Chassagnette, in the sunshine of the Camargue.
For more information, consult the website at: http://www.hautmusiel.com/

Chef’s cooking class

2008-04-13T11:00:00+02:00

La Chassagnette cookery classes are available, according to different formulas in French or in English.
For the individual class, the chef Armand Arnal will welcome a group of 8 people maximum every Monday and Friday morning, in his kitchen.
Rendez-vous at 9a.m in La Chassagnette’s organic vegetable garden, where you can wander and talk with the gardeners, but, most of all, pick the vegetables and herbs that you will need to prepare the dishes on the menu. Your basket under your arm, you will return to the kitchen where Armand Arnal will guide each of his students in the creation of their vegetarian dishes; giving advice in everything from basic cooking methods to those little professional “tricks”. Once the preparation is over, it’s time to sit down together to an extraordinary lunch, where each person is both cook and guest.
The same formula is available for companies, who may choose a shorter version of the class, lasting one and a half hours, leaving time, for example to hold business meetings in one of the private rooms or in La Chassagnette’s personal library.
Another original idea proposed: cooking with four hands. For the evening, you can become the chef of La Chassagnette. Armand Arnal will be your personal teacher and will help you prepare a dinner that you will share with your guests, who will most certainly never forget this moment, just as you won’t…

Prices
Cookery classes: 90 euros for individuals, half-day course (lunch included)
Every Monday and Friday morning except in July and August.
For businesses : prices available according to the number of participants (contact La Chassagnettte)
« Four-hands » cookery class: prices varying according to the number of guests (contact La Chassagnette)

For information and reservations:
coursdecuisine@heureuse-camargue.com

Reopening on December, 6th

2007-11-21T22:02:39+01:00

La Chassagnette’s team is taking a break before Christmas holidays. The restaurant will reopen on December, 6th ready for celebrating Christmas and the New Year with an outburst of flavours and happiness…

A premiere: the Sake menu

2007-10-01T15:35:00+02:00

It’s a premiere in France : from now on La Chassagnette offers a tasting menu mixing Japanese sake with Mediterranean cuisine. According to headchef Armand Arnal “the absence of tannin, the alcohol light-potency, the mineral harmony of sake offer a neutrality matching perfectly with acid and sour flavours of the Mediterranean cuisine’s vegetables and olive oil".

Armand Arnal has selected several Isaké’s sakes chosen to accompany each course of his menu. "The sake is able to vanish its personality to accompany meals with simplicity and give ground to a gustative alternative », highlights the chef who currently proposes his squash cream soup with jabugo, pears and sage of a red Premium Isake Fustsuu... It’s an unique sensory experience, a complete different way to sense the flavours.

Menu is served every evening for the whole table for 75€ per guest.

To learn more :

http://www.isake.co.uk/

”A Symphony Toward Nature”

2007-05-14T14:45:10+02:00

La Chassagnette and its headchef Armand Arnal got top-graded in the “Grand Terroir” category awarded by the 2007 Hubert Guide. This grant rewards “the superlative land” expressed by a “chef who seeks his culture and inspiration deep in the soil of his land”. By awarding La Chassagnette with 4 "marmites", the Hubert Guide notes “an environment designed with spirit, preserved with care and run with genius. Armand Arnal has managed to adapt his technique and imagination to this world for experienced botanist, giving to his courses as much aspect as taste” writes the reviewer who concludes by “La Chassagnette, a symphony toward Nature”.

duyong: restaurant in terengganu

2006-12-14T16:50:00+01:00

The detail here shows a close study of the site elements, in this case we embrace the fishermen's boat ribbed structure as a reference for the partitions, for this restaurant, recently launched in the east coast of Malaysia, state of Terengganu, a traditional boat building locality. More details of this proejct can be seen in the link below:

www.duyong.com

HomeSick

2006-08-28T03:10:42+02:00

It was Thursday and it was his father's birthday, and we went with his family to a restaurant. It was right by the motorcycle shop, an area I know a little bit, after visiting it twice before. I've never been there during the night though, and it was interesting to see how the quite neighborhood changes during the night, a lot of bars and restaurants and fashionable spots in the midth of homeless sleeping in street corners and that park that closes at night so that the junkies wouldn't be able to come inside.We meet his parents right by the restaurant, they are parking the car as we walk from the train station, the sun's setting and it was raining a while ago so the streets feels clean and fresh. We walk around the corner, his mother tels me that she wants to show me something, we walk passed a big iron fence, and she points inside, I look in the dim light for what she's pointing out and see a huge wooden tower made of long wooden pieces, that have a massive amount of stuffed dolls, plastic toys, wooden marry-go-round horses and other random object dangling from it. As we pass it, the gate to the small park where the tower is, is opened, we go inside, his mom said that she has never been inside, that most time this gate is locked. The inside is a beautiful garden with thick layer of different type of flowers, vegetables and trees, it's so thick it's darker on the inside then it is on the outside of the small park, there's a wooden gazebo that's illuminated with colorful Christmas lights, and two women sit under it, waiting with a tray of cakes and bottles of wine and Soda.They tell us about a movie some woman made about her husband recovering from a stroke and how it's going to be shown tonight on the screen behind them. The small park is so calm and beautiful it looks like some crazy scenery from a Grimm fairy tale, I don't really feel like leaving it behind, but we need to go back into the restaurant.We sit at the table, we talk, about their dog and movies and the situation in the middle east, they tell me about Friends of theirs, we tell them about the trip to Conney Island, about an exhibition we went to, his sister talks about her new diet and debate between different dishes and what will mess up that diet the least. We drink wine. I'm having a really nice time, just talking just being in this family situation when everybody are trying not to step on each other's toes and just spent a pleasant evening without creating a scene.I go to the bathroom, and I breath and I realise how I was working so hard to be liked and to be friendly and communicative and to make a good impression, how hard it was to understand the English speakers in a crowded restaurant. I wash my face and hand slowly, suddenly, not wanting to go back there. I'm suddenly thinking "I wish I was in Tel Aviv now" and I don't quite know why that thought came to my mind, I assume that it's cause the family situation was too straining and I wanted to run away. We go out and it's fully dark outside now, and we walk past that little park and we go in cause his sister hasn't seen it yet, the screening of the movie has just ended. Him and me sit on a little wooden bench at the entry to the park and waiting for his sister and parents to complete their walk inside. I'm feeling drained, tired and sad. The first couple that goes out of the park talk to one another, and of course, it's Hebrew "Maybe I would like it" she say "If we saw it from the beginning, but like that..." her voice drifts away leaving me in a crowed of English speakers.We walk his parents to the car and start our own walk toward the train station, The streets are packed with young people going in and out of bars, some punks, some trendy looking teenagers, just this river of people going out on a Thursday, the way they walked in a neighborhood that's all industrial and quite during daytime reminds me of Florentine. At the end of the street, after we walk for a wile in silence, I suddenly say "I really miss my family" I say it just to fill in a space in the conversation but as the words leave my mouth I feel the longing in such intensity I'm almost blown away by it.It's not the wanting to go home cause it's familiar that I've felt so far, it's the deep knowledge of knowing that I'm so far away from home, so far away from my family that it might take a year before I see them again, that knowledge that even if I really want to see them right now, I can't cause they are so far away. And I think of all the family dinners I was sitting in back in Israel and how I used to try and not create a scene and just enjoy time together and how behind all the pleasantry there was a lot of anger and hostility, but underneath that - there was that choice that each of us made to still be in each other's life, and how now, both my parents chose to change that choice, to prefer not talking to me anymore, cause I was not the person they wanted me to be or cause I'm too far away to bother talking to, or cause I chose to leave.And we are walking, and I'm starting to cry in the middle of the street, and he's talking to me and he's saying wonderful loving things, but I just get angry in my mind, I'm getting angry with him for not speaking Hebrew and I'm getting angry with each person waiting for the train for not speaking Hebrew and I just feel this pain in my heart, in the pit of my belly, like a hole that all my energy and strength are floating out of, the absence of a certain substantial ground to stand on. When we reach home I lay on the bed and cry and cry and cry and it feels to me like I would never stop crying, but after a few minutes I get so tired I just fall a sleep. At night I dream about my mother being sick and dying while I'm away running a million errands and missing on her last moments of living cause I'm on my way to another place.

Naughty Birthday

2006-02-22T01:10:37+01:00

Lady Carolyn celebrated her 25th birthday (again) last week. Practice makes perfect, I always say! A pile of us gathered at a new bar/resto in the 19th near Belleville called Le Ventre de l'Architecte (Rue Burnouf) about two hours before the lady in question decided to make her grand entrance. Note to the girls: getting one's hair done is always an excellent excuse for being late -- especially since it gives everyone the chance to immediately compliment your new 'do.

One of the ladies gave her this sexy little bit o'lingerie, which Carolyn's gallant homme is expertly fastening on for her in the photo. Note to the guys: Doing this helps you get a good look right away so you won't have to fumble around in the dark later!PS: None of the other gifts could be shown on this blog -- her dad might be reading!