The Christmas dinner dry run

I have utang. I still haven’t posted the rest of the restaurant reviews from our Tagaytay trip last month. See, my intention was to write a full article about the Tagaytay trip—where to eat, where to go, that kind of thing—and submit it to Manila Standard Today. But because of the delay in the publication of the last article I submitted, I sort of lost my momentum. But the Tagaytay article will get written. So anyway…

I was exchanging text messages with Vieux Chalet owner Susan Hassig earlier today because a reader was asking for the price of the chocolate-coated polvoron. She said they were having turkey tonight and she asked if I wanted to come over. So, I wish I could say that I cooked the roast turkey in the photo. I didn’t. The photos are from the Vieux Chalet Christmas dinner dry run. I really don’t know what it is about that place. I’ve been a customer for over 20 years and I still get excited over the food.

The roast turkey was served with a German dumpling called sp�tzle (below).

It was a lovely dinner. More than the food, the conversation was really enjoyable. We were swapping stories with Susan and it turned out that she and my husband share one thing in common—they are not that tech-savvy hehehe. We had a great time. And, naturally, I wouldn’t be posting this entry if I didn’t think the food was great.

There were moments though when I felt insecure. For one, well… I never could make my kids eat liver at home except when the liver was processed for kaldereta or for gravy. But they were munching on toasted brown bread—brown bread which they hate—and liver pate! How could they eat so much of something they always said they didn’t like? I was especially surprised at my 12-year-old daughter Alex. No one in my family hates liver more than she does but she ate the most liver pate tonight. It was that good. Maybe I should start learning how to make liver pate at home.

Then, there’s the turkey. You know, I was proud of my roast turkey with rice stuffing—the one I served to friends for my husband’s birthday dinner last June. But, darn, I never tried cured turkey until tonight. Cured like ham. It was well seasoned that the gravy was really unnecessary. The breast meat was, oh so tender and moist. How do you do that with white meat? If you’ve been a long time reader of my food blogs, especially Pinoy Cook, you would have come across one of my many statements about not liking white meat—how leftover roast chicken in the house—which, of course, means the breast meat—always becomes chicken salad for sandwiches. I had a plate of sliced turkey leg beside me but I was still reaching over for the plate with the sliced breast meat. Even I was surprised at myself.

It took a lot of self-control to keep myself from asking how they cooked the turkey hehehe. But it wouldn’t be fair to ask because Vieux Chalet is a restaurant and I respect trade secrets. The Christmas dinner menu is not final yet as they are still deciding what will go with the turkey and sp�tzle. But if you plan to go there, I really recommend the cappuccino after dinner.

Please don’t ask me for directions to Vieux Chalet because I am very, very bad with directions. But you can call the landline at 6970396 or text 09178565175.

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