Mother-Daughter QT @ Banana Leaf

Mom had been really, really stressed the past couple of weeks. She was working on a project on a souvenir program for a glee club's upcoming anniversary benefit concert, so she had been writing non-stop and coordinating stuff with the people in-charge.

So when she finally had the chance to breath, she told she wanted to just go out and have a nice dinner with me. So on a nice Wednesday night, Mom and I met up in Greenbelt 3 to look around for a nice place to eat.

Our quest for a nice dinner took us to Banana Leaf, a Thai restaurant in Greenbelt 5. I've eaten here a couple of times before, and have really nothing against the food. But of course nothing beats the real-deal Thai food in another restaurant in Rockwell.

We were both hungry so we sorta ordered a lot. So we had the usual star of any Thai meal - Pad Thai (Thai Style).

It was semi-hot, although I would've preferred it to be a bit high up there on the spice level. It was freshly cooked, and the hotness went really well with the slight twang of the calamansi.

We also ordered my favorite, Deep Fried Pandan Chicken.

It's always fun unwrapping the chicken from underneath those woven pandan leaves. Plus those leaves always gave the chicken this great aroma making it even more enticing to the palate. The chicken meat was soft and cooked just right. It was perfect just the way it is you don't need to dip in the sauce that comes with it.

New to our usual Thai fare was the Thai Style Marinated Pork.

Just a little note, when they say Thai style it's a bit spicy. But since I've been sort of accustomed to really SPICY food, I was slightly disappointed with their spice level. But this pork dish was good, meat was easy to cut-up into tiny pieces because of its tenderness. And they must have really taken a lot of time in the marinating process because the meat was tasty - it must have sopped up the marinate. A must try!

And since my Mom's a vegetable fanatic we had the Stir Fried Chinese Kangkong with Sambal Sauce.

This dish was also a bit spicy, but not that much. It wasn't too salty either. Since Mom has officially joined the hypertensive club last year, she really couldn't eat salty food. But this one was particularly okay since they did a good job in not making it too salty. Whatever that sambal sauce is, it's really good! Totally recommended for those who can't live without veggies on the table!

For dessert we had the Sticky Rice with Mango.

This was a total FAILURE because we remembered it wasn't the season for mangoes. So when this arrived I took the first dibs to check on the mango, and true enough it was as sour as sour could be! But the sticky rice was good (hahaha!), not too sweet. Although the one at SOMS is better. I don't know why, maybe because of the milk they use. The milk they use at SOMS is tastier than the one in Banana Leaf.

Since we were there around dinnertime, the place was packed with yuppies and other families having dinner. But Banana Leaf's seems to have gotten the right groove because they were able to serve our orders (and the others') in a jiff! Good job!

Oh and even saw an officemate in the next table! Hello, Steph! :) She's the girl busy eating at the right-side. :p



Banana Leaf
2/F Greenbelt 3
Ayala Center, Makati City
Tel. No. 729-3333
Website: http://www.bananaleaf.com.ph