Mabuhay Palace at Manila Hotel

A few weeks ago, Allen and I were so happy to have been invited by our Ninong to dinner with several other friends at the Mabuhay Palace in Manila Hotel. I didn't know that such restaurant would have their own vegetarian menu with their original recipes. The normal practice of restaurants, well this is based on my observations, was they would just have a "vegetable" section in their menu. But Mabuhay Palace was so creative in their dishes that I think they really top my list of best vegetarian restaurant of 2012. :)

Our friends arranged the menu ahead of time and oh my, we were treated to a vegetarian feast and I felt like it was my birthday! haha!

Get ready for some mouth-watering photos!

For our appetizer, we had mixed veggies on lettuce cups. We had to ask for hoisin sauce to make the flavors come out more.

Mixed vegetables on lettuce cups

Next dish that was served was the Mushroom and Taro Stew. It had this very thick and taro-tasting soup with about 3 kinds of mushrooms.

Mushroom and Taro Stew

As the night goes on, the dishes get more interesting. Like for instance, this one:

Homemade Bean curd 

I don't know why they called it homemade bean curd, but probably because they made it themselves? Anyway, their bean curd was the best I've ever tasted. It tasted like custard and did not have that weird aftertaste. It was creamy but not runny. And because it was deep fried with some coating, it had this distinct crunch on the outside while staying soft on the inside. This was my favorite and it was just extremely divine!

Here's an up-close photo of my favorite dish:

Homemade Bean Curd

I was actually surprised to see that when I bit into it, it had maybe leeks or spinach in chiffonade cut. Yummy!

A Variety of Mushrooms wrapped in bean curd sheet

When they brought the next dish out, I was super elated! Sweet and Sour Vegetarian Fish. For a second, I was happy that it looked so creative that they had to shape it like a fish but then I realized, I don't want it to look like a fish! :P

Vegetarian Sweet and Sour Fish

I think the stuffing was bean curd. They dish tasted like the ocean because they wrapped the whole thing in nori, then coated it with some light batter and then deep fried it. This was actually my second most loved dish that night. :)

And guess what's for dessert? Ice cream! Not just any old ice cream, it's salted egg ice cream!

Although I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I don't like eggs. It just that the taste does not suit me well. But this original recipe of Mabuhay Palace tops my list of best ice cream flavors ever. The slight saltiness mixes with the cookies and cream flavor of the ice cream. Simply divine. :)

Salted Egg Ice Cream

I'm looking forward to coming back to Mabuhay Palace. They serve oriental dishes but most importantly, they serve vegetarian oriental dishes that are creative and fun.

By the way, Happy National Heroes Day! A big shout out to my own personal hero, Allen. :) It sounds weird but he seems to have this way of always saving the day. :)