Lunch at Asian Twist

When we left the house on the morning of December 30 to pick my mother, the plan was to drive directly from her house to SM Megamall and have lunch at Jipan. She hasn’t eaten there yet, the food is so very good, Sam was obsessing over the ramen, Jipan prices are friendly on the pocket and those four reasons were more than enough to stop thinking about other options.

But traffic was bad and we got to my mother’s house very late. Since it would be at least another 45-minute drive to Megamall (if we were lucky) and the parking situation there is almost always a headache, I suggested (no objections entertained) that we have lunch first at a less crowded place before proceeding to Megamall. We would be going by way of Quezon City, we could take the Banawe route and eat at Asian Twist. We’ve been there once before and the Asian fusion-style food was good. Plus, the menu was varied so anyone who wanted Japanese could have Japanese food, those who wanted something else could order what he or she preferred.

The lunch crowd had gone when we got to Asian Twist, we easily found a parking slot and a table.

We ordered corn soup…

…which had chunks of what seemed to be pork cracklings. Very, very good soup!

My mother had the ebi tempura which was served, quite surprisingly, with turon (banana spring rolls).

Alex had the Japanese seafood white fettuccine. I had a forkful and the sauce was very creamy and subtly sweet.

Sam ordered the “Creamy” bibimbop with shrimp and squid. She had already stirred the rice and seafood together before I remembered that I hadn’t taken a photo yet so I didn’t anymore.

As an extra dish, Sam and Alex ordered maki. Why we needed an extra dish, I didn’t know. Maybe we thought we were hungrier than we were. Or, maybe, we had forgotten how large the servings at Asian Twist are.

Speedy and I shared a crispy pata and a platter of salted fish fried rice. The pork skin wasn’t that crisp but the fat was like butter than melted in my mouth.

The bill was a little over PHP2000.00 (about USD46.00), not that inexpensive but we were happy with our food.

So, did we forget about the plan to eat at Jipan? Certainly not. That was where we had dinner. But that’s another story. And between Asian Twist and Jipan, we had coffee, cakes and gelato. And that’s an altogether different story too. The Jipan and coffee-desserts episodes coming up next.