My Initiation at Pepper Lunch
Reposting from MySummerSolstice
Twas one Saturday night while I was eating a deelish pizza from Sandy’s when Phoebe smsed me giddily ( well, at least that was the vibe! ), calling me beef girl ( well, I really am! ) , swearing that I’d love Pepper Steak’s Shimofuri Steak because it just melted in her mouth. Considering tender, and melt-in-your-mouth beef are so rare, she quickly invited me for dinner Wednesday night to anticipate my “disoriented moment,” as my teeth would sink in that steak. Good thing we pushed thru, along with my friends Didi and Fran, it was indeed a Pepper Lunch night for all of us!
Also present were Jayvee, Juned, and AJ, fresh from an event ( with Fritz joining us later ). As expected, there was a queue outside the resto, but it was a fast-moving one, so we didn’t have any problem with looking for seats.
Well, enough stalling, I’m going to start rambling about my food. One, two, three, go!
The head of the “soro” responsible for the “initiation night”, seated right beside me. Hahaha!
The Shimofuri Steak was served to me raw with their one of a kind cooking plate. I was pressured heavily by my seatmates to hurry! hurry! to spread the tan-colored butter and flip the steak, and which I did after a few minutes after I kept on taking pictures of it. Hahaha!
Flipppped over!!!! I love burnt edges on beef. Anyway, there were two sauces in Pepper Lunch, one was Brown Honey Sauce and one was Garlic Soy Sauce. Being the hotpot girl that I am, I easily found affinity with the garlic soy sauce. My thoughts on the Shimofuri Steak , in perfect order, were (1) I paused for a bit, I don’t know if this is called disorientation (2) It was really hot, so I had to chew further to get the flavor (3) Apparently I didn’t need to chew too much because it was so tender (4) and the garlic soy sauce was just perfect with the steak as it was a pleasant fusion, first that I have ever tried, of a beef steak, which style is very much oriental. I think it’s “orientalizing” steak. A Chinese steak, perhaps? Or a hotpot style steak! Haha! But nonetheless, I LOVE IT!
My lovely steak was served with a bowl of Japanese rice. I sliced my steak into tiny chunks as I used my chopsticks to eat, just like I did in Chinese restos. So surreal. I swear.
Take a peek at Didi’s Chicken Pepper Rice- it looked so yummy and ..well, peppery! I kept on hearing her exclaiming about the wonderful flavor of her rice!
An attempt to reach and take a picture of Fran’s dish - is this chicken and salmon? I was able to nick a small bit of salmon from Phoebe and I totally agree on her statement that it was illegally fresh. It-tasted-really-fresh-and-flavorful! Also cooked perfectly - no flaking!
For desserts ( drumroll please ). The theme is - SIN CITY. Hahaha totally sinful sweets. I can sin for the rest of my life eating these. And I mean it. Hahaha!
I was about to pass when I heard “caramel” in the ice cream with caramel syrup. BUT when Phoebe told me the syrup was like the one just like what they put on sago’t gulaman, I knew I had to try it. I’m a big fan of caramelized sugar - all dark dark dark brown, not creamy light brown. And it’s true! The syrup was so refreshingly sweet, it was a unique ice cream experience for me. I shall come back for this- I SWEAR!
The Molten Chocolate Cake is exquisitely rich. Three words. I’m.in.heaven.
Fellow happy Pepper Lunch dinnermates. See, the slice of cake’s what’s left!
Overall, I wouldn’t mind falling in line just to eat at Pepper Lunch again. I am definitely going to try another beef dish once again. Oh, how happy my dinner was, filled with good company and fantastic food ( even if we smelled like we were trapped in a Chinese resto’s kitchen for an hour ) ! I hope I can do this everyday!
Post by the dinnermates :
Phoebe
Fran
AJ
Jayvee
…and more to come!
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:28 am
[...] friend Soph also recommended one good find in Pepper lunch Manila It’s also the best chocolava for her. I’ll be in a lookout for that one here when I get [...]