Turning 33

I received an email from a good friend of mine. The title of the email was Congrats! As this was my birthday, I was a bit confused with the title. When I read the body of the mail, then it all made sense. The email reads:

"Congratulations on yet another successful trip around the sun"

Indeed, it has been another successful trip around the sun! What a unique and fun way of greeting someone a happy birthday. For a space geek like me, I very much appreciated this. 

For my special day, my husband treated me to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Aubergine Restaurant Pattieserie. Originally, I was thinking of getting the degustation but upon checking the content of that menu, it seemed a bit too much and I might not be able to finish everything. So we decided to order ala carte instead. 

It is always a pleasure eating at this restaurant. 

tuna tartar with salmon caviar

King Prawn Bisque
with lobster-mozarella ravioli and champagne froth

It turned out that there is only one ravioli in the soup...my husband ordered this. While eating, he found the ravioli and told me, have a taste. So I took the ravioli, cut it in half, then ate both halves. He then asked me, where is the other half? I said I ate both and he laughed and told me, well I hope it was good because there is only one.

Yellow fin tuna tartar and soy-honey marinated, compressed tuna
accompanied by avocado, shitake, and salad greens in sesame-ginger dressing

I ordered this for a starter. I do not like eating raw food, so when I received this, I was quite doubtful about whether the tuna was raw or cooked. In any case, I swallowed my distaste for raw food and took a bite of that compressed tuna. It did taste like it was raw but all in all, it was quite tasty. The tartar had a bit of tang and the dressing complemented the compressed tuna. As long as I ate the compressed tuna with the greens, then the dish was quite delish.

Pan seared fillet of Greenland Halibut
accompanied by homemade lobster-lychee tortellini on green asparagus-tomato melange  and curried ginger nage

My husband ordered the Greenland halibut for his main course. The taste was a bit similar to the Prawn Bisque he had so this dish was a bit redundant for him. It was however cooked perfectly and tasted quite nice. It would have paired better with a green salad. On a side note, this dish also had a stuffed pasta, the tortellini, which my husband did not share with me anymore as I have already devoured the one ravioli in his soup.

Marriage of beef and sea bass
Grilled Chilean sea bass on a spiced fennel-apple compote and grilled Australian Mulwarra beef tenderloin, served with Madeira jus, gratinated with zucchini and mushroom, accompanied by walnut gnocchi

For my main course, I ordered the bass and beef. The description on the menu says it all. Every bite is heaven.

In between the starter and the main course, we were served with lime sherbet to clean our palate and prepare our taste buds.

After the main course, I ordered tea to help with my digestion and we then asked for the bill. I didn't order dessert anymore as I was feeling quite stuffed. However, before they brought our bill, they brought out my birthday cake with a candle.

Chocolate Pyramid
Belgian chocolate and vanilla mousse with passion fruit ganache

the happy birthday girl

with the free macarons and chocolates

I think Aubergine will be a tradition that I will certainly keep. I spent my 32nd birthday here also and will probably make this an annual tradition.

Aubergine's website: http://www.aubergine.ph/