andiecrafts

It has been an extremely long while since I last had a Friday night at a place other than the couch at our living room or snoring like a bear inside the cave that is my room. So it came as a really pleasant surprise that Kuya Winston signed me up for the 7th leg of the Davao Food Trip at Aseya Bistro Royale. And seeing as how much my social life has improved over the past few months (to get it right, you have to be as pessimistic as you possibly can), I decided to join. Besides, who in their right mind would say no to free food? Wait. I’m not in my right mind. Hmmm…

After sneezing at the gym (20 minutes on the treadmill is a sneeze… a sneeze, I TELL YOU!!!), Kuya Erik, Kuya Winston, and I headed for Aseya Bistro Royale located at Humberto’s Inn, J. Palma Gil corner Padre Gomez Streets. And if you happen to die without ever, ever enjoying a meal at Aseya, you’ll be missing 4.68 %* of your life (humans have an average lifespan of 30,000 days, and 4.68% of that is around four years. THAT IS LONG!).

ABOUT THE PLACE…

The design of the place was something I would choose to do for our own dining room. The lighting was good, and the entire setting gave of a sense of homey-ness I could not find anywhere else but, of course, home. What I loved especially about the place were the curtains and the bamboo place mats, mainly because I was looking at them the whole night, contemplating whether such decor would look good in my room (the dining room, in the case of the bamboo place mats). If you desire going to place with a coffee shop-like ambiance but with a menu that contains things other than coffee and cheesecake, then Aseya is the place to be.

ABOUT THE FOOD…

OK. There were about 10 Davao Food Trippers (hehe… sounds awkward… oh well…) during this leg of the trip, and most of them probably wrote about all of the food, and so I shall spend a greater deal of my time writing about my favorite courses of the night. I’ll give you a hint: TOFU AND SUKIYAKI!!! (*points to the title with this big stupid grin on her face*)

I have always been a big tofu fan, and after tasting the Tofu with Chicken and Mushrooms served to us, not going back to Aseya is no longer an option. Their tofu had this natural ability of melting in one’s mouth after barely touching it. Plus the mushrooms and chicken were able to impart enough of their taste to the tofu, which made my constant picking at the tofu plate (and consequently picking up the last piece) come as no surprise.

The thing that drew me most to the sukiyaki was the fact that it had tofu. And mushrooms. But because the last sukiyaki I ate scared both the living daylights, and the desire to eat any more sukiyaki for the rest of something you might wish to call my existence, out of me (I beg you, do not ask), I was kind of hesitant to try it. Good thing I wore contact lenses that night: nothing could ever defeat the power of the eyes in stirring desires in the stomach (just look at the photo, man!). If you ever had as much bad experience with sukiyaki as I did (or not… doesn’t really matter), I swear you’re missing another 4.68%* of your life by not eating Aseya’s sukiyaki.

Aseya also offers a variety of food, such as:

The Aseya Salad. It is really just like your average salad, except that it has an amazing dressing made of peanut sauce, hoisin sauce, and sesame seeds. Plus it has this really, really big kropek (about half the size of the plate) that I was scared to try. OK. I take average back. Make it a more-than-above-average (^-^) salad.

The Tom Yum Kung. This reminds me a bit of the time we spent in Manila when Sir Jess (owner of Cover and Pages) made us something like this. Although I was scared to try the shrimps (asthma trigger, nyaha!), the soup was really good. It is much lighter than it’s original counterpart, but I did not like it any less. Think sinigang-ish and kare-kare-ish with a tinge of spiciness in it. It was good. Oh yeah.

Kamemashi. I remember Kuya Blogie saying something about how exotic the name sounds, but all it really means is “Food in a Bowl” (or something like it). Cute. At our table, we had the one with crab meat (Aseya has four types of Kamameshi). All I can say is that it was worth the asthma attack I had that night.

The last, but not the least, are my dearest friends…

…Goi Cuon…

…and Muphad Kaprao.

I had very little of these dishes, and frankly, I wish I had more.

ABOUT OTHER THINGS:

February 1 happened to be Aseya’s anniversary, and so they gave us this pair of adorable chopsticks as souvenirs. How kind of them.

As for the service, the servers were polite enough. One thing I found notable was the fact that they asked before removing items, plates, and bowls (empty or not) from the table. Many food service providers (formal name for restaurants, nyaha!) fail to practice this simple act of courtesy, and so I give two (three, if I had an extra) thumbs up to Aseya for the extra care they give their customers.

I have told you once, and I’m saying this again: You are missing 4.68%* of your life by not going to Aseya. If you wish to call before dinning (they are open from 6 AM - 11 PM daily, save on Mondays, when they are closed by 2 PM), you could do so by dialing (082) 222-3831 local 131.

*This 4.68% is something what my mother would call BB (buot-buot, nyaha!!!)