Badminton has been my sport for many decades now. It is a game I look forward to playing four to five times a week. I have two groups of badminton addicts. One from the club and another from our village. These people have become my family. We have many get-togethers off the court. Someone always brings food in the courts. Occasionally, we have dinners or meals outside.
Last week, Gina Navarro of Estrelle’s wanted to introduce us to her latest discovery. I love these surprises. I trust Gina’s taste. We always agree on our dining choices. This time, it was a new place to me on Jupiter Street in Makati. The place is called One World Deli.
It is a deli with a lot of high-end food stuff, both fresh and bottled. You have a variety of fresh steaks, lamb, duck, fish of all kinds, salad, pastries, truffle oil, wine, drinks etc. The concept here is to either go around and shop or choose and the items you choose can be cooked by the expert chefs of the kitchen. Plus, the prices are quite reasonable. Walking into the place, I knew we were in for a fun evening.
Before sitting at our table, I zeroed in on a vegetarian salad, which I planned to take home and have it for lunch the next day after badminton with my other group.
We had some bottles of superior red wine. As we sat down, there were immediately two platters of what looked like extremely fresh salmon sashimi. I later on learned it was fresh trout. I am used to salmon and tuna sashimi but have very few experience with other fish. With soy and fresh wasabi on the side, I was ready. I tried a piece without any sauce. Oh my gosh! It was sweet, fresh, soft, almost creamy, and so good. With a very little dab of soy and wasabi, it had to be one of the best tasting sashimi I had ever experienced.
Then came another platter of Jamon de Bellota combined with aged cheddar. Take a jamon with all the fat and put it in your mouth. Don’t chew it first. To savor the flavor of this Spanish specialty, allow the jamon to adjust to the warmth of your mouth and let the fat melt in it. Sarap!
It is a deli with a lot of high-end food stuff, both fresh and bottled. You have a variety of fresh steaks, lamb, duck, fish of all kinds, salad, pastries, Truffle oil, wine, drinks etc.
The hard sharp cheese was also so delicious! I wanted to order the entire menu. I saw another table having seafood pasta, a house burger, and a few others. We also had a platter of shrimp cocktail. Because the shrimps were fresh, they were delicious! We also had some sautéed mushrooms in butter. Also very, very good!
To remove a little of the guilt, we had a platter of salad before attacking a thick charred ribeye steak simply seasoned with salt and pepper. I am told this was a medium rare cooked British steak. Good, but I would still stick to a USDA Prime Ribeye steak, whose grading I am more familiar with.
All in all it was a most wonderful evening of friendship and discovery. Over dinner, we were discussing about Sweet Ecstacy, the burger joint just right across.
Right after this heavy meal, we crossed and some of my buddies split some burgers. I could not believe how they found space for those burgers. I just watched in entertainment.
We drove back to our village on the other side of town and bid goodbye to a most memorable evening.
Happy eating!
One World Deli is at 11 Jupiter Street, Bel Air, Makati City. 0917 804 0821