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I'm in the Philippines all week on business and have the opportunity to try all sorts of new cuisine. I've been here before, long before I started blogging and am looking forward to the opportunity to share my culinary experiences here. I plan to eat a mix of traditional Filipino food, and whatever my hosts throw at me while I'm here.

Last night, we had dinner at a swanky French restaurant called Le Souffle, just outside of Makati, in a new area called Global City. The dinner was hosted by my Filipino friends and coworkers Bob, Alex, Jobbit and Eric. The meal started off with a bottle of merlot selected by Bob. It was full bodied with quite a bit of tanin. Pretty good merlot even if the guys in the movie Sideways don't do merlot, as Jobbit pointed out.

Bob asked if I liked liver, and I replied that I did, so he ordered salads of goose liver, scallop prosciutto and goat cheese for everyone. The salad was a very nice starter to the meal. I hadn't had goose liver in quite a while as most of the fois gras you get in the US tends to come from duck. The flavor of the goose liver was sublime.

The next course consisted of a pumpkin and carrot soup. The soup was stronger in carrot flavor, but had a hint of the pumpkin which came through stronger after a few spoonfuls. I believe it was thickened with cream, but I'm not completely sure there as lately I've been making soups thickened with a bit of white potato, and sometimes it's actually hard to tell the difference.

For my main course, I chose ostrich steak with currant sauce. When I cut it up into pieces, I thought the meat was going to be a bit tough, but I was pleasantly surprised when I bit into the first piece. It was very tender, not at all gamey, and cooked just as I had ordered it, medium rare. The sauce went well with the ostrich and offered a nice amount of sweetness that didn't totally overwhelm the meat. The ostrich was accompanied by braised red cabbage and a gratin of potato. The cabbabe was good and not at all overcooked. The potato gratin was also good. It was formed in a pastry ring, and looked like a mini-cake.

After we finished our meals, I was reminded that you can't eat at a restaurant named Le Souffle without having a souffle for desert. I was already stuffed on account of the great meal, but luckily for me they offered a demitasse version of their souffle. I ordered a Flambéedmango souffle. It ended up being the perfect size. About four bites and it was finished. It proved to be an excellent ending to a good meal with my hosts.

To cap the night off, after hearing that I'm really into food and write this blog, Jobbit asked the waiter to have the chef jot down the names and descriptions of everything I ate (this will come in handy as I get into more of the local cucuisine The chef did one better and returned me a hand written menu of the dishes he had prepared me along with a personal note wishing me the best.

Stay tuned for more posts as I eat my way around the Philippines!