A New Meaning to the Phrase ‘Food for Thought’ PS2 (postscript 2)

Of all the meals that we have in a day, breakfast is probably the easiest (to make and to make delicious ^^,).  Grab a box of cereal, pour on the milk; it’s good and you’re ready to go.  *harhar  I remember when I graduated to high school; my grand uncle asked me if I already knew how to cook.  I told him not that well but I can prepare breakfast quite easily.  He suddenly laughed and said, oh, breakfast; go out to the bakery and buy pandesal.  BUSTED!  I was so busted.  *sheepish grins all around =b

Dining out for breakfast, especially if it’s a buffet from a hotel restaurant, you’d no doubt expect a lavish and delicious spread.  You could be wrong.  I was…

15) Eurotel

Lesser evil breakfast foodstuff: Apple juice, misua soup and fish fillet.

It started out nicely enough with me reading somewhere, (probably TripAdvisor) that Eurotel had a daily offering for breakfast buffet.  Off to their Facebook page I went to make an inquiry.  They replied quickly enough – a sign that they’re giving the right attention to their social networking accounts (unlike some other hotels/businesses out there =b.  Social media is a very useful business tool, people!)   for the Eurotel staff handling their Facebook page!  They gave me all the information I needed; if we needed a reservation, what time it opens, how much it is, etc.  To pass the time until the Sandman (or for a cuter depiction of the Sandman, watch Rise of the Guardians. SPOILER ALERT!  Nice, Jack Frost isn’t a villain.) finally did his work on me, I looked at their online menu, getting hungry and excited for the Eurotel breakfast buffet with every new photo of dishes that loaded up.  (arg, dashed expectations.  *huhu)

The xmas village distraction…In the hopes of getting some value from Eurotel…

When we got there, we went straight to the front desk to pay for our meal (like Citylight – movie theater style =b) just as I was informed in the email.  We then went to the dining area which disappointed me outright as it was cramped, windowless and dark.  (You might be thinking, I should’ve seen the photos of the dining area on their website.  I did and it didn’t look that gloomy there.  It’s the lighting.  Think City of Ember *heeharhar.)  We chose a table and asked one of the staff if we could sit there (it had a lavish table cloth on it unlike the other tables so maybe it was reserved), she gave us a face implying she didn’t know but/and she didn’t go to find out anyway.  For the whole duration of the meal, the staff just stood to one corner talking amongst themselves.  *humph

A photo at the edge of the clothed table. Looks reserved right? =b Ooops, do not touch!

Walking to the buffet tables, I was appalled to see just three chafing dishes for viands; chopsuey, fish fillet and uber salty corned beef (not the salty I like and probably to trick us into getting more rice and less viand =b).  It was just 7:00 a.m. then (30 minutes from the opening of the buffet) and the dishes were already half empty.

The three breakfast viands. ‘One for all!’ =(

The only bread they had laid out was loaf bread, cut diagonally (maybe to make the spread look more abundant =b).  The way the bread was cut didn’t help in the toasting.  The toaster they had was the type for loaves where you fit the bread into the slot.  Naturally, the triangular loaves got stuck in the toaster and got burned to a crisp in the middle.  (So much for cutting costs, don’t you think?)

Come and break bread (that we watched like a hawk as it toasted so it wouldn’t get burnt) with me, literally…as we eat breakfast in the night. *snicker snicker

For dessert, they had fruit and yes, I just mean one kind. (Although the sign said otherwise, ‘fruitS’.  They should’ve placed the S between parentheses.)  Of the spread, I liked the fish fillet, the soup and the juice best.  Fish fillet was the only special viand laid out and thank the gods, it was scrumptious.  They had misua soup (I love those delicate noodles) and for drinks, pineapple and apple – I liked the apple juice very much.  (“,)

Fresh Fruit(S) ^^,  Yellow for the first hours of breakfast and red for the last hours of breakfast.

When the viands were all consumed, we waited around to see if they would refill the dishes with the same stuff.  They replaced these empty chafing dishes with Chinese sausage and big bellied round scad.  I know it doesn’t sound that bad but let me translate big bellied round scad in Tagalog = galunggong.  I’m not a food snob, mind you; I eat anything – simple, classy, cheap, expensive but really?  From a hotel?  Galunggong?  =S I’d have forgiven them if it was smoked galunggong/tinapa but it was just that.  Oh wow, we felt so cheated.  (Citylight’s breakfast buffet is cheaper than Eurotel’s by P50 and they still had a better offering…an offering that’s fit for a hotel.)

Gigi ’nuff said

So that’s that for the Eurotel breakfast buffet – a total bomb.  And so we ended the meal, not really to our fill because who’d have the appetite for such a spread?  We hung around their lobby a bit.  If anything, we were still hoping to get some sort of value from the experience.  They had a miniature Christmas village on display which worked a little.  (Photo op, guys! (“,))

I do hope their other services are better than this (breakfast buffet service/meals).  Otherwise, they built over the ruins by the café for nothing.

Still trying to get our money’s worth… *shyeew =))

So sad, we have another addition to the list for Baguio food-for-thought/think-before-you-eat-there restaurants.  =(

And let’s not forget:

16) Bon Appetea

Again, hoping this is the last of the food for thought establishments in the city.

I STILL wish these (food for thought) establishments luck in turning things around for the better.

Till tomorrow, afoodionados!  Back to good food! (“,)