date weekend: going japanese

For the second time in a row, Hubby and I celebrated our monthsary by ourselves...and again, we ate at a Japanese restaurant. My Japanese managers often eat at Shogun (which obviously means that the food is good) and one of my colleagues kept saying that it was better than Bentoya in terms of serving size, so that’s where we went after work on the 27th of December.

When we got there, there weren’t that many diners in the restaurant because it was still pretty early, but as time passed, more and more Asians (Japanese, Koreans, Thai, Filipinos) starting arriving until, before we knew it, Shogun was already full. Later when we left, there were a few who were sitting on the bench, waiting for vacant tables.

Anyway, our waitress was attentive, friendly, and always smiling. While we waited for our food, she gave us small bowls of various appetizers to nibble on. I can’t remember all of them, but I particularly like the fried cauliflower and sweet dried fish (like dilis); these we finished right away, and when the waitress saw the empty bowls, she offered us seconds which we gladly accepted.

We didn’t have to wait that long for our orders because as soon as we had enough of the appetizers, they were served.

we ALWAYS have to order California Maki if it's on the menu

Tonkatsu

I forgot what this is.  It was Hubby's order of a mix of beef, egg, sotanghon-like noodles, and vegetables

As my colleague warned me, the servings were really big! I honestly didn’t think we would be able to finish our food, but amazingly, we did. We were so full...super sulit!

It was still pretty early when we left the restaurant so we walked around Al Ghurair for a while to window shop. Before leaving, we passed by Cinnabon to buy a half dozen of their mini cupcakes. After all, it was Caila and Sophie’s month-birthdays as well.

When we got home, the girls were awake (Caila was waiting up for us and Sophie had just woken up from a quick nap). Naturally, Caila was really happy with our pasalubong and wanted to attack the cupcakes right away. But of course the night wouldn’t be complete without taking pictures... and here they are:

the mini-cupcakes just seconds before Caila took one

the 46-month-old celebrant

3 months old!