It is about to become a stressful Friday @ 11am and I’m bracing myself for at least 4 meetings next week when a great surprise turned things around when I opened The Artist Chef’s page (http://artist-chef.blogspot.com/2007/11/jane-chua.html) and saw an entry about my surprise dinner for Bubba last August.

August 27, 2007. We came from another surprise trip I planned for Bubba and another couple-friend of ours. We had a short Subic trip that highlighted a Zoobic Adventure. We stayed overnight at Crown Tiara Suites and went food-tripping around Subic. We came home to Manila the following Sunday around 5pm, dropped Carlo and Sheila in Greenhills, freshened up @ my place and headed to Makati for our special Artist Chef dinner.

We got to Star Centrum building 15 minutes earlier than the supposed schedule. The guard at the reception had to check with Chef Joan if she was expecting visitors and instructed us to go to Unit ___ after. We were outside Unit ____ and rang the bell. Nothing. 3 minutes after, we rang the bell again. “It is Unit ____ right?” I whispered to Bubba. He nodded yes. No answer. We both pinned our ears to the door and bumped our heads. Soft gigging. We patted our heads and let the other listen. We hear a bit of rustling of utensils. We knocked. No answer. Maybe she’s still preparing our food. Do we wait? Do we knock again? How come she’s not answering the door? 5 minutes after, Joan texted me and asked where we are. I replied that we are outside. She said “where?” Unit ___.

We were outside the wrong unit!!!

And all this time we were trying to be so quiet. Giggling our way to Joan’s unit, we finally located the right door and rang the bell.

We were greeted with a warm welcome by the genius behind The Chef Artist.

Condo-style cooking is alive and delicious at TAC. Chef Joan’s love for cooking and art is very apparent with creating an array of set meal menus to choose from and decorating her pad with her stylish painting. Another post on the dish details coming soon!

Special thanks to Chef Joan Manalang for making it a feast to remember! Try booking a special date now since she is always fully booked that I had to wait for 2 months before getting a schedule.

Link to the Artist Chef website: http://artist-chef.blogspot.com/2007/11/jane-chua.html

Album (Chef Artist): http://cushee.multiply.com/photos/album/204/07_0826-_The_Artist_Chef

Album (Zoobic Adventure): http://cushee.multiply.com/photos/album/203/07_0826-_Zoobic_Safari

Album (Extremely Espresso): http://cushee.multiply.com/photos/album/202/07_0825-_Extremely_Espresso_Subic