Pinoy Eats World + Mr. D : A Very Corny Dinner

Myster Dinner. 

The first time I heard about this was when I received a very cryptic invite two years ago. Well it had the date, time and meeting place but that was it. No description of what was to happen, no photos, nothing. As much as I am a control freak, the invite surely got my attention and curiosity. Sadly, I received the invite when Paul and I were having our vacation in California so with a heavy heart and an extremely curious brain, I had to send my regrets. It was only a few days after  that I began seeing photos shared by fellow food bloggers and food lovers on what the dinner was all about. 

As it turned out, it was a mystery dinner for a cheese brand and all the participants were asked to go to a meeting place. Little did they know was they were about to be "kidnapped" and to be whisked off to another place. It was a good thing that the whole thing was legit or else it surely sounded closely similar to a kidnapping plot, doesn't it? Well, luckily for the "captives", they feasted on a full course meal that evening. Upon hearing about it, I really thought the concept was brilliant. Manila is one of Asia's food destinations where people love eating out, cooking and going on food trips. However, what sets this apart is you have no idea what you'll be having for the meal and all you have to do is to give your full trust to the organizers and most especially to the chef. The group who conceptualized these mystery dinners is Pinoy Eats World. A group of food loving individuals who have been hosting dinners after dinners under different themes. They rarely repeat themes which means, you're assured of having a unique experience every single time you join them. 

I've been wanting to join one of their mystery dinners and finally, I found my chance when I saw the announcement over Facebook that they're partnering with Jeremy Slagle a.k.a. Mr. Delicious. I was able to try Mr. D's homemade corned beef when I judged a food entrepreneur contest for work as he happened to be was one of the participants. It was love at first taste. I normally don't go gaga over beef or meat in general but I couldn't help swooning over this days even weeks after having a taste of Mr. D's Corned Beef. I knew I just have to let Paul try it too. 

Unlike the past Myster Dinners, we didn't have to go to a meeting place but instead we just went straight to our dining venue. It was located at a private home in an exclusive village in Makati. Paul and I got there on time and we began mingling with our fellow dinner patrons while attacking the cheese platter. Yum!

Finally, as soon as we're all complete, dinner began with D' Balls (Corned Beef Croquettes). Using Mr. D's Corned Beef, these plump potato croquettes is filled with chunky corned beef and were deep-fried to perfection. We were each given a piece of croquettes but those who wanted more can ask for seconds or thirds.

Normally, after the appetizer follows the soup. However, this dinner was different. Out came the Sisigaw sa Sarap (Corned Beef Sisig) which arrived sizzling hot on a mini llanera and we were given a generous portion each. On my first bite, I initially thought it would have been perfect with rice. I guess this was the general sentiment that someone verbalized it and out came the white rice. Yahoo!

Want to make a guess what came next?



Nope, not yet the soup! Rather, we had a refreshing plate of salad called Asim Mo (Citrus Salad). It's a simple salad with mixed greens, mandarin orange, pomelo and quesong puti. Paul loves anything with vinaigrette so between the two of us, he enjoyed this salad more.

Finally, the soup called Bale Berde (Caldo Verde soup with Garlic Sausage and torn Rye Croutons). The soup was a very hearty one. Imagine having a good slice of meat, croutons and Mr D's homemade garlic sausage. I enjoyed the first few sips but as soon as my soup turned cold, the consistency was really heavy and not as comforting anymore.

To continue to prepare your palate for the star of the evening, we had the Kamatis Kiss (Tomato Tart). We were given a slice of puff pastry topped with seafood and tomato. It was light yet something I'm not so fond of. However, just one glance at my dinner date a.k.a. Paul, I can tell he loved this one as well so I happily gave him half of my tart to enjoy.

The wait was finally over and we got a slice of You Got Some Beef With Me otherwise known as Mr. D's homemade corned beef. We all probably grew up with corned beef from a can. My Mom can make an incredible Corned Beef Macaroni dish and we would have this whenever both Pan and I would need something to cheer us up or to brighten our stressful day. For me, corned beef is known to be flaky, with a bit of fat and salty thus we normally eat it with rice, bread or pasta. Anyway, Jeremy's corned beef came in the form of a huge slab of meat. It's similar to how restaurants would serve their steak. Together with baked vegetables, we each had a juicy slice of corned beef for our main course. One thing that I noticed was it wasn't very salty.

Once again, I was in heaven. I love how tender the meat was and even Paul was happily nodding and eating and nodding again. I'm so happy that we finally can have real homemade corned beef in Manila which definitely has pulled the mark way up up and away from the usual canned versions. This is not saying that we have now turned our backs at the canned ones as they will always have a soft spot in my heart but fresh homemade corned beef has brought our taste buds to a different gastronomic level and we're so glad we had the opportunity to be able to try it. Do be ready to pay a premium price for this delicious piece of meat though but let me share with you one of my mom's favourite Chinese saying that goes like this: 一分钱一分货 (yi fen qian, yi fen huo). This means, you simply get what you paid for. Fresh homemade corned beef takes a great deal of time to cure and the quality of the meat is definitely of a different level. Thus, you can't expect it to taste the same as the mass produced ones. Mr D, in particular, makes use of top grade Kitayama Wagyu Beef thus you are assured of getting fork tender beef all the time.

To end our meal, we had a slice of the Berry Creamy. This is a slice of Angel's Food Cake with Macerated Berries and Chantilly Cream. Initially we thought it was cheesecake because the texture was oh-so-creamy and smooth. Paul loved this so much that he couldn't stop talking about it for weeks after our dinner.

That's JJ Yulo of Pinoy Eats World!

It was a fun dinner where we were able to get to know fellow food lovers ranging from entrepreneurs, food writers, a blogger (yours truly), food aficionados and even chefs! By the way, this particular dinner costs Php. 1,800 per head which I think was definitely worth it given the amount and quality of food that we were able to have that evening.

To know more about Pinoy Eats World's upcoming dinner schedules, simply like and check them out on Facebook.