Friday, July 6, 2012

Josephine’s in Tagaytay

When my brother, his girlfriend, and I went to Tagaytay some time ago, we stopped by Josephine’s for dinner, which is well-known in the area for its authentic, Filipino dishes.

josephine's crispy spinach

I absolutely love crispy spinach. It’s basically large spinach leaves dipped in tempura batter and deep fried to crispy perfection~ Some restaurants serve this with thousand island sauce or mayonnaise, but I prefer eating it as it is.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this could be considered healthy since it is deep fried in oil. Even if you deep fry this in olive oil, there’s too much oil left that it’s just not healthy.

josephine's creamy seafood soup

I forgot what my brother calls this creamy seafood soup, but I think it was bouillabaisse? It’s not bad, but it’s not the best that I had either. I’m not a huge fan of clams and shellfish, but the soup base was pretty good.

josephine's crispy fish

This may look like something from a horror movie, but it is one of my brother's favorite dishes. They're small, crispy fish that you can devour from head to tail without deboning. It’s ok too, but you really need to chew on these, because some of the fish bones, like the skull and spine, can be prickly. I forgot the fish’s name, but I believe it’s only found in Taal Lake.

Frankly, I think this taste better as a breakfast with rice and egg.

josephine's crispy pata

And now the big guns: Crispy Pata (or crispy pork leg). I don’t know what it was about that evening, but we were really ordering a lot of deep fried food.

Personally, I’d prefer crispy pork belly than the pork leg, but this does make my mouth water just looking at it. There are a lot of different sauces served with this dish, but I prefer soy sauce with kalamansi (a type of local lemon).

josephine's beef ribs

Finally, my brother's girlfriend's favorite, barbeque beef ribs. I was surprised how tender this was, and it was really tasty and delicious~ I wouldn’t mind ordering this again when we go back, but my must-have dish is still the crispy spinach.

Overall, not a bad place to eat when you’re in Tagaytay. The restaurant has a nice view of Taal Lake by their outdoor dining area, but it’s not exactly cheap. Their serving sizes are not too bad, so it would be best to dine with a group of people.

…in case you’re wondering how the three of us finished all this in one dinner? We didn’t. Like I said, we were starving that evening, so my brother and his girlfriend kinda ordered like mad, crazy people. It was amusing to watch, but not so much when I saw my share of the bill.

6 comments:

  1. *_* that fish looks yummy and now I'm craving Filipino food... and I don't ~think~ that's a bouillabaisse o_o it looks a little too creamy/white. Although... maybe it is D: since a bouillabaisse is pretty much a "lets use all this fish we have and make a stew 8D yay~" kind of soup lol. More importantly, I'm hungry now :( but I'm about to sleep so can't eat, boo~

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    1. My brother calls it bouillabaisse, and he says that's what that dish is called here in PH. xDDD We PH folks are all a bunch of food-happy-weirdos that way~ ♥

      Hey, I wrote this right before going to bed too. xD So I went to bed hungry, boo~ ♥

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  2. ooh, we went to josephine's too last 2010!!! the resto is owned by suoh's mom's student.

    this is my proof:
    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1350248670586&set=a.1350243230450.51201.1062423624&type=3&permPage=1

    and evidence of what we ate:
    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1350248710587&set=a.1350243230450.51201.1062423624&type=3&permPage=1

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    1. Ahaha~ Really? Maybe we should go there with Suoh and his mom~ ♥

      Cute photo by the way~ And it looks like I need to go back to try what you guys ordered~ ♥

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    2. I don't even remember! Hahahaha~
      Tagaytay is such a lovely place. I want to go back there again! :)))

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    3. Me too~ @_@ But my mom hates it there, so there's little chances for me to go, haha~ xD Gotta ask the brother to sneak a day trip in the weekend~~

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