Last night was heavy food / long walk date night, in which Char and I do little else besides eat, and walk, and talk, and eat some more. It’s my favorite kind of date night, because it ensures that the time we spend together is truly quality time, where love is sure to deepen.

But Hurry up the Cakes is not just about love, it’s about life. And life, my dear friends, is about food.

Our (first) dinner was at Omakase, which is soon moving to Molito Center Alabang, from their previous home at Alabang Town Center Casa Susana. We ordered the Salmon sashimi, the Spider Maki (deep fried soft-shell crab roll), Tuna Tataki (slightly charred [heh] Tuna covered in Chili powder, served with ponsu sauce), and Char’s favorites: the Seabreeze (a Maki of Tuna, Salmon, and Ebi Tempura, served with a sweet Japanese-Mayo-based sauce), and Spicy Tuna Salad (Tuna sashimi chopped and mixed with chives and Tempura flakes, dressed in spicy wasabi mayo).

Beautiful, isn’t she? And my girlfriend doesn’t look too bad either!

The Seabreeze is classic date-night fare for Char and I me and Char. The freshness of the seafood, with the crunch of the Tempura and the sweetness of the sauce all create a contrasting spread of flavors that make me smile. It rarely, if at all, fails to bring comfort.

The spicy tuna salad is kind of like tuna sashimi (already a “mainstream” sashimi fan standby) for the masses (and that’s not necessarily a bad thing). Covered in spicy Japanese salad dressing and topped with a small hill of Tempura flakes, your sashimi-phobic friends will have nothing to fret over. Omakase’s version, in particular, is rather delicious.

The Spider Maki is almost purely a Mikey indulgence–deep fried soft-shell crab, teriyaki sauce, sushi rice, seaweed wrap–what can go wrong? As it turns out, nothing can.

The Tuna Tataki salad, on the other hand, is an example of gluttony food greed (that stomach-is-full but mouth-wants-more feeling) getting the best of me. It didn’t particularly taste bad, but it did not add to the happy-belly feelings I had with the other three dishes–I even risked taking away from it. Lesson learned.

It was still a delightful dinner, of course. Pleasure is King here at Hurry up the Cakes, and the King was well served last night at Omakase.

Of course, the night was young, and the King was served yet again. Read about it in our Mercato Report coming soon!