Celebrating St. Patrick's Day @ El Gato, Rancho Palos Verdes

March 17, 2014 -  Dia Duit! (I had to greet myself in Irish!) When it comes to food, I've always wanted to try different cuisines from other countries as you can learn so much from them and it's why Ms. Marissa invited me to try an Irish lunch at El Gato, which is located at Rancho Palos Verdes inside the Riverfront Corporate City in Ma-a Diversion Road. This was exciting as of course, I'll be in a gastronomic adventure (again!) with my fellow bloggers and friends from media to have a taste of what is an Irish cuisine look and taste like.

El Gato is supposed to be a Spanish restaurant hence the name but right now, they've specialized in Irish cuisine which I find it interesting. Here are some of the Irish food that we've tried during our lunch.

As you can see, it's an Open Irish Grilled Cheese Bites and it's our appetizer. I love how it looked like and it is like feasting your eyes to eat them. I got two pieces of it and it was a yum! Different flavors came together really well and it was like a party in my mouth! :D

If you love mashed potatoes, very well then, try this Colcannon Potatoes! It's an Irish style mashed potatoes with herbs and ham. It tasted like just the usual mashed potatoes but the thing is, you can eat without an aid from a gravy to make this one tasty. I remembered eating this one twice!

What made me excited to taste was this Shepherd's Pie as I can remember, my sister always cook something special for birthdays or other important occasions that are worth celebrating. In this version, the mashed potatoes on top was flat so it made a difference already but the taste was the same as my sister's which means, delicious! It cooked exactly the way my sister did! I was happy that they've done it very well with this dish. :D

Familiar with Corned Beef? Well, we were made to try this different kind of dish and it's called Corned Beef and Cabbage with Root Veggies. It consists of corned beef with sliced carrots and potatoes. It's one colorful dish that can make your eyes scream! The meat was tender when I cut it and tasted much better with veggies in it but corned beef alone would be alright.

If you want a dish with a hint of Guiness (dark beer), this one fits the bill! The Pepper Pork Loin Glaze with Spicy Ale Slaw is one dish that made my taste buds question and wonder why it tasted like sort of a beer! The slaw was perfect with the pork loin and every bite must not be missed.

This dish reminded me so much of our own Beef Caldereta as it almost have the same ingredients such as beef, potatoes, carrots and green peas. But what made the difference is the taste. Caldereta tend to be sweeter and if it's served on a special occasion, it's topped with grated cheese. But with Thick Irish Beef Stew, somehow, it's milder in taste but the consistency of the sauce was thick. Overall, it's delicious and would love to try this one again soon. :)

One of my favorite dessert are the cupcakes and if it's served on special occasions, I wouldn't mind to have one on my plate and munch in! With this special event, we were made to try two cupcakes namely Guiness Cupcake and St. Patrick's Cupcake. Guiness Cupcake has of course, Guiness mixed with it so it's expected to taste a hint of Guiness but when I tasted it, I wasn't able to taste it but nonetheless, it was still delicious. On the other hand, the St. Patrick's Cupcake was so good! As much as I want to eat lots of them but my tummy can't handle much. :D

We were also made to try this Shamrock Velvet Cake and was served to all of us. First bite of this cake and bang! We were blown away in an instant as it was just so good and delicious of course! This was like the big hit and our favorite since we couldn't stop talking about it! The cake was so soft when I sliced it and got to love the color since green is St. Patrick's Day color and to incorporate it with the cake made it more perfect! I wonder how much is the whole cake.. :D

My meal

Since I've wanted to try all what's being served to us, I had all of them in my plate and I've got to say, every dish didn't disappoint me at all since they have different flavors and taste but all of them were delicious and tasted so great! But most of the food were mostly meat. It's alright though since it's protein and it's good for our body, ei!

All of us were also given a Shamrock Shake and I've got to say, this was one of the tastiest shake I've ever tried! It has a whipped cream on top sprinkled with vermicelli. This shake has a hint of mint so expect something minty flavor of course. The Shamrock Shake was creamy when I took a sip but again, it's delicious and every sip of this shake is a must.

This Irish Coffee somehow made me and my tongue intrigued as it has a bit of a twist in it. The coffee was mixed with rhum (?) and it's topped with whipped cream. I mixed the coffee and it became a cream-colored coffee much like an ordinary 3 in 1 coffee that has coffee, cream and sugar.

BUT with this coffee, I've tasted it and somehow got disoriented with the taste at first that left my taste buds in shock and wasn't able to describe the taste right ahead. The more I sip with this coffee, slowly, I began to discover its true flavor and I loved it! Although, I could only drink this coffee once in a while but if given a chance, hell yeah! I wanna drink this coffee! :D

With the Davao Bloggers

Thank you so much Ms. Marissa for inviting us for this wonderful lunch, to the owner of El Gato that made us comfortable and so accommodating. I would love to eat lunch at this resto and maybe introduce El Gato to my friends for them to try an Irish Lunch and maybe, learn English in an Irish way.. :D

Slán! Go raibh maith agat as léamh!

(Bye! Thanks for reading!)