Seafood Galore

With the success of the original Dampa in Paranaque, various Dampa "outlets" have sprung up all over the Metro. This concept of buying fresh seafood from the market and having them cooked in one of the palutuan restaurants has been a hit with groups of families and friends and has led to more Dampa branches. Currently, I know of  Dampa in Libis, Farmers in Cubao, Metrowalk in Ortigas and Macapagal in Pasay.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to try out the Dampa experience in Macapagal Avenue with my co-workers. 

I was mostly impressed with the cleanliness of the market 

aisle of the seafood section

and the array of fresh seafood:

fish

shells

oysters

mussels

shrimps

lobsters

I think the prices were regulated as they were more or less the same for all the stalls. We bought 5 kilos of shrimps, 2 kilos of mussels, 2 kilos of kohol, a kilo of bamboo shells, 2 kilos of ulo ng maya-maya, and 3 kilos of liempo (pork belly) which we hoped would be good enough for the 25 of us :)

We opted to have our food cooked at 

G Squared Palutuan sign

Cooking charges were reasonable and there was a 10% service charge on top of our bill. The waiters were very attentive and anticipated all our needs, from the toothpicks for the kohol to the condiments for the sawsawan for the other dishes. 

We had the shrimps cooked in chili and garlic sauce, the mussels baked with garlic and topped with cheese, the kohol cooked in coconut milk (gata), the bamboo shells in chili garlic sauce, the maya-maya in sour broth (sinigang), and the pork belly grilled. We had a feast and we all pigged out on the fresh seafood fare.

bamboo shells and shrimp

baked tahong (mussels) and ginataang kohol

All that good food, coupled with good company (uhm, pun intended?) hopefully make for a good start for this year. May all that fresh seafood usher in abundance for all of us!

Photo credits: the last 4 pictures are courtesy of Ms. Majah Flores, downloaded from her FB album.