Macapagal Avenue Seafood Paluto at Robbie's

Our culinary adventure continues. Mom, Butchie and myself went to Macapagal Avenue to have a “paluto” seafood dinner. Paluto is “to ask someone to cook” in Tagalog.

We shopped for fresh crabs, prawns, young squid, Aklan oysters and scallops in the adjacent palenke, or wet market. Yes, we bought all of those things that I mentioned. My mom, the ultimate palengke shopper, chose the best and the freshest in the bunch.



Going to Macapagal Avenue is quite an experience for locals and tourists alike, shopping in the fresh market allows you to see and choose the quality of the seafood or meat that you will be eating. All crabs are sold alive, as with selected fish like hito or tilapia. A wide assortment of live shellfish is also available in the market daily, we saw some fresh lobsters, kuracha, alupihang dagat, mussels, manila clams,kuhol and other shellfish that I could not name. The wet market stays open until the adjoining restaurants are open.

We brought our loot to Robbie’s, one of the many restaurants in the area and asked them to cook the seafood for us. Robbie’s is often frequented by my mom and some of her friends, so we know the food will be good.



We had the Aklan Oysters steamed just until they open. The oysters were huge, sweet and very fresh. They simply just melt in your mouth.



For the scallops, we had it baked with cheese and butter. This wasn’t that good because Robbie’s used margarine instead of butter, so it wasn’t very nice. Sayang.



For the prawns, we had it cooked as Sinigang. This was so good, the broth had just the right amount of tartness and saltiness, the prawns were so fresh, they were so easy to peel. The prawns were also sweet and succulent.



For the squid, we opted to have it made into adobo with really black sauce (Kuya, yung maitim na maitim na sauce, please). I have no idea how they made the sauce so black. Normally when we make this at home, the sauce is not that black, nor that thick . This is so far the best Squid Adobo that I’ve ever tasted. Robbie’s trumps my mom’s squid adobo. (Sorry mom, he he he) I would go back to Robbie’s just for this. It's really good despite looking like a clump of mud on this photo.



Next up, Chili Crabs. This was also good, not as spicy with just a hint of sweetness. Quite messy to eat, but very enjoyable nonetheless.



As we were about to go home, we realized that it was only 9pm, we shopped and ate for just over an hour. Damn, we finished off our meal in record time, we even forgot to take a group picture. Ha ha ha. Butchie, you're the champion!





For dessert, we made our way back to Greenbelt and had Macaroons, Mango Cheesecake, Coffee and Tea at Bizu.





I was still full when I woke up the following morning.