The invitation was tempting enough. A night of good food and conversation with friends on a Tuesday night at James hideaway, beat that! But wait until we saw the menu of what James had in store! It was enough to keep us excited with anticipation (and glutton).
The dinner date, aptly on a Fat Tuesday, was indeed a cornucopia of sinful gastronomic delights:
Appetizers
Nachos, crackers and nuts with aperitif of either rose or lemonade
Main Course
Stuffed Squid with Apple Wine Reduction
Roast Pork Belly on a Bed of Seasonal Vegetables
Creamy Shrimp and Crab Fat Pasta
Dessert
Decadent Cheesecake
The exciting part was finding his house ala Extra Challenge. I went with the ladies (Bevs, MJ) with Zarah driving. Predictably enough, none of us paid attention to the hand drawn map from James, or the address to the place! We arrived at Ponticelli around 6 pm after stopping more than 10x to ask security guards and passersby. We suspected that the streets were newly named because 4 out of 5 village guards gave us a look as if we were looking for a Martian instead of Via Alba Street.
At last, we arrived at a yellow Italian house with sounds of waters gently rustling from the garden. James cheerfully welcomed us to his home and we decided to hang out first at the lanai. Ponticelli is an Italian-inspired community but James’ home a vivid, unapologetic reflection of his artistic streak. His proudly self-designed living space is an interesting mix of eclectic styles -- his black chandelier is neo-Baroque, various Crayola pop art pieces and Asian finds. This prompted us to raid the rest of the house and liberally took pictures amongst the many gem of fancy pieces and ideas!
I read somewhere that you can easily deduce the personality of the home-owner through the design and style of the house. James’ home is cheerful, kaleidoscopic, fun and playful, friendly and a bit melodramatic.
The color scheme of the house was multi-themed. Each area though very tightly packed, stands out to have its own theme and design. Even the chandeliers and lights were conversation pieces.
Among my favorites are the bookshelf which doubles as a cupboard, the circular shoe rack (I swear I will look for it at True Value!), the elephant painting and the brown slim bench.
Dwight was simply amazed at how the bold colors were put together and achieve the overall effect of harmony. The floor tiles were black while the walls are a variety of red, maroon, blue, paisley wall papers and white. I also love how James was able to maximize the compact space for the kitchen and dining room. The furniture were generally minimalists but not boring. We told James he can make a living being an interior decorator or having his own quaint Bed and Breakfast somewhere in Tagaytay or the likes.
Then came the much awaited dinner. What made it extra special was that James actually cooked all those mouth-watering dishes! We had to make a mental note to make sure we increase our physical activities in the next few days to burn all those calories and trim down the cholesterol! And so we spent the next hour or so, wolfing down all those lovely dishes and snippets of anything-under-the-sun topics in between. Not to be missed was the sinfully decadent cheesecake which we carefully partook thin slices (conscious...). I reminded myself to ask for a recipe from James.
The night was still young but for us moms, we had to call it a day and recharge for the last day of work week the next day. But I am sure that everyone will agree with me that it was indeed one of the best ever dinner dates we have been invited to. Totally loved the company, the good food and the ambience. And a perfect way to bid farewell to an interesting person whose home is as artsy and ecletic like himself.
Good luck James and you will surely be missed by the Gen Y (young ones) in CLT!
