The downside about having an awesome caterer is that you’d want all of the food you tried. Alas, that is not the case, and it is inevitable to let go of dishes no matter how delicious they are.

Here are some dishes we tried during our food-tastings that didn’t quite make the final cut:

pan de sal bruschetta with adobo flakes, mango salsa, and kesong puti

I know, what’s not to love about this appetizer, right? We’re letting this go to avoid repetition because our fish dish has mango salsa as well. We’ll be serving crostinis with ratatouille instead, as well as two other appetizers.

broccoli and cheese soup

This is a hit in Weddings@Work. The soup was really creamy, cheesy, and flavorful, but since my favorite vegetable in the whole wide world is squash, we’re getting the squash soup.

chicken barbecue salad (before the waiter topped it with taco chips)

Another W@W Hall of Famer. Almost every K by Cunanan bride in W@W got this salad. It was creamy, tangy, and was packed with flavor in every bite, it’s just that I fell in love at first taste with the romaine and arugula salad in balsamic dressing, so we’re getting that one.

osso buco

Our preferred package (i.e. least expensive, mwehehe) gave us a choice of one pork or one beef dish. Beef seemed to be the more sulit option since beef costs more than pork. Osso buco went head to head with baby back ribs. Our decision was uninamous: we want our baby-back-baby-back-baby-back ribs.

Japanese rolled chicken, cheese and leeks, teriyaki glaze

This was the most difficult to let go of. Abet and I both loved this dish, especially the big chunk of cheese in the middle, but this will not go well with the ribs because they’re both sweet. We’re going with a gravy-based chicken dish instead.

For our desserts, we chose the mango panna cotta (my sister’s request) and the quezo de bola cheesecake, but we’re no longer getting the cheesecake because they’re both served in ramekins, and I don’t want that. We’re getting tiramisu in shot glasses instead. No pictures of the desserts because I wolfed them down before we could take photos.

We have to let go of the prawns as well and get a nice fish (red snapper) dish instead. We’ll use the money saved on this to get several bottles of liquor.

I hope I get invited to another K by Cunanan wedding so I can taste these dishes again, teehee!

Abet and I had our initial food-tasting at K’s house last week. Food-tastings are Abet’s favorite part of the wedding preparations.

K by Cunanan is my top choice for caterer based on the many rave reviews on Weddings@Work, but I was hesitant to book them because they are pricier than most caterers. Abet and I had food-tasting sessions with three other caterers (Hizon’s, Josiah’s, Juan Carlo the Caterer), but in my heart I really wanted K. Nothing compared to the elegance of their menu and their set-up. Food is the #1 priority for us for our wedding, so we decided to scrimp on other stuff so we can afford to get K. Trusting my instincts, I booked them before we even tried their food.

What do we say now that we’ve tried their food? We made the right decision! Hindi kami mapapahiya sa mga bisita namin!

Below are the food we were served and my thoughts on them. This is not the menu that we chose, our AE Macy let us try some of their bestsellers for the initial food-tasting.

squash soup + raspberry iced tea

Abet absolutely loves raspberry iced tea (Sbarro & Sola), so we have to have this at our wedding. This iced tea tastes a whole lot better than Sbarro’s — no lasang-cough syrup that some raspberry iced teas have — I’m glad that this will be bottomless.

The squash soup was hearty, rich, and with just the right amount of flavor, not overpowering. This alone is already filling.

blinis with smoked salmon and dill

hoisin crackling pork wrap

We will be having three kinds of appetizers for our cocktail hour. Both are really good. Unfortunately, we can not have them both, as they are in the same “Choose one” group. Abet loves the smoked salmon blinis (he loves anything salmon), while I prefer the hoisin wrap (so does pretty much every W@Wie who has tried this). I’ll probably push for the hoisin wrap since it’s more filling, and just let Abet choose the other two appetizers as a compromise.

arugula, romaine & sundried tomato
with candied walnuts and shaved parmesan in balsamic dressing

I have already waxed poetic about this salad in my previous post. What can I say, I’m in love. It tastes very similar to my favorite Roka Salata from Cyma. So cute, too, it’s served in a martini glass. Abet says this salad might not suit everyone’s tastes, so we’ll try the Barbecue Chicken Salad next time to compare. But if it were all up to me, we’ll be getting this one (and I’ll tell Macy to please set aside three glasses for me).

carrot rice

We have the option of having all carrot rice, or both carrot rice and plain rice. After tasting the carrot rice — all carrot rice, please! If you blindfolded me and let me taste this, I will not think that this was carrot. I’ll just say that it’s yummy.

barbecued baby back ribs, corn with parsley butter

This is on our list. I love barbecued baby back ribs, period. I haven’t met any that I haven’t liked, so I can’t really comment much. The corn was good, too, I ate them all myself.

roasted rosemary chicken with stuffing

This is also on our list, something gravy-based to balance the sweetness of the ribs. Not the best of the lot, but still good. The chicken was juicy and tender, and the gravy had just the right amount of flavor, not too ‘herb-y.’

prawn thermidor

Ah, prawns! PRAWNS! This is an upgrade of our fish dish (which is supposed to be grilled red snapper in mango salsa and coconut cream). Aside from those who are allergic, pretty much everyone likes prawns. The thermidor was divine, but we’re also considering their other prawn dish, honey nut prawns. We’ll request that at our final food-tasting so we can compare.

mango pudding

bread pudding with sultanas and cream

The mango pudding was okay, but it’s similar to the desserts served in our office cafeteria. I want the food at our reception to be special, not something you can easily order at restaurants or cook at home (this is the main reason we are not having our reception at Sonya’s Garden as originally planned). So no, no mango pudding for us.

The bread pudding was lovely. I didn’t finish my mango pudding so I can use up what space remained in my tummy at that point for this. However, spoon-lickin’ good as this was, it’s also not very wedding-y to me. This seems like something I can replicate at home (and trust me, I will be attempting to make this), so we’re not going to serve this as well.

I’m going crazy about the desserts, I need to choose 2 out of 28 choices! How am I supposed to do that? We already crossed off the puddings, and we’ll probably avoid chocolate-based desserts because we will be having a chocolate fountain, a freebie for booking K at a bridal fair.

We still have a couple of months to discuss and debate on and finalize our menu. Our list of choices for our menu has doubled since we booked in September last year, so we’re scrapping the original menu we chose. At this point, except for the raspberry iced tea, nothing’s final yet. We do know that for our pasta and soup (I wonder why there was no pasta dish served), we have to choose vegetarian dishes because we have vegetarian guests (one more point for the arugula salad).

I’m so happy that we decided to go for K by Cunanan. I’m confident that our guests will be satisfied with the food we will serve. It really is worth sacrificing other elements of our wedding for the food. I will be wearing an inexpensive gown (you won’t believe how inexpensive) and our reception venue is the cheapest we found, but that’s okay. It’s the food that the guests remember at a wedding, not the dress nor the venue. Even my parents have asked me to please prioritize the food.

Besides, K by Cunanan is good value for money. They are known for their beautiful table arrangements, so there’s no need to hire an event stylist. We’re getting a free chocolate fountain (which costs around P10,000), and since we have a coupon from Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, there will be a free round of a signature cocktail drink. I’ll request a purple drink to match our motif. Also, there’s going to be bread served with a spread/dip of our choice, as well as coffee and tea after the meal. Not bad. Plus, our AE Macy is very easy and pleasant to deal with.

So far, K by Cunanan ranks high among my favorite suppliers so far. This is one of our two major splurges, the other being our photographers, Mimi + Karl. I’m sure it will be worth every centavo.

Abet and I had our food-tasting with our caterer K by Cunanan this afternoon, and for our salad course, we were served this pile of greens in a martini glass:

arugula, romaine & sundried tomato
with candied walnuts and shaved parmesan in balsamic dressing

Very similar to my favorite salad to date, Cyma’s Roka Salata. I polished my salad off in a matter of seconds. I’ll probably be dreaming of this tonight.