A world of thanks at The Podium

On Nov. 27, the world gives thanks.

Originally a North American tradition, when the pilgrims broke bread with Native Americans in Plymouth, the harvest holiday is a symbolic celebration of gratitude. Its message of thanks is universally shared all over the globe.

In the UK, Thanksgiving began when Robert Hawker, an Anglican vicar, held a special service at a Cornwall church for local parishioners. In Asia, the celebrations take the form of harvest festivals like Chusok, best translated as “bountiful abundance,” in Korea when families give thanks to their ancestors by offering rice and fruit and the Kadazan, locally referred to as Tadau ka’amatan, in Sabah, Malaysia when natives praise their favorite rice god, dress in traditional costume and pass around homemade rice wine in honor of the festivities.

Although there are many expressions of thanks — merci, grazie, gracias, xie xie, salamat — the feelings of peace, harmony, and gratitude these words evoke remain the same no matter what language it’s given in.  Start your own Thanksgiving Day tradition by celebrating with a thanksgiving feast with your loved ones at The Podium. Arigato!

Merci at Le Maison

Dubbed “a modern cosmopolitan brasserie-style restaurant and café,” that now includes a bar for patrons who like to indulge in wine with their snacks after the dinner hour, Le Maison, French for “home, is a cozy restaurant that serves hearty and affordable (all the prices listed here include service charge) fare with a distinct rustic, French touch.

Best sellers include tasty, delicately prepared Dover sole fish fillet that’s flat grilled and topped with hollandaise sauce and generous pats of herbed butter, tender braised baby back ribs that are grilled and braised in bbq sauce and then drenched in a sweet honey-chili sauce and creamy wine mussels served with flat bread. Start with the house’s complimentary black bread, made with squid ink, and go from there. You won’t be disappointed.

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Le Maison is located at GF/107 with telephone number 910-5464.

Gracias at Terry’s

Originally known as a winery and deli, Terry’s began serving sandwiches to patrons who wanted freshly-sliced cold cuts sandwiched between thick, rustic slices of baked bread. “Then customers wanted to sit down and eat lunch,” says operations assistant manager Grace Consebido. “That’s when the restaurant began.”

Owned by chef Juan Carlos de Terry, who developed the wide-ranged menu based on recipes passed down from his ancestors, the dishes all have a certain flavor unique to Terry’s. The combination of ingredients, flown in from Europe, combined with the use of liquor as flavoring (de Terry’s family has been in wines since the 1700s, according to business development and operations manager Mike Gayoso) results in rich, textured fare that’s nothing to sniff at. According to Consebido, diners often order the celebrated Albondigas en Salsa de Jabugo, a meatball dish made from pork, beef and chicken with a sauce of chorizo jabugo set on a bed of buttered rice and topped with homemade shoestring potatoes. Another must-try is the hearty Arros con Gambas al “Cognac,” which serves two. A 19th century recipe made of rich, creamy shrimp risotto with white truffle aromatics and a delicate touch of brandy, it’s delicious and delightful and well-worthy of a thanksgiving meal.

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Terry’s is located at LG/B06-08 with telephone number 638-5725.

Merci at Florabel

Gaining popularity thanks to its South Beach diet-savvy menu (filled with proteins cooked with almost zero fat and flavored with herbs and spices), Florabel is continental cuisine at its finest. A menu with a healthy mix of soups, salads, pastas, and seafood, and beef entrees, it’s difficult to select its finest mix worthy of a thanksgiving feast. But its coconut-crusted crispy prawn salad with pomelo, pineapple and orange segments drizzled with sesame dressing; moist and flaky Chilean seabass with sweet crabmeat served with potato puree and sautéed spinach and mushrooms; US Angus rib-eye steak; and desserts like frozen brazo de mercedes made with a graham crust and layers of yema, mantecado ice cream and meringue are definitely must-tries. Having served such high-maintenance folk such as GMA (they catered a private dinner for the President), Florabel knows how to serve up some seriously fine food.

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Florabel is located at GF/108 with telephone numbers 638-7527 and 667-3220.

Gracias at Casa Armas

The Spanish are known for their love of food. Breakfast, lunch, tapas and dinner are all deserving of a full meal. At Casa Armas, Spanish cuisine is but an order away. Dine on the restaurant’s signature cochinillo al horno ala castellana, baby pig roasted for five hours, as a mounted bull’s head benevolently watches over your meal. Or feast on asado de pollo ensu jugo, roast chicken that’s baked in the oven for four hours till the meat is falling off the bones, as two men in tunics serenade you with Spanish lullabies (I’m not quite sure about the music as, alas, I took Chinese as my foreign language in college. Xie xie!) After a bite or two of Casa Armas’ dishes, you’ll no doubt be fluent in Spanish — when it comes to ordering their specialties.

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Casa Armas is located at GF/112 and 113 with telephone numbers 687-3370 and 687-3665.

Grazie at Pagliacci

The Italian-owned Pagliacci, which boasts a gelato booth in front and landscape murals of picturesque Italy on its inside walls, is the kind of restaurant that seems ideal for those boisterous family dinners when everyone orders practically everything off the menu, has a tendency to over imbibe a little wine and generally make a ruckus. Basically, it’s a fun restaurant. Its Milanese owner prescribes several gems from the menu to start your thanksgiving meal: tagliatelle tartufate, fresh homemade spinach pasta drenched in truffle cream and mushroom sauce; penne vesuvio, a pasta dish with an olive oil, shrimp, sundried tomato, arugula and cream sauce; spaghetti tavolara, a rich pasta dish with a tomato-based, crab fat, shrimp, olive oil and roasted bell pepper sauce; and al prosciutto pizza, a freshly baked slab of pizza topped with tomato, mozzarella, ham, capers, black olives, mushroom, arugula and whisper thin slices of prosciutto. Molto bene, as my favorite redhead Mario Batali likes to say with an accompanying lipsmack.

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Pagliacci is located at 5F/507-B with telephone number 687-1514.

Thank you at House of Wagyu

Known as the “caviar of steak,” House of Wagyu expertly prepares and presents this special beef. Originally served only to Japan’s imperial family, wagyu became a more democratic dish (to people who could afford it) when it became an exotic, worldwide sensation. Gourmands clamored for the delicately marbled, inherently tender beef, while neophytes just wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

House of Wagyu, the first steak resto with a beef menu solely devoted to the pricey meat, is focused on serving the beef right. After all, one of its wonders was one of the first to distribute wagyu locally. Seasoned with only a smattering of salt and pepper, diners are invited to indulge this thanksgiving with a dish worthy of an emperor.

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House of Wagyu is located at 5F/507-8 with telephone number 635-3056.