belgian waffles

- from the Dutch word wafel, these honeycomb treats have long awaken my senses_the aroma and colors drifting straight to my palate.yum yummy yum!!!!

Pineapples From Tagaytay

I see pineapples everywhere in Tagaytay. Sometimes they are as sweet as the canned pineapples but most of the time, they are...

need I say more??!!

At this point, there would be a little arguments between me and the vendor. Here, the expert vendor is always right. She would insist of the sweetness of the pineapple and would go as far as naming my toothpaste mint flavor as the culprit of my unacceptable verdict to her product.


But hey manang! don't cha forget_ universally, the customer is always right! so I would go around until I found sweet pineapples that match my sweet tooth.


Until then that the case would be dismissed and I would be happy with my sweet pineapples from Tagaytay.

Floating Island Restaurant

Guess _ where can you find this perfectly crunchy, tasty, sinful "crispy pata"?



Surprise!_at the Floating Island Restaurant and take note of the location_Makati Medical Center,3rd Floor near the Heart Station.




How ironic! But it really is deliscioso with a capital F for fats!




Look how this mother and daughter tandem enjoys this food for the heart (only for the brave heart!). Much that I wish I wouldn't, I also got a brave heart for this succulent inviting plate of crispy pata anyway.








The verdict:
The newly renovated restaurant offers a lot of foods that make you forget you are in a hospital.

Fresh Lumpia, A Street Food

Fresh lumpia is a staple in husband diet.Every morning of weekends,visits to his nearby hometown (Bacoor,Cavite) to eat this local delicacy is a regular activity.As a willing companion, I would usually consume 2 to 3 rolls at the most when I'm hungry and the guy would savor up to 10 rolls in one standing (yes, standing,there's no chair and table there).




Flash back to his childhood in the town of Bacoor,this fresh lumpia was his street food.It was sold in a cart pushed in the streets of the town by a familiar Aling Doray,now a local legend, the vendor.Young and adults then would gather around the cart to buy and eat the fresh lumpia using a common spoon to put the sauce and chili-garlic to the freshly bitten rolls and alternately share the one and only wooden spoon!!




Back to the present, Aling Doray had passed away many years ago,and she took with her the famous wooden spoon.Good thing, she was able to pass down her recipe to her clan and thus the same fresh lumpia recipe that my husband used to savor when he was a kid is exactly the same fresh and delicious lumpia he is enjoying now with me and sometimes with the kids and relatives who get curious about this humbly delicious lumpia.






















taste.taste.taste


I went my way to learn to cook this at home.The recipe is actually very simple.The ingredients are nothing but familiar and commonly available anywhere in our country.













My own version of this recipe is already a favorite of my family at home. Mine has lots of vegetable variations. But the weekend visits to the street cart continues.Simply because..and I super agree with him_a street food is best savor in the street!!Wherelse??!!!

50's Diners, Baguio City

This resto serves delicious American junks_burgers, ice cream and some pastas, salads and soups. There are also Pinoy street foods like fishball and kikiam on sticks. Actually the menu is a fusion of Filipino and International dishes.




Everything is on big serving and needless to say the place is not for health conscious diners. I luv their club house sandwich thu', it's huge, good for the entire family of four and the bread tastes freshly bake.








The ambiance is really 50's (don't get me wrong I wasn't born in that era!), just like the way I saw it in old movies. With neon lights, waitresses in navy uniforms of white and pink. The walls are also adorn with vintage movie posters of Hollywood celebrities.




The place was full of  local and foreign tourists which I assume just like us, came from visiting or staying at Camp John Hay or Baguio Country Club because it is located near the junction of those two famous places. Great snack -stop location after a tiring stroll of these sites.




The verdict : It's crowded which slow the service and not recommended for hungry stomach because you have to wait for an hour or more to please your ranting tummy. The foods are delicious because they are all comfort sinful foods.

Bahay Pastulan, Tagaytay

When you are in Tagaytay, don't forget to get your take home goodies from Bahay Pastulan. This is the Good Shepperd in Tagaytay. Like its Baguio counterpart you can buy the famous Ube jams here. How convenient! No need to travel 8 hours to savor the the yummy ube jam of the Good Shepperd nuns.

There are slight distinctions thu'. Here in Tagaytay the jam is not in the bottle jar but in plastic container which personally I like because it's much easier to spoon the jam from the  wider  mouth of the canister. The buyers' queue here is much shorter than Baguio.

But the thing is I can't find any distinction in taste. They are both the best ube jam makers in the Philippines. Or are they one?

Aside from the ube jam, other Baguio products are available here_strawberry jam, lengua, peanut brittle and the others. One thing that I think is endemic here is the buco pie. It's my daughter's favorite and wouldn't leave the place without a box of buco pie. She wouldn't consume it thu' not until the following day at home after one day refrigeration. She likes it cold and old.

We saw in the front side of the building that they were also selling "halo-halo". There were customers enjoying the halo-halo right in front of the canteen eating standing. We never got to try it yet, but I'm sure it's delicious as I suppose they are using their own sweets products like ube and macapuno.

Tootsie's, Tagaytay

Tootsie's is very visible if you're driving around Tagaytay. I don't remember an instance that we don't pass by this restaurant when we are in this city.



After a while, we stop ignoring the resto, intrigued by the happy faces inside, seen from the road every time we passed by, finally we walked in.



Upon entering the entrance of the place, my daughter grabbed a magazine from the rack. Flipping over the pages while walking to the table, she was proud of her "freshly found news", and blurted out_" look this resto is featured in this magazine! It must be good!"


Sold by the idea of the magazine, my daughter had right away fell at home with the place. In fairness, it was really homey. It was like you were just in your own dining room. The sofas have literally injected the ambiance.



The menu said nothing new to us, it was all Filipino dishes and obviously with their own original concoction of each dish.

And since everything seemed familiar, we ordered a family favorite_Karekare.

An expert on this dish, everyone said it was ok, only we didn't like the bagoong.Tasted like it was not sauteed the way we wanted it.




As per suggestion of the waiter we had a must try (according to him) Tadyang ng Baka. Except for me, who was turned off by the obvious fats, the rest of my family loved this. I tried a little of the lean part, dipped in the condiments, and liked it too.



The verdict : It's good that we were able to experience the place. The best thing about it is the courteous staff. Next time we are in Tagaytay? I guess, we'll try other restaurant.

Mangan

Mangan_Capampangan word for"let's eat!" This is a lunch spot favorite of my family. When my eldest had her recognition day last March '09 and held the magic wand to point where should we eat as one of her treats for that day, without hesitations, Mangan 's was her easy choice.








I love the homey feel the interior design of the place gives. It is as if you're only dining right on your own home.













The menu contains regional Pampanga ( a province here in the Philippines), all Filipino food. Although, the dishes are all familiar, we still have to ask the help of the staff to specify each dish. It is because they used Capampangan (a dialect) in naming the menu.





The serving size is deceiving. It looks like the serving is in small portion and you would doubt its quantity and would make you ask if that it's enough for the entire party. Then at the near end of your meal you would be taken by surprise that it was quite sufficient anyway. It must be the serving plate (looks small but contains more?), my youngest suggested. Or was it the flavorfullness of the food that lingered on up to the last spoon?
Although we always try a new dish from the menu everytime we dine here, "kare-kare" remains as our all time favorite here at Mangan's.








As a finale, we enjoyed our favorite "panghimagas" (desserts) which are all truly "pinoy" like sago't gulaman, tinumis and the sweetened banana.

The verdict : remains to be one of our favorite restaurants