Metro Gourmet

Next to a beach, a grocery store is my favorite place to go to.. and linger I won't mind. I could go around from aisle to aisle with same interest I pay to every page of a book I read. It's my happy place.

It doesn't matter if my reason for going is to buy just a bottle of canola oil and then end-up with a few more add-ons, cos for me it's a guilt- free trip cos I know it would benefit/ feed my family somehow. It's not like buying myself a pair of shoes or purse or garments? Right moms? defensive me, haha

I also love the idea of taking snack within the grocery. I particularly frequent The Metro in ATC (Alabang) which has a deli shop with a gourmet cafe.

And since I patronize their deli products...

I thought it won't hurt if I would sample them straight from their own kitchen.

So this particular day last week, with my constant grocery buddy (photo), before heading to the cashier, we made a  snack stop at the Metro Gourmet.

We had the deli's clubhouse sandwiches to share. Why not, already most of their deli products are present in a clubhouse sandwich ( ham, bacon, chicken salad, etc.).

The clubhouse sandwich didn't disappoint. Just right. My friend like it too. 

Another one we had was a plate of pesto pasta. We had spiral as choice of pasta. Pesto sauce  was delicious. Just enough creaminess, a hint of garlic spice, and some bites of nuts ( I'd like to guess as pine nuts). 

I had liked it so much then that when I went back at the same grocery the other day with my girls, I bought a take-out of it. In the middle of traffic on the way home, while the pasta dish was still hot, I started to eat and went to share it with my girls. To my big dismay, it didn't taste the same at all. My take out was oily and I didn't like it. My girls agreed with me. I didn't know what went wrong. Could it be the pasta? Cos this time I chose fettuccine for pasta. Whatever, I still didn't like the sauce this time. My girls were also disappointed to the farmer's sandwich they bought from this deli and didn't finish it too.

Oh well. first impression rarely lasts these days. =)

Boon Tong Kee @ MOA

I stumbled upon Boon Tong Kee at Mall of Asia last Friday while looking for a place to eat after a tiring rounds at Phil. Travel Expo (SMX). It was relatively still a Valentine's Day, a Friday dinner and payday (15th)  at that_meant full houses restos around MOA. When I saw this resto with only 2-3 tables occupied, I knew we didn't have to look further.




The place used to be the one occupied by Red Mango, so it's not that spacious. Gladly, it has an open kitchen which is for me suggestive of fresh hygiene.



my v date, one of my best girlfriends

At the door, I easily had placed that Boon Tong Kee's origin is Singapore. Not that I had it already in Singapore, this was the first time I came to know about it,  but they had some menu teaser poster at the door with chicken rice. No brainer, I know right.

We didn't bother to stress ourselves with the menu. We were too hungry for that. We ordered their season (CNY & Valentine) set meal of chicken rice. Comprised of  hainanese chicken and rice, sambal kangkong and a soup. The chicken was just sufficiently tasty. Nothing to rave about. I'd say I already had  better version of  hainanese chicken in Sg & Malaysia.

Plus we ordered another set meal with the same side dishes but with pork which tasted like our local tocino.
  The sambal kangkong was allright.




The soup was actually surprisingly good. In a set meal, I never expected a soup not to be bland. But this one kindah tasty. It was like adapted to our pinoy palate cos it's nearly tasted like our local tinola soup.
For some reasons I always find Sg dishes very filling. My friend thought the same. We only had those two set meals, yet we didn't finish everything. We finished just half of everything.
Value for money was good. The set meal was heavy in the tummy but light in the wallet. I don't know about regular menu thu'.




We had dessert outside,  in a coffee shop.

Belated Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Almon Marina

Happy CNY2013!!!

Ok few days late:)). We were at SM Southmall that day and looking for a place to eat at Food Street.
People were enjoying photo ops with the beautiful CNY decors and mascots.
It was past lunch at 1:30-2 pm., I think. Almost every resto there was full. Especially the relatively new Korean buffet there with the longest queue which to date we haven't tried yet .

We saw  Almon Marina Sandwich Bar and Deli as the most uncrowded among all restos at SM Food Street, so naturally we chose it. Yes, that's our first & most important criterion in choosing a place to eat_ that it must not have a headache q just to get a table. It's simple math! Qtable + Qservice + Qfood = 3rd degree, haha.

Actually, I love Almon Marina. We don't frequent it thu' cos my girls preferred the commercial fast food chains when they were younger so I would eat here when with husband only.




my plate
I had a plate of  Crab Louis Salad. Yes_ only. For me it's a complete meal. It has protein (egg, crabstick? not counted, maybe carbo, haha), fruits and veggies. I finished the whole plate clean and I was so full and satisfied. Without the guilt. Alright, must admit with a lil' guilt. Cos I used thousand island as dressing instead of healthier vinaigrette, haha.
I made a mental note to copy using papaya as a fruit in my salad at home. The other time I ate at Cafe Mary Grace ( which reminds me to do a post on that, later :) and I love the Prawn Salad w mango & papaya vinaigrette there. I realized papaya tastes so good in seafood & greens salad.

And for few good years now my already budding teens, finally got bored with those fast foods and somehow always on the look out to try something new which makes them my favorite foodie buddies in the whole planet. They are the My3rd7thSense, actually.




younger daughter's plate

6" Farmer's Ham & Cheese Sub With Pasta. Atleast it's not a fastfood chain's burger sandwich for her. She liked the sub sandwich so much. I'm always happy when I see her eating some greens & some veggies ( like tomato & onion ) which she only does when in a sandwich.




older daughter

Double Pasta With 1 Pc. Roast Chicken & Garlic Bread. The chicken looked so black and not pleasing , agree? But daughter said it was yum. Ofcourse younger daughter helped her finished the two pasta. I like the red sauce over the white. The latter was a tad bland for me.

We didn't have our sweets at Almon Marina cos right outside the door was a bakeshop kiosk where my girls    ' favorite cookie sits in jars_ oreo cheesecake cookie of Sophie's Mom.




When we stepped out of Almon Marina, people were still busy... haha.

Belated Happy CNY !!!

Sophie's Mom

Here's the current quick fix of my daughters. This cookie takes place the J.Co doughnuts craze, only because up to the present the whole Manila is still mad crazy about J.Co and it's hard to beat the q in every store.

The cookie is Oreo Cheesecake from Sophie's Mom.




NO q issue here. Buying is easy breezy :)

Never fails.. everytime we step foot at SM or MOA, these girls would buy that cookie each and nibble while strolling at the mall. Most of the time if they are not fully satisfied.. would buy some more for take home.

The Oreo cheesecake cookie is too sweet for me, so one time I tried the one with dried fruit. I forgot the name but it's like dried cranberry I think. I would have liked it if not too sweet. I'm not sure if my sugar tolerance is descending as I age or Sophie's Mom's cookies are just really sweeter than other cookies.

Older daughter actually introduced Sophie's Mom at home. She bought some red velvet cupcakes from here for me and her younger sister. But when they arrived home, the cupcakes were deconstructed and we didn't appreciate it. haha.








We have yet to try the other cupcakes.

Done in mins. Gone in secs. Pizza

Already, to shoot food before eating  takes a lot of discipline, control to own self and to eating buddies who are just being polite but for sure deep inside their ranting tummies are quite annoyed for the delay.
Once in awhile, I try to feature some of my homecooking (check my archives) here. Not frequent thu'. It's a sweaty work. Shooting while cooking? wt#!
The other day thu', I found a shot of energy to shoot my food prep. Oh, just a pizza, hehe.  With less or max of 5 ingredients, no sweat really, haha.

Very simple. I used tortillas in place of a pizza dough. This one is a crunchy thin pizza, the way daughters like. I smothered the tortilla with olive oil, just lightly, then  pre-heated it in the oven toaster for less than 5 mins.

Meanwhile, those less than 5 minutes, I was able to prepare the toppings. Chopped the onion, sliced the bell pepper ( I forgot to grill it for flavours) and opened the can of sardine. To omit the fishy taste of the sardine, you can drizzle some lemon juice over it. I didn't have lemon that day thu'.

I took out  the tortilla off the oven and put the toppings with the quickmelt cheese. Then back to the oven for
less than 10 mins.




Done in minutes, gone in seconds, haha,