Sambokojin

My latest photo haul from my phone. Unlike these & these, this set is not as vintage-y as those. It has a date, yes. It was this month, the day after my birthday.



My date_ my bff who never missed my birthday but just this one. Feeling guilty I guess, haha, the following day she had  nailed me to have lunch with her.




Both of us had commitments after lunch so we decided not to go far. Good thing Southmall with the Food Street,  has now some decent resto to offer. Not so many options thu'. I frequent most of them_ Mesa, Almon Marina, Black Canyon Coffee, Burgoo..




.. but it was my first at Sambokojin. It's the only buffet resto in this mall and always with the longest q ever. I arrived first and when I saw Sambokojin q less that day, I got a table and call my friend who was on the way, to proceed to this yakiniku place. It's not even expensive. It's very YakiMix-y.

It was a Tuesday and had just opened for lunch which made this favorite buffet in the South less crowded than usual that day. But after a while the whole resto got full as usual anyway.

So here were our first servings. Mine is the one near you. I know, my plate here is already big compared to my past buffet plates. But that was all I got plus my big dessert plate ofcourse. It's my date who is big on buffet. That's her fist plate and I lost count how much more she refilled her plate, haha.




Our shared sushi plate. Idk if I was just extra hungry then, but I love their sushi here.

Then buffet was over for me and I started with my big dessert portion with a cup of fruits..

.. and pastries. But these you can skip cos as usual in buffet like this, they are the over the counter bakeshop type that are just eye candy but nothing special in taste. I actually got them only for photo cos it was my birthday! haha.




Buffet was not over for my friend thu'. She's just had begun, haha. The watermelon? It's like her sorbet in between dishes to wash the previous, before her next plate, get it? I super envy her mega active metabolism. She really eats huge and never gets fat, ever! Makes her at ease on buffet without any effort of control. Lucky girl. While I and the rest of motherhood I guess,  have to activate to the strongest power the discipline/control button, so just  not to overeat. Not easy, I tell you.




While bestfriend was loading up, I was enjoying myself nibbling cup after cup of spicy dilis (dried anchovy), I dipped them in the special Sanbokojin sauce I found on the dining table. Love it!

While on the dilis trip, I also enjoyed the sweet fresh pineapple cuts on the side. Chitchats with bestfriend going and going..




..still goin', until we realized we were the only lighted table left and literally the only ones in the resto. The buffet had already closed for lunch and preparing/waiting for dinner buffet. haha.

Time to go. We really enjoyed this buffet. We both agreed that it's way better than Yakimix in all aspect.

And since no one's around except us, I could now have my shameless photo op with Sambo Kojin ( I guess? ), the Kitchen God.

Cafe Mary Grace

If not doing instagram and having dormant tweeter acct. would  mean living under a rock. Then I plead guilty, haha. No one cares anyway. I don't, haha. As I mentioned   here, I've started cleaning up my phone. Some more from my poor photo overloaded phone :

Looks like somewhere nice but not in a mall , right? It's Cafe Mary Grace at Southmall ( Las Pinas ).




Tables are quite interesting.. No, the letter was not from me.




Again I lost track of the date here, but I'm sure it was earlier this year, based on my hair, haha. I don't like the light here thu'. Not working well with my cam phone, my age is showing here, haha.




I had my favorite prawn salad with mango papaya vinaigrette ...

.. split with my date, older daughter.  We both love this salad. I could eat this everyday.

And a slice of mango bene which we shared. yum!

We only had those two and we were contented. We took home a box of brownies for the younger daughter at home. I love Cafe Mary Grace.

Can't Connect With Adobo Connection

I thought I'd help my phone breathe by deleting pictures. Couldn't believe myself to find thousands of photos+some videos in it. Dominated by food photos ( story of my life:)), obviously they belong here.



Let me start with this one which was in Adobo Connection. I lost track of the date but it was definitely early this year when this local food chain had just newly opened in SM Center in LasPinas. I just tried it once then and never came back since. I was happy thu' about it as addition to very few eating places At SM Center which by the way not really my favorite  grocery but the proximity helps.




Older daughter had adobo flakes plate. I tasted it and it's like tapa (dried/cured meat) that's best when dip in vinegar. It was ok except for the overwhelming taste of cooking oil.

Younger daughter ignored adobo dishes and went for a favorite beef karekare. She liked it. She likes all karekare in the country, haha.

I had mix adobo sa gata ( pork & chicken in coconut milk). I don't remember that I had liked it. I thought it was lacking in flavor and simply forgettable. Sad cos it's my favorite adobo variant.

This chain also offers  "rice all you can", which is the hype in most pinoy fast food chains. But we are not big rice eater. We could hardly finish a cupful.
I thought I could enjoy adobo outside my kitchen, but I didn't.

Dino Buffet @ Movie Stars Cafe

Finally I was able to use my vouchers ( bought from Metrodeal ) at Movie Stars Cafe in MOA. I bought them last February, planned to use them for an eat out with my teens on V-day but already it was fully booked. Continued to be fully booked the whole month of March everytime I tried to book. No wonder, Metrodeal sold near 14k vouchers ( got the figure from voucher store site ). Omg, how on earth would they manage to accommodate those buyers ( including me ) in a period of 3 months if not fully booked    everyday.




Then I tried on a Monday last week, again replied by familiar "fully booked tonight", wt#. I insisted and wt# I was given a table, finally.

I didn't mind the location of our table at the buffet area which view to the stage show was blocked. I could careless about the show, I only wanted to use the vouchers and eat, haha.

It's a movie themed resto down to the servers who are  in characters..




.. and also the same people/characters who perform on stage.

The buffet is called Dino Buffet. The spread is predominantly meat dishes. Burgers and sausages.Wt#, ofcourse dino is carnivorous! If you want a healthy buffet, go to a cow buffet if there's one around, haha.




juicy burgers. too filling for me, I didn't finish mine.




some meat dish

some fried dishes




You'll be mad at me cos I eat like a bird on buffet. It's intentional.

And my plate is usually as boring as this ( photo ). My first serving. The burgers I didn't even finish.




My weakness thu' is dessert. I'm big on sweets and fruits. I guess that's my primary source of fats.

Brother tried to wash off his meat overloading with fruits.

My girls liked the cake. This ( photo ) one particularly with blueberry.

The buffet failed in comparison to many other buffet I had been. But come to think of the voucher price, not bad. My teens like the fun ambiance thu and had a good time.