My 3rd and 7th Sense

Sushi Lab

2012-02-01T18:39:00.000-08:00

One time I was badly hit by sushi craves. Haven't I mentioned that I live in a suburb. It's not like being in Makati where everything is just few walks away. In my planet, a grocery was relatively accessible than a Japanese resto.

In the grocery, ~~a regular one and not a Japanese specialty store~~, I grabbed sushi rice, kikkoman, rice vinegar, nori and wasabi paste. I was looking for a sushi rolling mat but there was none. Instead I found some sushi shaping plastic tools. I was looking for ripe mangoes as well cos I wanted some california maki. Again negative.
From my fridge, I found crab sticks, cream cheese and kiwis.

It was my initial sushi experiment. Excited. I thought I got lucky to have been bought nigiri sushi making plastic boxes instead of a rolling mat. When I started shaping the rice, I got lost! I didn't know how to use them. The instruction was written in Japanese characters, haha. Neither, I got the patience to scroll over the internet (after all my hands were already soiled from the rice cooking and preparing the toppings).
I almost made a pass on taking photos (that's why I only got 3 photos here) but did anyway.

Above is the photo of the results of my sushi experiment. I made kiwi+crabstick+creamcheese toppings and partially wrapped them with nori sheets. I also made a creamy dip mixed with wasabi paste.

I made more and pack them to bring to my friend who was attending her son in the hospital. She said it was good! Hmmm, well that would be a biased comment, don't you think?
Personally thu', I think they tasted okey and could do better next time. I would have to downsize the sushi rice thu', cos that size was overly mouthful for me.
For now, I would rather not share my experimental recipe of this. Until I make it perfect next time.

Panaderia @ Sonya's Garden

2012-01-30T21:28:00.000-08:00

Another reason to frequent Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay is the bakery. It's so country, it's called Panaderia. You could hardly miss it. The sweet aroma of freshly baked breads is dancing with the fragrances of the garden. It's actually located near the entrance, before the main dining hall.

Everything is hot and fresh out of the oven. It got traditional Filipino pastries like monay and the ones below which we particularly purchased...

And sweet tooth favorites :

We bought a pack of each and consumed everything in the car on our way back to Manila. Except for the hopia (husband choice) which only a piece was consumed and the rest I think, until today still sitting unnoticed inside our fridge. We didn't like their hopia with super thick coverings.

I was looking for Sonya's signature bottled salad dressings and dips. Found not available that day. Others were Tagaytay food products not by Sonya's.

Kropek

2012-01-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

This was in a ferry terminal in Indonesia. While waiting for our boat, we grabbed for some snacks. I picked a can of Pringles and was amused by my friend's choice.

She had been munching the same chips since we arrived in this island.

It's kerupuk. Called "kropek" in my country. It's commonly known as prawn cracker and very popular in Indonesia. I've seen a lot of it being sold in every store there.

I also saw lots of it being used as plating accessory/side item in most dishes in this country.

I rarely eat one, actually I forget already the last time I had it. Here in our country, it's usually being sold in the streets which gives a question of culinary hygiene.

Another Crustacean?

2011-12-13T17:05:00.000-08:00

The other,other,other night. . someone gave us these. . Thank you. Clueless about the name of this crustacean.

I still haven't even found the name of the other crustacean I bought in a market long time ago.

I'm just pretty sure both kinds aren't lobsters. The real one looks like the illustration above. But if we would try to connect both crustaceans we would somehow come up with an image near the real lobster.

Anyway, with my magic cooking wand, I turned them into a savory spicy ala chili crabs dish. They weren't so meaty thu'. Between the two unnamed crustaceans, the other (seen at the second image above) one got more meat. Both are deliciously tasted like crabs.

Laksa-rious Soup

2011-12-08T17:57:00.001-08:00

All I want at this rainy morning is a bowl of _ _ _ piping hottie laksa !!!!

So many foreign dishes to try. . so short in time. Finally had laksa during my recent overseas trip. . . at the Changi (SG) airport ?? The soup in a paper bowl, I wonder how far/close it was to the authentic one. Sorry, it's just me. . airport outlets always come to me as "commercial".

This laksa was packaged with a toasted bread and a cup of coffee?? Hmm, I didn't like the idea of hot soup+hot coffee. I asked the server if I could have a bottled water instead of coffee. They made me add few cents for the alteration.

I had my first (plastic) spoonful of laksa and didn't stop until the bowl was empty!!! Sooo del-i-cious!! I don't know if this was a popular version of laksa, but it gave me a yummy first impression that for sure would last until I have my second laksa bowl. That was a month ago and so far I haven't any second laksa yet. .not even in the few Singaporean & Malaysian restos here in Manila.
Until then. . this laksa is staying as one of the best soup in my list.

Bak Kut Teh

2011-12-05T15:19:00.001-08:00

I was happy to see a Filipino stall at Rasapura Masters @ Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. I didn't realized that it was a Gerry's Grill (a popular bbq resto here in the Phils.) outlet then. I didn't notice their tiny signage. The stall was carrying Filipino Cuisine as a name. I was glad there's one to represent our own cuisine but I was in no way there to bore myself with my daily home dishes.
It was just another short visit to SG so might as well add more new dishes in my "foodictionary":))

I looked around the classy ( well, it must be. . it's in Marina Bay Sands !! haha ) food court featuring regional street foods and saw a lot of foreign sounding name dishes. Most of them I hadn't tried yet.

Bah Kut Teh was no news to me. But then I realized I haven't tried it yet at all . I only knew it by ears and never yet by tongue. I joined the progressing queue in front of the bah kuh teh stall and got myself a bowl of it for less than $10. I added a small bowl of rice cos the soup looked so bland and boring without anything to go with it.

It's actually a pork ribs soup. Authentic flavors achieved through simmering the ribs with a party of herbs. It looked so bland but actually tasted the opposite. It was so tasty it surprised me. Thu' I thought not strong enough to work well with the rice. Rice in general needs the strength of a flavorful viand to create harmonious flavors. Next time I think I would like it independent of a side dish or maybe I would try noddles with it but never rice again.

I'm definitely unsure if I was in the right place to have bak kut teh initiation, haha. First of all, it was still a food court and we all know how very commercial such place is. By "commercial" I meant we hardly get authenticity of a product. However, it was the best bak kuh teh I ever had. .it was so far the only one I had!! that's why, haha.

Sinigang Na Lechon

2011-11-30T18:12:00.001-08:00

With the Chrismas season banging in left to right parties, I'm sure the famous local dish lechon (suckling pig) would flood the dinner tables. Inevitable lechon leftovers at the end of the party. Paksiw na lechon as a recycled lechon recipe is a cliche' already. Although still the most practical way if you were into storage and saving for the next meal.

But if you're digging for some tasty soup, you may opt to use leftover lechon meat and skin for sinigang (tamarind based meat soup).

I did try cooking "sinigang na lechon" for dinner last night. I worked with hotel's buffet version of the dish. From my own taste memory of those I had from Filipino buffet spread in the hotels. I don't have exact recipe thu'. But turned out okey and delighted my family of foodies.
I cooked it the way I do my regular pork sinigang. I separated the skin of lechon from the meat cos I remember enjoying a version of it in one hotel with the skin still crunchy over the hot soup. While the veggies and the lechon meat were still cooking, I reheated the lechon skin in the oven hoping to regain the crunch. 97% successful. To plate, I put the soup in a bowl and topped with the crunchy skin.
I think could be tweak better next time.
Must try.

Filipino Buffet

2011-11-27T18:45:00.001-08:00

Everytime bestfriend (based overseas) has her random visits here in P.I., our default dining hubs would be those buffet restos serving filipino dishes. In between shoppings at Glorrieta / Greenbelt (Makati), Dad's Kamayan & Saisaki would always be the most accessible for quick lunch fix.

She would fill-in her cravings for Filipino home grown dishes. .

my first serving

2nd serving

. . and I would indulge on dishes I'm not making at home like sushi (remember Dad's has crossover buffet- Saisaki ), roasted beef, the etc's that aren't homecooked dishes.

Another favorite is the Cabalen's. It's actually very similar to Dad's in the sense that both are serving Filipino and Japanese buffet dishes. Both are also very accessible with branches inside popular malls in the country.

This Cabalen's outlet in Glorrieta is particularly chic with awesome interior.

Try to compare this branch to their other branch in another mall and you would see another feel of ambiance. It just goes to say that ambiance and location make a lot of difference.

Filipino dishes on parade. .

. . complete with our famous lechon (suckling pig)

Bestfriend concluded that between the two filipino buffet restos, Dad's is better. It has a wider array of buffet spread and foods are warmer and fresher. Ofcourse, Dad's buffet plate is more expensive too than Cabalen's.

Selera Restaurant

2011-11-23T19:22:00.001-08:00

At Nongsa Point Marina & Resort in Indonesia, we took our lunch at the Selera Restaurant located at the wing of the hotel lobby.

The restaurant succeeds the white domination theme of the hotel.

For me the focal point of Selera is the picturesque marina spreads infront of the restaurant. However, that day the rainy weather got in the way. I bet, from this focal angle, on a sunny day the marina would be a sight to behold.

I was pretty excited to taste Indo dishes. I might have had some of them in SG and Malaysia, but I couldn't specify at this point..

From this menu, the most I was familiar with was _ "goreng". Only because, back home_ mi goreng instant noodles are staple and would always occupy a big space in our weekly grocery cart.

Bestfriend was quick to order her favorite nasi goreng. I cut my confusion and mirrored her choice. She had it a lot of times here. .case closed, haha.

Nasi Gorengkoe. Rice with chicken satay, fried chicken, fried prawns, sliced omelette, local pickles and prawn cracker. It's a chef creation and lemme warn you _ everything in the plate was spicy, yes even the rice... haaaahhh, waterrr please!!!!

Rendang. As usual my brother default dish would be meat!! Specifically something beef. Rendang is a popular Indonesian beef stew. The plate was served with rice, local pickles and prawn crackers.

Here in our country, I could compare this plate to our local tapsilog/tocilog/bangsilog. When you get to visit the Philippines, you try our original version of nasi goreng, okey.

Shooting Cibo

2011-11-18T15:58:00.001-08:00

It took us hours of rounds of restaurants in ATC (Alabang Town Center) before we ended up at Cibo. I'm talking about the other day when daughter had to do food photography as a school project. I agreed to her choice of Cibo cos first of all_ I knew I didn't have a post on it yet, hehe. Shooting two birds, haha.

We both doubted the light factor inside the resto. It was either dark. .

or too yellowed.

She decided, she was going to do her photo shoot. . outside at the al fresco area.

We chose the food not really to our likings (but I like everything at Cibo! ) but according to the aesthetics value of the presentation. Daughter specified that she needed something with colors. Salad was a no brainer choice.

*photo by daughter* Insalata Pacifica. With the greens, and the colorful tomatoes, how can you go wrong with this? The white elements were thinly sliced palm heart, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and dressed with balsamic vinaigrette . Yum.yum.yum.

I urged her to rush shooting the salad cos I was already drolling. I'm a salad addict, haha. Funny that this time I took the seat of my family and friends who usually dined with me and always waiting for me to get done with the food shooting of each plate before they could eat. Now I know the waiting saga, haha. Oh, the salad? It was perfect. The veggies were so fresh and the dressing was just right with the balance of sourness and sweetness. I just thought I wanted more cheese on it.

Next, daughter wanted a dish already presented unneeded of anymore tweakings. She found the sandwiches in the menu and ordered one.

*photo by daughter* Mozarella sandwich. It's in the seafood sandwich category. I know, the sandwich played background here.

*photo by daughter* The chips and the dips were stealing the scene. I guess, precisely why she chose this dish. The setting with those sidings was awesome. p/s : the chips were del-i-cious! The dip was I thought just plain mayo and salt.

*photo by daughter* But hey this isn't a photo blog! This is my food blog!! haha. Shall we get back to the sandwich? In between the ciabatta bread were anchovy, tomato slices, oregano and basil. Just exactly the way I want my sandwich_ sooo healthyful! And the threads of mozarella cheese were gooeyful!!!

*photo by daughter* Fresh grapes juice/smoothie. Her choice too. Why not? Aesthetically appealing with those pixels of grapes. The color is great too, right? The tiny mints as the crown glory concluded the freshness of its ingredients. The taste? Well, really grape-y. It's like putting a bunch of fresh grapes in a blender at home and blend with ice. That's it. That was how it tasted. No complications.

*photo by daughter* Tiramisu. What can I say? Truly "a heaven in your mouth". The best so far tiramisu I ever had. A lil' trivia here: I thought it's a Japanese dessert cos of the sound of its name. It was only lately that I found out that it's an original Italian dessert, haha. I would surely come to Cibo when I crave for tiramisu next time. The best!!! The layers were carameralized-ly gooey and the chocolate slices were massive!!! loveth!

photo by the waiter, haha. Now it's time for daughter to eat my leftovers, haha. She was done with her assignment and dived into the food. She and my younger daughter are also one hell of foodies too.

Digging Swiss

2011-11-14T18:41:00.001-08:00

I love the Swiss Club in Singapore. Not only that it has super awesome recreational and relaxation facilities, it too prides itself for excellent cuisine with a number of exclusive restaurants serving the members. So happy, my Swiss girlfriend who is presently based in SG took me ( and my brother) there and I was able to indulge on my favorite Swiss dishes.

This was at the Arbenz, one of the restaurants inside the club. It serves ala carte menu of international cuisines particularly Swiss favorites.

I notice most food blogs gave a big fuss over the complimentary breads. They usually paid huge praises over the freshness and excellence of the breads. Hmmm, they all taste the same to me, even quite similar to our breads at home ( I'm actually keen on procuring quality breads for my family ). It must be that bloggers organically are sweet creatures and that's the way they show gratitude. In this respect, please include me in the group, haha.

On the table : my brother's plate of lamb kebab. Yes, this resto serves Turkish cuisine too. Sorry, I forgot to taste it. I was busy with my own plate.

I was so excited with my plate. I was secretly wishing that my girlfriend's husband would cook for us again at their home. But during the duration of our most recent ( a month ago) SG visit, the husband was always out of SG attending his business commitments.

No, this is not the same plate as above. This was my plate full of girlfriend's husband homecooked dishes which I love.. .

. . and missed, so I ordered a plate with some similar elements like the creamy spinach. The square thingy in my plate is not a slice of bread as it looks like right there. It was a sausage or was it a ham? haha. I'm not sure. On top of it was an egg and beneath it beside the green spinach was mashed potato. Calorie packed! luveth!!

While I was digging Swiss dishes, my girlfriend had too much of them serving daily right inside her home and was happy to indulge in Asian cuisine. She had a big plate of szechuan chicken which I helped myself with some pieces and really quite delicious. Perfectly sweet and spicy. Want this noooow!!!

The little misses ( my gf's daughters) had their favorites. Same grilled ham/sausage as mine, only her side dish was pasta. The sauce she was layering here was unknown to me.

The youngest miss had her forever fave buffalo wings. I had a piece of this and found out it wasn't actually the usual spicy wings. It was less spicy but very tasty.

For me, gf's hubby's homecooked Swiss dishes are still the most delish.

Roti Prata

2011-11-11T05:38:00.001-08:00

Curry mutton with roti prata_ my brother's default choice of dish. whenever caught in the midst of food choices. He love Indian food and has particular penchant for the roti prata.
Roti prata is so boring, it is dependent on strong tasty dishes like those super hot curries. Nonetheless, I actually shared my brother's penchant on this bread. I also love it. .

.. more so on watching how it is being made.

From a tiny handful of dough, the cook went on the process of pulling and stretching. .

until each turned to a square flat bread and with bare hand_ he slapped each on top of a hot flat grill.

Brown, flat and square_ it's now ready to match anything tasty on the table.

Durian Mpire

2011-11-09T23:28:00.001-08:00

Stumbled upon an outlet of Durian Mpire at T3 of Changi Airport. Over and over again, I shout - "I am a duarianholic!!!" For the record, this would be my fourth post on durian. All of which ( here , here and here ) show my addiction to the king of fruit and how often I crave for it but life is unfair_ it's a rare fruit in my city, I hardly get a chance to indulge on it

But in Singapore, everything is available 24/7 in every corner. Lucky citizens!
Durian, durian. .ohh how I love thee. . let me count the ways. .

I love durian as it is_ raw and simply fruit, but I can't deny the fact that I do enjoy it in its so many forms (pastries, ice cream, candy, etc) especially when I found out more variations of it when I visited the province where it hails in my country_ Davao. I thought I've seen enough of durian's revolution. But here at Durian Mpire _wow! Look - crepe, puff, mousse, mochi , and the cakes !

I could go on the whole day tasting each of them.. but instead, I was happy to have tried their signature durian cake. Heaven!

Let's Do Lunch

2011-11-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

I know_ late posting. It's November already. I've been seeing this promo over the airport website. I thought I would catch it one day. So when I touched down at Changi Airport last month of October , was happy to see this giant Let's Do Lunch poster stood infront me.

At Sg$10 per set meal, my eyes were quick to find out that Sakae Sushi was one of the participating outlets. With minimum $30 spend you get free parking. Hmmm, for sure I won't spend that much over this lunch and why? Who needs parking? Hello, we're tourists here. .we didn't fly a car with us,haha. As for the free shuttle service_ we could use that, why not!

Until brother had to remind me to go check my watch. It was almost 3pm, haha. The promo was only up to 2:30pm. Anyway, we already had lunch inflight! haha.
Me and you_ we better take our luck next time. I think this promo is an annual thing. 'Til then. Chao!

Sushi Tei - Raffles City

2011-11-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

Looking at this photo makes me salivate and wants to run to the next Japanese resto in our area, but there's none x two. 1). No near Japanese resto here and 2). no maki like this in my country or I haven't found yet? This is my forever favorite maki from Sushi Tei in Singapore. I tried to look for it at Sakae Sushi, a Japanese resto also from Singapore which luckily we have a chain here in our country but the latter is not serving my fave maki.

Lots of similarities with each other, Sushi Tei has also conveyor belt serving sushi and maki just like Sushi Sakae.

Japanese Kaiten (conveyor belt).

It prides the open kitchen concept which seems to be a norm to Japanese restos.

I gathered that Sushi Tei chains are all over Singapore, in other neighboring Asian cities and even some branches in New York and Sydney. In Singapore, we frequent the one in Raffles City.

Popular with reasonably priced assorted Japanese dishes, ambiance here is never a statement of price tags. It even surprised me when girlfriend told me that it was not an upscale resto (although located in a shopping mall, the interior deceived me. Cos in my third world country a restaurant with this interior design is already upscale or is it just me being naive? haha.

After a long queue, we made it to a table right beside the conveyor belt which was ok cos we planned to slurp on sushi and maki.

Apart from the ones from the conveyor, on our table was the freshest sashimi . .

beef teriyaki and some bowls of ramen.

Now I want them all for lunch!! waaah!!

Bintan's Lunch

2011-10-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

"gosh, if I could cut my eating habit as infrequent as I do posting here in my food blog_ I would surely hit my weight goal". - just me again feeling apologetic for not updating this blog, haha.

Anyways, I just came home from another set of trips and those photos I took?, well I gotta start sharing them to you or they'll go add up to the bulk of piles still waiting to be blog.

In Indonesia, we availed a package tour of North Bintan and as I promised there in my travel blog, in here would be the food post. I'm not sure if the lunch that came with the tour could already be a basis of the island's authentic cuisine, but for sure I had them all over Asia.

At Aneka Seafood, we were served the following :

calamares with sweet & chili dipping sauce. The coating was nice and already hot and the squid was bursting with freshness. The dip thu' was a lot chilier than we usually have at home. So it's dipping a hot dish in a hot sauce.. wheeew.

kangkong. I'm not sure if it was with sambal, maybe. I'm not so familiar with sambal, but I heard_ there, they like to mix sambal in their kankong dishes. Again this is one hot dish.

fried fish. Don't ask me what fish please. I don't know, but it looks familiar like our local talakitok. Well, obviously, I was so unsure of the details of the dishes. No one near to us spoke English. Everytime, I tried to throw question to the server, he would just politely smile. . total silence followed.

Anyway, I like this fish dish with tasty garlicky toppings. Among the dishes, this was the only one normal, I mean in my personal "hot" standard.

That's all. Only 3 viands and rice.

Ofcourse, each of us enjoyed fresh coconut water in the shell. It was also a good match to the hotness of the dishes.
If you want to see the place, jump here please.

Yoswirls

2011-09-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

At Shangrila Mall, my girls saw this Yoswirls scooping station with few table seats and insisted to have a cup for each. It's another froyo (frozen yogurt) product joining the bandwagon of yogurt cafes making waves in the metro. The girls and I love yogurt. Actually it's icecream that we truly love! But for healthy option, we go for yogurt_ when available.

Similar to other froyos, you get to choose your toppings for a separate price. Yoswirls is a product of BTIC ( Better Than Icecream). Years ago, when yogurt wasn't yet popular as today is, I would buy from BTIC scooping station in selected malls. Back then froyo wasn't yet a word and yogurt wasn't so accessible as it is now.

BTIC yogurt is more bland in taste for my sweet palate, compared to many other new froyos we frequent. Hadn't the vendor of Yoswirls been quick to announce that they were on buy1 take1 promo, I would have had discouraged my girls, haha. Even the syrup and toppings were on B1T1. Beside, the vendor was also quick to add that their pastry was also on sale. Well, she was successfully used the right keyword to this cheapskate consumer (miser me! haha). I had my eye on this pecan? (almond? forgot what nuts) chocolate slice.

Hence, we also added to try their other pastry which names escape me now. Everything was chocolate thu', the other one was of white choco.

As expected this froyo was short in flavors and really at this point you have to rely on the toppings and syrup. The way to enjoy it is to constantly remind yourself that its' non-fat and low-cal per spoonful you shove to your mouth. haha. I would rather have a piece of peace of yogurt than a full of guilt regular icecream, haha.

As for the cakes, they all ended in this take-out brown bag. Not wasted cos when husband picked us from the mall, he gorged on them while driving, haha.

Kamias Jam

2011-09-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Kamias to us Filipinos and it got a lot of other names in other countries : English -cucumber tree, Thailand - taling pling , Malaysia - belimbing asam , Indonesia - balimbing . . etc,etc. Semi- wild to other neighboring tropical countries, in here kamias is a backyard plant.

I swear it is so backyard it flourishes in our own backyard. I would see it everyday_ hanging on its tree in massive greens like ornaments, followed by a day of fall when I would find the fruits dispersed on the ground_ wasted. tsk.tsk. Then I would feel really sad for them. Died and rotten without a cause, if being an ornament in the backyard ( not even in the garden) is not consider as so. . I rarely use kamias in my kitchen. If I did, it would be one only to 4 pieces the most to savor dishes which do not even frequent our table. But there are hundreds of it in the backyard with wasted fate.

So one morning I could no longer contain myself from feeling bad about the abundant kamias and started to gather tens of it from the tree toward my kitchen. I sit on a colander full of kamias and hit the Google for a recipe of kamias jam. I remember enjoying the jam from a neighbor's kitchen in the province so definitely I knew at once how it should taste and therefore already had the idea how to make it. To make sure thu' I googled and found similar recipes allover the net.

There are only four major ingredients - 1).kamias 2) water 3) sugar and the fourth ingredient is apog??? google.google. It's lime in English. Came not safely edible to me and sounded like a construction/builder supply to me rather than a condiment. Then I remembered my primary home economics where I cooked another preserved juicy fruit ( the name escapes me now cos I'm sure it's not common and quite exotic) and we used apog too!!! But I was in the rural town then when apog could be bought from sari-sari store next to our house. Husband came to the rescue and found sachets of it in the local wet market. Not available in our leading groceries.

The procedure said : !) wash and 2) cut both ends of each fruit. ( I wasn't able to cut them. see. haha. I forgot! ). then 3). prick each all over using toothpick around five to six times ( again, I did not! haha. I forgot it too! )

4) soak them in water with apog (lime) overnight. just estimate water and lime according to the quantity of kamias. as long as they are all covered with the liquid.

This is how they looked the following day. Notice the failed ones? still green? I thought it was because I failed to do steps 2 & 3, so that not all of them absorbed the effect of the limed water soak. At this point of failure it hit me those missed two steps so I tried to compensate a late cutting of both ends. 5) thoroughly wash them 3 times in clean water.

6) squeeze them and you could use a fork here as a help. 7) put all ingredients, ~~except apog~~ , in a pan aiming to make a syrup with the kamias already included. Measurement of sugar is the same as water. Stop cooking when it's already thick and jam-y.

Here's the end product ! 7) Put yours too in a bottle. I actually made it four months ago and took this photo an hour ago. haha! Needless to say, I tried to save the fresh kamias from getting rotten . . only to stuck them inside this bottle ! haha. No one in the house has the interest to even try it. I did enjoy it for like the first 3 spoonfull, then got back to my all-time favorite strawberry jam. haha. Now which is the lesser evil??

Panciteria Lido

2011-09-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

Again this blog has gone in a long pause.
It's me.me.me.
I don't know why but lately it's like_I've lost appetite...
No, definitely not on food..
(gosh, you'd never believe how beyond normal my eating habit is, it's like I'm under eating spell)
But on food blogging.
(I'm so guilty of being biased to my other blog, which is a lot more consistent and frequently updated)

Food photos in a heap and temporarily ignored.
Until today. .
I thought I'd start cutting off the pile. .
Here's one of those :

Pugon roasted asado of Panciteria Lido Cocina Tsina. This roasted cured pork loin was quite good when I thought of it being roasted from an old fashioned brick oven. My husband thu' thought otherwise and still prefers the common street asado cos he thought this was a bit lamely dry and lacking in flavors.

The thing is_ that was our first and so far last time at Lido. I even forgot the date but I'm sure it was this year when one of my daughters had cold and a crave for hot noodles.

The noodle soup must be very tasty for her to finish a bowl sans her appetite and bland taste bud.

The younger one in a perfect appetite had a plate of sweet and sour pork.

Oh, in case you haven't read me mentioning it all over in my past chinese restos post_ it's my youngest's default choice of dish in a chinese resto. Couldn't judge their version here by the way my girl left the plate all cleaned-up. It's one of her favorite dishes and I couldn't remember her recognizing one is better than the others. She always love s&s pork_anywhere.

Well, as I've said, we have never gone back to Lido yet. After that whenever we passed by Lido (Las Pinas branch) it has been temporarily closed since then with a banner announcing to be back soon. As of this time, it's still close. But it has branches all over the metro anyway.

Going Nuts at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

2011-08-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

Nice_ Krispy Kreme has drive-thru outlet in MOA. So one time on my way to the airport, I asked husband to make a short detour to MOA so I could buy doughnuts. Already there were two cars ahead of us in the lane. Minutes passed and the lane wasn't not moving yet. . 10 minutes. . 20 minutes elapsed. . omg, we got stuck! And I was about to catch a flight! The first car wasn't moving and there was no one attending to us. The two cars were blocking our way so that we couldn't get out of the lane. I had to get down to the casher (defeating the purpose of a drive-thru :( ) and asked about the delay. It happened that a number of debit/credit? cards of the first car were all rejected and more cards were being tried by the cashier.
Wtf? How's that happening in a drive-thru?? I cried if there's a way to ask the first car to move in the side so we could pass thru cos I was catching a flight and there was no way that I would wait for eternity to buy a doughnut?. .and missed a flight. .hello!!
Suddenly a server appeared out of nowhere and asked about my order. .wtf!!
In the end _ the first car moved on the side and let us passed thru.
Ofcourse. . I bought. . not!!!

Bubur Cha-cha

2011-08-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

When we spotted a Rasa Sayang Dessert Corner in one of the malls at JB, Malaysia, we had to make a quick dessert stop cos brother was dying to have a taste of_ _ _

bubur cha-cha - a Malaysian dessert in coconut milk

While I had my all time favorite ais kacang. .

the rest in the table, quenched their thirst with some refreshments. .

I checked my brother's bubur cha-cha and realized how very close it is to our own "ginataang halo-halo" ( a Filipino dessert made of almost of the same ingredients ). Both are coconut milk based, with a medley of various root crops like purple yam, taro root and both have tapioca or sago.
However, we all agreed that our own ginataang halo-halo is more delicious. haha! What could you expect?_ love your own! Ours is actually creamier cos we usually add milk and has hundreds of other root crops and fruits
added.
I guess, many times we tend to be biased on what we grew-up with. When we saw bubur cha-cha and saw it as a look-alike of our ginataang halo-halo, already we had an expectation that it should taste exactly as the latter. So when the other fell short in sweetness, creaminess and of other ingredients, it definitely disappointed us.
I don't speak Malay, for all my ignorance _ bubur cha-cha might be an exact Malay translation of the Filipino word- ginataang halo-halo. Can be?!!!

Xin Wang Hongkong Cafe

2011-08-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

I've seen lots of Hongkong cafes in Singapore. During my recent visit to this lion city, we did eat once at Xin Wang Hongkong Cafe in Bukit Timah Road which was the branch nearest to the place I stayed in. It was actually located right outside the gate of the village where my friend resides. By its name you would think that it is serving strictly Chinese cuisine, actually the menu is a fusion of Asian and Western cuisines.

My carnivore brother had this beef slices sunk in a steamy sauce and partially covered with pork floss.

My friend had this boring plate of rice and porkchops.

I missed noodles being served from this side of Asia, so I had meat and noodles. .

with sweet & sour dip on the side which made this dish so tasty.

All dishes were served with pudding _ which none of us liked. Pudding here was too bland for our sweet teeth.

Longan juice was the best thu'. I always envy how big longans are in other country. At home, longans available are only half the size of their longans here.

Ofcourse, I never missed their famous snow ice which was sooo huge!!!
Nah, I didn't finish it all by myself, I had to ask my brother to help me finish it. It was so yummy thu'.

Unnamed Bulalo House

2011-07-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

We came from a beach in Nasugbu, Batangas and on the way home we passed by Tagaytay almost lunch time. I missed the name of this particular food establishment and couldn't remember to have seen any signage infront of it. If you are frequenting Batangas-Tagaytay route to Manila (vise-versa), I'm sure you've seen this nipa hut restaurant on the ridge, always full with people slurping hot bulalo. Tagaytay is one of the most frequented weekend destinations we visit and almost been around in every establishment there, except this one. So when someone in the car mentioned bulalo, I took it as a sign to eat there.

There were table cottages positioned to enjoy full view of Taal Volcano with corresponding consumable amount. Depends on the location, like in one cottage- minimum food order amount would be P1.5k, the other one with better view was like P3k and up.

We didn't take any of the special cottages. We had seen Taal Volcano 14,984 times already, haha. Anyway, we only wanted to try their version of bulalo here, always_ in search of the better one. So we took one of the tables in the main/common dining hall with no minimum consumable amount. You just pay whatever amount you consume.

Well, their bulalo was good but nothing spectacular to mention it above others. I actually thought_ over this I would still prefer Leslee's , only few minutes drive from this place.
For my foreign friends - bulalo is a favorite Filipino hot soup made of beef shank/ bone marrow. Tagaytay is one of the best places to eat this hot dish cos of the cool weather and known to serve a better quality of beef cos of its proximity to the province of Batangas where the cows are best raised.

On the other plate, I actually loved their sisig and would only be the only reason to come back here.

In the end, we did have filled stomachs to continue rocking the rods on the way home.

Sack Lunch on the Road

2011-07-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

Just like most mothers in the world, I guess it is that I was once a girl scout that makes me naturally prepared for the random needs of my ~~patrol~~ family . For instance, I would prepare a sack lunch whenever we go on a road trip. No matter how early we have to leave home, I would make time to rise earlier to home cook and pack.

Regular/familiar destinations are easy to roll us on the way garden/forest parks as lunch locations, free of charges.

This way I could assure safety for my family against questionable hygiene of the food available from the road. Also we are able to stop fastfood chains to travel with us since we usually have too much of them in the city. and the most important thing_ I'm able to watch my budget!

What?. . on the table?

errmh. . .

KFC bucket meal.. ??? well, I never said : I'm perfectly a girl scout mother. I said I would try. . meaning sometimes I succeed and wella most of the time I fail, haha.

One thing is sure thu', MoiMoi doesn't mind at all if the lunch is store-bought or home cooked, haha.

YakiMix

2011-07-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Too much of YakiMix. I had it 3 in a row this week. Mad food trip! Now showing. . off to my friggin' piggy cheeks.

Not planned ofcourse. It just happened that different set of friends were coming by and all they wanted was YakiMix!!! WTF!!

Can't blame them. YakiMix is fun. .but not for daily consumption!!

The other night was the most recent. It was with my bfs since birth - Maricor and Lulu (NY based, on her annual visit ). Hence it was my 3rd this week , I wasn't so stirred anymore. Therefore, I had time to play with camera (dlsr left at home, #_#). You can also check how lame my plate was :

1 single oyster shell, leaves, makis. . all stayed forever in my first plate. oopss, yeeps, didn't have another plate after this.

Lou hauling for pinoy dish?? I thought there was only one there- lechon kawali. Everything was Asian fusion, I guess.

She did however enjoyed the grilled seafoods and look at her shameless first plate, haha!!!

. .and she went back & forth to the buffet spread, haha.

to grill plate.

on the table grill - yakitoris, shrimps,bacon wraps.

cooked.

desserts. lots of them. cakes, icecream scooping station, pastries,fresh fruits. .

to which I could never ever say no. No matter how full or frequent I've been. yes.yes.yes.

By now Lou is on her trip back to New York. See you soonest Lou. mwah!

Isdaan, Tarlac

2011-07-08T05:20:00.000-07:00

Apart from being one of the most scenic floating restaurants I've seen in the country, with all those huge monkeys mixed with giant Buddhas ( see here ) standing all over the place, Isdaan in Tarlac serves very tasty originally concocted Filipino dishes.

Although everything in the menu was all Filipino and dishes that were well known to us, still it got a lot to choose from and my husband who got no patience when hungry, had no time to read and discuss. The waiter who sent us to our cabana styled-table had disappeared and no staff was around to give us suggestion. The place was mad huge ! You have to walk a mile ( ok that's quite an exaggeration, but it sure was far from our table ) to get to the reception if you need a server. We actually looked for a button to push or something that might buzz to get a server, but there was none.

I saw our neighbor being serenaded by a string band. I knew were were next.

So right I was. They sang, nice yes, but we were too hungry to appreciate. We tipped them and ask for a server. Sorry guys, we came from Baguio and had yet to go on the road for the next 4 hours? back to Manila.

The girls eat no more than kare-kare. If you brought them to a Filipino resto , they are easy_ beef karekare ( beef stew in peanut sauce), always. While waiting for the food, the girls enjoyed feeding the kois in the pond.

There were cooking going on in the bamboo bridges. No, the man on a red bull cap is not the cook, it's the dad. The one beside him is the cook,haha.

Kare-kare arrived and the girls was happy.

But the tiny pot of rice was funny. The waiter said, it was good for four, enough for us. Hello, our hunger was severe! What dya think? haha, we had to order for another pot.

The liempo came wrapped in fresh banana leaves.

and when we unwrapped it_ the aroma was captivating. . I took a bite and it was so tasty and soft and simply delicious. I bet marinated well and unlike other liempo ( yes husband never missed to order a plate of this dish ) from other resto, I did like this one.

We only had those two dishes and rice and we were quite satisfied.

Filipino Buffet @ Cafe Asiana

2011-07-06T00:30:00.000-07:00

We came from a two hours swim in the club's pool and was really hungry when we came back at Cafe Asiana ( inside the Palms Country Club in Alabang.) for a late lunch buffet at around 2 pm. We made our reservation for a table near the buffet table when we had our breakfast of the day, see here.

I realized making a reservation was not necessary_ it was already hours past the height of lunch and the resto was already almost empty except for a table or two and us.

The buffet featured Filipino cuisine that day, I guess it was because the country was celebrating Independence Day in the month of June. The buffet spread was too many to mention each and neither my tummy was accommodating to try each.

Unlike my teen daughter whose habit is to taste each and every bit there is,haha.

I made sure thu' to taste those that were new to my buds. Like this sinigang na lechon ( suckling pig in tamarind broth). It was good. The soup complimented the crunchy lechon. It was like having your soup over your plain rice then biting a crunchy side dish. I think, the lechon is being added only when the dish is about to be served, cos it stayed crunchy and didn't appear to absorb the liquid. Luv it! I made a mental note to try it at home for my family.

This was one of my plates. I also loved their arroz de valenciana . Not so Filipino thu'. Yet it's a popular adapted rice dish from Spanish cuisine. I enjoyed their version cos they didn't use sticky rice which I'm actually not so fond of. Another dish in my plate was beef calderita. Another borrowed Filipinized beef dish which I always like however it 's being concocted. I make a tasty version too_ at home.

Another part of the buffet was a spread of raw dishes like salads and local kinilaw or ceviche ( veggies and meats cooked raw in vinegar or in citrus). I have had to try some of them. The best was the tuna kinilaw.

The dessert spread had also huge selection, with pastries, local delicacies but I went for fresh cuts of local fruits in season .

and ofcourse it was hard to say no to a local brand icecream scooping station whre we all indulge, see here.

I was happy to see that my friend was all smiling during the meal.. .

. . cos, after all I meant to make her happy cos it was her birthday and this was my treat to her. Happy bday Neth!!!

Arce Dairy Scooping Station

2011-06-30T03:43:00.000-07:00

I was happy when I found out that part of the dessert table of Cafe Asiana's buffet was a scooping station of our local Arce Dairy ice cream. I made a pass on halo-halo bar and a big buffet of pastries and local delicacies and jump off straight to the ice cream station.

Well the health conscious me would definitely be happier if they would serve Arce sherbets. Now this one confuses me_ does Arce Dairy have real ice cream at all or just sherbets? Cos, just now I realized, I had never bought ice cream from this local brand, only sherbets.

When I saw the brand I mindlessly associated it with sherbets. So I asked the server to fill my bowl of each flavor I never had_ like blueberry chocolate which minty blue color caught my attention first.

This is my first serving. Toppings were also generously available.

My daughter whose sweet tooth is naturally inherited from her mother made the most out of the scooping station until the lunch buffet closed. haha.

Bfast @ Cafe Asiana

2011-06-28T23:42:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the country club too early to take lunch but too late for breakfast_ 10:45am. We were supposedly to go right into the gym not straight to the resto but my two hungry buddies (a daughter and a girlfriend) insisted to eat!

Majority won. So there we went straight to Cafe Asiana (inside the Palms Country Club, Alabang).

The waiter said lunch buffet would be ready in an hour. But these two couldn't really wait and had to adjust our buffet reservation to afternoon. Buffet's last call was 3pm.

We sent our orders and while waiting _ picture.picture, whatelse? haha. Notice my friend's change of tops? I nudged here to change from her prev white tees which I thought was too plain for the bright yellow resto.She obliged! haha!

The foods were served and we were all surprise for the big servings. We wanted to eat light cos we planned to go swimming after and lunch was soon to follow.

My plate. I opted to go for half tuna sandwich. Yes you can do that, either whole or half portion So clever of me to do that cos this half was already hefty. Plus the country fries were so heavy too. I like the few fruits on the side.

My ravenous daughter went all the way. Must be really really hungry. She always is, actually. Take note of the rice. . .

. . which she nonchalantly bundled with double eggs, bacon and hash browns????

My friend who was obviously equally hungry went all the way too. .

. . with a similar plate as my daughter only with saugsages instead of bacon. . no rice. good. .

but order 4 pcs. of buns !!!! hahaha!

Well, you bet they finished their plate clean! _ only to comeback after two hours in the pool with more ravenous appetite for lunch buffet.
Come back later for lunch :)

Cafe Sabel

2011-06-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

These two are Sabel. she is the iconic muse of national artist BenCab.

These two are also Sabel. I'd say more realistic depiction of Sabel by BenCab. In real life the woman is a scavenger. BenCab would see her swaddled in the scraps of plastic, wandering in the street across Cabrera's residence in Bambang, Manila .

Inside BenCab Museum in Baguio, there's a resto called Cafe Sabel.

It's so airy. .

with a a very scenic view. .

But we missed to try their dishes. It was minutes off closing time. Maybe next time. Very nice place thu'.

O' Mai Khan

2011-06-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

On our countless Baguio trips, O' Mai Khan has always been full packed with dining costumers. A crowded resto gets a "no today" from us but surely it would be on our waiting list of "yes in the future" when we chance upon it on a much lesser crowded day. We shy away from torturing ourselves with ridiculous queue. But the message is clear, a full packed resto means there must be something good going on there.

So on our very recent Baguio trip, same scenario of crowded O'MaiKhan greeted us. Everyday we would passed by and on our 3rd night, finally we saw vacant tables. I thought this was the right time.

This resto is actually famous for their Mongolian buffet and barbecue.

But we had enough of those and was eying for a hot soup dinner against the cold rainy night of Baguio.

So glad with the fusion of dishes going on in the menu.

We opted for a big Mongolian Hot Pot.

And requested to transfer table outside. Where we enjoyed the super cold night weather of Baguio and the hot soup as a contradiction.

The thing is_ I didn't get to like their hot pot. I'm used to Chinese hot pot with lots of spices and flavours. This Mongolian hot pot was bland to me. Lacking in everything except a hint of grocery bought meat cubes. Nevertheless, the rest of my family was happy for the hot soup.

To save my night. .

I was happy to check the sweets. .

Well, this decadent choco slice made my night. .

The girls and the dad enjoyed a cake too..

Happy Father's Day to the gangstah of our life !!!! You're the bestest!!!!

also to my best ever papa and my dad-in law and to my brods-in law. . haaay, it's hard to start. .I could go on and on with cool dads I know and for sure would miss a name or two. .so to all DADS around the world, thankyou and we all love you!!!

Liquid

2011-06-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Outfits failure

phone rings

friend : pls, pls, go with me in a party. .

me : huh?? where?when?

friend : i'm on my way to your house

me : huh?

friend : be ready in 30 minutes. . will pick you up

phone off.

phone rings again

friend : wear something cowboy

me : a what?

friend : no, something pirate pala

The confusion carried on to locating the venue. We thought the club was inside Hotel H20 which was inside the Manila Ocean Park.

After unsolicited tour of Manila Ocean Park , we found Liquid Pool Lounge at the basement area near the grand entrance of MOP.

There's a 3 feet pool which is suggestive of a wet party. Imagine_ like the ones we see on a Vegas party where people dance in the pool.

The underground vibe of the place suited well the pirate theme of the event.

The music, party people , decors were consistent to the pirate theme.

Except us (me & bff ). So we thought we might as well borrowed Mr. Skull's cool hat. . .

Now what???

El Prado

2011-06-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

El Prado is the signature restaurant of Berjaya Manila Hotel. Located at the mezzanine floor of the hotel, it offers Asian and International cuisines.

A visiting friend stayed in this hotel and wasn't so pleased finding out the familiar Asian dishes from her home- based country in the menu. She had enough of those you know. The pinoy in her was actually craving for our Filipino dishes.

So glad she was to order our local beef sinigang.

I,on the other hand, had too much of sinigang as part of our weekly menu at home.

And opted to try their satay chicken. I was actually expecting this dish as a barbecue like the ones I had tried in Malaysia. It came as rice toppings but good as well.

watermelon and mango shakes

The girls came down for lunch late. They had fun in the pool and had buckets of nachos which delayed their lunch to 3pm .

If you left these girls on their own_expect that they would order either pasta dish or if they go rice meal, kare-kare rules the table.

Satisfied.

Dad's Merienda

2011-06-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Dad's Saisaki, Kamayan are for Japanese and Filipino lunch and dinner buffet. However, lately when they offered their snack buffet every 3pm at P100+ only, we found our way to enjoy mostly Filipino delicacies on the table.

Not bad, especially if you were craving for our local dishes like putobumbong, lumpiang sariwa, pansit, lugaw, and many others which are too tasky to prepare in our own kitchen just for a snack time.

Actually it's not everything pinoy, there are others like shawarma, dimsums and so much more. .

Expect to get full just on your 2nd (and possibly even on your first plate) round and you coudn't do much about it_ you know how heavy our Filipino merienda dishes, haha.

New Branch of 50's Diners

2011-05-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

When in Baguio, 50's Diner is a favorite cos of its reasonable prices, big servings and fair-enough-to-enjoy-dishes. My girls and the dad particularly like their long list of comfort foods slash fat laden junks like burgers and fries. I love their salads and sandwiches.
The numbers of our Baguio visits are not actually proportionate to our 50's Diners numbers. More often than not, we ended- up missing this diner cos it's always jam-packed. Especially on meal time like lunch and dinner.
See my previous post on this, click here.

So in our recent trip to the highland this month of May, we were glad when we saw a new branch along Military Cut-Off Road. We went there on a breakfast and it was easy breezy. The day before we passed by during lunch and saw a similar crowded 50's. The older one is at Leonard Wood and by the time of our visit, was still very very crowded.

The new branch has exact interior as the original. I'm not quite sure about the movie posters on the walls. Maybe this one got newer movies, it should be!!!

The cute pink- uniformed waitresses were also present and the American 50's vibe was very much alive too in this branch.

It was breakfast so I got my pancakes. .as in PANCAKES!!! Have I mentioned above that everything here is served big?

It's not actually all- american dishes. It has a fusion of Asian and American. Husband had our local tapsilog (fried rice,egg and marinated/dried beef slices) and boy was he happy with the beef tapa. The serving portion was substantial, unlike in most tapsilog houses around our country.

Daughters had tosilog (instead of beef, it's marinated pork loin slices) and same thing very happy with the amount of serving.

Brewed coffee + fresh milk came free with our dishes.

When in Baguio with big tummies but forgot to bring your fat wallet _ I recommend 50's Diners . Expect a heavy crowd thu', so go earlier than meal time.

Oh My Gulay

2011-05-23T04:33:00.000-07:00

Guilty. of not updating this food blog.
doesn't mean that I'm on a diet. . actually the other way around.
The whole summer, including today and I'm very sure it will go forever the same. .

I eat.eat.and eat!!! in the house, out of towns, in other countries, in my friends' houses, one wedding, one baptismal, three birthdays. . so busyyyy eating!!!!
I actually have tons of backlogs, sitting unfinished. .
cos everytime I run on my food photos, I would run to the kitchen and eat!!!

so I'm back today and decided to post about Oh My Gulay in Baguio City.
This won't make me run and eat and abandon this post,
I swear. .cos I just had a plateful of vegie salad a minute ago, hehe.

I would post about the structures, arts and oddities of this place at my other blog (Ascertain Bliss) cos it really is to me a destination on its own right. But the foods ofcourse belong here.

For those who haven't been there, here's a glimpse of how beautifully odd the place is. Each dining table is uniquely placed offering a plate of privacy and if the cafe' is not jam you can choose your corner.

It is by the way at the uppermost top, shall I say roof top? of one of the commercial buildings in Session Road in Baguio City.

We came to Oh My Gulay hours after lunch and hours away from dinner, so it was like merienda (snack) time (maybe around 3-4pm). We weren't hungry even. But it's a restaurant and not an art gallery . We couldn't go checking the arts in the house forever without ordering food (even though that was exactly what we wanted to do, haha)

Anyway it got a healthy menu of vegetable dishes and we love salads_ fresh vegetable salad to be specific and where else to eat best but there at the lettuce bowl of P.I. _Baguio!

So we had mango crepe, ok it's not a vegie but it's still a healty fruit. A puttanesca which used no meat, all vegie pasta. A plate of lumpia ( spring rolls) which came out was also some kind of a salad.

And the cafe's specialty salad (forgot the name) which we didn't touch and had to bag it to the hotel cos it was like a redundant of the fresh rolls plate without the rolls. Baguio seemed to be fond of honey mustard dressing. I countlessly had this dressing in my salad from other restos here. Even rarely that you would be given an option for other dressings. The thing is_ I don't like honey mustard.

But we love the pasta. On our next visit, we will surely re-order this dish.

And we are definitely going back to Oh My Gulay on our next Baguio trip. One time visit is not enough to savor the delicious art works in the house and interesting dishes with odd names from their menu.

ps : prices are reasonable, mostly below or just a tad above P100 a dish. Now you can visit Ascertain Bliss to see more of the place.

My Bf's Husband Cooks

2011-04-27T02:18:00.000-07:00

I went to visit my friend in Singapore (again. . ) . Unlike our friends who are based in U.S. and Europe, this SG based mom is luckier cos she gets to enjoy Asian style stay-at-home- momhood _ she still get to enjoy a house maid/help.

What's even better _ his Swiss- German husband is a kitchen expert. Yep, this Filipina wife knows nothing in the kitchen (haha, I could hear my friend saying _ I'm too much,haha). It's the expat husband who manages the kitchen. My friend is so very lucky!!In short. . totally senorita! haha.

Imagine this GM (general manager_ covering the whole Asia) husband still take time to do homecooking for the family. That's so sweet. He even managed to prepare a dinner for us, one weekend when he was at home. Everything was labor of love, with home made pasta he himself prepared from the scratch. That's so awesome!

I took a snap of his kitchen. See those condiments and spices, he even has a lot more in the other side.So that night, he prepared two home cooked pasta :

spinach pasta

cheezy pasta

buttered baby carrots

creamy spinach

chicken in white/red wine

This was my first serving. They were all good!!! I swear! I helped myself up to 3 servings. I actually forgot how the dishes called. I just named them by obvious ingredients.

One day I will try his recipe at home. My friend is one lucky girl. Cooking husband is a rare find and very kind indeed.

Cool Blog

2011-04-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

I thought the name of this beverage kiosk is cool _ Cool Blog. It's another pearlshake drink. I didn't even bother to try it. This was in Malaysia and I lived for ice kachang. I went home with swollen tonsil. haha. I wonder if the owner is a blogger too. :)))

Sunny Sunday

2011-04-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Suddenly it's scorchingly s-u-mm-er!!! When the calendar hit 15th this month, the cool wind ceased blowing over our bedroom windows. Before the 15th, the weather thu consistently without rain was kindah not so island summer. Nights were still cold and windy. But now, it's hot hot really!

Yesterday , Sunday lunch at home was alfresco baby!!!!

Nothing fancy thu'. . but the colors of our food were so sunny, thought they ought to be consumed outside.

Would you give me a pat on the back, cos on this so lazy Sunday, I managed to cook sweet & sour fish. haha! I had to cheat a lil' thu'. I made use of a bottled chili sauce and just created some dash of miracle from there:))) But the fish was so fresh! I just had it scored from a fresh wet market that early morning. And hey, the cooking was in the middle of a loaded laundry hours. I should have had taken some photos of my laundry mess happening at the other side.

Summer fruits - watermelons and mangoes, in abundance this season and always monopolize our table. Gosh, they come out so succulent and in their sweetest form this summer. yummiest!!!!

Nothing could wipe away my kitchen perspiration when my family says : I'm the best cook in the world, haha. I choose to believe them acctually, haha.
Happy summer everyone!!!!

Put back the jam please. .

2011-04-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Where's the jam ????

I'm not a regular breakfast-er of McDo, but when I do _ I usually have big breakfast, the one with egg,sausage and muffin and jam. At home, every morning I eat the same sans the sausage and wheat slice bread replaces the muffin.
Last weekend, enroute to another getaway, we made a breakfast stop at Mcdo and ordered my favorite meal. but my breakfast didn't have a jam anymore. I don't eat bread without a spread of jam!
I asked the server and replied that yes it ( the jam!) wasn't included in the meal anymore. . huh?? Apparently, I've been out of Mcdo breakfast scene that long. Really?
Good for me. It means I'm eating healtheir lately, haha.

I'm canceling this big breakfast in my bf list of Mcdo. Next time, I'll just have pancakes ! haha.

Kenji Tei

2011-04-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been craving for Japanese food. I know, I've mentioned here too many times that it's not one of my favorite cuisines. It must be the fear of loss. You know, after the Japan's quake/tsunami tragedy, no one is sure about the thriving success of Japanese businesses all over the world. Husband would say- are you sure it's safe to eat Japanese? It's the radiation issue. I'm not sure. I'm just thinking they won't serve those food if they were crucial.

These days I'm loving sushi and ramen.Suddenly my eyes turned on to the Jap restos which I've never taken noticed before.

The other night , everyone wanted a bowl of ramen. We went to Kenji Tei, Bf Paranaque. Ofcourse this ramen house wasn't built overnight. But since I was good ignoring Jap food before, I've never taken noticed of this cozy little ramen house before this night.

Older daughter and I loved the zen-ness of the interior, specifically the bamboo back draft in this photo.

Daughters changed their mind and had pork (not sure what meat) teriyaki rice bowl each (P200). I taste a bit and sure it was tasty.

I asked for the best seller ramen and suggested to me the gomoku shio ramen ( P220). It had seafood and everything. I actually loved it so much!

Husband had mabu tofu ramen ( P220), it was spicy and so great! I also liked it.

The noodles were so fresh and light. It was easy to throw away our radiation worries. . . for the meantime.
Love.love.love Kenji Tei. We'll surely go back soon.

With prayers for Japan.

Nyonya's Sweets

2011-04-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

They look so familiar, right? Like our local delicacies - kutsinta, sapin-sapin, empanada, puto, butchi, lumpia, etc. .

Found this cart of desserts by Nyonya Cafe House in one of the malls at Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

For 1Rm each (not bad, around less than P15, forex as of my visit last month 2011), I tried some just to know if they tasted exactly as they looked as our own desserts. Well, sorry to us but those 5 pieces that I tried with my friends_ were better, creamier and got more character.

I went out of the mall and saw these generic sweets in the street of JB. I didn't try them cos I had enough of sugar from those Nyonya's.

Upon my return in Singapore the next day. . .

. . found more sweets in the outskirts of Little India which looks were quite similar to those desserts in the prev photos in JB. Only this time, it was x2 in price cos an Sg$ is like x2 of a Malaysian Ringgit.

I tried some and well they were a lot distinctive in taste when compare to the Nyonya desserts. Little India's desserts were overly sweet and it was very hard to finish a bar without battling to gulp water in every bite. Too sugary. .even to my high level of sweet tooth-nessy.haha.

Well, if you thought you could beat me on sugar war, here are more sweets I had in my 2009 visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : click this and this.

Takoyaki Chips

2011-04-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

I love potato chips. I am a muncher. But I'm cheap so I don't buy those big bags of expensive chips. I'm ok with Jack 'n Jill bbq flavored potato chips. I don't like other flavors we have here locally.

Bought this J &J takoyaki flavor from SG.

Came with a pouch of takoyaki powder which meant to be mixed in with the chips.
Liketh. But can't find same flavor here. hello, do I need to visit SG again just so I can get my supply? haha. Just bought our local bbq flavor to fill-up the craving.

Thumbler Coffee

2011-04-04T03:09:00.000-07:00

For a moment I got confused on what breakfast drink would I have (- last month while having a random breakfast at my friend's house in SG ). On the table were cartons of juices, milk, soya and choco drink. Coffee was to serve. Hooommh. . so many choices. . at home we only have 2 - juice or choco. I usually have water. I'm not a coffee drinker. None of my family is. So we don't actually have a coffee maker or coffee granules/ powder at home.

But seeing these cute coffee tumblers in different variants like jamaican, swiss, etc. gave me a joy to have coffee that morning (and the breakfasts that followed in that house).

Look how pretty!!!

They were prepared with this coffee machine. How? I didn't know. haha.

Coffee was served to me already cupped.

After a cup of an awesome coffee I was ready to ~~rise and shine~~ tour around the awesome city of Singapore.

SG: Chinatown Food Street

2011-03-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

One of the cleanest street food strip I've ever seen was in Singapore's Chinatown.

wow! Chairman Mao's origin

It looked early but actually it was around 7pm already, dinner time for us.

People started to flock the eateries but center street tables weren't occupied yet at this sun- still- up- time.

This particular resto which specialized in seafood, esp. the famous chili crab, was a favorite among the whites.
We checked the prices and . . .

found out that few steps away there's this stall served cheaper but quite tasty version of chili crabs. We figured, since this place was full of local tourist. we would have our crabs here.

So we ordered the black pepper crab with some sidings, had a photo here while waiting and when the foods were served, I found out my batteries died on me. haha. Sorry no photos of the food . And had to do an abrupt ending here. I couldn't remember what we had there. Pardon my memory growing everyday- gap, haha, but we've eaten like millions of dishes over our short stay there, can't name them without guide. That's why photos are important to remind me of things.

Discovery Food Court

2011-03-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

At UStudios, SG, we were at The Lost World area when the clock stroked near mid noon. Lunch time!

Right across the Jurassic Park with the same theme was the Discovery Food Court which offered Singapore’s best selection of laksa, chicken rice and other local delights.

The building was exactly like the one featured in the movie Jurassic Park with the giant dino fossil.The fear of anticipation for raptors attacking you was inevitable. haha.

Good thing we went in a tad earlier ( which made a heavenly difference) before the queue became horrible.

It was our 4th day in SG and would you believe, we hadn't eaten a single plate of chicken rice yet. So at this point, we were actually already salivating for it.

I still preferred the one without skin. Loveth!

They want theirs with browned skin.

Each set meal came with a soy pudding. Not my type. I like our taho better, haha.

Gotta get out from here before a velociraptor finds me, hahaha. Yummy lunch!

Yummy Viet

2011-03-07T00:10:00.000-08:00

Brother loves Vietnamese cuisine. I am not a fan. So when he saw Yummy Viet at Smith St., Chinatown in Singapore, he couldn't resist.

Yummy Viet was small but claimed to serve authentic Vietnamese dishes. We entered and right away believed by the language the servers were talking, that it was indeed serving authentic. No problem, we're easy, haha.

Well, I could only careless about the long list of dishes in the menu. My Vietnamese food knowledge begins and ends with only one dish _ the summer rolls ( fresh lumpia/lumpiang sariwa ). I don't even like their noodle soups cos I suspect they put lemon grass ( tanglad ) in them which my taste buds find it stranged.

Ok, let's get back to the summer rolls, so I got 2 pieces for SG$3.50. At the next table, customers could see batches of fresh rolls being prepared.

It was so good, I had to order another set. A lot better than what I had here.

Brother had this bread dish and reiterated that this should not be the way to serve it. He expertly said that it should be sandwiched instead of dipping the bun in the egg sauce. No idea! I couldn't even recall the name of the dish. One thing was sure, he liked it so much, he didn't even care to let us taste it. haha.

SG: Food Republic @ Vivo City

2011-03-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

In Singapore, if you came from Sentosa and you ignored dining in the island (cos 1. you were too busy having fun and 2. you are like us who were budget travelers), chances were_ you would land to Vivo City with ranting tummies. So we looked for a place to eat in Vivo but again budget restriction made us pass on a wished resto like:

Marche', a world popular Swiss resto serving all fresh ingredients and freshly cooking right infront of your eyes. Look how the long queue of patrons reached outside the entrance door.

So a little walk, still on top of the Vivo City, brought us inside Food Republic which was just fitting our budget and food choices were just interestingly awesome like other hawkers around the city which we preferred under this travel status.

So here was the set meal I got for SG$10_

A rice meal inside a bamboo which had mushroom and some meat I couldn't exactly identify . It came with a soup, a mango pudding and a drink which I regretted not to ask what flavor, first before buying.

All down the trash. First of all, I'm not a rice person, especially that mushy type being used in our local suman dishes. I don't even like arroz de valenciana for that matter. So why this meal? I like the bamboo, haha. The soup was forgettable. The mango pudding was too soft . And the juice, the juice!! was my hatest drink! It's the juice version of the one I had in my latest Boracay trip ( see here). It was a plum juice. Sorry, but I don't like any salty hint in my drink.

Good thing, I never missed to order ais kachang which was a savior.

So, I ended up pinching a little of the following from my travel buddies' plates :

chicken wings

roti prata- mutton curry

forgot what this called but it was a chicken rice, more like our local chicken asado but with a distinct Asian taste.

It was on our way out when I realized that fresh fruits here were not that expensive and selling as affordable as the ones in downtown's hawkers. Had I known it earlier, I would surely have had a plate of mixed fresh fruits.

Everybody's Cafe, Pampanga

2011-02-18T00:21:00.000-08:00

We stopped at the first fastfood chain (Jollibee) we saw before heading to Everybody's Cafe. I 100% doubted that the girls would eat what us adult had in mind to eat for lunch.

But since we left home too early for breakfast, with empty stomachs we were tempted to eat as much as the kids.

So when we reached Everybody's Cafe, we were full stomached and not sure at all if we still have room for crickets and frogs.

Okey, here we go => stuffed frog, I chose this over the frog legs which were not a news to me anymore.

Bianx (background) : eooow, tita M, whayt are you eating???

Cuz che : whaaatah?? frog??

It was good!! Crunchy outside and meaty inside.

Cuz' got jealous how I enjoyed the frog and braved a piece. Well, she liked it a lot she ordered for more to take home. She had them half cooked to deep fry when she get home.

It's crickets/camaru time!

Kyla couldn't take it!

Well, it's not ala Fear Factor where you have to eat it alive and cricket-ing, haha.

But, still it's so insect-y ! You know, like eating a fly !

Allright - into the mouth!!

It was del.i.cious!!! surprisingly!!! crispy and tasty!! loveth!

We sugar coated them with glazed camote (sweet potato). Yum.

We were still asking for more exotic dishes but there were only those two. Others were familiar kapampangan dishes. We bought raw longanisa to take home.

chocolate is love

2011-02-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

Box of Marks & Spencer chocolates for V Day?

Nah-ah . . a reminiscence of the recent Christmas. A gift from a very close friend of the family. You know who you are, winkies**. Thankyouverymuch sistah'! The box got emptied in just a matter of minute. That's how my family loves chocolates.
I don't know why but when I think of Valentine's Day I start to crave for chocolates. Liar! ok. Actually I crave for it everyday. I'm trying so hard to stop myself from indulging but it's Valentine, we eat chocolates on V season, right? I heard some yessess over there _ so here, my other hand is chocolatey- sticky- dirty cos I'm binged eating. I sneaked ( hidden from husband so he couldn't stop me) a huge bar of cadbury (fruit & nut, my favo) and almost finished it in just one sitting. OMG! can't stop! can't say no to chocolates !stop me! i'm getting big again! heeeelp!!!

Tabo-an's Dried Fish

2011-02-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

Actually every market (and mall market too) in P.I. sells dried fish. I haven't found a market yet in our country that has no dried fish section. Ofcourse, those bay side provinces that are seafood producers (like Cebu) deliver better quality dried seafood products.

In Cebu City, dried seafood products are best bought in Tabo-an Market. Specializing in massive variants of dried products- dangit, squid, shrimp, even dried mango can also be bought here.

I especially liked the longanisa (local sausage) de Cebu I bought from here. I guess flavors varied depending on which store you bought.

The only downside was it really stank. Omg! From here we went straight to catch our flight back to Manila and funny that when we got miles away from the market, only then we realized that we were taking home not only Tabo-ans delicious goods but the dried fish awful smell too, haha.
Oops, don't forget to ask the merchant to box your smelly goodies if you're going to fly them. We did forget for a minute and had to ask our cab driver to turn back to the store and asked them to box pack our purchase. They did, even apologetic that they didn't box it in the first place. Very nice.

Cnt Lechon Cebu

2011-02-04T02:43:00.000-08:00

When the cab dropped us at CnT Lechon across SM, Cebu City, I was kindah in doubt. First of all, the building looked no similar to the ones I saw in others' blogs which was a huge hut resto infront of SM. This one looked like an office building with a basement car parking entrance. But the driver insisted this was the one. You have to take stairs to get to the upper floor which was where the CnT resto located.

I confess I'm not a big fan of lechon Cebu ( see Hecky's Lechon here ). I like the fact that it's already seasoned even before it undergo the roasting process, but I hate that lechon Cebu doesn't come with our traditional sarsa (liver sauce dip). So usually when I chanced upon a lechon Cebu in a gathering , I cheated my way to eating it with sarsa.

We entered the place at its low peak hour ( 2pm), just the way I planned it. I gathered that it was so popular and always crowded especially during lunch and dinner hours.

Cuzin' Che was excited to buy kilos of lechon for pasalubong especially when she found out that the establishment pack/box it as you order. Now we had a major problem here, the staff said there was no available at that moment and we had to wait near dinner for the next batch of lechon. Ofcouse we couldn't wait ! We had to be at the airport at 5pm. So the pasalubong puffed out in the air.
That was ok,we just decided to dine- in. Anyway, we hadn't taken our lunch yet. We were roaming around the city the whole day. But then there was another problem_ no lechon either for dine-in. So we just settled for these ( the only available foods) :

paksiw na lechon

crunchy pig's small intestine

In sync, we took our first hungry spoonful of rice and the paksiw. In unison we both commented how salty it was and that it was so different from our Tagalog paksiw na lechon which we still preffered. Next we both took a spoonful of rice and the intestine dipped in the vinegar_ salty!!! . . . so in the end we surprised ourselves when we realized that we consumed everything we ordered. Nothing left. We left the place still asking ourselves, were we just hungry or the foods were better than we thought???

Barrio Fiesta : what happened to you?

2011-02-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

A week post X'mas season, my girls beg me to cook kare-kare at home. They had too much of pastas and salads and missing their most favorite Filipino dish. Yet until then, I hadn't replenished my pantry and hadn't done marketing. I was still counting on finishing the holidays' left overs.

So one of these afternoons (January2011), we were out on the road for an errand. It was already past 1pm and we hadn't taken lunch yet. Passing somewhere thru Roxas Blvd. - Malate area, we saw Barrio Fiesta, one of my favorite Filipino restos. I haven't been there for the longest time and said to my girls: there you could have one of the best karekare in town.

It was a Saturday. My girls asked about the why almost empty BF (Barrio Fiesta). There was only another table occupied plus ours. I thought it might be because of the low-peak hour, after lunch .

sago-gulaman

We were there only for karekare and just added sizzling shrimp gambas for husband. We are trying hard to limit his pork/beef/innards favoritism. Bad for the heart.
Since it had been a long time since I had eaten there, I checked what was going on to their menu. Everything looked familiar except for the zooming of prices. Well, nothing stays cheap these days. I was tempted to compare BF's prices to the latest Filipino restos that have been mushroomed since the last visit I had here. I was thinking about the likes of Kanin Club ( see here), Bagoong Club ( see here), Tres Cuisine and many to mention others. Ofcourse they are not as big as BF yet but in quality of dishes, the latter has to take a closer look to these rising pinoy restos. And getting back to the prices, Bf's menu is a lot expensive, almost x2 in some of the common dishes. On top of this, they (this particular branch) couldn't even afford to serve filtered water, only tap water.

Obviously it was a wrong decision to take lunch here when it's past noon and our tummies were all ranting bad. But I was thinking the non-busy hours, with almost no other guests to attend to, would expedite the serving of food. I was not sure if our hungriness had shorten our patience or was it really long before our foods were served. whatever, we were not so happy about the service.

Still, wondering about which comes first?- ~~the chicken or the egg~~ ? - our ill mood or their bad service? The only two dishes we had at BF got 4 disaster thumbs down :( from the 4 of us.

shrimp gambas_omg! too-ooo salty, husband's health in high danger!

kare-kare- omg again! the peanut sauce could be mistaken as oil sauce!!! and when we taste it_
spoiled peanut taste was very strong. Non of us took a second spoon and just left the plates untouched.
Hungry and disappointed, I choose not to add insult to injury and prevent further unnecessary incident, I told to my family to shrug their shoulders and we would just buy food to nearer somewhere. I called the waiter and asked for the bill. While paying _ I couldn't keep to myself and told him about the disappointing dishes and in return he replied : ay ganon ba mam? sige po sasabihin ko nalang sa cook ( is that so mam? ok, I will just tell it to our cook). period and nothing else.

We ran fast away from Barrio Fiesta and had a hearty meals at Mcdo.

The Best of Davao

2011-02-01T00:28:00.000-08:00

The best-est in Davao are the fruits _ the best quality of banana, mango, pomelo, lanzones, marang (click here ), rambutan , durian (click here, here and here ) mangosteen, etc.etc. . .

They come cheap too. Especially if they were in season. Almost triple the price if you would buy them here in Manila.

The second best-est is that we have relatives based in Davao. luckiness!!!!

So during the recent (2010) Kadayawan when most of the fruits were in season, we flew to Davao , took a blast savoring all the fruits there. We could only eat so much and not so much to take home, prevented by baggage allowance.

So thoughtful cuz' Sylvia came in the rescue. She sent us a follow-up fruit box after a week of Kadayawan and while we were all back here in Manila missing the sweetness of Davao fruits and our relatives too.

The only fruit that was not in season during Kadayawan was pomelo, another flagship fruit of Davao. In the box included few pomelos with ate Sylv's promise that she would send later when the pomelo season come.

True to her word, ate Syv sent us a box of suha (pomelo) this month of January 2011.

The pink seedless pomelo is to die for. I'm salivating just seeing this photo of the suha she sent.

Ofcourse, they were gone the minute they arrived. I'm not sure with Che ( she does hording so well, hehe).

So Ate Sylv_ you know why I'm posting this one_ where's the other pomelo box you promise to send again? hahaha! We're waiting =)))))))

Tides ( Shangri-la,Mactan)

2011-01-31T17:44:00.000-08:00

The Tides is one of the 4 restos of Shangri-la, Mactan. It serves dinner, lunch and breakfast buffet which offers variety of international cuisines.

It is located at the garden level of the resort. Some of the alfresco tables face the pool area which is very scenic.

We entered the resto at the climax of that day's buffet breakfast. It was overly crowded and nearing to the end of buffet hour. Long queues of guests for each section were crazy. We decided not to avail of the bf buffet and took ala carte instead. There was not a single table available inside. The al fresco tables were empty though. On our way to the tables outside, I was able to take a quick glances of the numerous buffet serving tables and by that alone I knew we ought to go back one day to try them.

The only qualm we had was the food took so long to be served. We already took tons of photos around and our food didn't arrive yet. We understood it wasn't a good idea to do ala carte while there's buffet going on, so we somehow didn't expect them to be that fast. But not that long either. Anyway, we had chosen two of the most easy to prepare/cook dishes in the menu. And we had reconfirmed to them if they could serve alacarte already at the time of buffet hour. They said yes.

After a long while and numbers of follow-ups our breakfasts were served.

I was happy with my pancakes. I am a certified sweet-carbo breakfast-er. I'm rarely a rice person especially on the first hour of the day.

It had all of my favorite accessories for a perfect breakfast pancake.

Ohlala!! =>; mango,blueberry,butter,syrup and cinnamon, perfect!!!

Just the way I eat at home, with lots of fruit toppings ! loveth!! I finished all the 3 of them!!!

Let's check cuzin's plate. She was actually having a mild stomach problem and thought she would go easy on her breakfast. She ordered century egg congee.

huuuumhh, looked promising. . .

with coloful condiments => seasoning, spicy salsa, olive oil?, chives.

Was she happy like me??? nah!! She hardly finished the bowl. She asked for calamansi and was given some lemons. She still prefer our local lugaw (congee) / goto. With local frills - patis, calamansi, you know the works :)))

Well, we had fun anyway :)

CWC Clubhouse Restaurant & Bar (Camsur)

2011-01-19T18:43:00.000-08:00

Foods inside CWC. Camsur seemed to match/support the extreme activities the place offered.

my friend Tess' kids amused by the fun filled wakeboard menu of the resto

The kids enjoyed the high-carbo pastas and pizzas available and ignored other Asian and Western dishes included in the menu.

Carbonara. Well, it's given. When you ask my girls what pasta they like_ before the red sauce, they prefer the carbonara.

lasagna.

Definitely enjoyed by this cutee_ Aj. The older sis didn't like it thu'. The sweetness (might be adapted to pinoy taste) turned off her Aussie taste bud.

The following were enjoyed by the older kids_ us, parents :))).

corn nachos with salsa

green salad with caesar dressing (i hate the dressing ;()

laing pizza , see my post of this special pizza here.

Food was actually good and of good value too at the CWC Clubhouse. So it didn't hurt so much the no outside food allowed-policy of the complex.

Roasted Sesame Dressing

2011-01-17T16:36:00.000-08:00

Since yesterday until tomorrow, my youngest Kyla is my lunch-at-home mate. She's having her periodical exams and hence on a half day scheds. This girl is more of her dad's diet, those junk fastfoods I hate. Burgers and hotdogs are favorites. So to meet her halfway, I eat adobo or tocino and rice with her. We both love Ligo sardines though.

Wednesday and Friday are my eldest Myka's off from classes and so for this 3rd sem (her last of her first year), she's my lunch buddy. This ate eats the same as me. She likes everything I like.

When she's around, I don't have to think otherwise what to prepare. I just add volume to what I usually have everyday when I'm alone. Salad is a regular. I just varied it according to what's available inside the fridge. Last Friday, we had crab-mango salad.

A day ago, we went up to Tagaytay, I bought lots of freshly pick lettuce and have them stored in the fridge. The romaine was still crisp and fresh, loveth! Romaine is my favorite lettuce variant. It has no hint of bitterness at all. The mangoes were from Tagaytay too. They were super sweet. The sweetest crabs were ofcourse from my hometown in Quezon prov.
I dressed this salad with sesame dressing which is really-really my favorite. I bought that huge bottle of roasted sesame dressing less than a month ago. Look, how I consume it so fast. It's already about just 1/4 of the bottle. I'm addicted to it. It's quite expensive for a salad dressing but I thought it's worthy cos I tend to eat greens everyday if I have this dressing. My brother is suggesting for us to try making our own sesame dressing, and would based it from this brand which is my favorite. Yeah, I guess I'll try that. I'll be saving a lot from doing my own. If I got it right, I'll share with you the recipe. Promise ;D

ClawDaddy

2011-01-14T16:16:00.000-08:00

Dinner last night was at Bonifacio High Street.

At ClawDaddy. Only because our vouchers were about to expire in 2 days. haha.

So off to fetch the kids from schools and dragged them, delaying their homeworks' scheds. Each of them goes to a different school now. Far from each other too.

We got there, the place was not packed yet so we got a table inside.

But had requested to transfer to an al fresco table cos it was too cold for feverish husband and asthmatic cuzin'. haha.

Now a days, green salad is a fixed plate on my tables.

Claw Daddy's salad. In ranch dressing, lettuce,ham, eggs, cherry tomatoes, olives and walnut brittle with two buttered bread. Good. The size was quite deceiving, but the plate actually served us all.

Buffalo wings. Too strong for my kids whose favorite is Don Henrico's buffalo wings.

Oyster Rockefeller.

I ate most of them.

Carbonara. Too salty for my preference. Looked. . .

. . .as sad as Kyla. It was served a tad late after all the other dishes were served and Kyla was too hungry to wait that long.

Szechuan Crab. Ofcourse you couldn't leave Clawdaddy without a taste of the ~~claws~~ crabs. It was great thu'.

It was so good for crab addict cuzin', she shelled out up to every lil' claw there was. Look at the above photo, on her hidden lap was the trash bucket she put the shell/skin. Her daughter Bianx was already sleepy. hahaha.

Noodle soup. Hubby hardly touched any of the plates. As I mentioned he was feverish and had a weird appetite that night. He ordered himself a simple noodle soup instead.

Well, we stayed for a while. We were too full to get up quickly. Cuzin' at this point was still busy beside me with the claws. hahaha.
Our bill was short of few cents to P3k. Not bad. But for a cheap mom like me, it would be a heartbreaking wallet bullet to pay ( already to me ;)) that much, for a random dinner like this.
If you could relate (hahaha), why not do it the way I do_ I take advantage of the discounted vouchers available in 50% to 80% at Ensogo, Phils. No catch. Just register and you'll be offered daily deals. It will be up to you then to avail or not. Just click this Ensogo.com.ph

Fatless Shabu-Shabu

2011-01-12T16:43:00.001-08:00

Tagaytay was smoking cold the other day when we went up. It was also raining non-stop.

So the plan to bring my tourist? cuz' Sylvia to a garden moonlight dinner was washed away by the rainfall. Instead, we made a stop to a newly opened shabu-shabu (hotpot) resto by the road - Fatless Shabu-Shabu. The word fatless pulled us straight right into the entrance of the resto.

The only stuff that made us think twice was the emptiness of the resto. That was just for a second. We were all chilling and majority wanted some piping hot soup. We are all gearing towards a healthy new year so the famous bulalo of the area was ~~temporarily~~ dismissed.

We ordered a set menu for 4-6 persons which included rice and drinks already.

The seafood/meat plate was good. The fresh squid came late thu'. It was served when all of the stuff were already in the pot. But turned out okey anyway.

I was liking the idea that we were shabu-ing at chilled Tagaytay and had a good feeling that vegetables were all fresh.

Condiments. I missed the flavor-fullness of authentic chinese /vietnamese sate sauce. In here, sate paste was quite bland and didn't fully glorify the tasty soup we were used to, from other shabu-shabu resto we frequent in Manila.

My first bowl. I didn't touched the rice. I don't eat rice with shabu-shabu. for me it's already a complete meal. With corn in it, I'm good to go.

Overall, I like the place. It's new ( only opened a month ago), clean and fresh. I also like that it's not big and therefore not busy. I hate crowded place.

Laing Pizza

2011-01-09T16:35:00.000-08:00

LAING PIZZA. How's that as authentic flavor from the province (Bicol) where this local dish laing hailed. Found it inside the CWC, Camsur . Blending in with other pasta and pizza dishes in the CWC Clubhouse menu, this laing pizza was a catch. Somewhere, I was asked to try laing pasta, and it wasn't bad either. But this laing on a pizza crust was much better.

Laing is made of taro leaves in coconut cream spiced with tiny chilies. It's very flavorful and therefore great not only as a solo/side dish but as an ingredient for new concoction such as this laing pizza.
Make sure to take a bite of this pizza! _ when you come to visit CWC, Camsur.

Avenue Plaza Hotel's Buffet B

2011-01-08T23:05:00.000-08:00

Holidays offered spreads of fancy dishes even at our kitchens at home and to countless gatherings/parties we had attended. Fat laiden /delicious foods personally toxicating me cos of their uber abundance.

galunggong & itlog na pula. So it delighted me to open a breakfast buffet pan with local fish and an egg delicacy.

Aside from the fish and egg, I only allowed myself to indulge in the bouquet of fresh fruits of the buffet.

Nice simple buffet breakfast at Avenue Plaza Hotel, Naga City.

Jolly's Pulutan

2011-01-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

Husband birthday is a day ago after New Year's day. Given that everyone has been loaded with hearty fatty dishes from the holidays, I thought the pulutan (beer match snacks) should be light and easy ( for the guests' tummies and for the cook- yours truly. whew!, was never out of the kitchen the whole holidays).

vegetable crudites ; the greens aren't good looking thu'. made the dressing myself, just a homemade thousand island.

colored nachos with meaty dips; be afraid not! ignore the horrible color choice of the manufacturer. safe to eat and really one of the best nachos in town. stay crunchy even air exposed the whole party night. the meaty dip is my own concoction, hailed from a spaghetti meat sauce but stronger and more flavorful.

tacos with curried chicken fillet fillings. not everyone had this thu'. cos I had ran out of shells. inspired by friend Raisa's New Year tacos, I made my own version. loveth! still munching some left overs ;) yep. bought a box of taco shell the next morning. dressing used was the same one as the crudites' thousand island.

atomic bomb/dynamite. however you name it, I claimed my own best concoction of this super hot chilies.

the luxurious cheesy fillings made the chili fingers burnt easily. but tasted great anyhow. I always make sure to get the most suitable picante chilies from the market. anyway, I only cook this special pulutan only on my husband birthdays. so if you want a bite of this, make sure to get an invite for this once a year occasion ;)))
see more of this here - last year bday.

jolibee chicken joy & burgers. a kids' party or what??? someone thought ( *winkies to cuz' che ;)) of my hubby's namesake foodchain products, so we had buckets of chicken and bags of burgers. the running joke that night was_ waiting for jollibee mascot to arrive to greet the celebrant.

hot tuna pasta. something to fill up a ranting tummy before pouring it with alcohol.

Everybody was happy. . .

I guess. . ???

Ube (purple) Jam

2010-12-21T17:17:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it_ in 2 nights it's gonna be Christmas Eve !!! panic**. . rush%%. . The Noche Buena!!! I remember when I was small, at this point my mother would already be busy in the kitchen. The likes of leche plan, macapuno, gelatin would be by this time, in my mother's time, already in the fridge_ ready to serve! And never to forget the most tedious to prepare but one of my favorites_ the ube (purple/water/winged yam) jam.

Well, in the mommies generation I belong now, where everything is instant_ gone were those days of bicep/tricep- aching, hand mixing of ube jam until achieving the right sticky consistency. If you really want a personal touch and want it homemade, a handful help of a food processor/blender is not bad .

Me?_I had long resolved the issue of my failure to achieve my mother's ube jam. I quit doing it myself! I just buy bottled ube jam. But I make sure I get the best in town.

I buy from the Good Shepherd in Baguio City. That's why an annual, nearing Christmas day, visit to the city of pine is a must.. hehehe!! Along with the ube jam, I also buy some of my favorite preserved sweets and condiments from this convent store.

The 3 bottles limitation is easy to resolve_ after me, I send the rest of the group to buy more for my household.

While the ube jam and other regular products lane is always jampacked. .

I found myself alone in the organic section.

The annex bakeshop amused me thu' in my recent visit. Freshly baked healthy breads were selling like hotcakes. I especially liked their whole wheat pandesal. Unlike those I buy from the pugon bakery here in Manila, Good Shepherd's were surprisingly tasty and not weight-y. Just right!

The gals enjoyed Good Shepherd's original version of siopao which was kindah' uncanny. The meat fiilings were shelled in a pandesal- like bread. I took a bite and my my it was so good!!!

These mothers only want the best for their families and don't really mind the long travel to Baguio for the best ube jam on the Noche Buena table!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!

Bibingcrepe

2010-12-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

It's the sixth night of misa de gallo/simbang gabi/rooster's mass. Many vow to complete the traditional Christmas novena, but not all end up to be successful.When I was young and single, I used to complete the whole 9 nights masses with my friends ofcourse. After each mass, pinoy native delicacies were such a treat. The puto bongbong and bibingka.

At Halfmoon Asian Cafe (Baguio City), a variation of bibingka can be found.

It is called bibingcrepe. A thinner, crepe-ly version of bibingka . Delicious but a box is not sufficient. Unlike the original thick version which is a piece is hearty enough to be an early whole meal breakfast.
I miss simbang gabi's bibingka.
Merry Christmas!!!!

Dampa : Tonya's

2010-12-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

The lady on green facing on your right _ Tess last visited P.I. six years ago. So when Tess saw my blog post about Dampa with another bff Lulu who's N.Y. based ( see that post here and here ) , this Sydney based bff called us up right away for a request of a Dampa lunch for her already then scheduled visit with her family.

So upon arrival, after few hours warming in their hotel, off we went for a lunch in Dampa, Macapagal.

Ofcourse, our Dampa expert bff Icor with hubby Cris hosted the lunch. Straight from our hometown, we met them at the place. Along with the seafoods they gathered at the wet market of the place, were freshly catched fishes they brought along from our province.

This is one of those. So you could also do that. Seafoods are not meant to be exclusively bought from the Dampa market. Anyway, restos cooking charge here is per kilo and don't mind where the sea food come from.

Other fish was cooked as sinigang sa miso ( a filipino soup based dish).

Crabs were cooked into two recipes_ sweet chili crabs and the resto's own crab special.

Prawns were sweetly buttered.

Grilled stuffed squid.

Always present on the table_ green mango-bagoong salad.

The Pinoy -Aussie family obviously missed our pinoy seafood and was excited to partake on the table feast.

The eldest ate Jessica shown a lot of love to our pinoy dishes.

The younger siblings_Allyssa and Aj were not so aware yet of what was happening on the table and were happy about their rice bowl with nothing on it but the sinigang soup.

I have to mention thu' that this resto _ Tonya's had one of the best cooking I had tried in the area. Expert Icor agreed and added that this is one of the pioneer in Dampa cooking way back from the first Dampa in Baclaran.

We were all happy tummies. Left overs were inevitable thu'. Always, everytime we eat at Dampa, there would always be half full left.

So we had them on a home dinner before we went out for a bar. hahaha!!! Happiness with best friends!!!

Pueblo's Breakfast

2010-12-18T23:55:00.000-08:00

Pueblo por la Playa's complimentary buffet breakfast was served at Cafe Oaxaca (the resorts resto).

The buffet was sufficient. . yah, it was ok, nothing grand.

They served Filipino and American breakfast. Dishes were so-so.

Muffins and brownies were like came from a low quality- local bakery in the town.

Honestly_ I was disappointed with the food. I expected more cos I found the place so awesome but the food (included all other food we availed during our stay there) fell short behind the beauty of the resort. Adding insult to injury was that the guest had no choice but to avail meals inside the resort cos outside bought foods were not allowed.

.. I better stop here if it was ranting I'm all into, right? Anyway, the foods were free ( complimentary breakfast), enough reason to say thank you;D

Vue Bar

2010-12-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

Wrong room. We were up for some drinks and fun at the Vue Bar.

We found it at the 22nd floor of The Bellevue Hotel in Alabang.

A band was playing and the only member I recognized was Panky of PBB (Pinoy Big Brother of ch. 2).

I was actually more interested to the sky view of Manila by night from this 22nd level of the hotel. Sorry no photos.

The group was teasing me for choosing the wrong table. Unlike me, everyone wanted to watch the band. I chose a table by the glass wall so I could enjoy the skyline. I gave the group a hard time watching the band cos of the partition blocking the stage. Hahaha!

Don't be fooled by the beer infront of Jerry ( Tess hubby). It stayed untouched til' the night ended. He was really firmed not to drink alcohol. I had to mention it for Tess & Jerry's friends.

He actually had what the ladies had. Some fruit shakes. . .

. . . sure to be an alcohol-free drink? So why the ladies including Jerry felt tipsy after the night? And the following morning, we all felt some hang-over headaches? hahaha!!!

Well, could the after-the-night headaches caused by the fried and cheesy side snacks?

WTFood!!! We surely had fun together!!! But at the end of the ~~day~~ night, we're still doting parents to our God's sent children...

It was a delicious night with Bffs ;D

Bagoong (shrimp /fish paste)

2010-12-16T06:32:00.000-08:00

When you pass by the province of Pangasinan, it's hard to ignore the bottled products for sale infront of the residences. These are fermented fish and shrimp products which to us Filipinos are favorite table condiments complimenting our local dishes.

They are being fermented for almost 10 to 12 months before ending up in a bottle for sale. Expect the most unlikely aroma from this condiment known to us a bagoong.

A lil' trivia : when we passed by to this town in Pangasinan (coming down from Baguio city), the place looked like a ghost town. It was quiet and almost no people around. This particular bagoong stall was our 3rd stop cos all stalls we passed by had no vendor. Even in this one, I had to knock the house to call for the owner. There_ we found out that everyone in the town was inside his house, infront of the television watching Manny Pacquao's most recent fight.
We all love Pacquao as much as we love our very own bagoong.

Free Meat

2010-12-16T05:22:00.000-08:00

Came from my favorite meat shop _ Monterey with a bag full of freebies!!

Kilos of Magnolia chicken choice cuts , porkchops and kasim.My Eastwest credit card used to sit silently in my wallet_ unused. But with this Monterey promo, it's now my hot card of the season. Everytime I would purchase not above P1k, I use it. Other cards promos' minimum purchase is P2k above.

See I have my meat recipes covered til' Christmas eve!! Loveth!

Cafe Oaxaca

2010-12-14T23:59:00.000-08:00

Ola! It's almost Christmas_ just 10 days to go ! It's a season of dining out almost everyday. With friends coming in to visit the country, my food album is ballooning with photos and the web host where I keep my pictures starts to refuse my uploads. Also I got tons of back log posts. Blogging doesn't come easy now a days with me always out in the real world.
Here's one of my back log posts which was interrupted by uninterrupted invites, but now_already done and ready to serve you_ _ :

Cafe Oaxaca_ reads as wah-hah-kah, is a Mexican resto and bar inside the exclusive Pueblo por la Playa, a country club in Pagbilao Quezon.

The interior was very Mexican except for the use of open kitchen which reminded me of other culinary race. The menu thu' was eclectic and was not limited to Mexican food.

I love quesadillas, tacos, fajitas, empanadas, lengua. . . but I knew I wouldn't get a chance to taste anyone of these Mexican dishes. My family was too hungry ( coming from a 6 hours traffic jam trip from Manila to here) and not in the mood to eat other than old Filipino foods which the resto was offering too.

pork sinigang was good but the soup was not enough for all of us. our request for additional soup was ignored :(

grilled pla-pla

crabs in coco cream. we missed our home style cooking of this dish which we all agreed was still the best.

. . these hands ( cuz' che's) said otherwise so. look how the hands enjoyed the crabs.

cupped rice

Those all we had and we were ready for the bed.

On our way out, only then ( cos we were so exhausted from the long trip) that we appreciated the band playing. It was a tequila night.

Getting closer, I saw a familiar face_ a classmate from elementary school. It was Dindo/Alexis Laduan. We didn't have a chance to chitchat thu' so I just took a photo of his band.

The toilets were also so Mexican-y pretty.

Ahoritita vengo !!!

Legend of India

2010-12-07T22:35:00.000-08:00

Spaghetti, chicken nuggets, krispy kreme doughnuts and choco drink_ _ in an Indian resto???

Prior to our recent weekend getaway, we waited for my daughter Marla (who was having 1/2 day classes then) at Legend of India (Makati) and thought of using our super discounted vouchers. Will share you how I got them at the end part of this post.

We already anticipated the not so pro-kids spicy Indian dishes so we brought along kids' foods.

It was a brunch but we were still full from a sweet breakfast at Krispy Kreme coffee shop so we stuck within our voucher budget which was actually equivalent to P1k meal which we purchased for 60% off the real price.

mutton curry ( the best! meat was so tender it melted in the mouth)

chicken curry ( nothing to ravve about, just so so)

pita bread/naan (loveth)

mango yogurt ( uber sweet) drink to combat the spiciness

I was not sure if it was because of our already full tummies before this meal or was serving here were really deceiving. . ?

. . cos husband and daughter even got to share the medium bowls of curries. They just ordered a plate of basmati rice and lunch was done! The chicken curry was even left half full.

As mentioned, here's how I acquired the voucher : it's from Ensogo, Philippines. An online discounted voucher store where I'm purchasing most of my off the price hotel accommodations, salon & spa, foods, etc's. All you have to do is register at their website. As a member you'll be provided/offered daily deals of different products and it's up to you if you would buy .
Like right now, if you want some Italian food, today's deal is :

Today's Deal: P250 for a Taste of Italian Gourmet at Ponticello (valued at P500)

No catch, no cash out for membership. Here's the link, just click it and register :

http://www.ensogo.com.ph/manila/invitation/?s=c024505b9483f1c29329b85855b5118e
Happy saving :)

MXT Tea House, Baguio

2010-12-06T23:15:00.000-08:00

When the weather is cold , everyone likes to sip a hot soup, right? We actually love shabu-shabu (hot pot) and for the second time_ our first lunch in Baguio upon arriving to this chilly city was at MXT Tea House at SM. That would be before checking -in a hotel. I would have had refused the idea of taking lunch there if it wasn't for our cousins from Davao who wanted to try a shabu-shabu for the first time. My issue is that dining at MXT, Baguio is not at all elevated-ly different from eating at MXT, Ongpin (China town,Manila). The issue of hygiene remains. Utensils at their cheapest forms.

We went for all -meat. The other choices were_ seafood and all-vegies.

Since, cuzin Che and I frequent some shabu-shabu houses in Manila, we felt we were experts ( really ???) to teach our older relatives the basics of shabu-shabu.

I only ate a bowl of hot shabu-shabu soup, thinking that the boiling soup would surely kill any living bacteria, in case it's confirmed.

fried chicken

pancit canton

No doubt that MXT dishes are all delicious. But the issue of hygiene kept me away from enjoying the chinese dishes.

As if I was calling for it, after this last photo, we saw a cockroach crawling from a plastic tiny bowl in our table !!! Immediately, I called the attention of the food server. He said nothing. As if it's a normal-daily occurrence, he just took out the said bowl. Nada!
That was it!!! I totally lost my appetite and ran out of the table.