Metro Gourmet

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

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

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

And since I patronize their deli products...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crisostomo @ ATC

Here's another themed resto at the relatively ( I had to add the word cos I've been referring to it as new for quite sometime now, haha) new wing of Alabang Town Center (ATC). Crisostomo is very Noli Me Tangere/El Filibusterismo. 

Quite detailed, if I may. Check the name of our waiter_ Tiburcio! I checked other servers and all the names I remembered from Noli and Fili.

Browsing the menu, you get_ (samples) from the vegetable section : Noli Me Talong, Pilosopong Pinakbet, Okra Clara. (samples) from the meat section : Tadyang ni Tiago, Mechado ala Bonifacio, Crispin at Basilio. (samples) from the salad section : Ensaladang Erehe, Crazy Sisa Squid... and many many other interesting entree names.



Lots of them but only two made it to our table. We were there to fill up our ranting stomach, it was just a random lunch. Not for degustation event, haha. We didn't order drink from here even. My girls bought their milk teas outside ( I think Gong-Cha?) which the resto kindly allowed.

kkk bbq. whatelse.is.new? You can browse all my pinoy resto posts here and always my younger daughter orders bbq. Call it deprivation. At home we rarely have bbq, if ever, it must be a take out from a certain resto. So when we eat outside. definitely she bbqued!
This one she loved big time. Just like the rest of the bbq's, haha.

kare-kare kura. ok, you may do the same as I mentioned above ( browse my archive, haha), to find out that kare-kare is another default dish we have when we eat filipino outside. Especially, this time around that I intentionally not cooking this favorite at home. Cos we are so "only 3 eating".
We enjoyed this kare-kare, we ordered for more rice. But we always like kare-kare. In this town, you would rarely find bad kare-kare.



When we are hungry like that, we play safe. Like we order dishes that we already know would serve us right, no matter what.

Given more space, the detailing of Crisostomo would surely be more interesting.



Detailed even more_ this is the bill holder. nice or what?

Stackers Burger Cafe

Lately I just let  my always- hungry-whenever-in-a-mall younger daughter leads where to eat. Oblivious of  where we were at, it was too late to back out when I realized that she brought us in a burger joint! Again!

Younger daughter was triumphant! She loves burger. Just like her dad. Older daughter doesn't. Me neither.

We were at Stackers Burger Cafe at the new wing of ATC. Meat here is supposedly 100% Aussie beef.



Younger daughter ofcourse had a cheeseburger. I was happy to see some greens peeping out of her sandwich. This daughter doesn't eat veggies but somehow could tolerate some greens when in a burger. I took a small bite, just so I would have a taste of the claimed 100% Australian beef. Hmm, I like McDo better, haha. Trust me not about burgers, I rarely have them.

O.daughter was glad to see some chicken in the menu and twice glad that the chicken is baked. She's starting to think healthy about her diet. She's 18. My influence ofcourse:)))

If y.daughter loves burger, o.daughter is a fried chicken addict. The loophole in her trying-to-be-a-healthy diet. She said nothing so spectacular about the chicken here except that it's baked. Must be healthier than the fried ones.

Fries/chips. Another weakness of o.daughter that destabilize her will for a healthy diet. She always have them with chicken. I grabbed some pieces and well they were good alright. Must be the chives toppings.

I asked the waiter for the best seller salad. He suggested this burger bowl. Oops, I was willingly cheated  to have a quarter pound patty on a bed of greens. I had Bbq Burger Salad.

Immediately the wanton chip toppings disappointed me. I hate them on salad. The dressing was also too much for me. The burger was quite big for my small burger appetite. In short, I didn't like the salad. And the quarter pounder with it. I only had eaten the greens and left the rest. Wasted. This is what happen when I'm not keen on choosing where to eat.



Anyway, I checked my girls and they seemed to enjoy their plates.



Especially their milk shakes.

Banapple

Me and my girls are loving the new wing of Alabang Town Center. It got lots of restaurant outlets that are yet rarely found in the South, which most of them have already been around the metro for quite sometime. You know, #suburbs_ we're a tad late here. For this particular weekend, we had our eyes at Banapple. We had passed by it many times  and always jam packed inside. We're not  fans of queue and overcrowded diners, but we almost had tried every outlet there at the new wing and Banapple was still full. We decided to try it anyway and not bad in a minute we were offered a table.

The only table left was in the middle, which we hated..

The interior thu' limited in space, was nice with its homey-country design.

Younger daughter wasn't so happy about the long wait for the food we ordered.



So when the food came.. she quickly took the utensil and started her dish..haha.

chicken breast parmigiano. We were not yet familiar with the menu, and just ordered what initially took our fancy. This was my youngest's. I had a spoonful taste of it and it was yummy. The sauce was particularly tasty and I bet would be perfect to top on any pasta but quite well with the chicken and rice too. The buttered carrots were left untouched.

bacon fried chicken steaks with milk'sroom gravy. This plate was the older sister's. I also tasted it but by now have no recollection of it. I just remember, daughter hadn't finished it and seemed to have regret for choosing this dish.



asian sunshine salad. This was my plate. The dressing I didn't like. It was honey sesame oil. I don't know, some variants of sesame dressings are my favorites. Theirs_ not my type.

Ordinarily, a plate of green salad like this would be enough to fill me up on lunch or dinner. It's already a whole meal to me and would just indulge on desserts. But this particular salad plate failed me. I didn't finish it. Aside from the salad dressing I hated, I didn't like the wonton skin toppings. It ruined the freshness of the greens.



fudgymudgymud pie. Cos the name was so catchy, the girls ordered this but  failed to finish too. The slice was huge for this rich creamy pie to finish in one sitting..



cherry chocolate truffle cheesecake. I love anything with cherry and this I shared witht he girls but neither finished this too. Everything here was big serving for our preferred portion.



When cheese pie craving hits us next, maybe we'll go at Banapple to grab a slice or a box of their pastries, but maybe we'll skip their main dishes.

Mochi Craze

I'm not sure when these cute cold yummy balls started to roll in Ph shores, but I noticed my own girls had this "mochi craze" begun when they first saw the cute Japanese kiosk at SM and bought their first mochis. That was not too long ago, about only 2-3 months ago_ at the height of the heavy daily rain pours. Both (the heavy rain and my girls mochi fever) still ongoing til' this day. They never get to miss to buy each a mochi or two while malling no matter how cold the weather get.

Mochi ice cream is basically a rice cake filled with it seems one scoop of ice cream. It's one convenient way to eat ice cream sans the drippings out of the conventional scoop on a cone. Plus it's a Japanese origin, nothing is less.

Neither I'm sure if it's the same dish as the tempura ice cream I saw my brother indulging at Sakae Sushi one time. Somehow, related I guess. But the tempura ice cream is being served hot from the pan. The mochi is cold inside and out. Only both are covered with batter.

Mochi is a great on the go ice cream. It's round, small, solid ball that one could easily bite into while strolling.  A sit down is not necessary but if you want to enjoy a company while biting on this creamy cold dessert, go ahead, the pleasure is yours. By now I see a number of mochi ice cream parlors around the city.






Besides, these mochi kiosks and parlors are too cute to ignore. We couldn't resist the pinkness of Mochiko (at ATC, Alabang). Girls couldn't say no to pink. Can you?



These "lucky cats", don't know the proper name, on the walls are pure cuteness.

The pink full bodied, quilted seat is just so inviting to sit on to enjoy your mochi.



We actually like Mochiko quite better than the other brand at SM. it's bigger also. Although it's more expensive like P10 to P20 more than the other one. So far we only got to taste those two brands of mochi here at Ph.