Mesa @ Food Street

Here's another restaurant at the Food Street of Southmall_ Mesa. I'm glad dining outlets are now coming here in the South. Unlike before that we had to drive to MOA, Makati, and as far as The Fort or worst to QC, just to dine. No need to frequent BF Homes too, thu' nearer than the mentioned dining places, still Southmall and Alabang Town Center are a lot accessible to where I reside. I'm loving the new wings of these two malls.

It was after the week that I was always running for errands ( per my husband demands, haha) everyday and I was so consumed, I  didn't have the chance to cook decent meals at home for my girls. So they missed home cooked food and wanted to eat Filipino.

We entered Mesa past lunch time and it was still full packed with people still finishing their meals. Luckily there was a single table available for us.

Drinks : buco shake, mango shake & sago gulaman. Everything was refreshingly good as we expected.

Younger daughter had these pork bbq's all to herself.

And more than a cup of garlic rice. I think two cups?

Oh well, need I elaborate more on how she loved the bbq here?

Me and older daughter shared the best pork binagoongan ( shrimp pasted pork, if I may translate. I wonder how you call it in English, haha ) I ever had. It was tasty, tender and the balance of spices were just right.


 We actually rarely eat pork at home. Beef would be once when lucky a week. Fish, chicken and veggies are staple. Pasta frequent more on our table rather than rice, which is I think the culprit of the stubborn fats around my belly and some at my back. Too much carbs! Not even counting the sweets, pastries and lots and lots of sinful doughnuts on a daily basis. So it's given that when we eat out, we have what we deprive ourselves at home _ pork.meat!!!

We also had laing two ways. Both versions were good that for the first time my carnivore younger daughter started to eat laing ( taro leaves in coconut cream) and enjoyed it with her bbq.

The first version was taro leaves in coconut cream topped with adobo ( Filipino style pork stew) flakes. Creamy delicious. Yum!

I was not sure about the difference between the two. Only the other one was creamier than this one, but also good.

Older daughter loved everything, she had extra rice that much! haha. joke. Those were our rice cups all together.



Younger daughter with her plate she had swiftly emptied in a flash, haaha.

But the fact that we ordered for extra cups of rice and that we all had our plates emptied clean, meant we really loved the foods here. Rare!

In less than an hour we were bellyfull and ready to go. The place was now uncrowded and opposite of the scene when we got in.



We only had three dishes from the menu, definitely, we'll comeback for more. I would recommend this restaurant for our "balikbayan" friends/relatives who are missing our homegrown dishes with some twist.

Black Canyon Coffee

The Food Street of Southmall smells laggard in terms of filling in the restaurant spaces along this new wing. With only limited choices, we find ourselves  dining in the same restos.

Black Canyon Coffee is one of them. It is so much more than a coffee shop. It serves Thai cuisine but again not limited to. I browsed over the menu and found it very extensive. From soup to salad to sandwiches to pastas to rice plates to cakes to many other dishes. It's so easy to forget that you are in a coffee shop. I only dined here twice. This was the second.


 

The first time was a month or two ago with my Sydney based girlfriend who loves Thai cuisine. I had a plate of  phad Thai which I liked and a rice plate with spicy shrimp for my friend. Both of us got tall glasses of   fraps. I think mine was chocolate something.  We weren't disappointed..

... So when daughters nudged me to bring them in, I was easy.


 
My girls went straight ordering each a glass of fraps.One got black hazelnut frappe and the other one got black crunch frappe. Both were almost done when their main dishes were served.

green curry stir-fried rice with tuna stuffed in omelette. I was not that keen yet on eating so I thought I would play and try. I got interested with this looong named dish. Nor I'm fond of green curry. I just thought this must be interesting. Looked like it but then I consumed no more than 3 spoonfuls and was done. The tuna tasted nothing fancier than the canned ones. The whole dish was real spicy. I was longing for some detour taste, like a dash of sweetness and a bit of sourness. Perhaps I was just being biased cos before that day I had a Japanese or was it Korean? rice omelet too with seafood on it, topped with mayo dressing which I loved so much.


 

fried prawn with tamarind sauce. This plate was my daughter's. She just ordered a plate of plain rice with it. I got to eat some pieces myself. Breaded prawns were good but the sweet tamarind sauce was kindah new to us. It's the sweet and sour of the Chinese cuisine with a kick of sourness of tamarind.


 
fried fish with kotsu fried rice. This was a hit to my other daughter. She had the plate clean slate  in less than 20 minutes. She always loves fish fillet that's why.

I guess my older daughter enjoyed our meal here, so much so that the following weekend..



... she had her date here with her bestfriend.


 

And guess what they ate --> the fried fish with kotsu fried rice.



For fraps they got cookie & cream frappe and chocolate frappe. good thing beverages here are relatively more affordable than other more popular coffee shop in the metro.

Burgoo

I live in the South (of Mla.) so my SM is the Southmall. Somewhere there, a new food lane is called the  Food Street. Still at the filling-up period, there are yet only less than two digits of restaurants to select from up to this writing. That afternoon, before watching Spiderman (movie) we chose to snack at Burgoo. 

Our first at Burgoo.
Maybe the last too.

Maybe not..

cos we actually like their pizza sampler.



and we enjoyed the freedom table where we aptly drew and wrote our von voyage messages to the king of our home who was about to fly in the next few days then.

but thumbs down to the rest of the dishes in our table =( buffalo wings, quesadilla platter, fries and a pasta not in the photos cos it was served late. In this category, Don Henricos is a lot better.

TD (thumbsdown) also for the value of money.
Maybe it was our 1st & last.



Smileys for the attentive servers and good ambience :)

Lotte 3

 Reasons why we return to a restaurant :

• was satisfied on previous experience 
• satisfied and wanted to try more of  other dishes in the menu
• forgot a cellfone
• others  

Once again I found myself dining in Lotte Seafood , not because of reasons 1,2 & 3 but of others. You see I dined here twice and got a totally opposite episodes, see here and here . Going back to why I came back, despite of my last visit which was not so alluring experience of the resto, the fact remains_ 24/7 restos are so scarce in my little city and this one is the nearest one to my house. Cousin from Davao was visiting then and we came from a long day of shopping/city tour and it was nearing midnight and yes we were hungry!

Ofcourse, we reminded the same staff of our unsatisfying last time and asked if the odd chef in the night shift was still there. Luckily, the culprit was no longer connected with the Taiwanese resto.

We ordered the same familiar Chinese dishes. The ones we already tried and enjoyed.






Our favorite dimsums.



Have to special mention that  these spare ribs were delicious.



Also tried some new dishes in my food dict.

Like this radish cake which I only first tasted here and well, guess fair enough to say_ is enough reason to give the resto another chance.



And this machang which I found delectable than other machang I had tried and discarded as not to be included in my favorite list to eat.

Food at Lotte are actually delicious and reasonable  but the thing is the resto seems not yet kicking-in to the mainstream. It stays uncrowded and well, that's another reason of going there. Expect service that is quick and attentive and owning the place all to yourself. Isn't that great?

Milky Way

We entered Milky Way and my girls blurted : "mom, inuman yata ito !" (looks like a beer joint). I said no. It used to be famous for good food when I was younger. You mean, you were already eating here in the 50's? Excuse meeeh! I wasn't even born then yet !






But when I checked the menu, no recall of good food . Had I really eaten in Milky Way in my younger years?




The girls cut me and ordered easy : barbecues. J wanted a plate of sisig and some veggies for me- lumpiang ubod.

J liked the sisig

bbqs - too salty for the girls, they didn't finish them

lumpiang ubod was okey for me

lame dinner scene in this side of Las Pinas

It had been a long day for us. Maybe next time, we'll come back to try their specialties. Just so I could recall my past with Milky Way.