Sambokojin

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



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




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




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

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

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




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

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

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




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




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

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




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

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

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

Cafe Mary Grace

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

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




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




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




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

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

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

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

Almon Marina

Happy CNY2013!!!

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

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

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




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

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




younger daughter's plate

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




older daughter

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

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




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

Belated Happy CNY !!!

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.