Have you heard of Yamazaki?

Location: Little Tokyo, Pasay Road Makati City

I have to blog about the best fish dish I have had in a long time. I've forgotten the name of the dish, but it starts with S. This is mackerel fish, seasoned with nothing but salt and then fried. It comes as a bento, so you get miso soup, 3 appetizers and a bowl of rice too.


At first, I was looking for some kind of sauce to go with the fish. The appetizers weren't that tasty, and the white thing with the fish is shredded radish which tastes a little sweet but bland on the whole. Eaten alone, the fish didn't have much taste too.

And then I ate it with the Japanese rice. You know how in cartoons or anime, your eyes light up and there's music in the background on the first bite of something divine? Well, that wouldn't be an overstatement. It dawned on me that no matter how fancy restaurants come up with ways to prepare fish and however creative cooking shows try to be, there's no better way to prepare fish than season it with salt and serve it with steaming hot rice. Eating the dish, I was flooded with memories of childhood in the province. When I'm in the province for summer, we ate fried fish everyday with soysauce with vinegar for dipping. My favorites are swordfish, galunggong and dalagang bukid, but later on the cook switched to tamban which I hate because of its hairlike bones. Of course, the fish we had were local, cheap fishes. Now I know stuff like mackerel, salmon, etc. But fancy or not, any fish is noble as food-- after all, wasn't it mentioned in the Bible?

It's sad that we rarely eat fish in the province now. It's been replaced with pork, chicken, beef... all kinds of versions, every meal of everyday. Sometimes granny would make milkfish adobo, but I hate milkfish too. Did our family's taste preference change, or did we just become too indulgent that what were once considered rare pleasures (meat) are now even boring?

I thought I ate a lot after my Yamazaki meal, but looking at the picture now, it's less than what I used to eat as a child. I guess the satisfaction was just so great I easily felt full. By the way, Yamazaki is the grocery where you can find Japanese ice cream, but just a tip: Choto Stop which is at the back sells them cheaper and has a wider selection. Read more

Have you heard of Shanghai-Pulled Noodles?

Location: Retiro

Watch a Shanghaianese make hand-pulled noodles while eating! Currently it has two branches but both of them are in Banawe on the same street. The logic of this escapes me entirely, but what I know is the mother branch across Tasty Dumplings is cramped and has a horrible exhaust system. The branch in Retiro is more decent, plus the Chinese making the noodles is friendlier.

On my first visit I had Chicken Noodles. The chicken component is an entire part, complete with bones, unlike in other noodle houses where it's just sliced chicken meat. The chicken meat was very tasty too, something like adobo without the sourness.

Pictured here is the Beef Noodles. They also have Special Beef Noodles, with the difference of the beef being entire chunks instead of sliced.

I ordered Dumpling Noodles, which was redundant given that we also ordered a side of dumplings (choose between 7 or 14 pieces). In the noodle houses I've been to before, the dumplings are synonymous to siomai. Here, the version of dumplings is exactly like Korean jinmandoo, which can be steamed or fried. True enough, Shanghai-Pulled Noodles also has that option.

For a minute I wondered if the restaurant is cheating and the dumplings were storebought. Visit any Korean or Japanese grocery and you'll see premade dumplings in the frozen section. But I noticed that the dumplings are not perfect; some are misshapen, some are smaller than the others, and some have thicker wanton wrap than others. This means they are not made from a factory.

The noodles are also inconsistent; some strands are thick, some portions are clumped together. To me, this is a novelty and makes the restaurant interesting. I like the idea that a person is really making my food.

Serving portion: huge; the ingredients generous
Service: very good
Interiors: could use some improvement (why are all restaurants nowadays opting for modern, mocha walls, black chairs and couches look??). They should learn from Masuki.

If you insist on going to the mother branch, you have to be forewarned that the chopsticks they provide are like the brother of the toothpick. I had a really hard time because they were too short and thin for the heavy noodles! What a memorable experience.

Read more

Have you heard of Apartment 1B?

Location: One Lafayette, Makati City

This restaurant has had so much publicity for being included in the book Manila's Best Kept Restaurant Secrets. The chef is supposedly a Filipina alumna of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York. I pass this nondescript restaurant everyday going to my office and, having heard so much about it, can't help but take a peek every time. Located at the ground floor of a residential condominium, I read that the owner bought the condo originally to live in but friends kept coming over to eat, so she decided to turn it into a restaurant. It's proven to be a wise decision so far.

Most of the customers are caucasians; a mix of businessmen and tourists. You can find them from brunch until dinner time. What amazes me about this restaurant is it's open from 7:00am until 10:00pm. Usually, a high-end restaurant like this is open only for lunch and dinner. I can see how the operating hours is an advantage, though. It's the only restauarant at 7am that's decent enough to hold breakfast meetings or simply have a gourmet breakfast.

I was finally able to sample Apartment 1B one morning for a breakfast meal. Here are the stuff on the table:

Eggs Benedict with turkey and tomatoes

Apartment 1B is quite notorious for its breakfast menu, particularly the Eggs Benedict. You can choose from ham, turkey and smoked salmon for the topping, with the prices increasing accordingly.

I had a really hard time selecting from the menu. Being a breakfast lover, I wanted everything. The Orange Glazed French Toast with Almond Slices was calling to me, among other yummy sounding items. There's even plain Oatmeal on the menu; perhaps for the elderly customers? At one point I was tempted to order that, but for P200 a bowl? I could already buy a bag of rolled oats and eat it for a year! In the end I went for Egg White with Grilled Vegetables and a side order of Wheat Bread with Jam. We also had brewed coffee, which they make using Vittoria brand.

Egg White with Grilled Vegetables

Wheat Bread with Jam

The verdict

First of all, great service. Nevermind that there was only one other table to serve at that time. The wait staff are corteous and alert. On the serving size, if only we had known that the serving was enormous, we could've split so we'd get to taste other things on the menu. Then again, B isn't a fan of splitting, and I'm happy with what I ordered. On the food itself, B said the hollandaise sauce was good, and I was glad he really enjoyed his order. As for me, just remembering how crisp and fresh the zucchini, lettuce, tomatoes and onions were makes me smile. The scrambled egg white is so creamy you would forget it's healthy. Plus, I didn't need salt in my dish at all. Both items come with baked potatoes on the side. My only beef about the meal was on the wheat bread slices; I like my bread hot when toasted, and still soft in some parts while crunchy on the edges and the center. The wheat bread slices was toasted all over, which made it dry. I didn't care for the coffee much either. I think I ignored it completely as soon as our order came. One last thing to like about this restaurant is the posh restroom located on the second floor.

I noticed that the restaurant is affiliated with the Australian government. They are even promoting an Australia-themed dinner menu which gives you a chance to go to Sydney. It looks like they get their produce and meat from Australia, then.

By the time we left, the restaurant was filled with foreigners and more were coming in. I'd come back here on a good day, or when I want to celebrate something, and probably order a more sinful item. I also want to try their dinner menu, but for now I'll let B relax his wallet a bit.

Read more

Burgerventure continued

That's supposed to be how my burger would look like, except for the tomato. You gotta admit, it is a thing of beauty. http://men.style.com/.../hamburgers/louis-lunch_h.jpg

I got a tip that in order to keep the burger patty juicy you can't-- AT ALL COSTS-- flatten it. I tried to squeeze all the oil and fat out of my burger. B's so competitive that he's going to make burgers on Saturday too, which would bring the tally to 3 burgers in one month! I haven't had more than one burger a month since high school!

Read more

Burgerventure

I made burgers last Saturday. I got this recipe from the Internet; there's a place in the US that makes burgers in this version (white bread slices instead of burger buns). It looked really easy to whip up so I decided to surprise B. What man would say no to a burger, right? The potatoes on the side are oven roasted. It doesn't look very appetizing in the picture. When you don't hang out in the kitchen very often, cooking is not as easy as Food Network chefs makes it look!

Logan County Burger

If you're wondering about the taste, B tells me it's delicious. What makes it good is the cheese--lots of it. I suppose the seasonings used for the patty makes a difference too. Of course, there is a thing or two that can improve it and B says we'll perfect it together. I don't know if it's such a good idea though, as I see it as a personal quest. Then again, he's the one with chef friends.

After class, I met my parents in a mall and the first thing my mom gushed to me was, "I bought you Wham Burger! I didn't know they made delicious burgers!" I had the burger for breakfast the next day. Even though it was microwaved, I could tell its difference with my homemade burger patty. How on earth do they make is so so juicy??! I promise to tell you when I find out. I'll keep you posted!

Read more