Tasty Porkchop

Location: Retiro, Quezon City

Tasty Dumplings is not popular for its dumplings, but for its porkchop. Pounded until paper thin, breaded and then deep friend, the porkchop is served with a special sauce that's thin, rather on the sweet side, and salty. This porkchop is lethal and is the way to any man's heart. Trust me. Learn to cook this and guys will be begging for your hand after two forkfuls.

When I ate here with B, I could barely get two sentences straight out of him. Just watch out, the establishment leaves a greasy, fryer smell on your hair and clothes. To keep the mood romantic, try spraying water mist around your table from time to time. Of course I didn't try that so I'm not sure if it works. There's also sitting close to a fan or direct path of an air conditioner.

Tasty Dumplings is a cheap eat that lets you have your comfort food whatever day of the week. The original branch is in Binondo which is bigger. What I don't care for about this restaurant is the shabby upkeeping of its comfort rooms. When I think of Tasty Dumplings, the next thing that comes to mind is the grimy comfort room at the second floor, which is totally negligible if you're not sensitive, but which makes you wonder what kind of hands pounded your pork, or what really makes the Wintermelon flavor in your drink, and what is special in the special sauce...

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Banapple

Location: Il Terrazzo, Tomas Morato, Quezon City

The craze with banoffie pies began when Starbucks came out with them several years back. Since then, every pastry shop has come up with its own version. I admit that I've always been partial with pioneers, so to me the rest of them would always be copycats, no matter how much better they improvise on the original.

I liked Starbucks banoffie pie, although I could never finish an entire pie. I've tasted Red Ribbon's version, which was an utter embarassment to the kingdom of banoffie pies. Red Ribbon's bakers seem to be the diabetics' nemeses, churning out new flavors of cake for every marketable occasion. While the effort is impressive, the taste of the cakes are not. If this goes on, pretty soon Red Ribbon will have to give up its restaurant business to display all its cakes. Come to think of it, that might not be such a bad idea. Good riddance.

Wait, I shouldn't be talking about Red Ribbon. The focus of this review is a pastry shop that's been getting a lot of attention lately, Banapple. I didn't really get to taste the banoffie pie pictured above. But I appreciate the thick chocolate shavings falling beautifully on the white, white whipped cream, and the chunks of bananas filling up the pie. Ok, I did have one bite. Who would be able to resist? The banoffie pie isn't as sweet as the Starbucks version, although I couldn't get the 'offie' in the banoffie. Is 'offie' supposed to be toffee, or coffee? Since Starbucks put it out first, I'm guessing it's the latter, but you never know with the way these behemoths play with us consumers. It's a huge slice, but eating it all won't make you feel as guilty as eating Starbucks banoffie pie, because it has less caramel and there isn't a block of chocolate lodged at the center of the pie that's a pleasant surprise when you don't know it's there. The Banapple banoffie pie has thicker crust, so in essence you feel like you're eating three things: whipped cream on top of bananas on top of crushed graham. The chocolate only registers at the end, and the syrup decorating the plate is nasty Hershey's chocolate syrup. I hate that stuff.

No, I didn't go to Banapple just to taste a forkful of the famous banoffie pie and stare at it hoping it'll reveal its deepest secrets to me. I did actually order a giant Oatmeal POWER Cookie.

I'm not sure why they called it a Power cookie, except maybe to credit your willpower in picking the healthiest and most awful baked item on the menu. As huge as my hand, the cookie is served warm and drizzled with the Hershey's chocolate syrup. It's not very sweet, kind chewy, and every bite is hard to swallow. It's a good punishment for a badly behaving child. Sample Banapple's other delectable desserts like the White Chocolate Truffle Cake while s/he watches as you lick icing off your spoon, and his/her sister makes a mess out of chocolate and whipped cream. If s/he is still behaving badly, tell him/her that s/he will never taste a real cookie again.

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Our new favorite carinderia

Location: Buendia, Makati City


The names Petra and Pilar have never sounded so classy until they were slapped on a restaurant with contemporary interiors and cozy ambiance. Carinderias have never been so hip either, until one started catering to executives and the uppity Makati crowd. I've read about Petra and Pilar in society magazines from whence I also read about Apartment 1B. Nothing about the articles enticed me to pay it a visit, however, as I'm not a fan of lutongbahay cuisine in general. If I wanted to lutongbahay, I would eat at home.

So it was generally a surprise to find myself in front of the restaurant one very early Tuesday morning. We were looking for a new breakfast fare, as we're tired of UCC and the default McDo option. The newly constructed Petra and Pilar, as it turns out, is right across one of my company's Internet cafe branches along Buendia. We were the first customers to arrive for the day, so I was able to appreciate the spacious parking and impressive size of the restaurant. A portion of the place is a deli where imported canned goods, meats and wine are sold. P&P also has its own line of deli stuff, although I can't remember clearly. Seriously, my memory's turned so bad I sometimes forget my cellphone number.

As in the ordinary carinderia, the food are lined up on one side and you point which viand you want. The waitress simultaneously scoops up your order and passes it to the kitchen to be heated. At the end of the food row is the huge bowl of black gulaman--a classic!-- and the cash register. Then you sit down and wait for the servers to bring the food to your table. Since it was only 7am, there were no viands yet and the breakfast menu consisted of tapsilog, longsilog, etc. We ordered tocino and corned beef, and a side of longanisa. The drinks are not part of the meal, and you can get a banana if you like.


I would like to praise P&P for a lot of things, not the least of which are the excellent wait staff, clean (and nice!) comfort room and the huge servings. But if you ask me how I found P&P, I would first harp about how cheap the food are. We only spent less than P180 for everything. Considering the size of the place, the prominent location, and the fact that it is owned by the wife of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, with Petra and Pilar being the names of the couple's mothers, it seems like a humble endeavor to make high quality home cooking accessible to everyone.

We were quite satisfied with our food-- although the corned beef was from a can, it's P&P's own concoction, and the beef shreds are longer with less fat, unlike what you get from grocery bought corned beef. The longanisa had a very strong spicy, sweet taste, which overwhelmed everything else. It's good to eat with lots of rice.

Although the novel idea was to offer affordable homecooking served sosyal style, most of the restaurant crowd still comprised of senior executives, and rich looking matronas. Ok you didn't hear that from me. I observed this when we came back for lunch a couple of weeks later. P&P's lunch offerings are P100+ a viand (except for simple things like lumpia or vegetables). This is still inexpensive as the serving of one viand is big enough to share. The unique thing about P&P is it has a special viand for each day of the week. On Tuesdays like the day we went, the specialty is Cebu lechon. P200/order is steep, but if you consider that it can be shared, and that it's Cebu lechon, after all, it's not so bad. I'm not sure if it was lechon shipped from Cebu, or lechon cooked like they do in Cebu, but I noticed the difference from normal lechon. It was juicy, soft and tasty without the sauce. If it had been shipped from Cebu, the pork skin was too crunchy to tell.

Petra and Pilar made a good impression on me, but it's unlikely that I'll be craving for it. I imagine the times I would choose to eat there to be when I want someone to try it, or if I'm in the area. I heard that their cheesecake is really good, so maybe I'll try that when I go back. Read more