Assam Milk Tea

... is good. It's very very good. I have never tasted milk tea as refreshing as this. Assam Milk Tea is a product of Indonesia and is among the many beverages with labels I can't for the life of me translate stacked in Thaiki grocery, the biggest Asian supermarket in Sydney. Thaiki has everything, well, Asian, including the infamous weird Kit Kat flavors of Japan as well as Jack and Jill chips of the Philippines.

I was in Chinatown looking for pork floss-- one of the rare instances I want something made in China, but all I could find were made in Thailand. My Indonesian friend took me to Thaiki but it was no different. Aside from not trusting Thai made pork floss, they are absurdly expensive at $7 per air-filled bag.

I didn't want to leave the grocery empty-handed, having dragged my Indonesian friend all the way there. I was going to get an aloe vera drink when he recommended the milk tea. I was persuaded so I bought one plus a wintermelon drink in tetra pack out of curiosity.

Instead of plain milky tea, Assam Milk Tea has a melon-y/apple-y taste that makes you sip nonstop. It's not as creamy as those found in Chinese restaurants and Lipton's tend to be, and just lightly sweet. I imagine it to be good with any food whether sweet or salty, but only when it's properly chilled.

The tetra pack is a hefty square that's bigger than those I'm used to at home. You can see from the packaging that it passes itself as something for the lifestyle. It's sizeable enough for the office coffee break or to tide one over before lunch or dinner. I'm just not sure about the actual tea content though. I never really got the point of milk in tea and I like mine plain, preferably green. The more awful it tastes, the more healthfully beneficial I imagine it to be. I just thought it's how things work. But if I'm looking for a creamy dessert-like drink that's cheap and not as heavy as the fresh milk laden gourmet coffee, I certainly might consider Assam Milk Tea.

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Uncle Tobys Plus Fiber Lift

I've decided to sample this cereal after my affair with Kellog's All Bran Dual. Uncle Toby's Plus Fiber Lift has 472 kJ (112 kcal) and 6.2g fiber per serving, the lowest calorie containing cereal with the highest fiber content by proportion that I've seen in the grocery aisles so far.

Uncle Tobys is an Australian company with a long history beginning in 1861. It passed hands from one mammoth company to the next until it was acquired by Nestle Australia in 2006. It produces all types of products made of grain such as oats, energy bars, cereals, and even popcorn. Uncle Tobys produces an overwhelming variety of fruit and grain cereals, with names that specify the exact health benefit like Fibre Lift, Protein Lift, Sports Lift, Antioxidant Lift and Omega 3 Lift.

Plus Fiber Lift is a mixture of different grains. Apart from the bran which is the tiny stick like pieces, I recognize rice and corn flakes. This tastes okay with definitely more variety of textures. But it doesn't compare to All-Bran Dual for some reason. The Brits and Aussies call raisins sultanas. Each raisin in this cereal is an explosion of sweetness and overdone chewiness. I wish it were more sour-sweet than just sweet. The apple bits are smaller and hardly significant. Still, the proportion of calories and fiber is quite good for all the ingredients it contains.

Uncle Tobys Plus Fiber Lift is also an effective crap inducer, but the timing isn't as predictable as All Bran Dual. Because I like it enough except for the raisins, it gave me a brilliant idea. Next time, I'll buy bran that's cheaply sold in homebrand packaging (think Bonus for SM Supermarkets) and buy a box of raisins. Then I can mix them however I want, and even throw in pieces of banana. Brilliant? I think it's genius.

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Kellog's All-Bran Dual

My favorite meal is breakfast. In the bleakest of mornings, the thought of my first meal for the day gets me out of bed and ready in no time. Experts say breakfast should provide for most calories consumed in a day. That's an excuse for filling up, and with the endless yummy options one is faced with, it seems like the easiest undertaking that's hard to pass up.

Because breakfast s the most important meal of the day, I make it a point to choose the healthiest alternative out there. My default choice is any variety of wholegrain cereal that helps with digestion, or more precisely, bran. A lot of people find that strange, especially since bran is associated with middle-aged men with cholesterol problems, but even among that demographic you can't call it popular. I don't like bran but I do like the feeling after cleaning my bowels. Like exercise and bitter gourd, there are some things we just have to tolerate.

I am guilty of taking the longest time in the cereal aisle of the supermarket because I find fascination in the discrepancy between packaging and the nutritional label contents. As far as my hunt is concerned, I've come to the conclusion that Kellog's All -Bran Dual is the best deal there is in Sydney supermarkets. Although a little high on the calorie mark at 580kJ (138 kcal) per serve due mainly to the addition of apple pieces, this cereal tastes better than any bran variety I've tried. Plain bran cereals range from 90-110 kcal and pack 11g fiber per serving, with the tradeoff of tasting like cut up bits of carton and the tendency to scratch at the throat when swallowed. Considering the slight decrease of fiber content at 8g per serve, the additional calories in All-Bran Dual is forgivable in exchange for a wholesome experience that's actually enjoyable. It's virtuous, even, compared with "healthy" cereals that have everything on it-- gains, fruits and nuts-- that are admittedly yummy at 200 kcal per serve and yet only has 1.5-3g of fiber, some even less.

The pieces of cereal come in a granular shape that hold well in milk. They get soggy less quickly and when they do, they don't form into clumps that resemble wet, brown sand. The white bits are the apple pieces. The smoothness and chewy texture balance the dry, grainy bran pieces, and together they give a subtle sweet taste that's really good with milk.

The packaging says the Kellog's All-Bran Dual contains "Insoluble fibre to help cleanse your insides, [and] natural plant based insulin to help nourish the good bugs." I'm happy to report that it lives up to its promise, as I find myself wanting to take a crap by late afternoon when I eat a small bowl of this in the morning. I think this is real good value for my money. I know that it's unfair to base the healthiness of cereals on fiber content alone and that varieties with fruits and nuts have vitamins and minerals that plain bran types lack. I know, and I don't care. That's why I take other vitamin supplements.

I've had this cereal in the pantry for more than three weeks, and it's given me about 16 bowls of satisfactory breakfast. The second picture above is actually the last of it, which made me a little sad yesterday when I found out. Fortunately, there's literally more where that came from, but I think I'm going to try other cereals for a while while I'm here. I might hoard several boxes before coming home, though. And establishing a Bran Fan Club, who knows, I might get to sell some.

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Lunch at Hyde Park

This is my favorite ice cream growing up. Its mysterious disappearance broke my heart but I never gave up the hope of finding it again... to have another chance at sinking my teeth from the soft, chewy chocolate cookie sandwich exterior into the smooth, cold vanilla ice cream within.

If you liked Maxibon as much I did, you will know what makes this ice cream lovable: its ingenious dual personality. One slab of vanilla ice cream is dressed up in two ways: one half is an ice cream sandwich, while the other half is classically coated with chocolate and rice crispies. Two treats in one!

It's still as good as I remember it. My last recollection of the ice cream's presence in the Philippines is a Maxibon eating competition that was televised, and which I have always regretted not joining. I don't remember the price then, but here in Australia at AUD$3.95 (convenience store price; it's cheaper in the supermarket but they sell it by boxes), this indulgence is a luxury indeed.

A Hungry Jack's Grilled Chicken Burger completed my lunch. Hungry Jack's is an Australian fast food chain with offerings not unlike Burger King. It is the local competitor of McDonald's, much like Jollibee keeps the foreign company from dominating the fast food industry in the Philippines.

This burger has grilled chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, cabbage, and what tasted like wasabi mayo dressing. As you can see, the chicken is practically spilling out of the burger, and I could tell that it's real chicken breast. As for the greasiness, it's only detectable on the inside of the bottom bun where the chicken rested. The tomato tasted fresh and juicy, and the wasabi mayo was a pleasant surprise. I thought McD's bun tasted better though, but aside from that I was pretty happy with this burger.

I missed having lunch in a park which I often did when I was working in Makati. Hyde Park was my solace today as I took my late late lunch. I sat in a bench facing St. Peter's Cathedral, keeping myself exposed to the afternoon sun as much as possible. I felt at home with tourists from all nations taking photos of each other. I'd like to say it went without incident, but that's another story which you can read in my other blog.

A Monday that feels like a Sunday. Now that's a first.

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To You Milk Chocolate

I got this from one our company Directors while I was helping him list down the things to move out from his condo. He gave me this plus a couple of Korean instant rice toppings and a Korean SPAM. I don't want to think about how long this chocolate had been sitting in his fridge; the expiration date tells me it's good until next year anyhow.

Last Sunday, hit by nostalgia on high school days, I decided to sample it while snuggled comfortably with a comic book. The name of the chocolate, as seen on the packaging, is To You. It has an equivalent in Korean character, which you will see on the upper right above the product's name. The package says it's "rich taste milk chocolate" which isn't very promising, so I didn't have very high expectations about this. At first I thought the thing beside the name is some sort of nut, but since the chocolate bar didn't have any nuts when I opened it, I concluded that it must be cocoa.

I can imagine how this product must be doing poorly even in Korea beside its peers. The packaging makes me fall asleep. The colors-- red, black and gold-- are so standard, as well as the typography of the product name that the person managing this product must be an old fart without imagination, who doesn't go out and watches TV all day long on his day off, or a young fart without imagination, who doesn't go out and accompanies his granpa watch TV all day long on his day off. The only thing I can credit this product for is the name, which I think is genius. Imagine all the ads you can make with that.

The chocolate bar is in a gold foil wrapping which, I found unhappily, was lined with plastic. The presence of the plastic provided a bit of struggle when uncovering the chocolate. Chocolate in foil wrapper is equivalent to delicious body clad in easy-tear clothing. It's a seduction ploy. The brief difficulty in tearing off the gold foil in this chocolate turned me off. The only thing that kept me going was the rich smell of milk chocolate that promised "rich taste milk chocolate".

There are about 12 chocolate squares in the entire thing. Each square is stenciled with the manufacturer's name, Orion. The squares don't break off cleanly, which could mean lack of milk butter or too much sugar. I took a square and noticed how quickly it melted in my warm fingers. When I eat chocolate, I do it painfully slow to savor the taste. I like to roll it in my mouth and feel it slide smoothly down my throat, with the bitter taste of cocoa still in my tastebuds. That said, I'd enjoy this quick-melting bar as much as I'd enjoy being left with sticky hands, brown smudges around my mouth and chocolate dribble on my shirt. As for the taste, this product is pretty decent. It's not too creamy although it's very sweet. I was satiated with three squares and stored the rest for later.

I think Orion is a big snack manufacturer in Korea, but in the sense that it rips off all of Lotte's products. I've seen some of its reproductions in the local supermarket, and the difference in quality is pretty obvious from the packaging. I wonder what Lotte's version of this chocolate is named... For You? I'd leave the rest of the bar in the fridge and wait for someone to snap it up, but that's if it looked snappable. As it is, I need to shove it to my kid bro who couldn't distinguish Goya from truffle.

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Tea beverage looking tea beverage

I saw this in my local 7-11 outlet and thought, Hey this must be healthy. I should get this rather than some sugary drink for my morning dose of caffeine. The picture on the packaging indicates that it's some sort of tea beverage. Compared to other tea beverages on the freezer section, the large size of the bottle at P30+ and authentic looking packaging made it seem like a winner.

I like tea. I drink oolong and green tea whenever I have the chance to, and we have a good stock of tea bags at home. But I drink my tea hot and in tiny cups, because I think you end up drinking more that way rather than in mugs. I don't know why I expected this drink to taste good. Probably because I got it in the convenience store, and everybody knows what you get in a convenience store should be something comforting.

When I took a sip, I tasted the tea, all right. Cold tea and nothing more. I wanted to kick myself for expecting it to be sweet, and because I'm the sort who would remedy a disappointing situation however she could, I put brown sugar to make it better.

The good news is, it took me a whole day to finish a bottle. I actually saved money for not having to run a second time to the store. It does taste like real tea and bearable on its own (without additional effort of sugar or cream) when iced cold. I could even convince myself that I'm getting the antioxidants I need. The bad news is, it's made in China and I can't read the ingredients list. Needless to say, I've turned a blind eye to this product and its many variants. Oh heck I just realized I didn't check the expiration date, which is the only thing I would've been able to understand.

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Chelsea's lunchienda

Saturday is perfect for a trip to Serendra. I always associate Serendra and High Street with a sunny Saturday and pet dogs. Maybe later when I enter a parental state of mind, I will associate it with a sunny Saturday and tiny kids.

Saturday in Serendra is made more perfect with lunchienda at Chelsea's Market Cafe. Lunchienda stands for lunch + merienda, or late late lunch. We picked a table by the window in order to people-watch. The nice thing about being in Serendra in between meal times is there aren't many people which makes people-watching easier, and the people tend to be interesting since interesting people don't follow regular meal times. I spotted my film professor on what looked like a brainstorming meeting, and model Isabel Roces that afternoon. Because she was there eating stuff that came from the same menu, and even ordered dessert no less, I felt less bad about finishing my order that turned out to be enormous.

I like restaurants that give bread baskets. For some reason I've come to take it forgranted that I get surprised when a restaurant I'm in doesn't have it, and I have to remember where I am to appease my disappointment. Probably due to hunger, I don't remember what Chelsea's bread basket came with, but I do remember that there's nothing worth mentioning about it.

What's worth mentioning are the steep prices on the menu. After reviewing it, B and I agreed that we should've gone to Mamou instead. Of course, we didn't know how big the servings were at the time, but taste-wise, it's still not justified. I ordered the vegetarian sandwich which was rye bread with roasted eggplant, peppers, mushrooms, onion, lettuce and feta cheese. It came with potato wedges, salad and couscous. B ordered eggs benedict sandwich with turkey ham, which was topped with asparagus, and came with potato wedeges and a salad as well.



Since I like vegetarian sandwiches in general, I enjoyed my meal as I usually enjoy vegetarian sandwiches. I realized, however, that it's time to move on to other types of sandwich as I tend to fall back on the vegetarian everytime. The couscous salad was ok; its lemony flavor providing a nice balance to the rather oily sandwich. The potato wedges were thickly sliced and plenty, and I ate about a third because I wanted to get the most out of my money. The entire thing is about Php 350. B said his eggs benedict were so-so, but there was something about the hollandaise that he didn't like. His order was Php 450+.

We were so full after the meal so we walked around Serendra and along High Street. The place started to get full around 5pm. Chelsea's dishes are most likely loaded with MSG as we got awfully thirsty a few hours later. The next day, B and I discovered that we could've gotten an appetizer or a dessert for free with his Amex card at Chelsea's. Normally, we'd shrug and say, "Oh well, next time." Although I'd look back on our lunchienda fondly (the place does have a relaxing and perfect-for-brunch ambiance), next time wouldn't be anytime soon.

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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

Does cream puff make you happy?

Few things sound more succulent than "cream puff". One can almost taste the custard and smell buttery goodness upon hearing those two words. I'm not a big fan of cream puffs because I don't like caramel, and cream puffs here are smothered with it. A Japanese style cream puff store goes against the customary version, though, offering light as air puffs filled with moderately sweet and equally light custard inside. Introducing Happy Cream Puff.

I read somewhere that this is owned by a Japanese couple whose first venture is somewhere in the south. They recently opened a store in Makati (near New Bombay, which is how I stumbled into said establishment) for a bigger market.

There are so many varieties to choose from. The small cream puffs are P20 apiece, and range from original (sugar coated) to more exotic ones like cocoa power and dark chocolate with almond. We tried the dark chocolate with almond and white cholocate.

The flavors aren't so present; the chocolate doesn't taste like chocolate-- just cheap flavor coating of some sort. Then again, perhaps it needs to be sweeter to make the flavor distinct. Since the puff is not sweet and filling isn't thick, you won't feel so guilty afterwards. This isn't necessarily a good thing, since the tendency is to go for another piece because you didn't feel that heaviness which desserts provide to signal the end of a meal. For curiosity's sake, I'd say P20 is cheap, but for how it tasted, it's too expensive. Good thing I'm still not a fan of cream puffs.

The bigger cream puffs are P35 apiece. There are also elongated varieties such as the eclair, and cream puffs with whipped cream and fruits. Apparently, the Japanese like their puffs with whipped cream. It's good to know there's this Japanese variety for people to try (cultural enlightenment, people!). I''m sure Beard Papa isn't too happy about the news of competition though, as it doesn't seem to be doing well as it is.

You can buy a box of assorted cream puffs for P180, or opt for one flavor in boxes of 3, 6(?) or 8. I get why it's called Happy Cream Puff. Just look at that picture! Anyone who receives this box as a pasalubong won't be able to help but smile.

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New Bombay I love

Oh I'm loving Indian food. On any given bad day, pop the thought of naan into my head and I'm ok. But you better buy me dinner at New Bombay.

I love spices; I love spicy food. Thai and Indian restaurants thrill me because I get cultural enlightenment aside from guttural satisfaction. Pictured above is the Non-Vegerarian Tandoori Platter of New Bombay, Yuchengco Museum branch. You get this plate that can be shared by three people for only P500 bucks! I can't believe how cheap it is, considering the prime location and nice interiors. The plate is a smorgasbord of chicken, mutton, fish and prawn, all cooked in tandoori. I thought the quantity meant quality would suffer, but I was delightedly wrong!

Just look at the beautiful colors on this plate:

It makes me want to run to New Bombay right now.

What made me fall in love with the restaurant, though, is really the breads. The naans and chapati are HUGE, and for only P55-P70. Other Indian restaurants only offer half the size of bread for the same price.

An Indian manager supervises the operations. Come 7pm, expect the place to be filled by Indian expats and office workers from buildings nearby. It's one of the cleaner Indian restaurants with good exhaust system (a very important consideration for me) out there. It's also very convenient to commute from the restaurant as buses stop right in front of it crossing Ayala straight to Buendia. The only thing I don't like about this restaurant is the walls are all clear glass, so everybody can see you from outside from any angle. I was extremely self-conscious as first, but when I got my hands on the warm chapati and my tastebuds were swimming with the smokey, spicy flavor of tandoori and curry, everything else didn't matter. After all, authentic Indian eating is all about the mess-- they don't even use utensils to scoop curry!

P.S. I watched Slumdog Millionaire that night in a totally non-related impulse. Or was it?

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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Ice cream!

It's Chinese New Year today but I'm going to make a quick post about Japanese ice cream! Have you had Japanese ice cream? There is a quaint Japanese grocery store in Little Tokyo that sells five types of ice cream. I just had to try the red bean or azuki flavored ice cream sandwich, as seen in the pictures below.

Hokkaido Azuki Monaka by Lotte

Vanilla Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich by Morinaga

Among the deserts being sold in the frozen section is shaved ice with azuki in a cute cup. It comes in three flavors: milk, green tea and regular ice. If you're opting for something lighter than ice cream, that's definitely for you. The goods are pricey though, ranging from P78 to P90. If you want more selection, go to a Korean grocery instead. Their ice cream are really REALLY good. Prices aren't bad too, starting at P38 for a popsicle stick.

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Have you heard of Bizu?

Location: Greenhills Promenade

Of course you've heard of Bizu. If you haven't you must be living under a rock. Or you don't care for desert. Either way, it's a shame.

I was never tempted to enter a Bizu establishment because I'm not one to indulge on cakes. I always felt the place is too extravagant to visit without a special occasion, and of course I'm too cheap. The special occasion arrived yesterday, and without planning it I found myself inside the bright, homey interior of Bizu Patisserie's branch in Greenhills. I was surprised to know that Bizu is open until 2:00AM on Fridays and Saturdays, and with good reason as I found out soon enough.

We arrived at Bizu past 10:00PM. The original plan was to head straight for desert, but I haven't had dinner so I decided to order an appetizer.

Hors d ' Oeuvres Sampler

The Hors d'Oeuvres Sampler consists of mushroom duxelle in vol-au-vent, prawn cakes, caramelized apples and brie croute and grilled feta, olives and cherry tomato skewer. We were also served complimentary bread basket, but it was dry, as though the same bread had been served since morning. Mushroom duxelle in vol-what? means coin shaped croissant topped with creamed mushrooms. I could taste a little sweetness and overwhelming butter in the cream. Not being a fan of cream-based dishes, I appreciated the prawn cakes which is crab cakes but made of shrimp and went well the tomato-herb salsa. The caramelized apple is apple chutney on top of brie and toasted pastry. It was too sweet and I couldn't taste the brie. My favorite was the tomato skewer with olive and feta-- simple and all natural.

We waited a while before asking for our cakes to be taken out. It was SO hard to choose! We ne picked 3: one fruit-based, one chocolate-based and guilt-free, and a third tried and tested concoction as a fallback. While letting the appetite build up, I observed the crowd that filled Bizu that night. At past 10:30PM, almost all the customers were just beginning to have dinner! Next to our table, a Chinese man over his fifties was on a date with his late twenty something daughter. They had just ordered burgers which were heartily consumed as soon as the huge plates landed on their table. The servings were very generous; each order comes with salad and fries on the side. At another table not far rom us, a group of rowdy friends aged 30-40 were enjoying their steaks. A few minutes later, a couple came in and started ordering main entrees! I felt sorry for the chef at the back. Either those people's body clocks are seriously screwed or it's their cheat day. I guessed it was the latter, and as our cakes arrived, I totally empathized with them.

Mango Chiboust

The Mango Chiboust is just a fancy name for mango cheesecake. I appreciated the art though, and the mangoes were perfectly sweet.

Naomi

My choice. Naomi is a sugarless and fourless cake made of sugarless milk & dark chocolate mousse between layers of chocolate cake sprayed with cocoa liqueur. Texture is very silky, taste is chocolatey but not too sweet. You can even tell there's liqueur. Seriously very good!

Amour

Something tried and tested to serve as our fallback. And isn't the name fitting too? Amour is a creation made of valrhona orange chocolate mousse in between layers of crème brulee and brownie. The thing that holds it up is white chocolate. I thought it's some plastic material you need to take out before eating. The brulee has a hint of orange, and the brownie is akin to fruitcake. When it starts getting too sweet, eat the dark chocolate bits on top of the cake.

I'd give the service 3 out of 5 stars. Kudos are in order for the pretty design of the cakes. Unfortunately for Bizu, I'm not a fan of fancy food names. A mango cheesecake is a mango cheesecake. There's only one thing left for me to come back for in Bizu-- the macaroons. Tell me what's so special about them!

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Have you heard of Seoul Barbecue?

Location: Libis

I was introduced to this place by my boss in 2007, when we opened iHooked Katipunan. I had such a good experience that I never forgot it and vowed to come back. Finally, I was able to last Saturday after my Korean class.

Dol Kim - Seaweed snack from Korean language teacher

Seoul Barbecue is special because it is the only place that has Yeongyangsotbap.

Yeongyangsotbap

Yeongyangsotbap means rice cooked in a stone pot with healthy ingredients. Actually, the one in Seoul Barbecue's menu might have been Ogokbap, but Yeongyangsotbap is more likely. The rice is cooked with fresh ginseng, jujube, shiitake mushrooms and gingko nuts. After the rice is cooked, remove it from the pot and eat it with any pot stew soup. There will be burnt rice encrusting the bottom of the stone pot. The waitress will add water to the pot, cover it and the remaining rice will cook again for 2 minutes. Then you can enjoy roasted rice, and even drink the water which will taste like roasted rice tea. Mashisseoyo! Delicious!

On my first visit, I remember being given a hot towel before the meal and using metal chopsticks. The plates are now plastic (I can even tell where they were bought), the chopsticks disposable and the wait staff below satisfactory. I have a feeling the recession has something to do with this, but in any case, it is still attracting all sorts of crowd from Koreans to Filipino barkadas. The restaurant owner, a Korean woman in her 40s, is always ready to give guests a smile whether you are a Korean or a local. Then again, maybe she thought I was Korean.

In Makati Ave., there are hordes of Korean restaurants, some of them holes in the wall offering authentic cuisine at cheap prices. But Filipinos are discouraged from exploring the Korean restaurants there because the servers tend to prioritize them Koreans, not to mention some don't have English menu. Compared to Little Tokyo where Filipinos (and other nationals) are as common as Japanese expats, maybe Little Korea is alienating.

I love the complimentary pineapple and cinnamon drink that Korean restaurants (Kaya, Seoul Barbecue and Ara, anyway) give for desert. Seoul Barbecue doesn't serve the cinnamon drink anymore.

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