Merry Christmas to everyone!

3-yr old niece: "Auntie, you like to draw with me? I'm huggable, I'm squishy, come right over here."

Merry Christmas to everyone and have a blessed year ahead!

Girls' lunch out at Kichitora

December 20, 2014

There were a few girls in our batch at my second job - 4, to be exact -  so I initiated the invite to have a lunch date with them at Kichitora at Megamall. This is going to be a short entry since all of us ordered the same ramen - Paitan Ramen Zenbu No Se.

Gyoza

Went well with the dipping sauce. I liked it. I think it will be good with rice. ^_^ 

Gyoza - 150php

Paitan Ramen Zenbu No Se

It has a really rich, flavorful broth. Without the lava egg, you can have the ramen at 360php. With a generous splash of spicy sesame oil, this will definitely fill your tummy.
Note: It's a really large bowl.

Paitan Ramen Zenbu No Se - 420php

Chicken Karaage

Really tender. I think the part used here was the thigh. I think it'll also be great with rice. 

Chicken Karaage - 150php

I've managed to finish my ramen (except the soup) and my colleagues managed to eat half of theirs. So you can imagine my eating capacity is the same as a boy's. Hahaha! Just kidding. Anyway, I can't say if it was better than the other ramen establishments since I have only tried 2 ramen restaurants aside from this. Bottom line, it was a filling experience.

More Curry Please..Onwards to Izumi Curry!

November 22, 2014

I've been wanting to try this for the longest time. I'm fond of curries and I'm really curious on how different is the Japanese curry from the other curries. Finally, I had a chance (and the fund) to purchase two vouchers from CashCashPinoy. I bought one US Pork/Chicken Katsu Plate voucher for my date and one US Pork/Chicken Katsu Curry Meal voucher for me.

 

The Restaurant

Izumi Curry and Grill is located at the 5F The Podium. I didn't get the chance to take a photo of the interiors. It's a cozy place and could easily seat 25 guests. The servers were attentive and accommodating. Sidestory: I printed the two vouchers in one paper to save mother earth, only to find out that they should've been printed on separate sheets. I almost panicked--I thought they wouldn't honor my vouchers. End of sidestory.

The Food

Note: My date and I preferred to have pork. The iced tea included with our meal was just your typical lemon iced tea. If you explore their menu, they also offer saké.

US Pork/Chicken Katsu Plate

This includes the Pork Katsu and a side salad, a bowl of rice, and 5 pcs. of gyoza. This is your typical katsu. The gyoza was a little on the salty side. There's no need to dip it in any kind of sauce. 

US Pork/Chicken Katsu Curry Meal

US Pork Katsu Curry - Front

Ta~dah! The one I've been waiting for. I asked some people on what do Japanese curries taste like, and they say that it's usually sweet. So when I had my first bite, it was really unexpectedly spicy! Haha! But it was a savory kind of spicy and I loved it! It's not like the straightforward spiciness that you get when you eat chili sauce with your dimsum, it's a bit hard to explain but there were a lot of flavors in that curry. I liked the way they filled the plate with curry sauce.

US Pork Katsu Curry - Back

Side salad

This meal includes a hefty serving of the salad. With regards to serving size, they didn't disappoint. I'm not really a fan of salads, especially the ones with cucumber(like the one below). But I really loved the dressing and I don't typically waste food so I ate it anyway.

This ends our delicious meal! Thanks for reading!

Fine dining dinner date at House of Wagyu Stonegrill

October 11, 2014

This fine dining dinner was made possible through one of the deals from CashCashPinoy worth 1500php++. The deal includes the following: 350 grams of Wagyu Top Sirloin Grade 9 good for 2 persons + Soup of the Day + French Bread & Butter + Vegetables & Potatoes. How big is a 350-gram of sirloin? Let's say it really is enough for 2.

The Restaurant

Table setting

House of Wagyu StoneGrill is located at the top floor of the Podium and has an inconspicuous location. It is almost blocked in view by the cinema ticket counter. I honestly thought that it was still closed since the restaurant had dim lighting and aside from the employees, there was no one else dining. It was also intimidating because I'm only wearing jeans, a t-shirt and flats without any care for accessories. I really thank the employees for not giving us the deprecating look and provided us with exemplary service.
House of Wagyu StoneGrill also sells their frozen wagyu steaks.

The Food



The soup was served together with the basket of french bread. I'm not a fan of soups and breads since they fill up my tummy even before the main course arrives. But then, I was taught not to waste food and I paid good money for this so I have to eat it.

Soup of the Day - Creamy pumpkin soup
Really creamy and it doesn't taste like pumpkin. Our server also topped it with freshly ground pepper. Coupled with the warm, crusty yet soft, french bread with butter, I have found new respect for these two.

Suisse raclette

Suisse Raclette
In addition to our meal, we decided to order one appetizer from their menu for 350php. This is melted cheese with boiled potato, pickled miniature onions, and pickled miniature cucumbers. It was a really expensive appetizer but hey, this was one of those "once-in-a-lifetime" experiences, and we had the money to pay for it, so we ordered it anyway. According to wikipedia, raclette is both a type of cheese and a Swiss dish, so I don't know if they really used the raclette cheese on this one. I sure hope they did. As for the taste, the cheese was not as salty as the other types of cheese. It is somehow similar to mozzarella. The miniature onions and cucumber? Don't underestimate them. They may be small but they pack a lot of that pickled flavor. They were really sour to the point of disfiguring your face. The baby potatoes are just your typical boiled baby potatoes.

Before they served the steak, they would ask you to wear this bib. For me, it was a mini-apron. Meanwhile, our server asked us if we would like to have our steak divided into two so that we would have separate stones. Honestly, I haven't thought of requesting this since it was alright for me to share. I really appreciate our server for suggesting this so that we would thoroughly enjoy the experience.

Steamed Vegetables and Mashed Potato
Typical steamed vegetables. The mashed potato was okay though I thought it lacked milk/cream/butter/salt. I suppose I should have added some of the leftover butter and some salt to add flavor.

Steamed vegetables and Mashed Potato

Half of the 350-gram grade 9 Wagyu sirloin

Star of the night - Grade 9 Wagyu Sirloin on Stone Grill
Very straightforward. No gravy. Lightly seasoned. Very tender.

Turned once by one of the chefs

For less than a thousand, I really enjoyed eating Wagyu steak for the first time! Hoping to have the budget in the near future to visit them again. Cheers!

Alone at California Pizza Kitchen

October 5, 2014

I went to Trinoma to claim my "reward" for using my credit card. I went alone to minimize my expenses for this day. It was still early for lunch at 11am and the restaurant wasn't busy. Dining in alone in a restaurant is one of the things I've always wanted to try. I knew that it wouldn't be fun, but being the introvert that I am, I wanted to see how I could handle it. It wasn't so bad after you get past that uncomfortable feeling of dining alone. I'd like to thank the server(sorry I didn't get your name) who made me feel at ease during my dining experience.

Some art on the wall and a part of the kitchen

Taking a picture of my glass of water while waiting

Mozzarella sticks @ 150php

Here are my options: 

Pizza

= Regular Untraditional Cheese Pizza - or -

= Regular Sausage and Pepper Pizza - or -

Pasta

= Personal Spaghetti Marinara - or -

= Personal Broccoli Sundried Tomato Fusilli

Since I ate pizza the night before and I'm eating alone, I chose the Pasta category. It was good that I didn't get my hopes up for the fusilli since it was not available at the time. I had no other choice but the marinara. I remembered I liked their mozzarella sticks here, so in addition to my free pasta, I had an order of this at 150php.

Personal spaghetti marinara - free!

I'm not sure if their mozzarella sticks were originally wrapped or battered, but either way, it had the same taste and I still liked the marinara sauce that went with it.

I didn't think that I could finish it by myself so I used the extra plate. The spaghetti was al dente and I liked the cheese shavings on top. I do appreciate sour food but the marinara sauce went past my tolerance level for sourness and that bread on the side was a big help. 

Overall, I underestimated myself - I was able to finish my pasta. I also *surprisingly* had a good time dining alone.

That overrated yema cake

September 1, 2014

I was hearing so much of this yema cake from Quezon province. I got really really curious, so when I was able to buy one for Php270, I was excited to get home. When I got home, I tasted it immediately. To my utter disappointment, it didn't pass my palate. It was far from the yema taste that I expected. A piece of Pastel bread from CDO is waaAAAyyy better than this yema cake. In addition to my disappointment, it was really expensive. The half roll of Dulce de Leche from goldilocks costs barely Php200 and it tasted good. This one was overpriced. It tasted like margarine with cheese. The only good thing about this cake was its chiffon cake. It was soft. So yeah, I won't buy this again.

Curry craving satisfied @ Ganeza Curry

August 2, 2014

We were looking for a place to have dinner when SS tried the naan+curry free taste offered by the restaurant's server by the escalator. He said that the curry was good so we decided to give it a try. Ganeza Curry is located near the escalator at Fisher Mall's third floor.

Our orders

I forgot their exact names. Chicken curry + naan + ice cream(they have a specific name for this ice cream) priced at 118php, Japanese beef curry rice priced at 98php and a glass of Sweet Lassi priced at 70php.

My opinion

Their chicken curry+naan was good and the ice cream was yummy(it tasted like frozen condensed milk with pinipig). The beef curry rice was also good and I liked the pickled peppers on the side. There was a lot of sauce but too few of the beef. If you could imagine the size of one broth cube, there were, I think, 3 pieces of beef of that size on the plate. I'm not really a fan of cold drinks but I was able to try a strawberry lassi before. Comparing that lassi to this lassi, I'd prefer the strawberry lassi. 

There were 3 flavors for the naan that'll go with your curry. We chose butter. I think it was unsalted butter. You could also choose different flavors for the lassi. Aside from sweet, they also have banana, mango and I forgot the other one. I first ordered mango but it was unavailable so I went for the sweet.

Their attendants were very nice. The place was clean.

Eiga-Sai 2014 @ Shangri-la Mall

July 5 and July 13, 2014

July 5, 2014

Our plan: Meet up at 1pm to watch the first show so that we would have time to line up to watch the last show.

What we thought: Since the film schedule was released weeks before the actual filming date, we expected to be able to watch "Until the Break of Dawn" and "Like Father, Like Son"

What happened: My colleague was a bit late so she wasn't able to queue with me and I ended up watching the first show alone. To my surprise, the schedule changed at the last minute and the film was "Symphony in August".

It was a good film. I was surprised that it was animation too. The story was unbelievable but it was a story based on real life.

After the film, my colleague was already in line for the next show: "Wolf Children". The characters were cute and funny. I enjoyed watching the film, though, I would've appreciated it more if they showed the details on how the dad died.

After this, we didn't get to line up for the last film because of the long queue.

July 13, 2014

Our plan: Meet up at 4pm to line up for the second show which is "Like Father, Like Son".

What happened: I left the house early because it looked like it would rain and I wouldn't want to get wet. I arrived at 2pm. My colleague was already in line. The line was so long that we didn't get the chance to watch "Like Father, Like Son". We stayed on the line for the 7:30 pm show which was "Until the Break of Dawn". 

It was a nice film. Interesting plot.

Overall, even if our plan messed up and we ended up watching different films, I still enjoyed this event and I'll gladly attend the next. :) Luckily, we were able to get free gifts from Shu Uemura! Next time, I'll line up earlier. I hope that there will be more freebies next year.

It's a WednesDATE at Pearl River Cafe

May 7, 2014

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. Nothing special happened for the last month. I could only tell you of my commuting rants or more stories about my adorable niece, but that would only be repetitive. This month (and for the coming months), I'll be on a tight budget that's why I haven't been travelling to any summer destination. And what else, aside from travelling, do I love? You guessed it right --- food! And yes, this entry involves a 250-peso voucher for 500Php worth of dimsum, noodles, and congee offered by the deal site CashCashPinoy. 

The Place

Not in the original position

Pearl River Cafe is located at 4th floor Trinoma, right beside Cyma. The place was well-lit and it was not stuffy. I liked the sofa - it had the right height and firmness. The tables were positioned to maximize the small space. The restaurant could easily sit 30 people without crowding. The initial table set-up won't have any spoons/forks so you might as well request them if you're not so good using the chopsticks. Sadly, they don't have a tissue dispenser.

The Service

They have a few employees, but each is attentive and polite. 1 waitress, 1 waiter, the manager and I don't know how many cooks. The only drawback is that they have such soft voice. They also clean the table after every diner - though I wondered why ours was a bit sticky. 

The Food

I was shocked when I saw the price of 1 order of their dimsum. It's equivalent to almost 4 orders of the cheaper dimsum made by small-time commercial vendors. But I think that's how businesses are nowadays.

These were the food items we ordered that were covered by the voucher:

Stewed Beef Shank Noodle Soup (199php)

This was served in a half-filled big bowl with a small dipper. There were, I think, 4(or 5?) generous chunks of tender beef. Eating this alone would leave you full in no time. The taste was average but the sweetness of the broth overpowered the flavor of the beef. Why was it sweet? I had no idea.

Steamed  Crab Roe and Shrimp Siomai (99php)

The dimsum that we ordered was served in a larger-than-typical bamboo steamer (probably because they won't fit in the smaller steamer). A piece of siomai was made of pure meat and shrimp. It went great with soy sauce and calamansi. What got me disappointed was the chili sauce that you usually find in most Chinese restaurants. Theirs was not chili enough. An ordinary hot sauce was hotter than that chili sauce. There were 2 chili sauce containers on our table. The first one had almost a tablespoon left when we arrived. The second was three-fourths filled. When we were done. The second was also left with almost a tablespoon.

Steamed Shrimp Dumplings (99php)

Typical steamed shrimp dumplings that I love. Simple and light.

The last one was Steamed Pork Spareribs with Taosi (129php). I was too focused on finishing the food in front of me that I totally forgot to take a picture of it. The taste was average and there were more bones than there were meat. I think it should also be priced at 99php.

In total, the dimsum and noodles we ordered amounted to 526php, which was 26php more than the 500 voucher limit. I knew I should've bought another voucher so I could've ordered other dumplings.

Other orders:

Fried Golden Rice Yeungzhou Style (199php)

Steamed buns with Custard Paste
and Salted Egg (65)

The rice can be shared by 2 not-so-hungry individuals. If we didn't order a bowl of noodles, I could've easily devoured this. So for me, a bowl of this rice worth 199php is expensive. Some restaurants could even offer unlimited yangchow rice for a much lower price. The serving dish used was not even deep. If it was in the same bowl as that of the noodles, the price would've been justified. What I liked about this was - it wasn't as dry as compared to others and you could easily identify the other ingredients tossed with the rice. And it wasn't too salty.

Halfway through the steamed bun

Lastly, the cute steamed buns. It was only cute. The bun was soft and light. But the filling...err...was there a filling? I was expecting a generous filling of custard paste and with bits of salted egg yolk but I was dumbfounded by the liquefied salted egg with an unpleasant taste and a very thin (close to nothing) spread of custard that I couldn't even get a hint of.

Aside from the unfortunate dessert steamed bun, overall, it was an unexceptional dining experience but I did have a satisfied tummy.

National Breakfast Day -- Hooray for today!

March 17, 2014

Egg McMuffin coupon

Customer#411 :)

Today, McDonald's is celebrating the National Breakfast Day and they're giving off free McMuffins for the first 1000 customers starting at 6am-9am in all their branches nationwide. I thought I wouldn't make it since I arrived at the nearest McDonald's at 8am. Thankfully, I am customer # 411!

Last day at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar

March 10, 2014

At 6:30am, we decided to take a swim on their batis(stream?)-inspired pool. The deepest part is 4ft. perfect for non-swimmers like me! hahaha! It was early Monday morning so we had the pool to ourselves! You may borrow towels from the reception.

Batis-inspired pool

From the pool, you could also see from afar the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

 Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (in between the palm trees)

At 8:30am, we proceeded to take our breakfast. We had a choice of: Tocino(sweet meat), Longganisa(Filipino version of sausages-sweet variety) and Daing na bangus (fried milkfish) all are inclusive of a cup of garlic rice, perfectly scrambled eggs, and a small slice of fruit - in our case, a small slice of watermelon and a choice of a thermos of brewed coffee or juice. My travel buddy and I chose the Daing na bangus. It was small and didn't have any taste. I wished I ordered the Longganisa instead. Maybe next time. Good thing we still had that leftover from dinner and they accommodated our request for it to be reheated.

After breakfast, before packing up our belongings, we decided to take a look at the beach area. I wished we had more time so that we could swim at the beach. They also have island hopping boats there that costs 1500php/pax. Inclusive of an overnight stay at an island, buffet lunch, the boat and crew.

It seemed safe enough and shallow enough  for non swimmers like me

A jeepney keychain costs 150php while a heritage house keychain costs 200php. A small jar of cashew araro costs 120php and a big jar of cashew lengua de gato costs 170php. A glass jar of cashew butter costs 265php. If given another chance, I'd like to come here again and try swimming at the beach.

Travel back to the past at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar

March 9, 2014

View from our room (evening)

View from our room (early morning)

We purchased a Deal Grocer voucher worth 3200php for an overnight stay at Paseo de Escolta's Deluxe Studio Room for 2.

My makeshift map

My travel buddy and I were just in time for the 8am Bataan Transit Bus to Balanga, Bataan. Bus fare is at 200php/pax. We arrived at Balanga by 10:30am. You may refer to my makeshift map on how to get to the bus/jeep terminal going to Bagac. Jeep fare is 47php/pax. Please refer to this

Las Casas gate from the inside

link for the map from Balanga to Bagac. Travel time is approximately 40minutes. We had no idea where to get down so we did when we encountered the fork on the road, only to find a sign not too far off the road(about a meter??) that Las Casas is 500m away. So being the thrifty people that we are, we decided to walk until we got to the Las Casas gate. Upon Entrance to the gate, you'll be instructed to proceed at the Reception area (Casa Mexico). 

And so we had to walk for another 3-5 minutes to finally arrive at the reception. The moment you stepped inside that gate, it's like you've just entered another era. 

Please be reminded that check in is strictly at 2pm. Since food and drinks are not allowed, we decided to take our lunch at Casa Ubisan - a restaurant that serves Filipino-Spanish dishes. Much to our dismay, there were no tables available so we were advised to try the Italian restaurant - which would take us another 3-5 minutes of walking under the scorching heat with our backpacks.

At the Italian Restaurant

Some kind of olive oil-vinegar
dip for the bread

The complementary loaf

Not the Margherita pizza
I expected - 300+php

We ordered a 13" 8-slice Margherita pizza and Beef Lasagna which cost us 700+. A complimentary loaf of bread will be served while waiting for the orders. It was crusty outside and soft inside. I would've liked it better if it was warm and served with butter. 

Beef Lasagna - 300+php

When the Margherita Pizza arrived, I was a bit disappointed. It was like an ordinary cheese pizza. I was expecting to see basil leaves in there. To divert my disappointment to something positive, I liked the wooden pizza slice server - which is surprisingly, available for sale at their souvenir shop at Paseo de Escolta. Meanwhile, the lasagna was small. It was good for 1 hungry person (that's me!). Good thing the pizza was good for 4 not-so-hungry people, so I was able to eat my share of 4 slices and a half of my lasagna. It was enough to get me through to dinner time. It was also enough to provide me energy for the 1:30pm heritage tour.

Paseo de Escolta (left)
Casa Luna (right)

The Heritage Tour

I'd like to thank our tour guide - Ms. Mica - for being patient in answering our questions. She was also our tour guide during the Workshop Tour (more on this later). Joining the Heritage Tour was worthwhile. Besides, you don't just go to Las Casas without wanting to know the history of the houses right? In addition, there wasn't much activity here so might as well learn something. At almost 3pm, our tour ended and we proceeded to check out our room and get ready for the Workshop Tour.

Our Room

Sitting area

The room was bigger than a condo studio unit. No wonder it was priced as such. I wished for white lights because only yellow lights were in the room and it was too dim for my liking. Little did I know that they also wanted to have the candlelight/gas lamp effect for the living-in-the-past experience. At least they still installed air conditioning units inside the rooms. I loved the spacious bathroom and the clothesline near the shower. I loved the smell of their soap. They also provided us with cotton buds and a set of toothbrush. I also loved the fact that they also installed a hair dryer inside the bathroom. I just wished that they also included a bubble soap solution so that we could use the bathtub. Overall, I loved the room. Oh I forgot to take a shot of the bathroom's door. It was a carved door and it looked nice.

Comfy bed

Spacious bathroom

The Workshop Tour

Workshop tours are conducted at 9am, 11am and 3:30pm. This includes the Brick workshop, Woodworks workshop and the Art workshop. We joined the 3:30pm tour. It was too bad that the Art workshop closed up early. I wished they provided a simple hands-on activity for us during this tour, like wood carving stuff. Anyway, bricks take too long to make and wood carvings take a lot of work. Kudos to the workers. Too bad I forgot to take a photo of the furnace for cooking bricks, I assumed that it was prohibited.

 

After the workshop tour, we decided to have a look around the stores that can be found at Paseo de Escolta. We inquired at Fotographia de Escolta and found out that they were about to close and they would be closed the next day. A 15minute photoshoot with you wearing a traditional Filipino costume inclusive of a customized flash drive and a 5r photo printed in sepia costs 1080php/pax. The customized flash drive is made of wood and has a special case. It's nice as souvenir. It was not available in the souvenir shop so we decided to have that photoshoot. 

After the photoshoot, we went at Casa Ubisa to pre-order our dinner. After that, we rested in our room a bit and had that nice warm shower to wash away the day's sweat.

Our Dinner

We ordered Sinigang na Tanigue - 500+php and Pork Binagoongan - 299php and a couple of rice - 34php a cup. But with the big serving, we ordered another cup. We loved the dishes and we slept with a full tummy. We took out the leftovers for breakfast the next day.