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.