Our food crawl started at 8Cuts in Salcedo village. Yes, everyone ordered the Soft shell Crab ‘Wich–an 8Cuts and Ooma collaboration. How can one not give in to this delectable treat? The soft-shell crab is beer-battered. On top of the soft-shell crab are the unagi sauce, melted mozzarella cheese, herbed aioli, aligue mayo, mango salsa, and salmon-skin flakes. These are all sandwiched in between 8Cut’s brioche buns.

Mendokoro Ramenba’s Tantanmen is to die for! Creamy, flavorful broth and firm noodles. We also ordered gyoza as side dish. So perfect! #japanese #makatifoodtrip

A post shared by Foodtrippings.com (@foodtrippings_ph) on Apr 13, 2017 at 9:11am PDT

Our next stop was Mendokoro Ramenba. It is located just behind 8Cuts. Me and Sha just shared a bowl of Tantanmen and three pieces of Gyoza. We love how creamy it is and its level of spiciness is just right.

Our third stop was Wildflour for some tea, coffee, and a light dessert. We also took advantage of the 25 percent discount (available from 5pm to 7pm, daily) and took home some goodies.

Then, we opted to go out of Salcedo village. We headed to Makati Ave. by foot and went to Royal Indian Curry House for some Buttered Chicken (chicken in mildly spiced curry sauce), Palak Paneer (pureed spinach with cottage cheese), Dal (lentils), and some Naan.

Our final stop is Crying Tiger Street Kitchen. It’s a hole-in-the-wall  resto-bar. They serve Asian food and drinks. Their dessert menu is limited to Thai cuisine though. Since we didn’t get to eat Sticky Rice with Mango in Bangkok, we had it here instead. We wish that they had served sweet ripe mangoes instead. For the drinks, our friends ordered the Thai Iced Tea while we got the Basil Watermelon Cooler Cocktail.

Bonus video:

It was the first of January and almost every restaurant at UP Town Center that we passed by is packed. I guess Peperoni looks a bit intimidating to some.

Peperoni originated from Singapore where its first outlet opened in 2004. Currently, it has 2 branches in the Philippines. One in Uptown Mall in Bonifacio Global City and one in UP Town Center, where people even get sandwiches of peperoni which actually quite popular, some people even make their own bread for it, with a owning bread machines they get from www.Village-Bakery.com.

On our first visit to Peperoni, we decided to try an antipasti (appetizer) and a large wood-fired pizza with 2 flavors. 

For the antipasti, we ordered Funghi Portobello con Pollo. It is a deep-fried portobello with sautéed chicken fillets in red wine sauce. The red wine sauce complements well with the portobello. Certainly a must try at Peperoni! This can be shared by a group of four if you will add one more antipasti, pasta or salad.

What I love about Peperoni is that we were able to try 2 pizza variants with a single order of a Large pizza (12-inch pizza). The large pizza can be shared by a group of four. We got the Bacon Miele variant and the Prosciutto Crudo di Parma.

The Bacon Miele pizza is topped with bacon, honey, fresh oregano and gouda cheese. This pizza is a bit sweet and savory and is amongst Peperoni’s bestsellers. 

The Prosciutto Crudo di Parma is pizza topped with parma ham and rocket salad. This is a bit challenging to eat because the parma ham and the rocket salad (arugula and gouda cheese) was placed on top after it was baked in the oven. Nevertheless, I like the combination of the Prosciutto and the arugula. It lessens the saltiness of the prosciutto and the gouda cheese. 

Hopefully, we can try the pasta next time.  

Bonus: Foodie video

I discovered something new at McDonald’s today. They gave in and are now pairing their burger patties with rice.

One may order a one-piece or a two-piece mushroom pepper steak. It costs less than a hundred bucks even if ordered as a value meal. 

The burger is smothered with creamy and peppery gravy, and is topped with button mushrooms. 

While I love the peppery gravy, I still like Jollibee’s Big Burger Steak more. 

In no particular order, here are our dessert favorites this 2016:

Pablo Cheese Tart

Pablo Mini is now open at BGC ???? Tried both the Pablo Mini Cheese Tart Plain and the Pablo Mini Cheese Tart Choco. #foodtrippings #desserts #musecam #shotoniphone7 #pablocheesetart

A photo posted by Karla Vanessa Redor (@karlaredor) on Dec 17, 2016 at 1:48am PST

Blk 513’s Dark Skim Cup

First time to try Blk 513! Love their #DarkSkimCup! Fool's gold for the crunch, banana for the fruit and milk jam for the sauce. #foodtrippings @blk513ph

A photo posted by Foodtrippings.com (@foodtrippings_ph) on Feb 28, 2016 at 5:21am PST

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory’s Caramel Apples

Look at those pretty Caramel Apples! What to choose? I chose Rocky Road! @rockymountainph

A photo posted by Foodtrippings.com (@foodtrippings_ph) on May 15, 2016 at 9:52am PDT

Ice Cream at Carousel Creamery

This is Ice Cream wonderland!!! @carouselcreamery. 101 Flavors!

A photo posted by Foodtrippings.com (@foodtrippings_ph) on May 25, 2016 at 8:39pm PDT

Salted Egg Caramel Parfait at Le Petit Souffle

Salted Egg Caramel Parfait at @lepetitsouffleph. Vanilla custard base softee with salted egg custard, Caramel sauce, Peanut brittle and almond dacquoise, chocolate pretzel sticks. This dessert is heavenly! Not too sweet. Good for sharing but if you don't want to share it's fine! This was our pre-dessert dessert at Le Petit Souffle because the souffle takes 25 minutes. So basically, we had dessert twice! #latepost #dessert #fusionfood ????????????

A photo posted by Foodtrippings.com (@foodtrippings_ph) on Jul 19, 2016 at 4:08am PDT

Mango Cheesecake Bubble Egg Waffle at Yo Panda

Dessert alert! Mango Cheesecake Bubble Egg Waffle – Italian Gelato soft serve, cheesecake cubes, fresh mangoes. Get this at Yo! Panda SM Megamall #dessert @yopandamanila

A photo posted by Foodtrippings.com (@foodtrippings_ph) on Aug 20, 2016 at 1:52am PDT

It’s actually not the first time that I’ve tried a coffee with coconut. We were able to try Cong Caphe’s Coconut Coffee in Hanoi, Vietnam. And it was so good.

J.Co’s Coconut Mocha Frappe is very much different from Cong Caphe’s Coconut Coffee. After a few sips from this delectable tropical treat, I immediately noticed the Macapuno (Coconut Sport in English) that sits at the bottom of the drink. You have to mix it so that it won’t be very sweet.

Hainanese Chicken Rice is a popular dish in Singapore. If you’re going to there, you have to try it at least once because your visit won’t be complete without it. You may try the Hainanese Chicken Rice in hawker centers like Lau Pa Sat, and at Tiong Bahru. I can still recall our journey to Tiong Bahru. We took a bus going there. It was quite a long bus ride but it was all worth it. Hainanese Chicken Rice is served with fragrant chicken-flavored rice and condiments such as chilli, ginger, and dark soya sauce.

Here in Manila, we would get our Hainanese Chicken craving satisfied at Wee Nam Kee, or Boon Tong Kee. We have tried others but these two are our favorites. Just recently, we received various sauce packs from Prima Taste. One of the sauce packs that we have received is the Hainanese Chicken Rice set. I take the chicken out of the vacuum sealed packaging. I have most of my food pre-vacuum sealed because it keeps everything fresh. Read more about vacuum sealers from vacuumsealerresearch.com

The Prima Taste Hainanese Chicken Rice pack consists of the following:

• Hainanese Chicken Rice Premix
• Hainanese Chicken Rice Fragrance Oil
• Sesame Soya Sauce Oil
• Chilli Sauce
• Chicken Rice Ginger Sauce
• Chicken Rice Dark Soya Sauce

The Prima Taste Hainanese Chicken Rice pack is recommended for those who are cooking the dish for the first time since it already includes the recipe.

According to the Prima Taste recipe, here’s the main ingredients that you need:

• 2.5 L of water
• 1 pkt. of Hainanese Chicken Rice Premix
• Whole chicken (1.2 to 1.5kg)
• 500g of Long grain rice (Thai long grain rice is recommended)
• 1 pkt. of Hainanese Chicken Rice Fragrance Oil
• 610mL of chicken stock

For the condiments, you would need the following:

• Sesame Soya Sauce Oil
• Chilli Sauce
• Chicken Rice Ginger Sauce
• Chicken Rice Dark Soya Sauce
• Cucumber
• Coriander leaves

For the soup garnish, you would need the following:

• soft bean curd (tofu)
• lettuce (shredded)
• coriander leaves
• spring onion

Listed below are the cooking steps from Prima Taste’s recipe. Alternatively, you may check out this video below from Prima Taste.

1) Cook Chicken and Stock
Fill stock pot with 2.5 L of water, add Hainanese Chicken Rice Premix and bring to boil on high temperature. Submerge chicken into the stock with its back facing up. Lower temperature and simmer for approximately 30 minutes.

2) Remove chicken from stock pot and chill in ice water for 15 minutes. Drain well, set aside chicken and chicken stock.

3) Cook Rice
Mix rice, 610mL chicken stock (from step 2) and Hainanese Chicken Rice Fragrance Oil in rice cooker.

4) Stir rice gently after 5 minutes and continue cooking. When cooked, fluff rice gently with chopsticks (while loosening rice), avoid the bottom of the rice cooker). Leave at “Keep Warm” setting for 10 to 15 minutes.

5) Put the whole packet of Sesame Soya Sauce Oil in a pot of boiling water and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cut open the packet and pour into a bowl. Set aside at room temperature.

6) Chop chicken into parts. Arrange on a platter, over a bed of sliced cucumber. Pour the Sesame Soya Sauce Oil over the chicken and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with warm rice. In separate condiment bowls, serve – Chilli Sauce, Chicken Rice Ginger Sauce, and Chicken Rice Dark Soya Sauce as dips.

The recipe is actually good for 4 to 6 people.

Thank you Prima Taste for sending this over. You may purchase Prima Taste in SM, Rustans, Makati Supermarket, Dutyfree, Robinsons, Market Market and Puregold. The Hainanese Chicken Rice pack costs Php 249.

Going to Vietnam without drinking their coffee is like going to Singapore without eating Laksa. You can definitely see coffee shops in every street corner and one can really see that the coffee culture in Vietnam is very strong. The standard Vietnamese coffee is black coffee mixed with sweet condensed milk. Their coffee is strong but because of the condensed milk, the acidity is subdued by the sweet condensed milk. We didn’t get tired of drinking their coffee anytime of the day and just sitting at their stools whether on the sidewalk or inside an upscaled coffee shop.

We tried different coffee shops around Hanoi and these are the ones that we recommend:

Cong Caphe

Cong Caphe

Prior to our arrival in Hanoi, Sharlyne was already ecstatic to try the Coco Coffee by Cong Caphe. It was highly recommended by one of the blogs that she was able to read while researching for the food and the coffee shops to try in Hanoi. While Sharlyne got the Coconut Coffee, I ordered the Yoghurt Coffee. It’s an ice blended Vietnamese coffee with yoghurt. Coffee and yoghurt may sound weird for some but I loved it! The Coconut Coffee on the other hand is coffee, coconut and condensed milk. It was surprisingly good and refreshing. We paid for VND 90,000 for both coffees we ordered.

Cong Caphe is also a nice hangout place and i noticed that a lot of young people go there. I liked their interiors and according to their website, it brings you back to post Vietnam war. They have different branches in Hanoi. We went to their branch at 54 – Hàng Điếu, Hoàn Kiếm.

Helio Original Coffee House

2 Iced Coffee (all for VND 132,000)

Helio’s Coffee is probably the most expensive one that we have tried in Vietnam. They are located at the heart of Old Quarter in Hanoi, which is really close to Hoan Kiem Lake. Above the Helio coffee shop is the Water Puppet theatre so it’s a great place to hang out while waiting for the show to start.

Joma Bakery Cafe

Joma Bakery Cafe originated in Laos. Unlike the other coffee shops that we have been to in Hanoi, Joma Bakery Cafe is not homegrown. It’s actually owned by Jonathan and Jocelyn Blair, and Michael and Areerat Harder. What we like about the said cafe is that is supports initiatives focused on meeting basic life needs by giving 2% of its revenue.

In this cafe, we were able to try Con Panna which is espresso with whipped cream.

Joma Bakery Cafe is a great place to hangout because of its cozy atmosphere. It is airconditioned and they even have wi-fi. Even if the cafe originated in Laos, it’s very much westernized as evidenced by the food that they serve.

Cafe Giang

Iced Egg Coffee and Hot Egg Coffee (all for VND 40,000)

We heard about the Egg Coffee (or Cà Phê Trứng in Vietnamese) from Nina of Just Wandering so this was already part of our Hanoi bucket list. We scoured for the internet on where we could possibly try the most popular place to have Egg Coffee and, we stumbled on Cafe Giang. As mentioned on their website, the cafe was difficult to locate. We almost gave up but went ahead in pursuit of experiencing the cafe culture in Hanoi. Cafe Giang claims that they’re the ones who invented egg coffee and they’ve been there since 1946. It’s an institution as they say and a lot of locals and even tourists go to this hidden spot. You couldn’t notice it immediately because they only have the sign in front. You’ll have to go inside the alley and at the end, you’ll see the counter where you can order the drinks.

Egg Coffee is made of the following ingredients: chicken egg yolk, Vietnamese coffee powder, sweetened condensed milk, butter and cheese. We tried both egg coffees – iced and hot, so that we would be able to taste which one is better. For us, it is best to try the iced egg coffee because flavors are much evident compared to the hot version. Many would find this kind of coffee weird but just imagine that you are drinking coffee flavored custard. They serve it on a small class or cup and with the black coffee at the bottom then it’s covered with the condensed milk and frothy egg on top.

Trung Nguyen Coffee

Trung Nguyen is a popular instant coffee in Vietnam. In it’s packaging, you may found the text “Vietnam’s #1 Coffee”. If you’re contemplating on what kind of “pasalubong” to buy for your friends and loved ones, it has to be Trung Nguyen coffee if you’re on a budget. We wanted to bring home some Vietnamese coffee home here’s the place!

Our friend Ria Bautista introduced to us one of the newest Korean restaurants in Bonifacio Global City. Upon learning that Yoree is a Korean Barbeque restaurant, we did not hesitate to accept her invitation to try the food at Yoree. Yoree is located in Forum BGC which is just a block away from The Fort Strip. Other Korean Barbeque Restaurants that are near to Yoree are Sariwon, and K-Pub BBQ.

We were able to try the Charcoal Grill Lunch Course A, Soju Cocktail, and Shaved Ice Snowflakes with adzuki (red beans).

Charcoal Grill Lunch Course A, Php 2,240

Jellyfish salad and other appetizers

Thin rice Porridge

Wagyu ribeye steak

Chicken Rib with Barbeque Sauce (Boneless)

Beef Belly Slice

Lettuce, Mustard Leaves, etc.

Condiments at Yoree

Shabu Style Stew with Noodles

The Charcoal Grill Lunch Course A is good for 3 to 4 persons and it consists of an appetizer set (thin rice porridge, jelly fish salad, unfermented kimchi, and pickled mushrooms), Wagyu Ribeye steak, Beef Belly Slice, Chicken Rib with barbeque sauce (boneless), Shabu Style Stew with noodles, and Stone Bowl Bibimbap (not shown in pictures). This set menu costs Php 2,240 and it’s a must try if it’s your first time in Yoree and if you are having a hard time choosing what to order. I think that the serving size is good for three people that have a huge appetite.

The charcoal that they use is imported from Korea because of the poor quality of the locally available charcoal.

Soju Cocktail Lemon (Pitcher), Php 550

A nice drink to pair with their barbeque is Soju Cocktail. Soju is an alcoholic distilled beverage. Yoree offers Soju Cocktail in Lemon or Grape flavor. You may also try Soju by the bottle. Yoree only sells Jinro soju (very popular Soju brand in Korea).

Yoree uses a unique pitcher where there is a separate container for the ice so that the when the ice melts, it will not mix with the Soju Cocktail. Plus, the entire pitcher is chilled.

Shaved Ice Snowflakes with adzuki (red beans), Php 170

For dessert, we tried the Shaved Ice Snowflakes with adzuki (red beans). They also offer Sik Hye (also available at Sariwon) but we were not able to try it. We shall try this next time for dessert. Ginseng Ice Cream and Black Sesame Ice cream is also available in Yoree.

Amongst the Korean barbeque restaurants that we have tried, in terms of quality and price range, Yoree and Sariwon are comparable. Like in Sariwon, they also grill the food for you. Yoree does not have refillable appetizer like in Sariwon though but I’m okay with it.

Yoree
Forum, 7th Avenue Corner 25th Street ,
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City

After Twisted Candy, we finally headed to our last stop. Our last stop for the night was Vikings. Vikings is an eat-all-you-can restaurant. They do not have an ala carte menu like some restaurants that offer buffet. Vikings restaurant is said to be the best buffet restaurant in Manila. They are not just your typical buffet restaurant since they are a luxury buffet restaurant.

It’s sad though that the only I can have at Vikings are dimsum, sashimi and tea since I was so full from everything we had in Brickfire and Buffalo’s Wings N’ Things. I’ll definitely come back at Vikings to try some more selections aside from sashimi and dimsum.

Vikings
4th floor, SM North The Block
376-3888, 376-4888, 376-5888
Email: vikings_smnorththeblock@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.vikings.ph
Facebook

After a filling dinner at Brickfire and Buffalo’s Wings N’ Things, we walked to SM The Block from SM North Annex. We went to Twisted Candy. The candies that are being sold there are made on the spot. It makes you wonder how they were able to come up with such designs on those candies. You can check out this Instagram video by Sharlyne.

One Pouch, PhP 80 for 90g

You may also avail a pouch of candies (available only in 90g). They have various flavors which can be categorized as Fruity and Others. The fruity flavors include: apple, apricot, blueberry, calamansi, cherry, grape, lemon, lime, lychee, mango, orange, passionfruit, peach, pear, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry, tamarind and watermelon. The other available flavors are: butterscotch, cappuccino, cola, peppermint, root beer, rose, and white chocolate.

I’m not sure if their promo of one free lollipop for every PhP 300 purchase made at Twisted Candy is still on-going. You can check it out when you go to SM The Block this weekend.

Twisted Candy also does custom designed candies. If you will be having a children’s birthday party, I think this would be an awesome giveaway.

Twisted Candy
3rd Floor, SM The Block
0932-87CANDY / 0917-87CANDY
candymaker2012@yahoo.com
Facebook