I am a food explorer not a glutton :)

Fried Bisugo and Tofu in Black Beans Sauce

2013-07-08T23:33:00.004-07:00

Ingredients:

any fish you prefer... just season with salt and dredge in cornstarch then fry.
fried tofu slices
tomatoes, wedge
black beans
shaoxing wine
soy sauce
sugar
ginger, sliced
onion
garlic
slurry (cornstarch + water)
sesame oil
leeks, sliced
coriander leaves, chopped

Procedure:

1. Stir fry ginger until fragrant then put in onion and garlic. Followed by tomatoes and black beans.
2. Mashed the black beans and drizzle some soy sauce and shaoxing wine.
3. Pour in water and a spoonful of sugar. Let it boil.
4. Season with more soy sauce and black pepper. Put the tofu in and let in simmer and soak in the sauce.
5. Pour in slurry to thicken and sesame oil.
6. Arrange your fried fish in plate and pour the sauce on top. Top it with leeks and coriander leaves.

*if you chose to use fish fillet
(marinate first with shaoxing wine, light soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch and fry. let it simmer together with the tofu )

Chef Resty's Roast Beef - Powerplant mall

2013-01-24T05:33:00.002-08:00

I kept seeing this cart type carving station located near the escalator of Rustan's Supermarket. At first, I don't want to buy one because there is no space for dining. But since Gong Cha opened, there were seats located beside the stall already but for Gong Cha customers. So I ordered the roast beef with rice and marbled potatoes and ordered 1 milk tea at Gong Cha so that I could sit and try their 'famous' roast beef.

The beef was brisket so there were layers of big fats in between. But it was so tender and moist that I couldn't resist not to eat the fats. But it is depended on the gravy. The gravy is a bit salty but combined with the acidity of worcestershire sauce, it was addicting!

Gram's Diner's TAPA BURGER

2013-01-24T03:28:00.002-08:00

They recently had their menu changed and decided to order their tapa burger since they are famour with their angus sirloin tapa. You can ask if you want to have a scrambled, runny, or sunny side up egg. I chose the runny "malasado" egg to make my burger richer!

The taste?!? - a ground tapa patty that's a bit salty. I even poured some of their vinegar to balance the taste. Or maybe? just maybe, I'm used to the traditional rice-tapa dish that I used to eat.

Sweet Bella @Greenbelt

2013-01-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

I forgot the dishes' names so i'll describe it for y'all...

Nicely cooked shrimp in shrimp bisque cream sauce that is packed full of flavors. However, after a few bites, 'nakaka-umay' already.

USDA Beef Steak Salpicao, just the usual salpicao...

Italian Steak Sandwich - beef is tender and flavorful. Mom liked it!

Truffle cream sauce in angel hair pasta. One of the best truffle cream pasta we've tasted. Served with panko crusted slices of eggplants.

And lastly, we tried their signature drink - a small pot of hot Belgian choco *no pic*

very rich but a bit too sweet for our taste.

Mango Tree Bistro - Trinoma

2012-02-21T05:52:00.007-08:00

My friends and I went on a Valentine dinner and here's what we ordered...

Pad Thai
Shrimp Cake - i always order this dish everytime I eat at a Thai restaurant .. Thick, bouncy, chewy and juicy kind of shrimp cake!

Red Curry Pork Spareribs - it didn't really tasted like red curry.. but it's a-ok

Tom Yum Rice - at first i thought it would taste weird but it's very delicious and seasoned well!

I would really recommend this!!!

Pandan chicken - Don't like the sauce but the chunky chicken is juicy!

This chicken satay is a thumbs up!

Beef Satay - BOOHOO ! why was the meat rubbery?!? and it was recommended by your staff...

Thai Iced Milk Tea - one of the favorite Thai milk tea I ever tasted!

UCC Vienna Cafe - Trinoma

2012-02-20T03:26:00.001-08:00

I read this display on our table so I ordered it. It comes with a cup of coffee or a can of softdrink.

Visually, it looks delicious but I didn't like the taste at all! The taste is milky sweet with just a hint of curry flavor.

Lengua Omurice is LOVE!!! Big slices of tender beef tongue with curry rice enveloped in omelette! This is the MUST TRY dish

Jatujak - SM the block

2012-02-16T21:15:00.000-08:00

Bagoong Rice - I believed that the portion is getting smaller and smaller and just realized that they reheat their dishes in the microwave oven.. Tastewise, it's still great!

Prawn with garlic - I love this sauce! salty, sweet, garlicky ... what more can you ask for?!

Roast duck red curry - slices of duck simmered in tasty red curry sauce.

Lemongrass iced tea - it's bottomless

Beef Sotanghon Soup - this can be shared for 2 if you're not really hungry.. it had small chunks of beef hind shank that tasted quite sweet.

Thai Milk Coffee - a bit sweet for me... had to pour water to adjust the taste

Sticky rice with mango - DELICIOUS!!! We got this for free because I used my BDO credit card. It's supposed to be Tako but they ran out of it so they replaced this instead.

BURGOO - SM NORTH THE BLOCK

2012-02-05T07:01:00.001-08:00

They have a promo that when you use your BDO credit card and avail 2 main entrees worth at least Php 395 you'll get to have their supreme sampler...

buffalo wings, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, cheesy fries with bacon bits, and 2 sticks of celery stalks! We got disappointed because it was served cold already!
3 dips from the supreme sampler - marinara, blue cheese, sour cream
chicken diane pasta - it tasted a little bland. consist of sauteed garlic pasta topped with grilled chicken with white wine cream sauce.

chicken steak with choice of 2 side dishes - tasty especially the mashed potato
kebab with choice of 2 side dishes - well we thought it was beef, but this were chicken and pork kebabs and my family didn't like the taste because they smothered it with sweet barbecue sauce!!! It didn't compliment!

Overall, almost all of the food that was served to us were already cold except for the pasta.... bad, bad, bad!

Foodie goes to HK

2012-02-01T21:19:00.002-08:00

Sorry for the late posts.. haven't been blogging for months already but anyway...

I went to Hong Kong last December 8-10, 2011 with my family via Cathay Pacific Airways, took airport express to Kowloon side and rode the complimentary shuttle bus. At 10AM, traffic there was bad! It was supposed to be a 15 min ride but it turned out to be a 45 - 60 min! As we reached our hotel, we took the MTR to Tung Chung Stn and had lunch at The Food Republic! This is one of my favorite cheaper and cleaner eating place when going to Singapore and discovered there were several in Hong Kong too!

This is there drink station where they serve fresh fruit juice and shakes and at the back they sell milk teas, herbal teas, softdrinks, etc...

Pearl milk tea - why is it that their pearl is so C-H-E-W-Y??? with a bite unlike what's serving here in the Manila, chewy but too soft.

Funny, almost all of our food trip in Hong Kong were not of their local food... don't know why but it's more attractive to eat; or it's winter season; or maybe we were just eating at the wrong place! ;D

This is a Korean Beef Noodle - piping hot when served to us, good enough for 2 persons... cost around HK$53
Bulgogi - all I can say is YUMM!!! - beef, different veggies, and sunny side up egg! around HK$49?

on the right were chicken rice and a soy tofu which are a bit pricey for me and were bland!!!

Dinner time

We were inside Harbour View Plaza touring and decided to eat in their food court. It's located adjacent to City Super store. It's like Food Republic with different cuisine per stall and guess what?! We ordered in another Korean stall! But this time, the reason was that this is where most customers order.

Set meal - thinly sliced beef, kimchi, chap chae, preserved vegetable and rice! thumbs up especially when your hungry!

Bulgogi - almost same taste as the set meal we ordered but this has sauteed fresh mushroom and fried egg.

beef again in hot plate and a plate of chap chae for my mom..

all of the beef dishes were around HK$45-55 except for the noodles at aroudn $39

DAY 2

It's too d*mn cold outside the street! So we ate our 'brunch' near our hotel...

This is located few steps away from Nathan Road near Kings de Nathan Hotel
Dad ordered congee with cruller

My sis and I ordered roast duck and it was so good! a must try! this costs around $30 and has big servings.. this what I like in Hong Kong's 'carinderia type' shop, big serving of good quality hot rice with tasty very delicious meat!
Mom ordered combination of roast duck and white chicken

by lunch time we went to Ocean Park. we were lucky to bumped to a group of travel agents who sells tickets and saved $30/ticket! At first i was hesitant and told my sister that it might be bogus but the girl gave us their pamphlet where their office were located if in case something happened, so we bought 4 tickets and saved $120!

Inside the park, we were struck by the aroma of the grilled cuttlefish and bought one.
a bit hard/chewy

In the afternoon, the temperature at the park was around 13degrees already and realized that people in the park were getting fewer and fewer already. We had snack in one of the food area...

Soup was bland! blaaahh!!! they should pour some sauce from the pork

at around 4pm my parents decided to go already coz they couldn't handle the strong cold wind and we weren't able to go to Victoria Peak also. so we decided to go just walk and walk around the Hong Kong island near the Lan Kwai Fong area.

Dinner time!

We went to Cafe de Coral.Pork cutlet with tomato sauce
Assorted cold cuts rice meal - chicken wings, pork asado, sweet chorizo and halved salted duck egg
Their honey herbal tea

Day 3 and our last day in HK...

breezy breakfast... no more seats left inside so we were given a table outside instead.. brrrrrrhhh

My sister and I ordered each of this crazy irresistible beef curry rice at only $25

tender beef cubes in spicy, thick sauce compliments the cold windy outside the street.
Mom ordered beef tripe noodles soup @ $20
Wonton noodle soup - satisfying but LE CHING's is better!

At the Hong Kong airport for departure... we decided to eat at Ajisen Ramen

Their white broth makes it slurpingly good!

Cha Siu Ramen with gyoza

Softbone ramen with kimchi

Sorry I forgot this dish but it's rice set meal with fatty thinly sliced beef in sweet 'teppan' sauce, miso soup, corn-kani salad

I was tempted and bought Popeye's chicken with biscuit and fries. I like their biscuit with honey syrup but in Hong Kong, they don't serve it. There was a Popeye's Chicken located at Robinson's Galleria 10 - 12 years ago but it didn't get the Pinoy's taste bud.

We went back to Philippines via Dragonair and didn't realized that they will be serving dinner too. We were used to other budget airlines that we thought they won't serve one. I had mine taken home because I was too full and tired already.

With all these food, I lost 3 pounds instead of gaining! I think I should go more often to Hong Kong!!! ahhahaha

Recipes - Trinoma

2011-10-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

Lechon Kawali with Kangkong- skin was not crispy.. disappointing,.

Gising gising - chopped beans cooked in coconut milk

General's Chicken - this is their best seller and I agree with that! the sauce is addictive with a hint of spiciness.
Laing

Beef Steak Tagalog - thumbs up for the sauce... balance of salty, sour, and a little sweetness
Cafe Metro Garlic Rice - it's not really just the usual garlic rice, this one was flavored with I think Knorr liquid seasoning! haha

Spicy Squid - sauce was too sweet for me

Clawdaddy's - Shangri-la

2011-10-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

While waiting for our orders, we were given grilled corn cobbs to munch to

Chili Fries - Liked how they fried the potatoes but I'm not a fan of chili beans...

Dirty Rice - Too much spices going on...

Crab Maritess - this is one of my favorite crab dishes... deep fried crab smothered with lots of garlic, oil and wine..

I think this one is chicken alfredo.. forgot already.. sorry!

Country Fried Steak - nothing special.. typical deep fried beef with gravy and mashed potatoes

Shrimp popcorn!!! - Cocktail sized shrimps breaded and deep fried... yummy!

Fried Calamari...

foodie explores Singapore part 2

2011-04-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

This was our breakfast in the VIP Hotel, near Newton. 2 eggs, pork and beans and a slice of ham.. for 2 days that's what we ate .. but there were also unlimited coffee, orange juice, bread where can have it toasted, cereals and milk...

We ate at Goldilocks' 'famous seven spiced chicken' in Universal Studios for lunch.

we ordered 8 pcs of chicken half of it was thai spicy flavor. for a fast food type of establishment, this was a bit slow. we waited for abour 15 min to have half of what we ordered and another 5 minutes for the remaining.. anyway, i liked the thai spiced chicken better! It has more flavor and you can taste lemongrass that was marinated in the chicken.

for our last day, we went to Bugis and has one of their fresh juices. Last year, we would go there almost daily just to have it. It was so refreshing and worth the price!

And we had our last day of lunch in Singapore in a hawker near bugis, if I'm not mistaken, i believe it was the Bugis village hawker center. Of all the stalls we passed by, only one stall was selling braised duck rice and it looked appetizing!

Long grain braised duck sauce rice with condiments of hard boiled egg, braised tofu, and peanut that was also braised in the sauce. They also offer dry noodle duck if you don't like eating rice. Sauce was sweet and just right combination of spices.

We bought boxes of instant milk tea with different kinds of flavor. Flavors were honey roasted milk tea, coffee milk tea, rose fruity milk tea and earl grey milk tea. among the four, only earl grey was not my type! It has strong bergamot flavor... the rest was good!

foodie explores Singapore part 1

2011-04-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

Our first day, we had lunch at Wee Nam Kee in Novena.. a bowl of soup to share was given to us while we wait for our chicken!

cup of chicken rice...
we ordered white and soy chicken to compare which is better... and the winner is....

SOY CHICKEN!!! it is tastier than white chicken..

White chicken really needs to be accompanied by condiments like ginger.

Of course one of their specialty was the CEREAL PRAWN!!! This is the best!!! Even though it's a bit spicy I almost emptied the plate because of the cereal...

Next stop... ION ORCHARD...

we had snack in their food court and saw one of the stall selling laksa.. seeing the THICK, CREAMY soup made me order 1 laksa and 1 prawn noodle for my sister...
when you order, you get to choose which kind of noodle you want to have for your laksa/prawn noodle.. from vermicelli, egg noodle, rice noodle, and think yellow noodle...

The laksa beat Banana Leaf's, this had prawn, tofu, egg, cockles, and sambal! Serving was big already that I got full but wanted to slurp till the last drop! :D

My sister's prawn noodle - very very very tasty! speechless!

Our snack was accompanied by milk tea from EACH A CUP

I had almond milk tea and milk tea for sis.. Serenitea is still the best milk tea for me...

For our dinner, my cousin had reservation at Jumbo Seafood Palace in Clarke Quay

We were not hungry because of what we had for snack, so we ordered these only..
Chili Crab - sauce was too spicy that we were not that satisfied.. But the way the cook the crab was still good! Cooked just right!

We tried fried mantou to dip in the chili crab sauce. Love their fried mantou - soft, sweet bun..

And instead of ordering cereal prawn again.. we ordered fried prawn breaded with floss, lemon rind, and seaweed - flavor was fantastic and cooked perfectly!

Jollibee's Tuna Pie

2011-04-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

Lenten Season's coming soon... I know, this product is not new anymore.. but for me it is! :D

It was yummy, actually i was craving for this after few days already.. surprisingly, there's cheese in it! Php 32

Lugang Cafe - Annapolis Greenhills

2011-03-31T05:06:00.001-07:00

We had reservation at Lugang Cafe on a Sunday dinner. Ambiance is nice but service was not...

We had siao long pao for the appetizer and pork and shrimp siomai

Siomai has uncommon appearance. It's like an open faced siao long pao topped with a piece of shrimp. Taste is same as siao long pao too...

Hot n Sour Soup tasted like Mongkok's, bland, no kick of spiciness and sourness.

Pork Knuckle - needs for stewing, I want it to be gelatinous and falling off the bone!
Cantonese Fried Prawn (not sure with the name) - 5 pcs of deep fried prawns nothing special...

Crab with vermicelli

Beans with salted egg - quite yummy

Beef in Sizzling Iron Plate

My drink - Honey lemon with aloe vera jelly.... Refreshing!

Mr. Kiochon

2011-03-26T01:31:00.000-07:00

Bought this at Powerplant bazaar last March 13..

I ordered combination of 2 flavors - original and spicy
i like the spicy more, it brings out the flavor. their original sauce is somehow bland for me....
texture-wise = CRUNCHY! I liked their batter/breading

Kaya - Powerplant

2011-03-25T19:51:00.002-07:00

Dolsot bibimbap Php310 - a heathly complete meal. super like their chili paste with it.

Their new 'Alamang bibimbap' - no more talangkanin... it is composed of bagoong rice topped with seafood (shrimps, mussels and squid), veggies and fried egg.

battered fried shrimps - crispy!

The Real Thing Diner - Il Terrazo

2011-03-14T05:55:00.001-07:00

Cool concept but almost all of their dishes have soda flavor == sweet

sarsi float
Coca cola Seafood Jambalaya - consist of pan fried dory and fried shrimps.. we split it into 2 plates so serving size looked smaller.. the taste is quite good -- sweet barbecuey taste

Sarsi wings - small

Coca Cola baby back ribs - the sauce has rosemary in it, has a bitter after taste... I loved their mashed potatoes!

Coca Cola Barbecue Burger - I don't like the texture of the patty = mushy

Citibank's Promo - Dairy Queen

2011-03-08T04:09:00.003-08:00

Citibank credit card had tied up with Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. I had mine claimed at Dairy Queen for a charge slip at least Php 1,500... I was able to have 2 DQ Sandwiches. Not bad...

Mr. Ube - E. Rodriguez Near St. Luke's

2011-03-04T04:06:00.000-08:00

Lechon Kawali - skin is super crispy! loved this dish!
Singaporean Laksa - soup is not 'creamy/thick' not like the real laksa in Singapore but you can taste the herbs and spices in it... their noodles are thick and chewy but too few
Almond Shake - smooth, creamy, but too sweet!!!

Kimono Ken - SM North The Block

2011-02-27T05:44:00.000-08:00

Service was bad, as if they have lots of guests to attend to. But that dinner time, only 1/3 of the tables were occupied.

Kani Salad Maki
bacon asparagus spaghetti - we requested to have a crispy bacon ... one of their specialties. They used mayonnaise for the sauce instead of cream.

Beef teriyaki - This very thinly sliced beef is good for 3-4 persons already. It has an after taste of butter which is yummy.
Prawn Tempura
Kimono Ken Special - It's like their version of four seasons shake. It's too sweet for my taste.

Tofu Steak - Loved the steak sauce!
Dynamite Roll

Beehive BBQ - Ortigas Home Depot

2011-02-24T03:58:00.000-08:00

We were the first customer of the day! wow! anyway, as we entered the place, in the middle part were 2 staffs fixing the light on the ceiling and used driller which made us annoyed. After 5 minutes of fixing, we were entertained by the waitress.. Here's what we ordered....

This is my first time eating in a 'traditional' Korean restaurant... So I wasn't expecting that there would be free appetizer of preserved vegetables..

Sampler of preserved vegetables and a bowl of cold sour soup which is quite refreshing!
A thin piece of pancake with corn, carrots and scallions.. we thought this was the pancake that we ordered and felt that it wasn't worth the price. But as we were eating waiting for our bibimbap...

The real seafood pancake came out and it tasted delicious.

out came our bibimbaps. Quite dry for me and bland, I just ate it together with the preserved vegetables.

The Ice Cream Bar - Joya Tower

2011-02-14T04:16:00.000-08:00

Tokyo Teazuki - combination of pineapple tidbits, adzuki beans, green tea ice cream and black sesame ice cream.
Belgian hot fudge sundae - originally it's vanilla ice cream, but we requested chocolate ice cream.

Champorado Risotto ala Mode - It's the best. This warm Belgian chocolatey risotto would satisfy your cravings! topped with raspberry ice cream and garnished with sliced fresh strawberry. It's definitely a must try!

Kao Chi - Retiro

2011-02-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

This is a new restaurant here in Retiro area, in front of Cajun/Chef Tony's Popcorn. It is a 'authentic' chinese restaurant where I believe you can taste one of the best siao long pao...

This is the table of VIP room.

Steamed Siao long pao.. juicy and tasty...

Their version of fried siao long pao's skin is thicker than steamed one. Steamed is better.

It's an appetizer so expect the serving size smaller. It's Honey glazed spareribs.. Taste wise, it's too sweet and bony! Well of course, it's spareribs! But I wasn't expecting more bones with few meat.

The usual yang chow because my brother is so picky when it comes to food...

Hot and Sour soup - Eat Well is way better than this...

Seafood Noodles. - Tasted bland.. I even poured soy sauce and chili on mine... Their noodles are hand pulled which I liked.

Beef with scallion - Tasted like beef teppanyaki but Chinese version...

3 cups chicken is good but again, Eat Well's better! Actually the best so far...

Garlic Spinach - loved the aroma of garlic! We were supposed to order Stinky Tofu but it was out of stock already....

I ordered their buko pandan shake. Tasted like Max's Restaurant's. Pandan flavoring was strong.

UCC - Rockwell

2011-01-28T19:47:00.001-08:00

Woke up late so sis and I had Sunday brunch at UCC Rockwell. When you order their breakfast before 11am, you'd get a free cup of coffee or hot cocoa or orange juice I think. But for this, we arrived at 11:15 already so we ordered different drink. These are the items that we always order for breakfast menu....

Corned beef hash - you have a choice of slices of bread or rice. Here my sis chose garlic rice. Corned beef is crispy, just the way we like it.

Her drink is Yin Yang Cha - combination of tea and coffee and milk, in short coffee milk tea!

Mine is English Bangers - 3 pcs of peppery pork sausages which I loved the taste! With garlic rice and scrambled egg.

Coffee Jelly - not like Starbucks' Coffee jelly, this has only few SOFT jellies. I prefer Starbucks coz it is chewy...