A Taste of Both Worlds

Bro's Treat at Pancake House

2009-10-19T07:36:25-07:00

My bro asked me to accompany him in Trinoma last Friday as he was shopping for a new pair of black shoes and some polo shirts, he kinda needed my not-so-professional advice on what's hot and not. Between you and me, he do believe that I have a good sense of fashion style, and for my sake and his, I believe that it is true *grins*. And so, we spend a few hours looking and picking some stuff, and when were done I asked him to treat me to dinner, which is just right, I helped him out and he forced me to ride a bus (which is one of my natural enemies, I'll elaborate some other time).

We had an early dinner at Pancake House, I would have order some pancakes plus a main course but my brother is such a tightwad so I had to contend with what he wanted to give me *grins*.

Note: Pardon for the not so appetizing food shots, as I was with my bro and he's not used to me taking pictures before I eat, he prevented me from turning the flash of my camera on as it may disturb other people (daw) add that to the fact that the lighting in Pancake House-Trinoma branch is not great for taking pictures. 'Nuff said!

Photo above is a Hamburger Steak Special set, it has hamburger steak (of course!) with gravy, an order of spaghetti and mixed vegetables, corn and carrots in my bro's case, plus a glass of iced tea. You have to spare 215php for this, but looking back at how fervently he's eating his order, I guess, it's quite okay to say that you'll get your money's worth.

This one's mine, it's a House Special set and it has a piece of panchicken with gravy, an order of spaghetti with a slice of garlic bread and taco plus a glass of iced tea. It cost exactly the same as the first one, 215php, but personally, I think you'll get more variety in just a plate if you'll order this one and it's no second in taste, either.

We also had some fries (not in picture) and an order of mashed potato, both of which priced at 54php. Both tasted good and we had our share of veggies in our meal, potato is a vegetable, right?

Photo above is a Mocha Milk Shake priced at 140+php, I kinda forgot the exact amount, and this we had shared as we were both too full to order a glass each.

The place was pretty cool, and the staff and crew were fast and on their toes, ready to serve and answer your inquiries. It was a fun and fruitful day, sana maulit Bilog!

A Bite at Manila Ocean Park Cafe

2009-10-05T06:56:13-07:00

A few weeks, or is it months *grins* ago, we went to Manila Ocean Park, it is located behind the Quirino Grandstand (Rizal Park) in Roxas Blvd. It would have been nice to blog about what I and my family had seen and did inside the water park but sadly, it wasn't as much fun as you might think, it sort of failed our expectation. Don't get me wrong, I am [so] happy that we Pinoys have our own ocean park, and from what I see, I think it can even stand on its own, it may never top or equal the ones that other countries have but I firmly believe that it can run its own show. The problem is, visitors like us cannot fully appreciate the beauty and wonders of the deep, or even acknowledge the coolness of the park itself, as there were so many people scrambling around, forcing their way in and fighting for individual space. Well, I can't blame the MOP clientele, as expected, they all paid to get in so they will get their money's worth by hook or by crook, right? The problem lies on the staff and, of course, on the administration, can't they just have a maximum limit of people inside, when some people get out others can get in, a simple case of ratio and proportion will work wonders I think. Anyway, we spend an hour and a half max, shorter than I ever imagine, because my son was terribly uncomfortable due to the non-working (properly) air conditioner, add that to the jam-packed place and you'll get hell on earth, as in it was super hot, you won't even have the chance to breath and take in the marvel in front of you. That one and a half hour was mostly spent in the souvenir and arcade area at the second floor (?), not a good first impression, if you'll ask me. But, here's a big but, given a chance, we would like to try again, but this time we're gonna call to inquire if there's any scheduled school, company or community outings the day we're gonna visit *grins*, better safe than sorry.

And so we went out and decided to roam around Rizal Park, it's been ages since we've been there but as it was scorching hot, we decided to cool down in the Manila Ocean Park Cafe which we found out is owned by a woman who also co-owns the ocean park, how's that for rich? It is an open-air establishment with a number of those big air-conditioner/blower units around, which was a definite turn on on that hot, hot day. One more thing, it has yellow and blue tables and counter tops accented with pretty flower centerpieces, it oozed of coziness and comfy-ness. Adventurers (read:the three of us - hubby, me and bebe) who didn't get a good start found a haven to rejuvenate, hmm... did we, really?

And so we sit ourselves and asked for the menu board, I looked, I scanned and I almost fainted, the prices were high, as in mighty high, though we wanted to, we can't very well bolt out of the establishment, common sense told us to order the cheapest in the list *lol*, and we would have followed but kids these days just don't get the meaning of frugality *grins*.

This was our son's order, according to him, this was a crabby patty, in truth, this is a Cheeseburger and Chips Combo, I forgot the exact price but if I remember correctly, it is between 180-200php. It would have been worth it if my big bundle of joy had eaten the entire serving but no, he only gobbled the chips (which was Lays) and left the entire burger on his plate. Hubby ate it instead, and I did have a bite, of course, it was okay but nothing extraordinary.

This Halo-Halo was my hubby's order, it is the special kind, I don't know what's the difference between the regular and the special variety, all I saw in this halo-halo which is not usually seen in our everyday/usual version of halo-halo is the cherry on top, and if we're gonna talk about the taste, I swear I didn't find anything new or different, by the way, this cost 70 or 80php.

This was mine, Green Mango Shake, the first-ever green mango shake that I had tried in my lifetime. Yes, I've heard about it for a long time but I just never find the liking to try it before, until I saw a lot of customers in MOPC sipping theirs delightedly, hahaha, inggetera ako eh, anyway, a glass cost 60php and it tasted like Green Mangoes *grins*.

We, also, ordered a can of soda and a bottle of water - we ate, we chat, we chill...

Right before we went on our way (to Luneta), my super sweet baby picked a piece of chrysanthemum in the table centerpiece and handed it to me, saying "I love you Mommy!" That precise moment was my favorite part of the day and I still had the chrysanthemum tucked in one of my treasured romance novels (pocketbooks).

And now, I say goodbye, till next post folks. Have a good life!

Frozen

2009-10-04T03:46:02-07:00

Yup, my blog was frozen for almost two months, and this time it's not because of the time-old reason called laziness, this time I did something worthwhile *grins*. I wasn't able to update that long because we had re-open our small internet cafe, actually, it is more of a computer rentals and as we were not that accustomed to having a business like that anymore, the fatigue and stress kinda took toll on me in as early as a week. Now, we are nearing our 2nd month and we're kinda getting the hang of the business and it's corresponding hazards *grins*, so, it is a little safe to say that I can now update this blog, it may not be as often as I would want to but I think I can pitch in one or two in a week (laziness factor not accounted for *lol*). I have a few backlog posts already in queue and I hope to write at least one tomorrow morning after my son dash to school... hopefully *fingers cross*.

For now, you have to settle for an explanatory post such as this as I need to attend to my son's preparatory needs (read: review), but I think, tomorrow will be a different matter *smiles*.

Sorry for leaving you guys without any notice... but, I am back and I promise to stay this time.

Later... :)

Dinner at the General's Place

2009-08-15T03:46:03-07:00

I was on hibernation for a couple of weeks, I'm just too tired and too lazy to do anything, I'm not saying that I'm okay now cause I can't remember a time in my life that I felt like doing anything and I don't think there will come a time that I will, I'm just born lazy *grins*.

A few weeks ago, we had dinner at the General's Place, nope, we didn't dine with a general and his family or at his house as we don't know any military generals (at least, none that I know of), The General's Place is a diner located at Gen. Luna St. in Malabon City hence the name. It is an eatery mainly serving ---silog dishes with a billiard hall and a small internet cafe.

Note: Pardon the photos included in this post, the diner uses incandescent light bulbs thus all pics turned out yellowish.

It is a small establishment compared to its neighbors but it boast of a number of regular patrons, the time we were there, all the tables were occupied and the lady by the counter calls everyone suki (a customer of long standing), good thing we went and got seated a little earlier than dinner time *grins*.

Photo above was hubby's order, finger fish fillet with fried rice and sunny side up egg, it also comes with a sweet and sour sauce. I don't eat fish so I can't vouch for its taste but hubby said it was good, now it's up to you if you'll believe him *lol*.

This one (refer to the photo above) is a classic Pinoy food - tapsilog - it has beef tapa, fried rice and sunny side up egg, you can even ask for a vinegar dip if you like, another order of hubby and one of his favorite food aside from adobo and tocino *grins*. This time, I can swear it was good, the tapa is not dry and gummy unlike those of other tapsilugan and the serving is big, too.

Photo above was my son's preferred meal at the time, another Pinoy food classic - porksilog - it has breaded pork chop, fried rice and a sunny side up egg. And as usual, though it wasn't mine, I still took a little bite and I wasn't disappointed, it was good, the breading was tasty and the pork chop was big enough for sharing.

Photo above was my order, fried chicken, fried rice and sunny side up egg, more commonly known as chicksilog. They tag their chicken as chicken-ala-max, their own or copied version of Max's fried chicken *grins*, and in fairness to them, I kinda taste a hint of Max's.

Aside from the four ---silog(s) that we had, we also indulged in some pork barbecues and lumpiang shanghai, both were great-tasting, by the way.

I have forgotten how much each one cost or the accumulated bill that we had paid, but I am pretty sure that the prices ranges from 25-60php. A bargain, right?

An entry for and

We Got It Grilled at Kenny

2009-07-31T05:29:34-07:00

My son had his monthly growth monitoring a few days ago in his pedia's clinic somewhere in Caloocan City, used to go to Chinese Gen. but the clinic is way accessible than the hospital so we decided to have a location change. Anyway, after a few pokes here and there, weighing and measuring and a booster shot, we were home-bound but, as usual and expected, my bebe complained about going home without even eating or playing or toy-gawking, so we decided to go to Grand Central Mall. We were hoping to eat at Shakey's and we earnestly plead and cajoled our son to try Shakey's pizza until he, finally, gave in, but to our heart's dismay, the Shakey's branch in that mall was occupied by another dining establishment already, so, it was bye-bye Shakey's and hello Kenny's for us. Oh, by the way, we had to go through another bout of pleading and cajoling and we had to take a different path going to Kenny Rogers so as to prevent him from seeing the Pizza Hut chain in the same level of the mall. A parent got to do what he/she got to do *lol*.

The Kenny Rogers Roasters in Grand Central is a cozy place to eat, it's not crowded and minute, you can sit and lounge for a moment, and do a bit of thinking before you place that order in the counter. The staff were alright, they did their jobs accordingly and they are more than courteous to the customers and patrons.

The only problem is, they were kinda out-of-all-stock when we went in and it was lunch time, the peak hour in fastfood business, right? I had to ask my hubby for a change of order twice as his preferred food were not available, imagine a Kenny Rogers Roasters without a roast chicken, unimaginable, think again.

Be that as it may, and though picking the grilled stuff in their menu was our last resort, it may as well be their saving grace.

The featured photo is one of their grilled entrees, the Grilled Sausage, it has a piece of Hungarian sausage with a mustard dip, one regular side dish - I picked coleslaw, and a cup of garlic rice. It was fine, nothing to rave about but for 150php it is a very good deal.

The photo above is another grilled entree, it's BBQ Chicken, it is consists of 1/4 grilled chicken, BBQ sauce, one side dish - hubby picked, err, I picked *grins* potato salad, and garlic rice. This one was a different story, I had to tricked hubby into giving me his chicken barbecue so he can eat the rest of our order, kinda tacky huh, a wife gotta do what she gotta do *lol*. This one cost us 155php, a pretty good deal, if you'll ask me.

Photo above and below is part of their promo at that time, I got these two for 125-150php, I'm not really sure, the first one is a Krispy Chicken meal, it has a piece of crispy fried chicken with gravy, a side dish - I chose Mac and Cheese, and a cup of plain rice. My son don't like roasted or grilled chicken, he only take his fried, so, obviously, this is his order *grins*. And, just like an undying habit, I took a bite, it tasted like the usual breaded fried chicken in any fast food joint, aside from the flavor, Kenny's have their own homegrown recipe for that, of course.

The second one is Krispy Chicken and Spaghetti Combo, well, as the name denotes, it is a combination of a piece of crispy fried chicken and small serving of spaghetti with meat sauce. I like their spaghetti, kinda like the spaghetti of McDo but different in a way, it's hard to explain but I know, you're getting the idea *grins*.

The last of the group, is Brownies-ala-mode, a Kenny Rogers brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and a piece of cherry and then drizzled with some chocolate syrup, pretty crafty huh, you can have this for a small price, I just forgot how much but I know that it is not much or else I won't order it *grins*.

We had some Iced Tea, Mango Juice and a glass of Coke as our beverages.

Anyone planning to visit Kenny? Sama n'yo naman ako!

An entry for and