Shoot First Eat Later

Perth to Margaret River Day 1

We arrived in Perth at 12:30 am so we decided to stay in a hotel overnight before we drive to Margaret River. We stayed in Comfort Hotel Perth City‘s family room for A$180 including free airport transfer. That’s Rochelle’s son, P in the picture.

It had a slight motel smell but it was very clean and the beds were comfy. The location was on Hay St. so it’s very convenient to the Perth Mint and several restaurants.

We rented a mid size Toyota Camry with a GPS that proved invaluable during the whole trip. That’s our fabulous driver Christina, Rochelle’s sister. Other than getting confused with the wiper, turn signal and mind boggling roundabouts she was a great driver.

Our beloved GPS which we named Margie.

A word about roundabouts. When we encountered our first roundabout and Margie, the GPS, yelled “take 2nd exit at the roundabout”. We didn’t know which was the 2nd exit! Naturally we tried each and every exit until Margie said we were on the right direction. We wasted a lot of time with these roundabouts. We later understood what Margie meant and Chris became a roundabout expert. The extreme left is considered the 1st exit and you count clockwise. Driving from Perth to MR (Margaret River) normally takes 4 hours. But with our roundabout errors, shopping detours it took us about 6 hours.

a typical roundabout

We stopped in the town of Madura for a quick lunch and some shopping at Coles supermarket for some neccessities. Since we’ve passed a lot of Red Rooster we decided to give it a try.

They specialize in roast chicken.

The four of us shared a rippa chicken sub with chili & garlic aoli.

The sub contained a breaded chicken fillet, some lettuce and the chili & garlic aoli. The sandwich was your average fastfood sandwich which was saved by the yummy sauce.

We then went next door to the mall that had Coles supermarket. We stopped at this bakery to buy scones for our breakfast the next morning.

bff Rochelle and her sister Chris

We liked the packaging of the Bundaberg sarsaparilla so we got 1 bottle to try.

I was so happy when my 2 skinny friends told me we need to buy potato chips. I almost fainted with joy. Red Rock Deli potato chips are now my favorite chips in the world. It surpassed Kettle chips and Oishi in my book. We specially loved the sea salt & rosemary chips cooked in olive oil. It was thick, crunchy, no strong olive oil taste, not greasy and spiced just right.

Red Rock Deli potato chips in sea salt & rosemary flavor

What I like about Aussie chips are their unusual flavors which hit the spot. They even had honey soy chicken and Moroccan chicken but we passed on those.

lime and black pepper potato chips

sweet chili and sour cream potato chips

I was amazed when Chris showed me this giant roll of fresh dog food. They do love their pets in Australia. I wish they had this in Manila.

Next 4 pictures are more varieties of fresh dog food.

Chris’ eagle eye spotted a sign on the road for The Old Cheddar Cheese company. We took a detour and was in luck that the store was still open.

We bought a few varieties but the vintage cheddar was the best.

Tomorrow’s post will continue with day 1. I will show you the apartment we rented in MR and our first dinner.

Comfort Hotel Perth City
200-202 Hay Street,
EAST PERTH WA 6004
telephone: (08) 9220 7000

The Old Cheddar Cheese Company
31 Glendon Rd, Ludlow, WA 6280
telephone: (08) 97532424

I’m back!

I just got home tonight from Singapore. The Singapore airlines flight was great as usual. When we stepped out of the plane into the Ninoy Aquino International Airport I was happy that the aircon was cold. But the elation I felt was immediately squashed when I saw hordes of people in the middle of the hall just standing still busy filling up yellow forms. It was a health declaration form that you have to fill up on the spot before you will be allowed to go through. Why don’t they give the form on the plane just like they did with the immigration form? It’s so stupid!

After that fiasco I was happy to see the immigration line for Philippine passport holders was short. I immediately stepped up to the counter and was handed a NEW immigration form. WHAT?!? The lady said they started the new form today and I had to fill that up and I can’t use the one I already filled up on the plane. Grrr what will all the tourists think? Thank goodness everything was smooth sailing after that.

Enough with the rant. I took 2,800 pictures on my 2 week trip. All I can say is the food in Australia is good and the dessert fabulous. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures up by tomorrow.

Street sign in Makati

Note: This is my last entry for a while because I’ll be in Perth, Australia and Singapore for 2 weeks. Take a look at my earlier posts and keep on checking this site for new entries.

Check out this humorous street sign at the intersection of Edsa and Ayala Avenue.

Likuan is the Tagalog term for U turn.

Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen

After watching Angels and Demons last Friday we went to CPK for dinner. For me it’s the best, albeit expensive pizza in Manila.

These pictures were taken by my trusty assistant Wilson using my new Panasonic G1 camera.

We ordered this neapolitan pizza which had an ultra thin crust. This was truly fabulous. All the ingredients were top quality and gave the pizza a full flavor. We told them to skip the crushed chilis.

CPK pizzas are never oily. I never need to blot the top of the pizzza to remove the excess oil like what I do with all other pizzas. No matter how many slices of pizza you eat you’ll notice that your hands remain dry and oil free. That’s another reason I love CPK pizzas.

Rustica
Made with imported Italian tomatoes,
fresh Mozzarella, garlic, crushed chilies, capers,
Mediterranean olives and Parmesan cheese. P325
With pepperoni P395

Buffalo Chicken
Grilled chicken marinated in spicy buffalo sauce
w/ Mozzarella cheese, carrots, celery &
crumbled Gorgonzola cheese.
Served w/ Gorgonzola ranch dressing P435

Vivian who actually complains better than me got us this free dessert when she complained that half of the Rustica pizza’s edges were burnt. Go Vivian! Thanks to the nice and generous manager.

hot fudge brownie sundae P255

CPK menu

California Pizza Kitchen
AF-8 L-8 G/F Promenade Mall
Greenhills Shopping Center,
San Juan, Metro Manila
telephone: 725-7377

Dinner at Via Mare

We had an impromptu girls night out the other day. The venue was Rockwell and the only choice to eat at was Via Mare. Well Pat requested it since she still craved for Filipino food. I didn’t mind since I always crave for Via Mare’s bibingka.

Their pancit luglog was a big disappointment. It didn’t have any taste. I had to drown it with patis (fish sauce) and calamansi unlike the uber yummy pancit malabon I had at Deb’s house.
By the way, these are the first pictures taken with my new camera the Panasonic G1. Any improvement? I noticed the pictures came out brighter even though the lighting in the restaurant was a bit muted.

pancit luglog P185

arroz caldo goto P130/ chicken 160

crispy binagoongan P275

pasta with walnuts

The following are a showcase of the best Filipino desserts. Via Mare does it best. Bibingka is a rice cake cooked over charcoal and topped with either salted eggs or in this case cheese. It’s also served with freshly grated coconut. This is a dense, slightly chewy, sweet cake. Think pancake with the density of a bagel and you have bibingka.

bibingka w/ queso de bola P120

Puto bumbong is made from ground rice and steamed in special tubes. It is then topped with butter and served with a special kind of brown sugar and cheese. You may have noticed we like mixing sweet and salty elements in our desserts.

puto bumbong w/ cheddar cheese P77

The white mound in the middle is glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk and sweetened with some sugar. Add some mangoes and you have another rice based dessert. Hmm did we just eat an entire carb based meal???

puto maya P126

Palitaw definitely tastes better than it looks. It’s another dessert made from sweet rice flour and topped with grated coconut, sugar and sesame seeds.

palitaw P38

A note to the readers. We’ve tried several Via Mare outlets around town and have come to a conclusion that the franchise stores like the ones in Mall of Asia and Serendra don’t serve the same quality of food specially the bibingka. It was really yucky compared to the ones served in Rockwell and Greenhills which are consistently good. So I suggest if you need to get your bibingka fix head on to Rockwell, Greenhills and Landmark Makati only.

Via Mare

Ground Floor Rockwell Center
Rockwell Drive cor. Estrella St.,
Makati City Metro Manila
telephone: 898-1305

Greenhills Promenade
Greenhills Shopping Center

San Juan, Metro Manila

telephone: 726-8931

Interesting Fast Food at Robinson’s Galleria

Robinson’s Galleria is another mall in Ortigas Center that’s even nearer to my store. We are lucky or unlucky to have 3 big malls- SM Megamall, Robinson’s Galleria and Shangri-la Plaza and 1 small one- The Podium in the area. Imagine the traffic jam when all these malls go on sale at the same time.I went to Galleria’s food court recently and was surprised to see that they have renovated. It’s a welcome change. There were also several new and unique kiosks that opened.Sisig is a popular dish in the Philippines. It’s made of pig’s cheeks, nose, ear and liver. It’s usually served on a sizzling plate. It’s a mainstay in menus of bars because it’s fantastic when eaten with iced cold beer. That’s what everyone says. It sounds gross but even Anthony Bourdain proclaimed it delcious and wonderful.

Sisig Hooray sells made to order pork, chicken and bangus (milkfish) sisig. I’d like to try the bangus sisig one of these days. It sounds interesting and not gross at all.

Some of Eggstacy’s products look like it comes straight from Fear Factor. Balut is an incubated duck egg with 16 to 18 day old embryo, while Penoy is an infertile incubated duck egg or with dead embryo. Whatever- they still have EMBRYO in them! Coating them in a heavy batter and frying them is supposed to make it yummier? But that’s just me. A lot of Filipinos actually like eating balut and penoy.

The only thing in their menu that I’ll go for is the salted eggs. Salted eggs are yummy with chopped tomatoes as a salad. It’s also used as topping on congee like the one I ate here.

fried balut, quail eggs

Coconut Republic sells fresh coconuts still in the shell and filled with different toppings. They also have coconut juice and shakes. Everything on the menu looks yummy.

click on the picture to see the menu

Food Court
Level 1
Robinson’s Galleria
EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue,
Quezon City

Interesting food kiosks at SM Megamall

I’ve never been to SM megamall as much as I have since I started this blog. This mall provides an endless source of entries. Here are some interesting food kiosks I’ve discovered.

Potato Time is located at the food court in Bldg. A. They sell potato chips with free dips. It’s not freshly cooked since I didn’t see any cooking being done. It’s ok except for a little rancid aftertaste.

The following are located outside the trade hall on the 5th flr. of Bldg. B. The Mango Farm sells desserts made with mangoes. They also have mango shakes and green mango shakes. Green mango shake is made from unripe, sour mangoes. Many Filipinos like to eat green mangoes. I prefer the sweet ripe mango. I think mangoes from the Philippines are the best in the whole world.

Chicharon or pork rinds and other varieties are sold here. They can also call this kiosk cholesterol heaven. I want those chicken skins! Of course it’s only in my dreams.

pork rind with some meat

chicken skin

pork intestine

chicken bits (from the neck)

Hungrypac Crinkles and Cakes

Hungrypac became popular with it’s chocolate crinkles. They later added cakes and other varieties of cookies. I visited their store in Greenhills to check out what’s new.

Their crinkles are chewy and chocolatey. No wonder it’s their bestseller.

I bought one container of chocolate ecstasy to try it out. It was indeed ecstasy! The cake was so moist and the choco icing was fudgy and yummy. It’s one of the better chocolate cakes in town.

When you need a cake to bring to a party or a potluck get the chocolate ecstasy. It’s a no fail crowd pleaser at a very affordable price.

whole chocolate ecstasy P445

other cake selections

I’m sorry to say that this is one of the worst sans rival I’ve ever eaten. It looks good in the picture but that’s because of my amazing photography ehem ehem :D. Sans rival for me should be crunchy and nutty with a light butter cream filling. This sans rival had big chunks of cashews and light butter cream but the merengue totally flops literally. It’s so full of air that it immediately flattens when you try to take a bite with your fork. It’s so soft and chewy. It’s only the liberal amount of cashew nuts that actually saved it from being a total disaster.

Hungrypac
Ash Creek Center
Madison Street corner Ortigas Ave
telephone: 736-0002, 0917-8360092
look for Cynthia Ang for orders

Mother’s Day at Aubergine

We liked our last meal at Aubergine so much that we went back last Sunday for Mother’s Day lunch. I’m glad they had a different set lunch menu. This one was cheaper and had more choices so everyone ordered this lunch menu except for the kids.

boursin cheese and butter spreads

duck breast mousse

salad greens w/ a raspberry dressing,
duck foie gras terrine in Madeira jelly,
crispy fried prawn-scallop praline,
smoked salmon roulade w/ boursin cheese

tarragon flavored chicken essence with
spring chicken confit ravioli

champagne sherbet

Foam, foam, foam everywhere. Just imagine the next 3 dishes without the foam. Why don’t they realize the food will actually look more appetizing without the dog spit – I mean foam.

I have bad experience with strip loin. I know it’s not a very good cut of meat. But half of our table ordered it anyway. Boy, was I wrong. This steak was so juicy and tender. It looks bloody but it was perfectly cooked. My mom didn’t finish her steak so I brought it home. The next day I cooked it for lunch. I cubed the steak and potatoes and sauteed it in olive oil with plenty of garlic and a good dash of Knorr seasoning. It was even better! Aubergine really excels in steaks. Next time we go back I know what to order.

Entree is a choice of steak, duck or fish

oven roasted US Angus beef strip loin w/
truffled rosemary potato gratin & glazed veggies

No one in our table ordered the duck. Luckily bff Rochelle and sis Chris were also there with their parents. And Chris ordered the duck. So I hopped on to their table for a quick shoot and a bite of duck. It was a bit salty but good too.

honey glazed french duck breast &
duck leg confit

I had the fish and lobster tail combo. It’s not really lobster but crayfish i think. The carrot and sweet potato mash was very interesting and quite tasty but it didn’t suit the dish. When I ate the fish and the mash it made the fish taste sweet. A saltier and firmer contrast would have suited the dish better. I don’t even remember what the sauce and foam tasted like.

grilled Chilean sea bass and lobster tail
set on carrot-sweet potato mousseline

In this dessert place only the ice cream is good. The choco mousse cake in the middle is not good at all. The cookie decoration on top of the ice cream tasted like laundry soap. Really. I told Rochelle to ask if they can change their dessert. The restaurant said yes and they ordered from the a la carte menu. She later told me that the tiramisu, chocolate dome and chocolate lava cake they ordered were all good. They felt bad that they couldn’t take pictures of it for me. I say thank goodness. I would have felt worse if I saw their dessert.

They forgot to give us petit fours but noone even remembered to complain because we were all so full.

chocolate truffle cake and strawberry ice cream

The chef was nice enough to make spaghetti bolognese for the kids even though it wasn’t on the menu. I guess it was good since the plates were empty.

yummy fries

Aubergine
32nd and 5th Building
5th Avenue cor. 32nd Street
Fort Bonifacio 1634 Taguig
telephone: 856-9888

Dinner at Cafe Juanita

Entering Cafe Juanita for the first time is like going to your grandmother’s house. Your grandmother who doesn’t get rid of any of her possessions, treasures, antiques and even junk. Your grandmother who insists of displaying everything in every nook and cranny in the whole house.

Some say it’s charming I say it gives me the creeps. I’m not exactly a neat freak but I can’t stand seeing all these things hanging from the ceiling, poking from the walls, peeking around the corner. I’m afraid to bump into something. By the way everything on display is for sale. Even tabletop decorations. Just look for the price tag. Welcome to the house of kitsch.

Rochelle, Chris and I had dinner with Dr. Yvonne Chua our dentist classmate. I haven’t seen her for so many years so it was a good reunion.

second floor

The food was average overall. There were some outstanding dishes like the fabada soup, crab fat sauce and cassava dessert. Even if you’re not a fan of beans you will like this rich, tasty soup with one slice of chorizo which you can see right in the middle of the bowl. Reminds me of a can of pork and beans. There’s only 1 piece of pork in the whole can.

fabada P189

In other restaurants the fried catfish comes flaked. Here the fish is whole. Looks interesting doesn’t it? To eat this you shred the fish and mix it with the green mangoes with a light dressing.

catfish mango salad P189

This is a regional Filipino dish made with fried pork belly with a salad of fresh tomatoes and bagoong (fermented shrimp paste). This was good too.

bagnet P257

I found the fish breading too thick thus making it a bit hard. They should have pan fried the fish instead to balance it with the rich, super duper yummy crab fat sauce. I ended up putting most of the sauce on the pasta. They were nice enough to give us more sauce.

asohos w/ crab fat sauce P339

This dish is called two way because the pork adobo is topped with a giant mass of stringy, hard, chewy, dry, unedible not crispy adobo flakes. They should just skip this part. This dish was quite a disappointment. The adobo lacked taste. It was neither salty nor vinegary. It did have a slight garlic flavor. We asked them to fix it and they did. Not much improvement though.