Dinner at Taal Vista Hotel

After spending the whole day at Hamilo Coast we headed back to Manila around 6 pm. We stopped at Taal Vista Hotel for dinner. If you haven’t been to Taal Vista Hotel in a long time you’ll be in for a big surprise. The whole place has been totally renovated and now looks like a 4 star hotel.

We ate at Cafe-On-The-Ridge, the hotel’s continental restaurant which served international buffet. Yes another buffet. Our third that day. Buffet overload! I just tried a few dishes since I was still full from merienda. The food was surprisingly good. They also had very good bulalo (beef & bone marrow) soup.

different pasta and veggie salads


sashimi


sushi

They had shrimp, fish, squid, veggie and even chicken tempura cooked on the spot.

assorted tempura

grilled fish fillet

grilled squid


lechon


bbq beef ribs


beef steak


falafel


dessert
Dessert was mostly fruits and jello. Nothing special except for this unique creation called miljojas de calabasa. It’s thin layers of crepes filled with sweetened mashed squash. Very interesting indeed.

miljojas de calabasa


fruits & chocolate dip

Taal Vista Hotel
Km. 60 Aguinaldo Highway,
Tagaytay City, Philippines
telephone:(632)886-4325; (6346)413-1000

A Day at Hamilo Coast

I was invited to celebrate a friend’s birthday at Hamilo Coast, a beachfront development located at Nasugbu, northwestern Batangas. It’s still a work in progress. This is what Hamilo Coast will look like when completed. Hamilo Coast is open to members only.


(click to enlarge)
photo from hamilo coast website

We spent the whole day at Pico de Loro beach club and swam in the pool since the weather didn’t cooperate and it rained the whole day.

entrance to the beach club
photo from hamilo coast website


the lobby lounge
photo from hamilo coast website

There was a coffee shop called Sun Coral Cafe on the ground floor. We went straight up to the 2nd floor to the Arribada lounge where a specially catered buffet was served for lunch.


Arribada lounge

This is the view from the lounge.


lounge chairs on the open deck
The food was plentiful and good. Most of the food was grilled.

salad station


soup


2 kinds of grilled fish


grilled squid and grilled chicken


pork barbecue and grilled pork belly


veggies and fries


white rice
I really liked their presentation of halo halo ingredients in jars.

halo halo buffet

ube and leche flan

We ordered watermelon shake and got this. I love the attention to detail. Check out the frozen watermelon shake wrapped around the straw. It tasted even better when we added vodka to it. Yum yum yum!

watermelon shake
The teens didn’t let the rain stop them from enjoying the infinity edge pool.

At 4 pm merienda was served to a hungry crowd of kids, teens and adults.

assorted sandwiches


make your own nachos


baked lasagna


chicken wings


pasta station

nachos grande


the beach club at night
photo from hamilo coast website

We had a wonderful day at Hamilo Coast. Hopefully it will be repeated next year so we can see more buildings finished and take advantage of their outdoor activities like volleyball, kayaking, snorkeling and of course the massage.

Hamilo Coast
SM Investments Corporation
10th Floor, One E-Com Center Sunset Drive,
Mall of Asia Complex Pasay City, 1300
Sales office number: +632 858 0333
Showroom numbers: +632 819 1673 and +632 819 1675
Mobile: +63917 842 6456

US Toll Free: +18669788020 and +18669787650

Fely J Revisited

I already featured Fely J before. This time we went back to treat our HS classmate, Eileen and her hubby, Nelson who came all the way from San Francisco.

Whenever we have friends or guests who come from abroad and want to eat Filipino food we always bring them to Fely J. Sure there are many other Filipino restaurants in town but Fely J is always consistent with their food and we already have our favorite dishes to order.


Nelson and Eileen

The sisig came in a tiny, tiny sizzling dish. It was good but the portion was really too tiny. Sisig is a popular Filipino appetizer made from chopped parts of a pig’s head- ears, snout, cheeks and the brain. Hmm appetizing huh?


Sizzling Sisig

Their crispy pata was a winner! Crispy skin, tender meat and lots of garlic. Perfect to eat with the dilis (dried anchovy) rice.


Crispy Patang Bawang
deep fried pork leg generously topped
with golden garlic bits

This is my favorite fish dish in Fely J. The whole tilapia was deep fried and coated with a sweetish plum sauce.

Tilapia with Sweet Plum Sauce

You can never go wrong with coconut milk. The next two veggies were both cooked in coconut milk and so yummy.

Ginataang Gulay at Hipon


Kangkong sa Gata

Their binagoong baboy was mediocre. But Nelson enjoyed it. I wonder if he knew what he was eating. Nelson is American so all the food was strange to him.

Binagoongang Baboy

You can skip this char kway teow. It bears no resemblance to the real Malaysian dish and was a far cry from the best char kway teow I ate in Singapore.

Char Kuey Teow

Their kare kare was good. It had sufficient quantities of ox tail and not just all tripe. I don’t think Nelson ate this at all. Good thing Eileen liked everything!

KKK – kare kare klab
tripe, oxtail and vegetables stewed in
peanuts sauce served with sauteed bagoong

There’s the dilis rice beside the crispy pata. I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of it. The dilis rice is a must when eating at Fely J. Be sure to ask the waiter to add 1 cup of white rice to the dilis rice even before bringing it to your table. Otherwise the ratio of the dilis to the rice is skewed. Trust me on this. You’ll end up ordering extra rice if you don’t since all the food is rice magnet.


amigas

Fely J
2/F Greenbelt 5, Legaspi St.,
Legaspi Village, Ayala Center
Makati City, Metro Manila
telephone: 728-8858

Sherrie’s Birthday Treat

Our property leasing office has only 2 regular employees, Sherrie and Tina. We also have 2 bosses. It’s a tradition for the birthday celebrant to feed everyone on their birthday. Last June it was Sherrie’s turn and this is what she served.

She ordered this giant bilao (container) of pancit malabon that could feed 25 or more. Sherrie also shared the pancit with the administration people, janitors, etc. in the building.


pancit malabon

She ordered this spectacular pata tim from Mey-Lin’s Pot and Noodle House. I already featured their cua pao before. The contents of the cua pao is this pata tim with the addition of ground peanuts and mustard greens. This was a very small pata tim so we didn’t share it with anyone else. It was so tender and it had the right amount of saltiness with just a hint of sweetness.

You can eat pata tim and its sauce on top of rice or put it in the cua pao bread provided. Any way you eat it it’s pure pleasure.


served with cua pao bread


pata tim or pork hocks or pork leg


refrigerator cake from Goldilocks


the whole spread

Mey-Lin’s Pot and Noodle House
SM Megamall
4/f Building A
telephone: 634-1261

Singapore Day 14 – Killiney Kopitiam, Bengawan Solo, SQ food Singapore to Manila

This was my last breakfast at Traders hotel. I had congee topped with pork floss, salted eggs, Chinese doughnut (you tiao), and fried shallots. The congee was totally devoid of salt or taste that’s why I loaded it with all those yummy toppings.

We spent the morning running around Orchard Rd. like headless chickens doing last minute shopping. We got back to the hotel with just enough time to jam our purchases in our luggages before Tecky arrived.

Tecky brought us to the airport and showed us all her muscles by being our porter too. Well, we couldn’t help her anyway since all our luggages were on the middle of the van while all of us were trapped in the last row. Why? Don’t ask. :p Thanks again Tecky!

I had my late, late lunch at Killiney Kopitiam at Terminal 2 of Changi airport.

Naturally I had my favorite laksa and iced kopi c (w/ condensed milk). It wasn’t the best laksa or iced kopi but it wasn’t bad for airport food.

I also bought the famous pandan cheese roll from Bengawan Solo to bring home to Manila. I like the semi dense texture and distinct pandan flavor of their cake. I finally tried a slice of their equally popular kueh lapis. I didn’t find anything spectacular or even interesting about it. I’ll stick to their pandan roll next time.

They had so many kinds of nut cookies and free samples to taste. I was so full from the laksa that nothing appealed to me.

Here’s the menu for our dinner on the Singapore airlines flight to Manila.

The chicken breast was surprisingly tender and juicy. Usually airlines murder chicken breasts turning them into rubber. Thankfully this was very edible.

pan fried chicken w/ herb gravy


Nestle crunch bar for dessert

That’s the end of our 2 week vacation to Perth, Margaret River and Singapore. We really enjoyed the whole trip specially the company and the food. Back to regular programming – Manila restaurants and food!

Bengawan Solo
Changi Airport
Terminal 2 North Departure
#02-00, PTB2
telphone: 6543 5016

Singapore Day 13 – Lunch at Thye Hong

It’s our last full day in Singapore. The food in the breakfast buffet changes daily. This is what my plate looked like today. The braised mushrooms and waffle were good.

This was my favorite from the buffet and I had it everyday. Their bircher muesli was very, very good because they ground the oats finely before adding yogurt. I added the fruits on top.


bircher muesli with fruits

We went shopping at Wisma Atria mall and had lunch at their food court called Food Republic. The whole place was packed to the rafters. While waiting for a table I walked around trying to decide what to eat. I came across Thye Hong which had a long queue. It was the only store which had a long line of people patiently waiting to order food. These pictures were taken with Rochelle’s Canon Ixus 65.

I saw the cook making a huge batch of noodles. I decided to fall in line too. I figured it must be good. When the noodles were finished the line moved fast.

Everyone in the line bought Fried Prawn Mee otherwise known as Hokkien Mee. By the time it was my turn the noodles were all gone. That meant another long wait. There were only 2 other things on the menu – char kway teow and oyster omelette. The lady at the counter was shouting if there’s anyone who was ordering the kway teow or oysters they can go straight to the counter. And so I did. I love char kway teow and really wanted to order that in the first place but I was also curious about the Hokkien mee.

I took a picture of the last order of that batch of Hokkien mee.


Hokkien mee

This is my order of char kwey teow. It’s the best char kwey teow I’ve ever eaten in my life. This was the best meal I had in Singapore. To this day I dream of eating it again. I hope they open a branch in Hong Kong. Dare I dream they open in Manila?

It was the perfect combination of the sauce, noodles and filling that made this dish so good. It was a bit salty, sweet, spicy. It wasn’t greasy either. I ordered the small size and it was a lot but I finished it.


char kwey teow

For dinner we went to Tanglin mall right next to our hotel. There’s a passage way from the 2nd floor of Traders Hotel to Tanglin mall. We had a simple dinner at the food court.

Korean beef bbq

served on a sizzling plate

I really admire the Singapore government’s campaign against smoking. I took these pictures from a store in Tanglin Mall. The very graphic packaging depicting cancer of the mouth and other diseases relating to smoking are very shocking. I can’t believe anyone would still smoke after seeing these images. The prices of the cigarettes are also 10 times more than in Manila. If these 2 factors aren’t enough of a deterrent I don’t know what else will work. I wish our government would follow this move.

Thye Hong
435 Orchard Road
#04-00 Food Republic,
Wisma Atria

Singapore Day 12 – Dinner at Siam Kitchen

Chris took these pictures using Nono’s Canon G9. Since we were shopping the whole day I didn’t want to lug around my camera.

A basket of prawn crackers was placed on the table to quell our hunger. In Manila we call it kropek. It’s also known as krupuk, kerupuk, or kroepoek in Indonesia; Keropok in Singapore. Kropek are deep fried crackers made from prawns and starch.


kropek

Siam kitchen had an a la carte buffet for $16.90++ . There were 15 or so specific dishes that will be served to you and you can eat as much as you can. Our group consisted of 2 women, 1 child and 3 men. Some of the dishes we wanted to order weren’t in the buffet so only 2 guys had the buffet.

Some of the dishes in the buffet were pineapple fried rice, green mango salad, fish cake, fried fish, chicken wing, you tiao, fried prawn cake, chicken wings, green chicken curry, tom yam soup and kang kong.

We watched as the waitress served the 1st batch of food.

Naturally food kept moving towards our table. We got to try all their food. So by the time our orders arrived we were already half full.

These 2 guys really maximized the buffet. Well, we did help out a lot.

These are what we ordered. They were generally good but somehow the food across the table tasted better. It must be the thrill of stealing food under the watchful eyes of the waitresses.

black olive fried rice with
chicken and cashew nuts


fish fillet with cashew


pad thai with seafood


prawn green curry


green mango salad
tom yum soup

We later found out most of the waitresses were Filipino and they understood our conversation in Filipino specially the ones involving food from the buffet side of the table. “Please get me more chicken curry” “I want another prawn ball” “Where’s the chicken wings? What’s taking so long?” All these from the ones who didn’t want to eat the buffet.

The buffet was a better deal. Just tell the waitress you want less fried food and more of everything else.

Siam Kitchen
Suntec City Mall
#B1-55
telephone: 6837 1588

Singapore Day 12 – Lunch at DinTaiFung

We had the lunch at the very popular chain from Taiwan, DinTaiFung. It was 2:00 pm and the place was still packed. We had to wait 15 minutes for a table.

DinTaiFung is known for their steamed pork dumplings or xiao long bao or soupy dumplings. They have branches all over Asia, Australia and Los Angeles. They also serve small dishes of food. Everything here is small.


xiao long bao or steamed pork dumplings

Both dumplings were good just like the ones I ate at DinTaiFung in Hong Kong but imho they’re not the best xiao long bao I’ve ever eaten. That honor still goes to Joe’s Shanghai in New York chinatown. Several restaurants in Hong Kong also have excellent xiao long bao.


steamed vegetable dumplings


tofu with mushroom


drunken chicken


sauteed spinach

Unbelievable but my favorite was their pork chop on rice. The pork chop was pounded thin, breaded and fried. Nothing unusual there but the taste was different. It was salty, mildy spicy and another taste I can’t pinpoint. It was also crisp and juicy.

fried pork chop on fried rice w/ egg


shrimp & pork wonton noodle soup

I just love, love their bag holder. It even has a cloth cover to prevent any possible stains.

DinTaiFung
435 Orchard Road
#02-48/53 Wisma Atria
Singapore 238877
telephone:65-6732-1383

Singapore Day 12 – Breakfast Buffet at Cafebiz+ Traders Hotel


photo from traders website

The breakfast buffet at Cafebiz costs S$34.70. Good thing breakfast came with the room. I’m not a heavy breakfast eater but with the abundant choices offered it was hard to resist. They had choices for every nationality and .


photo from traders website


fresh and canned fruit


assorted cold cuts


Japanese station


congee and lots of toppings


spring rolls and hash brown potatoes


hot dishes station


cereal station


bread station


omelettes made to order


egg station


noodle and Indian food station
This is what I ended up with. Below the sausages were crispy silver bait which I love to put on my congee. They add saltiness and crunch to an otherwise bland congee. Their Chinese doughnut or yiu tiaw was the crispest and yummiest I’ve ever eaten. The next day it was soggy and chewy.