Shoot First Eat Later

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

My Labs

I featured my pomeranians before and my labradors before I had them neutered. Father and son labs were both Alpha males and kept fighting so the doctor told me the only way was to have them both neutered to lessen their aggressive behavior. He did warn me that the effect was for them to gain weight. Boy was he right! All my friends who see Chocnut say he’s not a dog but a pig. He’s fat but I still love him.

click to enlarge

Back to food tomorrow. I just couldn’t resist showing them off.

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.

two way pork adobo ribs P396

Sinanglay is fish fillet wrapped in taro leaves and cooked in coconut milk.

sinanglay P349

The cassava is warm, sweet, gooey and topped with cheese. It was the best part of dinner.

special cassava P89

appetizers, soups & salads,
pasta, Mediterranean entrees & steak
Filipino flavors, Asian favourites

Cafe Juanita
2 United St. cor. West Capitol Drive,
Barrio Kapitolyo Pasig City
Metro Manila
telephone: 632-0357

Welcome dinner for Pat

Last Sunday Deb hosted a welcome home dinner for our friend Pat who finally came home from Florida after more than 10 years of living in the USA. Yes folks she’s back for good. The theme for dinner was Filipino food. Deb took out her magic address book and ordered a wonderful gut busting meal. Guys have little black books. Deb has a little food book.

ben and pat

This is the best pancit malabon I’ve ever eaten. You don’t need to put calamansi (bec. there was none) or patis (fish sauce – none either). It was very tasty because of all the chicharon (pork rind) mixed in the noodles.

pancit malabon

This crispy fried shrimp was home cooked. It’s so good that you don’t even have to remove the shell and the head. Just pop the whole thing in your mouth, chew and say “yummmm!”

fried shrimp

The next 3 all time favorite Filipino dishes were ordered from Barrio Fiesta.

Kare Kare
(Ox tail stew in a peanut based sauce)

Pinakbet
(mixed veggie dish with shrimp paste)

Crispy Pata (fried pork leg)

Ineng’s pork barbeque

This bibingkang malagkit came from La Tasca. It’s an institution and very well known for this. It was my first time to try their version of it. It’s very rich but not sweet. This native dessert is made from glutinous rice cooked in coconut cream and topped with more coconut cream which has been cooked til it becomes dark brown.

bibingkang malagkit

Vargas butter cake

Pastillas is a native confection made from carabao’s milk and sugar which is cooked and stirred until it becomes thick. It’s then cut into pieces and rolled into sugar and wrapped in paper.

Iya’s jumbo pastillas

Except for the shrimp and butter cake this is what a typical Filipino meal looks like. Deb did a fantastic job of ordering the best Filipino dishes from the best suppliers. Kudos to Deb!

From Deb’s food book:

Pancit Malabon
924-D San Lorenzo Arcade,
Pasay Rd. Makati City
telephone: 843-2772

Barrio Fiesta
Makati Ave. cor. Valdez St.
Makati City, Metro Manila
telephone: 899-4020 to 21

Ineng’s Special BBQ
Fiesta Market Section
Market! Market!
26th St. cor. C5
Bonifacio Global City
Taguig, Metro Manila
telephone: 889-5410

Bibingkang Malagkit
La Tasca
telephone: 896-5543, 897-9749

Butter Cake
Vargas Kitchen
49 Pili Avenue,
Forbes Park, Makati
telephone: 810-7529, 817-8483

Iya’s Jumbo Pastillas
J&C Fruits Stall
#18 Market! Market!
26th St. cor. C5
Bonifacio Global City
Taguig, Metro Manila
telephone: 729-0325

Dinner at Amici Greenhills

Since Amici was bought by the former owners of Red Ribbon from the Salesians of Don Bosco they’ve gone on an expansion boom. They’ve improved on the menu and the restaurant’s interiors while maintaining and even improving on the taste of the food.

We went there on Friday, May 8 one day after they opened. The whole restaurant was packed. We even had to wait for a table. It seems like everyone was just waiting for Amici to finally open. I even saw several friends there.
I was impressed with the store’s operations. Everything ran smoothly except for the pizza we ordered that ran out of stock and we had to wait for a new one.

This is a semi-self service restaurant. You go to this counter to order and pay for your food. They will then deliver your food, cutlery and drinks to your table.

open kitchen with a view of the pizza oven

Everything we ordered was good! The risotto was cooked in a rich seafood stock and the flavor was evident in the al dente rice.

risotto di mare P270

The roast chicken had a strong flavor of rosemary. It was good to the bone. Even the drippings didn’t escape our attention as we used the pizza crust to sop up every last drop.

roast chicken P190

The pizza had a very thin crust just the way I like it. The tomato sauce was not sweet just the way I like it. The cheese was aplenty and gooey just the way I like it. I love their pizzas!

ai quattro formaggi P290

margherita P280

The mango jubilee gelato had big chunks of frozen berries. It was wasn’t too sweet and the fruits added a nice texture to the smooth, creamy gelato. The gelatos were served in waffle cups. Nice touch!

mango jubilee, vanilla and chocolate gelato

The food was good, the prices very reasonable and the ambiance very pleasant. I see many full seatings in their future.

The gelato and cakes section of Amici is now housed in its own area called Cara Mia.

(click on the pics to see all the gelato flavors)

ice cream cakes

regular cakes

soup & appetizers, pasta, pizza,
house specials & panini

Amici / Caramia

101 Connecticut cor. Missouri Sts.,

North East Greenhills San Juan

telephone: 7244-206

Travel Essentials

I’m going to Perth and Margaret River in Western Australia and Singapore next week with friends. Do you have any suggestions on where to eat so I can feature them on my blog? Please write them on the comments area.

Since those 2 countries have different plugs from the Philippines I had to buy some things so I can charge my gadgets. I have a retractable usb cable for my cellphone and Ipod touch so I bought this worldwide usb charger from Cdr King. What I like about this is I can charge both my ipod and cellphone at the same time. It comes with 4 plugs that pretty much covers the world.

worldwide usb charger – P380/US$8

There are 2 usb slots for simultaneous charging. I brought my ipod touch and cellphone to Cdr King to test it. I was so happy it worked. I really love cdr king. It’s a treasure trove for gadgets. I look in their web site for what I need before I go to their store. It’s very confusing to look for stuff in their store.

(pic from cdr king)

Ipod usb cable – P80/US$ 1.70

I bought this really small SDHC/mini SD card reader in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong. It’s really very handy for travelling.

SDHC card reader HK$35/P213/US$4.50

ipod & cellphone usb cable, extra camera battery,
sd cards, flash drive and card reader

I’m also bringing my x-mini II speaker in case the nights in Australia are too quiet.

X-mini II – P1,600/US$34

Everything goes into my Built NY charger bag which I got from Amazon.com.

This is my photo shoot set up. I’ve replaced my cardboard light box with this tent. I recently changed the bulbs from 23 watts CFL to 27 watts.

Lunch at Aubergine

When I heard we were eating lunch at Aubergine at the Fort I did some online research on the restaurants’ reviews. There were as many rave reviews as there were negative rants. So I was a bit wary on what to expect.

The place was bigger than I expected.

private function room

the huge impressive open kitchen

modern glass wine cellar

chef’s special

butter and olive tapenade

I ordered the 5 course degustation menu. I loved it! From the appetizer to the sherbet all the way to the coffee. Unlike some reviews that said the portions were tiny I felt they were just right and in the case of the entree it was generous. The food was at par if not better than some of the French restaurants I ate at in Hong Kong. Even the presentation was excellent.

The degustation menu (P1,950+) starts with this teeny weenie mozzarella cheese w/ tomato. Despite it’s size it was tasty due to the olive oil infused with herbs.

amuse bouche

I’m not a seafood lover but I wiped out this entire plate. The lobster tail was grilled to perfection. The chef in charge of grilling is a master in timing. Everything was simply divine.

seafood appetizer with grilled lobster tail, prawn,
scallop & smoked salmon roulade
with salad greens tossed in raspberry dressing

basil flavored beef consomme w/
smoked tomato-mushroom cannelloni

The foie gras was delicious and a generous size. I liked the sauce of Gourmand’s foie gras better. So in my book this is the 2nd best foie gras in town.

Most of the dishes were decorated with foam or froth. I guess they have a foamer and they want to maximize it’s use. I personally don’t like foam. I don’t get it. Sometimes it distracts your view from the actual dish. And it reminds me of the foam my dogs emit when they eat too much grass. Eeew.

pan seared duck foie gras on celeriac-apple
mousseline in Madeira reduction

At this point I was already full! Shhh don’t tell Oprah but I ate some whole wheat roll with the yummy tapenade. Isn’t the teapot a cute container for the sherbet? There was dry ice inside so when this was brought to the table smoke was coming out of the spout.

strawberry mango sherbet

You get to choose either the lamb chop or the sea bass for your main course. I had the lamb chop which was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. It was perfectly grilled and all the juice and flavor of the lamb was locked in. It was a tad too salty though. The lamb loin was a bit tougher but still good. The polenta was so smooth and creamy I thought it was mashed potatoes. I didn’t taste any blue cheese.

oven roasted Australian lamb loin &
grilled lamb chop served on creamy blue cheese
polenta w/ vegetable cassoulet & carrot-cumin jus

I had a bite of the sea bass. It was ok. It wasn’t as good as the sea bass I had in Caprice. The texture wasn’t as smooth and silky. The risotto was very rich.

grilled Chilean sea bass on saffron risotto w/
bouillabaisse froth, green asparagus &
semi dried tomatoes

Finally the last course of the degustation menu – dessert. I was so so disgustingly full I gave away my dessert. No I didn’t have a fever.

There were 13 of us during lunch and only 4 of us ordered the degustation menu. Here are what the others ordered. They all said the food was good except for the pasta which the kids didn’t like.

US Angus beef rib-eye steak (330 grams) P1,550

US Cornish game hen two ways P690

full sized grilled Chilean sea bass P1,100

prawn tagliolini P620

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert menu!

warm lava cake (i think)

free petit fours
macaroons and chocolates

I can’t find fault with the food so I’ll nitpick about the service. As some online reviews mentioned the service was indeed slow. We were there for Sunday lunch and there were a total of 4 tables with ours being the largest group. Only one waitress took everyone’s order and the food took some time to come out. Water was never refilled until I asked for it. The waiter serving bread was good though. He kept coming back and offering everyone bread. We were there until 3:30 pm. We noticed it getting warmer and warmer so I called the manager. Instead of coming straight to me he kept looking left and right to send someone instead. I asked him if they turned off the aircon. He said no but in a few minutes we felt it getting cooler again. Nothing really bad. I’ll surely go back again.

appetizers, soups & pasta, fish & seafood,
meat & poultry, grills, degustation menu

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

Cakes & Bakes

Cakes & Bakes has been in Cherry Foodarama forever! They have several kinds of bread and cake rolls. They even sell garlic peanuts.

I haven’t been to Cherry in a long time. It was the first time I noticed the several varieties of cakes that looked good and didn’t cost much. So I decided to take home 2 slices. The first choice was easy since it they had the most stock of Mango Royale it was safe to deduce it was the most popular cake. The second choice took longer.

(click to see all varieties)

mango royale
slice P56/ 8″ round P350

I’ve never seen mango and chocolate in a cake together. Let me tell you it works! The mangoes were very sweet and the cake very soft. I felt there was too much whipped cream. The cake slice can barely stand with the weight of the mangoes and the cream. This cake was too sinful. If you love mangoes and cream this is the cake for you.

I really wanted to try this caramel sans rival but I asked the sales lady if the meringue layers were crunchy. She said no so I didn’t get it. It looks so good though.

caramel sans rival

She told me this was also very good. So I chose this cake.

banana toffee creme P48/slice

I didn’t like it as much. The cake was a bit firm. The good thing was it wasn’t very sweet. If you like banana cakes then you’ll like this.

banana toffee creme cake

You should have seen the other side of the cake. It was sloping to one side and literally melting under my lighting. This was the best shot.

mango royale cake

If you happen to be in Shaw Blvd. drop by Cherry and try the Mango Royale cake. Next time I’ll try the Sans Rival.

Cakes & Bakes
Cherry Foodarama
514 Shaw Boulevard
Cor. Samat Street
Mandaluyong

telephone: 533-0772 or 533-0623