Market Market part 1

The Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands which are divided into 80 provinces. Each province has it’s own food specialty and flavor. Going around Market Market, a mall in Taguig, will give you a chance to travel from North to South and buy each province’s delicacies. Each cart represents a province and is filled to the brim with goodies.



chichacorn (crunchy corn bits)


lengua de gato and peanuts



sesame, cashew & peanut brittle
from Good Shepherd Sisters’ Mountain Maid Training Center


peanut butter, mango jam and famous ube jam


atchara (pickled green papaya) and strawberry preserves



assorted fruit wines


coffee alamid is the most expensive coffee in the world made from droppings of the civet. the small bottle is P400 the big bottle is P1000


coffee made from rice and ginger tea


honey and lemon grass concentrate

Red Mango at SM Megamall

Red Mango is a frozen yogurt chain founded in South Korea in 2002, that has gained popularity in the United States. The company is known for using natural ingredients in making “authentic frozen yogurt” that is both tart and creamy. (from Wikipedia)

Red Mango is now in Manila. Their first 2 branches are at the Trinoma mall and Eastwood. The newest branch just opened at SM Megamall and that’s where I went. The only frozen yogurt I’ve tried is Pinkberry in L.A. I tried the coffee flavor without any toppings. It was soooooo tart (mukhasim talaga). I can’t imagine why people were crazy for it. I hope this isn’t as tart as Pinkberry.


They have a wide range of toppings from cereal, crushed graham, pomelo, kiwi and other fruits. But the most unique one was mochi. Mochi is a japanese sticky rice cake. I wasn’t in an adventurous mood otherwise I would have tried mochi with mangoes.

I got a medium original flavor with 2 toppings for P145. I chose sliced almonds and chocolate chips. I love the yogurt! It has just the right amount of tartness and it’s very creamy. The toppings are just right quantity too. I had toppings til the last spoonful of yogurt. Next time I’ll eat this without any toppings. It’s that good. By the way for those who will eat this take note of the pink plastic spoon. It’s imported from Korea and has a very nice shape and perfect for eating ice cream. I kept my spoon :D.

red mango yogurt

SM Megamall
Ground Flr. Bldg. A

Ice Cream Flavors in the Philippines

Since the Philippines is a tropical country we have many unique fruits and flavors that have been made into ice cream. Here are just a few of the more unique ones.


jackfruit, purple yam and mung bean


cashew brittle mantecado (traditional spanish cake flavor)


chocolate peanut


sansrival is a cake made of meringue layers and buttercream icing

Selecta Creations is a more premium line of ice cream. I can tell you it’s yummy specially the quezo real.


mango


purple yam


jackfruit with purple yam


cheese (strange but good!)


from wikipedia: Halo-halo (from Tagalog word halo, “mix”) is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served cold in a tall glass.


coconut salad (another dessert staple in Filipino parties)


another dessert made into an ice cream flavor

Arce is a smaller brand and the only one that sells sherbet.


purple yam with coconut sport


avocado


coconut sherbet


calamansi (local lime) sherbet


coconut sport


my fave! mandarin orange
The most exotic flavor for ice cream in my humble opinion is Durian.

durian ice cream

More SOS

More shameless self-promotion for my store, Small Office Solutions. More on SOS here and here. I’m posting this just in time for lunch :D.


pork adobo (2nd bestseller)



nilagang baka (boiled beef soup)


morning assembly


lumpia shanghai

pork teriyaki

fish fillet with veggies


chicken curry


ground beef menudo


pork chopsuey

Small Office Solutions


Ground Flr., Jollibee Plaza Bldg.

F. Ortigas Jr. Rd,(formerly Emerald Avenue)

Ortigas Center, Pasig City

telephone: 638-3650/51

North Park Noodle House

I accompanied my dad to see Dr. Peter Rivera (Hi Doc!) at the Medical City Hospital. After that we decided to have lunch at The Strip which was located just outside the hospital. There were several restaurants there but we chose to eat at North Park.


My dad ordered the tai pao and lapu lapu congee. He said it was good but Emerald‘s tai pao was better.


fried beancurd skin w/ shitake mushroom


salted garlic squid

I ate the beancurd sheet and squid without rice. How sad. They were both good but strangely a bit on the sweet side. The squid was so soft yet crunchy although I didn’t taste any garlic. North Park still serves good Chinese food at a very reasonable price.

North Park Noodle House
THE STRIP @ Medical City
Beside Medical City Hospital,
Ortigas Ave. Pasig City

1 month anniversary!

It’s been a month and 41 entries since I started this blog. I never really planned on starting a blog. It all started with reading this forum about the wonders of the Panasonic Lumix LX 3 camera. I saw all the awesome pictures there and immediately bought the camera. Since I took a lot of food pics in Hong Kong I decided the fastest way to share the pics with friends and family is through a blog.

I’m still learning how to take better pictures so I posted a question on the Philmug forum to danielg, the guru there. He replied and told me to get or build a light box. At that point I didn’t even know what a light box was. I googled it and found several instructions on how to make one. I made it out of a skyflakes box, vinyl shower curtain from SM (P50), cartolina and 2 Omni desk lamps (P250 each) with 23 watts daylight bulbs.

I played around with some skittles and shot these. I still need to learn a lot.

In the process I’ve learned a lot about html, blog design and photography. I’ve also doubled my exercise so I don’t gain too much weight from eating all the food I’ve shot. Thank you to my 18 followers, friends, relatives and to everyone around the world who has dropped by my simple site. I’m going to come up with more reviews, recipes and pictures so come back often. Any suggestions and comments are welcome.

Leslie

In search for the best Cua Pao

Cua pao is an open faced siopao with pork belly, preserved green mustard vegtable and sweet ground peanuts as filling. I don’t know where cua pao came from because I haven’t seen it in Hong Kong, China or Singapore. Maybe it’s a Filipino invention?

Finding good cua pao is even harder than finding good siopao. Often the siopao dough is too thick and hard, the meat too fatty or dry. I got a tip that I can find the best cua pao in Mey-lin’s restaurant in SM Megamall. So off I go again.

I got to the restaurant and I thought, “this is it?” The interiors look dated and didn’t look like the home to the best kua pao since their specialty was hot pot and noodles. I ordered 4 cua pao w/ pata to go (if you order cua pao only you will get an empty siopao).

“What? This is what I get for P75? A thin roll of kua pao wrapped in plastic.”

I took one bite and got weak in the knees. OMG! The dough was thin, the meat was tender and juicy. The sauce was sweet and spicy. I hardly noticed the vegetables (that’s a good thing). What a perfect blend of all the ingredients! I actually polished off one while waiting for the elevator. All I can say go run to SM Megamall and get yourself a couple of cua pao. The search is over. (note: don’t trust the picture in this case – it’s tastes way better than it looks)

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