Shoot First Eat Later

Lunch at King Chef Fine Dining Restaurant

My friend Tisay posted pictures of her meal at King Chef Seafood Restaurant in Lucky Chinatown mall on her Facebook page and raved about it. I was so curious that I went to their QC branch to try it out. Going to Banawe, Quezon City to eat is a rare thing for me. It just seems so far but on weekends it’s not that bad.

I chose to eat at their fine dining restaurant just to order the crab rice (pictured above) which was one of the dishes Tisay had.

Across the street is the more casual and affordable King Chef Cantonese Soup Kitchen and Dimsum Kitchen.

My dining mates were my three young cousins who love to eat and travel as much as I do. In fact Jay (on the left) has his own food blog too. I actually wanted to see their iPad mini which Jim (right) brought home from Singapore before I get my own that’s why I treated them for lunch. Silly excuse to eat and get together right?

Jay ordered the drunken shrimp. The show was quite entertaining.

Check out the video I took on how they made the drunken shrimp.

It was really fresh and sweet from the Chinese wine which hasn’t fully evaporated from the heat.

drunken shrimp P400

I actually ordered this dish for the rice. The crab was just extra. I was disappointed with the too soft and mushy rice. I was expecting semi-glutinous rice with some bite. It looks better than it tasted.

crab rice P950

The roast duck wasn’t bad at all but it was just a tad dry. I liked that there was little fat but then it’s probably the reason it was dry. I couldn’t help compare it with my favorite roasted duck from Annapolis Seafood Restaurant (now called UNO Restaurant) which was moist and succulent.

roasted duck P950

My favorite was the crisp haricot vert with salty ground pork. Perfect combination!

French beans with minced pork P380

The frogs’ legs had a nice flavor from the salt, pepper, garlic and chili. Too bad the oil used was a bit off.

salt & pepper frogs legs P330

The seafood hot pot was just ok nothing special.

superior seafood hot pot P400

The beauty about eating with 3 young men is no leftovers. Boy, these guys can eat!

I found the food just average. Not bad but I wouldn’t rave about it. Maybe the chef in Lucky Chinatown branch was better thus my friend’s delight.

King Chef’s fine dining menu

King Chef Fine Dining / King Chef Dimsum Kitchen
987-989 Banawe St, Quezon City
Call for table reservations:
telephone: 4104919 / 4136619 / 4414177 / 3527534 / 6977781

King Chef Seafood Restaurant
2F Lucky Chinatown Mall, Binondo, Manila City
telephone: 7208594 / 4665765

King Chef on Facebook

Paris: Macaron Tasting

I’ve said it before I’m not a big fan of French macarons but since I was in Paris I decided try the macarons from the most popular stores – Laduree, Pierre Hermé and Jean-Paul Hevin. You can’t ignore macarons in Paris they are everywhere from small neighborhood patisseries to supermarkets even McDonalds’ McCafe sell their own version.

Right after our lunch at La Maison de la Truffe Rochelle and I walked to the nearby BD Haussmann a lovely street filled with lots of stores and home to two giant department stores, Printemps and Galeries Lafayette.

How can we not go shopping when the word SOLDES or sale screamed at us from all the stores. You see the shops in France have major sales twice a year, in January and July. We arrived in Paris on July 1 just when all the sales started.

I had a long list of patisseries, chocolatiers and bread stores on my list to try in Paris. I was so happy that between Printemps and Galeries Lafayette more than half of my list was covered.

Our first stop was the gourmet level of Printemps on the 2nd floor and there were so many goodies there but we went straight to Laduree.

Laduree is probably the most famous sellers of macarons with branches all over the world. A branch in Hong Kong is opening in December at Harbour City. I can’t wait to try their other pastries.

Laduree’s mini macarons flavors

Laduree’s individual macarons flavors

They also had giant macarons if those small ones aren’t enough.

individual macarons €4.40 each

pastries

They also had a bigger outlet in Printempts where you can sit and have coffee with your sweets. There’s another take out store at the ground floor too.

I now understand why Laduree is considered the best macaron. The outer shell was perfect. It had a crunch at first bite then a denser chewier interior. The filling had the right amount of sweetness and a strong bright flavor.

Laduree lime & basil macaron €1.70 each

This is what our macarons looked like after getting squished in my bag. Nevertheless it was still delicious.

Laduree macarons – pistachio, lemon, violet guimave, soft caramel with sea salt macarons

Our next stop was Galeries Lafayette where Pierre Hermé was located.

They had more exotic flavors of macarons than Laduree. Click here (pdf file) to see all their flavors.

Pierre Hermé’s macarons had a much softer outer shell that I didn’t like as much but their filling was really intense and out of this world good. You could taste the nuances of each flavor and some had bits of soft litchi (lychee) and cherries. It tasted like a 3D macaron. For me the perfect macaron would be Laduree’s almond meringue shell with Pierre Hermé’s filling.

Pierre Hermé macaron €1.60 each
pistachio, ceylon cinnamon & morello cherries
salted butter caramel
olive oil with mandarin orange
rose, litchi & raspberry

Jean-Paul Hevin is a brand I’m more familiar with since they have branches in Hong Kong but I’ve never tried their macarons. I visited their branch in the basement level of Galeries Lafayette.

I wasn’t really planning to buy more macarons but I was attracted to these two flavors. Both which weren’t available with other brands.

fig €1.60 each

chocolate orange ginger

Their macaron was way too soft without any crunch nor was it chewy. The filling was too sweet too. These were the macarons I least enjoyed despite the good flavors I chose.

Laduree
Printemps de la Maison Haussmann
64, boulevard Haussmann – 75009 Paris
Tel : +33 (0)1 42 82 40 10
website

Pierre Hermé
Galeries Lafayette Maison
Ground floor
35 boulevard Haussmann 75009 Paris
Tel : +33 (0)1 43 54 47 77
website
Galeries Lafayette welcomes Macarons & Chocolats Pierre Hermé Paris : on the first floor, in the “Espace Créateurs”, and on the lower level, in the “Espace Chaussures et Souliers”.

Jean-Paul Hevin
Galeries Lafayette Gourmet
48 Bd Haussmann 75009 Paris
website

Paris: Lunch at La Maison de la Truffe

The reason we went to Place de la Madeleine was to eat at La Maison de la Truffe which was highly recommended by my cousin-in-law Mary. A bonus was going to the stores around the area namely Fouchon, Héidiard and Mariage Frères.

I made reservations online several weeks before. They are closed on Sundays.

One side was a store dedicated to all things truffle and foie gras.

whole foie gras with truffles from €45-109 (in this picture only)

chocolate bon bons with white truffles €15 duck confit €23 cassoulet with duck confit €13

whole goose foie gras

sandwich menu, potato puree with summer truffles €12 risotto with summer truffles €15 saucisson a la truffle €59

more truffles!

Pata Negra ham “Gran Reserva” de Bellota

extra virgin olive oil with black truffle

Warm crusty bread dipped in evoo with black truffle was almost a meal in itself. We had two bread refills.

Puilly-Fume

Rochelle and I wanted a light lunch so we just shared two appetizers and a pasta. The items in the menu have the options of have no truffle, season truffle, and the most expensive black melanosporum truffle.

Eggs are traditionally a good vehicle for the truffle. Instead of just plain scrambled eggs we decided to order the poached egg with black melanosporum truffle. We were surprised the poached egg was in aspic which I normally don’t like.

truffled poached egg €16

The egg was perfectly poached with the yolk all runny. The aspic wasn’t bad at all. The black truffle was that small flower shape on top of the aspic. Honestly we didn’t really taste the truffle. Too small maybe?

Rochelle still had a hangover from Italy and her love of the mozzarella and tomato salad. Burrata is a kind of mozzarella cheese filled with cream inside. It’s richer and creamier.

mozzarella “burrata” & tomatoes €14

This was the dish that Mary and her family raved about and insisted that we try. I was glad we shared an order because it was too rich and heavy. Imagine pasta with truffle cream sauce topped with a thick slice of seared foie gras and shaved white truffles. The truffles did smell good but the taste wasn’t that obvious unlike when ‘fake‘ truffle oil is used. The foie gras was heavenly though.

tagliatelles with foie gras & truffles €31

It was a pretty good meal. We were just surprised with the cost of our wine. No wonder it was so good.

La Maison de la Truffe menu (click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

La Maison de la Truffe
19 Place de la Madeleine, 75008 Paris, France
Phone: 01 42 65 53 22
website

Paris: Mariage Frères

The last store we went to in Place de Madeleine was Mariage Frères (Mariage Brothers), a French gourmet tea shop.

Next to coffee my second most favorite beverage is tea so you can just imagine how I felt when I entered the store and the scents of various tea assailed my senses.

I have a small glass teapot collection and all these beautiful teapots were the ultimate temptation to me. But the hassle of bringing them home to Manila and the fear of it breaking prevented me from buying any.

Some supermarkets carry Mariage Frères tea too.

You can smell samples of the tea that interests you.

This room at the back held shelves upon shelves of loose tea from around the world. Virtually every color and flavor of tea can be found here. We wanted to buy something we couldn’t find in Asia since they had a lot of green, black, white, oolong, ceylon teas.

After sniffing several cans Rochelle and I bought a bag of PLEINE LUNE® scented with vanilla and almond black tea.
The splendour of a ‘Full Moon’.
Inspired by that heavenly body and the realm of dreams, this poetic blend combines fragrances evoking the feast of the full moon: fruits, rare spices, and the sweet taste of honey.
A true moonbeam.

Mariage Frères
Tea Emporium
17, Place de la Madeleine, Paris 8e
telephone. : +33(0)1 42 68 18 54
website

Paris: Hédiard

Place de Madeleine is foodie’s area. We just stepped out of Fauchon when I saw Hédiard right across the street. I wasn’t as familiar with the store as Fauchon so I was quite amazed when I went in.
Hédiard is fine grocery store. They carried pastries, candy, vegetables, coffee, spices, olive oil and many more.

This store is also an excellent place to shop for a picnic.

For my Hédiard picnic I would get a huge slice of quiche.

Any of these salads would go well with my quiche.

They had the most flavors of pâtes de fruits I’ve ever seen and a lot of it were quite exotic.

pâtes de fruits

They’re not cheap either. This box of 30 fruit jellies cost €35.

truffles

dried glazed fruit

coffee beans from around the world

spices

cookies

We tried some of their aromatic extra virgin olive oil.

preserved fruit in bottles and fruit juices

Just look at how gorgeous their vegetables are.

Check out the huge white asparagus.

The cherry tomatoes looked like candy I wanted to pop in my mouth.

Ang mahal no?

mini carrots

My purchases 😀 Trust me I wanted to buy much, much more.

Hediard
21 Place de la Madeleine, 75008 Paris, France
telephone: 01 43 12 88 88
website

Paris: Fauchon

On our second day in Paris we rode the Métro to Place de Madeleine to eat at a restaurant recommended by my cousin who was just in Paris a week before us. We went there early to walk around the area. To my delight there were 3 shops within minutes of each other that were a foodie’s paradise.

The first store we went in the world famous Fauchon, a purveyor of French gourmet food.

If we weren’t about to eat lunch I would have bought a pastry or two. These two below were my top picks.

If you’re planning to have a picnic in Paris everything you would need is available in this store.

They had ready to eat meals and salads.

This salad made with haricot verts (French green beans), mozzarella, almonds and raspberries are a very unusual combination that I would like to try to make.

salade de haricots verts aux framboises

My favorite display was all these varieties of foie gras.

Their cheese selections made me drool too.

I turned away when I saw all the bread. That would have been too hard to resist for me. Bread, cheese and foie gras is the perfect picnic fare for me.

Fauchon
26 Place de la Madeleine 75008 Paris, France
telephone: 01 70 39 38 00
website

Paris: Le Fontaine de Mars & Eiffel Tower

Hello Paris!!! As soon as we dropped off our luggage at the Lenox Montparnasse Hotel we went to dinner. We left the hotel early to give us time to figure out the Métro and find the restaurant.

We only took the taxi twice in Paris – to and from the airport. A tip for those who will take the taxi in Paris – If you call for a taxi from your hotel or restaurant the taxi meter will start from wherever the taxi driver was when he received the call. The cheapest way is to just flag a taxi from wherever you are.

Taking the very efficient Métro was the way to go in Paris. We just love the people of Paris. They are the friendliest and most helpful people. They were always people to help us navigate the Metro routes. They spoke pretty good English too.

One ticket costs €1,70 to any destination. This ticket can be used on the Métro and RER networks.

It’s advisable to buy a carnet of 10 tickets which cost €12.70. You can use cash or credit cards to buy the tickets on the machine.

Some stations are simple with just stairs while others are huge and fancy with elevators. At first we were confused finding which train to take but after a few trips we became experts. It’s similar to Hong Kong’s MTR just on a much larger scale. The most important thing is to remember the number of the line you will take and which exit. Easy peasy.

I chose La Fontaine de Mars since it was one of the few restaurants that was open on a Sunday night. This restaurant had very good reviews. Their website didn’t have any online reservations so I asked our hotel to make a reservation for me a month before. I’m glad I made a reservation since the place was packed.

A tip for those who don’t drink wine and want to save money on bottled water – ask for carafe d’eau or tap water which is potable.

menu (click to enlarge)

house wine €5

Wonderful bread!

Rochelle and I shared an order of delicious cold country paté.

paté de campagne (homemade country paté) €13

I had the crisp duck confit. It was the epitome of fine French food. Their execution was spot on. Crunchy skin, a thin layer of duck fat under and tender flavorful meat.

confit canard (duck confit) €25

Rochelle had the plate of the day which was roast chicken with mashed potatoes. Simple fare cooked with a French flair.

plat du jour (plate of the day) roast free range chicken with mashed potatoes €20

On the same street was Cafe Constant and Les Cocottes de Christian Constant which I wanted to try too but we ran out of time. Next time this is on my list.

After dinner we walked a bit and saw signs to the Eiffel Tower so we went there.

There are lines to go up the Eiffel Tower at all times. We chose not to go up anymore.

My only regret was not seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. Since we were there during the summer the darkness came really late. We were there at 9:30 pm and as you can see from the pictures it was still very bright. We were already too tired to sit and wait for the lights to come on.

Restaurant la Fontaine de Mars
129, Rue Saint-Dominique
75007 PARIS 7ème
telephone: 01 47 05 46 44
website

Paris: Lenox Montparnasse Hotel

Of all the things I researched for my recent European trip the hardest was choosing a hotel in Paris. The first thing was to decide which arrondissement to stay in. Paris is divided into 20 neighborhoods or arrondissements. Each area has it’s own charm and specialties. I really couldn’t decide which to choose until my travel agent suggested Montparnasse on the 14th arrondissement and on the left bank of the Seine river.

Having selected Montparnasse the next step was choosing a hotel and we turned to tripadvisor for help. Our criteria was reasonable price, good location, good reviews, elevator, air-conditioning (a lot of hotels and apartments in Paris didn’t have elevators and air-conditioning). Lenox Montparnasse Hotel (3 stars) ranked 5th in tripadvisor’s list of hotels in Montparnasse and 97th overall hotels in Paris and it met all our criteria so that’s the hotel we chose.

The staff at the front desk were very helpful. Even while in Manila I emailed them to make a couple of restaurant reservations for me in Paris and they did it. They also helped with directions and were generally gracious and pleasant. Our only bad experience was booking a shuttle for the airport. One of their staff guaranteed Rochelle that he was able to book a shuttle that will pick us up at a certain time but the shuttle never arrived and no one else knew anything about it. Luckily a cab arrived at our hotel and we took it to the airport with just enough time. The traffic to the airport was horrible and it took us almost 2 hours to get there and €70 in cab fare.

An elevator was important for us since we didn’t want to lug our luggages up and down stairs.

We chose a club room with two twin beds. Believe it or not this was their bigger room already. Small rooms are a standard in hotels in Paris unless you are willing to pay €400 and above for a room. We paid €175 a night.

We were quite comfortable in this room. We just had to make a conscious effort not to walk around at the same time. If you have big luggages then you will have a hard time in this room. We put all our other things inside the closet. There was a small refrigerator under the TV too.

There was free instant coffee and tea bags. They also had free wifi.
The bathroom was big enough and clean.

toiletries

An important feature we look for in all hotel rooms is a room safe. We left our passports and cash in the room safe everyday. It’s much safer than bringing with us and having the risk of getting pick-pocketed. It’s true that the hotel can open the room safe but throughout our trip our valuables were protected in the safe.

Just off the lobby is the Honesty Bar.

Help yourself to the drinks in the bar including draft beer and be honest and pay for it.

Our hotel offered breakfast but we opted to buy from the patisserie next door.

We bought a tarte tatin and drops chocolat. It was just ok so we didn’t go back.

Our hotel was located in Rue Delambre and there were two small supermarkets, a cinema, laundromat and a fruit stand. We just loved how convenient the location was.

There was an Italian deli that had so many goodies perfect for a picnic.

There were several restaurants and bars on our street. We passed by the Chinese restaurant everyday and not once were we tempted to eat Chinese food. The next street (Rue du Montparnasse) was filled with creperies!

Our favorite was the pharmacie at the end of the street right across the Edgar Quinet metro station. French pharmacies are a treasure lode for beauty finds that don’t cost an arm and a leg. I found Gwyneth Paltrow’s guide to what to buy in a French pharmacy very helpful. We bought most of the items on her list.

Around Bd Edgar Quinet were many, many restaurants and cafes.

A block away were more stores and patisseries.

Monoprix

To our surprise there was even a small brance of Galeries Lafayette 5 minutes walk from our hotel.

I highly recommend Lenox Montparnasse Hotel. Our room was comfortable and clean albeit small. The best part was the location. Any direction you go there are restaurants, quaint shops and several pharmacies and groceries. The metro station was 2 minutes walk away and from there the entire Paris awaits you.

Lenox Montparnasse Hotel
15 Rue Delambre, 75014 Paris, France
telephone : + 33(0) 1 43 35 34 50
email: hotel@lenoxmontparnasse.com
website

Deb’s Birthday Dinner by Bizu Private Caterer

When I celebrated my birthday a couple of months ago I slaved over a few dishes to feed my friends. When my friend Deb celebrated her birthday she did the smart thing and had it catered by Bizu.

When you have a dinner party at home the host is usually busy running around and taking care of unexpected things. When you have your party catered you leave it to the capable wait staff to do the running around. And that’s why Deb had a good time enjoying her birthday dinner with friends and family.

cheese & chorizo platter from Santi’s

I loved the honey orange yogurt dressing of their salad. I never realized orange went so well with a salad with grapes, apples, almonds and celery. I must try to recreate it.

waldorf salad with honey orange yogurt dressing

The basil cream sauce was gooood! Great with the rice or mashed potatoes.

chicken fillet in basil cream sauce

cobbler fish with dill butter caper sauce

garlic mashed potatoes

The pasta was very al dente when it was just served. My friend who came late said it was very soft when she ate it. Nevertheless the sauce was excellent and NOT sweet.

linguine with mixed seafood

pilaf with chickpeas & sweet peas

The star of the buffet was the beef belly roasted for 10 hours. When I tried to make beef belly I only baked it for 3 hours since I was conscious of the internal temperature wanting it to come out medium rare.

10 hour US roast beef belly with mushrom sauce & horseradish cream

When I saw them cut the slab with barely a nudge I realized my error. You really have to bake the beef belly for a long time under a low temperature until it’s cooked well done and all the connective tissue has broken down and you’re left with beef so tender you won’t need a knife at all.

This is what I ate. I just got a little of the other food since I knew I would concentrate all my food consumption on the beef belly.

I didn’t even bother to put mushroom sauce. Just a touch of the horseradish cream and I was a happy camper. I didn’t bother trimming the small piece of fat on the beef.

This has to be the best piece of roast beef I’ve eaten all year. The beef bore little resemblance to traditional roast beef. Instead it looked more like braised short ribs since the beef literally fell apart into shreds with a little poking from my fork. It was very, very, very flavorful and the fat melted in my mouth tasting like the most decadent foie gras. After consuming this chunk of beef I quickly went back for a second round to find the whole slab of beef all gone. Thank goodness the chef calmed be done by saying there was another slab. Whew!!

I may just order a slab of 10 hour roast beef belly from Bizu for P3,900 for my family’s New Year’s Eve party instead of running my oven for 10 hours and not knowing what the results are.

This was the 1st catering I’ve seen that came with an espresso machine.

Lavazza pods were used.

With Bizu as your caterer you can be sure that dessert would be good and these pastries did not disappoint.

creme brulee in vol au vent

mango chiboust

opera cake

You can never have enough dessert!

Roshan’s lemon torte

Dessert du Jour’s gateau de crepe

Bizu Private Caterer
telephone: (02) 812-64-51
email: bizuprivatecaterer@yahoo.com
website

mu noodle bar

I’m so happy to discover another YUMMY restaurant in my neighborhood of San Juan. I just love these small restaurants popping up in the area.

Mu means mother and their food tastes just like mom’s cooking only better. Mu Noodle Bar is located along Wilson St. just after you cross P. Guevarra from Greenhills. It’s right next to Share Tea.

I liked the clean and modern interiors. I went there in the afternoon to take out food.

Mu Noodle Bar menu

Even though I ordered the food for take-out the waiter was nice enough to plate all the dishes so I can take pictures before packing it all up again.

My favorite among all the good dishes I ordered was the red lamb curry. The lamb wasn’t that tender but it wasn’t tough either. I loved the mild curry with coconut sauce so much that I just had to eat brown rice with it. I rationed this small order into 3 meals which I ate consecutively. First for dinner then for my packed lunch the next day and the last for dinner again the same night. That’s how much I loved it.

✔ ✔ ✔ red curry lamb P260

I admire the creativity of the chef! Hofan noodles cooked with squid ink and seafood. It wasn’t as tasty as my current favorite hofan with pumpkin sauce but it’s quite interesting and a must try.

✔ ✔ black hofan P180

Whenever I eat dim sum in Hong Kong I always order XO radish cake since it’s one of my favorite dim sum dishes. I’m glad now I can have it in Manila anytime I want. It’s a simple but very flavorful dish, pan fried cubes of radish cake sautéed with spicy XO sauce.

✔ ✔ XO radish cake P180

Their version of 3 cup chicken is really one of the best I’ve eaten. I’ve tried making 3 cup chicken once before and it turned out oily and salty. Their chicken didn’t have any sauce but it tasted like all the chicken had absorbed all the flavor without the grease. It’s best eaten right away to enjoy the crunchy veggies.

✔ ✔ ✔ 3 cup chicken P220

Just take a look at all the soft roasted garlic in an order of 3 cup chicken. I ate some garlic with the chicken and it was mellow and delicious.

I’ve also tried their oyster cake at a different time and it’s good too. It’s the only oyster cake topped with lots of melted cheese. I would have never thought that Chinese style oyster cake would go well with cheese but it does.

I can’t wait to go back and try more of their other dishes. I highly recommend this restaurant!!!

✖ skip it
✔ not bad
✔ ✔ do try
✔ ✔ ✔ MUST order

mu noodle bar
197 Wilson St., San Juan, Philippines
telephone: 451-2681
cellphone: 0917-807-4057/02
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