Lenten Season - Where to Eat Especially on Fridays Part 2

This is the continuation of my post last week regarding restaurants and fast food chains that offer fish or other seafood dishes. I have here three additional restaurants/fast foods that you can consider.

Wendy's is offering Shrimp Sandwich Supreme for their customers who want to abstain from meat on Fridays. I can't remember if they had Shrimp Sandwich Supreme in the past. What I'm I remember is they offered Shrimp Sandwich. Yes, that Supreme must mean something. I must say this SSS taste good. The shrimp 'patty' isn't hard when you bite it unlike in the past. And the cucumber dressing tastes good as well.

Next is Crepes & Cream. Yes! I know! I know! This place is usually associated with desserts what with the good number of sweet crepes they have. But they do serve other things. They have Savoury Crepes. They have different choices good for all the Fridays of lent like smoked salmon, spicy tuna onion, smoked milkfish and kani mango. The servings are big -- good even for those who have big appetites. 

You can also try Reyes Barbecue. They serve grilled bangus. Their bangus is grilled well. It remains juicy after grilling. It comes with fried rice and atchara.

Lenten Season - Places to Eat Especially on Fridays

It's Lenten season once again. I know many Filipinos particularly the Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays. I also know you are looking for restaurants/fast food chains where you can find seafood on the menu. So I'm going to help you  by giving you a list of restaurants/fast food chains where there are exciting seafood choices. I'll post again as soon as I find new ones. So read on and meet your 'physical'/'dietary' needs without sacrificing your values, traditions and beliefs.

First up is Jollibee. For this season, they are offering TUNA PIE. I've always associated their pies with dessert so I was surprised when I saw their poster about tuna pie. I found it rather interesting. You can get a combo meal -- tuna pie and a regular glass of soda. Usually if you want to upgrade the soda to iced tea you would need to pay extra. But for this season, you can get the upgrade for free.

Aside from the Jollibee tuna pie, you can also have BANGUS (MILKFISH) meal. The free iced tea upgrade is applicable for this meal.

Next is McDonald's. They still have their Fillet-o-Fish. The fish fillet they have for this sandwich is covered with a crispy breading. Even those who do not like to eat fish will not have problems eating this. But what I really like about McDonald's fillet-o-fish is the dressing. It's sourness perfectly matches the taste of the fish.

Then there is Mang Inasal. Here you can order sinigang na BANGUS. What I like about this sinigang is it tastes like every Nanay's home cooked sinigang.

If you want a 'classier' place to eat especially during dinner time, you can checkout Aquaknox. I've been to  their Pasay Road branch. It is near Don Bosco Church so it's perfect for those who want to have dinner after hearing mass. I'll have a separate review of the restaurant but I'd just like you to know that there are very good seafood dishes here. The restaurant by the way offers authentic Vietnamese cuisine. (They have another branch in Greenhills and they're opening up a new one in Megamall.)

Lastly, you can also try Pancake House. They have SMOKED BANGUS (tinapang bangus). They also have Bonoan Bangus, Grilled Bangus, Salmon belly and some more. They are a bit pricier than the fast food choices you have but this a good place to eat if you're entertaining guests or having business meetings.

That's all for now. I'll give you more choices soon.

Wanna Go Chinese? - Try Charlie's Tea House

I love trying out different cuisines. I love Japanese and Vietnamese food as I've discussed in my previous blogs. I also like Chinese so during the Chinese New Year period we tried out a Chinese restaurant in the Sta. Cruz, Manila area. Yeah, I know, this review has been long overdue but I've been kind of busy....busy checking out restaurants to go to haha. Anyway, we went to Charlie's Tea House.

We ordered roasted peking duck, barbecue pork, yang chow fried rice and of course, noodles.

We actually ordered 1/2 peking duck. When it was served I thought it was enough because it was a big serving. Boy was I surprised when another plate of peking duck was served. I forgot that we had our order divided into two plates because we were occupying a long table. We were eight that time. The peking duck was good because it has no after taste (I don't know how to describe that after taste but in Filipino it is 'malansa'.) It was juicy. The meat was tender. I never expected duck meat to be that tender.

The barbecue pork was not really served like your usual barbecue. There's no barbecue stick. The meat was served already sliced into bite-size pieces. It actually looked liked tocino and not barbecue. It also tasted like tocino. It is good if you forget the idea that what you ordered is barbecue. Maybe they should change the name and nobody would mind. It tastes good for tocino, really!

The yang chow fried rice is like your usual yang chow fried rice. However, they use roasted pork/duck meat instead of ham. They are not very generous with the green peas and I am happy for that. I do not like green peas, you know.

I like the noodles because it was not too dry and not too saucy. It also has a lot of toppings. There's squid, shrimps and other stuff. It doesn't have the strong 'mono-sodium glutamate flavor' common in other Chinese restaurants.

They also serve house tea. I think this is an SOP in Chinese restaurants. their tea was okay. Nothing really special.

Service is also good. When we arrived, there was no long table that could accommodate us. There were a lot of people during that time so I thought it's going to take a long time before we could be seated. But the nice thing is they were able to rearrange the tables such that they would be able to maximize the space available. You see, the restaurant is small. They politely talked to the other customers to make a few adjustments. They  handled it rather well because I didn't see the others complaining.

Charlie's Tea House can be found in 937 Ongpin St., Sta. Cruz, Manila. It is within walking distance from the church in Sta. Cruz. If walking long does not annoy you, you can actually walk from Plaza Fair in Carriedo.

Ba Noi's and Honolulu Cafe REVISITED

It's been more than a week since I last posted something here. It was a busy week so I was not able to sit down and write something for you. However, even if it was a busy week, it didn't mean that I didn't get the chance to go out and eat good food. I have a rather long list of restaurants to feature now actually. But those reviews have to wait. What I'd like to do now is to give you feedback about the REVISITS I made in two places I previously discussed here -- Ba Noi's and Honolulu Cafe.

My friends and I went back to Ba Noi's the other day. We wanted to try their other dishes so we ordered chicken curry, fried spring rolls and grilled pork. Of course we ordered again our favorite shrimp and pomelo salad.

The fried spring rolls was flavorful. It looks like your regular lumpiang shaghai but there is a twist because you have to wrap it in lettuce before you eat it. Well, wrapping it in lettuce is not really a requirement but just a suggestion -- and I must say it is a very good suggestion. The spring rolls is crispy. The meat filling doesn't taste as if it has lots of flour or other extenders. The lettuce is crunchy as how fresh/raw lettuce should be.

The grilled pork doesn't not look different from other grilled pork chops served in other restaurants but it tastes different. It doesn't taste as if it has been marinated in soy sauce for hours. It has a slight hint of herbs but those who doesn't like herbs need not worry because as said, it is just 'slight'. One order of it means you'll get three pork chops/slabs (?)and some greens. Each slice of pork is big enough for one person with a regular appetite.

The chicken curry is nothing unique. It tastes just like those you'll find in other good restaurants. And an order also has three slices of chicken. I wonder if 3 is really their standard number or they just saw that we are three so they gave us three. Oh, did I say that an order of spring rolls means you'll have three spring rolls? We'll, you'll see six pieces but it's obvious that each piece is just half of one roll.

I do not want to give another review of the shrimp and pomelo salad because the only thing I can say about it is that 'I laveth".

When we were about to go, I noticed in the bathroom a sign that says they give a wine bottle for free for every P 1, 000.00 food purchase. Our bill was more than P 1,200.00. Even if you take away the drinks we are still entitled to a bottle. When we asked the waitress she said she will serve it to us. I asked her if we could take it home and she agreed. Well, initially she refused because she said it's only for 'dine in'. She only gave in maybe because I told her it was okay had she told us about the promo earlier. I figured they are not going to tell about it unless you really ask. They have signage about it on every table but I think not a lot of people pay attention to them. Anyway, we're happy with the red wine we were able to 'take out'.

After dinner we went to Honolulu Cafe. We ordered iced tea with spicy apple flavor. I ordered it because I got curious of the spicy apple flavor. I mean it is not something you would always find in a restaurant or the grocery store, right?

My friend said she immediately tasted the 'spicy' flavor in her throat. I did not. I only tasted a hint of it when I was about to finish my cup. Hmmmm....Was I expected to 'shake it well' so I could taste the 'spicy' flavor? Overall I can say I liked the iced tea. It tasted different from the usual iced tea.

Before we left the place we were given a certificate that says we can get a cup of coffee for free if we order two cups. How did we get the certificates? I'm not gonna tell you. Find out for yourself. 

The Best Barbecue and Isaw Place in Manila - Make Your Vote Now

I'd like to write about the best places to eat barbecue and isaw so I'm looking for suggestions. I know there lots of these stalls/stands around -- almost every street corner has one. Well, that's an exaggeration but you get the picture. There may be a lot around but not all of them are okay. Look around and see if the barbecue/isaw stall where you eat is good based on taste, cleanliness, price and crowd. Write your feedback in the comments section below. Thank you!

Joey Pepperoni and their Delicious Chicken Fingers

Do you like eating pizza? I'm not really a fan of pizza. It is not something on top of my list of favorites. In other words it is not something I usually crave for. Don't get me wrong. I eat pizza whenever it is there. But again, it is not something I will look for during lunch or dinner time. So why am I saying this? I just want to say that it is rather unusual for me to go to a restaurant that is associate with pizza -- which is what I did the other day. We went to Joey Pepperoni. Well, it is not really a pizza (alone) store but the pepperoni in the name suggests it is one (at least for me). We didn't intend to go there, really. We were at the Fairways Towers in Taguig to go to this 'burger house' that they say serve good burgers. When we got there we found out that the 'burgers' are too pricey.....ah ...say, P 400++ for a burger. At P 400 I could get 10 burgers in other stores. So we checked out the next restaurant which happens to be Joey Pepperoni. We got in and asked for the menu. There were several delicious sounding dishes listed but I couldn't choose easily because my mind is still thinking of 'burger'. So we just ordered chicken fingers with fries. I also ordered one of their 'promo' meals. I got the Hungarian sausage with rice worth P 99. Other choices are chicken strips and meatballs. 

The chicken fingers looked and smelled great. They actually tasted great. The breading is crispy. It didn't taste like 'bread' or fried flour (?). It actually has a taste of its own ( as in flavored ?) but blends well with the chicken. It is not like the other chicken fingers I've tasted wherein you can really separate the taste of the coating and the chicken (as in as easily distinguishable as the parts of a boiled egg  -- shell, white and yolk). The fries that came with the chicken fingers where also good. They come in thick and long strips. Both the chicken fingers and the fries are not too oily. They are fried just right so the color is also good. Oh, and before I forget, they come with fresh tomato dip. The serving of the dip is small but you can ask for extras. 

When the Hungarian Sausage was served  I got a bit disappointed. The serving was small -- too small for me. There were just a few slices of the sausage and a small cup (squarish) of rice. The size of the sausage slices suggests that the whole sausage must be just as small or a tiny bit bigger than the canned variety. It was really far from what I expected. But  boy was I surprised by the taste. Great. Yumyum! Hmmmmm! Yumyum. Well, I still feel the serving was too small but I love the taste.

After dinner we had coffee outside. It was chilly so it was perfect for hot coffee. Their coffee was too strong (which is actually what I like) but you can ask for an extra cup of hot water if you want to dilute it a little. Assmall cup costs P 80.

How to make your kids eat vegetables

So your kids do not like to eat vegetables! They prefer fried chicken, hamburger, and hotdogs. You're worried about their health. What can you do? What must you do?

A good way to make them eat vegetables is to include them in the food that they like. For example when you are making the hamburger patties you can put finely chopped carrots and cucumber. They wouldn't know you added veggies unless you tell them so.

Instead of letting them eat hotdog sandwiches or hotdog on sticks, make omelet. Chop the hotdogs and add chopped veggies like carrots, peas and bell pepper. You can also add tomatoes and corn kernels.

You can also use the fried chicken as a hiding place for the vegetables. For tips on how to do this, please see my previous blog.

Letting young kids eat vegetables need not be challenging. All you need to do is to just be a little creative. Follow the tips mentioned here or experiment. There are lots of things that you can do if you just let your imagination run a little wild.

Good luck!