seafood island.....trinoma quezon city

seafood island...it is actually my third time there...it is a nice place to go to on nights when you just want to relax, chat and have a good time...the seafood island in trinoma is relatively a big place...with more that 15 tables to accommodate groups of different sizes...there's a small 'stage' if you may call it that where an acoustic group performs...the place is clean...the design is subdued thus it's a good place to relax...not pretentious...

you can order a bucket of san mig light for only 210 pesos...there's also lots of food to choose from...their sisig is good...meat is crunchy but doesn't taste like fried meat...they also have other 'pulutan' that are quite affordable...during my first two visits we had bihod (fish eggs) served on a sizzling plate...i loved it...not your usual 'pulutan' or 'ulam'...unfortunately it is no longer in the menu...the waiter said "phase out na po"...i wonder why...maybe they are conscious of preserving our ecological balance...hmmm...so since it is no longer available we tried 'salt and pepper squid tentacles'...the squid tentacles are coated with flour mix...fried...in butter...it has heavy butter taste (major major butter-y taste)...had lots of green bell pepper and onions...yumyum...salt and pepper, naturally...overall it was great...except that it must be consumed fast because of too much butter...the place is cold -- get what i mean?...

salt and pepper squid tentacles

i have yet to try the other dishes they serve...i'll let you know....promise....

the best siomai in town

it's been days since i last wrote a piece here in "eat all you can"...and up to now i have not been to any restaurant that i can write about...so let me just write about the siomai i recently ate...it's the siomai sold in one of the kiosks in our canteen...the kiosk is called Big A...their siomai is well loved by almost all people who eat in the canteen...even those who have left come back for it...a few years ago they pulled out their kiosk...why?...i don't have any idea...but last month they came back...and since then i've been eating their siomai everyday...i'm not really sure why i like it because surely it's not 100% meat like those you eat in authentic chinese restaurants...but it tastes good...without the feeling of eating flour wrapped in a wrapper made of flour also...their chili sauce is really great...what i do is i order siomai...put a lot of sauce...then i put whatever is left of the sauce on my rice...hmmm...yumyum...anyway i know there other delicious siomais out there...that is actually the point of this blog...i want to know which for you is the best siomai in town so i can write about them....please post your answers in the comments section at the end of this entry....thank you...

flapjacks -- endless coffee -- really (bottomless slash drink all you can place for coffe addicts slash coffee lovers)

here at flapjacks (robinsons place, ermita)...having coffee...i like it here because you can order their 'endless coffee' for only PhP 70...yes...endless coffee for only PhP 70...this is great for all coffee addicts out there...or should i say coffee fanatics?...i also ordered onion rings...it's actually not listed in their menu...i know they serve that before but i didn't see it now so i just asked the guy serving us...good thing they still serve it although it's a mystery why it's not in their menu anymore...anyway, that's what i always order here...two reasons...first, it tastes good...the 'breading' is not 'hard'...it's crunchy...and soft...?....yes...its crunchy but still soft enough...just trust me...and the second...it's one of the few things that's easy on the wallet...

onion rings

less than half of what was served...a friend saw the pic on facebook and said its calamari (she's in canada) and another one said they call it calamares (she's in spain)...haha...i wanted to say here in the pihilippines we call them onion rings...

onion rings up close

the place is clean...the seats have soft cushion...they have wifi connection...however it wasn't really ok today...diffiult to connect...but after an hour it improved thus this article...you can also plug your laptop...remember my battery lasts for only an hour or two so this is really important to me...hehe

the waiters are also great...they are always smiling...we were next to the table with a little girl...one of the waiters tried his best to somehow make the child feel at ease...he gave her a drawing to color.....then before they left he even gave her a purplr balloon...weird color...but that's one of the store's color....the other is yellow...hmmm i wonder why they didn't make yellow balloons instead...

eat all you can...finally

those who have been following this blog since this was started a month ago have probably noticed there is not one entry here that talks about restaurants with eat all you can restos...the title of the site is eat all you can....hmmmm....wait no more because here is my first real 'eat all you  can' entry...

last night i had dinner with friends at king one rotary hot pot (hobbies of asia, macapagal avenue)...it is an eat all you can, drink all you can restaurant....

when we got in the one who invited us had already started cooking our meal...yes, it's that kind of restaurant where you are the one who cooks your own food....hot pot...at the center of your table there is a hot plate where the hot pot with soup is placed...you can set the temperature of the hot plate....the hot pot has a division in the middle so you can have two types of soup at the same time if you want to....this is where you will boil/cook your ingredients of choice....at the center of the restaurant is a counter surrounded by a revolving track (not rotating?)...on the track are bowls of the different ingredients that you can choose from (slices of meat, seafoods, vegetables, noodles)...if your table is adjacent to the track you can just grab what you want without needing to stand up....but if your table is far from the track you would need to exert effort to got there and get what you need....but fortunately, the owners of king one rotary hot pot probably realized that this is such a hassle so what they do to help their guests is they give a checklist of the ingredients available...you check whatever you want and the waiters will get them for you...

what we had are the following (not all at once, of course): shrimps, shrimps, more shrimps, dumplings and wanton, fresh oysters, thin slices of meat (bacon strips), bacon strips, more bacon strips, sweet corn, cuttlefish, fish cake, bean curd and water crest....the strips of meat are so thin they get cooked in about 10 seconds...yumyum...the shrimps weren't really big...but they were delicious nonetheless....the dumplings were great especially if you make a good sauce...yes, you mix your own sauce...there's sate', garlic, spring onions, red chili, onions....my friends liked the oysters...i liked it too (i was the one who asked for it actually) but i only ate a few....i didn't want to eat a lot because i'm not sure if my stomach could stomach (haha) a lot....but the winner that night for me was the water crest....at first i was apprehensive about it because it looks like a freshly  cut garden plant...then when its starting to cook it has a certain smell similar to that of celery which i really hate...but when i tried a small sample i immediately liked it....the stem (is that how you call it?) was crunchy and the leaves are slimy....my friend said it tastes like kangkong but for me it tasted better....

i ordered coke at first....my friend had green apple with nata de coco bits....her order looked great so i felt i made the wrong choice...tsktsk....good thing i was told that you can change drinks so you can sample everything....wow.....so i after i finished my soda i asked for that green apple thing...it was fantastic...really....im not exagerating...oh well....but i liked it....a bit sour....mildly sour....and the nata de coco is fun to eat...its not as hard as the one you buy in bottles in grocery stores...i think i had three glasses of that....

oh, by the way, aside from the food you cook you can also sample their other dishes....for every two persons you get to order one free dish....we got spareribs and salt and pepper squid heads....they were also good especially the salt and pepper squid heads.....

the place is big....there were a lot of people coming in and out but i never saw line forming outside....there was a line of chairs for people waiting but it never got occupied....the timing of the diners seems to be great that night...people come in as others are about to go....great....i wonder if all those people made reservations....we did not....

the place is also clean....the chairs are comfortable....however there is only one comfort room....well two...one for males and one for females....i didn't see line forming outside the comfort rooms also but i feel that for a place that big they should have at least two comfort roms for each...

i cannot tell you the price per person because i was not  the one who paid....i didn't ask out of courtesy to the one who invited us but i heard from anothert able on my way to the comfort room that it was more that PhP 500 per person....the drink was PhP 65 per order -- great price....

pixie's...for dine in or take out

i've seen several kiosks of pixie's already...i thought pixie's is just like your ordinary neighborhood kiosks that sell inihaw na bangus (grilled milkfish) for take-home (take out....to go)....i didn't know that they have restaurants where you can eat (dine-in).....so i was surprised to see one at the skygarden (sm north edsa)....i was even more surprised that they have more to offer than just inihaw na bangus....

anyway, my friends and i ordered three group meals...i actually do not know how they call it but the concept is that 3 - 4 persons can share 1 group meal....we were eleven that's why we had 3.....i do not remember which came with what group but what we had on our table were
1. 2 inihaw na bangus (big)
2. 1 inihaw na bangus - bunso (small)
3. 1 relyenong bangus - bunso (small)
4. tilapcharap
5. inang gulay
6. efuven
7. panga ng tuna
8. fish lumpia
9. atchara
10. bagoong rice/garlic rice

inihaw na bangus

this is their specialty so this is obviously great....the bangus tasted sweet...the meat was tender...it tasted fresh....and it was definitely big....

inihaw at relyenong bunso

the inihaw na bunso was nothing different from the inihaw na big bangus...the relyeno was also good but since it was small i was not able to eat much cause all of us had to taste it....

tilapcharap

interesting food...it's tilapia skin made crispy like chicharon...if you are someone who hates snakes you might not like this...i do not like snakes so with anyhting associated to it or something that looks like it (or any of its parts like the scales) but i had to be taste it cause my friend said it's good...it's good i trd cause i liked it...crispy...tasty...

inang gulay

this is my favorite...sauteed okra, saluyot, patola, alugbati, garlic...unique dish...it breaks the inihaw taste...great departure from the taste of 'charcoal' hehe...as you can expect from the vegetables mentioned this dish is slimy...yumyum...but not a lot of people like that, i know....but try it first...who knows you might like it....

efuven

efuven is pansit....but it is different from your ordinary pansit....the noodles are flat...i think they are egg noodles...it has vegetables and meat...it is a bit sticky....i do not know what secret ingredient they add but it really tastes different from bihon, sotanghon, miki, luglog, palabok, etc. etc....the only other place i know where they serve efuven is seafood marina (moa and boom na boom complex in pasay)...unfortunately i cannot compare which is better because its been months since i ate there....

panga ng tuna

this is nothing different from all the other tuna's i've tasted....the good thing about this is the serving is big....meat is thick...

fish lumpia

this was not part of the group meals we ordered...we were supposed to have scallops...unfortunately they said it's seasonal...this what they replace scallops with....though i was looking forward to eating scallops i was still satisfied because the fish lumpia was good....it did not taste malansa...it was not oily...they fried it just right...no burnt taste...it was actually a bit sweet if yoou come to think of it....

atchara

this one tasted like what we used to make in home economics class back in grade school....that was too long ago....hmmm, did our atchara really taste like tis....anyway, this atchara is not too sour and not too sweet....it blends well with the panga ng tuna....oh, and i tried to eat the tilapcharap with this....great combination too...but i noticed i was the only one who tried doing that....

bagoong rice

this is the one that was a major disappoinment for me....not that it tasted bad...it was actually okay...it's just that i expected more....after eating bagoong rice in thai restauants you'll find that there is something lacking....not enough bagoong perhaps....and what's with the green peas and corn....

overall the food was great...but you know what's best about the place?...the crew....the girl assigned was really something...mabait...gracious....basta...it's apity i failed to get her name....but she is not the only one good there...the others were courteous as well....thumbs up to you guys....

if there is one thing i didn't like about the place it's the lighting effects...blue lights...okay for the place cause they serve seafoods....unfortunately blue lighting makes me dizzy....hmmmmm....we felt like we were agua in her aquarium haha

lola neh bulalohan atbp

ever heard of lola neh bulalohan atbp....if you've not been to cash 'n carry makati recently chances are you have not heard of it....i only heard about it yesterday...it is at the food court of cash 'n carry....i was disappoined when i saw it because it now occupies the place of the japanese kiosk i used to love....anyway, though i miss the jap food i felt it's okay when i tasted their food....

lola neh offers a wide variety of home-cooked meals....well, they looked like home-cooked to me....there's crab, shrimp, tuna, etc....i ordered shrimps in spicy sauce....for only PhP90 you'll get 5 pieces of big shrimps...that's PhP18 per piece...priced right, right?...and the taste?....great....i liked the really, really hot sauce....the place was cold and yet i was perspirin a lot because of the spicy-ness of the shrimp.....they also have a generous serving of rice.....if you're on a diet you'll definitely forget about it....if you do get the chance to go to cash'n carry don't forget to try lola neh bulalohan atbp...

pixie's

had dinner with friends at pixie's....my first time....food was great....i didn't expect that....honestly.....but i'll talk about that later...i'll write a new post later....i need to do a lot of things right now....just want you to know that you have something new to read today or tomorrow morning....wait for that =)

c2 envidia - another way to lose weight?

i left the house early this morning so i had time to go to a convenience store to buy something to drink....a saw a lone bottle of C2 envidia in the cooler so i got.....after drinking it i decided to read the label....there i found that this drink contains l-carnitine and egcg....l-carnitine as many probably know already is said to aid in weight loss by improvig the body'd metabolism by enhancing fat oxidation....egcg on the other hand is something not all of us are familiar....i'm not familiar with it....according to the label it stands for epigallocatechin gallate.....it is an anti-oxidant that is naturally found in green tea.....it deactiviates the formation of free radicals and prevent oxidation of ldl (low density lipoprotein) orbad cholesterol....the bottle says that it has 2 fat burning ingredients (l-carnitine and egcg).....1 delicious geen tea......and 0 sugar.....

if you'll sum this all up, people who want to lose weight can drink this to help them succeed.....but i wonder how much you need to drink to see effects....maybe a lot....

anyway...i learned that c2 envidia has several flavors....what i got this morning was mixed berries flavor....i'm not really fond of berries but i liked this one.....it tasted okay...its not sweet....well, they say it has 0 sugar.....it doesn't leave an after taste....it is also not expensive....in that convenience store they sell a 355 ml bottle at PhP18.00.....


will i continue to drink this?.....i don't know....let's see.....if i get to leave the house early everyday maybe i can get a bottle and drink on my way to work.....haha...


QUESTION OF THE DAY:
FIT 'N RIGHT OR C2 ENVIDIA (please write your thoughts about this on the comments section below)

sitti's halal food hauz...halal food at the mall

i encountered the word 'halal' a few times already....so i decided t look it up on the internet to know what in means....wikipedia describes it as

S.G. Halal (Arabic:حلال, ḥalāl; means lawful or legal) is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. It is the opposite of haraam. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law (Sharia, الشريعة الإسلامية).



i also asked other about it and said that 'halal' means food that our muslim brothers can eat...there were some who said that halal foods are dishes without pork....later on i found out that it is not merely the absence of this or that ingredient...it also has something to do with the way some animals are slaughtered....anyway, i thought it must be difficult for them to find the right food to eat because basically, Filipinos are pork-fans...go around food courts in malls and observe what food stalls serve.....probably more than 75% of the main dishes have pork....where will they  eat...

i know there are 'specialty' restaurants that serve 'halal' foods...but they are not in malls....and given that they are specialty restaurants, they probably charge high.....so it was great to discover that there is a food stall in a mall food court that serves halal foods....

sitti's halal food hauz.....i saw this at the food court of virra mall in greenhills (san juan).....they serve a wide variety of common Filipino dishes that can be safely (or freely?) eaten by our muslim brothers....they have several chicken and fish dishes....they have garlic chicken, chicken curry, fried mayamaya and tilapia in coconut milk sauce for example.....they also have a lot of vegetable dishes.....
i found out that sitti's also has a food stall in market! market! (taguig)....this is great....it is high time that malls should also be sensitive to the needs of people who belong to different religions, cultural backgrounds and beliefs....

r & j bulalohan, tapsihan, atbp..-- celebrity bulalohan

i've been hearing about a 'bulalohan' in mandaluyong from friends....unfortunately, everytime they would go there i have other things to do and everytime i would be free and ask them to accompany me they would be busy....so after more than a year of just wondering how that bulalo tastes, i've finally had mychance.....last sunday, we had lunch in that 'bulalohan' which is named R & J bulalohan tapsilogan atbp....it can be found along boni avenue...just a few meters from mandaluyong circle....

their signange says they're open 24 hours....i don't know if their telephone line is still active...

the place looked ordinary to me....it's partially 'open air'....walls are made of bamboo....pictures pasted on illustration boards are hang on the walls....chairs are plastic....tables are also the same.....some even have cigarette burns....there are two television sets....when we were there, one was showing a variety show while the other was on a boxing match....one of the fighters was morales....that boxing player defeated by congressman manny 'pacman' pacquiao....there was also a videoke machine......

towards the left you will see the tv set showing the local show...towards the right is the al fresco dining area

now on to the menu....they have a lot of choices....of course there's bulalo...it wouldn't be called bulalohan if they do not serve that right?...haha....and yes....you're correct....they also have tapsi.....other choices are adobong pusit....nilaga....sinigang....fried this....fried that....they also have 'packages' (set orders)....

we decided to get one of their packages.....each package is worth PhP700....good for five....the one we ordered has bulalo, fried plapla, chopseuy, chicken terriyaki, sisig......we added adobong pusit, fried tawilis, 10 extra cups of rice and two pitches of iced tea....

bulalo

bulalo*(from pidyey's facebook album)

fried plapla (big tilapia)

chopseuy

sisig*(picture from pidyey's facebook album)

chicken terriyaki...oh o yummy

adobong pusit...not so black

iced tea

as expected their bulalo is great....it has real bulalo....i'm saying this because we have experienced in the past where restaurant just serve big bowls with the soup, meat slices and 'used' bulalo (bone)....this one has 'unused' authentic bulalo...you can even get free soup refill....the fried plapla was also very good.....it is very crispy plus it has a delicious sauce/dip made of fresh tomatoes and onions mixed using a blender....the chopseuy is not much different from those you order in eateries or canteens...the sisig is good....it is not very spicy so it is good for those who do not like their food hot....adobong pusit was i guess okay coz all my friends liked it....i want it really black....squid ink in adobo is so tasty...their tawilis is okay...very crispy....but i still like the ones you order in tagaytay city....but like with real food, i save the best for last...i really, really love their chicken terriyaki...it is oh so yummy....did i say it is delicious?....i did?....okay...let me say it again...chicken terriyaki is the best....

their food is great no wonder a lot of people go there....even if the place does not have a very good ambiance, they have loyal customers....because of their food that is not unthinkable....those picture i mentioned above?....they are pictures of celebrities who have at least once visied R & J Bulalohan Tapsihan, atbp....

messages from presidential sister kris aquino and her long time best friend boy abunda

signed by vice presidential candidate mar roxas and his wife, korina sanchez

they have provided food for different tv programs like the buzz, wowowee, nuts entertainment

after lunch....all happy......