eat all you can: October 2013

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

MINISTOP - My One Stop Shop

After working the entire day, the idea of cooking dinner is not so appealing. We'd rather lie down in bed and rest when we arrive home. For those with family this is unrealistic. It is a must that they prepare meals for their loved ones however tired they already are. So what can they do to be able to provide food for their family and still save time for the much needed rest?

One of the things that working parents can do is to just buy food from fast food chains or in their neighborhood carinderia. Buying precooked food would save them a lot of time. However, buying in fast food chains can be costly.

Another thing they can do is to buy boxed meals that they could just heat in the microwave oven. One of the best places to find these boxed meals is MINISTOP. They have various choices of boxed meals. I discovered this when I transferred to another house a couple of months ago. On my first night there I was so tired from unpacking and arranging my stuff I didn't like to cook anymore. I just headed to the nearest convenience store which happens to be MINSTOP to buy something to eat. That's when I found out that they have many choices of boxed meals. This is perfect for those moms or dads who do not want to cook.

But that's not the only thing I discovered. They also have rice toppers. In my case I do not like to bring home the food anymore because that would mean additional trash so rice toppers are great. There are several MINISTOP branches that have tables and chairs for "dine-in" customers and I'm lucky the branch near my place is one of them.

Some of the food I've already sampled and liked are burger steak, sisig, caldereta, pork chops (I can't remember exactly how they call their pork chops), chicken inasal, fried chicked and fried siomai/sharksfin. They also have Samurice (its flavored rice wrapped in nori wrapper -Japanese seaweed) which comes in 3 flavors - Pork Bulgogi, Chicken Adobo and Bangus Sisig. This is good for those who prefer something light. My favorite is bulgogi.

These rice toppers are reasonably priced. Prices ranges from P 29 to P 49. One piece fried chicken is about P60+. The Samurice costs P 25. It's probably what Ms. Kris Aquino would call sulit because their serving is really filling. The 2 pc. burger steak which costs P 39 pesos for example is good for those who are really hungry. Light eaters can actually share one order of this. However, I noticed that for about a month now, the serving of rice become a bit smaller. Hmmmm......is this an effect of the sudden increase in price of rice grains?

They also have what I call the Spam collection -- yes, it's the canned meat we all love. There's the Spam Teriyaki Musubi worth P 29, Spam Breakfast meal worth P 49 , etc.

Recently they added the Pork and Beans Collection. It comes in 3 variants but I've only tried that Barbecue Pork and Beans. It is worth P 29.

I still have a lot more to try at MINISTOP but here are some pictures of those that I have sampled. And by the way, after MINISTOP I'll explore 7-11 also because I know they also have rice meals.