Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant

Got the chance to eat at Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant last week. A friend of mine celebrated her birthday there. When we arrived at the restaurant food has already been served since we came quite late. I was worried because might be too cold already. But when my friend saw us enter the restaurant, she asked the waiters to reheat the food without questions. Good first impression for me.

Anyway, we had Watami Salad, Tempura, Salmon Croquette, Beef Pepper Rice and California Maki. I guess my favorite is the Watami Salad. The greens were crisp and the dressing was unique. If I had a choice I would have ordered for more of the salad. The Beef Pepper Rice was also very good. It can actually stand on its own. Well, not really. I'm sure you'd enjoy it more with other stuff but it was really very good.

Watami Salad

I also liked the salmon croquette. It was crispy on the outside and the filling is somehow creamy. The tempura wasn't outstanding. It wasn't bad but I had better.

Watami can be found in Glorietta near the entrance of Glorietta 2, Hotel Dr. I didn't get to ask why it is called a CASUAL restaurant. The place doesn't look casual. In fact it looks formal to me but not very intimidating like other Japanese Restaurants.

Paul French Bakery Restaurant

It was my first time to go to SM Aura last week. It looks different from all the SM Malls I've been. It is more elegant than the rest. It's cleaner too. And I was surprised that it actually smells good. I think they have centralized air-freshener spraying system (whatever they call it). Anyway, the reason I went there is not really look at the place but to visit Paul French Bakery Restaurant (Le restaurant du boulanger).

Paul French Bakery Restaurant was recently featured by Ms. Kris Aquino on KrisTV, her daily morning show over at ABS-CBN. I'm sure there are a lot of people watching that show and one of them happens to be my friend. She asked me and another friend to check out the place.

Paul is right next to one of the entrances of SM Aura. It is not a big restaurant. There are maybe 10 tables or 15 tops. And there is also a small bakery inside where bread and pastries are sold.When we arrived the place was almost full. There is actually only one vacant table but since there were no other customers in line we got to occupy that table. 

It took us quite a while before we decided on what to order. The names of the food are in French so it was quite difficult to choose what to eat. There's English description for each item on the menu but you still need to focus well so you don't get order something you can't later on eat.

I ordered Saute de poulet aux champignons. The descriptions says  its chicken in creamy mushroom sauce. It's served with slices of Paul's country bread and some greens. The food actually tasted good. The chicken is tender. The sauce is flavorful. The bread really suits well with the chicken in mushroom sauce but unfortunately there is not enough of it for the entire dish.  I asked the waiter if I could order extra slices of bread but he said they only provide one serving. Ooooppps! I was somehow reminded that this is not an ordinary restaurant where you can order "extra" rice.

My friends ordered Cuisse de poulet rotie and an open sandwich whose name I forgot to write. The description says roasted chicken with herbs, served with salad, potatoes and shallots. It's like your regular roasted chicken except that it has lots of herbs to give it flavor. The chicken actually absorbed the flavor unlike other roast chicken whose flavor who is concentrated only the skin.

We also had creme brulee. It was good because it was not too sweet. It also has a very fine texture. One order was enough for the three of us. 

The whole experience at Paul French Bakery Restaurant was good. The long travel was worth it. It's good my friend saw Paul French Bakery restaurant on KrisTv.

Hen-Lin. Kimmy Dora. Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy.

Last Sunday I went to SM Mall of Asia to watch an MMFF film. I haven't decided yet what I'd watch when I arrived in SM MOA so I  looked at the schedule hoping that the information would help me decide what movie I should watch. After seeing the schedule, I still couldn't decide what to see so I thought I'd eat dinner first. I went to SM Hypermarket where there are various stalls that sell food at reasonable prices. I didn't want to spend a lot on food that night because I would already be spending for a movie ticket -- it's worth P 220. I chose my favorite Hen-Lin.

As I said Hen-Lin is my favorite but that was actually my first to eat in that branch. I usually eat Hen-Lin siomai every Saturday when I pass by SM City Lucena on my way to our town. I was surprised when the sales clerk asked me if I wanted the siomai fried or steamed. In SM Lucena they only serve steamed siomai so I didn't know that you can have it fried. Since it was new to me I ordered fried siomai. I was happy that I tried it because I was satisfied. The siomai was crispy. It was not overcooked. It didn't have the "overused" oil taste too.

After dinner i had no choice but to make the decision on what movie to watch or just go home.  I chose Kimmy Dora over Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy. It was really funny. Eugene Domingo did a great job in portraying two characters.

What and what not to eat this 2014

Happy New Year everyone! Happy 2014!

I was planning to write recipes to creatively 'manage' your leftover holiday food but it's rather late. So let me just give you some suggestions on what you should eat and what you should avoid this month.

Let's start with some food you should avoid.

1. Ham and its cousins like bacon - have you not had enough of ham last Christmas?
2. Chocolates - forget about chocolates first because if not, ants will be running after you. Don't worry, February 14 is just around the corner so you'll surely enough chocolates again.
3. Spaghetti and its derivatives - in almost all  the parties I attended during the Christmas season spaghetti was present. I'm sure the same is true with you so let's all forget about it first. Try instant noodles instead.


What you should eat

1. Vegetable salad - well, you need fibers to flush out the toxins you stored during the holidays
2. Fish  - all those meat dishes you ate surely gave you more than enough calories from fats to last you til next Christmas so have some fish this time. Grilled or bake fish is good.
3. Fruits - you had a lot of fruits on your table last New year's eve, right? Eat them,. for crying out loud.

So there you go. These are my suggestions. Actually, I  wrote this for myself but I guess they can help you as well so....

Happy year of the horse! Happy 2014!

Christmas Gift Ideas - the Best Food Items to Give this Season

It's Christmas time again. I know many of us are already excited with the up coming parties. But I'm quite sure that many of us are also anxious already because our Christmas shopping is far from being finished. Well, who can blame us. There are really a lot of people we want and should thank so it feels like time is not enough. Plus our Christmas bonus is also not enough.So here are some ideas that might help. But I'd like to warn you that all of these are food or food related gifts. I guess you guessed that already from the title -- Christmas Gift Ideas - the Best Food Items to Give this Season.

Christmas Gift Idea #1. SIDES.  I call this SIDES because these are the things you put on the sides of your favorite dishes. You can give your friends a bottle of atchara, roasted garlic and pickles. This set is a good idea because it is quite unique. Not a lot of people will think of giving these things. Plus not a lot of people will expect receiving such items so this set will really have an impact. If you have the means, you can buy gourmet atchara, roasted garlic and pickles in groceries. But these things are also available in bazaars and the wet market. Those gourmet types are already placed in nice bottles so you wont have to worry about how they'd look. You just have to buy a nice gift basket and your done. Those available in bazaars also come in nice containers. If you'll buy from the market, what you can do is design the bottles using pieces of cloth and ribbons. You can use red and green checkered cloth and silver or gold ribbons. You can also add tiny poinsettia or bells to make your gift more Christmas-y.

Christmas Gift Idea #2.0. BOXED-UP. There are a lot of pastry shops that sell all kinds of cookies an pastries. You can opt to buy their boxed goodies to give to your friends. During Christmas season, they use boxes with Christmas design you all you need is to attach a gift tag. But these boxed pastries can be expensive at times. If your budget is a bit tight, you can buy pastries and cookies from your neighborhood pastry shop or bakery and just box them in Christmas boxes. Or you can also put them in jars.

Christmas Gift Idea #2.1. BOXED-UP. Aside from cookies and pastries, you can also box cakes. You can order from your favorite bakeshop cakes and box them nicely. You can actually have your own design followed if you know your local neighborhood baker. In may case, since I don't know of any baker, I will just buy cakes to box at S&R. They have nice cakes that would look really good in cute Christmas boxes. I'm actually thinking of Carrot and Walnut Cake of S&R.

Christmas Gift Idea #3. GREENS. I call this GREEN because this is about vegetables -- green or otherwise. Yes, you can give vegetables as gifts for Christmas especially if you have health conscious friends. You can put in a basket assorted vegetables like cucumber and carrots which they can just slice and eat anytime or turn into juice like those detox juices that's famous among celebrities. Look at their Instagram accounts and you'll see pictures of the products they get from detoxify bar. And don't forget the connection between Anne Curtis and that juice cleanse which got mentioned when she got in the "I can buy you, your friends and this club" incident. Anyway, aside from cucumber and carrots, you can also add salad vegetables like big, red tomatoes, Romaine lettuce, mint, etc. Make sure to design your basket really well. You can use ribbons and other trimmings to give it the Christmas look.

Christmas Gift Idea #4. HOT STUFF. This is all about coffee, tea and chocolate drinks hence the Hot Stuff title. You can give Kapeng Barako, Local Tea and Tsokolate to your friends who are Starbucks and UCC addicts. Kapeng Barako is famous in Batangas but they are also available in supermarkets around the Metro. The same is true with local teas like pito-pito, sambong and ampalaya and tsokolate. Tsokolate also comes in round or ball shapes. These are available in some Batangas towns. They are also good stuff.

So there you go. I hope these Christmas Gift Ideas would help you with your Christmas shopping.   

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.

Barbecue Pork and Beans

Pork Siomai

Pork Sisig

Pork Bulgogi

2 pc Burger Steak

Pork Bulgogi and Yakult

Chicken Inasal

Hotsilog made Sosyal - Korean Hotsilog ?

Last Sunday, I accompanied my friend who went shopping in Glorietta. We walked all over the place which made me really hungry. After about a couple of hours walking I asked my friend if we could go to the Food Choices to eat. I didn't have anything in mind that's why I chose the place where there are lots of options. My only consideration then was I wanted to eat something heavy and cheap.

When we got there my friend ordered lamb chops at Go Greek and I just had Umo Rice Garlic Sausage at Kim 'n Chi. My order is worth only P 85.00.  Heavy? Check.

Umo rice is fried rice "wrapped" in fried scrambled egg. In effect, the Umo Rice Garlic Sausage is like hotsilog or combination of hotdog, sinangag (fried rice) and itlog made to look different (made to look  sosyal haha). The sausage is just an ordinary sausage -- nothing really  special about it. And it's not really garlic flavor. You'll get the garlic taste from the mayo dressing they squeeze on top. In my mind it's just hotsilog so I think P 85 is a little bit too much because you can have tapsilog in your friendly tapsilogan stores for about P 50 - P 60 only. But then the serving of rice is big so I guess it's acceptable.