food · Jodythinks

Sunday is Family day

artscream

So we haven’t seen our cousins from my mother’s side in a really long time. Since we’re all now basically in Manila and we can go to the mall again (long story, just that we were told by the mom’s side of the family to not go to the mall for a while) we decided to meet and eat and catch up.

Where did we go? Robinson’s Place Ermita of course. Why of course? Well, it’s where we’ve always gone when we do see each other here in Manila. Even if it is a hecka long way from home, it’s a food haven that hasn’t changed since my mom worked in Pagcor when I was a kid. And for food, I’ll always travel.

First stop: Bon Vivant. It’s a rice in a box stall that’s been there for as long as i can remember. They have the most unique and just comforting flavors (Like my favorite: Ooh La La, a shrimp pesto, bacon mix) that have made people come back for years. And since it’s the only branch (believe me, people have tried to ask the Chinese owner for franchise rights, they’ve all been denied) it’s an inexpensive treat that I always make sure I get when I go to Ermita.

Then off to Wham. Don’t tell Ate Kaye (she doesn’t know we already ate, since she was late [hey that rhymes!]) but we ate fries, chicken littles (their chicken nuggets that are oh so good) and onion rings with our rice. Photo-opped, laughed at absurd rumors (that we found out later in the day was true) and ate our way through our first sit down meal.

Ajisen was third on our list. After walking in circles for 15 minutes and not knowing what to make Ate Kaye eat, we sat down at Ajisen, this Japanese place at the corner of the 3rd(?) floor at Midtown. Ordered sushi (to be fair we already ate) and ice cream. Gulped down the food then looked for more dessert.

And dessert we did find. Art’s cream gallery at the ground floor of Midtown was a place I’ve already read about online. Fiorgelato providing it’s ice cream (ok, gelato) we had the One for All which consisted of 12 scoops of ice cream in a single huge martini glass. The flavors all melted together, which was sometimes fun(mint and chocolate chip), sometimes strange (lychee and hazelnut). It was gone in 10 minutes.

Don’t think the day’s over. After Tita Tess picked us up, we went to S&R for apparently a sale and saw the longest line ever. We were tired so we just decided to eat dinner there. For people who have been eating every hour and a half, we managed to eat half a dozen burgers, a pizza, more cups of clam chowder than i could count, a salad (with bacon and cheese, i suspect it’s not as healthy as it’s parading to be), churros, and those chicken bread things that were so good.

It’s a wonder our clothes still fit.

Next time we’re going North! 🙂

food · Jodythinks

Food trips with the girls…ehem.. boys.

MishmashSo last week was a slow task week at User Experience. Me being the masochist I am, I browsed my favorite local food blog all those days, which is my own special brand of self-torture. And even if it was Dessert Comes First I found myself craving for a slice of steak. Although I could not afford the place that she went to, (Elbert’s, looks blissful but way above my price range) I went searching for a different place to indulge my craving for a slice of red meat.

After a day of research and finding out our salary just came in, we (RC, Kiko, Ren and me) went straight to Alfredo’s in Tomas Morato after work. I was thinking, simple, in my price range, and mom recommended ever since I can remember. True I may not agree with my mom on some food recommendations (turns out I am not a fan of churros), this we agreed on. Got the Mediterranean spiced one, Ren got the same, Kiko got the Chateaubriand and RC went meateater on us and got the 300 gram tenderloin. Loved that each order of the steak came with bread, soup and a salad. I also had to get an iced tea to wash all the meat down, and funnily enough, their iced tea blend tasted like Cyma’s iced tea, which I love. We were all pretty happy with our orders. On the waiter’s suggestion we all had it medium rare so it was still a little pink in the middle, and true enough it was the perfect texture, just done enough so I don’t feel like a lion gnawing on raw meat, but tender so i don’t need to chew for a couple of minutes just to gulp it down.

So after that I realize I am a major meat eater. And I’m craving steak all the time now. More than sweets now really. With the voice inside my head telling me to cut down on the sugar, how can you crave it 24/7 still?

But since Kozui, the green tea place people were telling me to try, was like a brief walk from Alfredo’s and Kiko was saying it was good, we still went for dessert. Ordered the Anmitsu at the recommendation of the waiter, we sat down and enjoyed our Japanese version of halo halo. It was good good good. Not too sweet. And did i say yet that I love green tea ice cream? (Green tea frap too, but that’s besides the point) It was so good I was telling the guys that we should go back the next day.

That was the 14th.

On the 16th, we didn’t feel like going home yet, so Kiko RC and I went to Tomas Morato again. This time we went to Jozu, this Japanese place in front of Guilly’s island. The sushi menu looked good so we (Kiko and me) tried that. RC tried their yakisoba. Kiko and I were happy. RC wasn’t. Haha. So we went to Wheatberry, this bakery cafe he was telling me about for ages to soothe his annoyed highness. RC got the silvannas, Kiko got apple pudding, I got cheesecake. Can i just say I wasn’t surprised that my order was the sweetest of the bunch? But i was really surprised I couldn’t finish it. It took a long time, and a lot of bites from RC before the slice was gone.

Then went over to Ren’s to annoy the heck out of him. He was out of the office for two days coz he got sick coz of something he ate. After that, went back to Kozui. Split an ice cream.

Now this is the kind of hangout I missed. And also the reason why I need to go back to the gym.