March Munch: It's Sansung With an "N"

Seryoso na 'to. Last na 'to ng March Munch series. Promise!

For an office mate's birthday treat, our team headed to Makati Avenue for some Korean food experience.

Sulit naman kasi sa complimentary side dishes pa lang, panalo ka na.

We ordered samgyeupsal (one of the standard orders if going to a Korean restaurant I think), some kind of spicy noodles, and some kind of weird dish that you wrap in lettuce. I really can't remember all of them but they all tasted really good.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take much pictures of the food dahil parang puro kami mga patay-gutom na pagkalapag na pagkalapag ng pagkain, sugod na agad. At least I got this shot at the last minute:

I've been planning to take my boyfriend to that restaurant one of these days. Nahirapan lang akong tandaan kung ano yung pangalan niya. Now I know, it's Sansung with an N

March Munch: Bellore Breakfast Buffet

Well, I thought I was done with the March Munch series but my photo album showed me otherwise so here's another installment from our food adventures that month.

Bellore, an amalgam of the three owners' last names - Beltran, Lopez, and Reyes, is a quaint little restaurant along Examiner Street in Quezon City. The restaurant is quite known for their "Everyday Breakfast Buffet" which me and my boyfriend have already enjoyed a couple of times.

The buffet table may not offer an overwhelming variety of mostly Filipino dishes, but it gives you enough to be happy about. There's scrambled eggs, tocino, hotdog, danggit, ensalada, champorado, macaroni soup, and adobo. The food is quite fantastic in a home-cooking kind of way.

Some hotdogs, a piece of lumpia, and scrambled eggs.

I think I might've placed the camera too close to this tocino.

A bowl of champorado filled almost to the brim with fresh milk.

Pieces of ham and chicken.

March Munch: A Weekend of Food and Fun

Dahil Mayo na at hindi ko pa rin natatapos ang series na 'to, gagwin ko na lang isang bagsakan 'to.

From Saturday, Jatujak while eating food ordered from an adjacent restaurant (the name of which I already forgot), to watching two movies one after the other (Mirror Mirror and The Lorax) with an ice cream break at Sebastian's in between, to Sunday yakiniku lunch at Yakimix, then having a laugh trip watching Live Aids in the evening, straight to Malate to have a quick dinner at Hap Chan then to watch a benefit concert at The Library and capping the night off with fabulous performances by the Divas of O Bar. It was quite a long weekend but so much fun.

A chicken dish from Jatujak. I forgot what it was called, but it was yummy.

My boyfriend ordered noodles from an adjacent restaurant. I have to admit, though, that this is not the first time I ate something that I did not order in the place I was at.

Jatujak's Thai coffee is growing to be one of my favorites.

After watching Mirror, Mirror, we decided to go for another movie. So while waiting for The Lorax, we had an ice cream break at Sebastian's. Their cookie dough ice cream was divine!

For Sunday brunch, we decided to head to one of our favorite buffets: Yakimix.

More yakiniku, more fun!

Grilling the food right on your table is just as much fun as eating them.

Of course, we don't want to be hungry while we're grilling. Good thing they have a fine selection of cooked food, too.

For anti-umay, go for desserts!

Later that night, we laughed our hearts out at Live Aids 2012. We took advantage of the free photo booth, too.

After Live Aids, we headed to Malate to watch a friend who was performing in a benefit concert, but, of course, we had to have our tummies filled first so we enjoyed a quick meal at Hap Chan.

We're dimsum lovers!

And our last stop for the weekend: a couple bottles of beer while watching our favorite drag performers at O Bar Malate, Rhirhi and Letlet.

Random Inspiration #6

Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.

Oliver Herford (1863–1935)

March Munch: Going Japanese at Nihonbashi Tei

My pick for the March Munch series would have to be this very Japanese 24-hour restaurant in Malate that me and my boyfriend visited once.

It felt so authentically Japanese, probably owing partly to the oriental minimalist interior.

For starters, our sashimi had generous slices of Salmon.

Then we had the ten zaru soba: cold buckwheat noodles served with nori flakes, a raw quail egg, and leek.

The noodles, soup, and garnish were all served separately so you control how much of which goes into your bowl.

On the side, we got prawn tempura, pork barbecue called shouniku, and skewered enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon.

All in all, it was a very fabulous dinner.

March Munch: Keema at Kebab

Lemme just do a quick one here.

I realized I've blogged about a gazillion restaurants but haven't written a single one about one of our favorite-est places to go to: Mister Kebab.

We've been going to Mr.Kebab for the longest time. I remember we used to have kebab night almost every week night.

At syempre, ang picture ng aking all-time favorite Keema with eggplant.

March Munch: Halo Halo at Razon's

Dahil tinatamad akong magsulat ng kwento, pictures na lang ang ilalagay ko.

March Munch: Food Coma at Chopstick & Spoon

Lagi na lang restaurant ang binabalibag ko recently. So para maiba naman tayo, doon tayo sa food court!

Last March 11, bago namin sinimulan ang paggala sa Divisoria, nag decide kaming kumain na muna. Maigi na yung may energy kami sa pagiikot-ikot. Mahirap na ang mag collapse na lang bigla sa Divisoria dahil sa pagod.

My boyfriend was already dead set on Chopsticks & Spoon even before I could say anything. It would appear he was a regular. Kilala na nga siya ni ateng serbidora who already took our order kahit habang nakapila palang kami. So having had our orders taken, pinaupo na kami ni ate at sinabihang antayin na lang na tawagin kami.

Nagtaka naman ako kung pa'no kami tatawagin eh napakalaking food court nun. When she called, I finally realized how and why. Parang hanggang sa kabilang mall yata maririnig ang boses ni ate. Kahit bingi maririnig siya.

Heniway... Since it was just a snack, we got pancit, takoyaki, and sweet & sour fish.

I must admit it tasted much like it had a lot of MSG in the pancit, but the takoyaki and the sweet & sour was really good.

Fab Feb Food: Chef Laudico's Casa Filipino

Now it's time for the choice of the month: my favorite restaurant in the Fab Feb Food series.

My boyfriend took me to Chef Laudico's Casa Filipino in Scout Torillo last February 26 for dinner and it was probably one of the most fulfilling dinners I've had that month. That is, for one, because it's a buffet and we love buffets; two, the place was a beautiful house-turned-restaurant with very classy but contemporary interior (which made the whole dining experience so much more enjoyable); three, the food they offered was fabulously Filipino although there was some fusion attempts here and there; and four, (now this didn't come to me until after we've eaten) the place is owned by one of Philippines' renowned and trendsetting chef, Rolando Laudico.

There were cold, as well as hot, appetizers. The cold ones, being mostly maki and sashimi, were the ones I chose to ignore for this experience since I wanted to be an all-Filipino dinner. The hot appetizers were mostly Filipino and were quite innovative, exhibiting Chef Laudico's signature forward-thinking in food.

For soup, I must also say that I liked their sinigang with its thick sauce and tigas-panga sourness.

Next came the ensalada with Balmban bagoong.

For the main courses, there was a variety of fish, chicken, beef, pork and vegetable dishes to choose from. My favorite would probably be the Angus kare kare. It was mostly meat and not much offal (just the way I prefer) and the ginisang alamang (shrimp paste which most would call bagoong) was also just the way I liked it - a little sweet and not too oily.

They also have a carving station where you can get roast chicken, roast beef, lechon de leche and the likes. My top choice would be the Balmban liempo. Most would probably complain that it was too greasy, but it was moist, tender, and so full of flavor you won't even need to put sarsa on it.

As for dessert, they offer so much to choose from including cakes, ice cream, and a lot of merienda sweets including halo halo. Some were done traditionally like the turon and there were some prepared with a unique twist to the traditional like the suman panacotta.

I'm pretty sure there were some bad points somewhere there that I just missed out probably because of my excitement, thinking that it couldn't have been all that stellar, but what the heck! I enjoyed it so much I'm already planning our next visit.

Fab Feb Food: Hong Kong Master Cook at Dampa

Heto nanaman ako! Malapit nanamang magtapos ang Marso pero ang binabalibag ko pa rin ay ang mga naganap nung Pebrero. Anyway, I've decided I should really complete all the Fab Feb Food lined up before proceeding to the March activities anyway so here's the next Fab Food Fiesta from last February.

Andaming F!!!

One of the favorite places me and my office mates go to for just whatever is Dampa along Macapagal Avenue in Pasay. I think the fun there is in the experience of getting to buy and choose what and how much seafood you'd like. You buy crab, squid, fish, lobster, clams or what-not from the market then take them to one of the restaurants and choose how you'd like them cooked.

Our top choice whenever we go there is Hong Kong Master Cook primarily because they're the only restaurant there that offers braised scallops in spicy white wine sauce - the team's favorite. Although I'm really not one to enjoy spicy food, I've learned to love this dish.

Last February, we decided Dampa was definitely the place to spend the fund our boss gave us (simply because we were very good employees).

We had the usual braised scallops in spicy white wine sauce, of course, as well as sizzling squid (pictured above), a very cheesy baked tahong (below), the name of which I've already forgotten, and stir fried squid with salt and pepper.

We love eating here so much our next visit is already planned for next week.

Fab Feb Food: Valentines at Super Bowl

Truth is, I really don't have much to say about this restaurant. Other than the pictures of the food I took when me and my boyfriend had a pre-concert snack in their gateway branch, I couldn't remember much about it. I guess it didn't really leave me that much impression or maybe because all I could really remember from that day was watching Regine and Ogie's concert, Mr. & Mrs. A.

We got the dimsum platter which had shanghai rolls, fried dumplings, siomai, hakao and a plump siopao in the middle. They had tasty dimsum, but the quantity - for the price - was a bit of a let-down so we also got sweet & sour fish fillet (I think it's a standard dish in any Chinese restaurant).

One thing I remember I enjoyed, tho', was the crunchy banana balls I got as dessert.

I'm not so sure, but it's a plate of bananas dipped in batter and fried then served with chocolate syrup. It was yummy, I'll give it that.

All in all, it wasn't so bad for a Valentine pseudo-date.