pasta and pizza

this is a long overdue review/write-up. i discovered a veneto back in college. one of its first branch is near my mom's office and she simply loved the garlic and oil with seafood as well as the pesto with seafood. you get the best value for your peso in this resto. great food at very affordable prices. recently, it seems to be popping out here and there. the quality is not as great as it used to be or maybe they've become inconsistent being uber commercialized and all. had dinner with friends and here are some pictures of the food we ate.


some appetizers:




one of my two favorites in the place - garlic and oil with italian sausage


first timer on the carbonara


pizza is ok not too thick and oily

this is a great place for big groups...huge servings...very affordable too.

a veneto pizzeria
branches:
glorietta
libis
visayas avenue

meatlover me

ok. been talking about the blood type diet which i have failed to submit to. was successful for a couple of months but gheez could i really stop eating seafood, tomato and cheese? my golly, the meat i could but not the other food items.

i still rarely eat meat nowadays but there are still some inevitable occasions. stayed at home for 4 whole days in a soft diet of mashed veggies and lugaw and because of that i feel so deprived. suddenly craved for some decent steak. as in steak you know argentina grade. reviewed lori's blog on tagaytay highlands...i want the prime rib. i ought to text b and ask her to eat out.

then she had this entry on another steak place that targets just the steak lovers, elbert's steak room , surprisingly it's justa couple of steps away from my office. who would have thought that the almost rundown bldg houses such a place. anyway not planning to go here unless someone treats me hehehe. i'll be satisfied with the highlands steak :). speaking of which just talked to a meatlover friend who loves the highlands as well.

food directory

listing down possible good eats.

http://www.cosmobread.blogspot.com/

banapple - katipunan ave. across kopi roti

cuptails and dreams - cuptailsanddream@hotmail.com

Camara Frozen Brazo - 1243 Acacia St., Dasmarinas St., Makati, MM and the new number is (02)843-8086

Frozen Brazo -- sweet life by ange - 75 Amorsolo Street San Lorenzo Village Makati.
+63917 8238198

Costa Brava - 12 Polaris St. Bel-Air Village 3, Makati (632) 896-6872 / 896-1267

Taza Platito of Tina Diaz : 373-2732 / 926-2501
12-A Scout Tobias corner Fr. Martinez St.,
Quezon City

Piece of Cake by Yumi Castrillo
0917.8054063
inquiries@yummypieceofcake.com

Dulcelin
36 Times St.
West Triangle, Q.C.
374-2165 / 374-2167
mobile: 0917-5352592

Kozui
Green Tea Café
258 B Tomas Morato corner Scout Fernandez,
Quezon City
632.413-2705
Hours:
11 am – 12:30 am (Tuesday to Saturday)
4 pm – 12:30 am (Sunday and Monday)

Cuerva Bakeshop

2/F Petron Dasmarinas, EDSA corner Arnaiz Avenue, Makati City; +632 844 0966, +632 844 8278
26 Hidalgo Street, San Lorenzo Village, Makati City; +632 817 0200; +632 817 6286


Estrel’s: 3722965

Iya's Jumbo Pastillas (P250/box)
Tel. (02) 843.9066
2320 Morado St./1392 Palm Ave.
Dasmarinas Vill., Makati

puffmommy.multiply.com

earthlydelights.multiply.com

peyups foodies

of course there are trademark food items you can get from up. surprisingly, the level of street food vending is a notch higher after four years.

they used to sell fish balls, kwek-kwek, chicken balls, kikiam, squid balls in those slim carton containers but now they are using huge carton containers already. fish balls can now be bought in bulk at 10, 15 and 20 pesos. not sure if all stalls are doing this or only this particular seller. got some gulaman first at the coop stall which is still 5 pesos. susme ano nang ginagamit dito bakit mura pa ren. then we headed to the other side of shopping center to get some fish balls and cheese sticks.




our cheeseticks with chipangga mayo hehe...bawal magreklamo

as usual, our sc visit will not be complete until g-sel gets some fic. yupyup, alicia's sells the cheapest fic in the whole metro. it used to be 15 bucks but now the price increased to 18. still a good buy compared to your 35PHP mall price. she got pistachio this time. favorite flavors are green tea, raspberry with chocolate, dulce de leche and strawberry.

healthy food finds

i might not have mentioned it yet, but my ultimate goal is to do my grocery shopping at healthy options. that is, to become rich enough to buy everything organic, additive free, and so on. too bad wasn't able to visit wholefoods which pam was dying to bring me to.

so anyway, while walking along trinoma i suddenly saw the frozen section of healthy options. my gaaaaaaaaaaad!!! i was so excited. good thing that i wasn't the only one with that exaggerated reaction. the woman beside was gasping too hehe.

i was so happy because i saw all kinds of frozen turkey products. i even saw frozen cherries and berries which i didn't get because i wanted my mom to pay for them hehe. and the reason why the woman said oh my god!!! out loud was because they were selling organic cod and ahi tuna. holy camote! it was such a thrill for me. but of course given that i cannot get a lot of stuff i had to restrict myself. here are the stuff i got.

so excited to try the sausage and bacon variants

was craving for something sweet so i got this...comes in three flavors. banana foster and brownies are the other two.

my couscous stash

i also got some kettle chips which we munched on in the car. also want to share some more healthy food finds. nativa is the original green tea drink. not packed with sugar and you still taste the "natural flavor" of the green tea. the flavored tofu is a new find at my tita's store. she sells veggie sausages which i love, veggie tuna steaks (nice too), tofu balls, veggie meats and a lot more.





not its final state used it for my pininyahan na tofu. yesterday i cooked some for my mexican inspired tofu squares.

the tea girl

i have always loved tea. m knows i'm a tea drinker so she was shocked to find out that i've become a coffee drinker too. probably the reason why i was not a starbucks addict until i met c.

my love for tea actually started when i discovered that the british way for drinking tea which is with cream is very favorable to my palate. then novelty milk teas such as quickly became famous and i was simply hooked on taro milk. i would go to dec and hoard their taro milk back when the v mall was still virra mall.


thai iced tea in jatujak

mineshine

i enjoy tea with milk, people might think i'm crazy if they find out that i put cream/milk on my green tea to get that milk tea effect as well. when i was in thailand it was thai iced tea heaven of course. thai iced tea has this distinct taste and color that people might not find favorable. chowking's nai cha which is served with jelly/gulaman is also a fave. my recent discovery is mineshine, the bottled milk teas you can get from mini-stop or 7-11. gheez never realized it costs more than 50 PHP until i asked someone to buy it for me.

after finishing my half liter bottle of mineshine, i got inspired to write about it and then suddenly came across an article on bubble tea. what a coincidence. i ought to visit this place next time i go to the block. anyway that's it, it you haven't tried milk tea, try one. though i must admit it takes a lot of getting used to.

antonio's

saw this in a blog and just wanted to make sure i've noted it.

Antonio's Restaurant
Brgy. Neogan, Tagaytay City
Strictly for Reservation; Closed on Mondays
Tel Nos.: 09178992866
046-4130975 / 046-4131054

Driving direction: From the Sta. Rosa exit, turn right after the toll plaza and Coca Cola plant then head straight thru the Sta. Rosa – Tagaytay road. Turn right when you reach the Tagaytay market then straight ahead passing by the infamous rotonda (where 7-eleven is). Continue your drive until you pass by Mendez Crossing (where the next traffic light is). You’ll see Antonio’s signage on your right roughly 3 – 5 minutes from Bag of Beans and immediately after the Tagaytay Transmission Tower. Turn right from here and follow the narrow road, you’ll find Antonio’s on the left side.

new pasta no. 2

another addition to the collection of pasta dishes i whip up. inspired by my insurance agent's favorite. it's a spinoff of green tomato's dulong with capers. more of a copycat actually hehe.

bad food trip day

been telling my parents that they are jinxed. it seems that whenever i bring them to one of my favorite restos, the food don't quite meet the expectations. erk! we went to cyma ordered a gazillion menu items and got limited to a few.

here's what we ordered.

saganaki (flaming cheese) - so so, i would just have the hummus for appetizers
chopped chef salad - so so, i don't like feta tasted like blue cheese
the greek version of gamberetti - too sour
moussaka - so so, burnt eggplants at the bottom
mahi mahi - returned to the kitchen because it was not fresh
the spinach rice - not available!
molten chocolate cake - not available!
mint chocolate ice cream - liked the honey and walnuts

anyway, if i was a first timer, i wouldn't go back. but since this is one of my faves i will. thinking about trying the gbelt branch. i wonder whether they have better chefs and service.

foie gras

i have always wanted to eat foie gras but haven't got the chance to. now, with all these steak restos popping out, it seems easy to get one. but you have to get it with steak which i am gearing away from. was scouring lori's blog for some choices and i saw this. looks so yummy this foie gras terrine.


picture from lori's blog

for more details visit this:
http://www.lecanarddor.com/index.htm

my new pasta dish

wanted to make a pesto cream pasta but i hesitated and simply opted for the regular pesto dish. when i got home and started making my pesto i found out that i have no parmesan cheese. damn! so i had to whip up something that will make my pasta edible because i cannot imagine eating pesto without parmesan. i decided to use tomato sauce since it's the only thing useable in the cupboard. so here it is, another addition to the usual pasta dishes i make. tomato-pesto, you can smell and taste mostly the basil but it has a nice hint of tomato to tickle your palate. i had some "mcdo" chicken nuggets on the side c/o of madz.

chelsea market and cafe @ serendra

disclaimer: again, bad pictures was too lazy to bring my cam...should have borrowed one from jaebs who i bumped into. surprisingly i always see them together hehe.

i guess my quest to visit all my serendra to go to establishments has really started. today i was off to chelsea.

met with m at galleria and then we headed to the fort. drama pa sa text on going there as if i will let her go all the way from uber north down to semi-south hehe. anyway, i was so excited because i have expected too much. let's say the visit was so so. i guess we didn't order the right stuff. on the menu it says something like freshly made pasta...but it was not...should be best described as pasta for the day! anyway, what i didn't like about this dish was that the tomato was too sour. it totally defeated the cream and pesto which were on the dish as well.


seafood linguini
another bad choice was the irish coffee, m and i were thinking the same thing that's why we had the same order. we expected the coffee to be creamy but it was not. also, we thought it was cold since it was categorized as cold coffee...it seems that it works like sb wherein you can get it hot or cold. the liquer was too strong. hay naku we had to finish it up because it was damn too expensive to simply not drink it. anyway, expected too much since they were using italian coffee this did not meet expectations sad to say.



the saving grace of this entire meal, the pizza. i love the texture...crisp and thin, the way i like it. again, using the same tomatoes which is too sour but the artichokes, cheese and mushrooms made the dish worth it.



this is definitely far from my zao meal which i completely raved about, considering they cost almost the same. but anyway, maybe i'll try something else next time. also, where's the free bread? or is it just during dinner time? the meal arrived quite late as well but the nice thing was they informed us on the delay. i had celeb sightings too this afternoon hehe.

chelsea chelsea - by anton