todd english food hall

since i wasn't able to try it in nyc i was glad they opened up in manila.


the famous ferris wheel with cupcakes, it actually moves hehe. i like the ambiance of the place, very sleek and bright.

my iced tea, had to take a picture because it was so small haha and costs like almost a 100 i think. but hello this is todd english! haha.

greek salad - light and refreshing

vongole - lots of clams. pretty good.

burger - i don't know how it fares this was my dad's hehe. but the fries were lonely.

gyoza - the menu is quite odd or maybe because it's a food hall and they're supposed to serve all sorts of things. this is pan fried gyoza you can choose pan fried or steamed. we chose the one with curry it was suprisingly good.

flatbread pizza - nicely done. nothing to shout about though. my parents liked this because it's not cheesy.

surprisingly, todd's is quite affordable. though i'm the only one who had drinks and we got the senior citizen discount the amount we paid was comparable to the meal we had in mann hann, i was really surprised. so this can be a to go to place whenever in sm aura.

todd english food hall

sm aura

fireside by kettle

because we dunno where to eat c and i settled for another "kettle."

hot crab and artichoke dip. it was good not the usual cheesy spinach artichoke dip.

mac and cheese? oh gheez i can't remember haha. probably decent since i cannot remember anything about it.

because c loves meat, i dunno how she can keep her uber thin physique and yet eat meats and not veggies. well same as green pastures still fails in comparison with resto 101. the pork is not that tender and flavorful.

fireside by kettle

sm megamall fashion hall

pino resto bar

gheez, this has been around for the longest time and a stone's throw away from our house and yet i only tried it recently.

sisig tacos - my gulay ang dami hahaha...and we were just two persons. this was sick! the cheese is sooo good and the sisig is meaty not the cloyingly fatty parts which makes it perfect.

crispy kare kare - urgh the pork is so fatty and the sauce is so sweet. bleh!.

crispy hito - ummm nothing to shout about but it was oily it had this oily flavor i mean if you look at it it's not oily but when you eat it has that cloyingly oily taste dunno what's the reason why some dishes end up that way. the sides of eggplant and tomatoes was not enough to counteract that cloying feeling.

pino resto and bar
malingap street
up teachers village, qc

va bene pasta deli

i've wanted to try this place for the longest time, finally they opened up at a much accessible location.

some freebie tostini with some checca like sauce with parmesan.

arugula salad - loved the dressing and caramelized apples

polipo - the octopus is very tender but i think the dressing in the arugula salad would have been better on this one. the lemon dressing was too light and this needed a pop of flavor.

black ink tagliorini - where do i start? the first time they served this it was too salty and we only complained after sometime but they replaced it. my problem with this dish is the pasta. it's gummy and doughy at the same time. i cannot describe it. but given this is a fresh pasta i expect it to be smooth and with the right snap so to speak. i've made fresh pasta before and it should be comparable to the dried ones but much better. am i making any sense? basically i had issues with the texture of the pasta.

pappardelle? - i'm not a 100% sure but it looks like it. the pasta is much better the flavors are ok but the meat is not that tender should have the fall of the bone texture and this one wasn't.

i'm quite disappointed with the place. i know it was full and busy but the quality isn't really up to par. and to think this has great reviews.

va bene

central square building

bhs, bgc taguig

green pastures part deux

i love green pastures, if it's not that obvious here's another post from different outings.

finally got to try duck fries!!! after so many tries. love the crunchy duck skin bits haha. i wish the vinegar was more tart it would give a nice contrast.

i forgot what salad this was...look at the shavings of cheese =) though i am not a fan of the seeded tomatoes.

cauliflower rice with angus beef tapa is love.

another salad this one looks like it has feta and grapes perfect combination.

osso bucco tagliatelle...yummy.

oh well, cinnamon doesn't sit well with me and this dish is apple with cinnamon butter porkchops me thinks. this was rather tough, resto 101 still sets a high bar when it comes to porkchops.

green pastures

shangri-la plaza 

shella makes: garlic buttered crabs

i learned making this dish when my friend brought some to the office apparently her brother is a cook at dampa. did i remember it right? haha anyway, garlic buttered crabs are so easy to make.


just melt the butter, saute the garlic and pour over your cooked crabs (steamed) put some cracked black pepper and voila! now, if i add tabasco, tomato sauce and sugar it now becomes my version of chilli garlic crabs. yes, i don't like the singaporean version i like mine better =).

kl: menya zen

this was an accidental find. a lot restos have been sprouting around sri petaling. this is at the back of the parking building.

the food here is actually good - fair price and decent servings sizes. they serve soba, udon and donburi.


ebi tempura - light and crisp.

i think this was a new item when i tried it and i was blown away. this is smoked duck don (me thinks, dunno the official name). i fell in love with this dish. the duck is soooo tender and has that right smoky bbq flavor, it is soooo good. they serve this without the rice and i order it too. 

menya zen

13 jalan radin bagus 3

sri petaling, kuala lumpur

backyard manila

ever since i learned about backyard manila i was really excited to try it. plus it's super near my house haha. these were from two outings. 

salted egg chicken skin!!! i love anything salted egg, it's gaining popularity in manila. here in kl it's common at seafood restos. but this one is not for the healthy hahaha because it's chicken skin...hello cholesterol!

waffle battered fried chicken??? i forgot what they officially call it but it's fried chicken breaded in waffle mix the butter has a maple sweet taste as well. it was ok, i wish the chicken was more flavorful and honestly i didn't taste the "waffle". it's paired with brown rice para medyo healthy daw haha.

flatbread with longganisa and kesong puti. so pinoy right? but i think the cheese is too overpowering, it's not just kesong puti i think they added mozzarella which i think is unnecessary. plus the flatbread is too thin that it falls apart.

flavored beers...because e was late we had to order other stuff and realized they have butter beer. unfortunately, they ran out of butter beer. we settled for passion fruit, caramel and hazelnut??? i forgot the last one. actually the passion fruit was really nice it was refreshing. better paired with the chicken skin but we didn't order again because we're not that crazy!

i was supposed to order the chicken skin but they ran out pffft! so i had to browse the menu again and eventually decided on the lobster roll. i think it has a generous portion of lobster and shrimp which makes it sulit. but i find it overly dressed is that the right term??? can you see how heavily doused it was. i love that the brioche bun is slathered with butter before being grilled. the problem was the bread was stale. ahhh the potato chips are "homemade" they were damn good but i hated the cheese flavoring. first of all, i was thinking since it's a farm to table kind of resto they won't be serving things with preservatives. so what the hell is that cheese powder doing there? and don't tell me it's organic because it tastes like sm bonus cheese powder. oh yeah! i know! i have a good palette di ba so that fried chicken really didn't have that waffle flavor haha. so i hope someone gets to read this and tell them to stop putting that chipangga cheese powder, the chips are good they can just be plain salted.

despite some imperfections i still love this place =). i want to try the other items they serve.


backyard manila
up town center
katipunan ave, quezon city

sarsa

been meaning to try sarsa for the longest time and i've only gotten the chance last year. here's what c and i ate.

sizzling kansi, sizzling bulalo with batwan gravy which is tart...a nice contrast to the possibly cloying bone marrow. but this one, there's very little marrow and it's not super hot that i need to take them out of the bone and put on the sizzling plate to make them "luto".

pinakbet? i forgot but we needed veggies daw according to c but she never eats veggies so i ended up eating this dish. it was quite good actually.

crispy liempo (pork belly). again nothing to shout about but the pork was tender and not fatty.

guinamos fried rice, read somewhere this makes a difference. for it didn't because almost everything had guinamos like the pinakbet. so everything tasted the same for me.

sarsa
bgc, taguig

paris food finds

one thing i enjoy is buying food items from the grocery in other places. i was just in hk and bought siomai in 7-11 but it was dismal. i would think that the frozen siomai in ph is better if there's any.

 this is almost 2 years late. but i wanted to share my paris food finds. bonne maman is a popular brand, i love their jams and cookies este galettes =) you can find them in groceries here in asia. so i bought this because you can't find it here (as far as i know). i actually didn't like it hahaha...the rhum was just too much for me. otherwise it would have been good.

this one is the winner, i will never forget this yogurt. this is how posh france is, yogurt are sold in glass bottles not the cheap plastic ones we are used to. this one was mixed with milk and is just plain vanilla. it was light and creamy. think a lighter greek yogurt with vanilla flavor =).

can't remember where i got these either from monoprix or franprix, two common grocery stores in paris.  it's on the bottle! i got it from carrefour, it's just a store brand and yet it was sooo good.

la juiceria juice cleanse

juice cleanse hasn't really picked up in kl unlike in manila when juju cleanse started out and all of a sudden there was a boom in healthy juices and cleanses. not sure if the owner of la juiceria who is actually a filipino, picked up the concept from back home. but i'm glad she did. i've done cleanses in the past but i've only tried la juiceria this year.

just like a typical juice cleanse there's a fixed number of juices that you can take with their corresponding schedule during the entire day. la juiceria has two sets, you can choose either of the two or you can customize. the first time i did it, i went for customized because i succumbed to friends' feedback regarding the flavors. you just buy the bottles, the juices are numbered and they have a default schedule which you can follow - easy peasy.

is it bad? well if it's your first time, you might experience some symptoms like headaches so you really have to be determined to do this! here's some tips when planning to do a juice cleanse.

1. don't binge the day before. actually, as much as possible you should start eating clean, days before the cleanse. i believe this prepares the body especially your stomach. 
2. my friends like doing this on weekdays, they get distracted with work. i like doing it on weekends/long holidays. i distract myself with house chores, watching movies/tv and sleeping!
3. don't eat too much or binge after the cleanse. this will "shock" your stomach. i normally pace my stomach right after the cleanse like eating just soups, fruits, veggies and at the most fish and chicken but no red meats yet.

the la juiceria cleanse is not strict, it allows you to eat, like cucumber, avocado and raw nuts. because i have blood sugar issues i have the raw cashews for backup. as they state in one of their flyers, listen to your body, eat if you have to. for those who want to try it, goodluck!

la juiceria

midvalley megamall

bangsar shopping center

nu sentral

klcc

sg: jamie's italian

this is a long overdue post, i had this in 2014. yes i'm that bad! we ordered this special which was actually just good for 2 people and we were 3 but we still weren't able to finish it. we had 3 planks - appetizers, entrees, dessert. food was good. we ordered an extra dish the mushroom thing which was highly recommended but i beg to differ. the dishes weren't really spectacular or mind blowing so to speak. the fish is noteworthy - fresh and well cooked. the only unforgettable dish here is the panacotta, it was heaven! love love love.

jamie's italian
vivo city
singapore