Cafe Mesa, Clark Freeport Zone

Had a nice lunch in Clark in a cozy restaurant called Cafe Mesa.

 Very nice, relaxing ambiance where you can eat indoors or al fresco.

Delicious food with big servings!

Oriental Chicken, Php270

Beef Stew, P250

Side Order of Rice

Chicken Broth Soup included in meal

OVERALL FOOD REVIEW

NAME OF FOOD PLACE - Cafe Mesa

LOCATION - Clark, Pampanga Freeport Zone

PHONE NUMBER - 

SPECIALTY - Mixed foods from Filipino dishes, sandwiches and pastas

NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN PARTY - 2

TOTAL BILL - 

OVERALL EATING EXPERIENCE - 7/10

OVERALL AVERAGE FOOD RATING - 7.5/10

OVERALL FOOD TO COST RATING - 7/10

SERVING SIZE - 9/10

SPEEDINESS OF SERVICE - 7/10

AMBIENCE - stayed indoors,  8/10

CLEANLINESS - 9/10

LIKELINESS TO RETURN TO THE RESTO - 8/10

Dinner at Tiendesitas

My husband and I had our date night at Tiendesitas last weekend.

(note - picture from the tiendesitas website - www.tiendesitas.com.ph)

Tiendesitas is actually a shopping complex on C5 road, Ortigas, Pasig City. It is made up of different villages, grouping certain items together like handicrafts, antiques & furniture, garden & plants, food & delicacies, fashion, and pets. It is actually a pleasant place to look around and shop.

We were there to eat. Most of the food being sold there were Filipino, grilled type of cuisines. We walked around the stalls and most of them were offering almost all the same types of foods. So we settled on "PUERTO PALAWAN FRESH CUISINE." 

The eating area is open air and we made sure to sit in front of the large air cooler to make our meal more pleasant. The service there was nothing notable. Here is what we ordered.

For our drinks, we ordered a big bottle of lemon C2 iced tea. (Php 50)

CURRY BBQ PRAWNS

Php220

(approximately $4.88 USD)

It comes with 9 pieces of Shrimp with the tiniest bit of sauce, topped with a lot of butter and a piece of calamansi. First of all, if you order this, do ask for extra calamansi and squeeze generously over the the prawns.. The flavor of the sauce was good especially with the mixture of melted butter, the lemony zest of the calamansi and a green leafy herb which I could not identify. I do wish they had served it with more sauce, though. I would have loved to have been able to drench my rice with it.  For the price, the serving size seemed fair. However, being a shrimp lover, it wasn't enough. For me, it was more of a side dish or appetizer.
Curry BBQ prawns is given 7.5 hearts.

We also ordered this:

LECHON KAWALI (Crispy Pan Fried Roast Pork)
Php 170
(approximately $3.78 USD)

This lechon kawali was acceptably good. I always do enjoy this meaty dish especially with the "Mang Tomas Salsa" type sauce. Mang Tomas Salsa, by the way, is a type of liver sauce made from the following ingredients water, sugar, bread crumbs, vinegar, salt, liver, spices, pepper and sodium benzoate (preservative).
6 hearts for their Lechon Kawali.

Overall, I did like what we ate. Next time, I most probably would try out a different stall. My only complain is that I wasn't full enough. I still wanted to eat after we were done. But, then again, I do have a big appetite!

OVERALL FOOD REVIEW

NAME OF FOOD PLACE - Puerto Palawan Fresh Palaweno Cuisine (food stall)

LOCATION - Tiendesitas, C5 road, Ortigas, Pasig

PHONE NUMBER - 0929 588 0923

SPECIALTY - Filipino Food - Cuisine from Palawan

NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN PARTY - 2

TOTAL BILL - 440 (no service charge in receipt) approximately 9.78 USD

OVERALL EATING EXPERIENCE - 6/10

OVERALL AVERAGE FOOD RATING - 6.75/10

OVERALL FOOD TO COST RATING - 6/10

SERVING SIZE - 4/10

SPEEDINESS OF SERVICE - 6/10

AMBIENCE - open air, yet pleasant 7/10

CLEANLINESS - 7/10

LIKELINESS TO RETURN TO THE RESTO - 6/10

Food Review: Mongolian Sweet Inspirations - Trinoma Food Court

"Getting the perfect Mongolian Rice Bowl"

This past week I have been quite obsessed with Mongolian food. My hubby and I were walking through Trinoma mall and decided to have dinner before heading home. (This was early last week.) We didn't want to spend a lot that night so we browsed through the food court stalls and happened upon "Mongolian by Sweet Inspirations". The prices listed seemed reasonable and we went ahead and filled our bowls with veggies, sauces and a small amount of meat.

If you're not familiar how the "Mongolian thing" works, here's an overview. Choose and pay for your bowl - small or large, with drink or no drink. You pass through a counter with an assortment of vegetables, rice, noodles, sauces, etc. and you fill up your bowls with whatever you want.  At the end of the counter, you hand your bowl to the server, tell her what meat you would like (beef, pork, chicken, squid balls, shrimp or a combination of those).  She weighs and measures a specific amount of meat and adds it to your bowl then, she gives you a number to claim your bowl. A chef cooks your food on a flat grill behind a thick piece of glass while you watch. Once the chef is done, you can claim the bowl and enjoy your food.

So, we went through the process...adding the veggies and then the sauce. Hubby decided to follow one of the suggested recipes of sauces which is posted in little boards behind the counter. You can choose from Sweet and Sour, Sweet and Spicy, and others. Hubby chose sweet and sour. I, on the otherhand, decided to concoct my own sauce adding a bit of terriyaki sauce, mongolian , lemon water randomly to my bowl.

In the end, my bowl was quite nice but a bit way too hot and spicy. Ofcourse, I gave my husband's food a taste and mmmmm, I really liked it! (not enough spiciness, though).

This is how I got hooked. A few days later, the food was back in my mind wanting to perfect the taste of my Mongolian Rice Bowl. So, I went back and did it over, this time, following the Sweet and Spicy recipe. The second time around was much better but, still not enough spiciness.

Third time was the charm! My perfect Mongolian Rice Bowl:

What was the mixture? Here it is -

The bowl ingredients:
I filled the bowl with the following - Sotanghon (rice noodles), Chinese lettuce, Singkamas (Jicama in English), 3 small cut up pieces of Sili (pepper), onion, carrot, tomato, leeks, sesame seed, chopped garlic (about 1 tsp)

What I omitted:
These ingredients were also available but I decided not to add them to my bowl - bell pepper, tofu, rice, ginger, and bean sprout.

Side Note/Suggestion:
I like to eat my meal with rice (it is called a mongolian "rice" bowl after all). However, I suggest not adding it to your bowl since the rice takes up a lot of space. Instead, get a separate order of rice. That way, you'll have more space for your veggies and meat.

The sauce ingredients:
I pretty much followed the instructions for the Sweet and Spicy Sauce, making little adjustments as follows
- 1 scoop each of Teriyaki sauce, Mongolian sauce, Szechwan sauce, garlic water, lemon water
- 1 tsp of sugar
- instead of just 1/4 scoop of soy sauce, i put about 3/4 scoop
- instead of 1 scoop of sesame oil, i put only 1/2 since too much would leave a slight bitter taste

Viola! A perfect Mongolian meal!

Very affordable. The small bowl with drinks is Php120 (pictured above) plus Php15 for the rice for a total of Php135 only!!!

(Small bowl with no drinks is only Php105. Large bowl is Php185)

Here's just half of what I had in the bowl emptied onto my plate. There's still half a bowl left!

Definitely a great meal! Not only is it fun (because you get to pretend your a world famous chef - hehe) but, your left with a satiated belly! A must try!

OVERALL FOOD REVIEW

NAME OF RESTAURANT - Mongolian by Sweet Inspirations

LOCATION - Trinoma mall, food court

SPECIALTY - Mongolian

NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN PARTY - 1

TOTAL BILL (INLCUDING TIP) - 135 (no tip needed)

OVERALL EATING EXPERIENCE - 9/10

OVERALL AVERAGE FOOD RATING - 9/10

OVERALL FOOD TO COST RATING - 9/10

SERVING SIZE - 9/10

SPEEDINESS OF SERVICE - 8/10

AMBIENCE - n/a (food court/ fast food)

CLEANLINESS - 8/10

LIKELINESS TO RETURN TO THE RESTO - 10/10

Food Review: Serye Filipino Restaurant - Eastwood

Went to Eastwood in search of good Filipino food. Initially we wanted to eat at Dencio's but their air conditioner wasn't working. We decided to give Serye Restaurant a try.

It was a small restaurant and most of the tables were taken. Still, we were able to be seated immediately. The service was acceptable. Here is what we ordered -

For our drinks, my hubby ordered ice tea and I ordered "Sago't Gulaman", a popular refreshment served with crushed ice, Sago (which are little round balls made of starch extracted from the pith of a sago palm stem) and Gulaman (which are gelatinous squares made from seaweed - but trust me they don't really taste like seaweed) mixed in a candy sweet syrupy liquid.

If you love sweet things, you would enjoy the Sago't Gulaman. I liked the first few sips since it reminded me of the flavor of cotton candy. But after a while, the sweetness was just too much and I had to add water to the drink.

We ordered 2 dishes. The first was Sinigang na Bangus (Milk Fish in Sour Broth).

The presentation was nice. The dish overall was good, enough to satisfy a craving for Sinigang. The broth was the perfect amount of sour. There was a lot of fish meat and I sure enjoyed the belly fat. Tasty! It wasn't the best I had but I was content.

I give their Sinigang na Bangus 5 stars.

The next dish was Beef Kaldereta. Wikipedia defines Kaldereta as "a dish popular in the Philippines, especially in Luzon island. Its common ingredients are cuts of pork, beef or goat with tomato paste or tomato sauce with liver spread added to it. In Metro Manila it is more commonly added with potatoes but in other regions such as Southern Tagalog provinces, it is simply the sauce and the cuts of meat that are used. There are other meats that can also be used such as chicken but pork, beef and goat are the three more popular cuts of meat used. " (Source: Wikipedia - link).

This was a nice, saucy dish. The meat was acceptably tender and had a good flavor. I would have enjoyed it more if it was a bit more hot and spicy.
Beef Kaldereta 6.5 stars.

Overall, the food was satisfactory but, for the amount spent, I would prefer to search for a different Filipino restaurant next time.

OVERALL FOOD REVIEW

NAME OF RESTAURANT - Serye

LOCATION - Eastwood, Quezon City

SPECIALTY - Filipino dishes

NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN PARTY - 2

TOTAL BILL (INLCUDING TIP) - approx Php700

OVERALL EATING EXPERIENCE - 5/10

OVERALL AVERAGE FOOD RATING - 5.5/10

OVERALL FOOD TO COST RATING - 4/10

SERVING SIZE -7/10

SPEEDINESS OF SERVICE - 6/10

AMBIENCE - 7/10

CLEANLINESS - 8/10

LIKELINESS TO RETURN TO THE RESTO - 6/10

Food Review: Bulalo from Tagaytay - Tower Ground

We did a day trip to Tagaytay last weekend and along the way we decided to have lunch. There were a few of these "Bulalohan" restaurants by the side of the road. Bulalo is a flavorful beef stew made from beef shank and is the specialty of the area.

We pulled up into a parking space and tried to choose between several restaurants. Our choice was already made however, because you are only allowed to park in a space unless you eat at their restaurant. Not wanting to get back in the car and move to a different space, we decided to go ahead and try this little open air restaurant called Tower Ground.

This was an alfresco restaurant with a nice view of Taal. It only had about 5 or 6 tables, 2 of which were already taken. We quickly placed our order and waited for the food to be served. It took a while for them to serve the food, maybe around 10 to 12 minutes. 

Here is what we ordered - 

My hubby and mother in law had Fresh Buko as seen above, served in an actual coconut. The juice was nice and sweet.  My sister in law ordered a ripe mango shake but it wasn't available so she settled on the same thing I had which was the green mango shake. It was super sour and we actually had to ask for extra sugar.

For our main course, we ordered Bulalo, ofcourse.

We definitely enjoyed this dish. It was good for 4 (medium appetites). The veggies still had a nice crunch and perfectly cooked. Since I am a veggie lover, I would have preferred to see a bit more in the soup. It had a big chunk of shank and a few other pieces of meat which were nice and tender except for the ligament parts which are actually expected to be a bit chewy. The broth was heavenly. Perfect temperature and excellent flavor. There wasn't enough soup in the ceramic bowl but, you can actually ask for more and they will give you as much as you want, no extra charge. I could've kept drinking the soup. Delicious! 

On a scale of 1 to 10 hearts, (10 being the highest rating) 

I give this Bulalo 8 hearts! 

We also ordered a few side orders. One was their Chopsuey - 

This chopsuey was fair. Good for 2 people (as side dish only, but as a main entry maybe just for one person). The veggies were crunchy. The flavor was acceptable and I liked that it had a bit of sauce. 

6.5 hearts for this one.

Then we had the grilled squid which I actually liked. Two pieces of squid per order so, good for 3-4 people as a side dish, 2 people for main meal. The meat of the squid was tender but not too flavorful. We had about 1/4 of the squid left and had it packed up in a brown bag.

7 hearts for the squid. 

I'm not sure how much the total bill was since my sister-in-law was the one who covered it. I would definitely go back here again. But, I still would be willing to give the other restaurants in the area a chance too.

OVERALL FOOD REVIEW

NAME OF RESTAURANT - Tower Ground

LOCATION - Tagaytay

SPECIALTY - Bulalo

NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN PARTY - 4

TOTAL BILL (INLCUDING TIP) - ???

OVERALL EATING EXPERIENCE - 8/10

OVERALL AVERAGE FOOD RATING - 7.4/10

OVERALL FOOD TO COST RATING - ???

SERVING SIZE - 8/10

SPEEDINESS OF SERVICE - 5/10

AMBIENCE - 7/10

CLEANLINESS - 7/10

LIKELINESS TO RETURN TO THE RESTO - 8/10

Searching for Something Sweet

My hubby and I took the train to Trinoma this evening to pick up our car. Before heading home, though, we wanted to grab some dessert. We tossed a few ideas around like Halo-halo from Razon's (which I love and will definitely blog about in another entry) or Crazy Crepes.

Hubby wanted something smaller, though, so we walked around to see what was there. We saw a frozen yogurt place called White Hat but, it seemed overpriced. A regular cup of yogurt was 90 pesos. Hm....

Then we saw Dairy Queen. I haven't had this in quite a while and I remember it being expensive as well. To our surprise, though, their prices were quite affordable. We both got a strawberry sundae.

Even though the serving was a bit small, it was quite worth it. A cup only costs 50 pesos. The soft serve vanilla ice cream was smooth and creamy. The sweetness was just right especially mixed with the strawberry topping. You could actually find real fruit in the toppings too. Not just little pieces, but an actual whole strawberry!

Dairy Queen Strawberry Sundae...affordable and delicious...a quick sweet fix!

A Simple Meal for One

I am a food lover. Everyone that knows me will agree with this statement. One of my hubby and my biggest monthly expense is food...groceries, restaurants, snacks etc etc. So I decided to start this fabulous food blog to share what we like.

As a first entry, I want to share my simple lunch today. I usually eat alone for lunch and I really don't like cooking for one. Today, however, I decided to whip up a simple lunch with just a can of Tuna. Fortunately, here in the Philppines, we have so many flavor canned tunas available. My choice for today was Century Tuna's Hot & Spicy Tuna.

 I chose a small can which is just right for one person. Its already flavored so no need to add anything...I did add onions to it when I heated it up and that made it even better. In the picture, you'll notice some kind of "red" ingredients. That's a piece of hot dog I added. I had it leftover from breakfast and just decided to throw it in as well.

My meal with rice:

That's my lunch for today. Simple yet flavorful! Hm, wonder what to have for dessert :-)