David's Tea House, San Pablo CIty

My mom has been bugging me about eating at this new restaurant that was under construction for the past few weeks at Puregold, San Pablo City. It came to the point that she was bugging me almost everyday why the place wasn't open yet and of course I had no answer.

Personally, I'm always on the lookout for a new place to eat here in the city, and when I saw that David's Tea House was the name of the restaurant, I immediately looked it up online. It's one of many branches of a Chinese themed restaurant, and their menu looked really promising. To be quite honest, I was very excited. We do have a few Chinese themed restaurants in town, but David's Tea House looks like it's the most hardcore of the bunch. Hardcore meaning their menu is very deep with a lot of exotic and authentic Chinese dishes.

When I learned it had finally opened yesterday, I immediately set a date with the family to have lunch the following day, today.

I was so excited that I probably ordered more than we could possibly eat, but I wanted to try a lot of things and of course, we could have leftovers bagged for dinner. Some of the things had aside from the Seaweed and Century Egg pictured above were:

Hot and Sour Soup

One Half Fried Chicken

One Half Yang Chow Fried Rice and Beef with Ampalaya

Dimsum Platter

Hakaw

Shanghai Spring Rolls

Steamed Lapu-Lapu

WHEW! That was a lot huh? But I tasted them all, and all of them were pretty good.

I do have to give special mention to the Seaweed and Century Egg, which was just fantastic. I've never had seaweed before, at least not like this one. I was half expecting the green rubbery stems with tiny little balls, so this was some other kind of seaweed. It was served cold, which was a surprise. But as I said, it tasted quite extraordinary. Everyone on the table liked it.

Also, the the Century Egg was thankfully free of the ammonia smell that usually accompanies this type of egg. And that's how I like it. As dishes go, I give this 5 stars. I don't give this often, so that's probably saying something.

As for the rest, as I mentioned, they were perfectly good. I liked everything, specially the Hakaw and other items on the Dimsum Platter. The Hot and Sour soup was subtlety sour and not overpowering.

Their house tea (which is a complimentary item) was very nice. I was surprised it was Jasmine Tea. Normally, I hate Jasmine Tea because it smells like a Filipino wake. You know that smell. Similar to Sampaguita. That smell creeps me out now and depresses me. I don't want to be drinking anything that smells like that as well. But this Jasmine tea was nothing like that. When told it was Jasmine, I did start to notice subtle hints of it, but it wasn't enough to bother me.

I've really got nothing to complain about. The wait staff was very very attentive. They were very nice and even helped my mom and dad place food on their plates. The food arrived in a timely manner and we didn't have to wait for too long.

The only thing that disappointed me was that they didn't have any duck dishes. In fairness, it's not on their menu. It's not even on the menu on their website. But they do have a photo of it at that same website so it only made me wonder. I asked why they didn't have it, and they said that not enough people order the duck and the stocks just go to waste. Oh well.

Nevertheless, we had a great time. The food was great, and now my mom can stop bugging me.

Yep! Looks like we're a pretty happy bunch, specially my mom.

We definitely plan on coming back, specially me and Ilyn, to try their other dishes.

Food Network, San Pablo City

Food Network is a very new restaurant that opened practically within the last few weeks here in San Pablo City. I first noticed the place walking down Barleta St. coming from either Simple Treats or Middle Eats. It's located just a few meters down Barleta Street from the Q9 Tapsilogan.

I immediately noticed the very nice interiors, furniture and lighting. The place didn't look cheap. And when a place doesn't look cheap, to me that means the owners care about the quality of not only the ambiance of the place, but of the food as well.

Tonight Ilyn and I decided to go and try the place out. Inside it was even better. The place looks very nice, and very very clean. It's furnished very simply but elegantly. As I said before, the place didn't look cheap, but the food was surprisingly not that expensive.

Their menu is pretty extensive. They offer a lot of things, and I sense no particular theme. They have pizza, burgers, pasta, sandwiches, rice dishes, grilled dishes, salads, steaks, etc. It was so hard to pick because there was so much stuff that seemed interesting.

So how was the food?

Ilyn and I both had their House Blend Ice Tea, recommended by the waiter. We also both had Asparagus Soup. Ilyn had the Creamed Shrimp, while I had Roasted Chicken with Garlic and Mushroom.

The Asparagus Soup was pretty straightforward. There was nothing extraordinary about it, but it tasted nice and was served very hot. Which is just perfect because it was cold and raining outside. I really can't ask for more of any kind of soup.

The Iced Tea was kind of unusual. It was very frothy and seemed more like a shake rather than a straightforward drink. It tasted different but very nice.

We also both had the Paco Salad, which is a salad I recently cooked myself. So yeah, I guess my standards are pretty high right now when it comes to Paco Salad because I think I made a pretty good one. I'm not sure if they blanched the pako, which isn't really that big of an issue. It can be eaten blanched or not. It was actually very nice. The dressing was very light and didn't overpower the taste of the Pako. The only thing I wish it had was some sort of white cheese, either Kesong Puti or Feta Cheese. That would have made their salad extremely good.

The food didn't take too long to arrive, which is great. Ilyn really liked the Creamed Shrimp, and I really liked their Roast Chicken. I appreciate the effort they take in plating the food, which actually does affect your enjoyment of it although it doesn't really affect the taste in any way. The chicken was soft and very tasty and because I finished it all I must have really liked it.

After our meal they were very nice to offer us a complimentary plate of their special Nachos Salad. We must have liked it a lot too because even though we were already full, we still finished the entire plate. Ilyn thought that this could be better with a third dip that was spicy. I agree because I like spicy myself.

I wanted to have coffee afterwards but was told they only had 3-in-1. I think they would do well to invest even in a simple coffee maker or coffee press. Good brewed coffee in places like this is kind of expected nowadays.

All in all it was a very satisfactory first try. We had a nice time. The staff was very courteous and attentive. I definitely see myself coming back. The place seems a little too small now. At my count it could probably fit 12-15 people inside, plus a few more in the table outside. But it's good to start small, and just expand later on. If they continue to maintain their standards and improve a few more things here and there, I have no doubt they'll develop a loyal customer base from local San Pablo citizens who are looking for a better dining experience that what is locally common.

Their standards are up to there with places like Simple Treats and Middle Eats, and I think it's very nice that more and more of these type of home grown restaurants are popping up in San Pablo.

Food Network is open from 10am to 10pm.

Sizzling Tofu at Simple Treats, San Pablo City

Photo by Jonas Diego

My pals Johnny Danganan, Jonas Diego and his gf Ysa Arce, along with me and Ilyn met for lunch earlier today at Simple Treats here in San Pablo. We weren't able to take any photos except for the one above, which is perfect because that dish is what I really want to talk about.

Simple Treats, easily one of my favorite food places here in the city, seems to have quietly added a few things on their menu. One of them is this dish called "Sizzling Tofu".

Since I am a fan of tofu (YouTofu is after all, another one of my favorite San Pablo restaurants), I thought this was interesting so I wanted to try it out.

I wasn't expecting much, actually. After all, tofu is tofu and you can only wring so much flavor from it. I considered it simply an appetizer for my main dish which was a Tropical Pizza.

When the dish came in it was yes, sizzling hot. I took a few tentative bites (I didn't want to burn my tongue), but pretty soon I must have finished a quarter of this. It was quite simply AMAZING. Jonas himself commented: "Ang pinaka-masarap na tofu na natikman ko ever!". And I have to be honest and say he's not exaggerating. All of a sudden I just wanted to eat it and order another one, and have rice with it.

Even when my pizza came in (which was nice), it wasn't as nice as this tofu so as I was eating the pizza I wished I was eating more of this tofu!  Why did I like it? It came in with bell peppers and this really nice creamy sauce that complemented the tofu on a hot plate extremely well.

I feel like I want to come back to Simple Treats as soon as tomorrow just to taste this again. Yep, certified AWESOME!

Simple Treats is located at the ground floor of the Malinaw Lodge,  Zulueta cor Azucena, San Pablo City. They're open from 8am to 12 midnight.

Facebook Page Here.

I wrote about Simple Treats before here and here.

Pako Salad

I've attempted to do salads before, but they always end up big screaming fails. I guess I just didn't take the time to really study how greens are prepared, and more importantly, how dressing is made, which is (as I've learned) more than just an afterthought.

After watching so many videos online, I've finally come up with a salad that I think I do pretty good. A salad of Pako (or Fiddlehead Ferns) is a particular favorite locally. Although you don't get to see this salad often in common restaurants, they do turn up at high end Filipino themed restaurants and are very expensive. But pako isn't really expensive. In fact, it's ridiculously cheap. I decided to create one of my own.

Ingredients for the dressing:

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice from 10 small calamansi (less if you're using big ones)
1 tsp mustard dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar

How to put the dressing together:

Place all ingredients in a ketchup squirt bottle, close the tip and then shake vigorously for a couple of minutes. That would be enough to combine all the elements in there that normally wouldn't want to combine. Put the bottle in the ref for the meantime.

Ingredients for the salad:

4 bunches pako*
2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
2 red (salted) eggs (itlog na pula), sliced
kesong puti or feta cheese

*When buying pako at the palengke, they usually sell it by bunch. 4 bunches would be enough to feed at least 4 people. It might seem like a whole lot when you buy it, but take note: you only use the tips of the pako. That means probably around 2" to 2-1/2" measured from the very tip.

Here in San Pablo, one bunch of pako is 5 pesos. Four bunches therefore is only 20 pesos. Crazy, right?

Putting the salad together:

Place the pako in a pot of boiling water and cover. Now, quickly get some ice cubes from the ref and place them in a bowl of water. By the time you get back to your boiling pot, the pako would be ready. This should all take less than a minute. Drain the water and place the pako in the iced water to stop it from cooking. Place the pako in a colander for a minute to allow it to drain.

Take out your dressing in the ketchup squirt bottle and shake it again vigorously for a minute.

In a large serving plate, squirt some of the dressing on top of the plate. Place the pako on the plate. You can now add your other ingredients. add the tomatoes, the red eggs, and the cheese. Generously squirt the dressing over the salad. You can either serve this immediately or you can keep it in the ref for a while covered with cling wrap.

In the photo above you can see some grilled green bell pepper. That's just a little side dish which is very simple to do. Just slice the bell pepper in large slices and grill them on a stove top grill or a fire grill. Grilled green bell peppers are very nice. Try it!

Two New San Pablo Restaurants

A new restaurant is always cause for celebration in San Pablo City, well, as far as I'm concerned. I still remember when Pizza Hut opened in San Pablo some ten years ago. People went nuts. The crowd on that first day was insane. Pizza Hut ran out of pizza sometime after lunchtime. And it was crazy crowded for the rest of that week. It's almost always like that when a new place opens. Specially a popular one.

Me, I'm always just looking for a new place to eat. We have tons of restaurants here in San Pablo, but pretty soon, I get used to the food and I start looking for something else.

Two new restaurants have opened/just about to open that I found.

One is YATSKY, which is located where the old Circle Cafe used to be, in that food center near SPC Medical. It's a Tapas Bar of some sort... well, basically a bar. Bars are really not my thing so I really haven't tried it out. Maybe one of these days. From the outside, it looks kind of dark inside. Perfect for drinking, I guess.

Another one is DAVID'S TEA HOUSE, which I'm very excited about. It's not a local restaurant. It's Manila based restaurant and looking at their website, my mind (or rather my stomach) is just blown. Finally, a pretty decent Chinese restaurant. Yeah, I know we have Hap Chan and Shanghai Palace, but I haven't been happy with Hap Chan's duck both times I ordered it. And well, readers of this blog would know I have a thing against Shanghai Palace. It's a shame, as their food is pretty good, although their menu is not enough for me to consider it a really authentic Chinese restaurant. No duck, for instance. And their white chicken is not up to scratch.

David's Tea House is located at the local Puregold, near Sambat. I don't know when they will open, but you can be sure I'll try it out within a week of its opening. And you can read all about what I think here.