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.

KFC's ZINGER VS McDonald's McSPICY

Ok, having recently noticed the McSpicy's uncanny resemblance to KFC's Zinger, I decided to try both sandwiches one after the other just to see who exactly wins.

I got my Zinger sandwich from the recently opened KFC branch at the San Pablo City town proper, while I got my McSpicy from a new branch of McDonald's just a couple of blocks up Rizal Avenue from KFC.

The results, may I say, were surprising.

Zinger had been my favorite for such a long time. For for one reason or another, they don't seem to put as much care into making them as they once did. The recent sandwich I got didn't seem as fresh as I would like. It was a bit dry and parts of it were quite tough. Yes TOUGH.

The McSpicy however, was soft and juicy all around, much more consistent in that regard. And it seemed newly cooked. It also had lots of lettuce. Much more greens than the Zinger usually has.

So yeah, I guess as of today, McSpicy wins it. I feel kind of bad because I liked Zinger for such a long time, but I guess that's just sentiment talking. I'm not giving up on it completely though. I will still try it from to time. I hope KFC doesn't disappoint me or else, I'm switching completely!

Kinulob Style Afritada

I had this one whole chicken in the freezer waiting to be cooked and this time around I thought I'd do Afritada, with a few special adjustments. I would be cooking the chicken whole, stewed in my favorite Capri canned whole peeled tomatoes, pimiento, pepperoni (left over from pizza I made earlier), and the standard afridata ingredients potato and carrots.

These are my ingredients:

1 whole chicken
1 400g can Capri whole peeled tomatoes (doesn't have to be Capri, as long as it's Italian)
1 113g small can Capri pimientos (also doesn't have to be Capri), chopped
1 tsp dried tarragon
1/3 cup sliced pepperoni (cut from sausage, not the precut kind), or any smoked sausage
1 green bell pepper sliced
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 big white onion, chopped
1 large potato, cubed
1 small carrot, sliced
2 cups water or chicken stock
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more or less, according to taste, also optional)
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper (to taste)
1 teaspoon brown sugar

I first sauteed the garlic and onion in oil in a medium sized deep pot or dutch oven (I actually used a rice cooker pot), added the chopped pimientos and tomatoes. Crush the tomatoes with a potato masher or if you don't have that,  a large spoon will do. Add the tarragon, bouillon cube, 2 cups water, teaspoon salt, sugar, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, pepper flakes and the pepperoni. Now I like putting pepperoni or some other smoked sausage so it will give the afritada somewhat of a smokey flavor (which I like).

Place the chicken at the center of the pot. Most likely the liquid won't cover the entire chicken but that's OK. Add the cubed potato, sliced carrot and bay leaves around the chicken.

Put the heat on high and once it starts boiling, turn the heat down to low and continue simmering for the next 45 minutes. Turn the chicken over, and then continue simmering for another 30 minutes. Most likely you would no longer need to add any more water. Before the 30 minutes ends, maybe 5 minutes before you take the chicken off the heat, add your sliced green bell peppers. Taste the sauce to see if you still need more salt or if you want it more spicy.

McDonald's McSpicy Burger Taste Test!

Ok, sorry, I wasn't able to take a photo of the burger myself. It was an unexpected thing, walking into McDonald's one day and I saw this new burger. I asked the counter person if it was chicken and she said YES.

So yeah! I just had to order one. Like I said, I wasn't able to take a picture, but the one I got actually generally looked like that photo, except of course mine wasn't THAT thick. It was thick, but not that thick.

I had given up  the standard McChicken Sandwich after KFC came out with their Zinger sandwich which I reviewed here. Up to this point my favorite chicken fast food burger was the Zinger. Now it was time to see if I'll have a new favorite.

What did I think?

I thought the McSpicy was just awesome. Well, as awesome as KFC's Zinger sandwich is. In fact, it tastes very much like a Zinger with that crunchy breading on a chicken fillet with just the right amount of heat that I can tolerate and still enjoy. The only real difference is that the McSpicy came with lots more lettuce. So is the McSpicy my new favorite burger?

Let me just call it a tie. I love them both. I'll eat them both if I can. If I'm in McDonald's I'll eat this one. If I'm in KFC, I'll eat the Zinger. That's pretty much it!

Fathers' Day at Savory Restaurant

Of all the restaurants here in San Pablo City, Savory Resturant is my dad's favorite. I think it may even be his favorite restaurant of all time, I suspect for sentimental reasons. He loved eating at this joint back when he was still working in Escolta, Manila, where there was this Savory Restaurant just across from his office. Dad would always wax sentimental about "Miki Bihon Binondo", but he could explain just how different it was from the regular Miki Bihon.

So come Fathers' Day, it was only natural that he'd pick this place to have lunch. SM San Pablo has a branch of it, a rather frustratingly small one, but at least there is one. I say frustratingly small because it is small, almost like just a hole in the wall.

And yesterday during Fathers' Day, the place was already packed as early as 11am with a long waiting list. Hey Savory, time to expand, I think. Take a chunk of McDonald's next door, which is a little too large. They already have several branches in San Pablo already. FOUR branches? They have too much space!

Anyway, we got seats soon enough and we ordered the following:

Dad of course had his favorite Miki Bihon Binondo. The rest were:
1/2 Fried Chicken
Lo Han Chay (Kind of a mixed vegetable stir fry thing)
Shrimp Relleno Roll
Nido Soup

I actually wanted to order their "Kaylan with Garlic" but it was unavailable.

The interesting thing is, this is the first tme I'm eating Nido Soup, also called "Bird's Nest" soup in a restaurant. I've eaten plenty of this through instant packs here at home. But I've never had one made from scratch. The interesting thing is, the main ingredient of this soup is this solid membrane like substance, which turns out to be bird saliva. wtf. For real? Yes, apparently, for real. It tastes interesting, like biting into really soft edible plastic. I know that sounds horrible, but it actually isn't. It's actually very nice.

This ingredient was also prominent in the Lo Han Chay, which as I said was kind of a vegetable stir fry. It included mushrooms, bamboo, mung beans sprouts, young corn, tofu, cabbage, etc. Very nice. Like Chop Suey without the meat, but with more variety of veggies. As usual, it's that sauce that puts it together, a taste that I get only at Chinese restaurants. I can't put my finger on what it is.

Fried Chicken at Savory is always nice. I don't know how they fry their chicken, but the difference with their is that the flesh is amazingly soft, almost like it was slow roasted. The gravy is also unique, but this time I think I know what they put in it, which must have been star anise. It's not too overpowering, but it does give that unique Chinese taste and aroma.

Their Miki Bihon Binondo I found too oily, which is a problem I have with a lot of their dishes. At other times I ordered fried fresh lumpia, and kikiam, and they too were kind of oily. I know they were fried in oil, but still, when I would do it at home, they're never that oily. Perhaps they don't drain the oil in paper towels before serving? I don't know.

The Shrimp Relleno Roll was also nice. My mom liked it a lot. Ilyn didn't so much. I thought it was just OK.

I didn't order it this time, but at other times I've been ordering their Chicken Mami quite a bit, and I like it. It comes with plenty of chicken and the soup tastes really nice. Ever since Chowking stopped serving Chicken Mami. I found I'm eating more at Savory just for Chicken Mami. Sorry Chowking. You may have Ser Chief, but if you don't have Chicken Mami, I'm out of there.

Cabbage Roll

Inspired once again from a recipe I found at Chef John's Food Wishes, I tried out this technique of wrapping some filling with cabbage and  simmering it in stock and tomatoes. I would often do a lot of these cooking experiments but not all of them makes it to this blog or onto video, specially those that turned out to suck.

This however, this turned out fantastic!

We had some left over lumpiang shanghai filling from lunch earlier today and I thought I could use that filling for this dish. Now you can come up with a filling of your own and use whatever you like. You can use chicken or pork or fish... it's really up to you.  This recipe is more of the technique of doing the cabbage roll itself.

These were the ingredients I used:

1/4 kilo filling. (I used lumpiang shanghai filling which included chicken, carrots, onion and spring onions)
3/4 cup washed uncooked rice
1/2 can Capri Whole Peeled Tomatoes (I like this brand because the tomatoes are really nice and red)
1 medium sized cabbage
1 medium sized onion, chopped
2-1/2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
kinchay

First you need to prepare your ingredients. First up is the tomato. Take half of the canned whole peeled tomatoes, put them in a bowl and crush them until they form kind of a rough sauce. Now you can always buy canned tomatoes that are already crushed of course, and you can choose any brand you like, and of course, you can just get regular tomatoes for this, it doesn't really matter. Well, it matters to me actually because as I said, I really love these canned tomatoes. Buy one and see for yourself. It's amazing.

Second, take out the core of the cabbage and place the cabbage in a deep pan of boiling water. Within a few seconds, those cabbage leaves are going to peel off. Using tongs, carefully remove each one as they detach. Do this until the entire cabbage is deconstructed.

Third, take your meat filling and add the rice and around 2 tablespoons chopped kinchay. Mix that all together very well.

In a medium sized casserole dish (with a lid!), line the bottom with the smallest cabbage leaves.

You are now going to build your cabbage rolls. Take one of the biggest leaves, remove bits of hard stem towards the bottom with a knife. Take around 2 tablespoons of meat/rice mixture and place it horizontally near the bottom of the leaf. Now carefully wrap the leaf around the meat, folding the sides and then folding the whole thing. Do as many as would fit in your casserole dish.

Carefully place the rolls inside the dish. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the rolls. Now pour your tomato sauce over this, add the bay leaves and pour as much stock as would cover the rolls completely.

With regards to stock. You can always boil some chicken with a few vegetables like carrots and celery and use the liquid for stock. I didn't have that so I simply used a chicken cube dissolved in 2-1/2 cups of water. Now if you're using a cube, be careful not to add to much salt in the previous step. Not too much would just be right.  The cube comes with quite a bit of sodium already.

Place your chopped onion over the rolls and then cover everything with a layer of the remaining cabbage leaves.

Close the lid, place the dish inside an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees C. You will bake this for at least one and a half hours.

After one and a half hours, leave the casserole dish inside the cooling oven for 30 minutes more before serving.

And there you go!

Hainanese Chicken at Hainanese Delights

I'm a big fan of Hainanese Chicken, ever since I tasted the real deal at a hawker's center in Sinagpore. (Read  that blog entry here.)

Ever since then, I've been on the lookout for a local version here in the Philippines that would be as good. I've tried several dishes from many other restaurants, including a couple of high end Chinese/Singapore style places, but their chicken always come up lacking.

So far the best local Hainanese Chicken I've tasted I found in Hainanese Delights, which is surprisingly kind of a fast food type place that's slowly spreading across malls in Metro Manila. The two branches I visited was in Robinson's Galleria in Ortigas, and the one in SM Megamall Building A.

Of all the Hainanese chicken I've tasted so far, theirs is the best one I've tasted. The chicken is soft and perfectly seasoned. Their spice combo of ginger, hot sauce and soy sauce is unlimited. (In other restaruants they either had limited amounts of it or didn't have them all together). Not only did they serve the chicken with that special Hainan rice (Rice cooked in chicken stock), it was also unlimited. Other restaurants just serve plain rice which is like WTF. You don't serve Hainanese chicken without serving Hainan rice. That's just wrong. (I'm talking to you, Sentosa, Shangrila Mall.)

Highly recommended, if you want to get an idea of authentic Hainanese Chicken from Singapore!

Check out their website here:
http://www.hainanesedelights.ph/

[Video Recipe] Adobong Manok sa Gata

I finally got around to making recipe videos again! Some of my most watched videos on You Tube are recipe videos so that's a clear message right there. People want cooking stuff on video!

This "Adobong Manok sa Gata" recipe has actually been shot well, way back 2009. I never managed to get around to editing it because honestly, these cooking videos really take a long time to edit. It's not like I can just talk in front of a camera for a few minutes and upload. Putting together something like this takes much much longer. Usually half a day. That's perhaps why I didn't do too many of these... until I found a way I can do it quickly.

And the secret really was to remove my face from the equation and just focus on the food. That would be less distraction ( I know how distracting my face can be! hehe), and it's actually easier to put the video together.

Adobong Manok sa Gata is a traditional Southern Tagalog recipe that has been around for centuries. Our ancestors loved cooking with vinegar because it allowed food to last longer, and this was important during a time when there were still no way of refrigerating food for preservation.

Adobong Manok sa Gata is basically chicken cooked in vinegar, coconut milk and young papaya fruit that hasn't ripened yet.

Here are my ingredients:

1-1/2 Kilo chicken parts including livers and gizzards
1/2 cup coconut vinegar (preferably), or cane vinegar
1/3 cup patis or or fish sauce
2 cups coconut milk
1 bulb garlic, chopped
2 medium sized onion, chopped
2 tablespoons grated ginger
cooking oil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 young unripe papaya (if you can't find it, sayote would do fine), peeled and sliced

For the procedure, watch the video:

Chicken Burger at RC Burger, San Pablo City

Everytime I take a walk up Paseo De Escudero past Jollibee Plaza, I would notice this new Burger place beside Toto's Bacolod Chicken called RC BURGER. For some reason, I just knew in my gut (which often has the right insticts) that it wasn't just another run of the mill sidewalk burger that's everywhere in San Pablo City. I tried one of those sidewalk burgers once, and holy crap they were horrible. The patty was flat as paper and all it seems you were eating was a ketchup sandwich. Ugh.

But like I said, I had a different feeling with RC Burger. It's by no means a sidewalk burger as it actually has a nice spot with tables and seats. Today I asked someone to take out a Chicken Burger for me. I wanted to see if it would actually be available. Often times, many food places would have chicken alternatives on their menu but it won't actually be available. Shawarma stalls in San Pablo are primarily guilty of this.

Much to my glee, the Chicken Burger was in fact available. And it came in wrapped in aluminum foil. It looks promising already. It's been my experience that burgers wrapped in aluminum foil are usually awesome. So how was it?

Opening the foil, I discovered how fully loaded this burger was. There were tomatoes, onions, cucumber and a really nice thick patty. The chicken was thick and newly cooked because it was still hot and crispy. Best of all, it tasted great! I tasted the just the patty itself and it was very very nicely seasoned. As a whole package it's one of the best chicken bugers I've had. I'm not kidding.

Looks like my instict was right all along! For 55 pesos, this was more than worth it. Ilyn walked in the room while I was eating it and commented how nice it smelled! So this is us, setting a date to eat some RC Burgers together sometime very soon.

I will try to eat some of their beef burgers next time just so see if it's even better than their chicken burgers.

So yeah, highly recommended from me!

Yep, they even have a Facebook Page here!
http://www.facebook.com/RCBurgerCo?fref=ts

Shanghai Palace, San Benito, Alaminos

This is a restaurant that suddenly popped up on the Alaminos side of the boundary with San Pablo City, next to Honda San Pablo. It always looked nice from the outside every time I pass by and because this is me and I'm always first in line to try anything new, the other day I decided to pay the place a visit.

There aren't that many places in San Pablo that offers really good Chinese food. Used to be South Plaza was the best, but that place unfortunately went belly up, which is a shame. Hap Chan at Ultimart is just OK, but there have been  a couple of occasions when I've been unhappy with the food there. Then there's Chowking, but ever since they phased out Chicken Mami, which is kind of ridiculous, I've been visiting there less.

So yeah, I was pretty excited to try this new Chinese restaurant out. It's not strictly in San Pablo, but it's close enough.

Browsing the menu I was kind of disappointed that I didn't find any duck. Or anything that jumped out at me as something other than the usual fare. They didn't have congee, which kind of as ridiculous as Chowking not having Chicken Mami.  What kind of Chinese restaurant does not have congee?  The only thing that's a bit different was the "White Chicken". White chicken usually means Hainanese Chicken, so I ordered that, hoping that my guess was right.

Looking over the dimsum menu I saw that they had "Shrimp Dumplings" which the waitress said was actually Hakaw. Hakaw fan that I am, I ordered that.

The other people with me ordered Fried Chicken, and Beef with Ampalaya. We ordered Yang Chow Fried Rice and my wife had bottomless ice tea for drinks.

It took around 30 minutes for our orders to start arriving and first up was the Hakaw. I asked for chopsticks and immediately dug in, dipping it in soy sauce with chili garlic.

Easily, this is one of the best Hakaw I've tasted. It far surpasses any that I ate before. The skin is incredibly soft and the insides very tasty. I loved it. I'm so glad I sent for 2 orders of it. My wife isn't a fan of hakaw, but she really liked this as well.

I didn't get the chance to taste the Fried Chicken, but the kids that were with us really liked it. I did get the chance to taste the Beef with Amapalaya and THAT was really nice. I was saving my appetite for the White Chicken though.

The weird thing about ordering White Chicken is that you can order only 1/4 chicken servings. If you wish to order 1/2 chicken, they will give you two 1/4 chicken serving plates. I suppose if you wish to order a whole chicken, they'll give you 4 plates. I think it would be nice if they could adapt and have half chicken and whole chicken servings in just one plate.

But anyway, the White Chicken came in a bed of cucumber, red bell pepper and cabbage salad, which is really nice. It came with ginger sauce, which is pretty standard for this kind of dish.

Although I really liked it, it didn't rock my tastebuds as I hoped it would. I mean, come on, I've tasted White Chicken/Hainanese Chicken from lots of different places, and I've had some that were just absolutely fantastic. My standards in this area are bound to be high. Although it was good, really good in fact, I guess I just have to say I've tasted better. For one thing it seemed rather bony. Compare that with the Hainanese Chicken I had here, and you'll see what I mean.

My wife was bowled over by the bottom less ice tea though, as one serving came in glass and a pitcher, which is a lot.

For desert, my wife just loved the Mango Sago. I wasn't able to take a picture of it or even taste it, but I promise you. My wife normally doesn't rave about food unless it was just absolutely bloody fantastic. In fact, she wants to come back if only to have this desert again.

As for me, yeah, I'd love to come back as well. The fantastic Hakaw really sold me. I now want to try other things on their menu. In fact, we're already planning it. I'm already thinking of trying out their noodle dishes to see how they handle mami.


Shanghai Palace as an official Facebook Page here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shanghai-Palace-Restaurant/371874976255936

Middle Eats, San Pablo City

There's a newly opened restaurant near the corner of T. Azucena and P. Zulueta, beside Simple Treats, here in San Pablo City. A Mediterranean cuisine restaurant? Here in San Pablo City? I knew I wanted to try it as soon as it opened. The name of the restaurant is pretty clever too, don't you think?

As for appetizers we tried something we had before at other Mediterranean restaurants, the "Baba Ganoush".

I thought it was nice that the flat bread came wrapped in cloth. As for the taste, well, it tasted like what I would expect Baba Ganoush to taste. I didn't see much difference compared to how others like it tasted, which is pretty good. This appetizer went for P108.

For the main dish, Ilyn ordered the "Chicken Cacciatore", which is chicken braised in tomato based sauce, olives,  mushrooms and white wine.

It's probably not apparent in the photo, but it was a lot of food on that plate. Lots of pasta and almost half of a small chicken. Ilyn is pretty picky when it comes to pasta, and she seemed to really like it. It was a little too much as she was unable to finish it and we brought home the leftovers later on. This dish went for P248.

I ordered the Grilled Chicken Souvlaki, which is actually a kebab of grilled chicken and vegetables marinated in a "Tunisian Spice Mix".

I don't know what Tunisian spice mix is, but it tasted pretty good. It's not as flavorful as I would like, but it's still very nice nevertheless. It came with this white sauce that tasted quite unique. I kind of wished that you could order that sauce as a sidedish because it went really well with the grilled chicken and the sauce just wasn't enough. Well, I never did find out if you could order it as I never asked. This dish went for P198.

As for drinks we had "Maltese Ice Tea by the Carafe", which is simply a large pitcher of really nice tasting ice tea. It was enough for two servings for the both of us. This went for P158.

These prices are probably on the higher end of what regular San Pablo residents are probably used to but for the quality of this food, plus the quantity of it per serving, plus the quality of the "little things" like napkins, utensils, furniture, cleanliness and ambiance of the surroundings and attentive and friendly servers, I think it was worth it.

Even their toilets are extremely clean and nice smelling. It's obvious this place is very well maintained.

I really like restaurants that invest in seemingly unnecessary things. But if you put them all together, you come up with the impression that this is a place that wishes to make your stay as comfortable and as pleasant as possible.  I hate it when restaurants use cheap napkins and utensils, ketchup, sauce, and napkin holders, salt and pepper shakers, cheap decor, cheap furniture, cheap furnishings. To me it seems those restaurants want to have as little overhead as possible. It's all about making money, nothing more. Isn't it a wonder those kinds of restaurants don't really last?

While I have no illusions that places like Middle Eats are also in it for the money, the fact that they invest in the little things only goes to show that they are also interested in quality of service, along with quality of food. And that's important in the success of any restaurant.

This customer is definitely very satisfied and I will definitely be coming back.

Middle Eats is open 7 days a week from 11am to 11pm.

Breakfast at KFC, Shell Mamplasan

We went to Manila yesterday and along the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) we stopped by Shell at Mamplasan to have some breakfast. This was around 8 in the morning. We were glad to see that Kentucky Fried Chicken was not only open 24 hours, but they were also serving breakfast. This is new to me. I've never seen KFC's breakfast menu before.

Good thing they had a lot of chicken on the menu (well, obviously I guess). I had the Chicken Tocino, coffee and orange juice (above) while Ilyn had the Chicken Sausage.

The girl at the counter was kind of puzzled that we ordered a second drink (the orange juice) when we already had the coffee. Well, hello? If I start to get hiccupy from the food, do I glug down the scalding hot coffee? Of course I won't. In fairness, I get this puzzlement from many other food joints like this. I don't get it.

Anyway, the chicken tocino was good. It wasn't too salty and it was just sweet enough. I really have no complaints about that. I tasted Ilyn's chicken sausage, and I kind of liked the taste of that better. It had a very nice smoky flavor.

The coffee was revelation. I never really expect to get good coffee from fast food places like this, so this coffee took me completely by surprise. It was not only good, but it was pretty good! It had a really unique taste to it too. Since I always take my coffee black, sugar is really the only additive to it. I don't know it must be the combination of the coffee itself, the sugar and even the paper cup that brought about this unique taste that I found addicting. I don't usually finish a cup of coffee. Most of the time I really only finish half. But this time I finished it all. Next time I'll go to another KFC to see if all their coffee is like this or that one time was just a fluke.

Ok, here comes the bad.

I don't really have any complaints about the food or service... the restaurant itself had a big issue for me. It was hot inside, and it smelled kind of bad. I don't know if we just came in too early and they hadn't opened the AC yet, but it was hotter inside than it was outside. And the place had an almost overpowering bad smell that I  just can't describe. It smelled like various smells that have been left cooped up in an enclosed place for a little too long. It's actually enough for me not to want to go inside again, in spite of the nice coffee.

At Lau Pa Sat Festival Market, Singapore

Researching online where to find the best food in Singapore, I found that the best advice always given is to eat where the locals eat. And Lau Pa Sat Festival Market is one such place. It's kind of an open food court with plenty of different choices.  When the Komikon group and myself went to visit on the evening of September 1, 2012, many of the stalls were already closed, but thankfully enough, many were still open.

It didn't make the choice any less difficult though, as we really had absolutely no idea where we wanted to eat. But there were a few of us who were just crazy to taste the world famous Singapore Chili Crab. After speaking with one of the local servers and getting nowhere, she called her boss who just happened to be Filipina, and it made conversation much easier.

After much discussion we decided to yes, get the Chili Crab, but we also wanted to try the Barbecue Stingray, Chicken Satay, some kind of noodles, and some kind of veggies. Sorry but I don't remember what they were called anymore, ha! ha! The veggies look like Kang Kong, but I think they're actually "Kailan" or some local equivalent.

Our server suggested we just go to a nearby grocery to buy our drinks as it would be far less expensive.  I still think it's unusual that drinks aren't served where you buy food, but I guess I'm just not used to it. Locals I'm sure think this is how it's always done, and will be similarly confused when they visit the Philippines.

Anyway, after around 20 minutes our food arrived.

Barbecue Stingray and Chicken Satay

Some kind of noodles, some kind of greens.

Unfortunately, I was so crazy hungry by this time that I failed to take a photo of the Chili Crab. Actually, I didn't even get to taste it so much aside from the sauce, which was just delicious.

The Chicken Satay was just amazing. The last time I ate something like this was in 1989 in Jolo. I always craved to eat it again ever since. I never knew it would be in Singapore I would taste it again. As with Satay, it is the sauce that really makes or breaks it. And the sauce is probably the best I've ever tasted. It's crazy. I bought a bottled version of this from Rustans some months ago, and it wasn't this good.

Still hungry, I got a big chunk of stingray and ate it. It tasted like fish, but an awesome kind of fish. I then ate the greens which also tasted so good. Some 30 seconds later, my mouth started to burn. HOOOLLLLEEE CRRRAAAP did my mouth start to burn. I took a drink really quick and my scalp started to sweat. The heat wasn't going away. In fact, I felt it increasing. I had to get something colder in my mouth. I ran for the grocery and got something cold... anything cold. I wish I could say my mouth was literally on fire, because it's not literally on fire, but it certainly felt like it.

Back at the table I stared at the stingray and man, I wanted to taste it again because it was so good. But I wasn't sure I could take the heat of it. I decided to scrape off the sambal topping, taking as much of it off as I can. It still tasted awesome, but it still burned, I couldn't believe it.

I don't understand how people could actually eat something this hot. I'm sure they're used to it, but do their mouths still burn, do they still sweat? Do their noses still get runny? The spiciness of it went beyond what I'm capable of, which kept me from fully enjoying the taste of it, unfortunately.

I didn't even attempt to try to noodles as my mouth was just to singed by this time.

All this time I thought I could take spicy food, but I had no idea what spicy really meant until I ate this food. I like to think of it as a challenge. I will try to get used to it by slowly increasing the spiciness of my food. Hopefully by the time I visit Singapore again probably next year, I'll be eating this still without a problem, and hopefully loving it!

Chicken Adobo sa Calamansi

Adobo is traditionally done by balancing quantities of vinegar and soy sauce to make a stew. Since I was sick for a couple of weeks, I've had someone squeeze 1 kilo of calamansi for me to make into a juice. Staring into the jar of squeezed calamansi, observing how sour it was, I wondered what would happen if I used that instead of vinegar when making adobo?

Today I did just that.

And it turned out fantastic. Everyone just loved it. I ended up eating more than I should have. Even Ilyn ate two servings when she would only eat one. She said that the calamansi made the adobo taste fresher compared to one made with vinegar.

Here's the recipe:

1 kilo chicken thighs and legs
1 bulb garlic minced
6 tablespoons squeezed calamansi
6 tablespoons Kikkoman soy sauce
1 sachet Ginisa Flavor mix or 1 tsp salt
black pepper ground
2 cups water
3 bay leaves
Toasted garlic (optional)

In a wok, fry garlic in oil then put the chicken in to fry for a bit. (Don't burn the garlic.)

Pour in the calamansi and soy sauce, add the bay leaves, flavor mix or salt, and black pepper. Once it's boiling, put the 2 cups of water. Don't stir! Bring the heat down to medium, cover, then allow to boil for 30-45 minutes or until the chicken is done.

Yes, I put in a lot of water because I like my adobo to have lots of sauce. Other adobo variations do not have sauce at all.

On the serving plate, sprinkle some toasted garlic on top of the chicken. It's tough making the perfect toasted garlic, so I just buy a bag of it from siomai sellers at the local market.

There you go!

WHAT IS CALAMANSI?

Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice

I spent a weekend in Singapore early this September, and the one thing I really looked forward to was trying out the FOOD! But of course. One of the things on my checklist was to visit a local hawker's center where all the locals eat, and try their famous Hainanese Chicken Rice. I'm told this is practically Singapore's national dish, the same way Adobo is the Philippine's unofficial National dish.

I found the Hawker's center after walking for 30 minutes around Chinatown. The entire second floor of this building was a huge food center. It looks very much like our fast food places locally.

It was hard to choose which stall to buy my chicken from because the food on display on each and every one of these places looked delicious. I settled on this place that a huge sign that said "Super Mummy Hainanese Chicken Rice."

I don't know what "Super Mummy" is supposed to mean, but I just went with it. I ordered the Hainanese Chicken Rice with Vegetables for $4SGD.

I gotta say the thing was pretty good! I have already tried variations of this dish locally at various Chinese restaurants and one I did myself, but the one sold here was just terrific. The meat was extraordinarily soft and tasty. And the vegetables... I'm not a BIG vegetable eater, but these vegetables, whatever they were (probably bokchoy), tasted so nice.

One strange thing I noticed, a notable difference compared to local fast food joints, is that you can't buy drinks at the places you buy food. Drinks are sold separately at stalls specifically set aside to sell only drinks. This is something I noticed not only at hawker's centers like this, but also at the big malls.

More Singapore food posts to follow!

Gravy Chicken Stew

This is a recipe I just came up with today. It's actually based on my "Herb Roast Chicken with Gravy" recipe. I wanted to have that certain taste without having to roast the chicken. So I thought about just stewing it with the same ingredients and this is what I came up with.

1 kilo chicken legs and thighs
2 large potatoes, cubed
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 beef bouillon cube
2 pandan leaves, folded and tied
4-5 cups water
2 tablespoons flour dissolved in 1/2 cup water
pinch white pepper
pinch black pepper
1tsp salt
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1-1/2 tablespoon butter
half a bulb of minced garlic
1 large onion, chopped

Sautee garlic and onion in oil, then add the chicken, water, potatoes, bouillon cubes, pandan leaves, black and white pepper, salt, rosemary, thyme and butter.

Bring to a boil. Boil uncovered for 30 minutes and then add the flour/water mixture. Continue boiling for the next 45 minutes uncovered. I know that's a long time, but as with my other recipes, I like to boil chicken a long time. The meat is close to falling off the bone, but that's the way I like it.

You might also end up with a lot of sauce, but that's also the way I like it. You can reduce the initial amount of water if you like, and just add more if the sauce reduces too much.

KFC's Zinger Sandwich

I don't remember now when KFC first introduced their Zinger sandwich, but I do remember trying it the first time it came out. Before that it was their "Colonel Burger" that I was buying and it didn't seem sufficient specially if I'm hungry.

I even remember why it was called "Zinger" because it was supposed to be really hot and spicy. When it first came out, it definitely was! It was so spicy that my mouth was burning when I ate it. But since I love spicy food, I loved it. It was on the upper edge of my tolerance level so it was manageable.

Since  moving back to San Pablo City from Manila, I never had the opportunity to eat it again for many years. Only when a branch opened in SM San Pablo did I get to try this sandwich again.

Wow. Something must have happened in the many years since I first tasted this because it's not as spicy as I remember it. In fact, it's hardly spicy at all. But in the few times I tried it recently, it was always hot and newly cooked. It's just not as spicy as I remember it.  I guess that in order for more people to appreciate it, they lowered the amount of spice they put in it.

I still like it, although I do miss the old spicy version.

Kinulob na Manok V.2 Chinese Style

Ok! It's time again to do another version of my Kinulob na Manok! This time... Chinese Style!

Ok, I'm only SAYING it's Chinese style. I don't know if the Chinese do Kinulob na Manok, at all, actually. The reason I'm calling it that is I'm adding ingredients that would play up some Chinese flavor to a dish I've done previously.

That means adding more Hoisin Sauce, and adding Chinese Sausage and Star Anise, and removing other ingredients like ketchup, and pineapple juice.

The ingredients I've used are as follows:

1 whole chicken
120 grams bacon
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 star anise
4 bay leaves
1 chicken cube
3 cups chicken stock
1 Chinese sausage, chopped
1 big white onion chopped
1/4 kilo chicken gizzard (optional)
1/4 kilo chicken livers/hearts (optional)

As with the previous dish, put all of these ingredients in a deep casserole. Me, I put them in an aluminum pot from an old rice cooker. It comes with a lid so it's pretty handy!

Bring that to a boil on high heat, and once it's boiling, turn down the heat to medium, and boil for the next hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours.

I used low sodium soy sauce, decreased the amount of bacon and removed the need for the flavor mix because the additional hoisin sauce would bring in  a lot of additional sodium already. I only used one Chinese sausage this time because well, I only had 1 available. I would have used two if I had it.

The gizzards and livers are optional, although I think once the liver softens and bits of it disintegrate into the sauce, I think it would make for a much flavorful dish.

As always, I love boiling my food for a long time because it makes the flavor fuller and richer. I've learned that boiling chicken for a long time really makes any dish you make taste better. If you boil too long the chicken would start to fall apart, so you need to be careful.

After two hours, take the chicken out of the stew and set aside. Let the sauce continue to boil for 10-15 or more minutes, depending on how much liquid is still left.

At this point, my chicken is close to falling apart, but that makes it easier to cut into. And yeah! This one came out pretty nice as well.

Long Lasting Kinulob

My Dad loves my Kinulob na Manok recipe so much that he absolutely refuses to let go of the leftover sauce, long after the chicken's gone. He digs into that sauce for almost every meal ever since I cooked the thing. Looks like I'll be cooking that again.

Although I've written the recipe down and I know I can practically do it identically next time, I think I'll do a different version of this dish with a different set of ingredients. I'm thinking of playing up the Chinese flavor of it next time by increasing the amount of Hoisin Sauce, Chinese Sausage, and add a few star anise seeds along with soy sauce and sugar. In my mind that sounds interesting... and mouth watering!

I can most likely make a collection of Kinulob na Manok recipe variations, and of course, I'll write them all down in this blog!