Si Christina and their Green Bell Pepper Problem

Let me preface this by saying Si Christina is one of my favorite restaurants here in San Pablo. Here's a nice review of their breakfast. I just find it hysterical that they seem to have a real serious problem with green bell pepper. For the life of me, I just can't understand it.

One of my favorite things to eat there is their pizza. Specially their Pepperoni Pizza. You see, I like my pizza like I like my burgers. No frills, simple and pretty much straight to the point. None of that overloaded crap from some popular pizza places. But I also like green bell peppers in my pizza so I usually ask for it as an additional topping. If that would entail additional cost then that would be OK. I mean, pizza places usually charge something for additional toppings, right? So that's just fine with me. Si Christina's Pepperoni Pizza is really simple and that's the way I like it. Of course, it tastes really really nice too.

The first time I ordered it, it turned out really well. But they seem to have problems with it ever since. When I ordered it again some time later, again asking for green bell pepper as an additional topping, they gave me jalapeño instead. Which isn't too bad because I like jalapeño too. In fairness, jalapeño is a green pepper too so I guess they just didn't hear me right.

When I ordered it again the other day, I made sure I articulated "GREEN.BELL.PEPPER." clearly and slowly and several times so they won't mistake my request for anything else. When the pizza arrived, no green bell pepper but they put some hair like reddish things which made me scratch my head. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be RED bell pepper.

I mean, look at it. Two problems: One, I don't understand why they simply can't give me green bell peppers. This is TWICE now. How hard is it to source it? The market nearby and the grocery at the malls in town are stocked with it. Two, how expensive is bell pepper that they have to slice it so thinly that I can hardly see it? I mean how much is ONE bell pepper? Why can't they have thicker slices?

Lest I may seem to be talking behind their back, let me just tell you that I ALREADY sent feedback to them earlier after the jalapeño incident. I suggested that their servers listen carefully to what their customers ask for to prevent confusion. They responded positively to it so I thought that was that. And then THIS. I don't think GREEN sounds anything like RED, does it? Oh well....

You know, I still like their pizza so from now on, I guess I'll just order it out, buy my own green bell pepper and add it at home.

I still love you, Si Christina!

Jollibee's Ultimate Burger Steak And Why I No Longer Want It. (UPDATED)

UPDATE (December 2014): Hey, what do you know? They now include mashed potatoes with their Ultimate Burger Steak! YEAH! Now I like it again. I recently tried it and I loved it, although it still included fries, and the mashed potatoes just wasn't enough. I wanted more! Hopefully, I can order extra next time!

Yes! I'm back from a bit of a hiatus on this blog, and I'm back with a RANT! Yes, a RANT. You know I kinda like Jollibee's burgers, and this Ultimate Burger steak is no exception. I really like it, apart from the damned soggy fries.

Whoever thought it would be nice to put the burger steak on top of fries and drown it in gravy must have confused "fries" with "mashed potatoes", which is well, NOT THE SAME THING.

Drown mashed potatoes in gravy YES. That's AWESOME. More gravy, please!

Drown fries in gravy? Well, that's just STUPID. Who wants to eat soggy, limp fries? I don't know. Certainly not me!

I solved my problem by asking the clerks at the counter to separate the fries when the prepare it for me. That really shouldn't be a problem, right? Well, yes, for the most part. The couple times I was able to request this I came away really happy.

Well, a while ago, I went back to Jollibee (this is the branch here in San Pablo City next to the SPC Medical Center), ordered Ultimate Burger Steak and requested the same thing. Please separate the fries.

The manager downright said "NO". And then offered to separate the gravy instead. Huh? WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? I don't get the logic. I don't understand what sense that makes. Are they saving on paper (the paper bag that comes with separating fries)? But then they are using an extra plastic cup if they wish to separate the gravy. Again, I don't understand.

We told the manager we were able to ask to separate the fries before and then the manager went off and angrily scolded his staff for separating the fries. "WE DON'T SEPARATE FRIES!!"  wtf. I mean, wtf.

Jollibee SPC Medical has just earned its special place in Bizarro world.

I complained about this online to Jollibee's customer service, but not having received any reply, I'm posting this here for everyone to read.

I'm not buying any more Ultimate Burger Steaks in that branch. Or maybe not at any branch anymore.

You know, I can be asked the same thing. What's the difference if Jollibee wants to separate the gravy instead? Well, genius...it's the fact that they refuse to grant a customer's request, which is in my opinion, not really unreasonable. I can pay for the God damned extra paper bag if they want because that's HOW I WANT IT. I eat my food how *I* want it, and not how *they* want it.

Maybe I'll just stick to the CHAMP. Sorry Jollibee. Your twisted sense of logic has lost you an Ultimate Burger Steak customer.

Mother's Day Celebration at Shanghai Palace, Alaminos

Because my wife Ilyn and I really enjoyed the food at Shanghai Palace (San Benito, Alaminos, Laguna), we decided to bring my mom and dad there for lunch on Mother's Day. (See my first review of Shanghai Palace here.)

What Ilyn really loved about her first stay was the Mango Sago dessert. She just absolutely freaked out over it. I really don't recall too many times she similarly freaked out over any kind of food, so she was really eager to come back. She told me that she didn't care what I ordered, as long as she got her Mango Sago.

I wish I could say this second go round at Shanghai Palace was a great one. Unfortunately, it wasn't. If fact, it was kind of bad. It wasn't an absolute disaster by any means as there are plenty of good things to say about it, but there are also some really bad ones.

Anyway, we arrived at the place at 11:45 in the morning. The place was about half full. That was quite a surprise at the time because every time we passed by this place it never really seemed to have that many people. But very soon the place will be filled to capacity, leaving other people standing around waiting to get seats.

I suppose I shouldn't really be that surprised since it is, after all, Mother's Day, and other people were celebrating Mother's Day as well. My mom and my aunt met a lot of people they knew over there so that was great.

I got kind of worried because the first time we were there, it took 30 minutes for our food to arrive, and that was when there was hardly any people there. This time it was full. I wondered how long we were going to wait. I didn't have to wonder too long because the surprise of the day is, all our orders came in within 15 minutes. Which was definitely a surprise. And a very welcome one.

I ordered the Hakaw because I really liked that the first time. This time I added Lumpiang Shanghai, Chop Suey, Miki Bihon and Shrimp Brocolli. The lumpia was really nice, although they forgot to give us the sweet and sour dipping sauce. It took two follow-ups and 10 minutes for them to bring it. By that time we already ate half of it. I had asked for chopsticks, and it never came. Never bothered to follow up because it's becoming obvious to me that the wait staff was starting to get overwhelmed by the amount of people who arrived. I'm told later that they only had 5 people on the wait staff and that made it kind of difficult for them to handle so many people.

After the main meal, we ordered our dessert. I ordered two Mango Sago for me and Ilyn. My mom wanted the Lychee with the Almond Jelly but the almond jelly wasn't available. It wasn't available the first time we were there either. I wonder why. So my mom and aunt ordered simply the Lychee. My dad ordered Buchi.

We had been waiting for some 30 minutes when a waiter came to our table, noticing that we were no longer eating. I thought he was going to tell us of the status of our dessert, but instead, he asked if we wanted our bill. What the hell? Immediately, I felt really hot in the face. Meaning I got really mad. I mean, it was already obvious to me that our desert was now taking much much longer to arrive than our main meal, and I was already starting to get restless. And now THIS?

They were actually trying to hurry us up and go?  Because that certainly how it felt. Our dessert hasn't even arrived yet! They were probably getting really harassed because there were a lot of people arriving and there were no longer any seats. They were probably eager to get people going once they were done.

But guess what? We weren't done. And we weren't going to BE done until they bring us our dessert.

Later, this same waiter came back and said that our order wasn't rung up on the kitchen and was ready to take our order again. What The Hell. Thankfully, the original waitress who took our order passed by and she confirmed that our order was indeed rung up in the kitchen. So ok, we waited some more.

My dad's Buchi was the first to arrive, followed some 10 minutes later by mom and aunt's Lychee. By this time it was already 45 minutes since we first ordered dessert. Surprisingly, they gave my mom an extra Mais Con Yelo, as a kind of a Mother's Day thing, which was nice. We follow-up our Mango Sago. Nothing yet.

It was getting close to an hour and our Mango Sago hasn't arrived yet. Ilyn was getting visibly upset. By upset I mean she was no longer smiling and she's being very quiet. And that is very unusual for her. That means she was very mad.

Close to an hour and more than five followups, Ilyn has had enough. She went to the counter and said that if the Mango Sago still wasn't ready after almost an hour, then they just better cancel it. Apparently, after ALMOST AN HOUR the Mango Sago was unbelievably STILL NOT READY. So they agreed to cancel it. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

I really can't even begin to describe how frustrating that is, and how upsetting it was to Ilyn, who went to Shanghai Palace specifically so she can have that Mango Sago again. That's the only thing she went there for, guys. THAT is the only thing. And for some strange reason you just won't give it to her. That's just screwed up. Really screwed up.

They were sorry, but I'm sorry Shanghai Palace, apologies aren't really enough. Words aren't going to be enough. You owe my wife MORE than that. You really have to make it up to my wife. How? Well, it's really going to have to be up to you, isn't it?  Because until you do something, WE ARE NOT COMING BACK, and we will share this story with ALL our friends. Which is too bad because we do enjoy your food. But based on how many people were eating there today, I'm sure you won't miss us anyway, so we're not really expecting any response. After all, sino ba kami?

In any case, if you want get in touch my wife, you can contact her through her twitter: https://twitter.com/ilynflorese

You know, Shanghai Palace, you really ruined Mother's Day for us. We tried not to show how frustrated we were to my Mom and Dad, who were perfectly happy to eat there, but we're transparent people and they could tell how upset we were. So Mother's Day was tainted for them as well.

Chicken Lucban Longganisa Attempt #1

Lucban Longganisa is a popular sausage in the Philippines originating from Lucban, Quezon. It's very small and quite garlicky. It's actually my favorite longganisa of all time.

But since I started cutting down on my pork and beef intake, I've been replacing them with chicken in recipes I cook. Today I attempted to do the same with Lucban Longganisa.

I found a recipe online and went about preparing it. One of the things I decided to take out was of course, the pork back fat, which are the white little cubes that you can find in the pork version. For a long time I was kind of put off by so much fat in the longganisa because it seemed so unhealthy. So out it went.

I also took out the casings, which is composed of pork intestines. I also didn't want to use artificial casings so i just decided to do the longganisa skinless.

Using latex gloves I formed bits of the meat into more or less longgansia shapes. Everything went really well, and I was kind of happy how they turned out, at least visually.

But when the time came to taste it I was like..... wow. I'm not liking this. At all.

It certainly did taste like Lucban Longganisa, but it was dry. Terribly dry. Desert dry. I didn't like how it crumbled in my mouth.

And then it hit me... THE FAT. The pork back fat is what made the pork version delicious. Apparently when you fried the pork back fat, it released oils that kept the sausage moist.

I find it depressing that the one thing that makes my favorite dishes delicious is also horribly unhealthy.

Why are the awesome tasting things in life have to be BAD for you? I don't get it.

It's been suggested by my wife Ilyn that I also need to curb the amount of spice. Chicken probably needs less spice than pork to achieve the same taste. I'm also told that I could replace the pork back fat with chicken skin, which may well also produce the proper amount of oil to keep the sausage moist.

Since there is still a batch of the meat mixture uncooked, I will modify it for another attempt.

But for now, Attempt #1 is a FAIL. I'm not putting the recipe here until I come up with something I'm very happy with.