Awesome Korean Meals at Cook-Eat, San Pablo City

I first learned about Cook-Eat as me and Ilyn were passing the place aboard a tricycle. I said to Ilyn, look, the old liquor place is now a restaurant. And it's true. This new resto is located where we used to buy wine. If you're at the San Pablo City Fire Station, just start walking up the road towards the Iglesia ni Kristo and you can't miss this place, located on the left side of the road, across Human Heart Nature.

We first tried this a few days ago and had their Bulgogi set, which includes beef, vegetables and a slew of side dishes including soup, dilis, peanuts, kimchi, pickled cucumber, spicy sayote, bean sprouts, potatoes, vegetable lumpia and a desert of mango jello. Being new at this, we asked one of the wait staff to do the grilling for us and he did.

To be completely honest, I was a bit underwhelmed by the Bulgogi. I thought there was something lacking in the taste. The beef was chewy. I didn't like the soup. Mango jello seemed to be made of instant mango than actual real mangoes. But the kimchi was really, really good, as well as the pickled cucumbers. That being said for a meal that fed both Ilyn and me rather well, I thought P399 for everything was rather cheap.

I was a bit more happy when we visited the second time. Actually, we were more than happy. I thought our meals the second time around were amazing. Ilyn ordered the Bibimbap with an extra side order of pickled cucumber:

Ilyn really liked it. To me it looked like Tapsilog with 5 different types of atsara. Which is exactly what Bibimbap is, I think. I mean, it's true! There's the beef, which is both salty and sweet. I asked to taste the beef and it was really really soft. I really liked it. There's the rice and sunny side up egg. Then there's an assortment of side dishes including bean sprouts, carrot and a few leafy things I can't tell what they were but Ilyn says tasted really good.

Meanwhile, I had the Ramyun, with an extra side dish of kimchi, which I didn't know already came with a small side dish of kimchi:

The broth was just AMAZING. It tasted really thick, beefy, with a slight hint of anise and just the right amount of spiciness. The beef itself is really soft with a slightly more anise taste. The noodles were cooked perfectly right and complemented the soup really well. There were a couple types of mushroom in there as well a couple of slices of tofu. One of the best ramen noodles I've tasted in a while.

By the way, I don't know what they use for rice here, but it's really really good. One of the best tasting rice I've had as in literally anywhere. What is this magical rice? They must tell me!

I see myself coming back to this place and try their hotpot! Next time soon, Cook-Eat!

Here's Cook-Eat's Facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/CookEatSPC/

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.

YouTofu , The Tofu Restaurant

YouTofu is a specialty restaurant located in Brgy Del Remedio (Wawa), San Pablo City. As you can probably guess from the name, Tofu is a predominant ingredient in most of the dishes. You're probably thinking TOFU? Ew! But let me tell you. I'm not a huge fan of tofu myself, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good these dishes were.

The first time I visited this restaurant was a few months ago. Try not to be put off by the location and by how the place looks. At first glance it looks like a hole in the wall on the side of a warehouse. Well, in lots of respects, that's what it really is. There's no aircon and the place doesn't look classy at all. But the place is clean and bright. But as soon as you taste the food, you'll most likely forget about what the place looks like and just marvel at how awesome the food is.

And the best thing is, the food is inexpensive. Food that tastes like this would cost double or triple in fancy restaurants in Manila.

Check out their menu at their Facebook page here: YouTofu Menu.

It's amazing to find a place like this in San Pablo, which really doesn't have too many specialty restaurants like this. After eating there a couple of months ago, I still can't get the place out of my mind. So today I decided to have some dishes delivered here at home for lunch.

What I got was their Silken Tofu, Fish Fillet and Tofu, Fried Chicken Jellyfish and Century Egg, and Fried Rice and Egg.

The Silken Tofu (to the right of the Fried Chicken) is a particular favorite. It's whole tofu with this special sauce and century egg. It's AMAZING.

Vegetarians will find that not every dish here is meat free, as they do serve chicken, pork and beef, but there are lots of options for them that are meat free. I recommend one of the patola dishes. We had that the last time and it was terrific.

If you find yourself in San Pablo City, this place comes highly recommended from me.

YouTofu can be found in Barangay Del Remedio, beside the old Coca-Cola plant, in front of the old BLTB Terminal. There's a huge YouTofu sign along the Wawa road (going to Los Baños). You can't miss it!