TummyTRIPManila in Bacolod: Chicken House

After checking out the fish market for some seafood to be brought home to Manila, we had  inasal for dinner at Chicken House (north). 

All four of us ordered the paa with garlic rice and a side order of liempo. What can I say? The chicken inasal was the best I've tasted , fully cooked all the way to the inside, juicy and the skin was crispy. Heaven with a bit of chicken oil and of course, the dipping sauce of sinamak, soy sauce , chili and calamansi. It was delicious in every bite. 

TummyTripManila in Bacolod: Calea

I've heard so many good things , rave reviews about Calea's cakes, their cheesecakes and other pastries so it was only fitting that immediately after our lunch at Aboy's , this was the next pit stop.

Calea's Cakes

I was dazzled with their display of cakes and frozen desserts. I wanted to order everything but settled on a slice of white chocolate cheesecake, mud pie and apple pie.

The cheesecake was heavenly, melt-in-your-mouth without being too sweet. I love it, it's different from the compact and heavy cheesecake some pastry shops in Manila serve.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

The mud pie had an orea cookie crust and chocolate ice cream, ganache and almond slivers. It was equally good.

Mud Pie

The same holds true for the apple pie.

Apple Pie

I'm in love with Calea. I hope the quality stays the same the next time I get to visit Bacolod.

TummyTripManila in Bacolod : Aboy's

We were in Bacolod for a friend's wedding and boy, we had a grand time , more like a feast sampling the local cuisine, the Negrense treats and the much talked about Calea cakes and pastries.

We arrived an hour before lunch and since we didn't have breakfast , only butter cake and coffee at PAL terminal, we were hungry and prepared to fill up our tummies with our first meal in Bacolod.  Our gracious host took us to Aboy's and even if it's a big place, it was packed with locals and visitors, definitely a must visit place.

We ordered grilled prawns, blue marlin, scallops, ensaladang talong, laing, fresh lumpia and oysters.  Mr. Aboy was there too!

We were happy with the food we ordered. Simple, grilled and everything tasted fresh.

Wee Nam Kee

It's only our second time to eat at Wee Nam Kee, the first time was more than a year ago when they were still on soft opening.

We ordered the signature roast chicken rice, fish fillet with ginger and onion, brocolli flowers with garlic and sweet corn soup with chicken.

I love the thick corn soup but I feel it would have been better without the chicken cubes or if they used crab meat instead.

The roasted chicken was good,  it wasn't that hot when it was served though.  Love the chicken rice.

Roasted Chicken Rice

The fish fillets with ginger and onion were surprisingly yummy. I like this dish.

Fish Fillet with Ginger and Onions

The veggies were okay too.

We had yoghurt from the nearby Golden Spoon for dessert to cap this wonderful meal. And thank you to Marco's officemate for treating us!

Achiote

Achiote is the newest Mexican joint of Chef Robby Goco. I admire Chef Robby's passion for good food ( Cyma, originally Ristras et al) so when I learned he opened a new Mexican resto at the Power Plant mall, I just had to try it . And we weren't disappointed.


We had the chips and salsa, carne asada burrito and mushrooms quesadillas. As expected, the burrito was huge and split into two.

Chips and Salsa

It was good and I like the long grain rice they used. I like the burst of flavors in every bite. One half is more than enough for one person but we still had the mushroom quesadilla.

Mushroom Quesadilla with Salad

I like the dressing they used on the salad. It was a mild lemon vinaigrette with a hint of sweetness. It was the perfect side dish to 4 huge quesadilla pieces filled with shitake mushrooms, mozarella cheese , beans , onion and other stuffings ( I didn't bother dissecting the piece, I was just too happy eating it haha ). This is definitely good for sharing.

We were stuffed like a burrito after but happy.

Greens Vegetarian Restaurant

Obviously, I'm no vegetarian but we just wanted to re-visit Greens along Scout Castor , sort of a detox from all the meat we've been consumming.  The last time I've been here was ages ago and I was curious if they added new items, or what we call faux dishes in their menu.

Greens uses vegemeat which others are not a fan of , they'd rather have the real vegetables. Once in awhile I apprecite it, the same holds true for Bodhi, another popular vegetarian food joint.

I ordered a minestrone soup and a pastel combo meal which includes organice brown rice.

My minestrone soup ( on the left) is watery and a bit bland. 

We had soy cheese melts and fried oyster mushrooms for appetizers.

Soy Cheese Melts

The soy cheese melt is like their version of the fried mozarella sticks but made with cheese containing no animal fat? This crispy log is okay, the cheese was wrapped in kani and breaded and fried to a crispy.



Fried Oyster Mushrooms

We usually make oyster mushrooms at home, we season it and dip it in cornstarch and fry in hot oil. Their version okay, I guess no one can mess up a simple dish like this.

Aglio Olio Pasta

They said the pasta is simple but good.

Now here's my order.

The pastel is covered in crust but the crust is so gummy! Oh well, so much for that. Taste wise, the pastel is a bit bland and paired with the brown rice, I wish I just ordered their classic barbecue or tofu and mushroom kebabs.

New Bombay

When we're craving for Indian food, we hop over to New Bombay at Salcedo. We usually order samosas or palak paneer ( creamy spinach with cottage cheese )  plain or garlic naan or a chapati  to go with one of their curries and a biryani or masala.

For that lunch, I ordered the fish biryani with basmati rice. I love their biryani ,  consistently good.  They adjusted the spice level to mild.

Fish Biryani and Basmati Rice

We ordered the mutton curry with chapati also but I only had a small piece of the meat. The curry sauce was perfect and screaming for more basmati rice ha ha.

Mutton Curry and Chapati

New Bombay may not be the oldest Indian restaurant here , some say Kashmir is , but we're happy with it so far.

Agave Mexican Cantina

There's nothing like a Mexican lunch to re-energize me after an all nighter , waiting and standing for hours at the recent Katy Perry concert. Even though Agave is not really my go to place when I'm craving for enchiladas, nachos, burritos and other favorites, it was the only resto at Boni Hi Street serving these stuff.

It was Chinese New Year that day and we were lunching with a friend who just arrived from Japan. We ordered a platter of nachos and three individual combinaciones.

How can anyone go wrong with nachos? This one had grilled chicken so it was healthy and yummy of course, the chips weren't soggy or drowning in toppings too.

My combinaciones is plate of two chicken enchiladas, two crab and shrimp chili rellenos served with Mexican rice and refried beans.

Chicken Enchiladas and Crab & Shrimp Chili Rellenos Combinaciones

The enchiladas,  which looked like quesadillas ( enchiladas are usually rolled like a canneloni ) tasted so ordinary, it's something you can just put together at home. Good thing there's salsa to add zest to this "enchilada". The crab and shrimp chili rellenos were okay , similar to the Spanish croquettas, these logs have tiny pieces of shrimp , crab and cheese stuffed inside a chili coated in batter. Not bad at all.
The red rice could use more paprika or cayenne and other spices.

The boys looked happy with their combinaciones.

Chicken Taco and Yucatan Chicken Skewers

Andy was satisfied with his chicken taco and yucatan chicken combi(naciones).

Chicken or Steak Burrito?

Marco was okay with their burrito but offhand,  we've had better and I personally prefer B & T's version.

For dessert  , Andy gave us a box of green tea mochi straight from Kansai airport. I love green tea! Green tea KitKat, ice cream, yoghurt and other matcha nibblers. These mochi balls were really yummy, we only had a piece each because we were planning on having frozen yogurt  after.

We transferred to Hobbes and Landes for their froyo , not exactly my favorite but I love froyo , it was the perfect ending to a wonderful meal.

Xin Wang Hongkong Cafe

It's very rare that I go to Mall of Asia and usually we're there for a concert. This time, it was for  Katy Perry  and we made sure to have a good dinner before the actual event. And thankfully we did because we waited for two hours !!! Good thing the show was worth the wait. Going back to our dinner, we decided to to try Xin Wang Hongkong Cafe since it's unique to MOA. It's an international franchise serving dishes from HK, Singapore , Macau and Shanghai including hawker items. I must say the menu is quite overwhelming but we ordered the reliable dimsum and noodles.

We ordered the hargow and the steamed dumplings. Both were good. 

Hargow

Dumplings

I got the fish fillet with egg and horfun noodles. 

Fish Fillet with Horfun Noodles

I like hofan noodles that's why I ordered this dish but it was just okay, the sauce overwhelmed the noodles. There's just too much of it , it's like having a noodle soup instead. 

Wonton Noodles with Spicy Pork 

The noodles with pork is okay, we didn't touch the egg though haha..

 If I happen to find myself again in MOA (for another great concert hopefully), I'll pay this resto another visit  to try the other interesting looking items in their menu. 

Nanbantei of Tokyo

I"ve seen this restaurant for ages in Greenbelt but it was only last week that we got to try it. The other establishments beside it have closed shop and there are new ones sprouting but Nanbantei of Tokyo is still there so it must be serving the good stuff to withstand the competition.

We had a heavy lunch of baby back ribs so we just focused on the best sellers of Nanbantei and that would be their yakitori. I thought yakitori was meant for chicken alone but here aside from the skewered bite size chicken pieces , they have beef or yakiniku , pork , seafood, vegetables like grilled corn, eggplant , shitake mushrooms  and even grilled rice balls.

We ordered the chicken balls , the salmon balls and the cuttlefish with shiso leaf.

Grilled Chicken Balls

The chicken balls are made of ground chicken meat so it tasted like a chicken burger. It was ok , a bit ordinary but it was good with the teriyaki sauce.

Salmon Balls

I like the salmon balls better , drizzled with teriyaki sauce also, it's like salmon teriyaki on a stick haha..

Cuttlefish with Shiso Leaf

The cuttlefish was a bit dry and I didn't like much the shiso leaf.  Overall, Nanbantei is okay, specially if you're a fan of the grilled and skewered stuff and they do offer your reliable maki, tempura , kani salad and other Japanese staples to go with your yakitori. And looking at how packed the place was that night, it looks like it's here to stay.

RUB Ribs and Barbecue

RUB is a hole-in-the-wall casual restaurant that serves good , bang for the buck ribs. My office mates have been raving about it for quite sometime already (it's very near ABS-CBN , from the Tomas Morato rotonda, make a left at Shakey's and voila! ) and finally I got to try it I think a month ago and indeed, I was pleased with their ribs so I went back last Sunday with Marco because we're suckers for tender ribs cooked and seasoned or rubbed the right way.

The place is so small and unpretentious, Marco even likened it to a "frat house or dorm" or being invited to someone else's place for a cook out  or a barbecue lunch , in our case, it was indeed a barbecue,  laid back with a chill out vibe. The first time I ate there , our group was seated at the second floor  but this time since it was full ( the second floor can only sit up to 20 people max ) we ended up at the only table downstairs beside the open kitchen where all the cooking and grilling happens.

Definitely you have to order the ribs. You get to choose between solo with half slab, rice and one side dish ,  super duo which is a full slab with choice of two side dishes or a family platter with two whole slabs and 3 side dishes. Side dishes include mashed potato, fries, cole slaw, buttered vegetables, garlic spinach, corn and "sprice" or spiced fried rice..it has a nice ring to it , haha.. For appetizers, they have "nibblers" , nachos, buffalo chicken wings, calamares and other munchies while you wait for your ribs.

We ordered the nachos with salsa and this creamy dip which didn't taste like sour cream. The salsa is okay , it was a bit spicy because of the red chili.

Nachos P150

We got the super duo with mashed potatoes and cole slaw.  The first time I ate in RUB,  I tried the spinach and mushrooms with their  fries  but the spinach was salty,  good thing the fries were yummy, really good, delish you have to order it.

Super Duo with Spinach and Mushrooms and Fries P350

Super Duo with mashed potato and coleslaw P350

The main attraction would be the ribs. The super duo is a whole slab of ribs and it's tender alright but not fall off the bone tender but it's okay , though I think it can use a bit of additional boiling time. It was cooked or grilled perfectly, not so much of the burnt marks though it can't be noticed since it was basted with the sauce or marinade already. The barbecue sauce is okay, it tasted home made not just a bottled barbecue sauce , a bit sweet , smoky just the way I like it. The mashed potato is creamy with skin on  and the coleslaw is just okay, I can forego this the next time for the other side dishes. We got two orders of extra rice but it wasn't served hot , teeny bit of a  downer since I love rice ( I love carbs! hehe) and  I like my rice served steaming hot  hmmm..maybe better to try the spiced fried rice the next time but if a dish if flavorful enough it is best eaten with plain rice. (But during our first visit, in fairness, the rice was hot.)

Prices are very affordable for the quality of food, for just P350 you get a whole slab of ribs and two sides and  just P600 or P650 for  the family platter already with two whole slabs and three sides. A good and delicious deal indeed.

I'm happy with Rub, can't wait to be back for their ribs and fries!

Napa Bar and Restaurant

Something new and somewhere near my office..with this in mind, we ended up at Napa along Scout Borromeo. I think Napa used to be Napa Bistro or something and it's originally located at the Il Terrazo building though I never got to try it until last week.  Obviously, the owners got inspired by Napa Valley, the world famous wine region and they translated it into this really spacious bistro and restaurant that's like divided to an al fresco dining area , the cozy indoors with function rooms and other pocket dining areas with warm and charming interiors.

We were set on having salad, pizza and pasta or salad, pizza and one main course. We got the chopped salad, a pizza that was split between margherita and five cheese and fish and chips because I was craving for thick cut fries.

Chopped Salad 

We love the chopped salad, lettuce, tomatoes , cucumber, onion , carrot strips , chopped chicken breast cubes and ham (not really sure 'coz I don't eat ham) in a creamy dressing. There's nothing really new about this salad but it was comforting , something you can prepare at home that tastes good and can offer to your guests.

Margherita and Cinco Formagio ( five cheese pizza) 

You can have two flavors in your pizza so we tried the cinco formagio (five cheese)  and the margherita, both are okay but I like the cinco formagio better. The crust is thin and crispy but firm enough that it doesn't collapse when you bite into it.

Fish and Chips

As  mentioned earlier I  was craving for thick cut fries to go with the fish  but they turned out to be thin and not so crispy, a few notches above shoe string french fries. I'm guessing they used Dory fish, it's just so commonly used here and I avoid ordering it since I prefer other types of fish like halibut, cod or snapper but the fries made me do it haha...

Napa offers comfort food , that's how I see their menu, nothing really super unique but it was a pleasant meal.  We  didn't get to try their desserts though because we wanted to have crepes in Cafe Breton but they offer interesting sweet endings as well.

Moshi Moshi

This a super delayed blog on Moshi Moshi, a Japanese casual resto or fast food located at the Regis Center, the new lifestyle building along Katipunan , which also houses Bon Chon, Brother's Burger, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Red Mango, Mom & Tina's, Peanut Butter and Co. and Saint's Alp ( a milk tea place).

Moshi Moshi serves the usual donburi ( gyudon, katsudon etc..) , maki , tempura , gyoza but they also have takoyaki , okonomiyaki among other goodies and they sell Kitkat Green Tea chocolates as well. For that lunch, we ordered their takoyaki ( I love takoyaki! ) , miso soup, gyoza, ebi tempura, katsudon and oyakodon.

Takoyaki

Their takoyaki is really good, I'm not sure about the price now but they were on soft opening that time and each order was only P40.

Gyoza

Their gyoza is ok too, nothing spectacular but I like it, 3 pcs for P65 and P95 for 5 pieces.

Ebi Tempura P105 for 3  /P150 for 5 pcs

 The tempura is okay, crispy but a bit oily though. I ate it with the oyakodon.

Oyakodon P120

 I ordered the oyakodon but I didn't like it as much because some of the chicken slices still had their skin on them,  I don't like non crispy chicken skin so next time better to order the chicken teriyaki don because the chicken slices or fillet are fried to a  crisp.

Katsudon P135

Marco said the katsudon is okay and I agree, it looked more appetizing than the oyakodon.

Prices are affordable since it obviously targets the student lunch crowd on allowance and well, for the takoyaki alone ,  I will definitely go back  plus they have a new menu so more stuff to try and don't forget the Green Tea KitKat !