On The Tummy Spot: Kanin Club @Ayala Triangle Gardens

On the rare occasions that I eat all Filipino outside my home, I really try and pick restaurants that can give me value for money – great taste, good prices and I must say eating at Kanin Club has been good so far. Their innovation on several of their dishes are well received by I think almost everybody that comes inside their doors.

The very first time that I tried them out, I ordered it for take-out as we were eating it at a hotel across the Ayala Triangle Garden with my Achi. I really didn’t know much about their specialties but I am always hearing about how the “Aligue Rice” is a must-order. This was the only menu item I was sure about. The rest were all a mystery but I thought it couldn’t be that bad as long as I stick to the tried and true favorites. We enjoyed the first time so much that we ate there again in the same week, this time dining in with everyone.

The food was consistently good but there’s something to be had for their service. The wait staff and the time for the food to be delivered to us need some improvement but overall we had a pleasant time. We first ordered our appetizers, one of their best sellers – Crispy Liempo. Crispy thin fried slices of pork liempo perfectly fried to a crisp. It was so crisp that you could break it in half with a quick snap. It was served together with 3 dipping sauces: their own soy sauce, chili sauce and vinegar. The dish never fails to amaze but you will need to watch your cholesterol levels with this literally heart stopping dish. Everything in moderation!

We then saw fit to order another set of appetizer together with our meal to satiate some womanly craving. We got the “Green Mango and Bagoong”. Perfectly sliced green mangoes with a huge dollop of nicely seasoned bagoong! Yum! Chunky freshly sliced green mangoes together with that sweet and salty bagoong certainly makes for a great accompaniment to any meal.

Our rice order was again “Aligue Rice”. The rice is something really good because we don’t want to order any other kind. Rice fried with luscious and sinful crab meat. It brings with it a unique taste of its own. Again, please be advised to eat in moderation. Hehehehhe!

We ordered 2 main dishes – Kare Kare and another best-seller of theirs, Crispy Dinuguan. Its dinuguan without the innards but only fried pork meat before being covered with pig’s blood. I can’t say I really found it good but it was okay. The kare-kare was really so peanuty and had a lot of tripe, tail and vegetables that we all loved it. It was creamy and just perfect to pair with the rice.

Overall, we had a pleasant taste experience but the wait staff could have been more attentive and the waiting time reduced a bit. If you are looking for traditional yet innovative and creative Filipino dishes which are kind of light on the budget, I think Kanin Club will do great! I promise to do the other rice alternatives on other visits!

Prices:

Crispy Liempo – Php 142.00

Green Mango and Bagoong – Php 112.00

Crispy Dinuguan – Php 261.00

Kare-kare – Php 358.00

Aligue Rice – Php 149.00

XoXo

My Binondo Foodie Adventures Part VIII: A 2nd Foray into Tasty Dumplings

Binondo, how I love thee? Let me count the foodie trips! J Chinese New Year is something that we really look forward to every year and what’s best is that we get to celebrate it in the Philippines Chinatown capital – Binondo. This year, the streets were packed as usual with tsinoys, foreigners, dragon dancers and visitors trooping straight to Binondo to take part in the New Year festivities happening. It’s red all over the place with lots of firecrackers loud enough to rival New Year’s celebrations.

We had fun strolling as I brought along mom, sister and Z. Their feet got tired but they were all happy with what we had experienced. It was getting closer to dinner time and everywhere the restaurants were packed of course. I headed off to Tasty Dumplings. I just love their cool exteriors after the humidity outside and all that firework smoke. It was a welcome refuge.

We had some Fried Kuchay Dumplings, these deep fried morsels were yummy together with the dipping sauce we had. It could rival that of Dong Bei’s. Mama had their sweet and sour chicken rice and I must say I was pretty impressed with it. I don’t normally order sweet and sour anymore because it’s so commonplace but their version definitely was worth its salt. It had tender and moist chicken pieces drenched in just the right amount of the sweet and sour sauce.

Sister had some spareribs rice and it tasted like the patatim I used to have before in Cdeo. It was really delicious. Soy flavored sauce with some spices and the meat was just right. Not tough and quite easy to eat. It’s a different take on spareribs from the ones in WaiYing. They are both very different and each of the spareribs has their own unique signature. For myself, I ordered their signature dish Pork Chop rice with those gigantic Ala schnitzel pork pieces. Huge thin and crispy pork chop pieces designed to satisfy your fried pork craving and more. I had no problems sharing this as it was really a lot and I couldn’t finish it alone.

It’s been a while since I updated this blog and I apologize for the absence. Life has been hectic lately with another venture I have been experimenting with.

XoXo

On The Tummy Spot: C2, Classic Cuisine On View

Love Love Filipino food! I think it is a very unique and versatile cuisine very adept at adapting to other cultural flavors yet somehow still retaining its identity. I mean, we are known to be one of the most adaptable cultures around simply because we strive to survive wherever we are. The same can be said of our cuisine as well. Aside from that we have our own great specialties of which the majority is still a vast culinary adventure for me to undertake. I am at the tip of the iceberg so to speak.

There are a lot of Filipino themed restaurants around and I just made a recent discovery with C2 (Classic Cuisine) a few weeks back with friends. They served straight up Filipino food but aside from the familiar what I was most impressed with was the clean execution of the dishes and how original and authentic it really tasted like. I mean, we can all have Filipino food anywhere but C2 gives it a very impressive face.

A Filipino meal would not be complete without rice. We chose their Aligue rice. Those creamy, fatty and luscious aligue mixed with rice and garlic makes for a great rice component. Yes, we chose to forget about our blood pressures that night. It was tasty and actually not as overwhelming as I first thought it would be with all that fat. The garlic probably neutralized it a bit!

Next, we had some Binagoong Lechon Kawali. Who can resist ordering these crispy, fat chunks of liempo deep fried to perfection and slathered with some yummy bagoong with a siding of grilled eggplant which was the perfect accompaniment to the dish. The lechon kawali was not really oily at all so I’m guessing it was deep fried at the right temperature with the correct amount of oil. We were so happy to dig in to this dish.

Since friend D was craving for some Sisig action, we had their Sisig express. Their sisig had all the correct components. Original sisig without any frills. It was great with some soy sauce and a squeeze of calamansi.

Well, we had to have some veggies since we all felt guilty about all that pork! We ordered their Pinakbet at Bagnet. Notice the bagnet. Yes, we are still guilty of being obsessed with pork that night. Crunchy and cooked-just-right steamed vegetables paired with bagoong and bagnet cubes. We just love our vegetables.

A meal has to be finished with some dessert so we ordered their Leche Flan. Since we were feeling so full by this time, we ordered just 1 but we ended up wishing for more. It was literally melting in our mouths. The flan was so creamy and the sweetness was just right. Normally I rarely get to eat a well made leche flan since I think it’s so commercialized these days but the chefs at C2 really got this one right. I believe I will be coming back for more.

C2 is a good find especially if you are craving for some authentic and good Filipino food. I’ll be back that’s for sure.

XoXo

P.S. Photos courtesy of my IPhone. Sorry for the not so great resolution!

Tokyo Tokyo Reinvented!

A few years back, I used to say that TokyoTokyo was falling behind in the food chain race. They had the same food items on their menu and there were no new additions for long periods of time and their stores were getting a bit old. They were really behind in the times but just recently they’ve discovered their MOJO back it seems.

Last February 16, I was invited for their blogger event at their Shangri-La Mall store and I enjoyed the time spent. I have noticed that they have implemented renovations in all of their stores and particularly because I am a provincial resident, their SM Dasmarinas store seems to be less gloomy now and more welcoming today. It has better lighting as well as better fixtures. The old TokyoTokyo store before was really falling apart. Aside from that, I have noticed new innovations as well as other creations from their menu. They have added a variety of items to their food list and it has boded well for the consumers and for TokyoTokyo as well. It makes me want to go into their stores more often than before.

Their blogger event last week has pushed them to catch up in the fast food race as it was a fun and delicious event with the special appearance of no less than their poster boy – Daniel Matsunaga. He had the crowd hooting and all fired up with his tall and handsome boy-next-door look. Heart certainly is one lucky gal. Geez, enough of the girl talks already!

They had the event hosted with DJ Gino from RX and the first part was a sushi making demonstration by their trained chefs. Their invites were also thoughtfully done - their burger boxes wrapped in cloth with wooden chopsticks on top reminiscent of a real Japanese bento.

They made California maki (kani strip with mangoes and Japanese mayo in Japanese rice with nori and coated with fish roe) and one of their new products – the American maki (Americanized version of the sushi: ham, cream cheese wrapped with rice and nori with colored version of the fish roe used in the California maki which comes with a somewhat sweet dipping sauce different from the usual sushi sauces). After the demonstration by the chefs, they asked the bloggers as well to try their hand out at making the 2 products. The bloggers had fun doing those rolls that’s for sure!

We all got to eat some California and American maki too. After the Maki session, we were presented with one of their newest products – the Shogun burger! Being true to its name, it commanded attention from all of us. Juicy beef patty slathered with their tonkatsu sauce layered with their signature crunchilicious Onion rings and cheese. They gave us 1 big burger so I took only 2 bites in preparation of the others.

Next, we got served each with halves of their Shiitake Mushroom burger. I’d say this is a healthy burger option and the shiitake mushrooms only added to the meatiness and the juiciness of the already tasty beef burger! A good addition I must say as I am a mushroom lover.

The final half for the burger department would be their humungous Godzilla burger and as the name denotes it is a huge burger with 2 layers of juicy beef, cheddar cheese slices and some zesty Japanese mayo. I couldn’t try and eat them all as you might have guessed so I went with a few bites of each. Of course a meal in Tokyo Tokyo won’t be complete without their famous Red Ice tea and we each had tall glasses of that refreshing drink!

It still wasn’t the end as lo and behold, Daniel Matsunaga made his entrance and it made all the girls in the crowd swoon. He is something else! Hahahaha! The good looking factor is there! He was the judge for the best Japanese inspired costumes for the night. The best in Japanese customs actually won prizes from MUJI! How cool is that!

Good job on your restaurant overhaul TokyoTokyo guys! Looking forward to more interesting developments!

On the Buffet Table: Manila Pavilion’s Lunch Buffet

Before Sister T headed off to the land of milk and honey, we had a sumptuous lunch buffet at Seasons (the restaurant in Manila Pavilion). She got some vouchers from Ensogo so we decided to have a post Christmas date and have lunch together at the hotel. She got a good deal from Ensogo. Groupon’s are the in-thing nowadays. She invited her friend but they were late so we proceeded to fill ourselves up with whatever we could find.

We were there early because we got some feedback that if you were late, you did not get the prized stuff. So we were like 3^rd in line to get inside the restaurant. I also spied a couple of other diners bringing the Ensogo voucher. Giddyup! We got our reserved table and immediately proceeded to the appetizer station where we first ogled all the displayed food! We had some oysters, mussels, salmon terrine and chicken lollipops. There were a lot more but I couldn’t take better pictures so you’ll have to contend with my phone pics. A beautifully presented tuna ceviche with some Japanese mayo was there and we partook of it in small portions. We preferred to share so we can taste a little of everything.

Assorted sushi, sashimi, calamari and Japanese foods were also on display but I didn’t really focus on these because they were quite filling. I prefer to have the meat only and in fact ate no rice during the buffet hours. Eating rice will affect your capacity so I’ve learned that it is best to just eat no rice if you’re having a buffet. We also had some blanched squid with sesame sauce. It was okay and the squid was not rubbery at all.

 

There was a Chinese portion of the buffet but I decided that I can eat all I want over in Binondo so I skipped this portion and just tried out their asado to compare. Nothing really jumped out of me from those but I so far loved my oysters and the salmon terrine. Very refreshing.

We then proceeded to the sort of “market” section where you can ask them to cook any kind of meat for you in the manner you want. There was quite a long line so I just told the server to give me 2 pieces of salmon steak and have it cooked medium. They overcooked our salmons which was a bit disappointing but it still tasted good and they had a lemon butter sauce prepared to go with it but I found that the simple combination of soy sauce and vinegar was also great. We had a lot of those salmon steaks. The sister and I literally stuffed ourselves with them. Hey, salmon is a bit expensive so we ate our fill.

The buffet was good for us. We were able to eat around 3 plates between the 2 of us I think but there was not so much carbs in them. Purely they were protein. Because we felt so stuffed, I decided to grab a little cheese platter and I piled it with assorted cheeses, dried fruits and an assortment of nuts. They helped to ease the full filing and we actually finished around 3 little plates of it. Love the cheeses and the dried fruits and nuts that went along were a perfect match.

It was a good buffet and I loved eating their salmon and the cheeses but it wasn’t a really great one. I look forward to a buffet much like Spiral’s where they serve lamb shanks, Peking ducks, prime ribs, lobsters, foie gras and so much more. But it was a good one! Thanks Sister T!

XoXo

A Mini Christmas Pre-Dinner @ Witchy Crazy Mommy’s House

Things have been really hectic lately and so busy that it has taken me a while to get this posted. Blame it on the post Holiday stress. Hopefully I’ve gotten my bearings back and will post more regularly since I do have a lot to write about. I mean, we just finished with the Holiday season and I don’t have much to show for it where my posts are concerned. Forgive me dear readers and friends.

Usually we have an annual get together Christmas event with good friends and for last year (2011), our venue or always have been our venue is Witchy Crazy Mommy’s house. I can’t wait to get there because I know I’ll be surprised and excited to come to her house because I can’t wait to see what she has whipped up. Although we do potluck, she has always something extra special. We love you JHO!!

So, no surprise when I got to her house to find that she outdid herself this time. She made us some tiny mini canapés to start with. She served us with her Salmon Belly and Dill Canapés. Lovely little mini toasted bread slathered with a creamy salmon belly spread loaded with tomatoes, basil and olives. A perfect start. She arranged them in a tray tower so plus points for presentation I’d say! Super effort, super YUM as well!

Then, I came upon this bowl all colored in black. I suspected there was squid somewhere under that murky coloring and I wasn’t wrong. It was Adobong Liempo in Squid Ink. How luxurious can you get. For those of you who can’t imagine it, you should try it. It’s something new on my taste buds. I never realized they’d go so well together. There’s that creaminess in the squid ink but it didn’t overpower or overwhelm the adobong liempo. Really delish!

Next was the Roasted Bell Pepper Meatballs. Big meaty meatballs topped with melting cheese. Super meaty and cheesy! This dish is for kids. And we did have kids during that party, so they were not forgotten in the menu choices. This dish tends to be a bit heavy though and I wanted to have room for more so I only ate about a half and the other half I gave to my sister. Happy sharing!

And for the piece de resistance! Seafood paella galore. I say galore because when you see it, there is a cornucopia of ingredients on top of the dish for everyone to see. Great dish Jho! You should be selling this. Meaty crabs, juicy prawns, steamed mussels and a variety of other ingredients cooked together with rice and prepared the Jho way. This was a meal in itself. You have your protein, carbs and veggies all into one. I stuffed myself with Jho’s paella. It was that good. You should open a paella store Jho. This was a sure winner.

 

To finish everything off, we had a great big ice cream cake courtesy of DQ. Honestly, it was great but after a few spoonfuls I feared I’d get tonsillitis because it was also super sweet. A big ice cream cake! All in all I had a great time with good friends and some new ones and the lovely pre-Christmas spread that Jho prepared for us. Thanks mommy!

XoXo

On The Tummy Spot: Mango Walnut Torte

After that fulfilling Zensho meal, friend L and I trooped down the streets of Tomas Morato in search of our dessert stop. Oh yes, we still had a dessert stop in spite of all that we ate. Goodness, how I packed all that delicious food into me I can only wager a guess. J Anyway, it was quite a way off so we walked and did a bit of exercise which somehow helped loosen up our full tummies a bit.

Finally we stopped at a little cozy door along the long street of Tomas Morato and there I first chanced upon “Kitchen of Cakes and Coffee”. It’s warm and homey interiors made me want to sink in their sofa seats and curl up with a good book with a mug of steaming coffee and a plate of their dessert items which friend L told me was quite good. She was all praises for this one cake dish so I decided to get that and see what she was raving about.

I ordered what friend L recommended to me – Mango Walnut Torte. The torte in the name alone made me want to see what it was all about and boy was I not disappointed. When it came into view on a really nice dark red plate I was so eager to get some of it on my mouth that I almost forgot to take pictures but luckily friend L reminded me so I got a few snaps of my soon-to-be demolished dessert.

It was really very rich and luscious. Luscious and creamy would go hand in hand in my description for this very rich and yummy cake. It was perfect with some freshly brewed coffee as it helped to temper the rich and sweet torte. On the last layer were some crunchy walnuts and syrupy glazed kiwis. The next layer after that was a flavored whipped cream which was so light. You could not taste any cakey portion of this cake. It was all light and airy whipped cream with some syrupy and glazed fruits and nuts. On the side were some chocolate fingers. They were not biscuits because I did not get some crunch in the bite but these delightful little beings were so light. It was like eating whipped cream but flavored in chocolate but they were not whipped cream. They were just so soft and so right for the whole torte.

Oh yes I finished it along with the brewed coffee I ordered with it. It was indeed the perfect ending to a great dinner which started at Zensho’s. Always great conversations, great food and great company! Thanks again friend L!

XoXo