While Metro Manila residents braced itself for the impacts of Typhoon Pepeng, the temperature lowered as the winds grew stronger. I wanted to keep warm but did not want another cup of coffee as I was already plagued by a bunch of nerves just by monitoring the weather. And then I thought, hot chocolate would be perfect!
Before I frequented TGI Friday’s, my favorite hangout was Chili’s at what used to be Greenbelt 1. I had earlier on decided that I liked Chili’s chicken fingers (or crispers to them) more than TGI’s and who can resist their Country Fried Chicken with that awesome gravy? Those two are my absolute favorites that I must say I never got tired of ordering whenever I eat there.
I am not really sure what triggered the frozen yogurt craze in Manila but 2008 brought out a lot of frozen yogurt stores in and around the metro. Frozen yogurt is not an entirely new concept as many ice cream or cold dessert places offer them as alternatives to their usual fare. However, I believe it was only recently that specialized outlets selling only frozen yogurt sprouted in abundance.
Personally, I never got around to jumping on the bandwagon, so to speak. To me, yogurt represents something healthy and therefore “not delicious”. I can never imagine yogurt as a dessert. I never attempted to put it in my cakes and I have never had the courage to make my favorite Greek sauces out of it.
I think I have eaten Philly cheesesteak sandwiches before in one form or another. I just cannot remember how its supposed to taste like. I wasn’t even sure why the sandwich had Philly in its name and for what purpose it was. What I recall though is a sandwich made with crusty bread, smothered in beef, onions and cheese (where Cheez-Whiz is often used). Grease is also expected to play a major part as that seems to be a trademark of the original version of this sandwich.
I found myself in Greenbelt 5 with my husband as I quite forgot that there was a Royce’ store located along the ground floor that I knew we couldn’t possibly avoid. Too late I realized as I saw his eyes light up and his feet carry him towards the glass counters where lots and lots of Royce’ chocolates were out on display.
Of course he had to choose the same Nama Bitter chocolate that I bought him months ago. I offered to buy him something else just so we could try other variants but he wanted to stick to what he was sure tasted absolutely great.
I stay away from hot or spicy food. My taste buds just cannot handle the heat and it numbs my tongue and prevents me from enjoying what I eat. My eyes water immediately and my nose runs which really embarrasses me so to avoid all that, I refrain from even thinking about anything spicy.
One exception to that rule is KFC’s “Zinger”. I swear it is one of the few spicy food I dare finish convincing myself how delicious it is. But they recently improved the sandwich’s flavor and it has become too spicy for me to tolerate it.
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When eating out, my philosophy (for lack of a better term) is always to go to a place where I will not find dishes that I can easily cook or make at home. Strike any ordinary Filipino or Chinese restaurant. And this is why I frequent mostly Italian, Japanese or American restaurants.
But I found Classic Cuisine, C2 (get it? C2?), entirely different than what I was expecting from a usual Filipino restaurant. The offerings were the same as any other place, there was sinigang, kare kare, tilapia, crispy pata and of course the ever present adobo which carries their signature in its name. Choosing to veer away from the usual, we ordered the Crispy Ribs Sinigang (Beef) and Sisig Rice. My friend added some calamari in some sweet sauce since she was really a picky eater and might not like the sinigang.
I hate Cookies and Cream. I recall that I enjoyed it when I first tasted Selecta’s Cookies and Cream ice cream but pretty soon its popularity wore down my taste buds and I really avoided eating anything resembling that combination for several years.
When McDonald’s came out with Mcflurry, I was tempted to reconsider. I did but not totally. So I wasn’t too excited when I saw Red Ribbon ads showing their newest cake offering – Cookies and Cream! That is also why I couldn’t join Sago’s Mother’s Day Contest because I couldn’t just come up with the words to explain how Cookies and Cream made my day.
When I first tasted gelato, I immediately became hooked. I love eating ice cream but wasn’t too enthusiastic about what was available in the supermarket. Everything I bought could not stand the heat and humidity and would melt before I even parked the car in the garage. Even the coldest temperature setting of our freezer is not enough to salvage the ice cream into something even remotely bearable.
Ok, I confess I am a junk food addict. I stuff myself sick with potato chips, popcorn, french fries, and burgers. In fact, that is probably the one addiction my husband wishes I lose immediately (in addition to the rest of my excess weight – haha). So it is not a surprise that I am intrigued with new snacks, new stalls, new junk that hear about or read about.
Summer this year has been extremely hot and humid that most days, I find it discouraging to eat anything (believe it!). Truthfully, our usual homemade fare, like Chicken Afritada, or even Adobo feels hot and heavy to the imagination. So I do my best to think up dishes that would feel light enough to eat at the same time not too hard to make.
What is so great about Belgian chocolate? For some reason everything chocolate seems to have gone on the Belgian bandwagon. From candy treats to ice cream to cakes, the famous Belgian flavor has taken over. Although I admit it is good, I always keep wondering what makes it preferable to say.. Swiss chocolate or even our local tsokolate.
…We went to this local bistro called Bistro Ecila at the mall. I understand why my friend frequents the place because… [read more]
I am in a Japanese food mood lately that I keep craving for anything even remotely japanese, be it fastfood or authentic japanese. And even if I am hesitant about buying sashimi at a local fastfood because I know its really frozen rather than fresh, sometimes the craving is overwhelming.
My kids, husband and myself all love chocolate candies. In fact, we love it so much, it has become part of my grocery list thus, you are likely to find a variety of chocolate candies, bars, baking chocolate and whatnot in our house. Its interesting to note that we also have varied tastes in chocolate. My husband loves dark or bitter chocolate, I would take anything free of nuts or fruits and my kids would eat anything that even slightly resembles chocolate. Go figure.
I have always loved Banana Cream Pie since the day I tasted it way back when I was in the states. I was not used to pies then and am still not used to them. Here in Manila, the closest I have had to a real pie were the time I actually made an apple pie at home, and the other when we ate at Bag of Beans, which had the best apple-pie I have tried. You would notice I mentioned apples not because they were my favorite but they were of my hubby’s. Go figure.
I boarded this small plane to my first vacation stop - Cagayan de Oro City. I realized only after the flight took off that the propeller was right outside my window! I’m not afraid of heights but… [Read More]
Its time for recipe sharing once again. While uploading some pictures into my flickr account, I noticed that I still have some pictures for posts that have remained in draft for quite some time now. It actually is perfect timing for me since some people have started asking me again about a particular cheesecake that I had let them try once a few months ago. So to keep from breaking my promise about recipe sharing, here is how I created such a yummy caramel cheesecake.