A few weeks ago, my nanay and I went out for our much-needed mother-daughter date. I had four vouchers bought from CashCashPinoy for 52% off on food and drinks from Dillingers 1903 Steak Brew restobar in Greenbelt 3. After hours of pampering from rO2 Beauty and Wellness Center, we were starving so we headed straight to the restaurant.
Upon our arrival on the third floor of Greenbelt 3, we immediately saw Dillingers 1903. Okay, I asked a guard for the exact location. 😀 It was beside Red Box. And as soon as we got there, I couldn’t help but admire the design of the outside of the restaurant.
The wooden doors, the brick wall, the mix of hues of black, gold and gray, and the wide glass windows are reminiscent of something you’d see in a mafia movie. So, let’s go inside…
November 17, 2011 – It was that time again for foodies to come together and discover new offerings from various home-based food suppliers at the Ultimate Taste Test 7.0. This time, the venue was in Mercato Centrale in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
The food showcase was scheduled for 3 hours only so we were hoping to be there on time. But, unfortunately, we arrived almost an hour late. Thankfully, we were able to have a taste of all except 3 out of all the purveyors who were there to present their products.
When we got there, a lot of fellow foodies were still coming in and there was a long queue outside the tent area in Mercato Centrale. We were glad to see that there were a lot of tables set up inside and outside the air-conditioned area where people can sit and relax while they enjoy the food.
Since we needed to take photos of the food for our feature here, we had a hard time squeezing in. Of course, we didn’t want to cut the line as that’ll be unfair so we opted to stay in line. It was a long wait and it did test the patience of most people. But, hey, we were excited to taste all the food there ‘cause they were all new to us, except for one dessert purveyor – meaning they weren’t at the Ultimate Taste Test 6 in Rockwell or we haven’t had the chance to taste their products yet. So, we waited for our turn.
We thought UTT 6.0 was better though in the sense that there were more room for people to move around, going from one booth to another. We didn’t get to sit at the tables ‘til the very end when we were rating the food because we wanted to, as much as possible, go through all the 30+ booths.
Now, on to our top picks. We’re not unanimous with our favorites so we’re not going to rank them again, just like in our UTT 6 Top Picks. Here we go! 🙂
Note: Pardon the quality of the photos. We had to take quick shots ‘cause there was a long queue of people behind us. We didn’t want to irritate them. 😉
Sweet Favorites
MERRY MOO
(Food for the Gods and Queso de Bola with Fiesta Ham)
Between the two, we LOVED the Queso de Bola with Fiesta Ham. The bits of meat made this so delectable, mixing in with the sweet-salty flavors of the cheesy ice cream. We wanted to have seconds! Definitely, we’re coming back for this! 🙂
Most of us look forward to Friday. It’s the end of a busy week and, at the same time, the start of a well-deserved weekend for all those who hustle and bustle at school or at work. It’s the ultimate day for relaxation and enjoyment. But, guess what, we don’t really need to wait for Friday just to have fun. With T.G.I. Friday’sinfectious energy and with their excellent food and customer service, everyone would feel like it’s Friday every single day of the week!
After more than 15 years since setting up their first in 1994, T.G.I. Friday’s opens a new branch in Eastwood City, Libis. This is their 13th and now considered as their new flagship branch since it’s the location where the brand has decided to implement major changes in architectural and interior design. It is the first free-standing Friday’s branch. All of the other branches, as we all have known, are located in major shopping malls around the Metro.
From outside, the facade looks bright and very inviting. They have replaced the old canopies and awnings with movie theater-like sheds, giving the place a more modern feel. Almost everyone who comes to Friday’s has their own camera, and surely they wouldn’t be able to resist having their pictures taken with these life-size models of Superman; the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley; and the iconic, Marilyn Monroe.
Friday’s is known for having an “artistic clutter†of memorabilia from decades as early as the ‘30s. Now they have decided to move forward in time by including pieces from later decades like the ‘80s, ‘90s, and even from the new millennium.
Last week, Ken and I, along with fellow foodies, were invited to Bizu Patisserie and Bisro’s Bloggers Party over at their Greenbelt branch. Having been there during the Cadbury Chocoholic night, we were both looking forward to having a taste of more dishes from this pastry shop / restaurant.
I took this photo using my new Nikon D3100. Woot! Stay tuned for better photos soon 🙂
The dinner was graced with the presence of Aaron and Annie Tanco who started it all. They shared with us how their pastry shop was conceptualized, including how they came up with the name of their restaurant. It was all very interesting, especially the part where Aaron told us that Bizu came about after her mom Annie dreamt of people kissing each other on the cheeks (beso-beso) at a restaurant. They decided to use the French word for “kissâ€, which is “bisousâ€, but added a twist by spelling it the way it’s pronounced.
I just want to mention this – I enjoyed how Aaron and Annie spoke to us about their restaurant. You can really feel they’re truly passionate about their food and the service they offer to their diners. They were all very accommodating, even laughing and sharing stories with us throughout the night. Even Chrissy, the lovely lady in the middle of the photo above, was very cheery. 🙂
Ahoy, mates! Fish & Co., the Singapore-bred restaurant that has enticed the Filipino palates with their best-selling seafood fare, had set sail across the Atlantic Ocean and captured the flavors exotic to the islands of the West Indies in their latest menu addition the “Plates of the Caribbeanâ€.
Being a Filipino, I’m accustomed to having rice and meat combinations in most of my meals, so a dinner of merely “fish and chips†may deem unsatisfying to my appetite. Relatively, Fish & Co. recognized the need to introduce more meat dishes in their menu as a strategy to reel in more rice-and-meat-loving Pinoys.
Early this year, they launched the Fish and Ribs as a means of testing the waters to see how their meat dishes will fare in the market. The dish was well-accepted by their guests, thus resulting now to the creation of the Plates of the Caribbean, which promised to incorporate more fish, seafood, chicken, pork, beef, and vegetables into Fish & Co’s menu.
The Plates of the Caribbean presents 5 new surf and turf dishes named after five island destinations in the Caribbean. They are the islands of Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Montserrat, and Saint Lucia. And to complement these five sumptuous fare, three new refreshing beverages were also added – the Juice Almighty, the Cool Cucumber Breeze, and the Veggie-Fruit Blast.
From Top Left: Saint Lucia, Montserrat, Dominica, Barbados,Bahamas, Juice Almighty, Cool Cucumber Breeze, and Veggie-Fruit Blast.
For Sharing or for the Lone Pirate?
The Plates of the Caribbean are available in Regular and Just For Me portions. Regular is enough to feed 2-3 hungry pirates, while the Just For Me portion is for those pirates dining alone, or for those who prefer smaller servings of the dishes.
Whenever my bro and I see a World Chicken stall, may it be in Trinoma, Gateway Mall or in Glorietta, we can’t help but wrestle with the idea of ordering their oh-so tender grilled chicken. If not for our hunger for something new to feature on this blog, we would’ve eaten there every time (I guess that’s something we’re actually thankful for :D). In fact, my bro loved them so much that they were the inspiration behind his Creamy Pesto Pasta and Grilled Chicken recipe.
Ken’s pesto pasta is WAY more delicious than World Chicken’s,
but the ingredients are a li’l on the expensive side.
What is it about World Chicken that makes it one of our favorites? That’s a question that’s pretty easy to answer – it’s the tenderness of the flame-grilled boneless chicken they serve that’s very moist, and the wide variety of options for sauces, carbohydrates, and side dishes, PLUS affordability.
We got this flier from their Gateway Mall branch, explaining why a lot of people are flocking their branches in Glorietta and Trinoma.
Fresh tomatoes used on their pasta sauces.
Real potatoes with bacon bits on their potato salad, based on the photo.
Buffalo Wings are considered American staple food, together with our favorite burgers and fries. They’re the kind of food people don’t ever mind getting down and dirty in eating because it’s best savored using your bare hands, licking all the crevices of your fingers clean of the delicious buffalo sauce and blue cheese dip.
I had my first taste of the hot wings when some of my friends and I once dined at TGI Friday’s in Greenbelt. They ordered their usual nachos, burgers, and fries. One friend suggested we get the Buffalo wings, but another friend was quick to negate, saying that it’s too spicy for her taste. But since I love my food hot and spicy, 10 minutes later, we had two servings of Buffalo wings on our table, and they all agreed that I ate 2/3 of it. 😀
Friday’s Buffalo Wings
After that dinner, the Buffalo wings flew straight up my all-time favorite food list, but it’s not everyday that I have the luxury to buy wings at Friday’s. So I decided to make some myself at home, and it’s a good thing that I have a very generous sister like Mhel, who shouldered the expenses for the ingredients.
My first attempt to make Buffalo Wings at home – all gone in about 15 minutes! 😀
The Homestyle Buffalo Wings recipe I’m sharing with you are bits and pieces of different stuff I found on the internet. Not one recipe matched what I wanted to do because there is one requiring me to broil then bake the chicken wings, instead of simply frying them; another has a lousy breading mix recipe, but their instructions for doing the buffalo sauce was by far the simplest among all I’ve seen. And almost all sites had a recipe for blue cheese dip to accompany the chicken wings, but blue cheese is out of the question – too expensive for me. But, we’ll try that, too, soon. 🙂
We were told to come in our 1930s clothes. Ken dressed up all in black, with a buttoned up polo and hat. Hannah of FlairCandy was also there and she wore a Chicago-inspired dress. She looked more like Cleopatra and was really pretty. Here’s the 3 of us right before dinner:
I know, I only wore that printed blouse. I don’t have any skirts or dresses in my wardrobe. 😀
Ever since a friend of mine mentioned Oh My Gulay Artist Cafe in Baguio, I’ve been dying to try their food. Why? No, it’s not because it’s a vegetarian restaurant. But, since Baguio is known as a popular source of fresh vegetables like broccoli and lettuce, and other crops like strawberries, oranges (from Sagada), etc., I know I can only expect the freshest ingredients on anything on their menu. Something I wouldn’t pass up! 🙂
So, during our 5-day vacation last month, Oh My Gulay (O.M.G.) was definitely on our itinerary. We slightly had a hard time finding it ’cause when I did my research, someone said it’s located in “Green Azotea” building. 😀 We hired a taxi for the whole day (we went to Good Shepherd and Strawberry farm, which we’ll post about next!) and the driver didn’t know any building with that name. Turns out, it’s at the La Azotea building and the color of the whole structure is, well, green. 😀
It’s along Session Road so it’s pretty easy to find. It’s right in front of Metrobank. Oh My Gulay is on the 5th floor and there are no elevators. So, you’d have to climb up all the way to their floor. There’s a bookstore, a gym and other food stalls that might entertain you while you take a break from climbing up those stairs. 😀
Now, before I go on about Oh My Gulay’s food, let me just share with you some of the photos we took of their restaurant. The whole eclectic design drew my attention.
Even my bro Ken was fascinated by the intricate structure and decorations, both on the first floor and second floor. He took most of the photos of the restaurant and even went upstairs.
I would never forget the very first time I had my taste of Pesto Pasta at Fazoli’s, Eastwood City. I was in elementary that time, and like most people my age, I hated herbs and vegetables. My sister and I had no idea what Pesto was back then, and because it sounded delicious (she didn’t want me to order the same thing she did), she ordered that for me. I didn’t enjoy any bit of it, but since it’s a bit expensive I tried with all my might to finish the whole plate. I even remember saying, “Lasang puno (It tastes like a tree),” and it made my sister laugh. So, I learned my lesson and made a mental note to avoid food that has anything to do with Pesto.
But weird as it may seem, I think maturing into an adult is accompanied by a huge change with food palatability. We realize that vegetables aren’t that bad tasting after all, and that our food choices no longer fall under just two taste categories – sweet and salty. There is now the delectable bitter, the sour, or the hot/spicy (though technically spicy is not a flavor or taste. It’s a sensation. Try putting chili on your tongue and on your lip/skin. They experience the same thing – heat.)
Moving forward. As I started exploring the whole variety of flavors I could experience in the world, I found “Pesto” once again. This time, it’s not on a chalkboard menu at Fazoli’s, but on a backlit display of World Chicken at TriNoma Mall, Quezon City. The food adventurer inside me took over, and soon I had a plate with a whopping serving of Pesto Cream Pasta, Potato Salad, and Grilled Chicken with Ranch Barbecue Sauce. If we were not inside a mall, I’d lick my whole plate clean because I was sure I had a taste of heaven. From then on, I would always opt for Pesto Cream Pasta, and even influencing my other friends to give it a try. They loved it.
I had many failed attempts on making Pesto Cream before. Not that I don’t have the skill to make it, but because I found the ingredients to be a bit pricey. So a big thanks to my sister, Mhel, for shouldering the expenses as a gift on my birthday, and to my friend, Katrina Castro, for giving me the idea.
Let’s start with the Basil Pesto recipe. I made this the day before my birthday because I thought it would take hours to finish, but in less than 20 minutes I was done.
Basil Pesto Recipe
Makes about 1 cup.
INGREDIENTS:
3 garlic cloves
1/3 cup pine nuts
Expensive!! Php 360/100grams, but don’t worry you’ll only need 50 grams for this recipe.
You can substitute pine nuts with toasted walnuts or almonds. Cashews should work well too.
2 cups fresh basil leaves (Very cheap!)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Expensive! Php 96 for a 250-ml bottle. We bought this brand. It’s the cheapest.
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Expensive! Php170+ / 100grams. Perfect Italiano was the only available parmesan cheese available.
Salt and pepper
PROCEDURE:
Note: If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender (or a Tupperware Speedy Chopper if you have one) or manually grind the ingredients using a mortar and pestle. Make sure everything’s chopped into bits to minimize grits or coarse grains in your pesto sauce.
1. Chop garlic and pine nuts in food processor. Pulse a few times.
2. Add the basil and pulse a few more times.
3. Add the olive oil slowly while the food processor is running.
4. Scrape down the sides of the processor, add the grated cheese, pulse again to blend.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Refrigerate/Freeze the basil pesto mixture.
FYI: If you refrigerate Pesto Cream, it could only last 1 WEEK max! But if you freeze it, it can last for many, many months.
Creamy Pesto Pasta Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of Basil Pesto (Recipe above)
250 ml or 1 cup of All-purpose Cream
2 tbsp. of Olive oil
1/2 kilo of linguine pasta (or any kind of pasta would do)
Salt and Pepper
PROCEDURE:
1. Use a sauce pan on low heat.
2. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil.
3. Put 1 cup of Basil Pesto, then stir to warm it evenly.
4. Add the 1 cup of All-purpose cream slowly, then stir.
5. You can add 1/3 cup of pasta water (the water you used in cooking your pasta) to thin out the sauce.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Cook for 5 minutes.
8. Slowly pour to your cooked linguine pasta (al dente).
Grilled Chicken Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1 kilo of Chicken Breast Fillet
2 tbsp. of Brown sugar
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
3 tbsp. of Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper
Lemon Juice / Calamansi
PROCEDURE:
1. Flatten chicken breasts so they would be equal in thickness. You can use a bottle to flatten them or a meat tenderizer.
2. Drizzle generously with olive oil.
3. Add the garlic powder and lemon juice / calamansi.
4. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Grill until well done, about 5 minutes per side.
There you have it. It’s that easy. I just made my own simple gravy to accompany my grilled chicken and served it with my Creamy Pesto Pasta. It’s a perfectly healthful meal to share with your family and friends. So go ahead, try it and tell me how your own version went.
November 17, 2011 – It was that time again for foodies to come together and discover new offerings from various home-based food suppliers at the 
Between the two, we LOVED the Queso de Bola with Fiesta Ham. The bits of meat made this so delectable, mixing in with the sweet-salty flavors of the cheesy ice cream. We wanted to have seconds! Definitely, we’re coming back for this! 🙂
I took this photo using my new Nikon D3100. Woot! Stay tuned for better photos soon 🙂
Ken’s pesto pasta is WAY more delicious than World Chicken’s,
