The Kitchen. Again?!?!

How can one spoil a pasta dish? Perhaps by overcooking the pasta? Or by overcooking the seafood and making it tough? Or by scrimping on tomatoes or cream or whatever was used for the sauce?

And so what did the Kitchen do wrong?

None of the above actually. It was just that the pasta was so oily. It was way too oily that you’d lose your appetite halfway through the dish because all you can taste is the oil.

It was quite an appalling experience especially since I’m a fan of Kitchen. I love their rice dishes. I have practically eaten half of the rice dishes on their menu. I’m hoping it was just a one-time experience.

Pancake House. Again?!!!

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, Pancake House is a special place for both E and I. It really was an obvious choice: it’s near my office and we both love the food. Last month, we celebrated out monthsary by eating lunch there. For this month, we had our lunch there again. E would usually have Pork Vienna while I order Beef Tapa. Those are our favorite Pancake House food. This time I told E that we should be adventurous and deviate from what we’d usually have and so we opted for hot roast beef and chicken. For the past week we have been avoiding eating rice so that we might lose those extra pounds that we have been getting. What the heck? This time we felt that we can reward ourselves with rice since we were actually celebrating. The monthsary was quite an excuse for us. The menu said that the hot roast dishes do not come with rice and so we ordered extra. Much to our surprise, it was served on top of a white bread. We are so ignorant about these things. Di talaga kme soyal. Hahaha. Anyway for the verdict: I found both hot roast dishes delicious. I’d still ocme back and have those again. But then, those are not recommended for those who want the typical kanin and ulam and for those who are really starving and want big servings.

L: hot roast beef with mashed potatoes and buttered vegetables
R: hot roast chicken with potato salad

One can find a Pancake House almost everywhere. Here is preview of their menu. Enjoy!

5 Days of Michelle's visit

Lunch at Kitchen, Greenbelt
(Topmost Right: Under the Sun - seafood dish with chili cream sauce)
(Bottom Left: Grounded for Life - A hearty mixture of ground beef, carrots, potatoes and peas with fried sweet saba ala 'arroz ala cubana')

Grand Pakain sponsored by The Canada Team
Halo-halo Bar and banana que by Dacar, 9F PhilamLife Tower
pansit by Ado's, Malinao, Pasig City

Bowling at MOA

Michelle's Surprise Bday Celebration
Cake by Red Ribbon
Dinner at Jollibee

Dinner at Abe, Serendra
(Top: Crispy Shrimp Binondo)
(Bottom Left: Lamb Adobo Bencab, Right: Betute - frog with pork filling)

Como Agua para Chocolate

I haven’t read a book in a really long time. I have all the books I bought piled at home, left unread. I just do not have the time for it. For some, I lose interest as early as just a few pages. I’ve been searching for that really good book that would put me back on track. It was quite a difficult thing to do. I’m way past my Judith Mcnaught days (those cheesy romance novels), my Sidney Sheldon phase (I have read all of his books), the Jeffrey Archer period (a British author). Paulo Coelho books and my chick flick phase (yup, this is with Sophie Kinsella). I also want to buy the latest books by Kinsella and Coelho but they are still on the hardbound issues. They are still expensive. Last Saturday, I chanced upon a book on sale at National Bookstore. I bought it with a 20 percent discount. Every time I buy a book I don’t only read the summary at the back, I also read the first few pages to see if my attention will be drawn to the book. This way I am sure that the book would be worth my money. This is what I did when I grabbed the copy of Laura Esquivel’s “Like Water for Chocolate” and why wouldn’t I be not drawn? The first pages after all talked about a recipe. I knew immediately that I would enjoy reading it.

Like Water for Chocolate had been a sensation. It is a best-seller. Even in college I knew that already. Somehow I just did not find a way to put my fingers in the books’ pages until now. The book was divided into 12 chapters, each corresponding to each month. With each chapter came a recipe as the main character, Tita, expresses her emotion through cooking. The book was the love story of Tita and Pedro, which was suppressed and forbidden by old beliefs. Tita was not allowed to marry for being the youngest child and destined to take care of her mother. Pedro married Tita’s sister Rosaura as it was the best way he could do to stay close to Tita. It was something which I find so stupid and cowardice. As the story progresses, the fate and struggles of the two lovers were revealed.

The book was a light read and it was entertaining. The book uses magical realism. Here are some excerpts to prove that:

“Her body was giving off so much heat that the wooden walls began to split and burst into flame. Terrified, she thought she would be burnt to death, and she ran out of the little enclosure just as she was, completely naked.”

“John interrupted these memories by bursting into the room, alarmed by the stream that was running down the stairs. When he realized it was just Tita’s tears, John blessed Chencha . . “

“At that moment the fiery bodies of Pedro and Tita began to throw off glowing sparks. They set on fire the bedspread, which ignited the entire ranch.”

I almost finished the book in just one sitting (almost two hours). I just had to stop so that I still have something to look forward to the next day.

My first Time at Mang Jimmy's

E had long wanted to bring me to this ‘kainan’ at Balara. He is a graduate of UP Diliman so he knew the nooks and places where to eat at that area. The only place I am familiar with at UP Diliman is The Chocolate Kiss Café. When one of my close friends from college, Joanne, transferred to UPD from UP Manila, Zarah and I would occasionally visit her. We would spend hours at Chocolate Kiss, enjoying their iced tea, chicken fingers, taco salad and varieties of cake. I definitely miss those times. When I am with E, we would usually eat at Rodic’s then have isaw at Mang Larry’s and for more binging have balut at the Shopping Center. We have also tried Chateau Verde, where I also love the food.

Last Saturday, after attending mass, we headed to the ‘kainan’ that E has been telling me. As I found out, it was Mang Jimmy’s – a place which I know was famous for it’s eat all you kanin even before Tokyo Tokyo introduced that concept. I was really excited since it was my first time to eat at the really famous kainan ng lutong bahay.

The place has a typical carinderia setting. They have monoblock chairs and tables were set up on what I assume was the front part of the house. There were no tiled floors. The place was busy with students chatting and other young people who were perhaps graduates of the university already.

Once we were seated, we were immediately served with plates, glasses and a small bowl with calamansi and siling labuyo (chili pepper) as well as with the menu. I noticed that they have a limited variety of food and mostly were sizzling dishes. E explained that they have a promo wherein if you order three dishes, you get one dish free. We originally ordered sizzling pusit (squid), sisig, lechon kawali and bulalo. They didn’t have bulalo so we opted for beef with young corn. The sizzling pusit and beef with young corn were served first. I noticed that both dishes were topped with a white sauce. I am not sure what it was made of but it was not creamy. Both dishes did not taste good. The beef was tough and it was hard for us to slice through the meat. At first taste, the pusit tasted fine but somehow as I had more of it, I did not like the taste anymore. To add flavor to what I was eating, I was adding more of the toyomansi we made. We already finished the plate of rice which was served to us. We were waiting for the sisig to be served to somehow redeem those two dishes. When the sisig was served, it did not look like the typical sisig that we usually have at other restos. It looked dark and so I assumed it had too much soy sauce. When I had a taste of the sisig, I though that it was not made from the pig’s face but rather just that of the pig’s ears. I told E that I did not find the food delicious. I was also hoping that they’d have more lutong bahay dishes and not limited to those cooked sizzling. E said that it had changed a lot since his college days. He remembered that the space then was not that cramped and the food was more delicious. He said that perhaps they have expanded the place to accommodate more people eating there. I prefer eating at Rodic’s. The visit was really quite disappointing for me.

Mang Jimmy was there and we were able to have a shot with him. Mang Jimmy, san na yung 'good food' everyone was raving about?