Finally, something really interesting in the Glorietta food court. Usually when I think of Food Court food, it’s usually been sitting there for quite a while, it’s super oily, it’s been recycled over and over, the sauces are totally watered down, and you just won’t be able to get the same kind of veggies as you would in a restaurant. I couldn’t have been more wrong in this trip to Glorietta. Last Saturday, I discovered the wonderful Go Greek stall, which reminds me a whole lot of a toned down version of Cyma (i wonder if this is another undertaking of Robby Goco). Prices are low, they’ve got these amazing platters made out of salad, a kebab or gyro, potatoes or rice for less than P200. What an absolute deal. This kind of reminds me of a trip to europe, where you realize that all the cheap food are these things that are called “DONER” which is simply a gyro…was wondering how wonderful it would be for us to have that cheap food culture of “DONER” here in our country.
For the side salads, they were, fresh crisp and cool…with a helping of cheese on top. The dressing was light, but you could add a bit more at the condiments area by the cashier.
I went for the potatoes instead of the rice. The skin on potatoes were cooked in olive oil, some herbs and sprinkled with cheese on top. Nice salting.
I didn’t mind the chicken gyro much since the first bite i had seemed to have more fat and skin than usual. I was waiting for my chicken kebab which was slowly being grilled in their kitchen. After about 10-15 minutes, I had my platter. The sauce choices are also nice there were a few kinds: garlic, yogurt, hot sauce, honey mustard, a vinaigrette with lotsa gums.
The chicken kebab was a fair amount, with an onion and tomato sliced in two and alternated with a few chunks of chicken. Marinate and salting was very good, when you close your eyes, you actually don’t expect something like this in a food court.
Overall I just had to write about it since it’s probably the freshest thing that hit the Glorietta food court. I’m probably going to be eating here almost every time I visit this area.
Being a regular at SM hypermarket, I decided to check out their new branch in south super highway. This place was way smaller than the hypermarket in pasig but I still hoped I would find sone good stuff despite the size.
The nice thing about hypermarket is that they have these frozen goods that are sold by weight. For now they have various froZen potatoes and various kinds of seafood balls. My brother and I are loyal followers of the “shiitake ball” which is basically a fish ball with chopped shiitake mushrooms inside. When I took a look at the seafood ball section there were new things that caught my eye. So I went home and fried them and delighted at my new found party snacks(which we deep fried till golden brown) :
Crab Roe Ball – this one resembles a large kiss chocolate, only it’s white and has specs of vegetables on it. This “ball” when sliced has an orange center that looks like a neon version of crab roe. When you taste the center, it’s a lot like fish eggs and scrambled egg only this one has that crabstick flavor, slightly smokey with a sharper seafood essence.
Sea Urchin Ball – this beautiful ball resembled a farley’s peppermint candy only the red stripes are yellow. This large ball resembles a colorful hockey puck. When sliced, the insides look like a bright yellow sea urchin, but it has the texture of fish eggs (it’s like scrambled eggs with fish eggs mixed together). I don’t think it really tasted like sea urchin though the creaminess was there. But this ones’ still a winner simply because it has such an interesting stuffing and still a whole lot of meat.
Fish Cheese Ball – this is basically a fishball with cheese inside. And yes real cheese (no white sauce or a cheesy white sauce). When sliced, the cheese flowed beautifully like mozzarella, but had the sharpness of harder cheeses. Such an odd combination but this one is guaranteed to be interesting and delicious.
These are perfect for those impromptu gatherings where beer is involved or even kids would enjoy this becAuse it has that interesting stuffing inside.At about P38 per 100 grams, it’s very easy to cook. I think snacks like these would be a simple conversation piece for those who enjoy food.
Biscotti is the Four Seasons Hotel’s Italian outlet.When you enter, it’s like being in one of these modern tapas bars in Barcelona, where everyone must seriously be a bunch of connoisseurs. Dark wood, dim lights, stainless steel open kitchen. I quickly walked to the counter to admire the shining kitchen, where the chef, was just about to give his final orders for tonight’s meal.
Our host was Ms. Annie, a Filipino who settled in Thailand. She is now one of the PR heads of the Four Seasons (yes, she is proudly Filipino!), she proudly introduced the chef Danillo Aiassa, who was all smiles ready to give us a good meal. Ms. Annie told us that when they took the new chef in, he couldn’t speak a word of English or Thai, so he needed to take lessons. He’s the type who goes around tables, says hello to guests when he’s not so busy in his kitchen. It was a night of lots of laughs and good food on the table. But of course, I would only talk about the food
Read the rest of this entry »
This was a lovely present for Christmas! Before I left I was able to finish a food styling job for the Reyes Barbeque group which is their newest stall called Reyes Goto. Meeting Mr. Frank Reyes was truly interesting because I didn’t know that he was actually a descendant of the founders of Aristocrat and he told me all about how his great grandmother began her culinary empire and how he was inspired by nostalgic Filipino family recipes to create the ultimate goto place that’s clean and within reach.
I used to only take offals in tiny amounts since I didn’t really appreciate it much until I tasted this goto. But that’s another story. Going back, Frank Reyes and his wife Inez made their empire, Reyes Barbeque grow within a few years of its establishment. I’m telling you, these clients knew what they want. Sir Frank was constantly coming up with ideas, and Ms. Inez was the greatest executioner.
For my birthday last month, I decided to treat the couples out to dinner (that’s me, Mig, my brother and China) to our favorite Izakaya Kikufuji at Little Tokyo in Pasong Tamo. We ordered our usual fare until Vicki our favorite server said that there was Fugu available straight from Japan. Now wasn’t that exciting or what? My brother and I decided to get a plate. Mig was a bit jittery, though I was sure he’d have taste since he wouldn’t want to be left out of the group even if it meant potentially getting poisoned as well.
I watched a documentary in National Geographic about this and it said that many homeless people died during the war after scavenging for fish remains in trash cans outside restaurants. Apparently the stuff they threw were the Fugu’s organs which is highly toxic and can cause suffocation if it is prepared the wrong way. The fuss about this fish has been bugging my mind for years, and i thought that the only way i could get some fugu, was if i went to Japan with a sh*tload of money and ate in a pretty classy restaurant there. AND i had to make sure that the sushi chef in that place had the proper license and documents to prove he has trained to fabricate this fish properly. Sashimi is usually served thin in a shape of a chrysanthemum flower which symbollizes death in the Japanese culture.
We’re in Chiangmai and we were in our friend’s house Woon and Wolfgang trying to make some Christmas Stollen. Woon told us about the procedure of how they make the coconut sugar from these special palm trees. One of the procedures were to boil down the already smoked juice from the coconut. without fermenting, they bottled the drink and sold it to the supermarket.
This pristine but thick drink was delightful, it would be something I could finish if I were a kid. It was very sweet but it included flavors that I didn’t think existed in your typical Buko juice. The delightful smoking can be detected in the juice… It was like eating caramel and butterscotch with vanilla in a drink.it has an extremely slight acidity detectable from the original coconut juice. Now I’m starting to wonder if this thing had flavorings etc considering there was no english translation on the label. Ah whatever it was a joy for me since I dread drinking coconut juice.
This was definitely a must try for those who love beverages. Or those who don’t really like buko juice… This will make you think again
I’m still pretty much in awe after watching MJ’s THIS IS IT. I watched it the day after it opened!
A true perfectionist & very hands-on, Michael still seemed like this sweet person who would usually end his all his opinions and directions with “for the love”. It’s really no wonder that he is the world’s greatest entertainer, I still can’t imagine how his concert would’ve been like with all the preparations they were doing.
And his voice…undoubtedly he is a true artist connected to his music…he knew what he wanted, even if it already sounded pretty good to most people. How many pop stars do we have left in the world who is as great?
Madonna maybe. But even she looks up to MJ!
The world needs more superstars like him.
His passion and dedication to his work is really something else. I love his “it has to be absolutely perfect” attitude.
DISABLE THOSE STUPID GUEST ACCOUNTS PEOPLE.
I feel so disgruntled about finding out that such a bug exists in Macs…after the damn thing erased my entire hard drive.
Thank God I backed-up some items last month, but considering that I have this machine that has the price tag of a second hand car, i couldn’t help but sending an email to Apple about this seriously unfortunate event…I mean this is ridiculous! ALL MY FILES? EVEN MY EMAILS?
Catching up is pretty tricky…my posts are so delayed! But anyway, at least I always have something to post on my free time. Here’s week 2 of my dad’s woodfired oven dinner spree. This one was a Turkey dinner.
For this one, they baked the turkey in a conventional oven, and then finished it in the woodfired oven. Still the smokey taste was there. Here’s our line-up:
Breads with dips - whipped butter, chicken liver pate and orange confit, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, homemade roastbeef with horseradish sauce
Parsley and Couscous Salad - this refreshing salad is from the Mediterranean, it’s got couscous, cucumber, onions and tomatoes, lemon juice and olive oil
For week 1 our menu was like this:
Artisan breads with Turkish Olive Oil, Sea Salt and Aged Balsamic Vinegar
- this bread had a crunchy exterior and a soft, warm inside..some were not so crunchy in the exterior but was nice and soft.
