BFast

Just another of those "I am stressed, let's eat" days of my boss...

This time, we head out to the fairly new Ayala Triangle Plaza to find some food we haven't tried.

Strolling, strolling and we find that this place wasn't swamped compared to BonChon and Banapple. Since we just wanted to eat, we decided to eat here...

BFast

(BFast in Facebook)

BFast... not so fast...

Location: Ayala Triangle Gardens

How to get there: Take a bus going to Ayala. Drop off at the Insular unloading bay. This is actually at the back of Makati Stock Exchange to you just cross via underground walkway then go all the way to the back to that strip of food places.
 
So we said, "Wow! This place is quite nice with the warm ambiance and minimalist design and all." AND on top of that, no long lines or what. Now the reason of which we will find out soon...

Be Healthy! Nice board :)

Be Natural! Another of the numerous boards

Nice seats and they're eco-friendly

Their specialties

Tapangus is their house specialty too

BFast is, as the name says, an all-day breakfast place. Most of their menu comprises of the legendary silogs (sinangag-itlog) or fried rice-fried egg combos. But they got more creative by putting other variations of it: kalogs (kamote-itlog) and pandeninis (paninis using pandesal instead). And of course torta (omelet). They got non-breakfast items too like steaks and other Filipino classics like champorado and arrozcaldo.

What we got were...

Name: Salmon Tinapa (Silog)

Price: 178php

Nice egg and salmon looks yummy...

Now that was what I really thought. Nice and yummy. I mean this is salmon (one of my fave fishes) and it's with silog! Well, I guess it's my fault that I expected too much that I went ahead and ate it without thinking.

Why you ask? I thought it was boneless or at least soft bones. But it wasn't :( I thought it was just one piece, but every piece had large, annoying fishbones. Yeah, I know what tinapa is and yes it has fishbones. But, to be honest, it ruined my experience because I had to debone all the pieces before I could eat them instead of what assumed was a seamless experience (or what I usually get from salmon dishes). So the taste of the salmon wasn't much either :(

For 178php, I was expecting at least that...

Oh well...

Name: Tapangus Torta

Price: 178php

That's potato crisps all over

I am a fan of omelets too so I was kinda excited when I saw this. The potato crisps were a welcome innovation to me and of course the cheese was an automatic yes. The angus beef inside was a plenty which is value for money but it was a bit tough. What's interesting about this dish though is the large amount of onions and bellpeppers inside. This causes the omelet to become sweet. So it's somewhat a weird tasting omelet for most but for me, i'd say it's just unusual at the least but it's good.

Now since we thought we weren't too satisfied, we decided to get dessert to probably save the night. And this is what we got...

Name: Apple Pie

Price: (i forgot)

*sigh*

This has to be the worst apple pie I've tried :( The pie crust itself really dry and tastes stale and the apples inside tastes old too :( I am not exaggerating but maybe we just got old stock by chance. We didn't even bother finishing it and no, we didn't ask for it to be replaced. If this were it's normal state, then it would be the same for all the apple pies and if it really were old stock, then we really should let it be as it shouldn't have been served in the first place.

In the end, we went out and ended up eating somewhere else...

Disappointed :(

~2GBTG!

Aubergine

It was a not so normal day because I actually invited my boss to do a meeting on a Sunday to discuss some processes we want to implement in order to make things more...orderly :)

And along with us was his sister, our guru, who shall teach us the ways of Zen... or not.

Anyways, since she was gonna teach us, she had the liberty to choose where we will meet or eat or whichever comes first. So she chose this place which she claims to have very delicious food :)

(Oh believe me, when it's my boss' sister, she KNOWS what she's talking about... I'll find some time to showcase her dishes hehehe)

Aubergine

(Aubergine Website)

Fine dining it is!

Location: 32nd and 5th Building, Bonifacio Global City

How to get there: Go to the Ayala intersection and walk towards the Fort bus terminal. Take the Fort bus and go down somewhere near St. Luke's or S&R or 32nd Street. Go to the building where McDonald's is and Aubergine's at the 3rd floor.

I have to apologize for not taking a picture of the place outside nor the official logo. I wasn't really prepared to eat here... or more of I don't really eat at fine dining places (my budget ain't gonna fit) but since we went here, why pass up the opportunity? :)

Oh, I do have to apologize for another thing... I have to say, I am not good with these French stuff so please be forgiving of my slips and whatnot :)

Aubergine is "eggplant" in French. The waitress said it was named that way because the very first theme of their restaurant was also of eggplants. They opened on December 1, 2007 and 35% of their staff came fro ISCAHM (Int'l School for Arts and Hotel Management). Check out the website link for more info about them :)

Well the place is really nice. I mean, how can you expect less?

Ooohhhh... (drooling)

Yeah I may sound like some moron but again, I don't eat at these places unless it's a party or a friend's event or it's free. Really, I'm just being honest hehe.

Moving on, here's the ... menu :P

Definitely up there!

Yep this is what we got alright

Pardon the blow-up but I can hardly read the text because of my stupid lighting settings... hehehe.

So yes, Aubergine is fine dining (I've said that once too much). So I will lightly blog about this place as I will not dare tread the unexplored places of my budget hehehe.

We got that degustation menu (tasting menu or sampler) and we can choose one of the middle 3 dishes as the main course. In short, it's a full, 8-course meal packed with French and whatever dishes.

We also got a bottle of wine...

Name: Barolo Wine

Barolo DOCG (Beni di Batasiolo wine)

They use a nice, delicate, wineglass

 ...it's ruby-red wine with a very full-bodied taste of cherry and plum. It's very, very nice if you ask me. The ruby or garnet red color emanates from outside the glass like a delicate gem. Sorry, just had to appreciate that. And with that delicate wine glass, smelling the wine alone is very pleasing :) Anyways, all I'm saying is I love the red wine. You can check this one out (for the wine connoisseurs) here: Barolo DOCG Wine Specs.

The first one is the trio sampler on glass. Well I'm not really sure if it's really a sampler but it sure looks like it hehe. The mini-dishes were served on a moderately thick, decorated glass tray. It's a very interesting and cute setup...

Yes, I forgot that it was set on b&w and I only found out after we ate...

Name: Petit Salad Leaves with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Petite... (and yes, also in b&w)

Well it's simply that, a mini-salad with raspberry vinaigrette. It's a nice, tiny delight :)

Name: Pan-seared French Duck Foie Gras on warm Balsamic Lentils with Fried Quail Egg

Cute quail egg (still in b&w)

Foie Gras is a pate made of goose liver by the way. This one was one of my favorites. Very delicate and exciting taste in a very small package plus the very cute presentation of a sunny-side up quail egg haha. You can taste that duck with it's sweet-saltiness in one, good bite. :P

Name: Foie Gras Terrine with Calvados Jelly and Foie Gras ice cream on compressed port wine-soaked watermelon

That's the Foie Gras ice cream on watermelon...

This one's the terrine...

Well, the names get more complicated huh? Tell me about it haha. I suddenly liked the Momo! dish names more :P. (Terrine is a French forcemeat similar to a pate. Forcemeat is a mix of ground and lean meat emulsified by fat) Anyways, this has to be the most interesting of all the dishes I've tried here at Aubergine. The foie gras ice cream is ... well, interesting (for lack of a more creative word). It's like eating a cold piece of foie gras. The terrine is like some meatloaf with 3 different layers of varying tastes (which I can't really describe haha).

Don't look at me. We're just getting started with some adventurous food here (actually just for me, these are just normal for people who loves fine dining hehe). And if ever you like to comment on the stuff I've been saying so far, please do because I am trying to learn these as I go. :)

Name: King Prawn bisque with Mango Cream Cheese Spring roll and champagne foam

King prawn bisque (or just soup is more simpler for me)

This one's another interesting dish. It is actually a puree of prawn (I think along with the shells?) so the taste will be very, sharply, prawn. It smells, feels, tastes and after-tastes like prawn. The foam adds a light texture to the soup and preserves the rather, "oxygenated" and strong flavored prawn side of it. Okay, that didn't sound right but believe me, I tried haha. I'd say, liking this dish is an acquired taste :)

Name: Port wine-braised Veal cheek on Truffle Risotto and Madeira glaze

Port wine-braised veal cheek on risotto

Hmm... Well, I don't recall the exact taste of this one but it was good :) Yep, that's it. It was good. :)

Name: Strawberry peach sherbet

 The sherbet genie lamp

AH! This one was interesting in terms of presentation. Like the caption says, it's a teacup with the sherbet on top and smoke coming out of it. Well the smoke comes out of dry ice inside the teacup. The sherbet was really refreshing and perfectly right on sweetness. :) I just don't get why this was served just before the main course... hmmm...

Name: Scallops and jumbo prawns on carrot-lychee compote and pappardelle pasta

Scallops and jumbo prawns on carrot-lychee compote and pappardelle pasta

After eating, I realized, I had the lightest main course of all three. My boss and his sister both got meat plates while I got the seafood one. Not that I regret it but I guess, I didn't get a full stomach after eating this :( 

Oh but that doesn't mean this dish was bad :) It just wasn't filling. Anyways, compote is actually fruit made into stew. And the pappardelle is a long, broad variety of fetuccine pasta. I really liked this dish because it had really big prawns in it and had a very unique blend of mildly thick, semi-sweet soup with "noodles" that absorbed the creaminess of the soup base itself. Yes that was described in desperate, diminishing English. But, all I wanted to say was it was a creamy, semi-sweet soup with tasty, marinated prawns and soft pasta noodles. There, I hope that was better. :)

This was one of the other main courses:

Australian Lamb loin

No, I didn't get to taste that, unfortunately :)

Ah, but we're not done yet...

Name: French Saint Albray with Marinated strawberries and gratinated Swiss gruyere cheese with Marbled potato

Strawberry with cheese and cheese

You'd probably think the one with the strawberry was the major of the 2 cheeses. You're right, but the Gruyere one (the one on the tiny bowl) tasted better. The one with the fruit is Saint Albray, cheese made from cow's milk made in Aquitaine, France. I say better because it was tastier (or saltier) compared to the latter. Oh also, if you're wondering where the marbled potato is, it's there :) Seriously, it's wrapped in the Gruyere cheese :)

Name: Banana mousse terrine, banana fritter and banana ice cream

Banana, banana and banana :)

Yup. All banana. That should pretty much say what it tastes like :) There is an interesting piece here... that long curly strip. I'm guessing it's something made out of the same stuff as barquillos are since it feels and tastes like it. It was shaved out to have that long strip shape and curl a bit for presentation.

Honestly, I liked the experience and the uniqueness of the dishes here but I really have to say, I'd rather eat somewhere else because of the sheer price of what we ate. This is a VERY NICE date place though but make sure you save a lot for such an occassion :) (hint hint)

So the business meeting ended with a LOT of stuff to do (yes, I skipped the bill part because... it's REALLY EXPENSIVE) and we drove home with food-filled instead of business minds haha.

~2GBTG!

Momo!

I have a lot of eating buddies. One of them is Joydie. And even though I've been to Momo! a lot of times, she hasn't.

So after her uber stressful day and getting a wonderful massage at Sole Mates, I told her we can eat at the ever so popular (for us at least) Momo! :)

Momo!

(Momo! Website)

It's in reverse, I know haha

Location: Eastwood Mall, Eastwood City, Libis, QC

How to get there:

If coming from Cubao, take a jeep that goes to IPI or De Castro.

If coming from Ortigas, take a jeep that goes to De Castro or Jenny's. Go down at IPI then take a jeep that goes to Cubao. Tell the driver to drop you off at Eastwood (Citibank) then you need to walk in to get to Eastwood proper itself. The Eastwood Mall is across Stackers.

This one is at the front (left side) of the new Eastwood Mall. You can't miss it. 

So never mind that the logo's in reverse. It's funkier that way haha.

Moving on, like I said I've been to Momo! several times because I just love their food :)

And now that I'm back, I finally decided to blog them.

Momo! actually means "more food, more drinks". They are part of the company Raintree which also owns Chelsea and Museum Cafe. Their first branch, this one, opened in July 2009. They had a 2nd branch in Ermita but that one closed out. The 3rd one, which is in Ayala Triangle Plaza, opened February 2011.

Momo! is on the mid to high price range of places. It's a casual date place or small meeting place. The reason I'm saying this is because the place looks nice and cozy. I'd say Momo! is an Western-Italian fusion place based on their interesting variety of dishes. But they also have some Filipino dishes reinvented like that Big Filipino Breakfast.

And which was perfect for that day because there were only a couple of people at that time and I was making sure Joydie was all relaxed and smooth. After a couple of this and that on the menu, we finally decided to order...

Name: Grandma's Country Herb and Bacon Wrapped "Meatloaf"

Price: 425php

Grandma's Meatloaf "tower"

Gotta love that nice egg :)

I would say a price over 200php is considered expensive for me, given that it's only for one person. In this case, however, the serving size is two people. So that's approximately 212.50 each. I am one of the averagely earning employees so yes, it's expensive but it's worth the price :)

This meatloaf tower has obviously a large serving size. Too bad there's only one egg though. It's 2 separate meatloaves stacked on each other and individually wrapped in bacon (yum!). It's topped with a sunny-side egg and cushioned on mashed potatoes. It's also served with steam corn and a special sauce.

The side stuff's nothing special. The creamy egg is something I like (but it is just an egg haha). But the meatloaf is something worth taking note of. It's a bit on the meaty side, not much herby actually, eventhough the name says it is. Not too dry and is packed. The bacon is just the icing of the meatloaf but is a welcome plus of course hehe. It's a bit peppery and overall a very tasty meal.

Name: "San Francisco Style" Seafood Pesto Cream Linguine

Price: 395php

San Francisco Style Seafood Pesto Cream Linguine (whew)

MMMM salmon :)

This place has some liking to long, creative names huh?


Anyways, call me dumb but I don't really know where the pesto is in this dish. I did some research on the internet and yes, I am one of those accustomed to having just basil pesto, olive oil based versus pesto, tomato cream based. So there, I actually just answered my dumb question aahaha.


Moving on, since I love pesto AND tomatoes, this was a pretty nice combo for me. PLUS it has salmon which I also love. The name actually says it all: it's a creamy, tomato-based pesto with salmon on linguine. The salmon's nicely cooked with some parmesan cheese gratings. The creamy sauce not lightly but generously mixed with the pasta ending with a slightly sour but smoothly textured sauce. This one I liked much :)

Name: Dalandan Frozen Iced Tea

Price: 85php

Dalandan Frozen Iced Tea

Now this for me is the real winner. I mean I love their food but this I have to share with you. For those who don't know yet, one of Momo!'s specialties is their frozen iced tea.


Really? You say. But yes, it's a must try! The serving itself is a LOT. And for 85php, believe me, it's worth it. It's actually just an iced tea shake infused with the flavor you chose and placed in a very tall glass. It's just pure juicy goodness that's cold to the last drop and no wastage on the ice, really :) I personally like their strawberry, dalandan and peach :)

Just right, simple coziness :)

And as a complimentary "dessert", we got Choc-nut!!! :) Love it!

Beat that!

And so the relaxing day ended (well not yet actually) very well with that very nice lunch :)



Till next time!


~2GBTG!

Namanama

It was a so-so day and since I arrived at my destination earlier than expected, I decided to re-visit one of my favorite eating places: NamaNama.

I think I already ate here like a year ago or less but I can remember this place well because they've got good ramen and very affordable at that :)

NamaNama

Location: Eastwood City, Libis, QC

How to get there:

If coming from Cubao, take a jeep that goes to IPI or De Castro.

If coming from Ortigas, take a jeep that goes to De Castro or Jenny's. Go down at IPI then take a jeep that goes to Cubao.

Look for the Cybermall. It's just at the end of the whole strip starting from Citibank.

This one's on the 3rd floor.

And there I was again at this small place. I actually wonder why there's not much people in this place but I'd think it's prolly the location. You'd actually have to know it exists so you'd go to it and if the mall's closed, it's closed too unlike the others that stay open late.

Anyways, that also means it's good time for me to focus on checking the food rather than the girls :P

Well, ain't that a cute background?

Well maybe you won't agree, but for me, it's Japanese-y enough for me (yeah, they look like Filipinos, fine). Also if you've noticed, they've got these weird chairs with holes on it. It's modern funky but I personally don't like in a practical sense.

Namanama actually comes from the combined names of the owner's (Leslie Yao) children: Nathan and Matti. They opened April 2009 in Eastwood. Leslie also owns Zuppa Cafe, the one just beside Namanama. Obviously, apart from the name, it's a Japanese-Asian fusion food place with mostly staples and some reinvented ones. Mostly rice plates but there are some noodle dishes as well.

And as mentioned, this place got very affordable prices :) And believe me, when you see their servings, you'd say "Whoah? Really? This much for that only?". But of course, you'd also say, the catch may be the taste. That's what we'll see then...

I remember ordering a seafood ramen back then and although I really wanted to get that again, my urge to try something else won. So I went and ordered this...

Name: Chicken Teriyaki Ramen (regular size)

Price: 95php

It's bigger in real-life :)

Oh if you noticed, it says regular. It would prolly take 1 and a half of a normal person (not my appetite in short) to finish this. So if you took the large one, there's prolly about 2-3 persons for that size. I'm just trying to describe serving size hehe.

But to be honest, this one isn't as good as the seafood ramen.

So the serving size is big: soup, noodles and the chicken part itself. No problems there.

The noodles firmness is good, not soggy and very tasty.

The chicken itself is (boneless thankfully) soft, slightly spicy (due to the loads of pepper) but inconveniently un-cut. While it looks cool that there's a big serving, it's a hassle that you'd have to cut the chicken so you can actually eat it. And I don't really taste the teriyaki much. :( 

Which now brings us to the soup: plain spicy, all peppery soup. It's fine prolly for peeps like me who likes pepper in soup but it's just...too much I guess. Don't get me wrong, it's not that awful but it ain't appetizing either.

So this one I'd say is a partial fail.

Name: Asian Grilled Pork Belly

Price: 135php

Asian grilled pork belly

And yes, I did order 2 dishes. Not because the ramen wasn't so good. I did order two because I was thinking it would take me a while to return here with all my backlog food stuff and whatnot haha.

So this one, also with big servings, was the one to win the night for me.

The pork was really thin and crispy and you can taste the marinate all over it. The grill was perfectly done to lock in the juices and sauce especially in the fatty parts. You don't even need a knife to cut the meat which is wonderful and you can actually eat all of it except that small piece of bone. It has this salty, slightly burnt taste with a small hint of garlic.

The laksa rice had a slight hint of spice and was pretty good too. It wasn't strong enough to overpower the pork's taste which is good because most of the time, in other places, it's the reverse. I didn't really get to use the chili and calamansi because there was no need to :)

Funnily enough, a good 10 minutes after I started eating, a bunch of people came in and looked at what I was eating and ordered the same. :)

I think I am going back soon hahaha.

~2GBTG!

Bob's of Bacolod Part 2

And so on this day, my boss had problems. So he wanted to release some pressure and eat somewhere. As mentioned before, Bob's is just near the office and since I had a very good experience from last time, I suggested to eat there. :)

Bob's from Bacolod

(please see: First Blog about Bob's)

So this time, I decided to try something else of course...

Name: Steak and Eggs

Price: 195php

Steak and Eggs

The steak was cooked medium so the meat is just right. I actually want it medium rare but my boss got it cooked medium. It's almost well done but still has a lil raw-ness in it. :) Anyways, the meat was practically lean all over and was very juicy. Actually I have a hard time describing meat like these as I feel like their tastes depend on how well done they are and what part was cooked. In any case, nothing really different here compared to other steaks. The size is worth it for the price although it is expensive (which is normal for steaks).

Name: Baby Back Ribs with Onion Rings (Daily Special version)

Price: 135php

Baby Back Ribs with Onion Rings

Well, I'm not really a fan of baby back ribs or ribs in general as I think it's not worth paying for the bone and they're usually expensive but I tried this because this is their value meal version. It's usually priced at 300+php but since this has a smaller serving size, the price is reduced too. But what I just realized is that the bone is actually what sets ribs apart from boneless meat dishes in terms of taste.

For one, you can't apply different done-ness on ribs because it's hard to even the cooking for meat stuck on bones. But on another note, the bones actually make sure that the flavor is retained regardless of the way it's cooked. So if you wonder why some people (or dogs for that matter) love lickin' em good on the bones, it's due to that...but I may be wrong hahaha.

So the ribs has this special marinate all over it. It's sweet and very mildly spicy. Not the typical BBQ sauce but you'd like it nevertheless. Meat is not tough at all and separates from the bone quite easily. And to my surprise, I actually got more meat than bone on this serving. :) Of course, I also licked the bone clean hehe and it was well worth it.

So really, as you can see, I've been to Bob's twice. It's value for money for the specials but if you have a lil extra cash, go ahead and buy the biggies. They're worth it too. :)

Till next time!

~2GBTG!

Bob's of Bacolod Part 1

One of my close friends has been working in the Makati area ever since.

Usually when I want to go out, I do mass texting in impromptu and check if anyone's available. When it's this friend who replies, I usually ignore it or say I can't meet up in his area. Why? Because I work in Ortigas and it's too much of a hassle to go there and go home afterwards.

Anyways, since I now work in almost the same area as he does, I invited him to meet up. Just near our office, there's this fairly new place that's all bright clear. I've been doing some practice shots during my lunch and outside office hours so I've been curious on this place for quite some time. So I suggested to my friend to eat there...

Bob's of Bacolod

(http://bobsbacolod.com)

Bob's of Bacolod

Location: G/F One Palanca Land Bldg., Dela Rosa St., Makati City

How to get there:

If you're from North, take a bus going to LRT/Ayala then ask the driver to drop you off Insular. From there, take the underpass going to the direction of the VGP center (this is the building across Starbuck's front NOT the one opposite Jollibee). Once on the other side, go to the corner to the left of the exit you came out of then continue down the sidewalk beside the overpass. You can see Bob's nearby and just across the street.

If you're from South, well, get a bus that goes to Ayala, go down at VGP center, go straight to the corner near the underpass' exit and continue on the sidewalk as described above.

Bob's is actually a name of a famous American burger back then. And Bob's from Bacolod actually started as a burger place in it's starting days. The server said the reason they did burgers instead of the expected inasal was because of the same reason: it's just common in Bacolod. After a while, they ventured into expanding their menu and built a branch in Magallanes then eventually at Dela Rosa, near Enterprise, at Makati. Interesting actually :)

The food is actually pricey and just by looking at the place, you'd know this ain't no fastfood...

Daily Specials

Nice lighting :)

 ...but later I'd discover it ain't bad at all and it was worth it in the end.

So I asked the waiter what their specialty was and he said the ones under the grilled section were the ones I'm looking for. So when I checked they had baby back-ribs, sate babe and grilled chicken among others. I then asked what Sate Babe meant and...I honestly forgot what he said hehe. I'll ask again on my next visit. But that was the one I tried.

Name: Sate Babe

Price: 145php

Sate Babe

The sate babe... well, I just looked at the oozing peanut sauce on it and I already knew, it would be a winner. Good thing it was :) First off, the peanut sauce was just so good. Like the peanut sauce I tried in Fu Yoh, this one was authentic. Sweet and salty, just right. Secondly, the peanut sauce was just so good. Wait did I just say that again? Haha. Anways, the serving size is big. Usually BBQ's or satays in other places have either little chunks, more fat or just a couple of pieces. But as you can see, that's four large chunks of all-meat. Tender, juicy and definitely not hotdog :p The meat is very chewy, the fiber isn't tough and it's obvious that the marinate seeped in well inside the meat (I tried eating a part without the sauce and it was very tasty).

It's definitely the peanut sauce

Name: Lechon Macau

Price: 225php

Lechon Macau

So the lechon macau looks like...lechon kawali. It doesn't look like the typical Chinese lechon macau that I know of. So does it taste like lechon kawali? I'd say pretty much yes but better in terms of usual serving size, the meat and the sauce. The meat is crunchy all the way through, meaning not just the fat but also the meat itself. And it's not over-fried as even after a while, it doesn't become tough to eat. And the sauce by the way, isn't generic. It's their own gravy. It's a bit sweet and lil salty then a hint of spicy (all small stuff huh?).

Crispy goodness :)

As I said, the prices of the above meals are pretty high but if you have the budget and are near the area, I'd highly recommend the place. Definitely worth the buck :)

For the next pictures, I just got so tempted to look (and almost eat) the cakes. They all look yummy but I had to settle at just looking :)

 

That's it! Maybe I'll get to try one of these cakes one of these days. :)

Until next time!

~2GBTG