Healthy Chicken

This is the second time I'm posting a home-cooked meal at home, and I hope you will like it. Why? Because I just found a great chicken brand at the grocery store. 

Whenever my Mom buys raw chicken, she always reminds me to never forget to take out the slimy mucous that coats the flesh, the one that lies buried underneath the skin. She says it is that part that creates all sorts of diseases in the body. So I rarely buy raw chicken, because I know I have to do that tedious task of taking out the slime. Even with fast food chains that sell chicken, you will notice the slime underneath the salty crispy, breaded skin. Gross, right? Oh well, if you can't help ordering fast food chicken, just take out the slime.

Some say the slime is just natural fat and tissue. Maybe, but I just bought Pamora Free Range Chicken at the grocery, and the frozen chicken didn't have any slime or smell. I just rinsed the drumstick parts after they were thawed and made adobo out of it. It was so good. There is no secret recipe either. I just seared the parts in garlic, added soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves and black pepper. Simmer until the sauced is reduced. The pieces were tender and juicy. So good. 

At P185 for five pieces, it wasn't cheap. I wish it was more affordable though.
The Ziplock bag that it came in didn't have the characteristic chicken smell and slime that usually sticks to the bags that raw chicken comes in. Truly a revelation for me. :)

With brown rice and steamed sayote--yum!


I have also tried the The Farm Organics label at The Landmark after seeing the post on Daphne.ph, and the meat quality is also superb. The styrofoam plate that the raw meat is encased is easily rinsed too and leaves no trace of the characteristic smell of meat.  So inspiring.


I wish we can all......eat healthy all the time! Take care!

M and I spend a lot of time going to different places, I might as well turn this into a travel blog. Last Saturday,  M surprised me on a trip to Bataan. He just asked me to pack for an overnight trip and asked me to trust him. Fine, I was anxious the whole time because I didn't know what to pack, whether we were going somewhere cool or warm. But I took his word, and relaxed, packed very little and waited for three hours. After seeing the Welcome to Bataan sign, I knew we were going to- Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. Ever since we saw the website a year ago, we've been meaning to go. There was even a Deal Grocer promo, but we weren't able to avail of it. I think there is still an ongoing DG promo for six people :) Check it out.

So we left Manila at 9 in the morning, and arrived in the resort at around lunch time. We booked a room ( lucky too that we had anything to stay in, because they were running out of rooms.Lesson: Book ahead.), We had lunch at Cafe Marivent, the main and only restaurant operating as of that last week. They serve classic Filipino and Spanish cuisine. We availed of the Set Lunch at P390 each. Not cheap this place. We had a choice of Grilled Fish, Pork or Chicken. It was accompanied by sauteed Togue, Crab&Corn Soup and Leche Flan. Satisfying but not amazing.. 

After freshening up, we headed back to the main casa for the tour. There are tours every hour, until 4:30 pm. We took the 3:30 tour so we could avoid the possible rains in the evening. We were done in an hour or so. We took another stroll at the beachside after getting some Fishballs and Kikiam at Kainan sa Plaza Belmonte.  Such fun!

The fishballs were better than the Kikiam. And request for the suka (vinegar dip). :)

In the evening, the resort management set up dinner at the grounds so we could also witness the folk dance presentation. Alas, it rained before we could eat. Although that was also a good thing because we had time to move in. We ordered the following for dinner (also at Cafe Marivent):

Pinakbet with Bagnet

Yum, this is the best dish we've ordered here. The only one that we really liked.  The salty and tasty bagoong   melded the bitter vegetables very well. The crispy pork which was placed gingerly on top of the veggies is a great way of adding the meat without making it soggy. Yumyum!

Kilawin

I'm not sure if this was Blue Marlin, but the fish was cooked too long in the vinegar. It  was  okay.

In the morning, we woke up rather late. Too tired from walking around the cobbled paths, we rushed off  to Cafe Marivent before they stopped serving breakfast. We were given a choice of Daing, Longganis and Tocino.

The Longganisa (Pork sausage) was on the sweetish side, probably a Lukban recipe.

The Daing na Bangus (Marinated Milkfish) was large and tasty.

The Daing na Bangus won. 

We could have stayed longer. But then, it's not going to be very hard to come back. Someday soon, we will. And we hope to get that studio shot :)

Maraming Salamat, Las Casas sa inyong mainit na pagtanggap. Sa uulitin.

Rainy Season Treat -Soup!

The rainy, muggy weather is back. We're getting a lot of clouds and drizzle, and this means another round of rainy day food trips. What do you like to eat on rainy days? Most of us would enjoy something hot or warm like a cup of a favorite caffeine. Or maybe a bowl of hot soup. I like soup. It goes fast when I'm really hungry and satisfies every bit of my cells instantly. Must be why instant noodle soup is a popular staple food among the masses, but that's another topic :P

My all time favorite soup would be the Filipino favorite- sinigang. Steaming hot, sour and salty. I should be looking for my sinigang restaurant favorite. But since I got married to M, I've been getting used to all things spicy. It took me some time, but this muggy weather is reminding me of that bowl of spicy Laksa in Toast Box.

Laksa

As you can see from the date on the photo, we had this soup early this year. Quite a late post. This bowl is full of seafood and dumplings, the broth a spicy hot and creamy coconut broth. The bowl  should be so good with rice, but I don't think they serve rice.(I think I've become really insistent with the rice issue.hehe).  I can eat this thing in between gulps of water,while panting and catching for breath. We also had...

Floss Toast Sandwich
I like toast and I like pork floss. So this sandwich should be good, right? Right! This one's great with the Milo or Horlicks Dinosaur. And the soup above should really have a cup of rice beside it. Maybe someday they can serve rice? 
I want to go back soon. Enjoy the clouds, everyone :)

BHS Central Find Number 1

I had the busiest 7 weeks to date. It had been a series of events and family visits since May, and although it was fun I missed the blog. :D I did.

M and I went to a lot of food trips- two summer weddings, an office outing, and another getaway to one home province. In between,  we went out to food trips with family who visited the metro. It was a busy summer!

When we visited Bonifacio High Street Central , we were happy to find new places to eat. It's so nice there. There's an arena and at the bottom of it is an interactive fountain, much like the one in Market Market, only bigger and nicer. :) Kids go crazy over this thing.  

We looked up Our Awesome Planet, and found a good review of Stella, and so in we went.

Stella is a wood fire bistro, with a very elegant and light interior. I usually associate bistros with dark wood and hardwood furniture. Not this one. It seemed like a French cafe, actually. There was an adjoining bar on the other side of a wall with a tinted glass window- so we can fairly see what's happening  in the bar while we're having dinner.  Oh, and according to pareng Google, stella means star-this explains the star up above the top shelf.:) 

For starters, the waiter handed us a basket full of bread and made us pick one  piece of bread each.  Complimentary. Kind of awkward  this way of picking just one piece from a basket full of bread. This is the first time I've seen it done this way. I wish I didn't have to pick if I was getting just one piece. I wish they would change this. Or maybe we could pick from a menu instead of from the basket, if picking is part of the deal. Anyways, I picked a mini baguette, and M got a tomato bread. His choice was way better.

This was the dip for the bread. 

 Bone Marrow (395)
with a yummy Rosemary Sultana Compote, Gremolata, Herb Garlic Focaccia Crisps.


If there was any reason why we picked this restaurant for the evening, it was because I wanted to try this dish.   It wasn't roasted enough for me. But I did like the accompanying sides. 

Mediterranean NZ Lamb "Shepherd's Stew" (495)

This was M's dish. It didn't look large enough for him at first, since this bowl is a little small, but under the pumpkin puree is a lot of lamb meat. I think this was okay for him. Not amazing but better than the other dishes save for...

Stella Salad (295)
My order. I was going to make do with salad for the evening since it had bacon in it. But it looked so inviting that I had to share with the three of us. This salad is good. It had a light and creamy dressing, the bacon crisps were wide and salty good. So I shared, and I think I shouldn't have. Hehehe.

California Style Baby Back Ribs (395)
This was the other meat dish on the table. It was very big and tender. Sadly though, the sauce wasn't smoky enough for me. It was too tomato-ey. A good spicy and smoky sauce would have been perfect. The sauce does remind me to be more Middle Eastern in flavor. I think most of their dishes seem that way, including the lamb.
After dinner, we walked to a Happy Lemon outlet at the High Street. This was going to be my first time to try one and so I got their most popular flavor-

Green Tea with Rock Salt and Cheese

I admit I expected to be weirded out. But I liked it!:D
The cheese was a very light and frothy creamy milk on top of a strong and iced Jasmine green tea.
Refreshing! So glad we don't have to drive to faraway Mandaluyong just to try this. :D



Rock on.

Happy Mother's Day!


In honor of my own Mommy, I am going to post something I recently whipped in my kitchen, which reminded me of her so much.


I just whisked together all the vegetables in the fridge and surprisingly came up with  a pretty array of vegetables which I will call  ----

Summer Vegetable Stir Fry


You see, next to rice, my Mom likes to stir fry leftovers in our ref. She believes in using whatever is available or on hand:) This creation is meat free- the mushrooms add the protein component.


I just sauteed some garlic, then added the shiitake mushrooms. I allowed the mushrooms to steam for a few minutes. After which I threw in some celery and then  some broccoli florets and asparagus tips. I allow the veggies to know each other a little, and then I threw in some sliced carrots. I added some salt and pepper to taste. You can also add in some sesame oil if you like some nutty Asian flavor.


I threw in some boiled pasta spirals after, but this is also delicious with rice. :)




I wish I ate healthy all the time. But I'm only human. But whenever I do find some beautiful produce, I am inspired to make some healthy creations for my M and I. I am so lucky he likes veggies too. This is so easy and, the results are so pretty to look at!


I hope I can make some when my family visits soon. In the meantime, I'm off for some greats finds tomorrow at the grocery. Wish me luck!


Happy Mother's Day!

Trying Japanese Fusion at Mangetsu

It was a rainy Friday evening when my lovely friend, Nice,  invited us to Mangetsu on the eve of her birthday. Mangetsu is a chic Japanese fusion restaurant.

That evening,  I was late. I had to wait for the dear M so we could go together for dinner. Plus metro people, you know  what it means to get a cab on a Friday evening, yes? Horror. I had to surrender to a harassed Mom and a couple of shorts clad teenage girls at the cab drop off point. Plus, it was drizzling, etc and more excuses. :D

It's a good thing we still had some dinner left when we arrived. The first thing I noticed when we arrived at Mangetsu's doorstep were the colors of the place. Truly Japanese. Grays, beige, blacks and reds.  I felt like we were back in Tokyo ( we were there last November, remember?) I loved the feel of the place. So authentic. We were brought up to the second floor where the gang was waiting at a reserved area. Cool. Privacy!

When we got to the tables, I gushed on the dinnerware. Sigh... lovely.

I am particularly enamored by this pretty plate.

And check out the cutlery. They use this really tiny slotted spatula as serving spoon. 

The little bowl beside it is a condiment bowl. Cutie!

Wait.  Food. 

Sushi platter

Too bad I didn't have some of this. I'm trying to avoid raw fish as much as possible for health reasons. 

Oh, but I was really tempted.

Sukiyaki

This is a classic Japanese noodle soup with beef ,tofu, and leeks and lightly seasoned 

with soy sauce and mirin. It was okay. There's better somewhere. But kudos to the staff for reheating it for the latecomers like us. Service is good :)

Tori Karaage

Fried chicken. Good. This one was really tasty. And the prawn chips on the side was a hit!:)

Cheese Tofu Gratin




The piece de resistance. This is composed of tofu blocks swimming in a pool of spiced mozzarella cheese . I suspect the spice is nacho chips! It's soooo good, and when you get a block of tofu, the cheese stretches like forever! Ah, fusion! Oh, and check out the spatula again :) 


I wasn't there when they were ordering so I wasn't able to peek into the actual menu. But they do have a website. 


You will also enjoy their artworks. I did! I love Japanese art.
 It's so detailed, and yet simple. 
So calm, yet colorful. 

This is my Cinco de Mayo foodtrip because my friend's birthday falls on the 5th of May. 
Happy birthday again, Nice!

These crab cakes and that shake!

What is it about men and sports that drives them out of their caves and makes them travel from one "city" to another just to be able to watch a live telecast of their favorite game? It's crazy!! 

M called me out of the  blue to "invite" me to lunch at Italianni's The Fort because his favorite game was being telecast live at that branch. I had lunch when he called so the invitation was late, but the thought of him rushing there to watch that game was just too much for me to resist. I needed to get some baking ingredients at the grocery anyways. 

I arrived after the game was over, and he was doing some work, and using the available wifi. I ordered a special on the menu-the Crab Cakes Capri. I thought they would be a light and filling supplement to my leftover pizza lunch :D Seafood is summer food! These were really good!

Crab Cakes Capri (P175)

Pure white, flaky, juicy real crab meat. Yum.  Good deal!

There were 6 pieces to this order. M had enough of the pasta that he ordered so he didn't get any of this. I was so full after. I think 2-3 people should share this dish. 2 would be perfect, 3's fine.

   

Strawberry Shake 

It was so hot outside... er, if you live in Metro Manila, I think you know how hot this summer is. 

I then ordered a truly refreshing Strawberry Shake that got me right in the mood to explore The Fort. It was full of fresh strawberries, with a hint of mint. I'm not so sure but I think this beverage cost as much as the Crab Cakes. Hehe.

It's so good that I would like to thank the Lord for the creation of the blender :D

I've had the Peach Mango from Shiok and this awesome Strawberry Shake 
from Italianni's to make this summer refreshing.

What's your summer drink this year?:)