Of Bagels & A Perfect Cup Of Cappuccino

my orders at LES Bagels

I have not explored this part of Taguig so whenever I'm in McKinley Hill, I make it a point to savor it as much as I can.

Noodles, Dimsum & Ice Cream

food at Mien San

I've always wanted to go to Mien San, a Taiwanese restaurant seated along that commercial strip in Granada Street, but for one reason or other, I always failed to do so. Bracing a long walk under the beat of the sun and pollution of smoke belching from various vehicles which might invariably cake my face with a horrid solution of dust and dirt were a few of the reasons that's holding me off. If I only knew beforehand how good the food offered at Mien San, I could have shrug off those aforementioned inconveniences of little importance.

A Quick Detour In Loyola Heights

coffee & gelato at Third District

People searching for the best grub in Quezon City (most notably the Ateneo part of the street) often goes to Katipunan because of the wide array of choices of restaurants. Especially now that UP Town Center is now in full swing, you might easily miss out the other "noteworthy" food places that foodies may also consider checking in nearby area. Like Loyola Heights.

A Quaint Little Italian Place

food at La Grotta

It's been quite a while since I last posted, I know. I've been sidetracked by a lot of things lately. Mostly, I've been reading a lot that pretty much preoccupied my free time. I finally finished the Lord Of The Rings books (thank heavens! I've been sitting down with that series for about a year now) and had read a couple of others more (most notably the memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel entitled Prozac Nation, which I quite enjoyed reading, and just started with a Louisa May Alcott classic, Little Women). But that doesn't excused me for not updating my online diary. So, I'll tell you about this quaint little Italian restaurant in Makati that I quite enjoyed dining recently.

Food Tripping w/ Ish

pizza and pasta at Todd English

It's a long overdue post; and my friend Ish, who's been with me on these food trips to BGC would wholeheartedly agree. But I'm finally posting this now on my online diary's 3rd year. 

From Healthy To Outrageously Sinful

vegan panniza at Edgy Veggy

Always had this conception that anything healthy, like vegan vegetarian kind of healthy, would also equate to an awfully tasteless meal. But how could I be sure of that if I haven't even tried eating an all-out vegetarian meal just to prove my case. I have watched vegan style cooking on the 3ABN Network before. I especially like if it's the Micheff Sisters turn to cook since they're always fun to watch, interjecting jokes here and there while whipping up vegan meals in their kitchen studio. And they were seem "genuine" expressing how good the food that they prepared sans any animal or milk products. Would I also elicit the same kind of reaction if I bite into a pizza with a cheese imitation topping made of tahini, firm tofu and soy?

Two Popular Affordable Eats In Eastwood

deep fried bacon wrapped burger

There's two food joints in Eastwood City that are constantly being frequented by people working in the area, mostly by call center agents like me. And the food joints that I'm referring to are Zark's Burgers and Kanto Freestyle Breakfast. The popularity of the two are based on affordability while also taking into consideration the amount of food offered. Making sure that you're really getting what you paid for. 

A Quick Food Tour At Paseo de Magallanes

Katipunan craft beer at The Bottle Shop

Very rarely I am in this part of Makati so whenever I'm in the area of Paseo de Magallanes, I try as much as I can to enjoy it in full blast. Food wise, that is.

Coffee Shops Round Up

coffee and cake at Subspace Coffee

The allure of coffee shops. While most of my friends would prefer milk tea shops as their favorite hang out place, I'd prefer the warm embrace of cafes and coffee shops. I find majority of the milk tea places too casual and too open (with the kiosk-like ambiance) for me to feel really relax and to warrant any privacy for me to enjoy whatever I ordered. With the exception of a few, like Saint's Alp Teahouse and some branches of Serenitea, most of these milk tea shops are either right smack in the middle of an alleyway inside the mall or positioned right beside a supermarket where passersby could easily ogle at you and your food. Something I find a little irksome especially if I'm feeling anti-social.

But cafes offers coziness and comfortability that I just keep coming back to. Plus, I'm a self-proclaimed caffeine addict. Here are some of the coffee shops and cafes that I recently enjoyed visiting.

Searching For That Chocolate Cake That Would Sweep Me Off My Feet

chocolate desserts at Maitre Chocolatier

Did you ever get tired of eating something you fervently loved for the longest time? That happened to me recently. With a kind of dessert adored by many. What every girl (and some guys I know) ultimate brand of sugar rush and something they couldn't get enough of. The chocolate cake. There was a time that most chocolate cakes I've tried from various food places and establishments seems to be either too dry or has that one track chocolate flavor that I easily get fed up eating.  So I avoided this dessert as someone would avoid eating an ampalaya (bitter gourd), for instance. But I've come to realize that maybe I'm not looking at the right places in getting better quality chocolate cakes. So I set off to visit two establishments that specializes in---what else?---but chocolates, in hopes that it would ignite again my affection to this dessert.

How I Celebrated My Birthday (Last Part)

panizze at Mona Lisa Ristorante

Of course, celebrating this special day with my friends wouldn't just end at eating an outstanding dinner at Kettle. I also wanted to spend some time to chill with them over drinks. The original plan was to knock down some Paulaner beer at Brotzeit but I came across this post by Richard Co of Tales From The Tummy about a cozy hang out place that offers quite an impressive selection of cocktails near Ortigas Home Depot called Detalle. I broach the idea to my friends if they want to check out the place and they agreed instantly. 

How I Celebrated My Birthday (First Part)

food at Green Pastures

I know it's been a while since I last posted. My seemingly erratic schedule is partly to blame. But mostly inspiration to write is hard to come by. A number of times I tried to sit down to write a post but the moment I started to type, I couldn't even finish a single sentence. It's like staring on a big white canvass and not equipped with any ink or paint to splash on it in order to create something. So I decided to visit places (food places, that is) that I've been dreaming for the longest time of going in hopes to re-charge me and re-ignite the passion (or fire, if you will) on something that is very important to me, which is my online diary. And my recently held birthday gave that license to splurge a little and to make it very memorable.

If Only Road Is Always Made Of Silk

food at Silk Road

It's really a shame of me not to indulge in Asian cuisine much often. Primarily because European and Western food is what I always gravitate whenever scanning new (at least for me) restaurants to eat and dine. But that could possibly change with Silk Road, which maybe the sleekest and most beautiful restaurant I've been to recently.

The Milkshake That Could Bring You To Ecstasy

food at Sweet Ecstasy

Would it really be possible to reach sweet ecstasy? I think so. I'm an easy to please kind of person. Especially with food. Simple yet properly executed grubs can really get me to ecstasy. Food ecstasy, that is. What were you thinking? :)

I Like My Coffee Crafted This Way

a strong brew of coffee at Craft

As far as I know, Craft Coffee Revolution (then called Craft Coffee Workshop) started out in New Manila. I'm not really too keen on that part of the metro. I usually rely on Google Maps if the place is quite dubious for me. But sometimes I also get confused using it and I oftentimes read the maps wrong. Forgive me. I'm not really that good with geography. So you could just imagine my happiness when I've learned that Craft finally decided to branch out to places I'm quite familiar with.

A Maple On Your Pancake Would Do You Good

pancake at Maples

I adore breakfast. Who could just resist the sweet aroma of just cooked garlic fried rice and a side of longganisa or cheese omelette with ham or even just a perfectly cooked sunny side up egg sprinkled with some salt? Or even better, pancakes or waffles. Fluffy orbs dusted with some powdered sugar then slathered with butter and syrup. And if the flapjacks in question are as big as the plate it sits on, then I'll just jump on my feet and shout for joy.

A High End Deli Cafe and One Wickedly Impressive Dessert Place

desserts at Wicked

Edsa-Shangrila's East Wing has never been this exciting, especially for those on the look out for exceptional choices of food places to try. I went here one weekend, purposefully to try out Kettle but decided to look around a bit to check which other restaurants that recently opened. And also to find out where Maple is, yet another restaurant I've been eyeing to try (which I've already been to recently and will tell you about it on another post *wink*).

A Bowl Of Ramen You Wouldn't Want To Share With Anyone

food at Nomama

Ramen isn't something that I sought for to eat. Aside from the fact that it fills you up easily and robbing you of the luxury to try other food at your disposal (wallet-wise), I find it too tiresome to eat those long ribbons of noddles and getting all sweaty while eating is not in my book of comfortable eating. 

A Lyrical Night Of Binging

food at Nolita

I'm walking briskly. I'm already a few minutes late from our agreed meet-up. The traffic in C5 is partly to blame. But it's always traffic in C5, my mind would retort. I told my fussy mind to hush. I'm only just a few kilometers away to Bonifacio High Street Central. Karen texted me that she's already in Slice, that cozy bakery cafe beside Jamba Juice where the goodness of their Brown Rice Arroz Caldo still tattooed every so finely in my memory bank.

We Love To Have Some Pho...and Vietnamese Veggie Fix, Too

pho at Pho 24

Of late, I've only visited Asian-themed restaurants too infrequently that I could only count it with just one hand. So enamored am I of food places that offers pastas, pizzas and burgers that I overlooked the beauty and the flavorful promise that only Asian cuisines could offer. A shameful admission, I know. And I plan to change that in the coming weeks and months. I'm off to a good start when I visited Pho 24 in Libis along with a group of friends just recently.

Romantic Meals For A Table For One

the kouign amann at Brasserie Cicou

I was meaning to post this for Valentines. But since I'm such a slowpoke when it comes to writing articles for this online diary, plus inspiration to write a romantic post was sorta, kinda hard to find (surprise! surprise!) so this will serve as my first post for the month of March. And I'm not gonna try to make this a (to quote a phrase from that 90's hit TV show Ally McBeal) "sappy-sappy-puke-sappy" narration because to tell you honestly, it isn't gonna work. Nuh uh!

A Day w/ Kat

dessert pies at Pi

Kat approached me to my station one day asking me if I care to join her to try out Parrillada Grill in Maginhawa Street. Her invitation seem felicitous since I've been meaning to try Parrillada for quite sometime now. Heck! Just to be back in Maginhawa and get the chance to explore again its treasure trove of food is enough to give me an exhilaration akin to those tripsters and hippies who have been heavily shot with cocaine. Not that I know how it was like to be high on coke but I would guess you already get the picture, right? Hehehe! ;)

Coffee Shops & It's Load Of Goodies

What I normally do inside a coffee shop: eat, sip and read a good book

Food establishments, especially coffee shops, are the ones that I usually gravitate no matter what mood I'm in. Whether I'm in a celebratory mood for earning a work related incentive, or to ease myself back to normalcy from the frenetic schedule of the past week at the office, or maybe to set the mood with the suspense-thriller fiction I'm currently engrossed reading, or to bawl my frustrations about life and love with my closest friends. But these days, I head to these food places to nurse a weary heart. A lot of things occupy my mind lately and these food places helped me to take it slow, gather my resolve and refuel myself to pick up steam for the next journey.

A Sudden Whim Fulfilled

desserts at Chateau 1771

Learning new stuff could be quite of a challenge. This prove to be the case after I got transferred to a new line of business in the company I'm currently working with. Good thing I'm getting ample support from friends and mentors that helps me to get by. But after one tedious workweek, I got this yearning to feed myself of some homey, comforting meal which also offers a very relaxing ambiance. Never mind if I have to brace the bumper-to-bumper traffic from Eastwood to Makati. If it would immensely satisfy my hankering, then I deem the long travel inconsequential.

Remembering Good Meals Eaten In A Not Too Distant Past

juicy lucy burger at 2nd's

Good meals should always be remembered with reverence, I'd say. Don't worry, I'll try to make this list a short as possible and will try to cut the needless babble so as not to bore you, I hope. =)

A Date With Nanay On Her Birthday

cupcakes and eclairs at Shine

My Nanay is not as adventurous to food and eating as I am. Whenever we're out and about, she would often ask me to take her to a fast food chain and she would be more than happy twirling her plastic fork on a spaghetti with lots of hotdogs and cheese or to munch on a crispy fried chicken dipped in gravy. She would already consider it high end eating if I take her to a Pizza Hut restaurant. Oftentimes I broach to her the idea of trying out a different restaurant but she always views it with abject horror. It's like pulling her out of her comfort zone. You could just imagine my surprise (and uncontrolled glee) when she agrees that I take her to Shine Bakery & Cafe on her birthday.

An Affordable Meat Lovers' Haven

porterhouse at Beeffalo

A pop-up message on FB chat from my friend Louie Lyn asking me if I ever heard of Beeffalo, a steak and rib house in Marikina. I've never heard of Beeffalo but the mere mention that they offer steaks and ribs and it's situated in Marikina, a treasure trove of a place for some of the best eating places one could find in the metro were already enough to get my attention. We immediately set out a plan on how to meet. Dubious I am of how I read Google Maps when I tried to search for Beeffalo's location, I inquired via their Facebook page on how to get there. I was just so happy when the page's moderator promptly replied to my inquiry, giving specific landmarks for us not to get lost.