Entries Tagged 'Spanish' ↓

I’ve been to the relatively new Mega Fashion Hall food scene of SM Megamall quite a number of times already. And Alqueria is one of those restaurants that will capture your fancy from its name alone, which means ‘farmhouse‘.

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Arabian Coffee Maker @Lugang Cafe

16 restaurants, 4 hours, 1 stomach. That in a summary, is how you would describe in numbers the SM Megamall “Mega Food Tour” held the other night at the new wing called Mega Fashion Hall. It almost broke my 18-restaurant- food-tour record back in 2009. 🙂

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There are four numbers to remember from this ‘Awesome Secret Foodies Tour‘ – they are 8, 20, 3, & 1000. The numerals represent 8 restaurants, a 20-course degustation, 3 Hours, and 1000 pesos.

Foodies Anton Diaz, RJ Ledesma, wifey Marjorie Uy & NomNom!

The Tuscany Food Tour at McKinley Hill in Fort Bonifacio presents a 20-course degustation spread among 8 restaurants that intends to continually fill your tummies for 3 hours. All these for a measly P1,000 from you pocket. Moreover, 2 of the metro’s iconic foodies – RJ Ledesma and Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet – will join the group of 30 to make the experience more engaging.

Participating Restaurants in the Food Tour:

• Sauceria
• Planet Grapes
• L.E.S. Bagels
• Main Street
• Sophie’s Mom
• B&T Mexican Kitchen
• Marciano’s
• Trattoria Poggio Antico

Not to keep you wanting for too long, let’s take a peek on what the 8 restos  have to offer:

Planet Grapes

Wine pairing at Planet Grapes plus choice of one red wine and one white wine:

Planet Grapes

Wines include Folie a Deux Merlot 2010, Joel Gott Riesling 2011, and Kunde Family Chardonnay 2011, among others

RJ Ledesma joins Our Awesome Planet in hosting the Tuscany Food Tour

Trattoria Poggio Antico

4-in-1: Prosciutto con Melon (ham and melon on pizza crust), Crespella del Poggio Antico (crepe stuffed with ham and cheese, and mushrooms in truffle oil), Pomodoro e Mozzarella Crostini and assorted pizzetas, and Oyster Sur Pate di Fegato (oyster on liver pate)

This Foodie Tour come in a Group of 30

….or simply your small group of friends

B&T Mexican Chicken

B&T Mexican Kitchen

Chipotle Chicken Pizza, Mango Glazed Habanero Chicken, Taquitos Espesyal with Barbacoa, & Nachos with Assorted Dips [+ Awesome “Rice” drink on the left]

Chicken Mole

L.E.S. Bagels

L.E.S. Bagels with assorted Cream Cheese Filling (NomNom Tip: :I love the one with black sesame seeds)

Marciano’s

West Side Four Season Pizza; (not in photo: Woody Allen Linguine)

Dow Jones – US T-bone with prawns, potato wedges, sausages, and roasted vegetables

Sauceria

Feta Cilantro Tomato Cocas – Spanish style pizza

Artisanal All-Beef Burger with tuyo blue cheese spread in a Furikaki bun

Tuna Tataki – Zaru Soba with homemade wasabi sour cream dip

Main Street

Poutine – thick-cut fries served with beef gravy and cheese curds (best with San Miguel Beer)

Wagyu Burger – Kitayama beef in sesame buns served with tomato relish, cheddar cheese and their very own house sauce

BEST DESSERT in this tour: Organic Maple and Candied Bacon Artisan Ice Cream (using vanilla maple base)

Sophie’s Mom

The place is dainty and cute fit for the little princess. However,  I’m not sure if the Red Velvet shown below will be offered because the tour menu only indicated Oreo Cheesecake Cookies and Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes (fyi). Any which way, you could always order it independently. 🙂

Red Velvet Cupcake (display only)

The “An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour” is presented by Megaworld Lifestyle Malls for you to discover Tuscany’s best kept secrets starting today (November 30) and for the next three more Saturdays (December 7, 14 and 21) from 2pm to 5pm.

The experience will enable you to taste a little bit of everything and get a feel of the place before splurging out on an entire meal. Only a limited set of 30 tickets will be available per date tour so hurry up and get your tickets at designated booths near the Tuscany Grand Villas Gate from 11:00am to 6:00pm (between Ukkokei Ramen Ron and Marciano’s).

An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour @ Tuscany

For more information, you may call 709-0888, 709-9888 or 0917-838-0111.

Food Tour Tip: Eat slowly and enjoy the company as much as you would the food. Each participant will be given a tour kit including the tour ticket, tour pin, degustation menu and the McKinley Hill Gourmet Guide.

NomNom Top Picks are:

• Main Strreet’s Organic Maple and Candied Bacon Artisan Ice Cream
• Sauceria’s Tuna Tataki
• Sauceria’s Feta Cilantro Tomato Cocas
• Marciano’s West Side Four Season Pizza
• L.E.S. Bagels with black sesame seed (I forgot the name; it was long 🙂
• B&T Mexican Kitchen’s “Rice” drink
• Planet Grapes’ Torrontes wine.

Join this mouthwatering degustation at Tuscany in McKinley Hill with your friends and family and I’m sure you will enjoy it as much as we did during the media tour. This Tuscany Food Tour is a secret no more, but remains awesome for the next 4 Saturdays.

Tagged as “where great minds come together to shop and dine,” the Ayala group has created a new lifestyle hub in Quezon City called UP Town Center.

Cotton On (non-restaurant)

Located in between UP Diliman campus and Ateneo De Manila University, the UP Town Center is patterned after the tradition of great university town centers around the world. The 7.4 hectare UP Diliman East Campus property along Katipunan Avenue in QC has been transformed into a “mixed-use retail and office development“.

Premium retailers, services, and restaurants will serve the needs and demands of office tenants, students, workers and surrounding residential communities surrounding the area.

What makes it unique from the usual retail developments is its bias of support for industry-academe collaboration such as on-the-job training and incubation of start-up businesses. Its operating hours is from Sunday – Thursday 10 AM to 9 PM; Friday & Saturday 10 AM to 10 PM.

Here are some establishments that are currently operating at the UP Town Center:

Ba Noi’s

Cafe Shibuya

Family Mart

Ginza Bairin

Highlands Coffee

IHOP Philippines

• Ba Noi’s
• Cafe Shibuya
• Family Mart
• Ginza Bairin
• Highlands Coffee
• IHOP Philippines
• J Co Donuts & Coffee
• Kos Greek Ouzeri
• Lucca Bakery
• Red Onion Cafe
• Ryu Ramen & Curry
• Salu-Salo
• Shrimp Bucket
• Steveston Pizza
• Tea Rock
• Tokyo Tonteki
• Torch
• Vanilla Cupcakes

J Co Donuts & Coffee

Kos Greek Ouzeri

Lucca Bakery

Red Onion Cafe

Ryu Ramen & Curry

Salu-Salo

Liberty

Not in Photo:

• Boon Tong Kee Philippines
• 8 Cuts Burger Blends
• Dulcelin Gourmet
• Casa Verde
• Pinac
• The Primary Kitchen Bar

Shrimp Bucket

Steveston Pizza

Tea Rock

Tokyo Tonteki

Torch

Soon to Open:

• Aeropostale

UP Town Center
1101 Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
uptowncenter.info@gmail.com
http://www.ayalamalls.com.ph/

Vanilla Cupcakes

I was able to dine at Ginza Bairin. Watch out for its feature here in NomNom Club soon! Enjoy special treats at the UP Town Center when you present your student ID until November 30, 2013!

If you think that Jupiter street in Makati is already packed and has almost all kinds of restaurants from the mainstream food industry, think again. A Chinese restaurant called RK Garden along Jupiter corner Antares streets has just opened a few months ago.

Baked Crab

Brief History

Originally from Tagum in Davao, the owners saw the restaurant’s potential in the busy streets of the metro so they brought it here in Manila. Although I initially felt that the brand name is quite off for a Chinese restaurant, I cannot argue with its historical roots. R stands for one of the owner’s name “Rose“. “Garden” was added by way of habit care of the Davao customers, and moving to Manila somehow persisted the “Restaurant” part.

RK Special Chopsuey (P278)

What Makes Them Unique

What makes RK Garden Restaurant unique are their “kinilaw” dishes. Yes you read that right – kinilaw. I cannot overemphasize the presence of kinilaw in a Chinese restaurant. And specially for a tsinoy like me who is used to Chinese cuisine, it somehow violated my 34-year notion of what dishes should be found in a Chinese restaurant. 🙂

Nonetheless, the presence of kinilaw in this Chinese restaurant has a good explanation  Kinilaw is Rose‘s specialty back in Davao and what they are known for all around town. They are so famous for it that it is also the reason why I will be visiting RK Garden Restaurant again very soon.

Kinilaw Dishes to Order

Having mentioned all that above, I was only able to try two kinilaw dishes; of which I was extremely satisfied. And this is coming from a non-fan of kinilaw, to say the least.

For the uninitiated, knilaw ingredients are usually composed of ginger, onion, lemon/kalamansi juice, and red/green chili, marinated in vinegar and seasoned with salt. Most of the time, kinilaw is served as an appetizer in the Philippines but in this case, the serving is big enough to be one of the main dish.

Kinilaw Malasugi S-P198; L-P396

Kinilaw Malasugi

We had Kinilaw Malasugi (Swordfish Ceviche) /Marlin / Blue Marlin that night. I think what did the trick was the right mix of vinegar and spices; and of course, the fish should be fresh and of good quality to start with.

A small serving of Kinilaw Malasugi costs P 198 ; the large one is P 396. Not too expensive, but definitely not cheap. Nonetheless, it’s worth the price.

Kinilaw Suahe (Top Photo)

They saved the best one for last. I thought Kinilaw Malasugi was already a surprise but  Kinilaw Suahe was even better. If you love shrimps or suahe and kinilaw, this one is truly worth the visit even if you’re from far-off Quezon City like me (former Makati resident).

The price tag of this dish is not indicated because of seasonality, but you can estimate it at about P200/100 grams on a good season.

Other Chinese Dishes

Here are the other ‘Chinese’ dishes (not yet posted above) you would usually expect from a Chinese restaurant. They are good orders as well, specially the crabs although they are expectedly quite expensive.

Century Egg with Seaweed (P180); background: Yang Chow Friend Rice (Large – P276)

Left – RK Marshmallow Shake (P150); Right – RK Avocado Shake (P150)

RK Green Seafood Soup (Small- P298, Large- P596); Background: RK Special Red Iced Tea (P95 Refillable)

Patatim (P598)

Lapu-Lapu Steamed with Soy Sauce (seasonal price)

Fried Spareribs with Salt & Pepper (P298)

Steamed Crab with Garlic (seasonal price)

On a last note (for the owners), the interiors of the restaurant, which unfortunately I forgot to take photos of, has a lot of room for improvement. But we’re letting that pass since their kinilaw is superb! 😛

RK Garden Restaurant
Jupiter corner Antares Streets, Makati City, Philippines
(02) 519 9434 Operations 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
http://www.facebook.com/pages/RK-Garden-Chinese-Seafood-Restaurant/580510921961852

 

Chef Greg Villalon

In a predominantly Catholic country such as the Philippines, Good Friday symbolizes the commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Aside from the prohibition of taking a bath after 3pm, one other observed tradition is the abstinence of eating meat. And so, I found this sardines recipe from Mega Creations Premium Sardines (from the creators of Mega Sardines) a fitting post today. 🙂

Mega Creations Premium Sardines (L-R, Natural Oil, Spanish Style)

A few weeks ago, Mega Creations Premium Sardines, together with Global Academy Head of Operations Chef Greg Villalon, demonstrated that tasty meals can be easily prepared even using common household ingredients in less than half an hour.

The sardines come in two variants: in natural oil and in spanish style. One of the dishes / recipes cooked with a twist was the Moroccan Sardine and Sweet Potato Casserole. It was my favorite and deserves a feature here:

Moroccan Sardine and Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe:

Ingredients

• 6 Cans – Mega Creations Premium Sardines Spanish Style (chopped)
• 2 Cups – Spinach leaves (chopped)
• 2 Cups – Red Bell pepper (strips)
• 1/2 Cup – Raisins
• 1 Cup – White onion (minced)
• 2 Tbsp – Cinnamon powder
• 2 Tbsp – Cumin powder
• 1 Tbsp – Turmeric powder
• 6 Tbsp – Tomato paste
• 1/2 Cup – Olive oil
• To taste – Salt
• To taste – White pepper

Sweet Potato Mash

Moroccan Sardine and Sweet Potato CasseroleSweet Potato Mash

• 1 Kilo – Orange sweet potato (peeled and cubed)
• 2 Cups – Milk
• 6 Tbsp – Butter (softened)
• To taste – Salt
• To taste – White Pepper

Cheese Crust

• 1 Cup – Cheddar cheese (grated)
• 1 Cup – Japanese bread crumbs
• As needed – Butter

Procedure:

1. Peel, chop, and boil sweet potatoes until soft enough for a knife to go through it. Drain off the sweet potatoes before mashing with a fork.
2. Place mashed sweet potatoes in a pan, then incorporate milk and softened butter until desired consistency is achieved. Season to taste then set aside.
3. Heat olive oil in a sauté pan then add onions, peppers, spinach, and raisins. Briefly saute, then add all the spices and leave in the pan until fragrant.
4. Add the potato paste and stir well. Next, add the Mega Creations Premium Sardines and mash thoroughly until a “spreadable texture” is achieved. Season to taste, then set aside.
5. Assemble the dish on a casserole or a Pyrex dish. The ingredients will be layered similar to a lasagna dish, with the first layer made of sweet potato puree, and then topped with the spinach mixture. Repeat the process until you fill the casserole.
6. Sprinkle the cheese crust on top then add slices of butter to cover the whole dish.
7. Bake in a 375° F oven for about 30-45 mins or until the crust has browned.
8. Serve and enjoy!

Chef Greg Villalon with Chef Rose Bud

Asian Style Sardines Sub-Sandwich using Mega Premium Sardines

Catch more of the Mega Creations Premium Sardines recipes with Chef Villalon in an exciting new cooking show entitled “Everyday Creations,” premiering on April 5 at 6:30 p.m. on The Lifestyle Network. There will be replays on Sundays, 11:30am and Wednesdays at 6:00 pm. Check My Everyday Creations page on Facebook for additional sardines recipes as well.

It was a quick trip from SM Megamall to Julia Vargas corner Meralco Avenue going to Renaissance Condominium. After parking, we found ourselves at its 2nd floor inside Citrus Restaurant & Deli upon invitation of the owner through common friend.

The interiors of Citrus Restaurant was classical-posh but laid back. If you value your privacy,  a quaint location as such is great.

Citrus Restaurant and Deli

Interestingly, they also have an exclusive second floor with a mock-up fireplace that also serves a wine cellar for expensive wines ranging in the hundreds of thousands.

Citrus House Specialties

Now for the food. More than the usual tapas, I highly recommend their house specialties Jaunita’s Callos and Lengua with mashed potatoes which is surprisingly affordable at P259 and P200++ only, respectively.

Juanita’s Callos

Lengua with mashed potatoes

The callos was flavorful and cooked just right as if it was done by a lovely chef mom at home. The lengua was tender and exceeded my expectations.

The food was served without unnecessary fancy decorations either but I noticed the elegant and irregularly shaped white plates fit for the 2-person serving dish.

Wine Room on the second floor with mock-up fireplace

Citrus Main Dishes

From their main dishes, we got to try the Pan-Fried Fish ala Vera Cruz. Quite a long name, but it was no disappointment either at only P199.

This was followed by the Spaghetti Bolognese (P199) and a double-sized thin-crust pizza. I also shared a Vanilla milkshake with my fiance who loves anything sweet. 😛

Pan Fried Fish ala Vera Cruz

Spaghetti Bolognese

Desserts and More

Finally, some baked potato chips and a delectable Panna Cotta (top photo) concluded our dinner affair. I thought I was already used to the low prices but the P59 panna cotta was simply unexpected.

Promos

Citrus Promos

They also have a P999 promo offering 1 bottle of wine + all you can eat tapas-tapas. Or the Drink All You Can Jack Daniel’s for P949. Night chillers can also get free tapas-tapas for every 10 bottles of beer.

If you’re looking for an eclectic flair that would match your tapas, they have live bands playing with a different concept every night of the week.

They open up as early as 7am and offers breakfast, salad, and a wide range of pizza collection. Beverage range include soda and juices starting at P40 and P60, respectively. Beer starts at P50.

Pizza

Aside from great food, I highly recommend Citrus Restaurant as a very ideal place for dating with its intimate and sophisticated ambiance; not to mention the friendly prices for guys on a tight budget. 🙂

Citrus Restaurant & Deli
2F, Renaissance 3000, Meralco Ave. Ortigas Center , Pasig
7am- 12am daily
Lounge (9pm-12am and extended on Fridays and Saturdays)
Call them for reservations at: 667-3458, 667-3465, 631-0335

Citrus Restaurant as Bar

I definitely have to be back at Citrus Restaurant soon and try more of their new world cuisines on the menu; perhaps at the wine cellar on the 2nd level next.

Chef Christine Nicole Nicolas

Albeit Mr.Kurosawa Restaurant has been around for more than three years now (Eastwood branch), this was the first time I was able to try it in their Newport Mall, Resorts World Manila branch, which is on their second year of operations.

The Euro-Japanese mix concept is new to me as well. The owners described it as “Japanese cuisine with a touch of European flair” headed by corporate Chef Christine Nicole Nicolas, Chef Benjamin Gonzales, and Chef Florabel Co-Yatco.

French-Japanese items like tempura or gyoza souflaits, steaks and fine wines; Greek-Japanese items like Japanese kebabs and salads; Spanish-Japanese items like the japaella; and Italian-Japanese items such as pastas and pizza, are among some of the interesting fusion cuisines. This is complemented with traditional Japanese favourites such as kobe, teriyaki, tempura, donburi, sushi and sashimi.

New Offerings

Their new offerings include chicken, katsu dishes, and milk teas. They are the following:

Tongkatsu (Breaded deep-fried pork cutlet)

Fish Katsu (P268)

and Shrimp Katsu (top photo)

There are also Salmon Katsu (P448) and Torikatsu (P288) which I was not able to try. Regular iced tea are at about P70; add P30 for the large size.

Highly Recommended

Highly recommended are the 4pc. Chicken Wings called Last Samurai (P298) and Ebi Katsu (P398).

Last Samurai (Chicken Wings)

Ebi Tempura

Needs Improvement

On the other hand, thier range of milk teas need perking up. I found the Strawberry Yakult Milk Tea (Sakura) and Matcha Milk Tea (Yojimbo) ordinary.

I have yet to try the Winter Melon Milk Tea (Sanjuru).

Here are some more shots from their menu:

Mr. Kurasawa Menu

Mr, Kurusawa Ramen

Mr. Kurusawa Brain Freeze Beverages

Check out their branches below:

Eastwood Branch
G/F Eastwood Mall, Libis, Quezon City
10am – 11pm (Sun to Thu)
10am – 12pm (Fri to Sat)
Tel no. (+632) 901-0825.

Resorts World Manila Branch
2F Newport Mall, Resorts World Manila, Pasay City
11am – 11pm Everyday
Tel no. (+632) 973-6213

Feel free to share your Mr. Kurusawa adventures here in case you have tried dining in any of their two branches. 🙂