Max's Fried Chicken P299

Max’s Restaurant, the brand that has given you the ‘sarap-to-the-bones‘ fried chicken, is offering their biggest chicken takeout promo so far!

Starting today, February 20, 2012, customers can bring home their favorite regular Max’s Fried Chicken for a good take-out deal of PhP299, down from the original P375 price.

“Filipinos have an endearing habit of ‘taking out’ food after they dine at their favorite restaurant. It’s part of our generous and inherent family-oriented nature,” says Bobby Simborio, Corporate Communications Officer for Max’s Group of Companies. “With Max’s Chicken Take-out Promo, we want our customers to bring home the most scrumptious surprise to their families – Max’s “sarap-to-the-bones” Fried Chicken,” Simborio added.

Max's Chicken Take Out Promo

Max’s Restaurant “Chicken Take Out Treat P299” will be available in all 123 branches nationwide from February 20 up to March 31, 2012 only.

Yogurt is a healthy food alternative that is both nutritious and delicious in taste. And making this product accessible and easy to prepare is what EasiYo yogurt makers have in mind.

EasiYo Yogurt Launch

Benefits of Yogurt

A cup of yogurt a day gives 47.5% of our daily recommended calcium intake, which we need to fight osteoporosis and to have stronger bones and teeth. It is also rich in protein, about 30% more than what milk can deliver. Yogurt is also rich in vitamins like B-2, B-12, Potassium and Magnesium.

EasiYo Real Yogurt Maker

But, how much does a cup of yogurt cost in the local market? Have you ever think of making your own yogurt at home?

EasiYo Launched

NomNom Club was recently invited to have a first-hand experience of New Zealand’s do-it-yourself yogurt system that has arrived in the Philippines. The event was held at the Global Culinary and Hospitality Center located along Jupiter Street, Makati, Philippines.

EasiYo Brand Ambassador Chef China Cojuanco

Present at the said event was EasiYo Brand Ambassador Chef China Cojuanco. She was joined by Ms. Josie Paule, President and Country Manager of Cambert Philippines. She also showed us three easy way of making our own yogurt using the EasiYo system.

Three EasiYo Steps:

1. Half-fill EasiYo jar with cold water. Add contents of sachet and mix. Fill jar with cold water and mix again.
2. Put red regulator in Yogurt Maker. Pour boiling water up to the top of the regulator. Place EasiYo jar inside.
3. Let the yogurt set for 12-24 hours. Remove from Yogurt Maker and chill. Makes 1 kg/1 liter of fresh yogurt.

Watch this short video we took during the product presentation.

EasiYo Recipes

Moreover, Chef China shared two EasiYo recipes – Chunky Tuna spread with Fresh Herbs and Strawberry & Kiwi fruit Smoothie.

Chunky Tuna spread with Fresh Herbs

Strawberry & Kiwi Fruit Smoothie

Chef Gigi and Chef Brando (top photo) of Global Culinary and Hospitality Center made two mouth-watering recipes for a nutritious meal served as part of dinner:

Pork Adobo with Easiyo Yogurt and EasiYo Greek Honey Yogurt Baked Fish with Ratatouille

Pork Adobo with Easiyo Yogurt and EasiYo Greek Honey Yogurt Baked Fish with Ratatouille

Grilled Chicken, Melon and Grape Salad with EasiYo Lemon Yogurt Basil Dressing

Grilled Chicken, Melon and Grape Salad with EasiYo Lemon Yogurt Basil Dressing

Chicken Linguine with Creamy EasiYo Natural Yogurt Pesto Sauce

Chicken Linguine with Creamy EasiYo Natural Yogurt Pesto Sauce

More EasiYo Dishes

For dessert, we had EasiYo Vanilla Yogurt Panna Cotta with Mango Compote. We also received an EasiYo Recipe book.

More on EasiYo

EasiYo is made from high quality milk powder derived from free range cows, grazing the fertile pastures in New Zealand. The product has no preservatives, artificial flavour and food coloring. EasiYo yogurt is currently being exported to over 20 countries around the world.

EasiYo comes in a starter pack that includes the EasiYo Real Yogurt Maker and EasiYo Yogurt jar; the EasiYo Yogurt Base and Culture, which makes 1 kilogram of yogurt; the EasiYo fruit squirt; and a 50-page EasiYo Recipe Book to get you started with cooking.

It comes in seven flavors- Natural, Strawberry, Vanilla, Lemon, Banana and Greek n’ Honey.

EasiYo Yogurt Launch at Global Culinary and Hospitality Center

EasiYo Yogurt is available at leading supermarkets and distributed in the Philippines by Cambert Pilipinas Inc. For more information, check out to www.easiyo.com or email at contact@easiyo.ph.

Valentine's Pizza

It doesn’t get any cheesier than this! This is the ultimate gimmick a pizza chain could have – a ‘heart-shaped‘ pizza for the Valentine’s season! And this is what Angel’s Pizza just did. 🙂

I think your loved one whom you will give this too will surely burst out a big laugh, or at least a big smile upon seeing a heart-shaped pizza surprise.

Valentine's Day Option?

As the photos reveal, Marjorie and I indulged ourselves on the pizza a few days ago and had a fun photo shoot with it. a heart-shaped pizza does not come that often anyway. 🙂

Perfect for the season of love for a mushy-lovey set of people in the Philippines, Angel’s Heart Shaped Pizza is available in Big Family and Thin Crust Pizza only until February 29, 2012!

We were able to try the Extra Feast Pizza flavor and Pepperoni. However, the latter came out too salty. It”s the Extra Feast which gets our thumbs up! 🙂 Price is the same as the regular pizzas depending on the flavor you purchase.

You can also have Angel’s Heart-Shaped Pizza delivered by calling Angel’s Delivery number 922-2222.

Marj Trying on Angel's Pizza

Heart-Shaped Pizza

Watch out for an online contest we are organizing for Feb 13, & 14 related to Angel’s Heart-Shaped Pizza! Advance Happy Valentine’s!

Mom says that as much as girls like flowers, giving something edible as a gift on Valentine’s Day is more practical. I think this is what Max’s Restaurant – Max’s Corner Bakery had in mind for this Valentine’s. 🙂

Max;s Cupcakes

It start early this month and until February 29, 2012, Max’s Corner Bakery cakes and pastries offers the following to complement you Valentine gift ideas:

• Valentine’s Pastry Bites  – it’s a box chocolate bites with choices of dark or milky chocolate,  some are covered with almond slivers and filled with caramels. (P199 – box of 15)
• Valentine Cupcakes  – cupcakes of 3 in one gift box (P135 for a box of 3 or P50 a piece)

– Black Forest Cupcake  – combination of rich and smooth chocolate flavors with ganache swirls without missing the cherry on top and a chocolate base.
– Blueberry Cupcake – your favorite cupcake with real blueberries.
– Choco Banana Cupcake  – a moist banana cupcake with choco cookies topped with cream and a big heart-shaped black and white chocolate flat.

• Valentine Chocolate Moist Cake -  a medium-sized heart-shaped chocolate cake, coated with a layer of chocolate ganache and garnished with chocolate curls, topped with cherry and sprinkled with powdered sugar (Php 199).
• Sugar Cookies – fancy sugar cookies with a choice of either the Valentine Heart or the Valentine Bear.  (P25 – pack of 2)

Max’s Pastry Bites

Max's Cupcakes for Valentine's Day: Blueberry Cupcake, Black Forest Cupcake, & Choco Banana Cupcake (left- right))

Sugar Cookies (Valentine Bear and the Valentine Heart)

Highly Recommended

Among the above, It’s the Valentine Chocolate Moist Cake which NomNom recommends best. It lives up to its name and would surely be loved by most. It’s visually appealing and can easily be consumed by a couple because of it’s size.

Chocolate Moist Cake (P199 - medium size; one size)

Max's Restaurant Cake

Valentine’s Promo from Max’s Restaurant

Starting today, until February 14, 2012, a minimum purchase of Php 1,500 on your favorite meals in Max’s Restaurant such as Max’s sarap-to-the-bones Fried Chicken, Sinigang, Crispy Pata or Kare-Kare, entitles a customer a free box of Pastry Bites from Max’s Corner Bakery worth P199.

All Cakes in Heart Shape

Chocolate Cake

Highlighting the mood of the season even further, all Max’s Corner Bakery’s  cakes will be heart-shaped from February 10-14! Talk about Valentine cakes! 🙂

Check out more of Max’s Corner Bakery Cakes and Pastries at Max’s Corner Bakery’s FB Page, Max’s Restaurant FB Page, and http://www.maxschicken.com.

Valentine Cake

I already got three of the heart-shaped cakes from Max’s branch in Gateway Mall this morning for my love. How about you?

And do you know why I got THREE heart-shaped cakes as a gift for Valentine’s? You guessed it right. 🙂

NomNom got the chance to try out the newly opened SumoSam in Greenhills Town Center (near Gilmore). More specifically, we had the Samurai’s Choice bento box.

Samurai's Choice Bento Box

Although I was surprised with the hefty Php488 price of Samurai’s Choice at first, the menu indicated a lot of ingredients including chicken teriyaki and beef misono, among others. Moreover, I know that Sumosam is about quality and authentic japanese food so I’m did not pass judgement in a whiff.

And as I expected, I was not disappointed. All the ingredients were freshly made and satisfied my palate. To complete the set, Samurai’s Choice consists of a handful of chicken teriyaki serving, generous beef misono strips, slices of dory tepan, and some chunks of tuna with salmon sashimi, kani stick, a dash of bean sprouts, yasai itame, gohan, and dilis.

Japanese Rice with Black Sesame Seeds

Chicken Teriyaki and Dory Tepan

I love them all. The dilis in particular might appeal to the Filipino taste. It’s a bit tricky though since if not prepared properly and fresh, it might go the other way. The presentation is also outstanding as norm in Japanese standards.

Tuna and Salmon Sashimi

Sumosam Dilis

Beef Misono (US Beef Knuckle)

If there’s anything lacking, it’s just my favorite – tempura. 🙂 Nonetheless, with a lot of ingredients that go with it, adding tempura might already be too much. You can share the bento meal with a friend, by the way, just add extra rice. 🙂

Perhaps they can offer variants in the near future substituting some of the components with tempura.

Bean Sprout

SumoSam Greenhills / Gilmore Samurai’s Choice bento meal definitely gets a thumbs up from NomNom. Try one yourself soon as it is only available from 11am – 2pm daily and only at SumoSam Greenhills Town Center branch.

Filipino coffee company Figaro taps into satisfying its market from breakfast ’til night with it’s newest offering for dinner – Figaro Dinner Meals.

I got two try the first two variants namely the Chicken Rice Bake and Tofu Steak Rice.

Chicken Rice Bake

The Chicken Rice Bake is a cup of flavorful chicken, bell peppers, mushrooms, carrots, rice in creamy white sauce baked and topped with mozzarella cheese baste.

Paired with a cold glass of lemonade it is priced at P150.

Figaro Dinner Meal - Chicken Rice Bake

Tofu Steak Rice

Next is the Tofu Steak Rice. It’s a deep-fried Tofu glazed with a flavorful special sauce with hints of onions and topped with white sesame seeds on steamed rice garnished with parsley.

Tofu is known to be rich with health benefits such as being a good source of protein. Check out the health benefits of Tofu here. It would make a healthy vegan meal for those looking for one and is paired with a complimentary cold glass of lemonade (Price: P150).

Recommendation

Being familiar with the common Chinese dish Mapu Tofu, the Tofu Steak Rice was no stranger to my taste buds. The sauce tastes good, however, paring tofu alone with rice as “ulam“, falls short to my expectation for a filling meal. My thumbs-up goes to Chicken Rice Bake, instead.

On the other hand, I had a crazy idea/recommendation of combining the two – Chicken Rice Bake + Tofu Steak (without the extra rice). Chicken, Tofu, and baked cheese as a comfort food fills the complete meal set.

If you have a big appetite and welcomes the extra rice from the second meal, try ordering both and ‘taste‘ what I mean. 🙂 If ever Figaro would be reading about this and happen to combine the two and logically offer it at around P200, that would be great! 🙂

Figaro Milk Tea Craze

Taro Pudding Milk Tea

Figaro Milk Teas

In that visit, I was also surprised to see Figaro Milk Teas. They have cached-up with the milk tea fever. 🙂 Curiosity piqued and I tried the Raspberry Milk Tea. It turned out to be just average and  instead, I liked the Taro Pudding Chiller Frost Milk Tea my other friends ordered.

Try Figaro Healthy Dinner Meals of Chicken Rice Bake and Tofu Steak Rice. It started to be available at all Figaro stores and outlets nationwide since the start of the new year.

Together with some foodie friends and food bloggers, we were able to dine on a Chinese New Year buffet at F Restaurant in F1 hotel located at Bonifacio Global City (BGC) a few weeks ago. This is such a fitting article for this season – Chinese New Year. Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Cucumber Slices

One of my co-writers have actually featured the restaurant here in NomNom Club a few months ago so I am glad to see the place myself. 🙂 They are currently offering a Chinese New Year buffet consisting of the traditional Szechuan/Sichuan Beef, Peking Duck, and Crab and Corn Soup, among others.

Appetizers

To start with, we had a set of appetizers namely Jelly Fish, Beef Kimchi, Cucumber with Garlic and Chili Sesame, and Cold Pork Knuckle. Be sure to share these much appetizers to leave room for the main course.

Jelly Fish

Cold Pork Knuckle

They were all good but the cold pork knuckles with vinegar was new for me. I would compare it to a version of the Philippines’ local ‘kinilaw.’

Beef Kimchi

Although the jelly fish and cucumber came off too ordinary for me, the mix of garlic and chili sesame with the cucumber was a good twist.

In this appetizer set, the Beef Kimchi is the winner in the aspect of taste. Although I was surprised at first because I expected Chinese dishes while kimchi , as far as I know, is basically Korean.

Crab and Corn Soup

Fried Noodle

Soup and Noodles

To further elaborate the list and hold the mystery of the main dishes, we had a bowl each of the Crab and Corn and Seafood Spinach soups. They were both satisfactory and filling.

The Deep Fried Noodle followed right after mixed with sliced pork, bokchoi, carrots, mushroom, and the Chinese signature X.O. sauce.

F Restaurant in Best Western Premier F1 Hotel

Main Dishes

A quick run down of the main dishes include the Peking Duck, Steamed Marlin with Soya Sauce, Deep Fried Pork Ribs with Salt and Pepper, Sichuan Chicken, Sichuan Beef, Steamed Asparagus with X.O. Sauce, and Lechon Macau.

Sichuan / Szechuan Chicken

Sichuan / Szechuan Beef

Lechon Macau

While the Sichuan Chicken and Sichuan Beef needs more spices for that needed oriental taste, the Deep Fried Pork Ribs with salt and pepper and Lechon Macau made up for it.

If there is any that you shouldn’t miss, it’s the above-mentioned Deep Fried Pork Ribs with Salt and Pepper, Lechon Macau and the Peking Duck (I missed their Deep-Fried Tiger Prawn with Salt and Pepper though).

In the background of the Lechon Macau photo on the right are fellow foodies and food bloggers including Anton Diaz, Spanky Enriquez, Ivan Man-Dy, and Stonibert Lim.

It was generally a good oriental buffet at F cafe / restaurant with a wide view of Bonifacio Glocal City and ongoing area developments.

Steamed Marlin

Mango Sago for Dessert! (It was full of small tapioca pearls and mango bits)

Although the Chinese New Year was just over, don’t fret. F Restaurant’s Chinese New Year buffet menu will still be available  until January 31, 2012 for lunch and dinner buffet for the price of P998++.

Best Western Premier F1 Hotel Chinese New Year Promo

F Restaurant, F1 Hotel

For reservations, call +632.928.9888 or +632.908.7888. F Restaurant is at 5th Flr. Amenity Level., Best Western Premier F1 Hotel, 32nd Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig 1634, Philippines

16 student chefs, 16 delicious dishes and desserts, 5 celebrity chef judges, and 1 brand to remember that is Moulinex – that is how you would describe the afternoon of January 14 last Saturday – having been the Moulinex You Cook Video Recipe Challenge semi-finals!

Cream Pie with Malunggay

16 student chefs and HRM students from 9 reputable cooking schools cooked-out each other as they competed for the coveted nods of 5 celebrity chef judges in the recent Moulinex You Cook contest.

Held at Hotel Intercon in Makati, the 1.5 hour cooking challenge decided the top 8 finalists from among the contestants who submitted their video recipes. The Top 8  moves on to the final round on January 28, 2012 (venue TBA).

Kitchen Ingredients

Batch 1 Moulinex You Cook Challenge Participants

Batch 2 Moulinex You Cook Challenge Participatns

They were judges on the following criteria:

• Taste 30%
• Ease of Preparation 20%
• Creativity/Originality 15%
• Visual Appeal 15%
• Optimization of Moulinex Products 15%
• Personality 5%

Moulinex YouCook Judges

The celebrity chef judges were: Chef Bruce Lim, Chef Niño Laus, Nina Daza-Puyat, Rory Subida, and Laurent Casteret.

Celebrity Chefs in Action

Chef Masters

Almost all the dishes looked great, while a few was challenged by the limited time. Nonetheless the judges were encouraging enough giving a pat-in-the-back advise that they can still do better the next time.

Food Photos:

Budding Chefs

Participant Photos:

Tempting Dishes

The Top 8 Finalists

After the scores were tallied and counted with a DTI representative, the Top 8 Finalists were named. They are (in no particular order):

• Halson Lapuz (First Gourmet Academy)
• Romeo Apostol Jr.
• Juno Pocholo Sedigo (First Gourmet Academy)
• James Andrian Bacaldo (Center for Culinary Arts Manila)
• Nino Carlo Rosali (Asian Institute of Culinary Arts)
• Rosana Ramel (Maligaya Institute for Culinary Arts and Residential Services)
• Karen Grace Santiago (La Consolacion College – Manila)
• Leonelia De Castro (MOST Institute)

Moulinex Products

Moulinex is exclusively distributed by Collins International Trading Corporation. Moulinex appliances are available at all leading department stores and appliance stores nationwide. Their kitchen appliances include a Food Preparation Line such as food processors, meat mincer, chopper, electric knife, immersion blender, hand mixer, and stand mixer. They also have a Beverage, Cooking, Breakfast, and Home Care Line.

Moulinex Products

Grand Finals Prizes

Grand Prize Winner:
Contestant: P40, 000 cash, Stay and Learn Program inclusive of an overnight stay of Intercontinental Hotel, Moulinex Master Chef Tour, gift packs from sponsors and a Certificate of Recognition.
Mentor: P5, 000 cash, P5, 000 worth of Moulinex products and gift packs from sponsors.
School: P25, 000 worth of Moulinex products and an F & B/Cooking Seminar for selected students courtesy of Intercontinental Hotel.

Second Prize:
Contestant: P20, 000 cash, gift vouchers from Intercontinental Hotel, gift packs from sponsors and a Certificate of Recognition.
Mentor: P4, 000 cash, P3, 000 worth of Moulinex products and gift packs from sponsors.
School: P15, 000 worth of Moulinex products.

Consolation Prizes:
6 Consolation prizes of P5,000 cash each for the other 6 finalists and Certificate of Participation.

For more details and information, visit their website www.moulinexyoucook.com or email moulinexyoucook@gmail.com Contact Mr. Marvin Mancera, Brand Marketing Assistant-Moulinex at 681-6161 or 681-6163.

In the grand finals 8 days from now, the student chefs will go head to head in their last showdown to know whose dishes will rise above the rest. Certainly, there’s no place for mediocrity and we will anticipate on that day whose creation will emerge as the 2011 Moulinex You Cook Video Recipe Challenge Grand Winner!