Entries Tagged 'Appetizer' ↓

From a list of almost 500 restaurants endorsed and nominated by Spot.ph readers last year, the judges thereafter shortlisted the nominees. This lead to the announcement  of 13 admired restaurants in each of their categories recently concluded at the Nescafe Gold Spot Awards 2009.

Encore (previous Embassy Superclub) was filled with food industry players, food enthusiasts and the media for an afternoon of foodie glamor and tasty anticipation for the would-be winners of Nescafe Gold Spot Awards 2009.

Nominees, Foodie Enthusiasts and Guests

This year’s judges include Chef Aileen Anastacio, Yummy editor-in-chief Becky Kho, Chef Him Uy de Baron, award-winning blogger Franco of Table for Three Please, food writer and blogger JJ Yulo and actress Cherie Gil.

Ms. Myrza Sison, Editr-in-Chief of Spot.ph with Jonel Uy of NomNomClub.com Food Blog

Mr. Logan O’Brien, Consumer Marketing Manager, Coffee Business Unit, Nestle Philippines

Sponsored by Nescafe, online voting via Spot.ph ended last January 31, 2010. With more than 250,000 votes cast for 55 restaurants in 11 categories (2 categories were purely by the judges), without further adieu,

Manila’s Best Restaurants for 2009 are:

Best Japanese Restaurant – Inagiku
Best Filipino Restaurant – Abe
Best Steakhouse – 22 Prime
Best Delicatessen – Santi’s Delicatessen
Best Bar – Cav Wine Bar and Bistro
Best Chinese Restaurant – Shang Palace
Best Italian Restaurant – Paparazzi
Best Buffet – Spiral
Best Dessert Place – Cupcakes by Sonja

*Best Restaurant Chain – Cibo
*Best Service – Cibo

*New Restaurant of the Year – Lusso
*Restaurant of the Year – Lolo Dad’s

*Best Restaurant Chain and Best Service was solely determined by readers through mobile and online votes while New Restaurant of the Year and Restaurant of the Year were purely from the panel of judges.

22 Prime - Best Steakhouse

Inagiku - Best Japanese Restaurant

Cav Wine Bar And Bistro - Best Bar

Santi's Delicatessen - Best Deli

Abe - Best Filipino Restaurant

Cupcakes By Sonja - Best Dessert Place

Best Buffet - Spiral

Best Chinese Restaurant - Shang Palace

Paparazzi - Best Italian Restaurant

Cibo is the only one which brought home the bacon for two categories while Lolo Dad’s got the most coveted title of Restaurant of the Year.

I have tried Lolo Dad’s Brasserie in Makati where I met Chef Ariel Manuel but I haven’t been to their main branch in Malate. I hope to do so soon.

I shared these information earlier online on-the-spot during the event through my twitter, plurk, and facebook network accounts. Among my networks, Shang Palace got the most cheers which tinkled my fancy about the restaurant.

I want to visit Shang Palace very soon! Congratulations to this year’s Nescafe Gold Spot Awardees!

With the Valentine season just around the corner,  Valentine’s Day promo are everywhere. And this article will serve to confuse you all the more – haha!  (just kidding).

Valetine's Day Food Spots

I actually posted a little survey a few weeks ago through a NomNom Club social networking thread and one of the resulting recommendation was Chateau 1771.

The Chateau 1771’s Lunch Box is available even on weekdays for lunch. The price is about 500+ according to the suggestion. This is actually a good deal given that it’s Chateau 1771 and it already includes appetizer and dessert.

Jozu Kin, Burgis Circle in Fort Bonifacio

Melo’s along Jupiter street in Makati and Florabel in The Podium were also mentioned. The Podium is a small upscale mall located at  the back of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong.

Jozu Kin along Burgos Circle at Fort Bonifacio is another. They serve Japanese dishes with a contemporary twist. The tranquil ambiance is also suitable for a private Valentine’s date. 🙂

Lolo Dad's Brasserie Valentine Music

Another alternative for those in Makati would be the Lolo Dad’s Brasserie at 6750 Ayala Ave. near Shangri-La Makati Hotel.

Although the price range is above average, food quality and ambiance matches it. Lolo Dad’s will also host live string music on the 12th, 13th, and 14th entitled “Strings Attached on Valentines.”

Check out Lolo Dad’s Australian Lamb dish as well where upon ordering two, you get a limited edition “All You Need is Lamb Planner“.

Lolo Dad's Australian Lamb

Reserve now in your favorite romantic restaurants! With the Valentine’s colliding with the Chinese New Year, I hope there are still slots/spaces for your dates. 🙂

As promised, we’re bringing back Food Foto Fiesta.

I had a recent surprising discovery of a Filipino restaurant called Serye. It’s related to the classic Aristocrat restaurant that anyone above 20, and residing in the Philippines, would be familiar with.

Actually, Serye have been around for sometime but is currently re-branding from Serye Restaurant and Cafe, to Serye Cafe Filipino; but that story deserves a separate article altogether. Stay tuned for that in the coming weeks.

For now, feast on the 10 photos I recently took from their Eastwood Libis branch.

Gambas

Pork Spareribs

Kesong Puti Puttanesca

Pork Binagoongan

Arroz Ala Cubana Pandesal

Tuna Sisig

Kesong Puti Salad

Dinuguan and Puto

Boneless Crispy Pata

* Food photos taken at Serye Cafe Filipino Eastwood Libis Branch.

Last night’s dinner was made of Yummy, figuratively and literally. Yummy foodie magazine invited a group of foodies, including Nomnom, for an intimate dinner at Tosco in Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City.

Tosco, Dusit Thani Hotel

And who would say no to an intimate dinner invite by a food magazine? It’s almost sure, the food would be great. And I was not mistaken.

Potato Sour Creme Soup

Potato-Sour Creme Soup

For soup appetizer, we had potato-sour creme soup.

It was good and creamy. The lemon grilled shrimp slices even made it better.

I found the initally served bread complimentary to its rich taste and I cleaned up my bowl to the last drop.

I think the leaves on top is tarragon – an aromatic Eurasian herb for seasoning.

Tosco Bread

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Chicken Breast with a Surprise

The main entree looked like a simple chicken breast but I found a surprise marinated apricot and orange cinnamon couscous at its center. The serving of rice is also worth mentioning with its citrus-like aftertaste and scent. It was something new to my taste buds and I found it pleasing. Stems of green asparagus lined the plate.

Couscous is a north African dish usually characterized by steamed semolina and meat; in this case chicken meat.

Chicken breast with Orange Cinnamon and Apricot

Trilogie

Yes, you read it right – it ended with ‘gie.’ The dinner was concluded with a trilogie of vanilla, red wine creme, and caramelized mango. It was the goodness of dessert times three.

Tosco Trilogie: Vanilla, Red Wine Creme, & Caramelized Mango

The vanilla was prepared light and covered with shreds of crispy barquillos. Lovely.

It was my first time to taste a red wine creme and I loved its softness with hint of strawberry. Although I think I’m alone with this conclusion since the plates of those around me left the red wine creme half-consumed.

The caramelized mango was, well, caramelized mango.

Although a combination of three desserts sound overwhelming, I surprisingly found it wanting. The three were all sweet but it was not overdone. Simply said, I cleaned the plate.

Tosco's Caffe Latte

And just like after any sweets, a good cup of coffee is always appreciated after.

Yummy Planner 2010

Yummy Magazine - December Issue

It was a good way of celebrating the holidays and the blessed year of 2009 for Yummy Magazine as they release the Yummy 2010 Planner and 3 new cookbooks namely YUMMY Meals in Minutes, YUMMY So-easy Sweets, and YUMMY Weekend Cooking.

The Yummy Planner 2010 is now sold in major bookstores at P250 while the cookbooks are at an affordable price of P100 each.

Their December issue is also now out with cooking tips for Christmas like how to have a delicious and inexpensive Noche Buena. They are also adding new sections to the magazine and website Yummy.ph. Something to look forward to in 2010. Check it out here.

Tosco Wine Bar, Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City

More photos of Yummy Christmas Dinner.

We also shared a good chat over dinner with fellow foodies Fran, Az, and new friends Oggie & Ferdz of HappyFoodies.com, among others. It was also nice to see Anton of Our Awesome Planet again and Joey of Table for Three Please, for the first time. It was a Yummy dinner indeed!

Located in one of the newest foodie circles of Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, I anticipated with excitement a good Japanese dinner that night. It is my first time in Jozu Kin having opened only early September 2009.

Jozu Kin, Burgis Circle in Fort Bonifacio

With a tagline “The Japanese Gold,” i was surprised that most of the prices were actually manageable given the upscale atmosphere of the restaurant. The ‘gold‘ is actually the literal translation of ‘Kin‘; and ‘Jozu‘ means ‘skillful‘ (not ‘Japanese‘, boink!).

Mari Moriawase

Their menu offers a wide range of variety from sushi to sashimi, and maki to teppan-grilled dishes.

Accompanied by 5 other friends, let’s now take a closer look at the food.

For the first order, we had Maki Moriawase for appetizer. It was a maki sampler platter of California Maki, Tempura Crunchy, Dynamite Roll, Philadelphia Roll, and Futo Maki (P357).

Maguro Togarashi

For the main dishes, we had spicy tuna with onions & wasabi mayo – Maguro Togarashi. At P125, the serving is good for two. It was not too spicy either.

Kuro Kusho Pasta

It was also an uncommon sight to see western-style pasta in a Japanese menu; well at least for me. We had Kurokusho Pasta with freshly crushed black pepper, olive oil, Parmesan cheese and black tobiko.

Upscale Entrees

Tartufo Hotate

Matsusaka Gyu

For the upscale-priced ones, 4 entrees caught my attention namely Tartufo Hotate, Matsusaka Gyu, and two Foie gras variants: Pan Seared Foie gras and Tenderloin Foie gras.

Tartufo Hotate are scallops, pan seared, with asparagus shitake mushroom and truffled brown butter.

Matsusaka Gyu is matsusaka beef seared on teppan. Matsusaka beef are among the highest-grade beef in the food industry. The price will send one of  your eyeballs bulging in a while. 🙂

Another first for me is the foie gras. Foie gras is basically fattened duck or goose liver . Tenderloin Foiegras is tenderloin beef and foiegras seared on teppan.

Pan Seared Foie Gras

The serving of Pan Seared Foie Gras looked conservatively sophisticated with a mango slice on top followed by the foie gras on rice and mango puree and finally glazed with honey. It was just a handful, but the experience is quite unique and unforgettable.

Tenderloin Foie Gras

Only one phrase can describe it: “melt in your mouth goodness.” Some of you may know the meticulous process of producing a foie gras, which explains the price.

Ushi Ebi Sunburst

The last four mentioned entrees are priced at P590, P1850, P700, and P700, respectively. Yes, Matsusaka Gyu did not send my taste buds to the heavens, but the price did. 🙂

And to end this Jozu Kin experience is the best among them all – the main photo of this article: Ushi Ebi Sunburst.

It’s a mix of giant marinated and grilled prawns with lettuce, fresh strawberry, grape, apples, orange and blue berry in balsamic vinaigrette.

Although I believe my description was exact having mentioned strawberry, grape, and blue berry in singular forms, the grilled prawns was outstanding in size and taste, and not in singular form.

Jozu Kin's Ushi Ebi Sunburst

We wish to thank Chef Jayme Natividad who was gracious enough to introduce and explain some of the dishes to us.

More photos, Click Here.

Give Jozu Kin a visit at Unit ES-2 Forbes Town Center, Burgos Circle, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. You may reach them at 403-1875.

Most of you who know the author of NomnomClub.com personally would know that I jump from time to time from the Quezon City house where my relatives are and to my place in Makati where I stay as an independent bachelor.

So what’s the point? 🙂 From the QC house, I usually do groceries first before heading home. And part of my regular grocery list are bananas.

They serve two purposes. It’s part of my breakfast (with milk or coffee), and it’s my power snack before jogging in the early evening. Yes, it’s my source of potassium.

It started to be ingrained in my diet years ago when I was much into badminton. Fellow players bring a bunch of banana and we feast on them for energy before or after game. The key point here is that it’s not heavy on the stomach, befitting athletic activities.

Now, going back to my groceries. I always end up buying either the generic Latondan (a local type of big bananas ) from SM or the big Cavendish ones from Dole. Dole is a major fruit brand here in the Philippines, and I believe in some countries as well.

Dole’s price hardly fluctuates and is almost always pegged at P46 (at least in ShoeMart Mall), in contrast to that of the seemingly generic-labelled Latondan whose price jumps up and down regularly in the range of P30-P40 per kilo.

With a tight budget, I sometimes go for the cheaper generic Latondans. However, when the price reaches almost P40, I go for the Dole Bananas. I feel it’s more worth it even with the few added peso. With the assurance of cleanliness and quality, I wouldn’t mind it being a little more expensive.

Moreover, a bunch of Dole bananas have 6 to 8 pieces while a kilo of the generic ones has about the same. But if you compare them side by side, the Dole Bananas are way bigger.

On closing note, I would have to add that bananas can help people with weight problems as well. Citing from a Dole Banana article:

…bananas contain resistant starch that is responsible in enhancing fat burning by up to 30%. More filling than most fruits, bananas can easily satisfy hunger and let you feel full longer while providing the daily nutrients your body need. And since you won’t feel constantly hungry, bananas help to curb your appetite and reduce overall calorie intake in a day. What’s more, DOLE Bananas are high in fibre that helps carry away some fat as it travels through the digestive system.

So I hope you start including bananas in your diet – Dole Bananas or the generic Latondan or Lacatan. For more helpful information, surf on to www.dolebananadiet.com.ph or simply click HERE.

Here in the Philippines, the Chinese community is usually in a festive mood even a week before the Chinese Mooncake Festival. But this year, I hardly saw mooncake in our dining table.

October 3 passed just like any usual Saturday.

Aside from the given economic crunch, the gloomy atmosphere is part of the recovery phase from the recent typhoon Ondoy.

Nonetheless, that doesn’t stop this food blog from sharing a bite from the Chinese’s Mooncake Festival culture.

The Mooncake Festival, also referred to as the Mid-Autumn Festival, marks the end of a good harvest season for the farmers.

Regarded as a legal holiday by the Chinese, it is annually held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar. This year, it fell on an early October on our local calendar.

Wikipedia.org describes it as

“…a date that parallels the autumn and spring Equinoxes of the solar calendar“

The festivity references to the ‘moon’ in the famous Chinese pastry in festivals – the ‘Mooncake‘. The Chinese term is pronounced as “yuèbÄ­ng” with a literal English translation of “Moon biscuit“. Generally about the size of a palm and half way thick. Dense, heavy and regularly rounded. Sweet in taste and at about Php 60 a piece, fillings vary from ordinary mongo to the premium lotus seed paste. It’s never a real mooncake without the egg yolk inside symbolizing the full moon.

Last Year’s Mooncake Festival

Last year, we ate out at a Chinese restaurant and played the traditional Mooncake Festival Dice Game after meal. Yes, at the restaurant; they allowed us. 🙂

The Mooncake Festival Dice Game is characterized by a group of people surrounding a round table throwing 6 dice in a glass bowl. The players take turns. Each numeric and die-color combination results has corresponding values with all-four dice (all six dice has the mark of four red dots in each) as the highest.

Prizes are traditionally mooncakes and hopia while more affluent families give away bigger prizes or ampao (cash in red envelopes).

I remember during that time last year, it was the height of the the melamine issue. Despite that, we still used hopia. We just made sure we got it from a credible melamine-free source.

* Mooncake image and some info sourced from Wikipedia.

All our relatives enjoyed the Chinese Mooncake Festival. Hopefully, we could have a repeat of that next year.

Balut is a Philippine street fare which is rarely welcomed by foreign tastebuds, especially when they are oriented on what it is.

Philipine Balut

Balut is fertilized duck embryo, cooked, kept warm, and usually sold as street food.

The concept is generally a taboo in western countries but also available in other south east asian neighbors like Vietnam and Laos. A famous source of balut in the Philipines is Pateros where incubation and selection of the eggs are carefully done.

NomnomClub.com @ WordCamp Philippines 2009

Eating balut has also been featured in a number reality-TV series as part of daredevil tasks like Survivor, Amazing Race and Fear Factor. It is also considered an aphrodesiac.

In a WordCamp Philippines 2009 conference held last Saturday, we had Beau Lebens and Seth Bindernagel as guests speakers from WordPress and Mozilla, respectively.

WordCamp Philippines 2009

On a gathering at the night after the wordcamp conference, a balut vendor passed by Whistlestop where we were having our dinner. And being foreigner and guests, we dared them to take on a balut-eating challenge. Seth was game and ready, although Beau needed a little more convincing.

The Japanese guy, also from Mozilla, was tough. He compared the probable experience to Japan’s serving of fish sperm. This totally deserves a completely separate blog (perhaps next time). 🙂

Seth Bindernagel

Anyhow, it was Autralia versus the USA with Seth on the right corner and Beau on the left. The Wordcamp organizers, volunteers, and friends taught them the step by step procedures as to how to eat a balut and proded them on in the process mentioning “don’t look” (at the embryo) so as not to visually discouraged them. LOL.

How To Eat A Balut

1. Lightly tap the tip of the egg shell on any hard surface just like a hard boiled egg. This is done with caution so as not to spill the young duck’s juice.
2. After a hole has been punctured, one could immediately sip the warm juice. The broth essence is full of protein.
3. Peel off the rest of the eggshells to reveal most parts of the yolk and the young chick.
4. Give it a dash of salt to enhance the flavor. The embryo is slightly moist as some of the juice still remains. This is perfect for the pinch of salt to mix with.
5. Eat while still warm. Swallowing it whole is possible but bite-after-bite is recommended. (do not forget to remove the “white part” which is hard and rubbery – this part is not eaten as it is hard to digest).
6. Congratulations! You have just proven that you are as tough as the Survivor, Amazing Race and Fear Factor contestants! 🙂

Peel off the Balut Shells

Add a Pinch of Salt

Chew Away 🙂

With the recent interest in balut, the delicacy has found itself  served in different ways including as appetizers in restaurants, preserved in bottles, or cooked as adobo. Unsold balut in the streets are eventually fried and sold as a different delicacy alltogether.

Here’s a video of the “How To Eat Balut” incident.:

A good tip is to choose your balut young, with the embryo as undeveloped yet as possible. This means that the young chick is “not yet” a chick. Otherwise, you’ll feel some feathers/hair in your tongue or end up chewing out the balut‘s “beak“. Eeewww. LOL. 🙂 Nomnomnom.