Entries Tagged 'Cravings' ↓

KFC is challenging its customers in the Philippines to MAN UP and eat big with its newest product – the KFC Double Decker.

KFC Market!Market!

I myself  just had a spa session over the long weekend at Neo Day Spa in BGC, Taguig. After which I headed straight to KFC MarketMarket branch and enjoyed an order of KFC Double Decker Man-Sized sandwich and an original singles meal with rice.

With two big Original Recipe Chicken fillets, bacon strips, sliced cheese, fresh lettuce & creamy mayo, sandwiched in between Kaiser buns, having a 10th of a bite of the KFC Double Decker is already a mouthful.

KFC Double Decker

It is the newest addition to KFC’s Man-Sized Meals – BIG meals for men with BIG appetites, and ladies too, if you want! It is now available in all KFC branches nationwide for P 145 for ala carte and P 175 as a combo meal with fries and drink. The rest of the Man-Sized Meals are also available as follows:

• Double Decker Fully Loaded Meal = P 215
• Classic Fully Loaded Meal = P 146
• Supreme Bowl Combo Meal = P 100
• Original Recipe Sandwich Combo Meal = P 136
• Zinger Combo Meal = P 136

Man-Sized Meals & Sandwiches

Man Up Mondays Challenge

Double Decker: Man-Sized Sandwich

In line with the launch of the Double Decker and the rest of the Man-Sized Meals, KFC now challenges everyone to dress up and ‘Man Up‘ for a series of ‘Man Up Mondays‘!

Go to any KFC branch wearing white pants today – December 3, 2012 – and get P 25 off from any one of the Man-Sized Meals!

If you missed this today and last week with floral shirts, you still have a chance for the next two weeks through the following:
• December 10, 2012: Pink Shirt
• December 17, 2012: Wildcard

Man Up Mondays!

Follow KFC Philippines on Twitter @KFCPhilippines and like their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kfcphilippines.

Man up with the KFC Double Decker Man-Sized Meals!

Pinkberry Greenbelt 5

What’s better than a chocolate yogurt? A chocolate hazelnut yogurt, that is! It’s Pinkberry Philippines‘ newest frozen yogurt replacing the former for this season, or at least until enough of you want them to.

It’s been out as one of the five Pinkberry yogurt flavors in the menu for quite a while, actually. Made with Nutella, Chocolate Hazelnut promises to be both sweet and decadent balancing the two flavors while maintaining a light and refreshing taste. I think it’s going to replace my favorite ‘original yogurt‘ flavor. I just need a little more push. 🙂

Pinkberry Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt Combinations sampling

Chocolate Hazelnut with Toppings

Pinkberry Philipines has also revealed variants of Chocolate Hazelnut with toppings for your ready choices; but you could always craft your own according to your liking.

One of which is the Chocolate Hazelnut Classic which includes roasted hazelnuts and chocolate sauce topped by wafer rolls.

The other four are the following:

• Chocolate Hazelnut Decadence (dark chocolate crisps and mixed nuts)
• Chocolate Hazelnut Trio (Nutella, strawberry and banana)
• Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch (honey almond granola, banana and almonds)
• Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle (milk chocolate crunch and strawberry)

I was able to recently try a sampling of these and my favorite turned out to be the Chocolate Hazelnut Decadence mainly due to the rich taste of the dark chocolate crisps. I thought it was kiddie-like since the dark chocs were small pelletes. But the taste turned out to be rich. It complemented well with the sweet-tangy choco-hazelnut yogurt.

In customizing my own, I added my favorite dark chocolate crisps, toasted almonds for texture and the colorful fruity pebbles simply because I want too. 🙂

Customizing my Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt

Pinkberry 12 Swirls of Christmas

In time with the gift-giving and card-stamping collection season such as that of the 2013 Starbucks Planner, Pinkberry has one somewhat similar called the ‘12 Swirls of Christmas.’

Simply fill up the 12 stamps and viola – you get a Pinkberry Shirt! It should consist of the 5 Chocolate Hazelnut combinations and 7 Pinkberry flavors of your choice.

Pinkberry ’12 Swirls of Christmas’

Pinkberry Waffle Cookie Sandwich

Pinkberry Waffle Cookie Sandwich

More good news! Pinkberry also came out with a new product range – the Waffle Cookie Sandwich! I’m forced to reminisce on the ice cream sandwiches we had in Singapore. I always make an effort to try one whenever I’m there.

The Pinkberry Waffle Cookie Sandwich is basically a chunk of flavored yogurt spread with a topping and sandwiched in between two wafer cookies.

The three variants are Chocolate Hazelnut (Chocolate Hazelnut yogurt topped with Milk Chocolate Crunch), Coconut Lemon (Original Pinkberry with Lemon Cookie Crunch and shaved coconut) , and the Pomegranate Chocolate.

My favorite is the latter which is composed of the tangy Pomegranate yogurt topped with Milk Chocolate Crunch. I love their combination – the waffle is softly sweet in contrast to the yogurt while the topping provide the playful crunchy texture.

Chocolate Hazelnut (Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt w/ Milk Chocolate Crunch), Coconut Lemon (Original Pinkberry w/ Lemon Cookie Crunch & shaved coconut) , and Pomegranate Chocolate (Pomegranate Yogurt w/ Milk Chocolate Crunch),

Made fresh in store every day, the Waffle Cookie Sandwiches are my new favorites pushing back the yogurt and the smoothies. 😛 But I’ll definitely be back for the new Pinkberry Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt!

Watami Salad

Watami is now in the Philippines and I missed their opening day blow out at SM Mall of Asia (MOA)  last November 16, 2012 where customers enjoyed half-off their total bill (50% off)! So I did not let this chance pass when blogger-friend Spanky invited us over for lunch.

New Watami Teas

Watami is a famous Japanese casual restaurant in Japan with 700 branches in their country alone. They are also in Hongkong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, among others.

It was a good and filling Japanese lunch and here are the 4 Top Watami dishes NomNom Club highly recommends among those we have tried:

1. Beef and Kimchi Rice in Stone Pot  
   

   Beef and Kimchi Rice in Stone Pot (P245)

2. Sapporo Seafood Ramen Salad (Top Photo – P375)
3. Salmon & Vegetable in Rice Paper 
   

   Salmon & Vegetable in Rice Paper (P185)

4. Beef Rice Bowl with Hot Spring Egg in Tokyo Style 
   

   Beef Rice Bowl with Hot Spring Egg in Tokyo Style (P195)

All four were great-tasting and not too heavy on the budget. I must admit there are some items on the Watami menu which is priced above-average for a ‘casual’ restaurant. On the other hand, the premium pricing is reflected in the quality of service the customer can get. The taste is also authentic Japanese.

We also had the Self-Grilled Short Ribs (P295) and Assorted Sashimi (5 kinds). For beverage, I tried Kiwi Tea with Agar.

Self-Grilled Short Ribs (P295)

Assorted Sashimi (5 kinds) P425

Kiwi Tea with Agar (P145)

I also look forward to ordering the Clams cooked in stone pot with Japanese style sauce (P285) and the Watami Salad is my next visit.

Aside from SM Mall of Asia, Watami is also opening soon at the new Glorietta – also known as the new Glorietta Vibe.

I have loved the Smart C+ beverage since it first came out in the market. In fact, I already blogged about Smart C+ highlighting its Vitamin C content way back in 2011.

Smart C+ Everyday!

Until today, Smart C remains to be my favorite ready-to-drink juice. I like that it is not similar to the usual juices we have in the market nowadays which are just overly-hyped and overly sweet.

A few days ago, we got another surprise from Oishi  emphasizing Smart C+ as a healthy drink to boost the immune system for everyday drinking. It  is also the company’s first venture in the ready-to-drink category.

Slater Young of PBB

“…refreshing way to boost your immune system – Smart C+ Fruit Drink. With 500mg of Vitamin C in every 500ml bottle, you can cope with the daily demands of your life which then makes you unstoppable and ready whenever, wherever.“

They also introduced Slater Young, the latest Pinoy Big Brother Big Winner, as their newest celebrity endorser.

Smart C+

Smart C+ comes in three thirst-quenching flavors – Lemon Squeeze, Orange Crush, and Pomelo Grapefruit – the last one is my favorite!

One 500ml bottle’s 500mg Vitamin C is equivalent to either 11 lemons, 8 oranges, or 4 grapefruits! Vitamin C also enables the body to produce collagen, a protein essential to every cell of the body.

Moreover, Smart C+ contains no added preservatives, zero artificial coloring and zero artificial sweeteners. It also comes in 350 ml PET bottles and soon in 1 liter bottles. How about you, have you tried Smart C+?

XinWang Hong Kong Cafe

XinWang Hong Kong Cafe in SM Mall of Asia is turning a year old in the Philippines next month. I’ve always seen and passed by this restaurant beside IMAX but it was only last week when I first dined-in.

It was upon the prodding of Marj and her friend from XinWang that I was finally able to try the place. We’ve seen this as well in Singapore last July.

It was a late lunch for us on a week day so we almost had the whole XinWang restaurant to ourselves. The interior was cozy and well-lighted, it was easy to the eyes.

New Menu (same as in SIngapore)

It also came to our knowledge that the restaurant refreshed its menu last October while retaining most of its best sellers. This development was in-sync with it’s international franchise from Singapore. Yes, I thought about that too – a Hong Kong cafe from Singapore which we are trying in the Philippines. To make it more trivially interesting, there’s not one branch in Hong Kong, but they have several in Singapore. 🙂

Iced HongKong Milk Tea (P75)

Back to the menu. For the unfamiliar with Hong Kong cuisine, one would find the new menu a bit overwhelming as it was a combination of Chinese specialties, pasta, western food including burgers, a number of sweet desserts, and a gamut of beverages including milk teas, as expected.

But giving it a second thought, this is how Hong Kong food is – a mixed bowl of different culture dominated by Chinese tastebuds with a huge influence from the West. XinWang Hong Kong Cafe‘s new menu certainly reflects that.

So instead of getting overwhelmed, just enjoy the variety and take it one step at a time. You don’t have to try everything in one sitting.

Mango & Prawns Roll (P100)

And this is what we did. We tried a bit from the different pages of the menu.

Chicken Chop Cream Sauce Spaghetti (P245)

For the appetizers, we dared the oriental combination of prawn and mango in a soft roll. At P100, we got three – not bad considering the prawn content. The taste was ok but it could be enhanced. It has great potential, nonetheless.

This was followed by the Chicken Chop Cream Sauce Spaghetti. Basically, your good Carbonara pasta with a quarter of a chicken on the side. The cream sauce spaghetti was good but the chicken tastes better, I would order it again because of the chicken. At P245, you’re getting a fair deal.

With an effort to go healthy, we ordered the stir fried minced Kai-Lan with Silver Fish. At P220, it was a good try as the dish was not a common fare in regular restaurants and it tasted fine as well.

Stir Fried Minced Kai-Lan with Silver Fish (P220)

XinWang Stir Fried Noodle (P235)

Recommended Dishes

The stars of the day came in at the latter part. The XinWang Stir Fried Noodle is recommended at P235 for its ‘sahog‘ which consisted of seafood and veggies.

HK Braised Beef Brisket with Bamboo Rice (P215)

The HK Braised Beef Brisket with Bamboo Rice comes highly recommended. This was the best fare for the day for it’s authentic-tasting beef brisket. At P215, it was a good deal.

The desserts were also not a disappointment. I think we were lucky enough to get the good ones in such a series. 🙂

The Mango Pudding with ice cream on top is a treat for the sweet lovers. Highly similar to ice kachang, the price of P85 is at par and competitive with Lugang‘s. I’d suggest though that you order this for a group of 3 or 4.

Mango Pudding with ice cream (P85)

The French toast should be relabeled as ‘Big French Toast‘. The huge serving was like a three/four slices loaf packed into one. Covered with beaten egg yolk and fried, the butter melt atop was a sinful delight; best shared in a group.

French Toast (P95)

Coconut Cream with Sago  (P145)

Finally, you should not miss the Coconut Cream with Sago. The price tag of P145 might seem a bit steep but the tastes makes up for it. It is also good for two servings.

It’s a hot serving of rich and thick coconut cream with small tapiocas to merit. It may be too sweet for some but this is just how coconut creams are. Best paired with your favorite buchi covered with toasted sesame seeds. 🙂

It was a good and filling lunch at XinWang Hong Kong Cafe. Check it out beside SM Mall of Asia IMAX. You’ll surely not miss its banner lights and brightly-lit advertisements.

XinWang Hong Kong Restaurant

City Delivery Boy

I surprised my fiance two weeks ago with a City Delivery package just before our trip to Batangas to meet more relatives from my side of the family. So instead of the usual meals I order from City Delivery, I tried something for merienda that we can bring on the road – cream puffs from Happy Cream Puffs. It’s one of the brands/vendors under the City Delivery wing.

Happy Cream Puff

It was October 31 and I was just glad that City Delivery was open for delivery that time even when it was the start of a long weekend holiday in the Philippines. I also came to know that they do deliver even at November 1 & 2.

Anyhow, so the surprise went all well as intended.

Happy Cream Puff Delivery

Generally, cream puffs are loved by all, being on the sweet side. The caramelized top ones were better, though  more sinful, than that of the plain cream puffs.

I tried different variants that the Happy Cream Puff menu offered but what caught my taste fancy best was the Mango Nama Choux. It was a burst of lovely sweet cream from the inside balanced by the mango fruit slices. Of course, my fiance and I shared ’em and we almost didn’t have enough. 🙂 The bite-size ones were also good for sharing as a box and offered more variations. But then again, the Mango Nama Choux cream puff is NomNom‘s highly recommended order.

Assorted Happy Cream Puffs – Small

Caramelized-top Happy Cream Puffs!

CityDelivery.ph Online

Online City Delivery Order

I usually order through the phone. This was my first time to try ordering through City Delivery online. After registration where they captured my contact details and delivery address, I was ready to order.

Aside from the usual cash payment option, customers can also use their credit cards. I hope time will come when they would also recognize Paypal as a valid avenue; only a handful of local commercial websites who cater to retail customers accept Paypal payments. For bloggers and netizens like me, Paypal is the easiest, hassle free way to pay online, while keeping the security of my purchases. I believe that day will eventually come.

I’m sharing with you some screen shots which I had to go through ordering as well.

Order Online

Online Food Cart

Checkout

City Delivery Check Out

City Delivery Hotline

City Delivery Hotline

The City Delivery number is simply 87878! Or order online through http://www.citydelivery.ph/

Aside from Happy Cream Puff, my other foodie favorites Sumosam, Bon Appetea, Empanada Mas, Crave Burger, Little Asia, Pepper Lunch, Yoshinoya, and Zong, are with City Delivery too. Try ordering from City Delivery hotline today and share your experience as well, good or bad reviews, in the comment section below.

Starbucks Planner 2013 Philippines

It’s that time of the year again when Starbucks Philippines releases their annual Starbucks Planners. Now on it’s 10th year, the Starbucks Planner 2013 set comes in 3 symbolically fiber leather cover colors representing their brand – black, white, and green. If you’d notice, it’s the 3 colors of their continually evolving logo.

This year’s theme of the limited edition Starbucks Philippines 2013 Planner is “Moments of Connection.” They chose to highlight this throughout the planner to emphasize shared moments over coffee as a form of genuine connection to uplift someone’s day.

Inside Pages: First Calendar Month – January

Here, I have also compiled 13 reasons why you should get the Starbucks 2013 Planner:

1. White & Green Covers

Apple aficionados and La Sallites would rave about this, no doubt. The white one will surely complement my white iPad and imaginary white iPhone. The Starbucks La Salle branch along Taft Avenue would surely always run out of the green one.

Although I found the blackl one generic, it’s for the ‘classic‘ lovers who want to keep it low, plain, and simple. The white and green ones just stand out, they are for the creative-types who doesn’t mind the extra attention…like me. LOL

Starbucks Planner 2013: Green, White, Black

2. Textured Pattern Cover

Front-facing, the jagged-polygons / star-like pattern on the cover start from the left fading to right which lends a textured feel while not leaving the impression of being overly designed nor too plain, externally. Two thumbs up for this.

Textured Planner Cover

3. Environment-Friendly & Inside Cover Flow Design

The external pattern was intrinsically reiterated on the first page upon opening. It reminds us of the environment-conscious efforts of Starbucks traditional in their planners every year. The same goes for this year’s planners which are 70% made of recycled materials.

4. Reusable Notebook Cover (Refills maybe?)

Awesome is awesome. I never thought SBX would make a planner with a reusable cover like this. I only see plastic reusable notebook covers in standard bookstores. But Starbucks was able to consider about making this awesomely designed covers (refer to reasons #1 & #2) actually reusable.

Reusable Planner Cover: Notice the attachments of the paper notebook and the cover in the photo.

I’m just not sure if this is a preemptive move in preparation for Starbucks Planners 2014. Maybe the future ones would even be more environment-friendly as refills? I don’t know, this is just a hunch. 😛

5. Charity: SparkHope

Customary as well with the journal is a charity beneficiary for the project. Every redeemed Starbucks Planner 2013 comes a donation for the children of SparkHope – an early childhood care and development program. It’s Christmas season after all and it would be great to be of help with every sip of your favorite coffee.

Charity beneficiary: SparkHope

6. Weekly and Monthly Calendars

Of course, since it’s a planner, there are calendars (lol). Weekly and monthly calendars are there for you to actually fill and somehow organize your life schedule beyond just lugging around these awesome planners.

7. “Moments of Connection”

In line with their “Moments of Connection” theme, inspiring ‘connection‘ notes are placed in random dates to remind the planner aficionado to give a friend a pat at the back or to say ‘hi’ to a relative.

“Moments of Connection”

8. Post It notes, double adhesives & Postcards

To further enhance reason #7, built-in post-it notes and postcards are inserted in different months to share special thoughts and moments with someone you care for. It’s similar to your Facebook like and share button, only offline. 😛

Make an effort to make that someone feel extra special by giving him or her something non-digital (this reminder goes for me as well). 🙂

Post-Its & Postcards

9. Magnet Lock

I hate buttons for binders, they usually don’t last long and easily gives up to wear-and-tear even before the whole year is over. Solution – magnets! It makes that interesting tapping sound as well. Tap!

(See top photo)

10. Magnetic Bookmark

Remember the previous Starbucks Planner bookmarks with strings to divide the page? This year, they’re out. Magnet bookmarks are in. It’s a back-to-back hot beverage single-attached magnetic bookmark. However, since it’s basically two magnets, they tend to be too tight sometimes.

Magnetic Bookmark

If magnetic bookmarks are not your thing, you can cut it and viola, you have two Starbucks ref magnets! 🙂

11. Coupons

They’re calling them “kindness cards” this year. Call it whatever you want – freebies, discounts cards, promos, coupons!

Starbucks Planner 2013 Coupons

12. More Coupons

As they say, you can never have enough. So, you have a second page of more “kindness cards!”

More Freebie Coupons

13. Flip Book Style
Again, awesome is awesome, the inside pages have a Starbucks cup on the lower right side which starts empty in January and fills-up through the days and pages to a fully-filled beverage by December! An instant Flip Book!

Although I thought having the reverse would be more cute depicting ‘time running out‘, mine is a pessimistic way of looking at it. This one’s better, more positive. 🙂

Flip Book Pages

So how do you already have one of the 2013 Starbucks Planners? Click here to see how to get a Starbucks Planner 2013!

The 2013 Stamp Card which is more of a ‘paper’ than a card. 🙂

2013 Starbucks Planners

For my final verdict – the 2013 Starbucks Planners are the best Starbucks Planner set they have released in the Philippines in all 10 years. Reasons #1, #4, #10, and #13 are the major turn-ons for me which contributed to its minimalist and modern look. I love the green one best, followed by the white.

One day to go and Starbucks is officially releasing their Starbucks Planners 2013 in the Philippines; something much anticipated by coffee lovers and planner aficionados every Christmas season at about this time of the year.

Starbucks Planners 2013

But together with this announcement, it has been Starbucks Philippines‘ custom to launch festive parties in their coffee shops as well. They used to call it ‘Cheer Party‘ in the previous years. This year, they’re calling it the “Christmas 2012 Kick Off Party.“

Happening on November 3, 2012 in the open area fronting Starbucks Bonifacio High Street, you are all invited to this festive celebration from 5pm to 8pm and be ready for treats, activities, and freebies such as the following:

• Buy 1 Christmas beverage, get a second one FREE!
• 30% discount of selected merchandise.
• Food tasting and samples of new Christmas beverages
• Photo Booth
• Live Music Performance
• Partners Cup Design Contest
• More

NomNom Club Joins Partners Cup Design Contest as Judge

As mentioned above, one of the activities in the Christmas 2012 Kick Off Party is the Partners Cup Design Contest where 23 baristas will turn the Starbucks white cup into a Christmas cup by artistically drawing on it.

NomNom Club is honored to participate in this activity as one of the judges joining Nelz Mali of WeeWillDoodle and Starbucks’ Learning and Development Manager.

Starbucks Christmas 2012 Kick Off Party

Let us enjoy an early holiday season and see the new 2013 Starbucks Planners at the Starbucks Christmas Kick Off Party on November 3, Saturday, from 5-8 pm at the open area in front of Starbucks Bonifacio High Street. Cheers!