Entries Tagged 'Taguig' ↓

No food blog needs to tell you that the milk tea craze has hit the Philippine’s capital and metropolis while slowly moving into the suburbs as you are reading this article. And Seattle’s Best Coffee is not turning a blind eye to this ongoing, and even phenomenal, trend.

SBC Milk Tea (Cold)

They’ve always had it, but it’s now being given a spotlight. Available for almost a month now, I was only able to try Seattle’s Best Milk Tea a week or two ago in their Greenhills Town Center branch.

Having recently come from the milk tea capital of the world that is Taiwan, my interest in milk teas has certainly grown. And sometimes, I can’t help but compare them to what we have here.

But I don’t even have to go far. Seattle’s Best Milk Tea is already unique by itself on how they positioned themselves in the market. Here are my observations:

• They only offer one variant/flavor of milk tea
• They offer their milk tea with a hot option (something not so common)
• They use red pearls

One and Only Milk Tea Variant

In contrast to the usual milk tea shops, Seattle’s Best is offering only one kind of milk tea – the SBC Milk Tea.

It’s a blend of black and green tea infused with caramel flavor to take care of the sweetness.

I told a friend that they are actually taking a big risk here. It’s a hit or miss thing. With only one option, you either get the customer’s nod or nay. It’s a bold move, I should say (or maybe they are still testing the market).

Hot Milk Tea

Although a hot milk tea is not a regular thing either in Taiwan, more so is the case in the Philippines. It’s good thing SBC offers this option for those who want it not chilled.

Red pearls

They want to be different, and it comes in style. As trivial as it is, having red pearls (or sago) in your milk tea adds that SBC touch, specially to someone like me who almost always have it with extra pearls. It’s not unique though as I recently saw one in particular, the new ‘Drink Tea‘ shop having the same (there’s one in The Podium).

It’s only red tapioca/pearls and no other. You won’t find a nata or jelly option as add-ons.

Greenhills Town Center in San Juan area

The Verdict

Cold

After all has been said, what now? To shoot it straight to the point, the SBC Milk Tea was good, although I’ve had better. I’m not sure if my cup had much ice, but it was at the verge of being bland.

Hot

The hot SBC Milk Tea was also good but most of my friends dismissed it as too sweet. I think it deserves a second chance. I like it better than the cold one I had. It gets my thumbs up!

It’s also perfect with an order of the SBC Clubhouse.

SBC Clubhouse

Tip

With my experience with the cold one, I suggest you tell the counter to reduce the amount of ice by half. I’d try that myself the next time I go back.

Price

The cold SBC Milk Tea is available in sizes medium (PhP110) and large (PhP120), while the hot one is slightly cheaper at P100  and P110, respectively. The price is fair enough considering the ambiance of a known coffee shop.

With Seattle’s Best Coffee is giving in to the milk tea craze, I suggest you give-in as well and find your cup of tea – hot or cold. The SBC Milk Tea is available only here in the Philippines and until March 31, 2012.

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.

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.

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

The new Philippine tourism slogan was launched last Saturday and marked the start of DOT’s new tourism campaign. It says: “It’s More Fun in The Philippines!“

Slogan issues discussed in this article aside, the propagation of the slogan highly depended on social media and its viral nature. To be more specific, the DOT wanted to promote the Philippines online through a meme.

Wikipedia defines a meme as

1. An element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.
2. An image, video, etc. that is passed electronically from one Internet user to another.

It's More Fun in The Philippines

‘It’s More Fun in The Philippines‘ Food Meme

And as NomNom Club‘s contribution in this social media effort, we have joined the ‘Fun‘. I opened up food-related folders and looked for something Filipino.

First of our contribution which I released this afternoon is the ‘Banan Leaf‘ meme. This is a shot I got about early October of 2011 at Venuce Piazza in McKinley Hill, Taguig City. We were dining alfresco in one of their dining promos.

I encourage you to create your own food memes too that will fit in promoting the Philippines as a fun food destination. Feel free to post your food photos Facebook and Twitter with the hash tags #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines #1ForFun so that it will automatically be collated. Feel free to share our post in Facebook. Check out this tutorial on How to Create Your Own It’s More Fun in the Philippines Meme.

Help out and prove that it is indeed ‘More Fun in The Philippines!’

The Food Adventure at Venice Piazza is back. It’s where you can taste the flavors of 12 restaurants for P600.

We have tried something similar to this mid of last year and another one about three months ago called Platter for 8 also in Venice Piazza where 14 participating restaurants offered big servings of dishes fit for eight people only for Php800.

This time, the Food Adventure if from 12 restaurants and only for P600! I have yet to try this one but they will start this weekend January 7 and every Saturday and Sunday following that until March 31, 2012. It is also offered only during 4pm to 9pm. Let’s see how this compares soon.

The Participating restaurants are :

• Blackwood Bistro
• The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
• Empire Deli
• Figaro
• KBOP
• KUSE
• Little Asia
• Old Vine Grille
• Pho Hoa
• Pinchos
• Red Crab Alimango House
• Ramen Bar
• Sol Gelato
• Yo Swirls

Food Adventure at Venice Piazza

It’s nice to see Figaro joined the promo this time as they were not in the list of previous promos (or maybe it’s a new branch, I don’t know).

Check out the details of the promo mechanics at Taste of Manila blog (click on link).

12 Restaurants - Php 600

So if you’re not doing anything this weekend, you might want to drop by McKinley Hill and check out the Food Adventure at Venice Piazza. Personally, I suggest you try it starting January 8 onwards, you wouldn’t want the inconsistencies of first day blues that goes with new activities. On the other hand, I’ll be at Market Market on Saturday, hopefully I can pass by. Bring your family to enjoy!

K-Pop, Koreanovela, K-fashion – Its official! The Korean craze has stormed the Philippines and many of their dwellers are seen left and right in the prime spots in our country. And now, the invasion continues – KBop Quick Korean is the place to be if you’re craving for delectable and affordable Korean flavors in a Pinoy setting.

KBop Quick Korean Restaurant

This Korean fast food place has a young and modern feel. With authentic Korean dishes and its distinctive spicy taste, it’s as if you’re embracing their culture, without having to leave the metro.

Born out of love for Korean food, business partners Jorge Wieneke (former owner of Potato Corner and Jap-OK) and Mel Gozum, executive of Solar Entertainment Corp. decided to open KBop for Filipinos who thrive for affordable, fun and quick Korean fix. With their business expertise and familiarity with Korean cuisine, they opened their first branch at Fort Bonifacio and it was a success with an overwhelming array of dishes.

KBop Pork Skewers

I was so excited to try their menu of Korean food. Spicy dishes were not among my favorites but KBop changed my mind then and there. We were first served the “Bokkumbop” (Kimchi Fried Rice, Php 50). It was spicy yet flavorful, specially when consumed with the sweet and tangy “KBop Chicken” (Korean Style Chicken Wings, Php 160)

Afterward, the “Chapchae” (Korean Glass Noodles, Php 100) became my favorite. The noodles were soft and sweet. We also tried the “Tomi Chim” (Steamed Fish, Php 100) and were a bit spicy but tender. Their “Chandolpakee” (Grilled Beef Steak, Php 250) is ideal for meat lovers looking for a healthier alternative. Pork Skewers (Php 130) is best partnered with beer.

KBop Chicken

For dessert, we were served with Mango Panna Cotta. I am a big fan of sweets and the mix of mangoes were just perfect to cap off the spice of the Korean dishes I ate.

With the right ambience and their accommodating staff, KBop is definitely a sure hit for the Korean enthusiasts and Pinoys who crave for their luscious and spicy dishes. Their branches are located at Venice Piazza, upper McKinley Road, McKinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio and at Sky Garden in SM North Edsa.

Mango Panna Cotta

To know more about KBop and their tasty offerings, you can visit their Facebook Page here.

* Text & Photos by Ria Hazel Lumandog

Korean Cuisines: Chap Chae (LL), Bokkumbop (UR), & Tomi-Chim (LR)

So what are you waiting for? Looking for a Korean cuisine that’s right for your budget and fits to your appetite? Then visit KBop Quick Cuisine now and be “Koreanized” too.