incessant rambling

the main counter, japanese carinderia, plastic tables and seats, affordable prices and great food all around! i did promise myself that i was going to go through the whole menu of Joed's Lutong Hapon and try to order everything in the list. so far i'm making rather quick progress as i end up going back to the place at least once a week. i was hoping to have lunch with Amale and Noy as he wanted to try out the place, kids and school got in the way so it was just me and Amale for lunch. that shouldn't be a spoiler for the good food we ordered. steamed mackerel sushi with ginger and parsley, surprisingly light and fresh! Amale got the steamed sushi mackerel that looked rather malansa (or fishy, i mean it IS a fish, it looked like it smelled like a fish, wait, i'm getting confused myself, you know what i mean). the dollop of grated ginger on top of each cube was probably added to take away that malansa aftertaste. surprisingly, it didn't taste mal...

frustration is a bad thing. in this case, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. i was craving for this particular lasagna in bleep bleep (you'll understand why i can't name the resto in a bit) and decided to drop by the resto with santa's helpers after a rather drawn out meeting with our client. too bad, the lady told me they were out of stock, too bad that was my second attempt to drive all the way to that place just for that. it's that popular and the friggin funny thing is that it is supposed to be a COFFEE shop. well, if you know me well enough you'd understand that i'm not a coffee person. so there, i'm not going to promote the COFFEE shop just because it increases the probability they'd run out of the lasagna, again! santa's assitants, sweeter than the sweets?!?! we ended up in Fudge along A.S. Fortuna as Santa's assistants were craving for the cheesecake delight, apparently they loved the smooth combination of cheesecake ...

the metro gourmet, basement of metro ayala, ayala center, cebu city pag sosyal ka, you go to tinder box and order your deli choices, if you're sosyal and you want to look for a less obvious dining destination, you head to "the pantry" in "the gallery" to get your deli selection. if you are makamasa (in short, the proletariat) and still want deli deli, you head to the "metro gourmet" at the basement of Metro Ayala in Ayala Center, Cebu. me and a couple of proletariat friends waiting for our order, sosyal kami ano. that's anne on the left and karen . a counter displays cheeses, sausages, hams from the united nations. what most people don't know, you can actually order and have it grilled, pan fried, seared or quickly cooked and have the deli deli with your choice of bread or as the usual pinoys do, like me of course, you have your deli deli with rice. i had the canadian honeyed ham, perfect amount of fat and just a tinge of swe...

what's the best thing to do after a movie? duh, eat. i was rather ravenous after catching "A Mother's Story", o wag na umangal, e idol ko si pokwang eh. but i digress, back to my rumbling tummy. Uncle Noodles, One Mango i had the craving for crunchy crispy chicken isul, otherwise known as the fleshy protrusion at the base of the spine, aka chicken ass, butt and pwet. sunburst is closed late at night and the only other place that served chicken isul is the Orange Brutus branch in Fuente Circle.  parking, traffic, tourists and all things sinulog forced me to rethink my options and i ended up in Uncle Noodles in One Mango, which might be my second option but definitely turned out to be the better one. let me swerve a bit and talk about the Peranakan culture, a marriage of chinese and malay influences more commonly found in singapore and malaysia. a prime example of this would be the famous laksa noodle soup that fuses curry coconut soup with rice noodle...

spicy chili ebi the karinderia (pinoy side street restaurant) should not be mistaken for an establishment that serves street food common in most asian countries. whereas street food are stalls set up along the streets with nothing more than low stools to sit on while you enjoy your food, the karinderia is set up like a hole-in-the-wall type of establishment where food is generally prepared by batch and patrons choose their viand, the servings are small and prices are generally very reasonable. ebi furai - not to be mistaken for ebi tempura, furai literally means "fry" in japanese. shrimp coated in breadcrumb and fried to a crispy crunch Joed's Lutong Hapon is a bit confusing for a restaurant name as it would literally translate to "Joed's Afternoon Cooking" which would make one think that the food is only served and cooked during the mid afternoon. On the contrary, Hapon is the local term for Japanese and the place serves karinderia grade Jap...

the Cebuano market is very finicky, if you want to see if your dream of pinoy gustatory domination will work then you should try setting up in Cebu City.  a number of restaurants have set up their operations here only to close down or downscale business due to low patronage. yes, we are still enamored by the usual brand thing and most of us would troop to the newest national/gobal brand that opens shop in the City.  if you account for the market that actually goes out to eat, that would give you about a year or a year and a half max to sustain your operations. not enough to cover your return of investment. the only way to survive is to adapt and learn the ubiquitous Sugbuano Rating System when it comes to restuarants. when Cebuanos eat out, the first question that majority asks is "Pila?" (Price?), and if the price is within a certain budget they next ask "Dako?" (Big Portion?) and followed by "Lami?" (Delicious?) which is sadly, the last consid...

"How's the food sir?" I looked up to Vangie's (not her real name) face and started to say the usual polite thing that most of us mutter when asked the same question by people who serve us in restaurants. Then again, i just plopped Php 700 pesos for a meal and that should give me some sort of license to be blunt. Chicken Roll with Cheese "Do you want my honest opinion?" Vangie looked a bit surprised, she obviously thought we were going to go through the standard routine. "I like the portion size, the katsudon curry is huge though my taste is a bit confused with the oriental side salad, the sweet vinaigrette doesn't go well with the japanese curry. need to get more the curry flavor, this one lacked the sizzle. speaking of which, i am used to real curry, this should be spicier... though portion-wise, I gotta say it's a huge slab of pork but where's the fat? Magpakatotoo na tayo, masarap pag may taba di ba?...

With a restaurant named "Everything Yummy Food + Love" certain expectations are set. It was a feature in a local newspaper that got me interested, that and the fact that the proprietor / owner, Hans Congmon, is an acquaintance in the gym where I used to work out. Added to the fact that his family originally owned the Sunburst restaurant/franchise that served very decent food and arguably one of the best fried chicken in town. Grilled Lemon Grass Chicken It took me a couple of months before I took the effort to drive all the way to piazza elisha in Talamban to sample the dishes on their menu array. Homemade Corned Beef, Served as a Meal - this one brings back childhood memories of how my mom prepared her Corned Beef, lots of onions. they should have added tomatoes! Quarter portion of the tender barbecue ribs, can be ordered half and whole - perfectly done and falling off the ribs softness. i'm not such a fan of the sweet glaze sauce though. Ver...

Hong Kong is a world renowned gustatory destination with some of the best restaurants that practically offer every known cuisine in the world in a small jampacked island.  spicy chicken feet Be ready to spend, food is not cheap whether you go Rat Alley in Lan Kwai Fong or head out to the glitzy restaurants in any of the posh high rise hotels that dot the hong kong skyline. Even the foodcourt samplers can easily cost you anywhere between Php 400 - Php 600 for a single bowl meal. shrimp toast That aside, if you do go to hong kong, one thing that i would recommend and YOU should never miss is Yum Cha (literally translates to Dimsum + Tea) in Hong Kong. There are famous places in HK for yum cha but my cousin doodle introduced me to Federal Palace in Gateway Aracade, Tung Chung Lantau Island in Hong Kong and for three mornings, i trooped to the same place to grab my fill of Yum Cha to jump start my day. steamed spareribs in black beans Easy favorite of mine ...

adobo flakes oh yes, i've done a number of adobo entries in this blog, but i couldn't help salivate at the thought of doing the mother of all adobo entries. the premise is simple enough, marco polo flew in four chefs from all over the philippines to do a limited edition cook off ala iron chef with one theme in mind: adobo. unfortunately, with competitions, there is a single winner and many losers. hopefully not sour (pun intended) losers. glenda barretto represented samar from eastern visayas, danny de la cuesta brought northern luzon to central visayas, batangas sent myrna segismundo and nancy reyes represented the tagalog region. after going through the spread, sampling 7 dishes, only two came up to my definition of what makes adobo great: should have a strong salty body with the sour undertone of vinegar and that element of surprise. that and copious amount of fat. adobo without the fat is like ice cream without the cream. first off, i was a bit disappointed to find ...

double pesto with shrimp - ila puti, cebu city - could have used more parmessan cheese there are still people who look at me oddly when i head out to have a meal by myself. more so when i pose, spread, fluff and arrange the dishes around my table (and sometimes, on the neighboring table) before i whip out my camera for some food porn. that's what you get if your second biggest passion in photography revolves around food. oh it hurts the wallet as you go around looking for new dishes to interpret, food doesn't come that cheap in cebu anymore and i've turned down a couple of invites to write positively glowing PR reviews for a couple of restaurants. i've said it before, and i've said it again - i can very well afford to pay for my own meal. i just want the freedom to say "eeet suuuucks" if and when a dish doesn't live up to my limited taste. i'm digressing from the topic. food photography is akin to porn. at least from my standpoint. ...

gravy, more gravy, swimming in gravyyyyy. to say that a sauce makes or breaks a dish is an understatement. otherwise bland dishes get transformed with the right curry, gravy, dressing. take the salisbury steak. a simple burger patty set on a sizzling plate and drenched with gravy. butter, mushroom, cream and wine gravy - each lends a special flavor to the dish and i've always favored the mushroom gravy used by casa verde. today i had to change my list of favorites when i sampled dong juan's version. thick quarter pound beef patty, spiced and grilled and set on a sizzling plate with the absolutely tastiest butter mushroom gravy. the clincher was when i took a knife to cut a portion and juice started to leak out of the burger. i was tempted to order another serving of rice so i can wipe off every last bit of sauce left on the pan. mozzarela sticks on the distaff side, we ordered fried mozzarella sticks and found it to be too bland. even the tomato based salsa sauc...