Ms. Polly's cake: nothing fancy, sticky, moist and toothsome. Comfort food.
My favorite fruit: star apple. It's not in season, but I couldn't resist. Haven't had it in ages.
Pan De Manila bread and crunchy peanut butter and calamansi-guyabano jam. The jam was good.
Lechon skin meticulously sliced to serve the hungry horde at Christmas.
Baked lapu-lapu with 3 kinds of sauces.
Roast turkey with giblet gravy, another favorite!
Food lovingly prepared by my mom-in-law. Yummy pinakbet and pinapaitan. Igado. A crunchy shrimp lumpia appetizer. Sis-in-law from Japan made kimchi nabe, a hotpot that was quite spicy and tangy and delicious!
I ate the aligue of countless of these tiny crablets. On steaming rice it's a heart-attack inducing winner!
Enjoyed my lunch at Apartment 1B in Makati: cheesy vegetarian lasagna.
My best friend's order of salmon with tomato hollandaise was a generous portion cooked exactly right with the inside still soft and raw-pinkish.
Chinese lumpia from The Little Store in Gilmore: the wrapper was pathetic! All the filling spilled out on my first bite. My mom makes better lumpia.
The kian peng, or a Chinese paella of sorts, was tasty enough, but it lacked slivers of Chinese sausage. Again, my mom makes better.
The steamed fish was tiny and not too fresh, but thumbs up to the ginger soy sauce!
At Fleur De Lys in Tomas Morato, my sister ordered the chicken galantina with garlic rice and fried egg. Her verdict? It tasted ordinary.
I had the creamy adobo pasta at Fleur De Lys and I liked it! Bits of crunchy adobo in every mouthful of al dente pasta made silky with a creamy adobo sauce and salty with grated cheese. The raw sliced tomatoes went well with the dish, too.
Cute, cute, colorful glasses at Fleur De Lys. I know desserts are their specialty, and I tried the Bailey's Mousse, but it tasted old and dry.
I recommend taking Carlos Celdran's Intramuros Tour! It was funny, informative and far from being a boring history lesson! I cried during one part of the tour, haha! This is Casa Manila, restored with the help of former First Lady Marcos.
Courtyard of the rich and smelly. The servants bathed 2-3 times a day, the masters of the house so infrequently they slept without matresses yech!
Fountain at Father Blanco's Garden inside the San Agustin Church complex.
I forget what building this is.
San Agustin Church and Museum.
Taho before the tour.
Brings back memories of high school days when taho was a requisite after-school snack and students asked "manong" for more sago and syrup.
Frozen buko pandan sherbet at Don and Teban's, my cousin's grillery in Tomas Morato. Wonderful way to cool off! Speaking of T. Morato, I ate at Heaven and Eggs. Their steak and eggs was out of stock (grrr) so i ate the Corned Beef Sandwich. I liked the corned beef itself, but the bread was white and not rye and tasted like cardboard, the "sauerkraut" nasty, the cheese was freshly grated and not melted, and the coleslaw, horror of horrors, was swimming in its dressing. I had to fish the drowning shreds of cabbage out before they expired fully. NOT a nice lunch, expensive too. Definitely not worth my time or money. The mango shake was fresh enough, to be fair.
The much-hyped pudding. Expensive and too sweet. which reminds me, I tried a frozen Brazo from a place in Dasmarinas Village, and it was so sweet my head ached! NOT a pleasure to eat, I tell you.
Hubby and I enjoyed the Delimondo (by Chef Ed Quimson, P100 a can) ranch-style corned beef. I wish I brought back more cans to HK. My friend's dad makes a mean homemade corned beef and has generously agreed to share his recipe! Yahoo I can't wait to make some myself!
Part of my loot from the Salcedo Market. I bought Nana Meng's Tsokolate (average), Jaq's pesto with casuy and bangus (very good), Jaq's tuyo with red egg pasta sauce (haven't tried it), several budbod kabog and flavored suman (good), milkfish pate (average, a bit too fishy), malunggay pesto (Immigration confiscated it from my handcarry wah!), aligue sauce (still in my ref), La Cucina de Tita Moning Queso de bola sread (expensive but good), Ineng's BBQ (expensive too but good), kaldereta (ho-hum), Cely Kalaw's stuff (yummy!), and so many more I can't recall anymore. My only complaint? a lot of the cooked food were quite expensive! Manila has become expensive already!
Filled up half the cart even before 30 minutes passed. That's way too much plastic for recycling-obsessed me. I should have brought my MarketManila canvas bag but I was in too much of a hurry!
A stall selling French food: I spied a quiche, terrines and pates.
Paella: wanted to buy some but forgot. I wanted to try the crepes being cooked on site by this Frenchman and the pulled pork sandwich too. Next time.
People milling about the market.
It's my first time to visit Salcedo Market.
Other Manila meals:
Cuillere at Serendra: well-priced but the food wasn't special.
Chelsea Market Cafe at Serendra: some items were expensive, the others well-priced due to the generous portions. I liked our pizza, fish and portobello mushroom appetizer but the onion soup was watery and bland and the meatball pasta was served cold. And to those of you who know me well, of course I complained!:)
Trattoria Gourmet at Shangri-La: They have an interesting roast beef pasta.
Kitchen at Galleria: My duck adobo sandwich was yummy! The fried catfish appetizer was difficult to eat because of the bones. Too bad there were no people eating except us.
Cibo at Shangri-La: For some odd reason the spinach gorgonzola dip was tasteless that night, but my pork sandwich with 3 sauces: liver sauce, lemon mayo and red wine was divine.
Kai in Greenbelt: It's sad that when a new, trendy location opens, old ones lose their customers. The food scene in Manila isn't as vibrant as that of other places, and I suppose a lot of it has to do with finances. There are only a select few who can afford to eat out often. Plus a lot of households have cooks at home. Serendra was always full, and Greenbelt was sad and empty. Kai, the night we were there, only served 3 tables. I thought the food was executed and presented really well, and while the sashimi wasn't the freshest, the other items on the menu were innovative, and indicative of the owners' experience at Nobu.
Sango Burger and Amici Pizza: Both much-touted, but the actual meal didn't live up to the hype. I know there are many fans out there, but the burger and pizza didn't do anything for me.
Other places to try: Mamou (I couldn't get a table and I tried three times!), In-Yo in Katipunan, Cafe Juanita in Kapitolyo, Antonio's in Tagaytay, places these 2 blogs recommend:
docchef's blog and
this..
