Sizzle it your way at “PEPPER LUNCH”

Power Plant mall has a new addition to its list of restaurants. Pepper Lunch is finally here in Manila. Its located beside jollibee where the old shakey’s used to be. Goodbye Mojo potatoes and hello hamburger pepper steak! I’ve been dying to try pepper lunch in powerplant. Good thing I haven’t tried the “copycat” restaurant in trinoma.

Studying a stone’s throw away from powerplant I’m always on the look out for new places to eat. Something to put in my options of restaurants to eat lunch at. Pepper lunch is great! The meat is really tasty and I love the fresh pepper flavor. They say they use fresh peppercorn the outer part which is most fragrant. Downside through is its PRICEY (goodbye lunch everyday pepper lunch) and well..you SMELL like what you ate

Don’t go there during lunch time though, go there a little later since there’s a pretty long line and you might have to wait to get a seat. Everyone wants to try Pepper Lunch!

 

Travel Cafe Philippines

Right in the heart of Greenbelt 5 is a concept cafe owned by the Department of Tourism called “Travel Cafe Philippines.” I guess the point of the entire cafe is to promote Philippine tourism by featuring its best dishes, desserts, and coffee. There’s also a concierge of sorts where you can get bookings for anywhere in the Philippines. It’s like a one-stop shop of traveling to the Philippines. BF and I dropped by for “merienda” but ended up trying some of the chef’s recommendations. (:)) I love the ambiance of the place, very quaint, clean, and attentive servers.

The Smoked Mackerel with Laguna Cheese Pandesal was delicious. We loved the way they were able to execute this dish. It’s also a very healthy option for people on a diet Light and tasty. Wash everything down with a carafe of Calamansi Juice!

Aligue Pasta is nothing special. Being a Kapampangan I’m very picky with my aligue. I think this dish needs more salt or more kalamansi. I didn’t think the aligue was fresh enough. They need to tweak this dish I think.

Filipino Triolet - A great idea because its basically a combination of the Philippines 3 traditional desserts (leche flan, suman, and turon). You get to taste a sample of Filipino culture! This is my favourite treat in Travel Cafe Philippines.

The leche flan was great! Hindi tinipid! Haha. Again, I’m serious about my desserts. This is real leche flan, all egg yolks I think. Very Rich and the Macapuno was good as well.

The suman was soft and easy to eat. It wasn’t too sweet too. Just right.

My family is a big fan of turon or any of the traditional Filipino merienda’s so I really enjoyed this turon. The wrapper wasn’t thick. There was enough banana and langka inside. Cute concept this dessert trio.

Our Travel Cafe Philippines experience was a good one. Don’t expect to get GREAT food though but it was good food. The prices are pretty steep if you really think about it but the service, presentation of the place makes up for it I guess. This place is good for an afternoon date, a meeting, or if you just want to unwind after hours of shopping at the mall.

Related Posts:

Travel Cafe Philippines by Spot.ph

I traveled to Travel Cafe Philippines by Blogalag

TRAVEL CAFE PHILIPPINES

2nd Floor, Greenbelt 5 Ayala Center

Legaspi St., Makati City

(632) 729-2233

www.travelcafephilippines.com

 

Aubergine at 32nd Fort

I finally got to eat at AUBERGINE that sort of swanky restaurant run by ISCAHM a culinary school where my friend diane did her internship. BF and I decided to try it out after attending ATENEO LAW GRADUATION 2008 in Meralco. It seemed we were celebrating more than the graduates.

What an unusual name for a restaurant! “Aubergine” is the French word for “Eggplant” (Solanum melongena), a large, heavy vegetable, usually pear-shaped and dark-purple. A member of the potato family, eggplants are known worldwide, but are best part of Oriental, Middle Eastern and Balkan cooking.

I loved aubergine and I’m really happy with the things I ordered. We started off with a complimentary appetizer from the chef aside from the appetizer we ordered. Servings were just right. Everything was wiped out! Delicious. Pair their dishes with some good wine or some fresh raspberry juice. I’m very satisfied with the service at well.

Here’s what we ordered:

Salmon delight
A selection of contraux infused grav lax, smoked salmon and trout pralines and salmon confit

Roasted French duck breast
with orange – curaçao jus, served with apple tart tatin and red onion ginger confit

Roasted Wagyu beef dry tip
with grilled duck foie gras, port wine sauce and corn – vegetable roulade

and of course who could forget DESSERT! We had the fab dome cake

Check out their menu: http://www.aubergine.ph/img/aubergine_menu.pdf

As the restaurant website says: “Have a taste of what’s cooking in the ISCAHM kitchens, and experience the unique brand of hospitality and culinary talent that’s homegrown here in the Philippines, according to traditional European standards.”

The restaurant wasn’t intimidating but it was still impressive for a date. I’d recommend it to people who want to bring their dates. Nighttime is the best time to go because of the ambiance of the place. You really get to see the kitchen at work. Lunch time is not bad too! They have executive meals which are reasonably priced so you don’t feel you’re not getting your money’s worth.

My Overall Rating: 5 stars for food, ambiance, service, cleanliness. Let me know how your experience in Aubergine goes.

AUBERGINE

http://www.aubergine.ph

32nd and 5th Building
5th Avenue cor. 32nd Street
Fort Bonifacio 1634 Taguig
Philippines

For reservations, e-mail the restaurant at dine@aubergine.ph or call [63] 02 856 9888.

PARKING:

1. Parking below 32nd and Fifth building behind HSBC
2. Open parking space across Bridgestone Tires building

 

Ice Cream Bar by FIC

I’ve been eating in ICE CREAM BAR for quite awhile I just haven’t found the time to blog about it yet until now. The ice cream bar is a new addition to the rockwell area. I’m glad FIC finally decided to do something like this. It’s a small place…cute. Although a bit pricey, I think its ok enough since there’s very limited optin for dessert in rockwell. The “bar” doesn’t just serve ice-cream but it also serves sandwiches, chips, and even some pasta. I like the over-all look of the place because its colorful but not gawdy and very clean which is something I always look for in a restaurant. The service is pretty good, very attentive and knowledgeable about what they’re selling. The price…well that’s the one thing I didn’t like. There were some items that were sulit for the price but some of the ice-cream I thought were really overpriced for just a few scoops! Anyway, its a place I would constantly go back to just to hang out and chill with friends.

Chili Franks. BF ordered this and he liked it. I’m a bit iffy about the bread since it’s not the soft kind that I like but it’s not so bad. I just think they could improve on this.

Beef & Cheese Nachos. WINNER. I love this. Everything meshed well together. There was just enough cheesy goodness that it didn’t “soak” the chips. I could eat this all day. They have other combinations for nacho’s also and I’ve yet to try them.

Adobo with Cream Cheese. A creative innovation on the adobo sandwich. It was “different.” The combination was ok although i think I would have liked it better if they used less pepper and less vinegar on their adobo.

Berry Berry Blast. (ok I forgot the name again..BUT it started with BERRY) I was on a fruity mission and I wanted to get cool by getting strawberry ice-cream. It was pretty good especially the strawberry and raspberry combination although I liked their peach melba parfait better.

ICE CREAM BAR

Joya Tower, Rockwell

Makati City

 

Angel’s Kitchen

Still finals week. We were on our way to school when we decided to just go ahead and have lunch before getting to rockwell. [OK. It was BF who decided since I was fast asleep and just woke up when we were parking in Connecticut already.] We’ve both been meaning to try Angel’s Kitchen for awhile. Its just a few steps away from Contit’s but we never really got to try it out since the first time we checked it out it was fully booked and we were being directed in this small corner so they could set-up an impromptu table for us. HELL NO! So we decided to try it out another time…so the time is now. haha

Pinakbet Rice with Bagnet (ok!!! I forgot the name but that’s what it was essentially called ) His was delicious. I really really like this dish. The pork was cooked just right, crispy and was not really too oily. The pinakbet rice was filled and i mean literally FILLED with pinakbet. In short..SULIT.

 

Trattoria Pasta Alforno @ Silvercity

Its finals this week and I was so depressed after my EVIDENCE finals I decided to just go get myself some pasta. I headed of to Ortigas to try this new Italian place at Silvercity. I was initially going to just go get myself some Napoleon’s but anyway I just went ahead and tried Trattoria Pasta Al Forno. Surprisingly, the prices were quite reasonable although I found that the food and the feel of the place could still use some improvement.

Baked Oysters. Cheap but not worth it. I didn’t think they used fresh oysters for this (ack!). I was not impressed. The cheese topping was pretty good but I got the sense that the topping was trying to hide the” un-freshness” of the oysters.

Four Cheese Pizza. This was reasonable. I liked the crust more so than the cheese. The crust was unique and I could just munch on it on and on. Nothing extraordinary but worth naman the price you paid for.

 

Manila’s Street Food

The best time to sample Manila’s street food is during the Lenten Season. Holy Week in particular brings all sorts of vendors near churches visited by the faithful. It’s like one big fiesta near the churches during holy week. Vendors sell drinks, food, and even clothing! Really, it is a sight to behold.

throngs of vendors selling fishball, squidball, chickenball, lumpia. name it. it’s there!

hot, soft, yummy. banana-que, kamote chips! heaven.

 

Visita Iglesia

Q: Why do people visit seven churches on Holy Thursday?

A: The custom goes back to the early Church when Christians would visit the seven great basilicas in Rome for adoration of the blessed sacrament after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. The sacramentary, the official altar book of the Church, says that after this Mass, “The faithful should be encouraged to continue adoration before the blessed sacrament for a suitable period of time during the night, according to local circumstances, but there should be no solemn adoration after midnight.”

Visita Iglesia is a practice in cities, where there are many churches, in countries as diverse as Malta, Poland, Ireland and The Philippines. Filipinos have brought it to places in North America that never had it before.

- Source: The Catholic Herald (cited bycatholicwriter.wordpress.com)

 This year I decided to focus on 7 churches in Manila that had special meaning to me or I found I needed to visit to enrich my self spiritually and culturally. My personal experiences can be found in my personal blog here.

1. The San Sebastian Church or Basilica Minore de San Sebastian -  It is a fine example of the revival of Gothic architecture in the Philippines. it is the only-all steel basilica in the Philippines and in Asia. This church is under the care of the “Recoletos” or the Order of the Augustinian Recollects. You can find this church in Legarda St., Quiapo Manila.

2. San Beda Chapel or the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat – Being a Scholastican hence, a benedictine, I wanted to visit the San Beda Chapel because I heard it had the same structure (look and feel as well) of the St. Scho Chapel in Manila. 

 

Handlebar: Biker’s Heaven

I finally got to try Handlebar! I’ve been dying to try this place for almost a year now but just didn’t find the time or energy to do so. Since my Special Proceedings class was canceled I decided to drag BF to Handlebar to have a burger and a beer.

Upon entering handlebar first thing you’ll notice are the seats. They’re like small drums with cushions. Flags and T-shirts are hanging all over the place. I told BF that the place reminded me of the movie “Coyote Ugly” and I was just expecting girl-bartenders to dance on top of the tables or something. Nonetheless, this is my kind of place. Full of character.

 

Kape Isla

I’ve been hearing about Kape Isla in the blogosphere. Ok! So what’s all the fuss about? I’m not so excited about the coffee here. It’s a cool place to study though. Quiet, but that’s about it. The coffee is not exceptional. I do give them props for promoting Philippine coffee but a lot of things could be improved. I truly believe that Philippine grown coffee has a future but perhaps Kape Isla could do something more. I just can’t put my finger on it.