Crepe de Chine

After gorging ourselves over at one of Chinatown’s finest resto’s El Presidente. We decided to go look for some dessert but since we were quite tired I wanted to go somewhere a bit cozy and relaxing. While going back to our car I noticed this tarp at the place where we parked our car…and it had a picture of a crepe…a pizza crepe at that advertising Crepe de Chine! Finally!!! A decent dessert place in Binondo!

Crepe de Chine is a small restaurant located on the Lower Ground of the World Trade Exchange Building in Binondo that serves wonderful crepes at affordable prices. The first thing that I noticed upon entering the place is how CLEAN it was. It was spanking clean and the servers were very courteous and even gave suggestions on what we should order. The menu is quite extensive: they have savory crepes, pasta, sandwiches and of course the dessert crepes.

 

Pia y Damaso: A Noli me Tangere Experience

I’ve been checking out greenbelt 5 lately and one of the restaurants that I’ve tried when I was doing the Simbang Gabi last December is this small cozy restaurant called Pia y Damaso. Pia y Damaso specializes in Philippine Colonial Cuisine. The entire restaurant seems to be inspired by Jose Rizal’s famous novel Noli me Tangere. I decided to make a review on this to kick off my old manila series which I will be doing this weekend.

Apparently the restaurant is called Pia y Damaso because that’s the name of Maria Clara’s Parents Pia and Padre Damaso. Cool! Everything is really creative. Though, I don’t think the food is entirely exceptional I think the whole concept is unique and its worth at least a visit or two.

 

For this visit we only had dessert since we already ate dinner at the restaurant next door called Fely J’s which I also made a review of here. We ordered two cakes. The Ben Zayb and Wicked Simoun.

 

The Big Binondo Food Wok [part 2 of 3]

6. DUMPLINGSHaving sampled traditional hokkien food, seen lizards on a stick…Ivan finally led us to another hole-in-the-wall food stop. A humble dumpling place. Do not underestimate their dumplings. This is my favourite stop.

One traditional Chinese fare is the DUMPLING (jiaozi). Dumplings are often crescent shaped and filled with savory meat & vegetables. They are either boiled or fried and served with a special dipping sauce. For the Chinese, dumplings are an important food for the new year Since the shape of Chinese dumplings is similar to ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots, they symbolize wealth.

One of our favourite stops on our tour is this dumpling place! You know the ingredients are fresh because you see them made. I actually ate on the table where the manangs were making them. The place was packed! I especially loved the fried Chinese pancake dumpling…which was firm and very flavourful [hands down -- WINNER]l. Another hole-in-the-wall place that everyone must try (food great, service was nice and efficient, never mind the ambience…but I think that just gives the place the “authentic feel”) I am definitely going back to this place.