Manila Signature Dish: Outback Steakhouse

For those who frequent Makati malls, you'll probably be familiar with Glorietta 4's Outback Steakhouse. The mall's iconic facade has rows and rows of establishments that lures onlookers (shopaholics or not) to their den. Part of the club is Outback Steakhouse. It has become well-known for its generous portions and casual set-up making it a favorite among families, barkadas, and--in Glorietta branch--tired shopaholics.

As the name implies, Outback's specialty is in its meat offerings. Steaks make up a good portion of the restaurants's menu. One of the highly recommended is the Beef Tenderloin with Mustard Demiglace and Bearnice. The taste, as its name, is a mouthful.

Manila's Signature Dishes 2010: The Terrace at the 5th

Terrace at the 5th is a relatively young restaurant (opened in 2008) quietly tucked along Greenbelt 5's strip. A collaboration between Chef Cecile Ysmael and Chef Cheryl Pineda, the place provides a feeling of warmth and relaxation.

The Terrace at the 5th

The green interiors and high ceiling exude a homey yet classy dining ambiance

Partnering with Unilever Food Solutions (UFS), the ingenious restaurant owners handpicked the best from its menu for inclusion in Manila's Signature Dishes 2010. The roster includes Pumpkin Veloute, CCY Salad, Roast Angus Beef Belly, and Honeyed Panna Cotta.

To start, we were served the CCY Salad--rosciutto-wrapped mixed greens and rocket leaves with tomatoes in honey-mustard dressing. The orange slices and buffala cheese creates a flavorful twist to the dish.

The Pumpkin Veloute is actually a mix of pumpkin and carrot with Mantecado ice cream. Crushed walnuts and popcorn sprouts are added for flavor and texture.

Manila Signature Dish: C2 Classic Cuisine

When I resigned from my job earlier this year, I finally had the chance to stay at home because I don't have money, lol and develop a new hobby: cooking. Every night I prepared something different for my nanay and bunso--American, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and even Thai. But our favorite would be Pinoy food because it's easier and cheaper to prepare. Sinigang, adobo, tinola, ginataan, and ginisang gulay were my most requested dish. I guess it's true that one would never go wrong with the classics.

Over at C2 Classic Cuisine Katipunan, Chef Oliver Gascon and Unilever Food Solutions teamed up to create signature dishes that would showcase the ingenuity of Pinoy restaurateurs.

With the theme "Redefined Filipino Classics Set", Chef Oliver Gascon gave an exciting twist to local staple items. The set include Adobong Sitaw, Crispy Ribs Sinigang, and Dory Escabeche. It comes with a plate of garlic rice, pastillas panna cotta, and a glass of Castillero de Diablo red wine.

Manila's Signature Dishes 2010

Chef Oliver Gascon's Redefined Filipino Classics Set

The Distillery Eastwood Happy Hour

The newly-opened Distillery Eastwood is offering the longest happy hour ever! Enjoy Buy 1 Free 1 on all cocktails and shooters between noon to 8pm. While Jose Cuervo Tequila shots sells at Php50 from 9-11pm :)

Distillery Happy Hour

FYI sa mga manginginom like me <3

Canon Powershot S95 Test Shots

I don't have a Canon Powershot S95 because I'm poor. But I have yaman friends so I'm able to do some test shots using the unit.

The Powershot S95 is the latest high-end digicam by Canon. I've tried it's earlier version--the S90--and I think it's a good back-up cameras for professional photographers or even hobbyists. The sleek and beautiful camera could take HD videos and has an aperture of f/2.0. Probably an ideal unit for those people who want to take decent shots without carrying around heavy equipment.

Here are some shots I took using the Powershot S95:

Low Light

Low Light

Subject: People (Trixie Esguerra of www.wildaboutretail.com)

Subject: Food

For more information, visit www.canon.com.ph

Bad Vibes: Greenhills Elan Hotel Modern

My HS barkada celebrated our annual pre-Christmas inuman this weekend at Greenhills Elan Hotel Modern where three epic LOL things happened:

1. Only Kin, Cha, and I were present
2. We got locked out of our room
3. We got charged Php100 for a missing teaspoon

Before I go into the LOL details, here are some photos of the room and rooftop pool:

comfy beds..they smell good too

view from the 38th floor

jacuzzi

freezing cold penthouse pool

As I mentioned, most of our friends were MIA that day because of several reasons. Nix, Yang, etc. deserve a "Friendship Over" FB wall post just for the pampam. ^_^ 

'sup, friends?

Greenhills Elan is good in terms of location (walking distance to Greenhills) and room quality (clean and comfortable beds). However, things got lulzy after we took our morning swim. We can't get inside our room because our key card won't work! Our room is at the topmost floor (38th floor) and there's no lobby phone or hotel staff in sight. To ask for help, we had to go down the lobby using the very slow elevators to have our keycards checked. Tapos pag-akyat namin, hindi pa din gumana! I think 3 times ako akyat-baba until a staff finally decided to give us an extra keycard to use. Kakayamot, grabe lang. I badly wanted to take a shower and change into dry clothes but we got locked out! :(

It got even lulzier upon check-out when we got charged extra for a missing teaspoon. The front desk said that the house-keeping service cannot find the teaspoon in our room. I was told that I could either go upstairs to look for it or just pay a Php100 replacement fee. Yep. Php100! San ba binibili ang kutsarita na yan? Sa Rustan's?

ano yan, ginto?!

I find it very annoying that I got charged because of their inefficiency! Suwerte nila dahil nagmamadali kami so we didn't bother to "help" find the missing teaspoon. Sana yumaman ang Greenhills Elan Hotel Modern sa bawat kutsaritang nawawala umano ng mga guests nila. Sayang, maganda pa naman yung lugar kaso epal yung serbisyo.

To know more about Greenhills Elan Hotel Modern, visit their website at www.greenhillselanhotelmodern.com

Beer Review: Beer Lao from Laos

I've read somewhere in the interwebs that Beer Lao is THE BEER TO TRY. Wikipedia says Laos is next to Vietnam and since I don't have plans to visit Vietnam [yet], I asked my bestfriend to find Beer Lao Lager when she visited HCM very recently.

Smuggled beer from Kindred P

Quoting an article from NYTimes, Beer Lao is "considered sort of a funky, travelers’ beer...anybody who has traveled would drink it."

YEY, this beer fits me.

wtf i got siopao face

I'm no connoisseur but I really like the taste of Beer Lao. I would definitely rank it with my other favorites--Duvel and San Miguel Super Dry. Also, considering I got the canned one (I don't like canned beers, they usually taste gross), it had a clean crisp taste. Saw from online research that Beer Lao tastes better fresh, i.e. from tap. Maybe I should include Laos in my itinerary?

Oh, there you are.

I'm not sure if Beer Lao is available in the Philippines--I haven't seen any in Distillery, Pivo, or The Reserve Liquor Lounge. Maybe I should drop by Beer Paradise to check? I'd like to try Beer Lao Lager and Dark!

Via Mare Bibingka Puto Bumbong Delivery

It's just days before Christmas and I already exhausted my 13th month pay. Hihi. Still, that's not a reason for me (or almost everyone else, I assume) to celebrate this festive season. Sure, I have zero balance in my account but I still have my family and friends...like a parol in my bubong.

Credits to Ade Magnaye for this amazing gif

Speaking of bubong, I suddenly had a craving for puto bumbong (labo, mehn) the other day. With no kakanin stalls within walking distance, we decided to have puto bumbong and bibingka delivered from Cafe Via Mare. I accessed my account in www.quickdelivery.ph (woot, they changed lay-out recently pala!) to view the online menu. Ordering was rather easy since you could just click the item you want to get and input the details (number of orders, name label, special requests, etc.).

An hour later, the Quick Delivery manong finally came in our office bearing nomnom goodies.

Puto Bumbong and Bibingka Delivery

I was kinda worried that our kakain would get soggy or cold on the way but I noticed that Via Mare has a special wrapper for their bibingkas. There's a foil inside to retain the bibingkas moisture and freshness...neat!

Fresh and steaming bibingka! yum!

We got both variants of bibingka--Laguna Cheese with Salted Egg (Php115) and Quezo de Bola (Php130). Via Mare's version is bigger (good for sharing) and heavier than the usual bibingka. They are generous on the toppings too, particularly the Quezo de Bola variant.

Cafe Via Mare Laguna Cheese Bibingka

Cafe Via Mare Quezo de Bola Bibingka

Puto Bumbong is my favorite since I was a kid. I find joy in watching the manangs make the puto bumbong...like how they put the purple powder into tubes and steam them in twos. Sobrang aliw!

Cafe Via Mare Puto Bumbong (Php65)

I requested for extra sugar and coconut when I ordered so we were give A LOT of them. I think they used muscovado instead of the regular white sugar. Very interesting and Pinoy indeed!

And since Christmas is the time for sharing...

Parang dinaanan lang ng bagyo <3

Have your bibingka and puto bumbong delivered at your home or office! Call Cafe Via Mare via Quick Delivery at 2121212 or order online at www.quickdelivery.ph

Like this post? Subscribe to this blog via email to receive updates.

Flight booked, yey!

Got roundtrip plane tickets for Laneway Fest via Tiger Air and a 10usd Phnom Penh to Bangkok flight via Air Asia. YES! 10USD!!! :D That would save me 12 hours of excruciating bus ride. Looking forward to a great 2011! :)

CASA ADventure 77 Bar Reunion

So a few weeks ago (backlog, lol) several UST CASA (Communication Arts Students Association) ADventure officers/members had an epic reunion at 77 Bar Kamuning. The invitation was short-noticed I thought that most people would be MIA again that night.

group shot!!!

It was great to see Sir Bong Osorio and Sir Aries Estrella again! I think the last time I saw them was 2 years ago during a brief yet sweet meet-up somewhere at QC. Anyway, a bunch of CASA batch 2006 were there: Jaemie Santiago, Elvin Villar, JC Santos, Jay-P Bautista, Cyrus Panganiban, Philip Manahan, JC Cardenas, Francis Cruz, Karl Daiwey, France Pinzon, and Nicole Limos. Batch 2007 batch were represented by Nix, Cha, and I. Also, Jesse was there hahahaha.

Batch 2007: Cha Torres, Anika Punzalan, Dani Salasalan

UST CASA ADventure: Batch 2006

There were a lot of catching up and it's amazing that members of CASA ADventure are now industry practitioners--media buyers, publicists, marketers, art directors, etc. I'm sure our mentors are very proud of us (hehehe)!

Sir Bong (OT: i can haz buuubz!!!)

With Sir Aries

Elvin & Cha

Cha, Flip, Sir Bong, Jesse, Nix

Lasing na hahaha!

And did I mention...overflowing food and drinks?

Manila Beer! Oh hai there tequila :/

Looking forward to ADventure's Christmas Party!!!!