A Spanish Dinner

Dulcinea
Lower Ground Floor, Annex 1 - SM City Fairview
Quirino Avenue cor. Regalado Avenue, Quezon City
+63 (02)355-6105
12 October 2010


Walking to Slammer Burgers (food trip shared last Sunday), sister and I passed by Dulcinea and told her I hoped we could eat there, too, because I just loved how cute the place was. Actually, my sister and I already planned of eating early dinner there before going home, but while at Nail-a-holics for sister's pedi day, we thought of sending mom a message if she wanted to meet with us. She responded yes, and asked us to send brother a message so he could meet us, too.

When mom met us, we told her we already made a decision where to eat dinner, so we walked to Dulcinea, a restaurant that serves Spanish foods. As the date stated in their restaurant, this started in 1960s, with their first shop in Ermita (Manila). It was in late 1980s when Dulcinea became popular, and now they have countless branches in different malls here in Metro Manila and in some provinces (I saw one in SM Iloilo - Mandurriao).

By the way, "Dulcinea" means "sweet," and is derived from the word "dulce."


The place was just small, but I loved how homey it was. The paintings on the wall, and the lights that looked a lot like lampshades felt like we were at home. At first, we were seated outside the main perimeter of the restaurant, but when a four-top table became available even before the foods were served, the friendly restaurant manager courteously asked us if we wanted to dine inside so the people will not pass by us as we eat. Of course, we welcomed the suggestion.

My sister and I already told ourselves we would go for their value meals, but once we were there, we (sis and I) had a sudden change of heart. Our meal consisted of:


Espaqueti a Carbonara. They had a pasta value meal at p99, but seeing their main pasta plate was about p160, I decided to just go for the main plate. I honestly didn't know how to photograph it because the pasta was plated so flat that it didn't have the height I needed to compose a good photograph. Anyway, even if the plating wasn't so good, the pasta was really delicious. I loved how creamy it was, and it was a big plus when they used two kinds of bacon (slightly cooked and toasted) that gave the food a good texture.


Churros con Chocolate. Food wise, this was the main reason why I wanted to eat here. This was the first time I ate churros, and I wasn't disappointed. I found this really comforting! The chocolate was so thick and rich - that it can actually pass as a dessert if one wanted to. However, my siblings didn't like it, because they already had a distinct definition for churros - the pastry being sweet. I told them that's the purpose of the chocolate (to make the food sweet), but still, they didn't like it.


Espaqueti a Lasagna. Sister's pasta choice. The combination of red and white sauces was good, but I still liked my carbonara more.


Lengua Estofada Especialidad. I know we told ourselves we would keep this dinner as cheap as we could because we would still eat full desserts at Crepes and Cream, but our stories of brother eating Lengua Estofada at Cafe City 1888, made sister suggest we eat this, too. This dish was good, and I have nothing against lengua, but I wasn't really impressed with it - maybe because I found it way too expensive (this dish cost p370).


Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet. Brother went for their "Favoritos Meal," which was their value meal. I gave it a taste and I liked the blend of flavors.


Stewed Beef Cubes . Another Favoritos meal, which mom went for. The beef cubes were tender, the sauce was great, and the seasoning.. just right.


Cream Puffs. All Favoritos meals included a glass of iced tea and two pieces of Cream Puffs, which was a great dessert, but way too sweet for our liking.

It was a great dinner for the family... even if we were together everyday, we still loved eating out and share stories as if we were catching up on times.

*** Jenn ***

From My Kitchen | Giniling Maskipaps

I have seen the badge of this meme quite sometime ago, but it was just now that I was able to join. I do share recipes every Fridays here on my blog, but there were days when I do cook "normal" foods that don't require recipes, and I think this meme is just perfect to showcase those dishes. Actually, I have decided that if ever I have a lot of recipes to share, then I can share it on Tuesdays, too. :)


My first share for this meme was something I cooked two weeks ago, which I called "Giniling Maskipaps," maskipaps meaning "maski papaano." Normally, us siblings can just eat anything for lunch - we could open canned goods, or maybe cook pasta with just grated cheese and consider it a good meal already. However, our cousin Jayson stayed here in our house, and although he wasn't really picky when it comes to food, we just couldn't let a meal pass without making a little effort in cooking something for him, too.

On this particular day, we only had ground pork in the freezer. I seriously didn't know what to do with it, so when I saw this one huge potato inside the fridge, I already knew what to do. Giniling with potatoes and tomato sauce is one of our "Ulam 911" here in the house, but since I just cooked the Chicken and Soda Casserole a few days ago, I felt it would not be good to serve another dish with tomato sauce. What I did? I just omitted the tomato sauce and used freshly chopped tomatoes to give it some color and flavor.

From there I just added ingredients. Me seeing chicken hotdogs in the chiller prompted me to slice it and add it to the dish, then when I saw some leftover corn kernels (I opened a can a few days before because I felt hungry), I added a few spoonfuls to the dish, too. Finally, I opened a can of green peas to add more color to the dish. To give it a quite different flavor, I also added a dash of oregano.

No one complained about the dish, and my sister loved it when she paired it with some nacho chips. My maskipaps dish turned out good, and I was happy it did.

*** Jenn ***

Weekend Eating | Pork BBQ Minus the Stick

Last week was really stressful for most Filipinos because of the endless rains. I am thankful that sis and I were still able to attend the first Bloggers' Buffet at Carol's Texan 5 last Thursday. I received two more invites for two different events and both were cancelled because of continuous rains. I pray both events will push through in the near future. :)

Anyway, mom brought home marinated pork last Tuesday or Wednesday and hoped we would cook it by the weekend... and at first I thought it was impossible as it was really difficult to grill on a rainy day, but thanks to brother's grill pan, he was able to grill the pork pieces using the stove last Saturday night. It didn't have the smokey flavor I prefer, but for this moment it was really good.

No need to skewer the pork as the pieces were quite big, and I really liked the taste of this one - it was marinated good. I am thinking of asking mom to buy some more next week. :)

So... what did you have last weekend? If you're new to the Weekend Eating meme, you can read the rules and get the badge codes HERE.



*** Jenn ***

A Burger with a Slam

Slammer Burgers
Lower Ground Floor - New Atrium Building
SM City Fairview
Quirino Highway cor. Belfast Avenue, Quezon City
12 October 2010


It was sister's day-off, and despite not feeling 100%, she still wanted to go out and enjoy this day rather than stay at home all day. I told her I wanted to try the burger joints at SM Fairview, and she thought this might be a good day to try one, so off we went to SM Fairview to eat burgers for lunch.

Our choice for today was Slammer Burgers. There was another burger joint relatively closer to where we were that time (Army Navy), but we chose Slammer Burgers because whenever we would pass by here mid or late afternoon, the place just seemed to have lots of guests.

Slammer Burgers mainly offers baby size burgers and Belgian fries. The sound of "Belgian" seemed to be European, but the place pretty much look American because of the red/white/blue furniture.

They have eight burger meals to choose from, but we decided to go for:




Bacon Mushroom Melt Meal. Each meal consist of two burgers, a serving of fries, and a can of soda. Each burger has their own box - I just took them out for the pictures. They may seem to look small, and the patties may appear thin, but these burgers really had a lot of flavor. What I loved most about the burger is that the cheese slices are really melted. The fries tasted good - it's like KFC minus the breading on the fries.

Double Cheeseburger Meal. Sister's choice. When I had my burger, I raved about the melted cheese, but thought maybe it was like that because "melt" is part of the burger's name. When sister took out her burgers, the cheese is melted, too, so more ravings from me. :)

Since each meal has two burgers, sister and I decided to exchange a burger so we could eat two different burgers. Again, the burgers may be small, but really... one burger is enough to satisfy one's hunger. Sis and I truly had a difficult time finishing off the other burger.

Other burger meals from Slammer Burgers include: Slammer Burger (which is the most basic burger), Cheeseburger, Caramel Onion Slammers, Crispy Chicken Burger, Go Fish Sandwich, and 4 pieces Cheeseburger (for groups or for someone who really has a big burger appetite). All meals are served with fries and drink.

They also have different flavored dips for the fries, each meal has the cheesy dip. You can avail any of the other dips (Roasted Garlic, Sour Cream & Chives, Honey Mustard, Mixed Herb Mayo, Jalapeno Cheese, Barbecue, Garlic Basil, Hot Bell Pepper) for 10 pesos each.

Fish and Fries. Sister was the one who went to the counter to order the foods (while I busied myself taking pictures of the place), and seeing the small boxes, she thought it might not be enough for us, so she also ordered a serving of fish and fries - served with the Sour Cream & Chives dip. This was really delicious, and I suddenly ran out of words to describe it. :) Sis and I really enjoyed this one.

Slammer Burgers in SM Fairview is located at the lower ground floor of the new atrium building. Going there, you need to take the escalator (going down) near ACE Hardware and walk a few more steps forward.

Now that we have tasted this one, I was then hoping for the next burger adventure. Next on my list was BBB (Big Better Burgers). On a sad note, me writing this food trip now makes me feel we should've eaten at Army Navy first because Army Navy closed a few weeks after this food trip, and Slammer Burgers is still very much alive.

*** Jenn ***

Foodie 365 | Week 25

This week's foods:

169. Nilagang Baka

For dinner, sister cooked "nilagang baka," which literally meant, "boiled beef." This is one of popular dishes to beat the cold weather because of its very hot broth, and although we didn't have potatoes to go with this dish, the sweet potatoes we had in the vegetable bin (of the fridge) was able to suffice, even if sister seemed to overcooked it.

170. Jolly Chicken and Spaghetti Meal

I already blogged about this last Monday (please read HERE)... my favorite meal from Jollibee.

171. Fish and Chips

Last grocery day, sister included a 1kilo pack of cream dory, and for this day she cooked fish and chips. Normal fish and chips we see served at restaurants include the whole fillet of fish, but here in the house, we prefer it cut to pieces before frying. I made the dip by combining cream, lemon juice, mayonnaise, finely chopped garlic, and some spices and seasonings.

172. Colette's Buco Pie

Cousin Jayson was hired at Samsung Philippines, and this day, he took care of his medical records, and when he got home, he gave us two boxes of Colette's Buco Pie (young coconut pie). Colette's has been our choice of buco pie, but this time I was completely disappointed. The pie got smaller, it had lesser custard, and it wasn't as delicious anymore.

173. Simple Caldereta

Caldereta is a Spanish-inspired beef dish. We still had some beef left, so sister turned it to simple caldereta by using just beef, potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, and tomato sauce. It wasn't spicy, but we had some chili garlic sauce on the side if we wanted to make it spicy.

174. Ultimate Texan Ribs

Something I ate at the first bloggers' buffet at Carol's Texan 5.

175. Crema de Fruta by Max's Corner Bakery

Today the rain poured hard. It has been raining nonstop since yesterday, and since most places are already flooded, classes were suspended and government offices closed by noon time. Mom and her co-workers grabbed the time to go to the nearby mall to watch a movie, and she brought home some crema de fruta for our desserts. It was yummy, but I am not really into fruits, so this one was just okay for me.

This week was ruled by beef.. next week, I want to make it veggie week.

*** Jenn ***