Tuna Sashimi

I have tasted fish ceviche (which we call "kilawin" here, by the way), but even if I allow myself to taste it from time to time, I am never really a big fan of raw meat. I don't know, I just prefer my meats cooked (a medium-well steak is okay for me, though), because eating raw meat just makes me feel like a cannibal. Hahaha.

This serving of Tuna Sashimi was something brother had last Sunday, when we went to Chic-Boy to celebrate his birthday. The restaurant may be Filipino inspired, but they had this little Japanese menu, and since my brother is so much into raw fish, he gave it a taste. For about 2USD, he said it tasted okay.

Well, I'd rather have my tuna grilled, fried, or canned.

Weekend Eating | My Pizza Hut Date

Hello, foodies! How was your weekend?

Mine was awesome - I had two days of celebration... Saturday, I was with my fitness buddy, then Sunday we celebrated brother's birthday. Well, brother still hasn't blogged about his celebration, and since I want to give him the privilege to blog about it first, I will just go and talk about my lunch date with my fitness buddy.


Starting Monday (which is today), my fitness buddy will embark on a new journey and will be very busy most of the time, so on his last full weekend, we decided to meet up just so he could give me some rewards for being a very good girl, as well as give me some pointers of what to do because even if he's still there, I have to rely most on myself this coming week.

Anyway, for lunch we ate at Pizza Hut (Ali Mall). He has given me his rewards - a copy of Shaun T's "Insanity" and Jillian Michaels' "30 Day Shred" as well as some magnetic bookmarks I can use for my books and/or putting notes on the white board or fridge, so this lunch was on me - thanks to the GC I got from Pizza Hut the last time I attended their event (the one with Ms. Shamcey Supsup).

We shared the food - a regular sized Super Supreme pan pizza and a serving of pesto pasta. It was my cheat day, yes... but as much as I wanted to enjoy dining out and eating great food, I didn't sabotage my diet by pigging out, I just ate enough - a small slice of the pizza minus the cold cuts (the pizza was sliced unevenly - two were too big, the other four were too small), about 40% of the pasta, and a glass of lemonade. My buddy ate two small slices of pizza and the 60% of the pasta... the other breads on the table we didn't eat and I took home the remaining three pizza slices, which I gave to brother when I got home.

My buddy will still text and call me everyday, but I will definitely miss our longer talk time. I am now looking forward to our next photowalk - we plan to visit a different park and maybe walk / jog around UP Diliman.

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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. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined last week.

Lunch with a Catholic Feel

Ristorante Delle Mitre
CBCP Bldg, 470 Gen. Luna St.,
Intramuros, Manila
+63 (02)559-5220
14 November 2010

K and I opened Day 2 of our holiday by visiting Malate Church, which was a few steps away from the hotel. It was a Sunday, so there were a lot of church goers; we actually had to stand near the front door of the church. K is agnostic, but he respect my Catholic faith and allowed me to say my prayers before we left. From there, we went to Manila Cathedral just so he could see it. He may be agnostic, but he actually has no problems entering religious buildings. We then walked to Fort Santiago and roamed around to wind off time. It was Pacquiao day, so there weren't much people at Fort Santiago, but we appreciated the quiet moment. :)

From here, next itinerary on my list was the San Agustin Church, but because it was already lunch time, I took K at Ristorante Delle Mitre, just in front of San Agustin Church. It was a new food place for me, but I already knew the place even before K arrived because my sister and I planned to do a Manila church hop a few weeks before and I remembered sending Carlos Celdran a message via Twitter asking his recommendation. He told about this place, and since sister and I weren't able to check the restaurant then, I figured I'd just take K there instead.


I wasn't able to take that much pictures for reasons I can't remember now. It was a fairly new restaurant, which opened a few months before. Ristorante Delle Mitre means "Restaurant of the Mitre." Each table has this very unique placemat, which the customers have to read to know more about the concept of the restaurant. It says, "La Mitra (plural in Italian is "le mitre") is the bishop's hat or miter which he wears at liturgical celebrations." The restaurant may be put up so the bishops have a place to dine at - with CBCP located in the same block, but as what was written at the placemat, "Bishops, too, must feed their flock, so is everyone invited to partake of Lord's bounty."

The restaurant features different decorations - images, mitre, paintings. I did love the overall ambiance of the restaurant, but what made admire this restaurant the most was that they provide equal employment opportunity to everyone, and that they actually have deaf people as part of their staff. One of the deaf staff actually took our orders, and since it would be difficult to communicate by speaking, our main way of communication was through pen and paper.

Our lunch for that day:


Bishop Cabantan's Grilled Sole Fillet. K's choice. This was served primarily with rice, but K asked if they do have dinner roll. They asked if mashed potato would be okay for K, which he gladly accepted. I got to taste this dish a little, and I did love the buttery taste and how the fish was light and delicious. I still love the cream dory more, but this tasted good as well.


Archbishop Lagdameo's Chicken Adobo simmered in Olive Oil and Lemon. Quite a long name for a dish, yes, but this was a revelation! I love the fruity flavor from the lemon and how the herbs and olive oil came together. I so loved this dish that at times, I do cook my chicken adobo in olive oil, herbs, and lemon juice.


Pandan Juice. K went for canned soda as his drink, while I went for this, because it was unique. It tasted similar to the typical gulaman samalamig, but the pandan flavor made it more delicious.


Blueberry Cheesecake. It tasted like the usual cheesecakes, but I did love the crust. K and I shared this dessert, which was a great ending for a very sumptuous lunch.

Most of the restaurant's dishes were named after the bishops, and even if doing so made the names of the dishes longer, it sure made the dish unique. Actually, they do have a lot of dishes on the menu, but I trimmed down my choices to those with the bishop's name next to it, simply because of its uniqueness.

Ristorante Delle Mitre, like I said in the opening paragraphs, is located just in front of San Agustin Church. The restaurant do have a lot of tables and chairs and can accommodate big groups, but I do recommend for you to take that table near the window. Seeing San Agustin Church outside as well as the people and kalesas passing by will make your dining experience more enjoyable.

Strawberry

When I was younger, it was one of my favorite fruits, because it smells good, it looks appetizing, and it was rare for me to eat it. I still do love the smell of strawberry and I still find it super appetizing, but it's no longer one of my favorite fruits, maybe because I don't get to eat it that often, and some strawberry-flavored food can taste like medicine. ;)

I do eat a lot of vegetables, but not that much fruits, because of its price. In one of the "habit building blocks" I took was about taking more fiber, and fruits do provide fiber and other healthy goodness.

These strawberries were given by our neighbor when she got home from a short trip to Baguio City (Benguet), where most of the strawberries here in the Philippines are grown.

A cup of strawberries only has about 45 calories and it contains 13% of recommended daily allowance of dietary fiber. On the next strawberry season, I will surely do include this in my diet.

Weekend Eating | M and M's Wedding Cupcake

My own weekend eating wasn't a feast - my family had Jollibee delivery for Saturday's dinner and I ate the Sinigang na Bangus; sister and mom attended a wedding while I was at home eating fried chicken and coleslaw (which I forgot to take pictures of, unfortunately). I was a bit certain that this week's food share would be unappetizing, but when sister and mom got home from the wedding, sister gave me this:


Mark and Marianne's wedding cupcake. Marianne is the daughter of one of mom's closest friends at work. All of us in the family were invited to the event, but brother had a commitment at the church org, while I decided not to attend - just to stay away from food (and also because I don't have a dress and I don't want to spend money in buying one).

I quickly photographed the cupcake, thinking it was sister's share and that she just gave it to me to let me see how cute it was. After the short cupcake shoot, sister told me, "Eat that, okay? I gave that to you." I don't know if my sister wanted to reward me for successfully controlling sudden urges to eat, but I told her at first that I don't know if I will eat it or not, last night I was already happy just to photograph it.

This morning, a few hours before writing this one, I decided to cup the cupcake in half and ate one half of it for breakfast. It tasted good - the cupcake's moist and not too airy, and it had the right sweetness and chocolate flavor. In case you want to know, the cupcake is by Edible Ideas, located along Quirino Highway - Lagro Area. Their website didn't include prices, so if you want to inquire, you can call them at: 346-7100 or 09228467100.

I always think sending out cupcakes in their own case/wrapper would be a great wedding souvenir. Often during big celebrations, attendees don't get to taste the cake (because the family would save it for themselves), and since cake is quite a vital part of any celebration, sending cupcakes to the guests would somehow let them taste the cake (even if it's not from the main cake) and because it has its own case, people can take it home if they wish to.

To Mark and Marianne, all the best to you!

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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. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined last week.

First Meal with K After Two Years

Max's Restaurant
4/Level, Robinson's Place - Manila,
M. Adriatico St., Manila
+63 (02)536-8058
13 November 2010

It has been two years since I last met K, and it was such a great thing that he decided to return to the Philippines and explore more of the country. He decided to stay in the country for two weeks, and upon meeting him at the airport, we went straight to the hotel (we decided to go for Sohotel Malate this time). Dinnertime, we went to the nearest mall - Robinson's Place Manila - to eat. In 2008, we stayed at Las Palmas Hotel, which was basically walking distance to the mall, but Sohotel was actually quite far from the mall, so we had to take the pedicab to get there. Needless to say, the Englishman enjoyed the ride. :)


We walked around the mall, looking for a restaurant to eat at... and because I wasn't able to see Chaikofi, we explored the mall more until our feet took us at the 4th Level. Seeing Max's Restaurant made K remember the time we ate at their Vigan branch (where he had the bangus pate and I had the green mango shake), so he sort of decided for us to eat here.


We all probably know the history behind Max's Restaurant, so I will not tackle about the history that much. I always consider Max's Restaurant as one of the many Pinoy foodie icons. Even if this branch is located at the 4th level, it was still pretty much a full house that night, so K and I had to sit near the entrance, which was basically okay, as the the restaurant's waiting area separates the entrance/exit of the restaurant to the dining area.

I initially wanted to go for their other dishes - those I still haven't really tasted, but K had one big comment: the restaurant didn't have much of those single serve dishes - most were for sharing. I am not sure if it's a culture thing, but ever since I met him personally and spent time with him, we always go for our own food, and even if we were allowed to taste each other's food, we pretty much don't share one plate of food. If he wanted to go for one dish, he will eat it all; same goes for me. Since it's a Filipino thing to have dishes for sharing and since we can't go for that, we checked out their plated meals.


Fiesta Plate. Whenever I (or my family) dine at Max's Restaurant, I always go for the Fiesta Plate because of it's Lumpia. When this was served to me, I felt a little sad at how the lumpia looks like now - it certainly wasn't as pretty as it was before, but yes, it still tasted great. No more questions about the chicken - it has always been good since then. Nothing has changed.


K went for their Spring Chicken Meal, but he started eating it the minute it was served to him, so I was only able to photograph the Cream of Mushroom Soup that was served with it. K liked the chicken and the soup, and he appreciated it that Max's Restaurant serves dinner roll to replace the rice if the customers opts for it.

While eating dinner, one staff approached us and asked my opinion about the ketchup. That time, they were still doing survey about their own brand of banana ketchup for the chicken, and while it tasted similar to the Jufran banana ketchup, I actually liked Jufran more because it has been Max's fried chicken's partner since then. Well, now that their own brand of ketchup is used in their restaurants, part of me is glad that I could still enjoy Jufran banana ketchup at home, at it still is available in most supermarkets. :)

I loved how friendly and efficient the staff were. They were attentive and quick to approach any customers needing them, and one staff even posed for a picture while I took an image of the restaurant's facade. Welcome back to the Philippines, K!