Upper Ground Flr., SM City Iloilo
Diversion Road - Mandurriao, Iloilo City
Philippines
(033) 336-1985
After a very fulfilling breakfast at Madge Cafe and Deco's, it was time for K and I to hit the road and explore Iloilo. I was having mixed feelings - happy to be able to see new places, sad and disappointed to be using my cell phone to take pictures. I have no problems with using my cell phone for I started my photography / traveling / blogging journeys with my cell phone, what pains me was that I was running on my phone's memory (which wasn't that big), so in order to have pictures from every stop, I had to minimize the size of pictures to 640x480. Well, a light at this dark tunnel - I asked brother to send me my cell phone's cord as well as sister's extra M2 memory card, so I can take pictures with big resolutions and upload it right away on my netbook so I could start each day with fresh space from my cell phone.
We visited different churches that day and we ate breads from this bakery fronting Miag-Ao Church. With pictures not worthy for blogging, I will now share what we had for dinner.
We went to SM Iloilo to buy things we needed - water, some toiletries, some junk food. We were lucky because there was SM Iloilo Culinary Festival happening that time, and were just in time to have pictures taken before they wrapped the event up.
Choosing where to eat dinner was an easy thing to answer for me because there weren't much food places in SM Iloilo, and most I have already dined at here in Manila. The only place there that I haven't dined at was Rai-Rai Ken, so we went there. :)
The place was still bare as it was around 5pm when we entered...but a few minutes after, diners started coming in. The staff were so friendly and accommodating... and K and I liked their uniforms! :)
Beef Yakiniku Teppan. Thinly sliced beef with special Yakiniku sauce. K's choice of meal. Well, compared to Beef Teriyaki, I found this dish much better because it was a little saltier. :)
Ebi Tempura. Tiger Prawns in crispy batter. K ordered a side dish of 3 pieces Ebi Tempura just so he could test his skills in using the chopsticks. Well, he needed some practice, so we were both laughing while eating dinner.
Rai-Rai Ken Bento. Beef, Chicken Lollipop, Deep Fried Gyoza, and Shrimp Tempura. I am a person who would love to try different dishes at once, so I went for their bento. The beef was the same as what K had, so I was teasing him that he should've just went for the same order. Anyway, the chicken lollipop I loved, but the gyoza not that much because it was a bit chewy. I still prefer my gyoza steamed and fried at the base.
Miso Soup. All bento dishes are served with Miso Soup, and I liked that there weren't really much soup on my bowl. I do love soup, but not that much, so this was just enough for me. I loved slurping it while chewing the Shrimp Tempura. Weird, yes. :)
Salmon Balls. Salmon with Potatoes. It didn't have much salmon so it was more of Potatoes with Salmon for me. My main meal was already heavy, so I only got to eat two of these.
For this trip, K and I have been eating dishes from different countries. We've had Filipino, Thai, Italian, Korean, and Japanese. It was just awesome that we can taste different flavors without really leaving the country.
I come from a family who loves cooking and eating. I never had any formal training in cooking and that I taught myself how to cook based on the handed down recipes, but I could say that I can cook good food. In 2008, I started documenting my food trips for my