Kebabers (SM Fairview)

My sister and I had an agreement that if I win in any of the Samsung Galaxy Mega Giveaway I joined, I will give her my Cherry Mobile Flare phone. When I received the good news that I won the gadget via NomNomClub, my sister was rejoicing because it also meant she can say goodbye to her Nokia C3 phone.

It was a day before our Boracay trip, and because my sister wanted to use the Flare during our trip, she asked me to buy my new phone a flip protective sleeve as well as the plastic screen protector so I can finally turn over the Flare to her. My expenses almost ate up the budget I brought that day, so for our lunch, we decided to eat at a budget friendly food place - Kebabers.


Food places in SM City Fairview come and go, so whenever a new restaurant opens, we try to visit it as soon as we can. It took a while though before we dined here because we always had hesitations in trying their food, and since we usually dine with our mom, we couldn't tell for sure if she would like to try the place out.


Checking the menu and realizing they offer food as low as 99 pesos, we figured it was time to finally try it out. Given the fact that it was still early for lunch (just 11am) and that there weren't much people in the mall, we were glad to share the place with other diners.


Fish Kebab Rice (3 pcs.)
I went for the 99pesos meal. The Kebab Rice had three variants - beef, chicken, and fish - and I obviously went for the fish variant. Let's start with the rice first. I couldn't tell what seasoning they used for the rice, but it wasn't the fried rice kind, something I appreciated. It was lightly seasoned and it was more than enough to satisfy one hungry tummy. The fish looked more like a burger patty, and it was very tasty. I loved pairing it with the provided tomato slice, but I sure hope they add more tomatoes to the meal. The garlic dip was also a good compliment to the fish kebab, and I seriously loved my meal.


Beef Shawarma Rice Bowl
My sister went for the rice bowl instead of the traditional shawarma in pita bread, and she, too, liked it. If there was something to complain about, she said the beef was a little bland for her liking, which made her get more of my dip just to up the flavor of the rice in her meal. She also didn't appreciate the big cuts of onions, but overall, it was something she would want to eat again.

There are still a lot more to choose from their menu, and now that we have tasted their food, we would surely ask mom to dine with us there given the chance. Kebabers in SM City Fairview is located at the ground floor, in between the main mall and the annex, near Rai Rai Ken and Mister Donut.

The pictures in this post were taken using the camera of Samsung Galaxy Mega. All images are SOOC (straight out of camera) just to show you the kind of image it produce, and I was very pleased with it. It captures images very fast (no need to hold the camera for a few seconds) and very user friendly. I had to adjust, though... because the screen was so big. :) Also, it produces a long rectangular image, very different from the images from my camera and my old cell phones. Normally, I crop images to 640px on the longer end and auto crop would end up at 640 x 480, but images from the Samsung Galaxy Mega produces 640 x 360 images. I don't see any big problems with that, although of course that would mean not having the usual space I have when capturing images.

The Day My Food Photographs Won Me a New Phone

When I read that NomNomClub was giving away a brand new Samsung Galaxy Mega phone, I hoped to win it. Luck wasn't at all a big factor in the giveaway as it wasn't a raffle - it was a photography contest, wherein people who wanted to join the giveaway had to submit a collection of three images. There were three ways to join, either post the pictures on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram... or on all three platforms. Upon seeing the TVC of the Samsung Galaxy Mega, I craved of owning it and decided to submit images on all platforms, giving me three chances of winning the gadget. Since this wasn't a raffle, I knew I had to be selective in what images to submit. Knowing that I can submit old images, the only thing to do was select which images to submit.


First set of images I uploaded on Instagram. These images were good, but I admit this wasn't really a strong set as there wasn't something that connects all three images. The final step of this giveaway was to create a Facebook Note indicating the links to the images with the option of writing a little something about it. Nothing linked these three images, so I knew upon submission that this won't win me the smartphone/phablet.


For Facebook and Twitter, I submitted the images by the end of the giveaway (last three days). Taking the lessons from my Instagram entry, I carefully planned which images to submit and the inspiration hit me on the last day. This set was my Facebook entry, and the thing that links all three images was that these came from the three major island groups of the Philippines - the Sundot Kulangot of Benguet (Luzon), the Mangoes of Guimaras (Visayas), and the Pastel of Camiguin (Mindanao).


This was the set I submitted using Twitter. I already posted the first image (Pocky) and the second image (Gummi Bears), and because it was on the last day that I got the inspiration how to present the images, I decided to switch the last images and uploaded the Hard Boiled Egg instead of the Pastel for this one. This set I named "Play With Food, Unleash Your Creativity," and this set won me the challenge!

I wanted to win this gadget that I actually joined three giveaways giving the same phone (I think there were about five or seven bloggers that gave away a brand new Samsung Galaxy Mega). There were still no winners for the other two giveaway I joined, but of course it's okay if I don't win.


Last week, I finally got my new gadget. It was so big compared to my old phone, and owning this made me let go of the dreams of owning a tablet because this phone is already big enough for me to enjoy the eBooks I want to read as well as capture everyday images - including food.

I started using this the day after I received it, even took it with me on my Boracay weekend with my mom and sister... images I took using this phone I will share tomorrow.

All nine pictures I submitted were taken using a Point and Shoot camera. If there's one thing I would like to share to the people reading this post... please to don't let your camera hinder you from discovering the wonderful world of photography. Of course we all dream of owning a DSLR Camera (I have been dreaming of owning one since I started knowing about it), but while we're still waiting for that dream to realize, let's use the time to learn bits of knowledge that could help us capture better images once we finally have our dream camera in our hands.

I still have so many things to learn, and I am buying myself a ticket to ride into the wonderful world of foodography!

‘No Borders Cuisine’ at The Maya Kitchen

The Maya Kitchen presents the ‘No Borders Cuisine’ of guest chef Vicky Pacheco, Chateau 1771 Group of Restaurants’ Executive Chef and Chief Operating Officer on August 31, Saturday, 9am-1pm.

Chateau 1771 Group of Restaurants is composed of Chateau, Café, Sentro, WineBar, SideBar and 1771 El Pueblo.

Chef Vicky will demonstrate a signature dish from each of the restaurant concept in the group. Lemon Chicken is crisp fried organic chicken leg nuggets coated with honey-lemon sauce from Chateau; Salbacho Pizza, a Sidebar staple, is topped with salami, bacon and chorizo; Fresh Smoked Fish Spring Rolls from Sentro is a fresh lumpia of tinapang bangus, salted egg, mustasa, onions and tomato; WineBar’s Lacquered Salmon is grilled salmon steak with soy sauce and honey reduction, mashed potatoes with parmesan and Café’s Bread & Butter Pudding is brioche type bread baked in a luscious custard with butter and real vanilla bean.

The first Chateau 1771 opened its doors in Malate in 1988 and has since relocated to its present location in Greenbelt 5. Its patented “No Borders Cuisine” is a blend of well-loved Swiss, Italian and French creations.
Café 1771 in Ortigas is a beautiful dining destination serving truly unique sandwiches, breakfast, lasagna, stews, pizza and dessert.

WB 1771 is the group’s Wine Bar concept with a wine selection from 11 countries and 48 regions while SideBar is the perfect place to unwind with great food and wine.

The group has not entirely left behind the Filipino palate with its trailblazing Sentro 1771 restaurant concept. It made famous sinigang na corned beef, rated GG and more. The people behind it describe themselves as ‘living, breathing and dreaming’ Filipino food.

Chef Vicky first joined Chateau 1771 as Assistant Restaurant Manager in December 1988 and has since occupied several positions as Restaurant Manager, Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Manager.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Administration from the University of the Philippines then got a Food and Beverage Diploma at the Les Roches, in Bluche-Montana, Switzerland.
Prior to joining Chateau 1771, she trained at The Manila Peninsula Hotel, the Hotel St. Georges and the Eurotel Riviera. She also worked as Assistant Restaurant Manager at the Puerto Galera Restaurant and Parola Bar in Daly City, South San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

For more information on other course offerings, log on to www.themayakitchen.com or e-mail contactus@themayakitchen.com or visit The Maya Kitchen Culinary Center every Tuesday to Saturday at 8F Liberty Building, 835 A. Arnaiz Avenue (Pasay Road), Makati City or call 8921185 / 892-5011 local 108 / Mobile No. +63947 835 2290.

Monday Foodstagram III

The rain has been on-off today, but it's still a gloomy Monday, and some parts of Luzon are still experiencing rainfall. Stay safe, everyone.

Here are the food pictures I uploaded on my Instagram page last week.


MaLing Sandwich
This week, I started each day at 4am preparing my sister's breakfast. She didn't want to eat rice, so I just prepared sandwich for the both of us. We still had salad ingredients in the fridge, so the luncheon meat was given a bit of an upgrade.

Ginisang Ampalaya
I am the one who's always preparing our meals, but for today's lunch, it was mom who cooked for the both of us. Personally, I wanted the chicken-shrimp combination to go with this dish, but we only had ground pork, which worked good as well. Thank you for the lunch, momskie.


Steamed Tilapia
Rain has been pouring almost everyday, and it was a blessing that we were able to stock some tilapia in the freezer. My sister requested I steam it instead of frying it, and I just played with the ingredients, adding slices of kiwi to go with the usual kamias (bilimbi) we put in our steamed fish, as well as leaves of kaffir lime, which we have a tree of in our garden.

Cookbooks
Yes, it's not food, but it is food related. These books are my brother's, which he bought when the MV Doulos docked here in Manila many years ago. I am looking for yummy-licious recipes to try with vegetables, and I was thankful that there were a few from these books.


Dinuguan
Mom bought some pig's blood the weekend before; we almost forgot about it, and because we still couldn't go to the market to buy ingredients, this was what we had for dinner.

J.Co Donuts
The sun shone today, and us girls took the chance to go out. After visiting St. Pio Chapel in Libis, we went to eat lunch at the Eastwood City and had some snacks at J. Co Donuts and Coffee. We took home a box of donuts, one of each flavors, just so we could taste a wide variety of flavors. We still haven't tasted every flavors, but next time we would try the ones we haven't tasted yet.


Bread Talk Fire Floss
My mom is such a big fan of the floss bread by Bread Talk. Whenever she sees a branch, she would buy some, and it was what we had for breakfast. Well, I also love the Floss Bread, but as much as this spicy one is good, I still want the regular one.

Chicken Adobo
Wednesday was a sunny day, but Thursday 'til yesterday it was raining on-off! There weren't much choices at the market, no chance for us to buy vegetables, so it's another all-meat viand for us.