Early Dinner at Figaro Glorietta

After the "Green Pastures - Farm to Table Organic Gourmet Cuisine" class at The Maya Kitchen, my sister and I roamed around the different malls in Makati City. All the walking and the shopping (we just bought a few items for the house and tried on some pairs of silver shoes), made us tired and hungry, so we decided to eat snacks at Figaro in Glorietta.


Pesto Pasta
My sister was thinking of ordering the Carbonara Pasta, but chose this instead. She felt disappointed because she said that the pasta lacked the garlic flavor, but it was seasoned well and the noodles were cooked al dente.


Pansit Lulug
First time for me to see this on the menu, so of course I just had to try it. I was super impressed at how generous the topping was, and the serving was actually good enough for two people to share. What I loved more was the noodles - I really like my pansit luglug with thick noodles, not the bihon type ones, and for 150 pesos, this was a very good value for my money. It was just unfortunate that they didn't serve this with calamansi.


Devil's Mocha Cake
My sister actually wanted to dine at Figaro because she wanted to try the cakes that she hasn't tasted yet, particularly the Blue Velvet Cake. Sadly, the branch only offered muffins and two types of cake - this and the chocolate cake. My sister is not a fan of chocolate flavored food, so she decided to go for this, and we were both blown away by how good it was! It wasn't the typical type of mocha cake we've tried... this one had a chocolate cake base with mocha frosting, but what we loved the most was the slightly bitter chocolate around the cake, which gave a different depth in its taste. The cake was dense but moist, and definitely something we would try again.

For our drinks, I went for the lemonade while sister chose the Salted Caramel drink, but I wasn't able to photograph it because it was served on paper cup, and photographing it would just be a waste because there wasn't anything to see but the white cup and the white foam at the top. Sister said it was delicious - and it had the good blend of caramel and salt.

We just went there for snacks, but we were so full that we decided not to eat dinner anymore. Despite a few misses, it had been a wonderful dining experience at this branch. Hopefully next time they will have a wide range of pastries to try because we just love their cakes!

Food Trip Flashback | Jay-J's Inasal (SM Fairview)

Not too long ago, a cousin came to stay with us for a while while he review for his board exams. The results weren't up yet at that time (though all of us were counting the minutes), but we went ahead to claim victory and celebrate early. Always, always... where to eat has been a problem for us (different tastes, different preferences), but when we saw that Jay-J's Inasal still has the set menu we tried without changing prices, we decided it was time to avail it again.


Aside from prizes, the place hasn't changed as well. It still had the same tables and chairs, as well as the vertical multi-colored wall paper, which made us feel a little bit nostalgic.

Like what I said, we went for the same set menu we availed when we celebrated sister's birthday:


Pancit Molo
Served piping hot, we all loved how it had a lot of molo dumplings.


Pancit Canton
From one pancit to another... this one wasn't oily at all, much to my family's delight.


Chicken Inasal
Truly one of the best I have tasted.


Pork Sisig
I know it didn't look good, but believe me when I say it was delicious.


Grilled Pork Belly
I am going to say this for all the personal reasons: I am not a fan of barbecue sauce glazed grilled meat. I prefer my grilled meat marinated and grilled "dry" rather than basted with tangy-sweet sauce. This looked charred, but not really burnt (I didn't know why this picture looked very, very dark)... and while my family liked it, I only got a tiny piece of it.


Crispy Dinuguan
This wasn't part of the set menu, but my sister wanted to taste this. Another good dish that I found "not good" because I prefer my Dinuguan creamy and not dry. It was crispy, it had a good blend of seasonings, but this dish is just not for me.


Turon
A great way to end the meal. The banana rolls just had enough melted sugar to sweeten it. This was served together with the rest of the meal, so eating it wasn't difficult, and we liked that the wrapping didn't lose its crispiness.

The set meal was good for five people. We entered the restaurant as five hungry foodies and we left with heavy tummies. If there was something to complain, it would be the place's dim lighting. It was just fine, sure... but if you're like me who like to take pictures of food before eating it, the lighting could be difficult to deal with, especially that I couldn't use my camera's flash on macro food shots. Other than that, it had been great.

And yes... my cousin passed the board exam is now an engineer.

Chef Robby Goco at the Maya Kitchen this September

On September 28, Saturday, 9am-1pm, Chef Robby Goco, the man behind the Cyma Greek Taverna restaurant chain will again launch a new dining concept as he visits The Maya Kitchen for a cooking demonstration.

Chef Robby will share dishes inspired by Green Pastures, his latest restaurant that features a unique farm to table cuisine featuring dishes that are created from all organic, local, original, with no antibiotics, vine ripened, unprocessed whole ingredients.

The philosophy behind Green Pastures is to have the taste of the food as the main focus. It is to offer food the way it is supposed to be.
The food is not your usual bland, lackluster organic kitchen offerings but rather food of exceptional taste presented in the most creative ways. It is like gourmet organic with the restaurant offering duck, roast beef, chicken cooked slow for as long as six hours.

The chef uses lardon and has rillette on his menu. He pulls his own cheese and what he cannot produce on his own, he sources from reliable suppliers.

Chef Robby is a graduate of the California Culinary Academy. He owns and operates a total of eight Cyma Greek Taverna restaurants in Greenbelt 2, Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Trinoma, Eastwood Mall, Robinsons Place Ermita, Robinsons Magnolia, Ayala Mall Cebu and D’Mall Boracay. His latest venture, Green Pastures is on Level 4, East Wing, Shangri-la Plaza Mall.

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.

Bite Club Grilled Burgers (D'Mall, Boracay)

I may have traveled to Boracay just last June, but my short stay there didn't really allow me to roam around and try different food... so when I traveled back to Boracay last August with my mom and sister, food tripping was something new for me.

For lunch, sister wanted to eat burgers. Finding a place to eat in Boracay is both easy and difficult - easy because there are a lot of food places, difficult because choosing where to eat can be a daunting task. As for sister's burger cravings... we were lucky to have found Bite Club Grilled Burgers while walking along D'Mall.


The place wasn't that big, but because August was an off-peak period, finding a table wasn't difficult. One thing I liked - they had sturdy plastic chairs that allow people with wet clothes to dine in (like we were).

Bite Club Grilled Burgers offer different kinds of patties differentiated by weight. Club Burger is the classic 1/3 pound patty (165 pesos), Burgerella is the 1/3 pound patty stuffed with mozzarella cheese (185 pesos), The Bomb is the classic half pounder (260 pesos), The Bombarella is the half pounder stuffed with mozzarella cheese (280 pesos), and the Triple X is the heavy weight 1 pound patty (420 pesos).

Ordering the burgers were just easy. 1) Choose your patty and 2) Add your choice of topping (all burgers have one free topping... if you want to add more, it will charged 25 pesos per topping). All burgers come with lettuce, tomato, and special Bite Club dressing.


Burgerella with Blue Cheese Cream
Sister's burger. I was the one who placed the order and because mom has senior citizen card, her order was placed separately with ours (sister and I). Sister went back to the hotel to change clothes and there might have been a slight misunderstanding because mom and I were served with burger cut in half. We were thinking maybe they saw just mom and I and took the initiative to cut the burger in half thinking we were sharing the burger.

Anyway, the blue cheese cream was divine! It tasted how blue cheese supposed to taste like, and it worked well with the burger.


Burgerella with Chunky Mushroom and Cheese
Mom's burger. Beef and mushroom - totally bursting with umami goodness!


Burgerella with Cheddar Cheese Cream and Smoked Bacon
My burger. I went with two toppings because I love bacon and I want my burger with a lot of cheese. Each of the burgers (it turned out) came with cheese, so my burger was some kind of cheese bombed burger (do remember that burgerella's patty has mozzarella cheese stuffed inside).

The patty was so delicious!!! It was juicy, it was big, it had a generous mozzarella stuffing, and it tasted like how I like my burger patty should be - smoky, less salt, more of the beef flavor.


Crispy Club Fries
For sharing, we had an order of their Crispy Club Fries, after seeing it served at the table in front of us. It was very crispy, but a little chewy as well. I loved it the way it is, but since every table has its own set of condiments, mom and sister mixed their own dip.

Aside from Burgers, the place also offers Breaded Fish Sandwich and Tender Grilled Chicken Sandwich.

Our lunch was foodgasmic! We were glad to have made a great choice this time - with so many food places to choose from it was a blessing to have found this.

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Bite Club Grilled Burgers
D'Mall, Station 2 - Boracay
Malay, Aklan
+63 (36) 288 5947

Tummy Talk (Calle Crisologo, Vigan)

Back then, all full details about a particular food trip was written and shared on my travel blog, Jenn on the Go. Then, I decided share them all here - this is my food blog, after all - but because I had to go back from the very start... I now have a lot of backlogs. Since today is Throwback Thursday, let me share a food trip for not too long ago.


Whenever I travel up north, I usually have a budget of three thousand pesos and it would cover everything, regardless of how long my trip will be. Well, accommodation isn't a part of that budget as we do have a house in La Union and if I go on a side trip to Vigan, I would just travel there from La Union in the morning, spend all day at my favorite place, then travel back to Manila at night. This particular practice was something my sister and I did when we traveled together.


However, I found myself in a big budget problem when we reached Vigan and realized I only have enough money to pay for my bus fare back to Manila. I still have money for my lunch and dinner, but I had to budget really well. The bus will leave Vigan at 9:30pm, so before we went to the bus terminal, sister and I went to find a place to eat. There were a lot of changes along Calle Crisologo, and I was really thankful that there was Tummy Talk that serve food that was just right for my budget.


Special Miki
That afternoon, sister asked if we could go to the market so we could check the miki factory my sister got to read about in a magazine. Sadly, we weren't able to see it and even if we asked several vendors at the market, nobody could point us to that place that makes fresh miki. Checking the menu of Tummy Talk, seeing the miki made me want to try it, especially when I was told that this doesn't use the typical miki noodles bought at the market (the yellowish one that has a bitter taste).

The broth looked oily, but believe me, it wasn't. Very different from the mami I have tasted - this one's rich, very flavorful and enough to make me full until we reached Manila.


Sinanglao
A dish very high in cholesterol as this consist of cow's or carabao's internal... but sister chose this because it's been so long since she last ate this dish, and it was a "miracle" for this to be available at night. Normally, this dish is only available during breakfast, and if you're lucky, you might find a carinderia serving it for lunch. I thought this would be the same as Pinapaitan, but it wasn't... and now that I have tasted Sinanglao, I think I prefer this over the Pinapaitan.

I am not sure if Tummy Talk is still open 'til now (I hope it still is)... if I have the chance to travel there this October, I will try my best to travel to Vigan again.