Chocolat Cakes

Best and most affordable place for dessert! I wasn't able to get the prices anymore but I'm sure all of them are from Php 45- 80 max! As of late, these are what I have been able to try:

Carrot Slice

This was good. The carrot-ness of the cake was kept at a minimum which was great.

Death by Tablea

This should be called "Heaven in a Slice" the most delectable chocolate cake I have tasted in a long time. It didn't taste too dark as oppose to what I had expected. If I were to describe this cake in one word, I would call it LUSCIOUS.

Strawberry Cheesecake

A sugar free strawberry cheesecake to be exact. This was bad though. I really did not enjoy the cake nor the icing. It wasn't even cheesecakey! More like a cake with some cheese in it maybe. Chinese Cheesecake as we here at home call it.

Choco-Hazelnut Cake

This was good too! That tiny chocolate bar on top added to the bliss! This one I can eat for days and days on end!

Mojito Bay

Passed by to cap a long day off. Tried the

Mangojito Php 95

This was okay. The mixture of the mango puree and mint leaves were not that pleasing for me. Although this is supposedly an award winning concoction. So maybe you should give it a try too! Lucky us, the drinks were 50% off at the time we were there. Weird, drinks were 50% off during happy hour and not during the dead hours. haha. Anyway, it's a cool place to lounge.

Green Tomato

I am so glad a branch opened in Shangri-la Mall. As a matter of fact, there's a whole slew of interesting new restaus in Shang. Gives me a totally new reason to start visiting the mall again. My dad has been telling me since forever that the food in Green Tomato was good and finally I was able to try them.

Oriental Shrimp Pasta Php 225
Has shrimps, cilantro, bell pepper in spaghetti noodles. This was served smoking hot in our table. It was really good. I was so happy. To be honest, I think you can compare the quality of this pasta dish to those of CPK's, only much much cheaper! I absolutely want to try more dishes in their menu!

Bacon Mushroom Special Php160

Has mushrooms, smoky bacon bits, onions and bellpeppers. This too was smoking hot when served, but the best part was the crust. It was so thin and crispy! The bread absolutely gave way to the blend of flavors coming from the toppings.

Will definitely come back. Only con was that the place was so small and is always crowded.

Tandoori King

Always wanted to try this place in MOA. Their menu is a mix of Indian and Pakistani cuisine. A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven in which food is cooked over a hot charcoal fire. With this in mind, I was really excited to try their chicken and see what its effect on the chicken skin would be like.
The place seems almost like a fast food restaurant but isn't. The menu was also quite limited. We tried:

Tandoori Chicken Php175

I found this to be good. Most especially when dipped in their special sauce. I asked for another serving
of the sauce and was charged Php15 for it! haha. Real tandoori chicken should be marinated in yogurt and some spice. The turmeric should give it its color.

Beef Oriental Chapawraps Php95

This was good but very 'bitin' though. Wish it was bigger and meatier.

From what we were able to eat, I think the tandoor taste is more apparent if you order a chicken dish rather than beef.

Casa Rialto Ristorante Italiano

Relatively new Italian restuarant in Casa Susana, Alabang. Good ambience, good food, reasonably priced. My one and only con would be that I thinked they are overstaffed and yet are not that attentive to the customers. They served a very freshly baked bread basket which we were not able to finish, with liver pate and butter. Here are what we ordered:

Salumi Misti Picanti
- A sample of their house cured meats. I think there were 3 types in all. Good for 3-4 people I think. It came with some artichokes, green and black olives and some leafs. Good enough for a salad actually.

Capresce Pizza- Good generous toppings. I'm not a big fan of the crust though.

Ravioli Di Anatra Php 340- Duck ravioli. When first served, the serving looks small with only about 8pcs of ravioli in the dish, but boy are they filling! The duck is very tasty, a burst of flavors.

Seafood Pasta with Asparagus in Olive Oil- Generous portions of seafood. I didn't try this one though.
Seafood Marinara- Great tomato based sauce!

Fusilli Gambero e Zucchini- This was very good. I loved the creaminess of the sauce, the freshness of the shrimps
and it was such a huge serving!  I'm not exactly sure what the zucchini does for the dish though.
 
Too bad I wasn't able to take any pictures.

The Cafe 2

 We came back for more! I must say that I liked the soup and salads from my previous visit but liked the main courses here much much more. Here's what we ate

Cream of Potato and Leak Soup

Roastbeef

With mustard and horseradish. I don't like their gravy though.

Cheeses and Cuts

Wish I knew what those cheeses were....

Salad

Watermelo and Red Onion Salad- I liked how they made the watermelons taste sour.
The other two are not even worth mentioning.

Main Course


Panseared Scallops and Asparagus with X.O. Sauce
Salmon with Spinach in White Wine Cream Sauce
Chicken Chauseur
Morrocan Lamb Stew
Mashed Potato with Herbs and Garlic
Vegetable Hollandaise

Desserts:
Tartufo au Chocolat


Chocolate Mango Cake

This was good. Made of carabao's milk I think.

Panna Cota

Had hints of liquor.

Strawberry Bavarious

Not my type.

Gelatin Based Cake (yes, that's the name)

Not good.

Misato 2

 Another birthday celebration for my mom, this time I was able to try the:

Misato Tofu Special Php185

Described as "Tofu platter with minced pork and carrots in special sauce." I liked this one, the tofu was cooked just right, with a crispy battered outside and tender inside. The sauce was good tasting too.

Tuna Sashimi Php230

I don't eat sashimi.

Crazy Maki Php250

This is realllllly goooood. That final layer they add on the wrap is simply divine!! It's so good. This is really value for money.

Green Fried Chicken Php210

Described as "Leg powdered with Japanese Herbs served with Terriyaki sauce." I like this one a lot because whatever breading it is that they use on the chicken, it makes the chicken not taste like chicken anymore.

Gyu Saikoro Steak Php300

"Diced cut beef steak." This one was a revelation! When I tasted it, I forgot all about the chicken I had ordered. It was tangy yet buttery. Very yummy. I think I'll be dropping the green fried chicken from my usual orders and will be having this instead..

There were three of us and so we ordered three rice bowls of the Shirasu rice medley. We ended up finishing one bowl onyl though.

The Cafe, Dusit Hotel

My mom's birthday celebration continues. We decided to try The Cafe at Dusit Hotel Nikko. The 
ambience here is more subdued than those of the other buffets I've been to. It's more relaxing to eat here as opposed to other buffets where there is a mad rush of people when new dishes are being served. I love their salads and desserts. For Php650++ we were able to try the following:

Cream of Roasted Mushroom Soup with Basil Foam: I loved this! ahhh.... My fave soup now I think. The mushroom was just perfect and the basil was a great addition. I couldn't get enough of this.

(l-r)
Feta Cheese and Grape Salad: A wonderful ode to greece. I loved that the feta cheese was not that soft and that all these wonderful ingredients mixed together make for a refreshing start.
Pear and  Walnut Salad: This was new to me. Hardly any dressing needed. Refreshing as well. Great crispy pears!
Thai Salad: Of the three I tried, this one has the most "attitude." If you're not careful, you could be eating whole silis (peppers) already. It had cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges, grated green mangoes, walnuts and sitaw (string beans).


My appetizer plate. Had some cold cuts and cheeses. The right most cheese 
cut into a thin triangle had a very mild taste. The small triangular cheese
block had avery strong taste. I'm guessing it was a smoked bacon something. The smoked tanigue and smoked salmon were fresh, thank goodness for that. The sauces they came with were also very pleasing. I prefer the yellowish sauce more.


Round 1. Had the crabmeat canneloni which was very cheesy,  yum. The panseared fish roulade with spinach and cheese in white cream sauce, which did not taste like fish at all. I liked this one too. Had some California Maki with this too.

Round 2. Got some tempura. This was supposed to be their specialty for the buffet. I was expecting so much. Oh me, oh my. This was the worst tasting tempura I have ever tasted. Ever.
My mom's feable attempts at making home made tempura was much better than this!!! eck.

(l-r)
Round 3. The Korean Beef Stew was the best main dish for me. The meat was soo tender and the sauce was not 
too sweet and not too spicy. I had dreams of making this papak with rice but sadly my stomach would not let it.
Brochettes of Chicken wrapped in Parma Ham. This was disappointing. The chicken was tough and the ham was way too dry. Hey! I thought ham was supposed to be greasy. haha. It was tough to finish this.
Gambas. This was okay. Nothing special worth mentioning really. No complaints nor praises.


My desser plate. Oink oink. Many many cakes. I just wanted to try them all and shared this plate with my mom. Not pictured are my Coffee Pudding and Creme Brulee. Of all these cakes here, I liked the disfigured (not my fault) one at the righter side.

So there. I couldn't even eat dinner anymore. I feel like I gained 10lbs. from all that. Hahahaha. If you want to try this, then better go fast. This set ends on Feb. 13 just in time for their Valentine Specials... :)

Movie I'm Loving Now: Factory Girl

Quaint movie. I found it to be okay. I'm naturally interested in movies about people from the past 
(i.e. Marie Antoinette) who affect society today. I must say that Sienna Miller looks so much alike with
Edie Sedgewick. Guy Pearce perfectly portrayed the Andy Warhol I had imagined (since I've never
seen him on t.v. or anything). Now I understand why it was called Factory Girl. Hayden Christensen did very badly. Very bad acting for me. And why was he credited as "Folk Singer" at the end?

Wardrobe for this movie was so over the top! Haha.... Leggings, tunics
and dangling earrings!!! And of course there's that much talked (and publicized) sex scene. hehehe.
This movie passed my expectations, but then again I wasn't expecting that much from it anyway.
At least, I wasn't bored with it.

Btw, I thought Mary Kate Olsen was supposed to be here?! I didn't see her anywhere. I suppose she
was there somewhere though because she was credited as a 'Molly Spence' at the end....hmm... 

Ristorante Italiano Capricciosa 2

Have better pictures now. Tried the

Bruschetta Php275

It was good but a bit expenseve for its price.  Bread was baked just right 
and toppings were generous.

Calamare Salad Php270

This was very good! It was not really a salad. More of calamares as appetizers. There was hardly
any dressing for the salad. Plus there was a big dollop of ketchup at the side of the plate. We were really not sure what to do with that.haha....

Seafood Pasta Php310 for a regular serving

Their regular serving size can feed about 2-3 people. Really. They're very generous in toppings. What I love about this pasta is that its sauce is a bit spicy which is a perfect compliment to the seafoods. My current fave pasta dish.

Carbonarra Php310

There was way too much sauce in this for the amount of pasta noodles. So so sooo creamy. Too rich for my liking though. 

Great big servings. Great service and great food! I'm coming back for more.

Cafe Mediterrenean 3

 
Bababa Ghanoush a.k.a Moutabal Php80
"An eggplant and tahini dip." This was pleasant and refreshing. Had I not known, I would have never guessed that this was made from eggplants.

DAMPA: Aling Tonya's

We ate at the Dampa near Mall of Asia yesterday (I'm really not sure what it's properly called). 
What I love about dampas is that you actually get to buy your  own seafoods and pick out the choicest ones amongst the bunch! I personally love the shrimp and prawn section! There are so many to choose from!!!
After you've chosen your seafood, you then pick one of the restau around the area where they cook your freshly purchased seafoods for you. They have so many recipes to choose from for whatever seafood it is that you have bought.  We always always eat in Aling Tonya's. In my honest opinion, they really cook the yummiest...These are what we had:

• Lemmon Butter Prawns-yum.yum.yum. I don't even care that this was all butter. The sauce was so goooood. We finished this dish in a jiffy!
  
• Adobong Pusit- I don't eat squid but all of the people with me there agree that this was the best adobong pusit they had ever taster.
• Kinilaw na Talaba- I don't eat kilawin in general, but I was forced to try this because the oysters were just so robust. They looked sooo juicy, I couldn't resist not trying them. Lo and behold! I liked it! Take note, like. Not love. Mixture was great, fishyness was really removed.
• Sinigang sa Miso na Maya-Maya- I love sinigang. I love sinigang sa miso. I love sinigang sa miso with a lot of mustard leaves. I love sinigang sa miso with a lot of mustard leaves that are extremely sour!!! This soup was perfect! Abundant in veggies and sour sour sour!! The miso soup almost didn't taste like miso anymore, but you could still tell that it was there somewhere. I prefer this much more than the sinigang of Serendra.
• Lato Salad- There are two kinds of lato. This was the green pulpy looking one. It was mixed with some green mangoes and tomatoes. Definitely not for my liking.

Would come back again and again, but next time, more shrimps and prawns pls!

apologies

for some unknown reason, i cannot seem to fix the lines of my sentences in this blog. 
no matter what i do, one or the other keeps on extending that supposed text area and 
no one can emplain to me how that happens. sorry about that, and i promise to continue looking 
for a way to solve this. in the meantime, pls. be patient with me.
thanks 

Movie I'm Loving Now: Cake

Could Taye Diggs get any hotter??? This is a true blue chick flick; yet it tries to desperately show
women empowerment. It really pars well compared to the other romanti comedies out there and yet it was still able to maintain its substance. Great acting from Heather Graham. I don't exactly know where David Sutcliffe came from, I've never seen him before, but he was able to portray that 'lovable' guy role that everybody wants to fall in love with, well. This movie was able
to show so many different everyday life scenarios which I think many many people can relate to. When you just don't want to think and just want to enjoy, I suggest that you go watch this!

Oh. I love Pippa's (Heather Graham) dress for that banquet at the end of the movie. :)

Movie I'm Loving Now: Blood Diamond

Another high quality film. Something that caters specifically to an audience. I wouldn't expect this
to be liked by everybody, neither to be a box office hit though. Djimon Hounsou was the real star of that film for me. Also, I hope that people are now more aware and 
more careful about the diamonds they buy. I hope they go the extra mile and make sure that they 
aren't counterfeit.  This film at the very least should be given an award for promoting cultural awareness of something at the very least.