Cracker Barrel

A trip to the United States is never complete for me unless I get to eat in Cracker Barrel. Possibly one the best places for me to eat in there. While on our road trip, we passed by 17 of these and finally decided to stop by in the last one there was somewhere around Tennesee. Boy was I greatly disappointed! A lot of the dishes we wanted weren't available and the food we did oreder was bad! Nothing we ordered was good. I was so embarassed because I had been telling the people I was with how good the food in Cracker Barrel was. Good thing we were whiled away by the toys they let the customers play in their tables. We agreed in the end that the branch we went to had a bad chef and non-existent management. Maybe also because they were about to close already when we got there. Sad... Anyway, here's what I got:

Homemade Beef Stew $

The beef was "maanta" (rancid?) and the stew was sooooo watered down. I got this with a serving of mac n' cheese and hashbrowns. At least those were okay.

I sure am still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt but if I'm disappointed again, I'm removing them from my list.

Catfish King

Who knew catfish was a specialty in Texas? I sure didn't. I was able to try their famous catfish dish which I sadly did not have a picture of. It was catfish fillets that was dipped in a heavy batter then rolled in something else. Bad description huh? Anyway, trust that it was good. What I did order though and ahve a picture of is the

Popcorn Shrimp $

The shrimps were very fresh and was fried perfectly which is good since the place is all about deep fried seafood right? Great with a bottle of your favorite beer.

The Restaurant at the Getty Center

I was in the Getty Museum recently. It's such a beautiful place to see. Best of all, it's free. Hey! I made a rhyme!

I was debating with myself on where to have lunch. I had 3 choices.

• 1 eat at the cafe but there was nothing really there except for coffee and scones
  
• 2 eat at the al fresco restau
  
• 3 eat at the fine dining restau
  

Although the prices are much much higher, I decided to go with the last choice because I was so cold already and could not bare the thought of eating outside. So, I decided to "pay the price" of eating in a warmer place.

Complimentary Plate of Bread

with salt???, a beet dipping sauce and butter. I asked why there was salt and the server said that some of their customers ask for salt with their bread so they've gotten used to serving the bread with salt already. Weird much.

Roast Beet Salad $12

Shaved Fennel, Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese, Pistachios and Citrus0 Basil Vinaigrette
First off, this is such a small serving for such a hefty price tag. I knew I wasn't getting my money's worth but hey! I was cold! I also couldn't taste the vinaigrette. It was a good salad though. Very healthy.
On my second bite, I noticed that there was a strand of hair (blonde, so definitely not mine) in my salad. I told my server and he immediately took my plate away without verifying if it was true. Minutes later, I was served the same salad and the manager and kitchen staff apologized to me profusely.

Later on, my server approached me and told me that I was going to get a free dessert for my troubles. My server even had me picking out a dessert but then another server comes out with a pre-picked dessert for me.

Tropical Verrine $8

This was good! Again, small for the $8 I wasn't going to pay for. hahaha.... I particularly liked the coconut topping on top.

So I had paid for my salad (no tax here people!) and was answering a survey when my server comes up to me and tells me that my whole meal was free! yey! Imagine that! I saved $20! To think I was feeling so bad that I was going to spend so much on my lunch when I could have spent less had I eaten in the cafeteria.

My server should got a big tip that day.

Louise's

This is a more formal Italian restaurant I was able to eat in at Pasadena. They have an extensive menu and it took me some time in deciding what I wanted because everything sounded so good. They served really really good foccacia that made Italliani's foccacia seem like pandesal to me!


I got so full from the foccacia I wanted to order something light and decided on
GRILLED CHICKEN SKEWER $8.95

Fresh Chicken marinated with Sesame & Ginger, skewered and fired grilled. Served with a Peanut Dipping Sauce and Mango Cilantro Slaw. This was huge! I didn't even bother eating the slaw it came with. The chicken was very tender and the peanut sauce was very 'Americanized' but was still good. I also discovered that Chicken Satay eaten with mango can make the peanut sauce much more yum!

Visit their site at http://www.louises.com/menu.html

In N' Out

My dad had been bugging me to try the burgers here. He said that there was this certain burger here that was wrapped in lettuce instead of the traditional bread bun. Yes, all the fixings were there just less the carbs. 


It was filling but I sorely missed the bread. I guess I'm not that healthy of an eater just yet.

Look at all those fries!!! Obviously I wasn't able to finish it all. Ooh. I also think they have better milkshakes than McDonald's.

Olive Garden

This place is in the middle of being an Italian eatery and a fine dining Italian restau. They serve unlimited garden salad and bread servings. I was able to try this in Orange County and this is what I ordered:

Shrimp and Lobster Fettucini $18

This was so good! I couldn't get enough of it. I finished it all by myself. Only problem was that it was so rich, I was sure I was gaining weight while eating it.


White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake $4.50

Raspberry-swirled white chocolate cheesecake topped with slivers of white chocolate and a flourish of whipped cream. This was good. I could really enjoy the white chocolate and raspverry combo. My kind of cheesecake.


Sorry for the bad photos my dear readers.

Cafe Juanita

Finally finally was able to eat here. Have been wanting to longer than I wanted to try Chelsea. When we first got to the place, I was perturbed by their door entrance. It wasn't anything amusing. I was told that the place is such a mix of decor taste and I was let down by their door. But boy was I wrong! The place was so cool! So kitschy-voodoo-theater-eccentric cool! Main theme was red and there was a splish splash of everything else you can think of using to decorate.

These were what we tried:

Catfish and Mango Salad Php152

This was amazing! Divine! I could not find a trace of catfish in it yet I knew it was there. This dish should actually be considered junkfood. Another plus was that the marinade from where the green mango was soaked from was yummy too. In fact, we thought the marinade even kinda tasted of a faint tom yam.

Tom Yam Goong from Soho Php153

We were served a pretest broth to determine if we wanted our soup more or less sour. In our case, we wanted the soup more sour. This was good too. Something unique was that I could actually detect the coco milk used. This was described as a "Thai hot and sour prawn soup with spice in coco milk." My only complaint about this soup is the serving size, it really is good for 1.5 people. If that makes any sense....Anyways, if you think of the serving as good for 1.5 people then I guess the ingredients (shrimp and mushrooms) were quite generous.

Beef Rendang Php 232

"Malaysia's best known meat dish slowly simmered for hours in coco milk, spices, kaffir and tanglad." This was phenomenal. It was my first time to taste Beef Rendang so I really have nothing to compare it against, but this was good! The meat was so tender, almost melt in you mouth! There were a few tendon parts but it was all good...Addicting this one!

Chicken Satay Php 201

The real reason I wanted to eat here was because of the chicken satay. I was a bit let down by this dish but that was probably becasue I was expecting too much already.
I did discover however that Chicken Satay tastes good dipped in cucumber soaken in vinegar sauce and not just peanut sauces!

Ratatouille a.k.a. Pinoy Ratatoy Php 149

This was good too. Traditionally, ratatouille is a merry mix of tomatoes, onions, zucchini and eggplants. This Pinoy version however had lots of capers and tuyo (salted dried fish) added in and no onions to speak about.
I personally am not a fan of eggplant but this dish makes eggplant bearable to me! I loved this so much and will be having more of this in the future.

Lipcolor I'm Loving Now

For a deep red color with great mileage, I like

MAC's New York Apple

For a barely there pink

I like MAC's Skew. This is the only light pink color that looks good on me. I'm quite tanned and this lipcolor is still flattering. In fact, I think it actually brightens my face.

For a deeper pink

MAC's See Sheer is good. But I prefer MAC's Housewine for a true pink color.

Chelsea (finally)

After the long wait, I was finally able to eat here. Had an early dinner with my bestfriend. Right away, I noticed that they had changed the menu from the last time I was able to see it. They are still in their soft opening stages and are probably still getting a feel of the market. A lot were removed from the menu, and a lot were added also. More noticeable however was the change in the prices of the items. Also it was so hot that night too. None of the aircons were again working. Also, we noticed at the end of the meal that we weren't served the complimentary bread plate and the people in the other tables were! Injustice!
They really have to fix their service! I found the cutlery, plates, pepper and salt containers to be so adorable!


We started off with a glass of White Tiramisu Martini

White Tiramisu Martini Php160

This was made of mascarpone cheese, brandy, amaretto and cream. It really felt like I was drinking purified cheesecake batter. Inspite of that, this was strong and had a quick effect on me. I'd probably try something else before getting this again. I personally don't prefer dessert tasting liquor. My bad, should have gone with something else.

Carbonara Php 325

This was good. The cheese shavings were really a great addition. We both felt like the pasta tasted much better on our second serving than on our first. Weird huh? Maybe because it wasn't steaming hot then. I don't know.

New York Style Peppered Pastrami Php350

This was divine! First off, I was ecstatic they served me a fairly lean pastrami slice. I found the bacon soaked sauerkraut to be very delish and complimentary to the the sandwich. The melted emmenthal cheese was also sooo yummy. I could have eaten that (papak) alone all day!

Hershey's Banana Crunch Cream Pie Php160

This was so bad. It was such a sad end to an amazing meal. Conti's cakes are much better and cheaper too!


Would definitely have more of those sandwiches. The pasta and cake weren't that enticing but the sandwich sure was! Gosh I miss New York...Hope to see you soon NY!

GREAT!!

Great! So Amici won't be closing anymore. Some great good hearted Filipino has decided to carry on the business! I'm so happy!

Smokey Eyes

What do you think? It's my new attempt at smokey eye make-up.

Swagat Indian Restaurant

My parents own a condo unit in Rada Street and so I had the chance to eat here today. I first heard about this place from wysgal and have been interested in trying it out ever since! The place is really small, service was fast and the servings were generous. What I liked most about the place was that the servers were very well informed of the dishes in the menu. I asked them so many many questions (some of the dishes were very hard to differentiate from one another) and they could answer them all! Kudos to you! Here's what we had:

Vegetable Samosa Php60

This was very filling. Naturally spicy even if we ordered the mild version. It came with 2 sauces (see picture below) which I most certainly loved! It's described as "Triangular pastry stuffed w/ mildly spiced potatoes & peas & deep-fried." I wish I could taste more of the 'peas' part of the samosa though.

Yummy dipping sauces. The green one is a spicy cilantro dipping sauce I got addicted to and the brown one is a sweet tamarind dipping sauce my companion liked.

Aloo Tikki Php60

Described as "Mashed potato patties w/ mild spice, deep-fried in vegetable oil." I liked this one more than the samosas. Most especially when I tried to dip it in the cilantro sauce! Wow. Bliss... I got so addicted! You must have this with the cilantro sauce! Must!!!

Mushroom Paneer  Php140

This was addicting too! It's made of mushrooms cooked w / homemade cottage cheese & spices. The cheese was so good in itself! Mushrooms was just a bonus to this wonderful dish! It was all about the cheese for me!

Murgh Biryani Php160

Described as "Chicken cooked w/ special Indian rice & flavored spices."We were supposed to get Sangam Biryani which had both chicken and lamb but they didn'y have lamb that day. We ended up with the murgh biryani instead. I loved the way the rice was cooked. I would have preferred an order of the rice only. I didn't like the way the chicken was cooked.
Next time, we'll prbably get the Kashmiri pullow (Indian rice, cooked with herbs & spices w / dry nuts) instead.

This place has really affordable prices and much much better food than most hyped restaus *cough*Bollywood*cough*. There's the mandatory tax but no service charge was charged. Will most definitely come back to try more!


*Disclaimer: I noticed that wysgal and I had almost ordered the same stuff. This was unintentional. Most of what we got in common are the common Indian dishes to be had. Next time,I'll try to be more adventurous with my orders.

Banapple

First of all, I think the name 'Bananapple' would have been cuter but that's besides the point. This place serves really delectably sweet desserts! I think they have the tendency to over sweeten their cakes but that's okay with me. I just eat the cake a little more slowly and enjoy every bite of it. I was in my (old, sob) school yesterday and was finally able to have the chance to try their cakes (I waited for you to open! I did! Promise!) and these were what we had.

Apple Caramel Crumble Pie Php 75

I was quite annoyed with it's very crumbly (almost powdery) topping. It was too loose, for the lack of a better term. I prefer my apple pies to be very crumbly on top. I did however love the crust which I found to be a great "sweetness absorber" to the overpowering caramel taste. I'd probably try the other cakes before getting this again.

Banoffee Pie Php65

I apologize for the horrid picture. I got this only because it was the supposed best seller, even got it on take-out. The banana slices on this one were big and chewy and very much soakes in caramel. The chocolate shaving were a great contrast to the sweetness of rest of the cake. Once again, I liked the crust most on this one. One thing I didn't like though was that I could actually taste sugar crystals on the cake (crust most especially) while I was eating it. 

Lipcolor I'm Loving Now: Barbie Loves MAC

I'm sort of a loyalist. A loyalist to MAC lippies that is. I just love the packaging, creative names and innovative colors they come up with. These are my latest finds from the extremely coveted Barbie Loves MAC Collection:

Happening Gal Lipglass Php840

Described as a midtone reddish plum with gold pearl in frost formulation. This was darker than I expected and I find the shimmer particles to be too "big" (does that even make sense?). Close up pictures really capture that "sparkle" but in group shots, it looks fab!

Modern Ms Lippie Php900

Described as a mid tone brick red with silver frost in frost formulation. 
This looks very subdued and plummish instead of red on me. I tend to favor plummish
shades and this one is one more great shade to add to my collection. If I stare at my lips long enough, it kinda starts to look like I'm wearing Viva Glam 4. Weird huh?

I really wanted to get Rocking Chick and Malibu Barbie but they were already nowhere to be found...hay. Poor me....

Here's Rocking Chick on me. Doesn't it look so fab?

Described as a frosted fuschia with blue pearl. 

Tell me what you guys think!

Sonja's Cupcakes 3

We tried this Cupid's Special (not sure about the name, but I'm sure there was a cupid there somewhere).
Cupid's Special Php104

This has a Graham crust and creamy custard base. 
I think the cupcakes get pricier and pricier everytime I visit. 
It certainly has become an indulgence.