Oboda Adobohin KIta! , Katipunan Extension, June 8

My friend Vince took me to Oboda! Adobohin Kita restaurant in Katipunan Extension, Q, located close to Blue Ridge Subdivision.

I find the foods quite oily, salty and tasty, which is what Filipino comfort foods are all about (didn't we all grow up eating fried pork chops, adobo, fried fish and some such unhealthy fare?).

Yes indeed, they are quite delicious, and I will most probably eat there again. I am not raving about their food, but I really don't find any cause for complaint either. I guess it's just not something I would go out of my way to eat at, simply because I am trying to avoid greasy food and cholesterol.

I also take issue with the prices of their food. Considering the location, ambiance and the number of staff, the prices seem justified- P195 for beef adobo. But take note that for a specificallyadobo restaurant - adobo as you know, being the Filipino's staple food, inexpensive and very easy to prepare- such price becomes a bit inappropriate. I expect this kind of price at, say, Pancake House or Chocolate Kiss or all the other restaurants that serve different kinds of food. In their case, beautifying the simple adobo or tapsilog seems okay to justify the high price. All I'm saying is, it just feels weird to enter an adobo or tapsilog restaurant that charges this price.

Carrot Cake at Dome, Shangrila Mall, June 8

Junmar Orig. Lechon (carcar) Cebu, Katipunan, June 8

Inyo, E. Abada Street, June 6

Persian Recipes, Katipunan Extension, June 6

Dinner at Kainan sa Augusto in Pasig

Dessert at the Lobby of Diamond Hotel, June 6

their ensaymada is sublime!

here's our various orders!

my friends and I

After the Chinese buffet at Ma Yalan Restaurant, we trooped to the lobby of Diamond Hotel in Manila. Gerald, our foodie friend, swore by the ube-filled and butter-encrusted ensaymada at this place and indeed, the recommended pastry did not disappoint. As you can see in the picture below, it was oozing with cheese and melted butter and very soft and delicious.

We each of us ordered different desserts, each cake costing from P120-120. They were all delicious but some I found a tad too sweet. My order, Le Royale, costing P195, had chocolate mousse filling and had a crunchy taste from the Ferrero chocolate they used for it.

my order, Le Royale

I also very much liked their cheesecake.

It was a very enjoyable affair. We refrained from ordering the expensive coffee , but Joko ordered green tea which we shared among us.

Chinese Buffet at Ma Yalan, Binondo

the vegetables, tofu and pancit on my plate

some of the dishes in the buffet

Today I met my foodmates (Pinoy Frugal Chowhounds) for buffet lunch at Ma Yalan Restaurant. It's a small, homey-looking restaurant in the area, recently opened and staffed with friendly people enthusiastic about sharing all sorts of treats and goodies for the hungry diner. Their buffet, costing only P160/head, is open daily from 11am-2pm.

There were around 10 dishes plus one gelatin drink. They had two different dishes of tofu (one being very spicy- they got it from a Taiwanese cookbook), pancit (quite delicious and with a delicate taste), chopsuey-style vegetables (I liked that it's not overcooked!), steamed fish, chicken curry, lumpiang shanghai (this is really great!) and squid rings. Over all it was a satisfying meal, though the fish could've been fresher.

The owner was also very friendly, and made us try some of their specialties, their mami and siopao. The chicken mami goes with a brown sauce- you have to dip your mami there before eating it and sipping the soup. Turns out that they were using the recipe of R. Ma Mon Luk, hence the awesome taste of their siopao. Ma Mon Luk is really my favorite siopao in all of Manila, truly a comfort food! The owner of Ma Yalan is a descendant of R. Ma Mon Luk.

the chicken mami, one of their specialties

I ordered one whole jumbo siopao for myself, for P65. It has salted egg, chicken and chorizon inside. There's something truly addictive about the taste for me.

the special siopao! my all-time favorite

the excellent gulaman for dessert

here's us; that's me in the yellow top. The owner is the lady in green standing behind the table.

MA-YALAN Restaurant is at 839 Salazar St. Binondo Manila

Van Gogh is Bipolar, June 5

I had already finished cooking black rice and steaming pumpkin for my dinner when I suddenly received a text message from one of my AFF chatmates, inviting me to eat outside (there was no way I would invite a stranger over to my condo). I recommended Van Gogh is Bipolar in Maginhawa Street; it was near my place and the foods there are organic and very delicious.

I had the President Roosevelt's Meal (P555) which consists of grilled salmon (always fresh and wonderfully-prepared), black rice, turkey soup, and Courtney Love's Potion, a fruit juice/concoction with vegetable and fruit bits floating on top.

My date that night already has a girlfriend so there's no way he can be considered a prospect. Moreover, he is not that tall and his stomach was not exactly flat. However, he is witty and intelligent, so ofcourse I enjoyed the conversation- AND the excellent meal that's his treat.

Earlier that day I went to Cubao area and again had stuff from the fruit bar.

Grilled Tilapia from Cowboy Grill, June 3

For dinner today I had grilled tilapia from Cowboy Grill in Xavierville Avenue. I took it home to eat with my black rice. I also steamed squash and put sesame seeds and olive oil butter with it. For dip, I had a mix of calamansi juice, raw garlic, Bragg sea kelp and spices (I put way too much, though) and sea salt. What a great meal! My only complaint was the marinade they put in the fish, which made it a little too sweet. Anyway it was very fresh, so every bite was a delight.

I had it with my friend Joel, who came over and brought the fish. I always enjoy sharing a meal with someone who loves the food as much as I do!

Grilled Plapla in Salt from KKK, June 2

My plan to clear the palate after all the gustatory excitements the past few days kind of backfired on me. I ordered the P236 inihaw na pla-pla sa asin (grilled pla-pla in salt) at KKK Restaurant in SM Cubao to go with my black rice at home. But I was not able to resist eating all of the sweet sauce with bagoong (fermented fish paste), which you can see in the picture. It really was the perfect accompaniment to the fresh but truly bland tasting pla-pla. The result being that, I felt slightly allergic to it and my face got a little bit inflamed.

So here is a picture of my food last Wednesday. It really WAS a good meal.



That night, I was depressed from having sore eyes, I was simply feeling ill and unhappy. To cheer myself up, I ate almost all of the whole bar of organic dark chocolate I got from Healthy Options. Endangered Species is my favorite brand among all the dark chocolates I've ever tasted, simply because it uses water-filtered beet sugar and hence does not give me sore throat afterwards. I ate it with the raw almonds pictured beside it. I also love to buy macadamia nuts from said store, also wonderful to go with dark chocolates!

And since I was in Cubao area, ofcourse I didn't fail to drop by Shopwise and had the big bowl of fresh fruits!

Burrito at Army Navy Burger, Makati, June 1

Despite having an inflamed pinkeye, I still went to Makati to meet someone, a 50 year old Japanese American that fed me at Teriyaki Boy, and afterwards at Murphy's Bar in Rufino Street for the Tuesday Quiz Night.







I have been at Murphy's in the past, and was not impressed at all with their meals. So I opted to go instead to Army Navy Burger and followed my friends' advice to try the P120 burrito.



What a great meal this is! The burrito tasted fresh and the bits of steak inside were tender and delectable. The rice provided a pleasant contrast to the saltiness of the meat. Smothering it with their tomato salsa and the garlic sauce they provided was also an excellent idea. My friend Winter and I wolfed down our respective half of the burrito in a few seconds.

We also had the P180 quesadilla, but it wasn't that good. The melted cheese tasted cheap, and the other ingredients were overcooked to the point of blandness.


I walked a little at Greenbelt 5 before going to Murphy's and was pleased to discover Healthy Options at the basement. I bought organic crackers, Bragg's seasoning and raw almonds to go with the Dagoba organic dark chocolates I bought recently. The total cost is P1000.

Great Meal at Seryna, Little Tokyo, May 30

Today I had a date with a ship captain. He is 50 years old, polite and a real gentleman, funny and intelligent. He was amused at my appetite and must've spent half the dinner time watching me decimate all the foods in the table-
*the hare-hare salad (they call it something else though) in peanut sauce
*uni sashimi (very fresh and delicious!)
*chirashi sushi pictured above
*miso soup
*maki (which seems to be California maki)


It was really a memorable and wonderful meal! I was so happy! My date was also very pleased to discover this place. It's his first time in Manila, and I wanted to show him the BEST in Japanese that the city has to offer. I think next time we meet I will bring him to Ang Bistro sa Remedios.


Before meeting him I was at Shopwise Cubao and had the usual bowl of fresh fruits. I am getting to be popular with the staff at the fruit bar that always tease me about my fruit addiction.



After the excellent dinner at Seryna, we walked a little and ended up at Shinjuku where I had the coffee jelly. I always make sure to top my Japanese meal with this dessert every time I'm in Little Tokyo. I believe this is the ONLY restaurant in Little Tokyo that serves this meal. My favorite dessert, though, is still the anmitsen at Kozui in Timog.


Seryna Japanese Restaurant is at 2277 Chino Roces., Ave. Makati City.

Salmon Roe and Sea urchin Sashimi , May 29

Last night I had uni and ikkaridon (sea urchin and salmon roe sashimi with rice) at Kiko Fujji, Little Tokyo, Makati. I also tried basashi sashimi (raw horse meat) which was pleasantly tough and good. It's not that delicious, but I like how it tastes it my mouth.

Little Tokyo is my all-time favorite eating place for Japanese food. It never fails to delight me when I enter this courtyard surrounded by Japanese restaurants and see lots of Japanese faces. Ofcourse I’m also extremely pleased to see and pet the family of cats (wearing bell collars!) in the area.

Actually the meal is not that fantastic. The rice is not that moist, I much prefer eating at Nodasho. The salmon and ikkura don costs P640 and I shared it with my Filipino date. I still felt very hungry afterward... He is not that rich so I was embarrassed to ask for another separate bowl for myself.

the horse sashimi

I feel lucky to be able to eat lots of salmon roe and fatty seafood without worrying about gout and other health problems. Afterwards, my friends and I went to Shinjukku for coffee jelly.

On the other hand I am glad to buy raw macadamia nuts at Healthy Options in Shangrila Mall, after my brief meeting with the Filipino Freethinkers Group. I ate it all today. I only wish I had dark chocolates to go with it. Whenever I eat macadamia chocolates and there's very little macadamia I feel upset.

I am including the chirashi sushi of Vladi because it's so colorful and pretty!

Little Tokyo is at Don Chino Roces Avenue (formerly Pasong Tamo) cor. Amorsolo St. It is right beside Makati Cinema Square.

My Fruit Addiction

The Fruit Bar at Shopwise, Araneta Center, Cubao. May 27

Every time I do my errands in or pass by Cubao, I always drop by the fruit bar in Shopwise. The fruit bar here is like SM’s ritzy ditz cousin. They have few fruits but they include kiwi, dragonfruit, apples and grapes. It boggles the mind why they won’t include pears or strawberries. But I think it’s because these are more expensive than the aforementioned fruits and people will tend to get just the strawberries if they lay it out for the masses?

I prefer Shopwise because I have developed a taste for dragonfruit recently. The ones at SM fruit bar are no less healthy, but sometimes they aren’t so fresh. Shopwise Cubao only has the gelatin/gulaman with milk (a combnation of condensed and evaporated milk), whereas SM’s have tapioca/sago and different colored gelatin. I also love sago but ofcourse I don’t put the sweet sauce as it cancels out the healthy goodness you get from the fruits.

The big fruity plastic bowl you see above costs P130.

I was at Shopwise at 11am with few shoppers walking around. I sat in their Le Gourmet "restaurant" inside while reading William Saroyan's memoirs.

I find myself always looking for an excuse to “pass by” Cubao in order to have these fruits. In fact fruits are my secret to keeping fit despite an inordinate amount of food I ingest on a daily basis. I like to eat them before or after a meal.

Yesterday I enjoyed walking around in Cubao even though at 38 C it was so far the hottest recorded day of the year! I also bought some organic cotton bra for the weather. Sloggi is the only brand that has these organic cotton bra’s as far as I know. And Yes even in my choice of underwear I go for organic!

Mondo Juice, May 27

Mondo Juice

Although a lot of people scoff at me for being “obsessed” with organic products and not eating cheap apples from China (where they use a lot of pesticides), I really cannot shake off the habit. Which is why every time I encounter a new healthy eating place, I immediately try it. And yes, with full awareness that most of these shops are designed primarily to make me part with my money!

Mondo Juice is at the bridgeway at the 3^rd floor connecting Ali Mall to SM in Araneta Shopping Center, Cubao.

The interiors are pleasantly cool and airy, because of the glass walls (where you have a view of the street outside) and the light green and orange motif. I also like the cozy sofa’s where you can sit for as long as you like.

The P100 wheatgrass juice kind of made my stomach ache a little. I guess my stomach, unlike our bovine friends’ that have several compartments, cannot digest raw grass very well! Good thing I made them put half an apple juice (for P20) so it made the juice a little sweeter.

The P140 turkey pesto sandwich (in focaccia bread, not wheat) was nothing special. I didn’t eat half of the bread because white bread makes me bloat. There’s a lot of pesto sauce, thank goodness.

I probably won’t go back to the place again unless I’m a few feet away and incredibly thirsty. I would rather spend my P120 on fresh fruits at the fruit bar in SM or Shopwise.

Mondo Juice is at the 3rd floor of the bridge connecting SM and Ali Mall in Araneta Shopping Center, Cubao.