Part1 Angeles Food Trip: B.I.H.O.N Noodle Bar

Last April, LJ and I were invited to Angeles, Pampanga by our good friend Carisse to check out her mom's latest restaurant called BIHON Noodle Bar (Best International House of Noodles). Together with our other food-loving friends, we were off to Angeles for the day.

The name of this place is so cute. People might mistake this place for seving just the Filipino favorite Pancit Bihon, but you have to go and see all the different types of noodles they have on the menu. You'll be impressed!

The interiors are splashed with the color orange, which gives you a happy mood and makes you want to eat a lot. I think that was their purpose. :)

Look at the choices of noodles in this place! It's also nice that they put little flags of the country of origin for each dish. Check out those prices too, it's not expensive and the servings are big! (later you'll see!)

We started with appetizers:

BNB Pork Buns - The steamed siopao bread was so soft stuffed with tender meat and lettuce with a tasty asado sauce. Delicious! 

Thung Thong - These little deep fried pouches are filled with shrimp, pork, vermicelli noodles and dipped in soy sauce. I couldn't eat these because of the shrimp but I'm sure it was good since It was wiped out in minutes.

Appetizers were great, now here's what we ordered on our noodle feast:

Phad Thai - This is such a beauty! I have no idea how they do that egg design on top but it's so cool. The rice noodles were covered in a sauce that was full of flavor. You can even add more of the peanut, chili and fish sauce if you wanted to. This is BIHON's specialty, so better try it when you're here.

Tuyo Pasta with Malunggay - I love tuyo in my pasta but malunggay? I wasn't so sure. When I tasted it, I was surprised at how the malunggay's bitter taste went well with the creamy pasta and saltiness of the tuyo. This was my favorite! Their noodles are not the usual store bought fetuccini. It's thick, holds a lot of sauce and cooked al dente.

Kwey Teow - This dish is made out of flat rice noodles, chinese sausage, pork and vegtables. It's a little on the sweet side but very yummy. 

Creamy Fettuccini with Roasted Chicken and Zucchini - This tasted like the tuyo cream pasta except it has chicken, zucchini and basil. It's just as good. When choosing, it's all about the matter of which one you like more, tuyo or chicken. :)

Rolled Lasagna with Seafood Stuffing - Another dish that I didn't get to try but from the looks of it, it looks cheesy and rich. LJ and my other friends said, this was a good choice.

Laksa - Spicy curry soup with noodles and seafood! You can see that they don't skimp on the seafood

But wait, there's more food! 

Nasi Goreng - At Bihon, they also have rice in case you're not in the mood for some noodles. Nasi Goreng is a Malaysian fried rice dish. It's served with sticks of chicken satay and a fried egg. 

Chicken Satay Sticks - Grilled tender chicken with peanut sauce. 

For our drinks: 

Thai Milk Tea with Sago - It has a strong tea taste, just the way I like it!

Iced Coffee with Condensed Milk - Extremely dark coffee with condensed milk for sweetness. So refreshing and not at all too sweet since the coffee is bold and strong. 

 We loved the food, Thank you Carisse and Tita Marsha Nepomuceno for the wonderful food tasting at BIHON! When in Angeles City, you must try this place! 

Check out PART 2 of our Food Trip in Angeles. This is just the beginning! :D

Eleven Tables

March 23, 2012 - Eleven Tables - Ace Plaza Building, Kapitolyo Pasig

A new restaurant just opened up again in our neighborhood. It's a unique restaurant that serves all types of fondue. Their appetizer, main course, and dessert are all dipped in a communal pot that has either hot melted chocolate, oil or cheese. We were so excited to try it since the only type of fondue we have tried is the chocolate one.

It's a small restaurant with, yes you guessed it, eleven tables. hehehe

We love their menu black board

For our appetizer we ordered, the bacon, cheddar and tomato fondue. There was a good amount of bacon in the cheese which we liked. The cheese was gooey and thick. Yum!

Must eat with beer

For our main course, we got the thin slices of beef that's cooked in hot oil. 

The three sauces you can dip it in are mushroom, horseradish and mustard. The mushroom one is my favorite!

Comes with more veggies on the side! You don't have to cook this in the oil since it's already been pre cooked. 

For dessert, we got the chocolate fondue. I was a bit disappointed with this one since I was expecting a thicker pot of chocolate. This seemed like it was chocolate syrup and not melted chocolate. Since I am a big fan of dessert, this still passed because of all the other goodies we could dip.

LJ and I realized that this place is such a date spot since eating from a fondue pot can be time consuming. You're forced to just take it slow and enjoy each others company. It was a nice and enjoyable experience, you should try it too if you want to have a nice romantic date! :)

Cheers to food and love! <3 

Nolita Pizza

March 16, 2012 - Nolita - Bonifacio High Street Central

Yes, It's been a while since the last Fridate post and there's still a lot more restaurants lined up for sharing with you guys. Hopefully by the end of the week, we'll be back on track.

Anyway, Last March we heard that the same owners of Borough (Podium) opened a new restaurant that is also New York themed. When you think of New York, pizza always comes to mind. This is mainly because of many Italian immigrants who settled down in New York. Italian food became part of their culture and Pizza was obviously one of them. When you go to New York you'll see Pizza joints everywhere. Different names like Lombardi's, Ray's, Little Lusso's, Artichoke, La Familigia are all around the city and all serving good pizzas. Whatever brand the pizza may be, there's that one distinct feature that makes it  a New York pizza and that is the thin chewy crust. It's not like the Shakey's kind but more chewy and a little more thicker than that. New York to me is like my home away from home since my Mom lives there so I'd like to think that I've eaten a fairly good amount of authentic New York style pizzas. This being said, I was really excited to try out Nolita to really see if they managed to bring home one of my favorite types of food ever.

LJ was also very excited because whenever I was in New York I'd tell him about the Pizza and how good it was and all the different flavors I've tried. 

Nolita: Short for North of Little Italy. A neighborhood in downtown NY.

Interesting menu right? Where can you find pizza flavors like Broccoli and Cheese? 

What really got me all excited was the Wild Mushroom Walnut Blue. When I saw that they had a pizza with bleu cheese I knew I had to have it. It was delicious! I was impressed with the pizza dough, it was soft and chewy. The toppings were hefty and the cheese was stringy. The slice of pizza was the usual size of a pizza slice in New York which is huge. Another thing that made it feel authentic to me was the paper plate. For some reason, whenever I'd eat Pizza in New York, I would be standing and holding it on a paper plate. 

One thing that I noticed though or not notice were the walnuts. Where were they? haha. Probably covered by the gooey cheese.

This was LJ's pizza. It had sausage, onion and chili. Another great choice of pizza flavor. The meat lover LJ was very happy with the sausages and it's kick of flavor on top of the cheese. One minor set back about these pizzas were not the taste but the price. 250 Pesos for a slice? Expensive but I think it's worth it. You just can't have it everyday unless you want to be fat and bankrupt. 

Another thing that gave it that authentic feel was the self service in the restaurant. Lining up and choosing your pizza while looking at the chef make the dough and toppings looked so familiar to me. Another plus was that the Italian Chef behind the counter was cute. (Sorry LJ! :p)

You got to have beer with your pizza! 

We tried their angus beef burger which we didn't like. It was dry and tasted plain. Must stick to the pizzas next time.

We had a cannoli for dessert! It's a fried pastry bread shaped like a tube and filled with sweet creamy ricotta. This one had pistachios and dried fruit. It's a great way to end our meal. 

Almost forgot to mention that we bumped into our friends who were having date night as well. Hi Joey and Joanna! :)

Happy tummies!! :)

Nolita did it's best to bring New York style pizzas to Manila. You could really taste the quality ingredients used. We'll be back for sure! 

I hope you guys try this place! Cheers! 

Little getaway from Manila: Vieux Chalet, Antipolo

February 11, 2012 - Vieux Chalet, Antipolo

Looking for a romantic date place outside of Manila? This blog post is for you.

It was a weekend before Valentine's day when LJ and I decided to have an early V-day celebration instead of joining everyone on the 14th. Valentine's day fell on a Tuesday, so traffic was inevitable and all the restaurants would be fully booked as well. I suggested that LJ and I drive up to Antipolo to try out a restaurant that I've been hearing about for years. It's called Vieux Chalet, a swiss themed restaurant tucked in a small village in Antipolo, Rizal. LJ was hesitant at first because of the drive up, plus we weren't even sure where exactly this place was. After much research on the internet about this place, we decided to go on a mini adventure up Antipolo!

It wasn't all perfect going to the restaurant because of the heavy traffic. Marcos highway is the usual area where traffic builds up going up to Antipolo. It also didn't help that LJ and I just had the landmarks on where to turn. Our eyes were glued to the streets looking for the small gated subdivision where we will enter. After what seemed to be like a long drive from Pasig, we made it! Travel time from Shaw Blvd was an hour and a half.

We made it!

Vieux Chalet is a small restaurant with an open air dining area. It has a homey "shabby sheek" feel to it.

The ambiance was so perfect for a night quiet romantic dinner for two. The Manila skyline was a perfect backdrop!

Here's what we ordered:

To start off, we each had a glass of their house red wine. Too bad we didn't get to ask what kind of wine it was.

GARDEN SALAD WITH FETA CHEESE AND BALSAMIC VINIGARETTE - This is a simple and fresh salad. Only the freshest ingredients used.

POTATO PUMPKIN AND BASIL SOUP - I was expecting this soup to be thick since the usual pumpkin soups are this way. Though the soup may be thin, it was full of flavor and I liked the potatoes rather than croutons to add a little crunch.

BEEF TENDERLOIN WITH SAUCE CAFE DE PARIS - LJ had this main course and being the meat lover that he is, he enjoyed this so much. The cafe de paris sauce is made out of butter with different herbs which made the meat even more delicious. Soft, tender and cooked medium well!

LAMB SHOULDER WITH RED WINE SAUCE AND ROSTI - The lamb was tender but some parts were a bit tough. I ate all of it still because the red wine sauce was rich and sweet. Under the meat was a potato pancake called a rosti, perfect side dish and a nice change from the usual mashed potatoes.

QUARK CAKE WITH MANGO SAUCE - We didn't know what Quark was until this day. Quark is a type of swiss cheese that they made into cheesecake! It isn't as rich as a New York Cheesecake but equally good. It's a lighter version of the American favorite cake. Since it's not too sweet, the mango sauce and caramel sauce was a great combination to this cake. (Side note: I love the table cloth!! Vintage florals!)

Cool weather, good food and amazing view!

It was a very lovely evening! We took our time eating the food, talked and took in the wonderful view and fresh cool air. Definitely a place where you should bring your loved one for a special date. :)

For more information visit:

http://www.vieuxchaletswissrestaurant.com