NAV: Modern Thai Cuisine

December 2, 2011 - NAV: Modern Thai Cuisine, United St, Kapitolyo, Pasig

The past few Fridates have been about restaurants in my neighborhood in Kapitolyo, Pasig. This place is really booming and restaurants are popping one by one out of nowhere. It makes it so much easier for LJ and I to decide where to eat since the restaurants are just a few minutes away from where I live. Lucky us!

We were in the mood for Thai food one night in December so NAV was the perfect place to try.

Right beside Moe's in Kapitolyo and near Pioneer Center Supermarket

Thai Milk Tea. It tastes just like any other Thai milk tea I have tried before. Nothing special but still very good.

Chicken Pandan -The chicken was boneless cut into small pieces so it was easy to eat. We loved the charcoal grilled flavor that went well with the vinegar on the side. Some Thai restaurants serve their Chicken Pandan with sweet chili sauce. I guess you could ask for some if you like that more than vinegar.

Vegetarian Crispy Noodles - OUR FAVORITE! The sauce was underneath all this crispy goodness.

Baby corn, broccoli, carrots, and shitake mushrooms in sweet brown sauce. We almost forgot it was vegetarian because the mushroom kind of tasted like meat.

LJ loves crispy noodles. He doesn't like mixing them to make the noodles soggy. The crispier the better. :)

Fried Sticky Rice with Mangoes and Coconut Sauce - WINNER!! This isn't your usual sticky rice because it's covered in shaved coconut and fried to make it crispy! This dessert really made a good impression on us because it was so good! Must try!

Hmmmmm. Heaven!

Perfect way to end out Thai meal! We will be back for sure. Thank God Kapitolyo has a really good Thai place.

'Til the next Fridate! <3 Cheers!

Mad Mark's Manwiches

November 4, 2011 - Mad Mark's - East Capitol Drive, Kapitolyo Pasig

A new restaurant opened in our neighborhood recently and it's called MAD MARK'S. Their specialty? Not just your regular sandwiches, but as they call it Manwiches.

Their menu is straight to the point.

Cute small place.

Mariner Manwich - Fish Fillet with Tartare Sauce, Relish. Don't forget to add cheese! I love the crusty bread! After tasting this, I'll never go back to eating Fillet-o-fish in McDonald's.

Lumberjack Manwich - Angus Beef, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, and cheese. The beef is so tasty and not at all tough. We love that they don't skimp on the meat in their sandwiches.

Garlic Parmesean Fries - Amazingly crispy fries! Eat it while it's hot! :)

With our friend Joanna joined us for dinner :)

Mad Mark's has expanded their menu since the first time we came. Now they have other kinds of Manwiches and also rice meals. Try it out! :)

Milky & Sunny - All day breakfast and Comfort Food

October 28, 2011 - Milky & Sunny - Kapitolyo, Pasig (open from 7am-10pm)

A new restaurant just opened recently in our Village. It's a place where you can have your usual breakfast food all day long! Isn't that perfect? LJ and I are really big fans of breakfast food so we were really excited to try out this place. We asked some of my friends to tag along on our Fridate during Milky & Sunny's soft opening.

I love the different things they put on the wall. The blue color really does remind you of bright mornings!

Our food:

Bacon Tostatas - Fried tortilla chips with Bacon, lettuce, salsa, cheese and sour cream. It tasted good but something I wouldn't really want to have for breakfast. I couldn't taste the bacon so much in this one. More bacon please! :)

Beef Tapa with Garlic Rice and Egg - Are you a sweet tapa lover? This is for you! It was really flavorful but it's a bit tough for me (I have braces so it's hard to chew). LJ loves it and had no complains about it and mainly because he asked for extra bacon on the side.

How can you go wrong with bacon anyway? Lj ate this together with his tapa! Two thumbs up for him! :)

Eggs Benedict - I wasn't very happy with the english muffin in this dish. It was very tough and it really had to take a lot of effort to cut into it. But no worries, I told the owner that it would be better if it was softer like the Eggs Ben of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf which is my favorite. He said he would definitely fix this issue. Besides the tough bread, the canadian bacon, poached egg and hollandaise sauce were delicious!

Bangus with Garlic Rice and Egg - Our friend Cara ordered this and I got to try a little bit. It was very crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Also, it was a big serving of bangus on the plate.

Here is their menu:

Our Fridate turned group date! :) We'll be back to try their other dishes!

We LOVE Bacolod! Part 2

October 15-17, 2011 - Bacolod City, Negros Occidental - Masskara Festival

With three days and two nights in Bacolod, majority of the things we did was eat! We loved the food and how cheap it was! :) Here's the rest of the food we tried during our vacation:

CHICKEN HOUSE

This restaurant was walking distance from our hotel (HOTEL PLANTA) so we decided to have dinner here. We just can't get enough of Chicken Inasal!

The chicken here and in Aida's (from the previous post) tasted the same but the main difference was the CHICKEN OIL. It was more flavorful. Drizzle over the chicken and garlic rice and you're all set for a wonderful chicken dinner.

FELICIA'S

Felicia's is known for their different cakes and sweets for pasalubong or export. We went to try out their famous cakes.

(Photo taken from Felicia's Facebook Page)

Cakes, cakes and more cakes!

We ordered the Sans Rival (Left) and Vanilla Cake (Right) - Another favorite of ours from the trip is the Vanilla cake. The white cake was so moist and in the middle had smooth butter cream and caramel. The sans rival was not the usual sticky sans rival. It was crumbly but tasted good as well. Just nothing spectacular for me.

ABOY'S

Aboy's is known for their "turo-turo" style of dining. When you order you have to go the area where they display the different Filipino dishes and also raw sea food/meat that you want for them to cook.

(Photo taken from their Facebook page)

Blue Marlin - This piece of fish was so fresh. It was cooked perfectly because the juices of the fish were still there. One main mistake when cooking fish like this is over cooking it and making it dry. The marinate was just salt, pepper and calamansi.

Grilled Liempo - Another winner! It was so flavorful and tender.

EL IDEAL

After sight seeing in the town outside the city we passed by this old bakery that sells different pastries and baked goods for pasalubong.

Check out their cabinet full of biscuits, crackers and sweets!

Fruit Pies and Cassava Cake

What they are really known for is their GUAPPLE (Guava-apple) PIE. I couldn't really tell if it was more guava than apple but it was really delicious. It wasn't too sweet and the crumb topping gave the right amount of sweetness to the pie. The pie was full of texture because the guava apple filling still had a bite to it.

VIRGIE'S

This is a great place to buy pasalubong. They are known for their tarts and also butterscotch bars. They also sell dried fish and squid here.

MUST BUY! Caramel Tarts!

Looks like small empanadas with sweet mango jam filling inside. Another must buy here at virgie's.

PENDIE'S

Pendie's is another pasalubong place you can go to but they are known for their NAPOLONES.

Napolones are made from flaky dough with custard inside and sweet glaze on top. They sell these in different stores around Bacolod but we heard that Pendy's sell the best ones.

That ends our Bacolod Food Trip. There were still other restaurants that we wished we got a chance to try. We hope we can come back again one day!

Namit Gid! :)

We LOVE Bacolod!

October 15-17, 2011 - Bacolod City, Negros Occidental - Masskara Festival

Masskara Festival, a beautiful mix of colors, smiling masks, dancing and food all in one place. LJ and I went to the City of Smiles with our friends to enjoy the local culture and of course FOOD! :)

The Masskara Festival started to lift up the spirits of the local people when their main agricultural crop (Sugar) was in crisis. Sugar prices were at an all time low during the 80's and so the people of this area had to find a way to attract tourist and also bring happiness to their land.

Looking at all of these wonderful sights made us really hungry. Actually, majority of what we did in Bacolod was EAT!

AIDA'S - MANOKAN COUNTRY

Manokan country is this whole strip of Chicken Inasal restaurants. Our friend Joanna who has been living in Bacolod for a year and a half told us that AIDA's has the best chicken in the strip.

We wanted to order PECHO (Chicken Breast) but they ran out. We all had PA-A (Chicken leg) instead. Don't forget to eat this with garlic rice and drizzle chicken oil on top of it. Make your own sauce made out of Sinamak (special spicy vinegar of Negros), soy sauce, calamansi and sili (chili).

Just look for this green chicken and you'll find AIDA'S! :)

CALEA PASTRIES & COFFEE

If Bacolod's main crop is Sugar Canes, then the people here must love sweets!

I love the cake display. You'll really have a hard time choosing what to order here.

Too many cakes to choose from!!

White Chocolate Cheese Cake - We fell in love with this cake as soon as we took our first bite. It was creamy and the bits of white chocolate inside the cheesecake was a perfect creamy combination.

Mallow Mud Pie - Oreo Crust, Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream and Marshmallow Top. LJ and I loved the crust and Ice Cream part but we couldn't understand the marshmallow topping. The texture was like gelatine and didn't taste like anything. But anyway, it was still good because of the other parts.

BOB'S CAFE

At night, we went to LACSON Street where the street parties are happening. We went to a local bar and drank the night away and danced to great music. This really made us hungry and so we went to the streets to find something to munch on. We saw that BOB'S Cafe had a tent set up on the street and they were selling ribs and sate babe (pork bbq with peanut sauce).

We ordered Sate Babe Sticks. It was so tender and juicy. The sauce is the perfect balance of peanut butter and soy sauce. Wish we went back for more!!

21

Going to eat, AGAIN!

Lamb with Curry Rice - I was expecting a lamb steak and not small pieces of lamb. Cutting it into small pieces might toughen the meat but they did a pretty good job cooking it. The lamb pieces were flavorful and tender. The rice was a good compliment to the meat since the curry didn't over power the flavors.

Tenderloin Steak with Mashed Potatoes, Onion Fries and Veggies - It's your usual meat and potato meal but presented in a very refine way. The meat was tender and soft plus marinated well. No need for salt or pepper here! The winner side dish was the thinly sliced onion fries. It was crispy and sweet!

Chocolate Cake - This chocolate blob is the one of our favorite cakes in Bacolod. It was so rich, chocolatey and moist. It had a very nice dark chocolate and nutty taste to it. Everything you could want in a chocolate cake. It was served warm and you can see the chocolate ooze down to the plate. Inside is filled with a custard which really didn't taste like anything but it still went well together with the chocolate part of the cake.

We're only halfway through our Bacolod food trip. Wait for the next blog post! :)