Staying in on a Saturday: Papa John's Pizza

February 26, 2011 - Papa John's Pizza - Robinsons Galleria or Call 6318689 for delivery

LJ and I were both sick Friday. So, Fridate was postponed and instead had pizza delivery for Saturday night with LJ's family.

Papa John's is a popular pizza joint from the States and was brought here to the Philippines recently. I had this before while I was in NY and all I remember is that it's really good and that there are different dipping sauces that go with the pizza. I can't really compare that much because that was 2 years ago.

Anyway, here are the pizza flavors we tried:

Simply Cheese (Php 440 large) - The simpler the better. Cheese is always good on it's own.

Super Papa (Php 550 large) - Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Ham, Mushrooms, Onions, Green Peppers, and Black Olives. They are not greedy when it comes to toppings. For sure every slice will have those ingredients.

Bacon Cheese Burger (Php 530 large) - I liked this the most. I think it's because of the bacon.

Every pizza box comes with butter garlic sauce. Smells so good and tastes even better when you dip your pizza in this buttery goodness.

Dip and eat. Dip and eat. repeat. (too much butter might give you a headache though! haha)

An added bonus! 2 pcs of Jalapeno peppers inside the box. They should add some more!

LJ and I liked Papa Johns. It was nice to try something different. The butter garlic sauce is just amazing. Also the crusts are tasty since it's made out of sour dough. One thing to complain about is the price. It's expensive when you can get great tasting pizza at Pizza hut for a much cheaper price. It was worth the try anyway.

Cheers to Food! and No to sickness! :)

Torch

February 18, 2011 - Torch - Homestudio Building. Connecticut St. Greenhills, San Juan

Torch is a newly opened restaurant Greenhills. This place has been receiving rave reviews so we decided to check it out. Torch's food is a mixture of Italian, American and Japanese.

Here are our picks for the night:

Cowboy Sushi Roll (Php 389.95) - This dish wasn't as good as expected. The roll was filled with rice and we couldn't really taste the thin slices of meat inside. LJ said it would have been better if there was a spicy kick to make the dish interesting. Good thing about this is the teriyaki like sauce drizzled all over the plate. Oh, we weren't too happy with the price of this one too.

Salpicao Medalion (Php 449.95) - It was interesting how they served the dish. It was on top of a slab of warm marble that had fire underneath. The first time LJ took a bite he said that it was just warm when he was expecting it to be hot. We then realized that the marble took some time to heat up the meat. We liked this dish because the meat was so tender and it was brought to the table not yet cooked through. That was the purpose of the marble.

While he was eating this, the steak started to sizzle and smoke up! It's like cooking your own meal.

Smoked Jabanero Glazed Salmon (Php 384.95) - I super enjoyed this dish! The fish was moist and creamy. On the side was a cold mango tomato salsa. It really went well with the fish. yum!

Serving wasn't too big. It was just right for me but maybe someone who is really hungry might find this too small.

The interiors of Torch. The sound inside the restaurant was too loud. It was hard for LJ and I to talk since all the sounds of the restaurant really echoed. :(

All in all, we were happy with our main course choices! We will definitely try the others next time! :)

Cheers to a great week ahead!

Clark Food Trip

February 12, 2011

LJ and I went to Clark Air Base, Pampanga to see the Hot Air Balloon Festival together with my family. Pampanga is known for the delicious food that originated from the area. On this part of town, we ate at a "turo turo" and "carinderia" style restaurant to eat some Filipino food.

LUNCH - FONTILLAS BULALUHAN

No menus here. Just look at what they have and order through the window. This used to be a small carinderia under a tree inside Clark Air Base and the owner (a retired army man) got a bigger spot and expanded his restaurant.

SISIG - This was room temperature. At first we thought they forgot to heat it up but the owner of the restaurant said it's really supposed to be like that. The textures of the sisig made it really delicious. It had crunchy and soft chewy parts of the pork. LJ and I enjoyed this so much. It was just plain good.

BULALO - Meat and bone marrow goodness! The soup wasn't that salty and you can tell that Knorr Beef Cubes weren't used to flavor the soup. We ate this with calamansi, labuyo chili and fish sauce.

The outside seating area.

Bulalo soup in coffee cups. Classic pinoy! :)

DINNER - RODIZIO (roof deck - Holiday Inn, Clark Air Base)

We had the grilled dinner buffet here. Unlimited grilled meats is something LJ and I haven't tried before so we were both excited to eat here. (They have this style of unlimited eating at Brazil, Brazil..We'll try it some other time)

First we got out our starters. Pasta salad, vegetable salad with Caesar dressing and a cold meat salad.

Next, we made our own mongolian bowl. We used noodles instead of rice. The secret to our yummy mongolian? Lots of garlic, a scoop of sesame oil, sugar/syrup, oyster sauce, chili.

When we were ready, we just had to turn the green cube up to signal the waiters that WE WANT SOME MEAT! hahaha (put the red cube up to signal the waiters to STOP feeding you)

Peppery Hungarian Sausage - yum. good on it's own!

We like our sausages! haha

This one was sirloin steak! The waiter kept on coming back for different kinds of meat like Lamb, Chicken Teriyaki, Pork Ribs and more sausages. I could't take a picture anymore because I was too busy eating!

This creme brulee deserves it's own close up picture because of how delicious it is. It's creamy and smooth with a crusty sugary top. We had one of those "Oh my God ang sarap" moments. LJ had 3 servings while I had 2.

The interiors of Rodizio.

We had an fun weekend, ready to start this week! :)

Cheers to Love and Food!

Mr. Kabab

February 11, 2011 - Mr. Kabab - Pearl Drive, Ortigas Center

Mr. Kabab used to be a hole in the wall Persian restaurant only known by people who live in the Quezon City area. LJ and I have eaten in their main branch in West ave. before we even got together. So when we found out from a friend that they opened a new branch in Pearl Drive, we knew we had to go and eat here for our Fridate and see if it was as good as it used to be.

We love hummus. Or as spelled on their menu, HOMMUS. We like mixing it with garlic sauce and hot sauce!

Special Chicken Chelo Kabab - It was tender and cooked just right.

Special Beef Chelo Kabab - Better than the chicken one. More flavors going on. It doesn't look very appetizing but the more charred it is, the better! :)

hmmm. Charcoal goodness. haha

Check out the rest of their menu. We'd like to try the Sizzling lamb next time. The other table ordered it and it smelled so good!

Dessert time at Starbucks: Mango Yogurt Cheesecake - I like yogurt so the tangy taste wasn't weird for me. I couldn't taste the mango that much though.

Dessert just for me! I cannot end a meal without something sweet.

My Fridate, date. :)

California Pizza Kitchen

February 5, 2011 - California Pizza Kitchen - Shangrila Plaza

LJ and I were going to watch Tangled in 3D so we decided to get a quick bite before watching. CPK came to mind because of their fast service and big servings. We knew we would be satisfied before watching the movie.

Pesto Cream Penne with Sun dried Tomatoes (we asked for extra chicken)

We both agreed that it's our new favorite pasta. The sun dried tomatoes were sweet and perfect for the creamy dish. You won't get tired eating it!

The Original BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad - I've been ordering this salad for years. My friends and I love this salad. I just had to make LJ try it. I like all the textures going on in the salad. It's easy to eat and healthy too (I think?).

You see that soda water? I thought it was free. That's 100 pesos. :(

It's free in restaurants like Friday's and Chili's. boo!

Another great Saturdate food choice! :) yum!

Chinese New Year at Shi Lin

February 4, 2011 - Shi Lin - Podium

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Our family is not Chinese but we wanted to celebrate with the rest of the Chinese community and eat some Chinese food. LJ and I had dinner with my family at Shi Lin, a newly opened dimsum place. People go here for the Xiao Long Bao (dimsum with soup and pork inside). Here are the dishes we ordered:

Drunken Chicken - It's a cold dish. Chicken was a bit bland. We had to eat it with soy sauce.

We love Xiao Long Bao!

"soupy siomai" haha

Spicy noodles with peanut sauce. It reminds us of Thai food.

Shrimp and Pork spicy dumplings

Pork and Shrimp Fried Wonton

Shrimp Dumplings

Also has soup inside

We loved seeing how the dimsum was being made

Chef: "WTF?" hahaha

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Have a great year of the rabbit! :)