Sunrise Buckets - Best wings in town!

September 23, 2011 - Sunrise Buckets - Madison Square Greenhills, San Juan

We have found the best wings in town. No joke! This place was introduced to us by our friend Pao and since then we have been telling people about this place. Sunrise Buckets' has a surf shack feel. You'll see different art works and posters about surfing spread out around the place. Even surf boards on walls!

Live.Love.Laugh - Great words!

Now we know the parts of a surf board. haha

I love these Roxy ads on the walls.

Sunrise Buckets is known for their different flavored wings. You can choose from 1/2 pound, 1 pound, 2 1/2 pound and 5 pounds of chicken wings. They have more than 10 flavors but we chose these two:

Sunrise Original (Php 295 - 1 pound of wings) - This is the taste of real buffalo wings. Buttery and a bit sour from the tabasco sauce. The chicken was still very crispy and cooked throughout even if there was enough sauce to cover the whole chicken.

Honey Jalapeno (Php 395 - 1 pound of wings) - This is for those who like a sweeter and less sour taste to their wings. It's still spicy because of the jalapeno but the honey balances it out. Again, the chicken is still very crispy.

Onion rings - Simple but very tasty and crispy onion rings with mayonnaise dip!

We love how they put the wings inside these tin buckets. Keeps it warm too!

The best thing about eating here in Sunrise Buckets are the disposable plastic gloves! No mess eating with wings because you can eat with your hands without getting sauce all over. Makes eating wings more fun! :)

Oh another must try here is their Iced Tea! It's real brewed tea with vanilla flavoring. The best drink to pair up with those spicy wings :)

We can't wait to go back and try the other wings and dishes. They have burgers, ribs with rice and desserts too! We'll definitely be back! :)

Recipe: Chorizo Pasta

September 10, 2011

After a night of fun at our friend Boom's birthday party the night before, LJ and I decided to just lay low and have a nice meal at home. Here is a quick and simple dish you can make that's delicious and hearty! (I tried to copy the pasta of Big Bad Wolf. And it turned out great!)

Chorizo, Shitake Mushroom, Sundried Tomatoes and Black Olive Pasta

Ingredients:

Fettuccini or spaghetti

Olive oil

Half a head of Garlic - minced

1 medium white onion

1 Chorizo Bilbao

Sundried tomatoes in oil 6-7 pieces - thinly sliced

1/4 cup Black Olives Sliced or Whole

1/4 cup Shitake Mushrooms

The sundried tomatoes are soaked in olive oil. You can also mix the oil with the pasta.

Sweet and sour sundried tomatoes. yum!

I like using black olives instead of the green ones. It's less salty and is sweeter.

Chorizo Bilbao is so flavorful that you only need one piece of sausage for this recipe. You can substitute with any sausage you like.

Procedure:

1. Cook pasta according to packaging.

2. In a medium sized pan, heat olive oil (be generous and cover bottom of pan). Add garlic until lightly browned.

3. Add Chorizo and cook until crisp.

4. Add onions and cook until translucent.

5. Add shitake mushrooms until soft.

6. Throw in sundried tomatoes and olives. Add olive oil if it gets dry.

7. Season with salt, pepper, italian seasoning, oregano.

8. Turn off heat and add cooked pasta. Toss with tongs.

9. Serve with parmesean cheese and fresh basil leaves.

I served the pasta with a side of breaded chicken. Cover chicken with pepper, paprika, and japanese bread crumbs. and fry in olive oil! Super easy! :)

For dessert, I ordered my favorite PECAN TARTS from Perfect Loaf, a bakery/cafe in Angeles, Pampanga. The mom of my friend Carisse bakes it!

LJ loved the meal I cooked and I was so happy to know that he approved of it!

Next time again! :)

Draft Gastropub

September 9, 2011 - Draft Gastropub - The Fort Strip, Fort Bonifacio

A few months ago, a new bar/pub opened up in the Fort Strip replacing old bars and restaurants like Cuisine and Cafeteria. People have been telling us that their food here is a must try especially when paired with your favorite draft beer like Stella Artois, Becks and Hoegaarden. The food here is a mix of American and European comfort food. That sounded good to us, so we decided to drop by and try it out!

Our food:

Fish and Frites (Php 350) - Beer battered fish fillet, fries with tartare sauce and malt vinegar. Lj and I have eaten numerous fish and chips in different restaurants around Manila and we both have to say Draft's version is a must try. The dish comes to your table piping hot (fresh from the fryer, i know because I took a bite and burned my tongue haha), and the fish and fries are still crisp.

We like the texture of the thin beer batter around the fish fillets while the fish is soft and moist.

We give this dish our two thumbs up.

Check out the presentation! We thought we couldn't finish it. We were wrong! haha

Half Pound Cheese Burger (PHP 320) - This is their classic angus beef burger with tomato, lettuce and cheddar cheese and a side of fries.

Split into two! :)

We love the pink middle of the burger patty and the charred outside. It was juicy and seasoned very well. A classic feel good burger which will make you come back for more! :)

Beer paired with our meal: Hoegaarden, a crisp white Belgian beer.

Non-Fridate Solo Adventures: Jollibee Hashbrown Burger Review

Note: This is the first blog post I am making for Fridate. I'll try to post about my non-Fridate food adventures when I'm going solo. I only snapped a couple of photos for this post, but I'll try to have more pics in future adventures. Hope you enjoy! -lj

I was browsing my Facebook account this morning while waiting for the stock market to open up (yep, I also try to trade/invest in stocks, but I digress) and I came about pictures posted by my friend. It was apparently from Jollibee as per his captions and instead of the usual hamburger bun, two hashbrown patties sandwiched its beef counterpart. That and the usual side of cheese.

Being a breakfast fan (bacon strips, pancakes and hashbrowns to be more specific), I was intrigued by this new burger. It's a shame that McDonald's stores only serve hashbrowns until 10:30 in the morning, so I thought it was a win for all hashbrown lovers that Jollibee was selling a form of it beyond that time. I was looking forward to trying it out once I finished my errands.

After a (very) early lunch, a long trip to G. Araneta area and back, I stopped by Jollibee Greenmeadows for a quick snack. Here it is, boys and girls: The Jollibee Hashbrown Burger!

The sandwich comes in a box, similar to the Mcdonald's Filet O'Fish or Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

If I remember correctly, the sandwich costs P64 ala carte. P80 if you add a regular drink.

For those who want to try it out and at the same time is very, very hungry, a friendly warning: your favorite Jollibee outlet might not be making this in advance as you order so you might have to wait a while. I was in the Greenmeadows outlet at around 4:15 and I had to wait about fifteen minutes for the burger (they informed me about this but I was willing to wait).

It's your typical, standard issue burger minus bread buns plus 2 hashbrown patties. No special sauce btw!

As what's written in the box, Jollibee claims to have the potato portion of the burger "baked". I'm not sure how they do this exactly, but it the result leaves a lot to be desired. The hashbrown patties are crisp on the edges, but the center portion falls apart making the burger hard to eat. The wax paper holding the burger together does little in its purpose. What's more disappointing is that there is a slightly burnt taste that lingers even if the hashbrowns looks like they were cooked just right. Further the hashbrowns aren't salted, so ask for some salt or a lot of ketchup when ordering this.

The concept of the Hashbrown Burger is good in my opinion. It is definitely thinking outside the box. The execution of the said concept, however, was lacking. To improve this product, I think Jollibee should scrap the "baked" hashbrowns for deep fried ones (similar to McD's). The contrasting texture of the crispy potato and the beef would have been a good one. Health proponents might bash this idea, but they shouldn't be eating Jollibee in the first place if they want to eat healthy.

I'll probably give this a 5/10. You might want to try this one out just for the sake of trying. I'd say that a Regular Yum! with Cheese value meal will be a more satisfying order. Of course, I have to say that one Jollibee store's food will be different from another, so your experience will most likely vary.

Yays

• Good Concept
• The Jollibee beef patty is the same, good ol' burger patty we've all loved and enjoyed in the Regular Yum! and Burger Steak (all time favorite of mine)

Boos

• The baked concept is a disaster
• Burnt/smoky aftertaste
• The burger falls apart in the middle

P.S. Without thinking it through I actually ordered a side of fries with my Hashbrown Burger. BIG MISTAKE. Unless you are carboloading and/or love potatoes so much, you'll probably want to skip the fries entirely.

FatFridate at Big Bad Wolf

September 2, 2011 - Big Bad Wolf - Fairways Tower, 5th Ave. Corner McKinley, Fort Bonifacio

Another new restaurant just opened at the Fort so that means it's time for us to check it out and see what they have to offer. For this weeks Fridate, LJ and I decided to eat with two of our close foodie friends Carisse and Isabel, both of them love to try new restaurants too. They call their dates together as FATDATES (cute name and makes you want to just binge and eat! haha).

Big Bad Wolf logo via their Facebook Page

Here's what we ordered:

Poached Egg Carbonara - Pancetta, Poached egg, Parmesan, Truffle oil. It was nice version of the classic carbonara. The egg gave it that creamy texture and the pancetta is way tastier than regular bacon. The dish could have used a bit more salt or cheese maybe?

Chorizo Spaghetti - Chorizo, Shitake Mushrooms, Olives and Sundried Tomatoes. This dish was a winner because of the flavorful chorizo. They fried the chorizo until it's a bit crisp and caramelized on the outside.

Peppered Chuck Steak with Goat Cheese Salad and mashed potatoes - Guess who ordered this? LJ of course! The steak isn't really a slice of meat but ground up beef that was molded to form a patty. The gravy sauce nice and spicy because of the pepper which went well with the mashed too.

Fresh Tuna Wraps with Wasabi Mayo - This really made a good impression on us. It's such a great idea to roll tuna sashimi with lettuce. A great starter to a meal. We wanted a bit more kick to it though. More wasabi please!

What a beauty! :) We'll come back for more of this dish!

Our wonderful dates - Carisse and Isabel. We love you both! :) Let's do this again soon!

Yay, a picture of the two of us! Usually, no one is around to take it. Too much of a hassle to ask the waiter. haha.

Here is the pasta and main dish menu. We want to go back soon and try the rest! :)

Food is really better when shared with people you love right?

Til' next time! :)