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!!

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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! :)

Little Tokyo: Nodasho Japanese Restaurant

October 8, 2011 - Nodasho Japanese Restaurant - Little Tokyo, Pasong Tamo Corner Amorsolo St. Makati City

It was such a rainy Saturday evening and it seemed like having a hot bowl of soup was the perfect thing to have. LJ and I decided to try out Little Tokyo in Makati City. Japanese business men come here to have their authentic food which is also prepared by Japanese chefs. As soon as you enter the compound of Little Tokyo, it feels like you're being transported to Japan. The smell of Japanese food, and Japanese speaking people all around makes the eating experience more authentic. We stopped at the first restaurant we passed by since it was raining and we didn't want to check out the other places anymore. We took a chance by choosing a random restaurant without knowing if it was good or not.

This is what you will see when you enter Little Tokyo!

We were seated at the bar where we could see the sushi chef prepare his dishes. The head chef was an old Japanese man telling his sous chef (Pinoy) what to do. Another reason why we felt we weren't in Manila is because the TV had Japanese shows on and 90 percent of the people that ate there were Japanese who were smoking and drinking sake. hahaha! We kinda felt out of place but so what?

For our appetizer we had the Spicy Tuna Maki. It was full of tuna in the middle as you can see. We loved it because there was more filling than rice. It was had a very nice kick to it and you actually don't need that chunk of wasabi on the side since it's spicy enough.

Another appettzer we had is Gyoza. We loved how the underside is really toasted to give it a bit of that crunch and softness at the same time.

My order of Shoyu ramen with Chashu (pork) - perfect for the cold weather!

I really liked the broth of this soup. It wasn't too salty. My only problem was that the serving was too big. It was really full of noodles and broth. The number of pork slices was kinda sad too. I guess they want you to eat more noodles than meat? But other than that, it was really yummy. I just couldn't finish it.

Tempura Udon - LJ's order was smaller than mine and looked like a perfect serving. Udon is the fat white noodles and the soup was clearer than the ramen broth. Too bad I don't eat shrimp so I couldn't enjoy this.

Turning Japanese!

That was a very heart warming meal! Now we know where to go when we're craving for authentic Japanese food. :)

Cheers to the week ahead!