Red Ribbon’s Choco Mallows

Cake! Fabulous delicious drool-inducing cake! I have always been an ardent fan of cake and since it is something mouthwatering, I thought a post about it would perfectly belong in this palate-inspired blog. LOL!

My family could care less where cakes come from, as long as they are yummy. I am actually the one who is such a fan of this bakeshop. Now, when my niece and nephew attended their commencement ceremony, I felt guilty I was not able to come because I was at the office. I did not want to waste any of my precious leaves because I’m planning to use them later this year. *crossing fingers* So that evening, I decided to surprise the little terrors with a sugary sweet dessert from one of my favorite bakeshops, Red Ribbon. This confection is called Choco Mallows. The kiddies squealed when they saw the red box, and they squealed even more when they saw what was inside it - especially the chocolate-covered marshmallows.

Tada! Choco Mallows!

How To Make Maki

This stint happened last January, the time when my hometown was noisily celebrating its fiesta called Sinulog. It just so happened that one of my officemates were celebrating his birthday on the same day. And so a bunch of us from the office decided to go to his house and experiment. In short, we decided to make maki! I apologize for the lack of better pictures here. I did not initially plan on posting this as a tutorial post. I promise I will have better tutorial posts next time. Vet has just invited me to go ahead and make use of her new oven in her new home. Right, Vet? *wink wink

Well, that story is for another time. I will have to convince Vet first that it is now perfectly all right to invite people to her new house, and I would have to save money to buy baking ingredients. LOL!

Ingredients:
Japanese rice
Nori sheets
Canned peaches and fresh mangoes
Cucumber
sliced omelete (or you could also call them “omelet strips”)
Mayonnaise
You would also need:
Bamboo place mats (for rolling the nori sheets)
Soy sauce and wasabi paste (for the dip)

Little Nonki Japanese Restaurant

I haven’t posted anything in a while, have I? I apologize for that. Now this…this dinner happened in April. I know, I know. I have stretched the definition of the word “tardy” to its limits. Again. *LOL Fortunately, I still remember how these dishes tasted. Looking at the pictures actually makes me want to visit that nice little place again, but I just can’t afford to right now. *sigh

This dinner actually was our second time at Nonki. Cel, Jenny and I just stumbled on this little restaurant in SM when we were in one of our little jaunts. Jenny and I like Japanese food, so our attention was piqued. Cel was not so averse to the idea either because Jenny and I have been trying to convince her of the “yumminess” of Japanese food during dinners previous to this. Sneaky, huh? Hahaha! So we went inside, had a really delicious dinner, and spent more than two thousand in one freaking night. But we actually didn’t mind, and we were even a little bit appeased when the waitress gave us a coupon that said we can get one order of some yummy rolls for free the next time we eat there. As a result, after that first dinner there, we planned to come back to redeem the coupon. Kind of stupid to be duped by a coupon, but duped we were. We didn’t mind, especially when we thought of their food. Yes, they are a little pricey, but we can afford to splurge…once in a while.

Now back to this particular dinner. This was the night we redeemed the coupon for a serving of their yummy tuna rolls. Aside from Cel, Jenny, and I; Ley and Glenn decided to come along and see this restaurant we were ranting so much about. Before we all decided to go, I warned Ley that we’d be having Japanese food because I know he is not so adventurous when it involves his palate. He went with us anyway. Oh well, “Munch at your own risk,” I muttered to myself. Haha!

Note: The employees there have this cute little habit of greeting you in Japanese when you come in and go out of their restaurant. It made Jenny and I smile. c”,)

Itadakimasu!

The free Tuna Rolls! [Rating: 10/10]

Cafe de Coral

One of the most famous food chains in Hong Kong, Cafe de Coral.

My cousin brought Vet and I to this famous restaurant the morning right after the night we discovered that we were stuck at a shady hostel, the night we vowed to not sleep for fear someone might break down our door and do us some unimaginable harm. Hahaha! We really weren’t able to sleep, but at least no one did break our door down. And so it was such a special treat when my cousin brought us to this place before we went “Inn Hunting”. Who could ever resist good food , right? Well, I sure couldn’t! Unfortunately, only Ate Emmy was the one who actually knew what the dishes were on the menu. So Vet and I went for the obvious stuff, the ones with meat and vegetables we could recognize. Well, here goes our brief jaunt at Cafe de Coral.

This was last year and so I’ve forgotten the names of these dishes. I’m sorry! [I would really appreciate it if anyone could provide the names of these dishes. Anyone from Hong Kong out there?]

Itadakimasu, nonetheless!

My Food [I may not remember the name but I do remember that this was really yummy!]

Dinner in Macau

This was during our Hong Kong /Macau trip last December. Boy, did we have great fun or what?! And boy, was it freezing cold!

This dinner happened after Vet and I visited St. Francis Xavier Church in Coloane, Macau; got off at the wrong bus stop; got lost in another island; and finally found our way back to Macau island. It was quite an adventure. And like all adventures, it was also hunger-inducing. LOL! And so Vet and I decided to eat dinner the minute we found a place where we saw people eating. The place looked quite unassuming in the midst of all the grand lights of the gambling capital of Asia, and so we got curious. There’s another curious thing about this place. It had two entrances/exits. You can go in one street and go out another street. I found it funny.   Anyways, Vet and I didn’t really recognize most of the food there. So, we went for the most familiar sounding ones.

 Behold! My Dumplings [Rating:8/10]

 

Macau’s Pork Sandwich a.k.a. Porkchop Burger

I finally got the courage to post this one. I was hesitant in posting this because this didn’t really happen in Cebu. But a good friend told me that it would be okay because I’m still a Cebuana and so there would still be a connection. Hahaha! I finally took his advice and so now here it is.

This was the second meal I had that day and I think it was Vet’s first. We haven’t even had our baths yet because the hotel was still not prepared to check us in. So what we did was leave our bags at their front desk and roamed around the city, started snapping some pictures, and hunted for food because we were undeniably hungry. Oh yeah, did I mention this was in Macau? Yes, these pictures were taken during our short trip to Macau last Christmas. While we were wandering, awestruck by the beauty of the city, we saw this little shop near Senado Square. A crowd of people were standing in front of it and naturally we were curious as to why they were there. Then we discovered that they were selling some kind of burger and some tasty-looking shakes. Vet and I immediately scanned their menu and found that the people there were buying “Pork Sandwiches”. Vet and I looked at each other then and smiled. We were tickled by the idea, and since we were already hungry, we thought we’d try them. And so here they are. I was the designated photographer, so understandably Vet was the muse. Hehehe! Here it is, our “Pork Sandwich”! (which were really porkchops in between burger buns… we were even more amused when the seller handed us our “sandwiches”)

Vet’s Pork Sandwich [Rating: 9/10] Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish mine because these things were huge! LOL!

Kalye 80

I’ve been planning to post this for weeks, but I could never seem to find the time or worse, I forget it entirely. *sigh. The consequence? Now I can’t remember most of the names of these dishes. Blame my seemingly frequent bouts of amnesia. Oh well. I will try my best to recall the names and my tastebuds’ responses to each of them. Wish me luck!

By the way, we had this dinner a day after we finished our South Road trip. It appeared that we had money left from the trip and so the group decided to have dinner together as one last “hurrah” to our allegedly successful SRT. *LOL! Ley suggested we have the dinner at this little place that was part of the “slingbag shift’s” short history. (That’s what we used to call our group before at the office.*Sigh. Freakily nostalgic.)

The group actually has an anecdote about this place, but let’s discuss that another time. Or better yet, I could ask Ley to write about it in his blog. What do say, Ley? For now I’ll just try to recall that night, the food we ate, and the tummy ache I’m sure I had after. Hahaha! All right, here it goes…

Kalye 80 (Do you notice the stariray lizard below the sign? I didn’t notice him when I took this picture. I thought it was freaky when I finally noticed him.)

Satchmo and Lucy at Mooon Cafe

“Don’t burn any bridges,” a superior once told me that this was one of our benevolent boss’ mottoes. And this statement was what came to my mind when I came back to this little restaurant in a little area near the provincial capitol. Its name is Moon Cafe.

Lai Garden Teahouse

This post is way beyond late. One of the most tardy posts…ever! Hahaha! My bad, I was preoccupied with work and a lot of other things at home. At first I just intentionally delayed it, then I forgot about it completely. I didn’t remember this one until I rummaged through my crammed hard drive. Oh, well. Anyway, we had this dinner after we covered Argao 400 in Argao, Cebu on February 09. When we got back to Cebu City, our tummies protested and so we decided to eat dinner before going home. The nearest place we could find was SM City, and so we went inside and argued over which place should get our last pesos for the day. As I’ve always been curious about “that Chinese/Japanese-looking place near Powerbooks”, I convinced Ley and Jenny to hazard being poverty-stricken in the coming days in exchange for allegedly good food. I actually don’t know which convinced them, my powers of persuasion or their growling stomachs. Nevertheless, we went to the place and discovered that it is a Chinese teahouse, and so that settled the argument over it being a Chinese or Japanese place.

A Splurge at Manuel’s Restaurant in The Parklane Hotel

Last year in September (sounds like a line from a song…LOL!) Vet, Ley, and I went on one of our “No Holds Barred I-don’t-care-if-we-end-up-broke-for-the-rest-of-the-month” meals. (Whew!) At first we declared we should try saving, then we opted to change that declaration to “We’ll start saving next month nalang.” Hahahaha!

When we arrived at The Parklane Hotel, we were so excited because we expected something Marco Polo-esque. Of course, we were disappointed. I think nothing can beat Marco Polo  in Cebu  yet. But at least we didn’t pay as much as we would have if we ate at Marco Polo. Well yes, Manuel’s Restaurant was still expensive but it was not so shockingly exorbitant as Marco Polo or Uno at Waterfront (which does not have food as many or as yummy as Marco Polo, in my opinion) Anyways, back to Manuel’s Restaurant. When we arrived there, the first thing that came to my mind was “Oh, it’s not as big as I thought it would be.” Then, when we looked at the food….”They don’t have as many dishes as Marco Polo’s.” But nevertheless, the food was good. Their pasta was really nice. The only thing that grated on my nerves was that I don’t think their food warranted the price tag they’re offering it for.

Will I ever go back there? Hhhhmmm… probably not.