Bfast - Everything is so good, so go for the buffet!

Last night's dinner was at Bfast at Ayala Triangle. We were fortunate enough to arrive early (they were still setting up the buffet) so it just gave us time to decide what to eat.

But there were so many good things like the angus tocino, the seafood paella, the selection of sausages, the omelets and the pasta and so many others that I think the buffet (for only 288) would be the best option.

When we got to the buffet, one thing I noticed was the plastic plates. It's actually quite a departure from the fine china we find in hotel buffets or in other restaurants. Looking around, we saw this sign explaining the plastic plates. The restaurant believes in being "green" so they use materials that are safe but also made from 100% recycled material. I actually found it so nice to eat in a place that espouses the same beliefs.

I haven't even tasted the food and Bfast is already ranking high in my books. Now, I guess it is time to let the food do the talking.

We started the night's dinner with soup and salad. The salad they had at the buffet was the vegetarian dream  which is made up of salad greens, kesong puti, tomatoes, nuts, fruits, garden vegetables, garlic mushrooms, potato crisp with a guava dressing. 

The soup was like a cross between tinola and arroz caldo. It has rice and bits of chicken like an arroz caldo but it also has a distinct malunggay and slight gingery flavor like tinola. It's also good that the soup was served piping hot.












Now the salad was a perfect mix of veggies, nuts and fruits. To me, the salad greens, preserved fruits, cashew nuts and kesong puti was good enough by itself. I actually thought I could finish the salad even without the guava glaze. The guava glaze is just the perfect cherry on top. It's subtly sweet but the guava flavor is still quite distinct even if it is a teeny bit pungent.
Now the selections for the entrees were a lot giving you really good value for your money. The first set of entrees (see picture on left) that I tried include the turmeric rice (yellow), special beef stew (going clockwise), chili garlic fish fillet, bagoong rice, sisig and angus tocino. At the center of the plate are two sausages as part of the of the sausages selection.

I actually found each dish very very good. The flavors in the rice were actually very subtle. I didn't taste the turmeric or the bagoong in the bagoong rice but it is still ok for me because it just allowed me to focus on the flavors of the viand that I am tasting. The sausages were very good, not greasy and have a distinct peppery flavors. The sisig is very creamy. It is quite different from the sisig that I learned to eat while I was in the ateneo (the meaty, crispy sisig of ken afford). I think the sisig of Bfast is the close to the spirit of the original true blue sisig. The angus tocino has the good balance of sweetness and saltiness. The angus meat was very soft and melts in the mouth.

Now, I don't really eat beef because to me, it has such a distinct and strong smell. Sometimes, I can even tell if the ground meat has beef in it because I detect the smell. So I was really apprehensive about the beef stew but I still gave it a shot.

It's a good thing I did because to me, it was one of the best dishes in that buffet selection.The meat is perfectly soft and tender, the flavors are so spot on. It's such a delight to eat with the bagoong rice or even the turmeric rice.

Finally, the chili garlic fish fillet is such a delight to eat. I have been looking for a well-balanced spicy dish; one that would not burn your tongue and ruin your taste buds but still have the blast of spice and heat. Bfast's dish would belong in my list of best spicy dishes ever. I like how the fish is perfectly cooked remaining firm but not rubbery. I like how the first bite brings in heat and spice but cools down as you continue to savor the dish.

My second set of dishes from the buffet include the (going clockwise) bangus lumpia, karnevorous omelet, bagoong rice, turmeric rice, daing na bangus and a different sausage from the sausage selections. I think there's nothing spectacular about the daing na bangus (just perfectly cooked, not dry or burnt) but the bangus lumpia is so gooood even without accompanying dips like ketchup or sweet chili sauces. The omelet is not runny. The components are still crunchy and good. The other selection of sausage is just as good as the first one I tried, flavorful and not greasy.

The pasta dishes were just as good as the entrees. The tuyonesca was the classic putanesca with a twist with spicy tuyo. The dish has just the right amount of spiciness. The seafood pesto was so good with the mussels and clams being properly cooked.

We capped off the meal with two really good desserts: Belgian chocolate ensaymada and suman panacota. The ensaymada was a bit dry but the Belgian chocolate makes up for all the shortcomings of the bread. Who cares if its a bit dry. It's still such a good sweet dish.

The suman panacota is also good. The mangoes are refreshing complements to the creamy panacota.

The buffet selection kept changing while we were eating and one of the really nice waiters even called my attention to the addition of the seafood paella to the buffet. I actually said pass but when I saw the dish while getting dessert, I couldn't help myself. As expected, it's actually really good. There's the creamy rice and the requisite crunch from the crusty rice at the bottom of the paella is also there giving excellent texture to the dish.

So all in all, the dinner at Bfast is such a pleasant experience. It doesn't have to be breakfast to have a really good meal there. Visit Bfast anytime of the day and treat yourself to a wonderfully good meal. You'd expect nothing less from a restaurant with Chef Laudico's name on it.

Damaso- the desserts

The desserts that we tried in Restaurante Pia 'y Damaso performed better than the entrees which is I think a better strategy because the dessert would be the last thing you'd remember when you eat.

Just like the entrees, we decided to select 4 desserts and just share it among the 7 of us. We selected the following desserts: 1. Sisa's Dementia, 2. Guni-guni, 3. Ibarra's kiss and 4. Salvi's Canonigo. If after the last dessert, you still haven't notice the references to Noli and Fili, then you should look for the nearest bookstore, go to the Filipiniana section and then buy yourself a copy. Hehehe.
I apologize for the bad picture. Sisa's dementia is a truffle cake with white chocolate almond pastille with dark choco mousse and ganache.

Janet warned us that this dessert might be too sweet but I didn't find it too sweet. It was just moderately sweet. The consistency of the mousse was perfect too.






Ibarra's kiss (right) is a hazelnut chocolate torten with dark chocolate mousse, caramel, cheese and candied confit. How it is called Ibarra's kiss, i do not know...

I actually prefer this dish over Sisa's dementia because of the cheese. It is actually very distinct and adds a different flavor to the sweet and bitter dark chocolate. I also like the hazelnut flavor of the torten.

Now for me, the best dessert of the night was Guni-guni which is actually just a sugar-free Sisa's dementia's truffle cake with white chocolate almond pastille, dark chocolate and ganache. It reminded me of a chocolate bar placed in the fridge. But with more texture and flavors.

Finally, the lightest dessert of the night was Salvi's Canonigo. It was a really airy meringue served with vanilla cream and mangoes. The light and fluffy meringue is best eaten with the mangoes. It's really soft and melts in the mouth. Some of the people around the table actually complained about the dessert being too light but I think it was just right. It's a good complement to the creamy mousse or sweet chocolate ganaches.

As I said, the best dishes (at least the ones that I've tried) in Damaso are their desserts, so keep this in mind when you eat at the restaurant. Make sure you leave some room for dessert.

Tsoko.nut

Whenever I want to just have a light snack, Tsoko.nut is usually one of the places I consider. It's because they serve really good coffee shop staples like sandwiches, pastas and pastries.

So my recent visit to Tsoko.nut became my first opportunity to review their food officially here in my blog. I would have wanted to order the tablea cake because past visits have proved the excellence of that cake but since I am still a bit full, we decided to just have the napoleones for dessert.

One of the dishes that we tried was their malunggay pesto pasta. This is one of the staple dishes that we order whenever we eat here at tsoko.nut. I know it is a well prepared pasta dish mainly because the noodles were firm and al dente. One thing you'd notice about the malunggay pesto is how fragrant it is. It really entices one to dig in the dish and try it out. The accompanying herbed bread is also a perfect accompaniment to the dish.

We also had the chicken fantasia sandwich which, in my opinion, is a relatively good sandwich because of three things: 1) it is served on a hot and toasted ciabatta 2) the chicken was flavorful and not rubbery 3) the vegetables provide a really good crunch to the sandwich giving it a different texture.

One of the reasons for the really good texture and crunch in the sandwich is the large slices of onions in the middle of the sandwich. I don't mind the onions and actually like the heat they give but for some, this might be a turn off.

For dessert, we had the napoleones. Having just come from Bacolod and tried the real  and original napoleones (try Virgie's Napoleones), the Tsoko.nut napoleones is totally far far away from the standard. For one thing, the pastry is not flaky and crumbly. The cream in the middle is actually too thick almost to the consistency of a yema.

It was actually quite a disappointing end to a really good snack time. Next time, I will have the tablea cake and maybe I will have the perfect snack time.

Damaso - the entrees

Dinner last night was at Restaurante pia 'y Damaso (in Greenbelt 5). Of course, because it is in Greenbelt 5, you'd expect a little bit of swankiness in the food and the ambiance. I was not disappointed. The lighting was fit for a romantic dinner and the food sounded superb (though slightly on the expensive side,still they do have some affordable selections).

Opting to just share whatever we order, we just decided to get 2 appetizers and around 4 entrees. The two appetizers ended up as just one appetizer but two servings. For our appetizer we ordered the crisp cones with crab, corn and tomato relish.

                     The dish was served on a bowl of salt which quite fascinated one member of our group (I won't mention names, hehe... all i can say is that, that's her hand in the picture). I first thought that eating the appetizer would be messy but if you don't mind using your fingers, it's quite an easy dish to eat. The relish of tomatoes and corn was quite refreshing. Unfortunately, the refreshing break came too early since the relish was at the top of the cone. It would have been nicer if one gets to have some more relish towards the end of the cone after one has eaten some of the crab meat to give the taste buds a bit of a break. As it is, I was craving for some more of the tangy tomatoes after three bites of the crab meat section of the cone but I have already consumed all of the salsa. Not a bad appetizer and certainly prepares one for what is to come.

For our entree's we ordered:

1. Chicken pastel - This is a must try. The chicken and vegetables underneath the layer of puff pastry (?) is very flavorful. I would have wanted the dish to be creamier though.

2. Rellenong bangus - Not truly spectacular probably because I compare it to mom's rellenong bangus (which she seldom cooks nowadays) and nobody beats mom's cooking. You can be a close second but you can never beat mom's cooking. Oh! But kudos to the chef for making the bangus skin palatable. Often times, one discards the skin of the bangus but for in this case, you should try it because it tastes great.

3. Adobo pork and chicken - which is again, not spectacular. What I found troubling about the dish is that the pork is still a bit tough while the chicken has become a little bit rubbery. I can tell that the chicken was cooked for quite a long time because when I accidentally bit on a chicken bone, I was able to bite it and chew it just like any other piece of meat.

I also complained of a bitter aftertaste in one of the dishes and realized that it came from the liver in the adobo. I am not sure why or how the liver resulted to such a powerful bitter aftertaste but it surely affected my appreciation of the dish.



4. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture of our fourth entree which is the Binagoongan with okra which for me was the best dish of the night. The meat was so infused with the flavor of the bagoong that you'd actually taste the bagoong from the meat alone. Add to that the deliciously creamy and salty bagoong sauce making the dish a deadly combination for those going on a diet. I actually threw my weight-watching out of the window after getting a first bite.

All in all, the entrees didn't wow me that much but Damaso made up for the unimpressive entrees with a delicious combination of desserts that I will review in my next entry.

Buddy's

For today's lunch at Buddy's we had sinigang sa miso, sisig, pansit habhab and washed it all down with sago and gulaman.

I think Buddy's has been really known for it's pansit habhab (which is a type of pansit that is served wrapped in banana leaves, so you can eat it without utensils, which the locals in Quezon Province would say "i-habhab"). The good thing about the pansit is that it was served piping hot (which I think is the secret of good pansit). The noodles are firm but cooked. Likewise for the vegetables. I didn't care too much for the meat but that's all right, the noodles, vegetables and the sauce were good enough for me.

The sisig was quite flavorful even without adding soy sauce. Our mistake of letting the food sit on the hot plate and not mixing it together resulted in a crusty bottom for the egg and some of the meats resulting to quite a tastier dish. Talk about serendipity in food. Next time I eat sisig, I will do that again. One complaint about the sisig though is that some parts of the meat still has hair on it which is a big NO NO. Of course, the finicky eater that I am, I had to pick those out and leave them on the side of my plate.

The soup of the sinigang is the best way to start a Filipino-themed lunch. The miso is quite flavorful. The vegetables are still crunchy but cooked but unfortunately the fish still has a strong fishy smell which is a bit of a turn-off. I am not sure how to kill the fishy smell of the fish (can you blame it? It's fish, of course it's fishy!) but a good sinigang would be able to showcase the flavor of the fish while masking the fishiness with some other flavors or spices. Probably more onions? Or even ginger? I don't know.

The cool sago and gulaman is the perfect partner to this lunch. It served both as drink and as dessert. The sago and gulaman chunks were just the right size to fit in the straw so one is able to have bits of both as one sips the drink.

Overall, Buddy's is a good lunch place because it gives you the flavors of a home-cooked meal in dishes that are meant for sharing. So while you're sharing the food, why not share stories, experiences and a lot of fun times?

Mentoring at it's finest

Last Monday, we met up with Ma'am Tina David for her send-off lunch treat for me and Ian in Megamall.

The lunch with Dr. David was so pleasant (and filling). She gave me and Ian some tips about our further studies and even about our careers.

For instance Dr. David told me to:

1. Forget about CGE. She told me that while a general equilibrium framework would be nice when doing an analysis on policy, it is more important that one learns the issues on the ground because sometimes that is missing in a number of such big  models.

2. Maximize the strengths of your university.
   a. GRIPS has a strong expertise on fieldwork. Maximize and learn as much as you can on   the conduct of fieldwork and analysis of the issues at the ground level.
    b. Learn as much as you can from Japanese professors who know how to get their works published; how to write for journals and what to do if submissions get rejected.

3. Teach! It is important to teach because teaching helps you organize your thoughts and form outlines in your head. It also updates you on the literature and frameworks that are available. So once you return from your PhD, try and get connected to a University.

Ma'am Tina is such a great mentor. Even if she is no longer connected with PIDS, she made sure that her staff there would get the best advice (and lunch) from her. I truly appreciate all the help and pieces of advice she gave. I sure hope I can follow in her footsteps.




 

Calea-Bacolod Cake shop

One of the most highly-recommended eating places in Bacolod is Calea along Lacson Street. You can tell it is very popular because it never runs out of people. There are so many people in the cake shop that some would spill over outside and opt to dine underneath the moonlight.

I was fortunate enough to try a number of their cakes even the entire selection of their brownies (I brought it to my relative's house for dessert). Of course, I had to try their best seller which is (if I remember correctly), Imported Chocolate Cake (Too bad, I was not able to take a picture). Anyway, what I was able to document were these two cakes that we had on our first visit there.

This one on the left is an ice-cream filled cake with two flavors of ice cream: chocolate and strawberry. It is topped with chocolate syrup made from pure tablea which makes it really authentic chocolate syrup (none of that artificial chocolate syrup for me, please). The slices of cake that sandwich the ice cream were really moist and soft. These complement the ice cream by providing a soft texture to the coldness of the ice cream.

 I also tried the white cheese cake which is a baked cheese cake topped with bits of white chocolate. Because it was baked, there is a smoothness and creaminess to the cheese cake that really makes each bite delightful. There is very little crust too so each slice just melts in your mouth like what an ideal cheese cake should be.

One bone to pick though about their best seller (to think, this was their best seller). As I mentioned, I was not able to take a picture (probably because of disappointment!). Their chocolate cake was not moist. Heck, even some of the brownies that I brought home were not moist. Perhaps, in their production process because of the sheer volume of orders, they tend to produce too many cakes that they have to store for too long in the freezer reducing the moistness of the cakes ( I don't know, heck what do I know). But there. I am sure their best seller should be at par or even better that the two that I was able to document. Next time, I will give it another chance.