Ambers - impromptu party food

Yesterday, my cousins spent time with us to give me an impromptu despedida. Well, it wasn't that much of an impromptu because we were informed that they have plans of dropping by on Saturday morning. But this didn't give us enough time to prepare for 7 people.

Plus, Mom and I didn't want to spend the entire Saturday and Sunday morning in the kitchen chopping ingredients and preparing food. Also, if we do that, we might end up too exhausted to actually entertain our visitors.

So what to do on times like these? I resorted to what we usually do in the office. At the office, we rely on Ambers for our delicious party food. They have a wide variety pansit and pasta. There are also other pica-pica that you can order.

For our bonding time with the cousins, we ordered Ambers Spaghetti (which Lester calls "Happy Spaghetti"). We also had various pica-pica like barbecue, chicken lollipops, lumpiang shanghai and pitsi-pitsi with cheese.

As expected, the spaghetti was really good. It's quite saucy and not dry so one really gets to taste the delicious meat sauce with every bite. The cheese topping makes the spaghetti really creamy. I'd also have to give it to Ambers for laying out the hotdogs in a floral design. As most chefs would say, "we eat with our eyes." So the attractive way Ambers presents their food is already half the battle.



Mom was actually quite impressed with Ambers barbecue (and this is saying something because Mom prides herself of having a really good barbecue marinade). Amber's barbecue is actually mostly meat but despite not having the requisite fat (for flavor) the barbecue is not dry nor is it bland or flavorless.



We also had fried pica-pica like lumpiang shanghai and chicken lollipops. The lumpiang shanghai still had it's crispiness despite not being fresh from the frier. Mom complains that the filling is a bit small though.



The chicken lollipops were big pieces of chicken leg (or wing, am not really sure) that is served with a sweet spicy sauce. The chicken lollipops look big because of the breading. Still, the breading is welcome as it makes the chicken lollipop more attractive and flavorful.

The pitsi pitsi was my nephew's favorite dish from Amber. Being blind, my nephew was quite surprised that what he is eating has cheese toppings. He was also intrigued by the soft, chewy and sweet cassava balls. I guess it is the texture of the pitsi-pitsi that intrigued him.

Ambers saved us time and made our party quite fun because we were able to chat and catch up with each other. We didn't even notice the time making us adjourn close to 10 pm. I guess the cost is very much worth it.

Italianni's - Italian food is homey, soothing and comforting.

Lester and I ate at Italianni's last Friday afternoon. We were supposed to have a snack but we ended up having a pizza and a pasta. I guess after last week's review of Italianni's I would have to declare that Italianni's is now on my list of best Italian restaurants in the metro.

I mean C in Pampanga is really good and would probably rival Italianni's but let's face it. It's not exactly very accessible what with a three hour's drive away to reach it if one is coming from QC.

So anyway, Lester and I had the basic pasta in pesto sauce which is actually quite simple. The pesto sauce is quite mild with the basil being just right and not really bitter unlike one of the restaurants I've tried. I was also looking for some crunch coming from pine nuts but am not really sure if that's the recipe that Italianni's followed. I just like my pesto to have a bit of crunch which the pine nuts provides.

Because it took us quite a long time to decide which pizza we're going to have, the nice waiter was kind enough to suggest to us their 4-flavored pizza, the Quattro Staggioni. There's one that has pepperoni on it, another has shrimp and black olives, another has mushrooms and artichokes and finally another that has 4 cheeses. They served the pizza with toppings of arugula leaves which I truly appreciated because it added another dimension to the flavors, a taste of refreshing nuttiness.

So last Friday's snack was supposed to be a light one but we ended up being so full we had no room for dessert. Next time, I'll just go to Italianni's and try their desserts... but then again, who could say no to their wonderful pizzas?

 

Ho Chai Lai - Best Chinese Restaurant this side of Muntinlupa

Our family has this favorite eating place outside of San Pedro but still manageable in distance. It is actually in the next town already which is Muntinlupa.

We have always frequented this place mainly because there's no decent eating places in San Pedro apart from the usual fast food. So whenever there's a special occasion or we're too lazy to cook (which was the case this time), we'd just go here and treat ourselves to great Chinese food.

This time around we ordered the Ho Chai Lai Siomai which is their specialty siomai. Instead of being wrapped in Siomai wrapper, the siomai is wrapped in nori and inside the siomai is the ground pork but it also has crab sticks. The siomai is served in a soup like substance (probably some version of a birds nest soup). We never fail to order this siomai whenever we eat here and I'd actually recommend this to anyone. The flavors are quite unique especially since nori has this fishy smell and taste to it that one gets accustomed to. Even my brother who isn't into Nori likes this. And if my picky-eater brother likes this, am sure everyone else will.

Since it was just me and mom eating together tonight, we decided to just have one hotpot and a small serving of yang chow rice. One of the things that has impressed us about this Chinese restaurant is that they don't scrimp on the ingredients. Even if we just ordered a small portion of the yang chow rice, we still got the proportionate amount of spring onions, chorizo, egg and green peas in the rice.

For our viand, we paired the rice with a seafood hotpot with mushrooms. Of course, since it was a hot pot, it was served to us piping hot which made it really delectable. The seafood in the dish were properly cooked. The shrimp is still juicy, the squid is not rubbery at all. The filets of fish were not overly breaded but just enough to keep it flavorful and flaky. We even found bits of sea cucumber in there which was quite a surprise.

The mushrooms that were in the dish were of two kinds. The wood ear mushrooms (tenga ng daga) and the button mushrooms. Again, there's no scrimping in mushrooms here. We had our fill of properly cooked and delicious mushrooms which we ate with the vegetables accompanying the seafood like carrots, sitsaro and onions.

Eating slowly and talking about lots of things, Mom and I were surprised that we actually finished everything. Yes! We were so full when we were about to leave Ho Chai Lai but we didn't worry. Their complementary house tea did wonders to our tummy.

Cafe Via Mare - the desserts

If you're looking for a place where you can try the best Filipino desserts, try Cafe Via Mare. We had our desserts there last week and we had a grand time.

There are three kinds of cold desserts in Cafe Via Mare: the ginumis, the halo-halo and the mais con yelo. All three sounds good and looks soooo good in pictures so it is quite a good thing that Cafe Via Mare has the sampler which they call shooters.


They serve the three cold desserts in shot glasses which gives the customer a taste of each of the desserts.



Of the three desserts, the best for me would be the ginumis which is almost like a halo halo but with different ingredients. There are no beans but instead there's gelatine (gulaman). There's also lots of sago and pinipig. Instead of evaporated milk, they use coconut milk and instead of sugar for a sweetener, they used panucha.

The great thing about Cafe Via Mare's ginumis is the crunch of the pinipig vis-a-vis the soft gulaman. The coco milk is creamy too and the sweetness is just right.

The halo-halo is actually quite good as well. Although, there were a number of things that were missing (or was I just looking for a bigger serving?). What I liked about the portion of the halo-halo that I got was that the sweetness is just right. Just like the ginumis, the halo-halo was not too sweet.

The weakest of the three would be the mais con yelo. I think what is missing would be some more flavors of corn in the syrup. The mais con yelo was also a bit bland for me probably because you'd only know that what you're eating is a mais con yelo only when you've tasted the corn kernels. 

So after trying the three desserts, I concluded that ginumis of via mare is the best. The halo halo is ok too but the mais con yelo needs improvement.
 

Happy Lemon-Just close your eyes and give it a try

Last Saturday, after badminton, we had the opportunity to try out one of the most raved about drinks in the metro.

To be honest, I haven't really heard about it but having been documenting my experiences of different restaurants and talking about their food, I thought it would be good to document my experiences about trying new drinks as well.

My companion then swears by the goodness of the drinks in happy lemon so that also gave me a motivation to try it out. Looking at their menu, I was actually a bit shocked if not turned-off because of the unheard of combination of rock salt and cheese on coffee drinks. I was actually confused, was it supposed to be savory or a sweet drink?

When we got our drink, I was discouraged some more. My drink (green tea with rock salt and cheese) looked like it was something brewed in a witch's cauldron. There were bubbles and foam that are not really enticing.

Ia's drink was a bit more presentable. The cocoa powder as toppings was the saving grace because it was able to cover the foamy and bubbly substance on top of our glasses.

But I am grateful to Ia for encouraging me to give it a try. Because after the first sip, I was won over. Don't mind the presentation and don't mind the description of mixing rock salt with your drink. Just give it a try and you'd be won over too.

My drink won me over because it is very fragrant just like real honest-to-goodness green tea that I've tried in Japan. The saltiness was not very empowering but emphasized the sweetness of the drink making me like it some more.

Too bad there are too few branches. I would certainly recommend it to my friends to try.

Thank you!

I will pause from reviewing eating places and send this thank you message to all the people who made my birthday such a wonderful day yesterday!

Thank you to Lester for the surprise!

Thank you to the Saturday Badminton Group!

Thank you also to Ate Bullet of Dexter's in Katipunan for my birthday cake.

Thanks to all who came to the surprise lunch, D'friendz, IUJ kohai, classmates and senpais and Belfield friends.

Last night, over a pizza dinner (again!) Mommy said that this has been one of the longest birthday celebrations I've ever had spanning an entire week. Kuya mentioned that it was because I am leaving for Japan. He said had it not been for that, I wouldn't have celebrated my birthday. And I guess he is right... Between the two of us, I've never really celebrated my birthday with parties. A nice quiet dinner is good enough for me. But thanks to everyone who changed that and made this birthday more special. More than the usual birthday.

I see God's blessings through you all.

Yakimix - All you can eat for the decisive!

Had lunch with my closest friends as their despedida for me. We ate at YakiMix because I've heard so many stories (not only good ones but horror stories too) about this place. One of the things I've heard is how hordes of people would wait in line for their chance to eat in the restaurant.

So part of the strategy to be able to eat without the pressure and the hassle of having so many people in the venue, we decided to eat during a weekday lunch hour.





I am actually pleased with the food in the buffet. They have soup and sukiyaki. They have different kinds of meats and seafood that you can grill in the middle of the table. Of course, we grabbed a lot of the bacon, shrimps, pork slices, asparagus wrapped in bacon, bananas wrapped in bacon, duck meat, mushrooms, corn, yakitoris and even hot dog. I actually liked the experience of grilling the meats and vegetables.

If you're not into grilling meats and veggies, you may sink your teeth in those makis and sushis. There are actually two sections of maki where you can find the most common california maki to the not so common like crunchy crab maki or a really spicy one that I can't even remember.

And because these sushis and makis are bite size, you actually don't feel you're eating a lot. It's just like popping them in your mouth like savory M&M's. In fact, I've had about two and a half plates of these. I would have wanted to try all the variants but I don't think I'd have room for the other selections if I did.

If you're looking for something more filling than bite-size sushis, there are still other dishes in yakimix that you can try. To be honest though, I was so overwhelmed with the sushi and maki selection I was only able to give a limited time in trying the dishes that you can pair with the rice.

And of course, they have a lot of kinds of pastries, fruits and ice cream for dessert.

The ice cream can be sprinkled (or in this case, covered) with different kinds of toppings: from rice crispies, rainbow sprinkles, marshmallows, chocolate chips and so on. I think our ice cream ended up as toppings with ice cream rather than the other way around.

So all in all, how was my yakimix experience? I'd say it's such a good buffet. There's food for everyone. There's actually a wide range of selections which may in a way be too overwhelming for someone who is not decisive. If you're not sure of what you want to eat, you better be careful eating at Yakimix. You might gain 20 lbs if you don't control yourself here.