Thursday, August 31, 2006

Cold Rock Ice Creamery

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After dinner, we headed off to Greenbelt 3 to look for Cold Rock. I was quite surprised to see their price range which is quite expensive. . .way more expensive than Haagen Dazz. The kiddie cup which we had would cost about P99.75 for two scoops of ice cream. It was pretty small really but I just loved their selections... They have a lot of ice cream choices that would make you want to try them all. I very ecstatic to have find the ChocMint ice cream. I am very fond of Chocolate Mint. The last time I have tasted that was when I was a kid. My grandma bought one from the States and I so loved it. Back then, Duty Free had those Chocolate shaped into sea shells that have mint inside. Unfortunately, I cannot seemed to find them again. I was caught in between crossroads of deciding what flavor would go with my ChocMint..is it Chocolate or is it Bubble gum... I have finally decided to have Ferrero together with my ChocMint, since I'm afraid that the Bubblegum might over power the ChocMint and I wouldn't be able to enjoy. My baby had Low Fat Coffee and Rum and Raisin topped with White Chocolates. I chose Maltesers for my topping.In Cold Rock, you first choose what ice creams you would want and then choose the toppings next. Each topping would cost P25. My baby's ice cream was very refreshing and mild to the taste. I took one bite of my ChocMint and it felt so heavenly. It's like hearing the choir singing "Alleluia!". hehe..OA no?....But it really was that good. I mean, I am just so inlove with Chocolate Mint and was just overjoyed tasting it again. I told my baby to treat me there again for the ChocMint only until we could find a cheaper substitute for my Chocolate Mint craving....hehe

Cold Rock Ice Creamery
3rd level, Greenblet 3
beside Fuzion
www.coldrock.com.au

Gerry's Grill

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After waiting for a couple of hours for my baby (i happened to arrived very earlt to work to meet some deadlines), we decided to meet up at Powerbooks in Greenbelt and have dinner together. I wanted to try out Cafe Via Mare in Landmark, but it was already closed. So we ended up at Gerry's to have our favorite beef casserole. Their beef casserole was very delicious as far as I could remember it. It is made up of sliced beef with mushroom gravy in it topped with mashed potato and garlic bits. It's not really mushroom gravy but that's how it tasted like. I don't if it's just me or there really is something wrong with their food. It seemed tasteless that night and I had to drizzle salt and maggi savor over it. I was thinking, maybe it was just me since I haven't got any decent sleep and was feeling very uncomfortable last night. We had garlic rice to go with the beef casserole. I wanted to try out their Calamares so we got one. Boy, was I surprised, for P125, we got a very few serving of the dish. We can't help but compare it to Dampa's Calamares. I mean we could have eaten a whole bunch if we got the Calamares there. Anyways, their dip was very good, in fact it was sweet and creamy. Once again, the Calamares seemed tasteless that I have to shower it with salt first before I dip it in the cream just so it could have some taste. My baby didn't seemed to mind, so again, maybe it was just me. I'd have to try it again when I'm feeling much better to be able to judge it well.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

City Grill

for our monthsary, we headed for jupiter st. here in makati thinking that there would be a lot of good resto's that we can choose from. we went to shinjuku ramen house for some japanese food. the interior was close to being a school cafeteria. many japanese are dining at that moment which made me think that the place must really serve good japanese dishes.i was shocked seeing the price since it's totally off the roof.(i admit, kuripot ako.)plus, i would not pay 60 bucks for a cup of plain rice. i told my sweety to just order some gyoza for take out and look for another restaurant to dine in.

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creamy chicken - menu - boneless inasal

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baked tahong(w/onions) - iced tea - baked tahong(w/o onions)

we were suppossed to have chinese food but we saw City Grill and thought we'd give it a shot. the interior of the place was very dark since the lighting of the place is very dim. weird enough we where the only customers.we thought maybe their food wasn't that great since no one else seems to be coming in.my huny got the creamy chicken which costs about 140-150. he said it was very good and true to its name, very creamy.they also used real potatoes for their price and not just those that you buy from the supermarkets. i had the boneless chicken inasal. i found the serving very small and got me disappointed because i thought inasal's would always be served big. the atchara that they had isn't that good either. i think it's shredded carrots dipped in some kind of liquor. their baked tahong is a big disappontment. they added shredded onions on top of small mussel meats then covered it with cheese.i hate onions.i'm very choosy when it comes to the vegetables i eat.besides, onions gives you this bad stinking smell that i just can't stand.my huny jsut made up some lame excuse that i'm allergic to onions so they could redo the food again. the mussel meat seemes overcooked also.the food was just plain ok.nothing too fancy, nothing too outstanding. i always believe that food can always be cooked good so why not aim to do it right when you know you can. i know i don't have the right to say that since i'm no chef, but we are entitled to some opinions right? the service was good since it looked like we reserved the
whole place for ourselves.

City Grill
Jupiter St. BelAir
Makati City

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Sheperd's Staff (Sebastian Ice Cream)

on a cold stormy monday afternoon, my friends and i tried sebastian's ice cream at Sheperd's staff.Hearing so much about it plus that it could be Ben and Jerry's sub here in the Philippines, we gave it a shot. I convinced them in trying it though it is kindda expensive for a scoop since Enri has been raving how he went ballistic with Ben and Jerry's when he was deployed in Atlanta a couple of month's ago. After trying to cover Mall of Asia, we headed for Sheper's staff. they didn't have the manggo sansrival and the other chocolate flavor ice cream so we where left with three choices. We got one of each kind and was seated at the corner.



ChocoholicArmi had the Chocoholic which was so good.. it tasted like deep dark sweetened chocolate cake.it was an overload of chocolate flavours bursting in your mouth.Truly one made out perfectly for a chocoholic like us.




Enri had the Dublin Fudge. It was lighter in flavor than Chocoholic but still very very sweet and really tasted like chocolate fudge but in an ice cream form.


I had the Midnight Peanut Butter Cup.This was superb if you love peanut butter and butterfinger, reeses and chocnut(hehe). I can imagine all those three everytime i took a bite. The peanut butter was not overpowering the chocolate which was the good thing about it.Each scoop costs about P60. you would have probably think twice since it's serving is very very small and i know you'd definitely get bigger scoop in Scoopery at a cheaper price but the taste of their ice cream was really exceptional.
(Although Armi still prefers Haagen Dazz over it ;P)

Friday, August 18, 2006

Alba's Restaurant

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excuse me for the shallownes of this review as i have been typing the whole day creating and updating test cases. i have not also been able to get a good picture of the foods.the team that i had just transferred to finished the first phase of the project successfully thus gave them/us the reward of a free lunch out. we went to Alba's restaurant which was located at Polaris st., BelAir in Makati. The place was quite small, which can hold about 30-40 persons at a time. We had the lunch buffet which to what I heard costs about P500/head. The price was pretty big for a not so big eater like me. yeah, i may be fat but i don't eat a lot. anyways, parking was pretty bad since there really is n o parking space alloted for customers. so if the space in front of the restaurant is pack with cars already, the staff redirects you to the parking space of La Taverna which is out of business already, so they really won't mind. As you entered Alba's you are greeted by the front desk staff in English. I was hoping they would greet us in Spanish since it is a Spanish restaurant.The buffet table is set on a separate room (less the doors). The restaurant was like a house turned into a restaurant. the interior was very hispanic. the chairs were pretty high , or should i say, the table was pretty low. either way, it isn't that comfortable if your used to eating slouching your back because here you are inadvertently forced to eat with your back straight.if that is how they ate before, hands up to them. the girdles the illustrados wore must be pretty helpful for them to keep a good posture.

the appetizers were placed on the center in a round table. the choices there as far as i could remember are baked oysters, breads, butter, different spreads(cream cheese, cream cheese and mushroom...), jams, sweetened beans, omelets shaped into a big circle and sliced into bite size, banana cubes wrapped in bacon and cubed fish in cream sauce.i forgot to list their name, my bad. the entrees include seafood paella, lengua, lechon kawali, beef cooked like sarciado, fried chicken with vegetables and mash potato, and pasta in white sauce. the desserts are orange jelly, sliced watermelons and papaya, food for the god's and braso de mercedes without the flan in the center but replaced with condensed milk as its sauce.


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I didn't like the oyster though it has so much cheese in it.i still prefer baked tahong over it.the appetizers were not that bad either, i just did not try the banana wrapped in bacon. the idea seemed pretty weird for my delicate tastebuds. the chicken was tasty even without the sauce. it was also too crispy that made it difficult to slice and chew.well atleast a part of it.the lechon kawali was very good. it was very crunchy and the fat really melts in every bite you wouldn't even hate it.hehe.i have this thing about pork fats, it should be cooked in such a way that i wouldnt recognized its fat because i don't eat it.it should blend with the meat without being noticed. the paella is not that flavorful. i have always liked paella and its sibling the arroz valenciana and for me this rice dish should be very powerful when it comes to flavor that you should forget you name in every bite.OA na..basta kelangan masarap.The pasta was very good.Salty and Cheesy and just plain delicious. First ever white sauce pasta i liked. for dessert, imagine braso de mercedes in a rectangular shape, like the cakes in Bakeshops,without the flan in the center instead you pour condensed milk on a slice and you eat it like that.

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First picture was before we ate, the second one was after the empty plate was taken away.


Aside from the parking flaw, they did not placed napkins/tissue on out table and when they take your empty plate away, they leave behind the silverware on the table without any napkins or saucers to place it on. i find it very unhygeinic and very unethical.i dont really know the right word for it but it shouldn't be that way.


Alba's Restaurant
Polaris St. BelAir, Makati
http://www.alba.com.ph/branches.htm

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Valle Verde Country Club

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My boyfriend joined another poker tourney which was held at Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig. We arrived at about past 8. After he registered for the game, we ordered for our dinner.He had Sizzling Chicken which was grilled and deboned and served on a sizzling plate with Java rice and steamed vegetable.I had Chicken Barbeque which was also deboned and had atchara and Java rice.(You have to specify which rice you want to go with your meal.)The sizzling chicken was very juicy and tasty.The Barbq on the other hand was sweet. The Barbq comes with this special sauce which makes it sweeter. I tried having a bite of the Bbq without the sauce to see how it would taste like but came out with the conclusion that it really is best eaten with the sauce. Their java rice is not that oily and has ground pork and chopped bellpepper. Their ice tea may look tasteless like the one's of McDonald's, but it was very good. The serving was a bit slow. The place was so cold yet cozy enough to have your poker game with friends.I even saw the lead singer of Shamrock.hehe.Nope, no pics with him.Am not that type. The place was small and could accommodate at about 20 people or less. The tables and chairs were made of rattan, and they have a big flat screen tv that is stuck to Solar Sports the whole day.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Sbarro

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My hun and I went to MoA for our weekly date. We were thinking of where to eat when he told me that he wanted to eat at Sbarro's. We ordered two slices of Meat Delight and Spagghetti in Meat Sauce. The Pizza was fantastic. It is just enough for my appettite and the additional pasta is truly an overkill. One thing I just don't like about the pizza is that it's crust is to crunchy at the bottom that makes it difficult to slice. I was used to eating my pizza with utensils when I reached HS. The pasta was a disappointment. The meat sauce was too bland that it lacks everything. The pasta wasn't drained well that most of the water blended with the flavorless sauce. The only good thing about the dish is the garlic bread. But no matter how good the bread was, it still couldn't save the disaster that was the pasta.

Sbarro
North Wing, MoA