@ Social House

Social House is a “casual upscale restaurant (originally from Jakarta, Indonesia)” . Their menu offers different dishes from different parts of the world, not a very extensive one but impressive nonetheless (what they lack in quantity of types of dishes they made up with the choices of dishes you can try in a certain region/place on Earth).

Here are some of the dishes/drinks we tried:

Dylan Blossom Roll

is a VERY YUMMY deep fried sushi roll of salmon, crab stick and cream cheese (something like Teriyaki Boy‘s Philadelphia roll which I miss) topped with Ikura aka Salmon Roe and a sweet and spicy sauce.

Bibimbap
is Korean, I thought it was Malay or Indonesian dish, basically bibimbap means mixed rice, this one is mixed with beef and curry powder and semi-poached egg.

Date Pudding with Vanilla Ice cream, which is like a normal a la mode, the pudding is hot and sweet, a perfect pair for the vanilla ice cream.

Homemade Iced Lemon Tea is your usual lemon tea with real lemon, mint leaves, lemon sorbet and ice. It’s refreshing.

The food’s quality is good. I like their variety although I want more, the staff were friendly, they leave you alone (which I like) to socialize. The price is a bit expensive but they’re not your normal fast food restaurant in the first place.

What I liked about Social House other than their food is the presentation, packaging and ambience.

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Chocolates!

I love chocolates!

My favorite chocolates are the following:

Godiva, it’s just perfect.

Lindt, for their white chocolate, mint and nutty variants.

Ritter Sport, first found out about them when my then team mate, FK, used to give me Ritter Sport from Robinson’s Galleria, because he likes it and he wants me to know about it…

Reese‘s Peanutbutter cups and Reese’s Pieces

Cadbury‘s Top Deck and Crunchy

Maltesers

KitKat

Royce

Chocolate truffles, I forgot the brand though.

I love chocolates. Oops, I already said that.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago while I was at Bonifacio High Street getting my tickets for Salt, I saw that Patchi is coming to Philippines and there will be a store there. I’m not sure if it’s already open, if you do happen to be there please take a photo of the store for me.

Patchi is a chocolate brand from Lebanon and Duane, my friend was surprised when I told him that there will be a store in the Philippines.

Al Nassma is another chocolate brand you can get here in UAE. Al Nassma chocolates are made from camel’s milk and other ALL natural ingredients.

Now what’s your favorite chocolate?

What Anthony Bourdain forgot to tell you about Bu Qtair

I watched No Reservations Dubai yesterday and Anthony Bourdain ate at Bu Qtair, I asked my friends if we could go there for dinner and we did.

It’s near my place.

Bu Qtair Restaurant is located at Umm Sequim, near Jumeira Beach Hotel and Burj Al Arab. Bu Qtair was still called a cafeteria when Anthony Bourdain went there, now it’s called Bu Qtair Restaurant, there’s no menu, “only the catch of the day”.

You get a table, which is quite hard to get since a lot of people go there. Order inside and it will be served to you. We ordered a really big fish (King fish?) and prawns. There’s no rice but you get paratha bread and “gravy”.

The food is yummy! Perfect with beer, but they don’t sell beer there.

One thing Anthony Bourdain forgot to tell you is you might need to bring an extra shirt, because the food is spicy and the weather can be hot, since you’re eating outside, expect to sweat. I think it’s perfect to eat there during winter! And oh it’s not cheap either, our bill was 274 AED = 75USD = 3400 PHP, for 4 liters of water, a can of Pepsi, a really big fish, a batch of prawns, paratha and stew.

A quarter pound burger in a Krispy Kreme Doughnut

FOOD. All day long I’ve been thinking of food, currently craving for Kung Pao Chicken Pasta from California Pizza Kitchen, a Belgian waffle topped with whipped cream and strawberry syrup and a tall glass of watermelon shake, but that’s not what I want to write about.

I’ve been thinking of food all day because, my 3 yr. old niece woke me up this morning (good thing I didn’t get a hangover from drinking last night) and asked me to go with her to the supermarket for her favorite bottled iced tea. I came home to Food Lovers Guide to the Planet : Digital Critics and Man VS Food. By the way having Cable TV is practically useless for me if I don’t get Discovery Travel and Living and NatGeo.

Through Man VS Food I found out that the Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburger, also called the Baseball’s Best Burger, really does exist.

Krispy Kreme Donut Bacon Cheeseburger, originally uploaded by sweetspot@f8.

It’s a quarter pound grilled burger with cheese and slices of bacon in a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed doughnut sliced in half. The doughnut is toasted for a bit and turned inside out so that the glaze melts with the cheese and burger patty! YUMMY!

Food Lovers Guide to the Planet’s episode was about Digital Critics where they featured four food bloggers, two of which caught my attention, Chez Pim and David Lebovitz! Their blogs is what I want my blog to be known, but I can’t talk about food alone.

I’ll try Chez Pim’s Pad Thai recipe soon!

Enjoy their blogs!!!

Romulo’s Cafe

Bagnet with Pickled Ampalaya, originally uploaded by manilamommy.
I’m a big fan of Bagnet, it’s chicaron for the Ilocanos, it’s like Lechon Kawali.

A friend posted photos from her recent Family lunch out at Romulo’s Cafe.

My first reaction was, where is this place located?
Answer? 32 Scout Tuason corner Scout Lazcano, Tomas Morato.

They serve Filipino dishes from Kare Kare, to Bangus Belly, and well other dishes in a very artistic, modern minimalistic setting.

Look at their logo and menu!

Romulo’s Cafe is owned by President Romulo’s family.

I haven’t tried their food yet, how I wish I still live in Quezon City. Read reviews at OAP and Manila Reviews. Photos from Manila Mommy.

P.S. They have different rooms you can pay for a price and is consumable!

Someday I’ll have a place like this.

Have you tried Romulo’s Cafe? Let us know what you think.

Cooking makes me less hungry

I’m going to Boracay tomorrow for a 4-day vacation with my friends and to kill time. because I can’t sleep, because of excitement, I cooked pasta and made banana milkshake.

Tuna Soy Cream Penne

Banana Milkshake

I should cook more. I want to get an SLR too but it’s the least of my priorities right now.

Anyway, I want to talk about another thing which is focus. Focus is something I really need to work on, I can focus (I believe) but then again I multi-task ALL THE TIME which is not really good, it basically ruins the effect of good focus. I’m afraid I don’t really know how to do so… suggestions anyone?

P.S. Bananas here aren’t as pretty as bananas in other countries but the Philippines import bananas to Japan and the rest of the world and those kinds are really pretty flawless bananas, likes those of Dole here in the local supermarket, they also import their bananas.