ADONE NAZARETH

EDNELL+CYDE
March 8, 2012

Prenup shoot for http://dominicbarrios.com/ 

NEW ORLEANS’ JAMBALAYA ON THE BAYOU
January 3, 2012 

Burp! This made my night! It became an instant favorite to me. The mixture of seafood, rice and herbs is definitely perfect. This is something that you shouldn’t miss from Murray’s New Orleans Bourbon Street Steaks and Oysters in  Bonifacion High Street, Taguig City.

RIZAL DAY WITH THE RIZALIANS AT PAMANA’S
December 30, 2011 

What would be better than celebrating Rizal’s Day with your colleagues from a school named after Rizal!? None. Hahaha!

So yeah! After all the mishaps and back-outs from this two-month planning of our “supposedly” annual get together, we still went on with our plan of doing it in Tagaytay. Credits to Zandy who was minsinformed of all the happenings the day before.

THE STORY
Thursday, with almost everyone backing out from the original plan, we decided to have dinner and movie date at Eastwood instead of traveling south on Friday. We have informed everyone who was supposed to be in Silver City the following day. Everyone replied except for Zandy who didn’t return to any of our calls or text messages

Came Friday morning, everyone is still asleep (because we were still up till 3AM creating a backup plan), we started getting calls and SMS from an unregistered number. Surprisingly, it was Zandy and she’s calling from Tiendesitas where we’re supposed to pick her up. Heck on the neck! She didn’t know that Tagaytay trip was cancelled. It was 9:30AM when she started calling but I got her call 45 minutes later. The first thing I did was to look if the van is still parked so we can use it. Unfortunately nanay already left since the night before she thought we won’t be using the van anymore. What I did is sent a group message to everyone to meet Zandy and see what else we can do and where else we can go.

I got to Silver City half an hour after eleven and we all got completed a few minutes after twelve. Out of the blue we decided to push with the Tagaytay plan with one more major problem… we didn’t have a car. Luckily by 12:45pm, we found an Avanza cab who agreed to drive us to Tagaytay and back to Manila at a rate of Php200/hour (I thought it was a fair rate).

THE RESTAURANT
This was the original plan, to have lunch on this famous Ongpauco restaurant in Tagaytay. The place is vintage cool. Nostalgic. From the furnitures to the utensils. It does take you back in time. You also get to see a lot of memorabilias from Ongpauco family.

Hungry? Nah! They’re not. It doesn’t show on the picture. Got a proof? Hehehe!

THE FOOD
I was really expecting good food since this is one of Barrio Fiesta’s restaurants and luckily they really have great food here. Authentic Pinoy dining experience.

PAMANA’S KARE-KARE
I’m not really a huge fan of kare-kare but theirs is really good. The creamy peanut butter sauce matches well with (what I assume is) of course, none other than the Barrio Fiesta bagoong. 

BAGOONG RICE
One of the best rice ever! Definitely a better way to enjoy kare-kare with bonus scrambled egg and green mango.

BAGNET
Pamana’s version of Ilocos’ crispy pork slices served with gravy. To be honest I really don’t know how to differentiate lechong kawali and bagnet.

BULALO CORNED BEEF
This one actually fooled me. Hahaha! I thought it would be corned beef with soup. But on the second thought, if this would be soup-based then you probably won’t see or even feel the corned beef anymore. Hahaha! This tasted like fresh corned beef. Corned beef without the canned good feel.

BANGUS ALA POBRE
Crispy milkfish topped with toasted garlic. Yummy! This is also a perfect match to the bagoong rice.

PINOY FONDUE
It’s the Swiss’ favorite with Pinoy touch. It has slices of puto, cuchinta, espasol and suman with hot chocolate. You really have to try it! It’s the best way to end our foodventure at Pamana’s.

SNAPSHOTS
I think it isn’t right to just post food photos here without the people who demolished them… that’s us! Hehehe!

FOOD TRIPPIN | SAGADA

This is so last month but anyway here are the dishes we dug into while we were in Sagada. 

BREAKFAST

We had two days to experience breakfast in Sagada and the first one is definitely the worst. I can’t even recall the name of the restaurant (or maybe I just automatically deleted it from my memory. lol!)

OMURICE

It’s a coined word derived from omelette and rice. A red-colored rice mix (I think what makes it red is the catsup) wrapped in egg. The very first dish I’ve tried in Sagada. It’s peppery and somehow edible. Nah! Seriously this one is ok except for the cucumber in the rice mix.

SAGADA’S LOMI

This one spoiled our first morning in Sagada. Common! Who told the locals this is lomi? It’s like pancit canton soup with egg and again with added cucumber. This one is almost close to not being edible. I think I should bring a bowl of lomi from Batangas next time I visit here to show this restaurant would learn what lomi really is. B-A-D! :)

BANA’S FAVORITE + CLUBHOUSE

I love this breakfast at Bana’s! The orange jam is the star. Unfortunately we forgot to bring home one. There isn’t really anything special with the clubhouse but yeah! It could be your morning comfort sandwich.

BANA’S HOUSE BLEND COFFEE

This cup of coffee tasted like brewed. The big disadvantage of drinking coffee outdoor in Sagada is that it cools really fast so you really have to drink it as soon as served.

BANA’S COFFEE ALAMID

Forbes’ Most Expensive Coffee, The World’s Rarest Blend. A couple of titles that ignite our curiosity to try out this one. It isn’t really that expensive here at Bana’s. It’s like P250 per cup. Not too much to give it a try. Well, to my dismay it isn’t my cup of coffee. It has a rich aroma yeah but I want my coffee to be really strong. Coffee Alamid is mellow blend and it does taste organic. Maybe because of the alamid’s poo. :)

DINNER

I don’t recall us having serious, proper lunch while in Sagada. We either had lunch while on the way or had quick, instant lunch while at the inn. So I have to proceed with our evening meals.

YOGHURT HOUSE

Our tour guide said that this is one the most expensive diners in Sagada so I was really expecting a great dinner after the 6-hour life-threatening cave connection experience. (Not to mention the disappointing first breakfast we had). Thank God Yoghurt House matched the price that we paid with satisfying dishes and cool native ambience.

YOGHURT HOUSE’S JAVA CHICKEN AND VEGGIES

I enjoyed the mild sweetness of the chicken. The meat is kinda dark because it was killed in a traditional way, which they call Pinikpikan. The chicken is beaten in the head instead of cutting it’s throat. In that manner, all of it’s blood is contained inside resulting the meat to turn dark. After that, instead of soaking the dead chicken in hot water and remove the feathers, the feathers are burned. That is actually one of the first few things I’ve witnessed after getting out of the van and I find it harsh but that’s how the tradition goes.

BAKED CHICKEN WITH POTATO ROSTI AND VEGGIES

As compared to the Java Chicken this one is lightly seasoned. I love how tender the chicken is and the star of this plate? The Potato Rosti! It’s like hash brown meet maruya. It’s fried though so it’s a little greasy.

THE CHICKEN DISH WITH NO NAME

Well actually, I just forgot how this dish is called. It was our friend’s plate. It’s a nice chicken soup with sotanghon and crunchy veggies. Perfect for the cold weather of Sagada.

INSIDE LEMON PIE HOUSE

I love the mood and interior of this restaurant. Too bad it’s almost closing time when we got there so I really didn’t have good source of light to capture the entire interior but here’s a glimpse on how it looks inside.
Note: Thanks to the table for serving as tripod while taking this picture. :) 

LEMON PIE HOUSE’S BUTTERED CHICKEN ADOBO

Our last night in Sagada and so I told them we can’t go home without going to Lemon Pie House. I really have to try their lemon pie and to my surprise their main dishes are as equally anticipating as their lemon pie.

This is probably one of the best adobos I’ve tried. The butter-feel just adds yumminess to the adobo itself. And boy they serve big time. It’s like for two already but since I really loved it I didn’t have to share it. lol! I even had extra rice. Hahaha!

BREAKFAST FOR DINNER?

I don’t know what’s wrong with Joann that she decided to have breakfast plate for dinner. Hahaha! Thanks to ate Loida who truly is a dear, she still served breakfast meal to us. She’s really nice and funny. She actually reminds me of Eugene Domingo. And that is a serious note. :)

Sorry guys I forgot the name of this meal. Maybe it’s fried rice with omelette and hotdog? :P

DESSERTS

Before going to Sagada I had the chance to read some of the blogs and I read about yoghurts and lemon pie so I told myself I won’t go back in Manila without trying out these two.

YOGHURT’S HOUSE YOGHURT WITH EVERYTHING

It has a little bit of everything that they mix with plain yoghurt; strawberries, banana and granola. I love the texture of their yoghurt. It’s rich, creamy and tastes natural in every dig. This is the perfect treat after the buwis buhay stunts we had earlier. It somehow made me forgot the dangerous steps we took to cross from Burial Cave to Sumaguing Cave.

YOGHURT HOUSES’ YOGHURT WITH STRAWBERRIES

So if you don’t want too much of fanciness in your yoghurt then you might just want to have the simpler strawberry mixed. I just love how the yoghurt keeps solid and intact even after an hour or more of sitting on our table.

LEMON PIE HOUSE’S EGG PIE

So Lemon Pie serves three kinds of pies; egg pie, seasonal fruit pie and the fanous lemon pie. Unfortunately they only had two when we visited.
This egg pie isn’t really bad. It’s not spectacular (cause I’m a huge fan of Goldilock’s egg pie) but I still like it.

LEMON PIE HOUSE’S FAMOUS LEMON PIE

Finally! What a way to wrap up our food trip here in Sagada! Trying out this lemon pie completes my Sagada trip. Well, I wasn’t dismayed at all. I love the broas layers, the brazo de mercedesish egg white layer and of course the lemon pie custard mix.

THE 32-SCOOP COPPA BAMBINO CHALLENGE

Challenging indeed! The three ice cream monsters weren’t able to finish the entire Coppa Bambino. Well, I’m referring to Jacque, Mandy and myself.

Yesterday we got to finish one of our food projects (hahaha!), trying Coppa Bambino at Gelatissimo Cafe in Serendra. A tall ice cream made of 32 mini scoops of gelato, topped with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, cherries, bambino cones, Poco sticks, brownies and nuts. Since it’s our first time, we decided to put all the flavors in. I must say I enjoyed the coffee, chocolate and vanilla flavored ice creams but the fruit-based ones, not so. Well, I enjoyed melon and coco but the rest, too many to name, uhm… better not try them again. The mint chocolate, dark chocolate and Butterscotch are the bomb!

So you’ve got 32 scoops of gelato and they recommed it for 3-4 persons. You have to rotate the glass with your friends so you get to try all the different flavors.

Scene stealer! It really is! Every single person who passed by didn’t miss looking at the enormous serving of ice cream we had on our table. Or maybe it was me they’re looking at? Nah!

It costs Php600.00 (good thing it’s a treat from Jacque) and I must say it’s worth the bucks. But you probably won’t make it a weekly habit. Once every quarter or even once every year would be fine.

Here’s Coppa Bambino after we dug in to it’s 32 scoops of mouth watering gelatos.