Makati Shangri-La's Afternoon Tea

My childhood friend was in town for a short while and she crammed a lot in her very short vacation. But despite how busy she was, she always makes time for me :-)
We were supposed to go out the time of "Pedring", but all roads were flooded so we decided to postpone it for a day. The next day even if it was still raining and not all electricity has been restored, we still went out. She'll be leaving in just 4 days so we really need to meet.

She fetched me around lunchtime.

I wanted her to try Bonchon, so we had lunch of Chicken Wings and Legs (soy and chili), Kimchi Coleslaw, and Soy Garlic Chicken Chops. I hoarded the chicken chops while she loved the chili chicken legs.

After lunch, we walked off the calories thru shopping. We both love to shop. When it was around 4PM, I asked her if she wanted to have an afternoon tea at Shangri-La, and she said absolutely. Like me she loves scones and have it almost every afternoon, with freshly-made berry compote and butter.

Inside Shangri-La's lobby we ordered the Filipino and Classic Afternoon Tea. I was hoping to try the Chocolate Tea Set but they were not available.


Classic (550)
- raisin and lemon scones with clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam
- goat's cheese and watercress
- smoked salmon, dill mayonnaise and pumpernickel bread
- roast beef, caramelized onion and seeded mustard aioli
- chocolate financier
- strawberry tartlet
- walnut brownie
- lemon cheesecake

Filipino Tea Set (550)
- bibingka (sweetbrice cake), beef kaldereta empanada (beef stew pie), vegetable okoy ( fritters), pan de leche with chicken adobo spread, calamansi tartlet, young coconut salad, rice paste roll, leche flan

Almost everything in the classic tea set was just average, the scones even less than average. They weren't as good as Manila Pen's, and they weren't serve with lemon curd. I was really disappointed and so was my friend.



Since this was just my second time to have an afternoon tea, the first one being a buffet, my friend had to walk me thru it. She said that we should start from the uppermost part of the tier, down. But since I am a dessert person, I started with the dessert tier at the bottom. The brownie was dry, while the cheesecake and everything else was just satisfactory.



The second tier containing the finger sandwiches weren't much to boast off too. I don't like that there's too much watercress on the goat cheese sandwich, and that the caramelized onion was too sweet, also that the pumpernickel bread on my salmon sandwich has already sogged. But I do love the fresh salmon, that I ate all of it. Good thing too that my friend doesn't like raw fish, cos I devoured the salmon in just seconds.



If I hoarded the Classic Tea Set, my friend was all over the Filipino Set. She misses Filipino food. I don't :-)



She loves the bibingka (rice cake). Actually she loves everything on the Filipino set, that she finished everything.  I got to try the calamansi tart which was bland, and the leche flan, which was mildly-sweetened, if not none at all.

Despite my not so much rave about the food at the Shang, I really like the ambience. Compared to the Pen, which was too open and too crowded ( the seating and table arrangements), the Shang was cozy and warm and private. And you have this big space all for yourself. We were seated on these big living room/sofa kind of chairs, that you can really relax on.




- fancy sencha green tea



- tea sieve and timer





And there were music, great, relaxing music. First with piano and violins and come nighttime, from a harp. I can see myself going back here, even alone, with a new book or magazines at hand, and to come back just for the music and the ambience and not anymore about the food. I spent the same here as in Starbucks. If I ordered a sandwich/wrap, a cake and a drink at Starbucks, that would also amount to almost P500. I'll just have to add a hundred or so, and I could have more than that at Shangri-La. Plus I'll have privacy.





After our afternoon tea we went out of Shangri-La and Makati to Mall of Asia for another round of shopping. We can't seem to get enough of shopping.

And when it was near the mall's closing time we went to Pepper Lunch for dinner. I wanted her to try it too. Apparently there's no Pepper Lunch in Europe.

She ordered the Beef Pepper Rice with extra meat, while I had my usual order of Salmon Pepper Rice with extra fish, curry and double cheese. And for dessert, the Molten ala Mode. She said she loved it, though she liked my order more. I told her, it's the cheese :-)

And that ended our day out. She left last Sunday, but not without promising me a dinner at Shangri-La next year. I'm already looking forward to our dinner, but most of all, to seeing her soon.

Happy Eating!


*** Bonchon and Pepper Lunch pics to follow

Sunday at Sumosam

My younger sister was in town with her boyfriend, and that automatically means a mini-reunion of sorts for us. Aside from every Sunday is a family day in our family.

After checking out of the hotel, we went to Powerplant Mall for lunch.

My mother wanted Korean, but the rest wanted Japanese. She was outnumbered, so we ended at Sumosam.

My elder sister said  that she watched an episode of KrisTV with Marvin Agustin as guest, and that Kris said that the Green Iced Tea of Sumosam was good. So half of us tried it. I tried it as well as it was made with green tea and I love green tea.

But it tasted more like calamansi juice than green tea. It's okay though, more Vitamin C.

Since we just came from a heavy hotel breakfast, we didn't order that much. We just had two of each dish.

Both the Beef and Bacon Asparagus were good. Loved the smoky taste of the dish. But my brother-in-law was praising the Beef Asparagus more.


The Mt Fuji Steak, which was cooked medium well, was very chewy and not melt-in-your mouth tender, but we love the gravy sauce and the fries at the bottom.


crunchy tuna roll - one of my Sumosam staples

While the rest of our orders were just average.



fried calamari udon



seafood yakisoba



green chicken




ika fry



japanese fried rice

Happy Eating!

SUMOSAM

2nd Level, Powerplant Mall

Makati 

Karate Kid Fish Furai

This was what I wanted to eat the last time I was at karate kid. But the glitter of melted cheese on top of the Katsudon grabbed my attention. But I was really set on trying this at least once.

The day after my katsudon meal I was back again at karate kid with a definite order in mind. The Fish Furai.

The fish was soft and buttery, the breading crispy and there's just enough tartar sauce to go around, for me that is. I like just a little bit of the sauce on my every bite.  The veggies were overcooked but were seasoned well.

I was satisfied with my order and might order this again, though not anytime soon. I feel I need a break from karate kid.

Happy Eating!

Toast Box

It was my first time at Toast Box and I can't decide what to order. My friend recommended the Hainanese Chicken Rice but I was intrigued more by the Nasi Goreng.





The cashier said that it's better than their Nasi Lemak, which I also wanted to try. With that said I settled for their Nasi Goreng. The national dish of Indonesia and which literally means fried rice in indonesian.
It came with fried anchovies, fresh cucumber slices, sambal sauce and fried egg.




I like how the fried rice tasted and the way it was cooked. And even if it's oilier than Chinese fried rice and only has cabbage, garlic and chicken flakes, I still like this fried rice version, but not as much as Yang Chow. I just found the side dishes (anchovies, cucumber, sambal sauce and fried egg) a nice touch, compared to a boring Chinese fried rice.

The fried rice was a little bit sweet but at the same time was "malinamnam". Every morsel were coated with the sweet brown sauce, kecap manis. I just wished they added more chicken and meat just like a Nasi Goreng Istimewa (special fried rice, which has a lot going on), that way it'll be a complete meal on its own. A caveat though for the health conscious, this is oilier than Chinese fried rice, so order at your own risk.

I wanted to order too the Horlicks Dinosaur, or just a cold horlicks with horlicks powder on top, but since I just bought bottles of Horlicks in Singapore and haven't even open one, I foregone ordering it for now.







Happy Eating!

TOAST BOX
Ground Level, Robinsons Place Manila

Karate kid Cheesy Chicken Katsudon Meal

I am always at Robinsons Place Mall these past couple of months, I am  there almost every other day, twice a week the least. So it's about time that I ran out of options on where and what to eat. My no fail orders and restaurants were the Sampler 2 of Chef d' Angelo and the Roti Canai with Curry Sauce of Banana Leaf. I can eat them every day. I were to eat the same thing last Monday when I passed by and decided to eat at Karate Kid instead.

I was craving Torikatsu or any chicken fillet that's breaded and fried, that I ordered the Cheesy Chicken Katsudon Meal. With a couple more peso than it's solo price, a cheesy chicken meal has chicken katsudon with melted cheese on top, white rice, 3 pieces california maki, red iced tea, miso and corn soup and a brownie.





I liked the addition of corn to the otherwise boring but healthy miso soup. Both the california maki and the iced tea were just okay. The tea was just too diluted. While the brownie was moist and sweet. I did have a problem though with the cheesy katsudon. There were too much of the soy sauce/Worcestershire/salt or whatever condiments they used on the breaded chicken. It has even overpowered the cheese and it made me cringe everytime I took a bite as it was terribly salty. I did not enjoy eating it and wouldn't want to continue eating it for fear of getting sick. I stopped with just 3 bites, cos even if I removed the breading or the melted cheese, it was still over the top salty. The sauce has seeped in thru every nook and cranny of the chicken. It was salty on all parts and area. Since I can't and don't want to continue eating the chicken, I stood up and ordered another viand, the Tofu Furai.



That 3 pieces of breaded tofu were very filling that I still felt full up to the wee hours of the morning. And compared to the cheesy chicken, they weren't salty, not even a little bit.

Happy Eating!

KARATE KID
4th Level, Robinsons Place Manila

Tokyo Tokyo Karaage

I didn't know that they were just gonna be fried chicken, I thought they were torikatsu with gravy instead of tonkatsu sauce. Silly me.

I returned the order 3times as I were given a not thoroughly cooked chicken. They were uncooked on almost 3/4 of the part that I sent them back thrice. Up until the skin were too fried/almost burnt and the meat still not that done.

It was like they used frozen chicken and just threw it on a hot oil, frying just the skin and with the insides still raw. That was how my chicken looked and tasted like. Out of exasperation and hunger, I just told them to change my order to Fish Oyakodon and Yakisoba (solo)


- breaded fish fillet with a sweet glaze, nori strips and egg on top of white rice.

The oyakodon was sweet (because of the glaze) but well-cooked. While the yakisoba's as good as ever.

Happy Eating!