Yamazaki Grocery and Restaurant

Was at my favorite hole-in-the-wall value for money Japanese eatery at Little Tokyo -- Yamazaki.

I discovered it through a high school friend who lived in the area a few years ago. It's a great place for the happy tummy, happy wallet combo, with take home groceries too.

Tonight, service was even better than the last few times I was there. I had dinner with two friends who haven't eaten there before and the waitstaff were very patient in explaining all the dishes and inclusions. They usually give a menu in Japanese and just provide the menu with pictures when requested.

As usual, I ordered my favorite grilled salmon, which came with miso soup, rice, tofu, cabbage and pickled chicken and root vegetables. All of that for 195p. I also couldn't skip the gyoza (75p) and all three of us shared a cup of green tea ice cream (95p) from the grocery.

My friends are definitely coming back!

Ma Maison in Manila

Ever since I saw construction begin at Greenbelt 2, I've been looking forward to the opening of Ma Maison. It claims to be a western Japanese restaurant.

The entree usually featured in their posters is the Tonkatsu, which is a breaded pork cutlet. It is traditionally served with brown sauce and a cabbage salad with sesame dressing.

I've always liked Tonkatsu. As a child who treated Sanrio as a saint, my parents often took me to Tokyo, Tokyo, where I had my favorite triple T: Tonkatsu, tempura and tofu.

As I got older, I ate healthier and forgot about Tonkatsu until I ate at Saboten in Bangkok recently. Saboten specializes in cutlets but serve more than just pork. They had several pork cuts and even had salmon and beef if I remember correctly. If there's salmon, I forget everything.

What set Saboten different from Ma Maison is that the former had unlimited cabbage salad, miso soup, rice and tea together with the cutlet. At Ma Maison, there was no soup, they only had one kind of pork cutlet with a literal siding of cabbage and potato salad. Yes, the drink is separate too. All of that for less than 500p.

What's good about Ma Maison is the size of the cutlet. It's huge. Think serving size of Italliani's or Krazy Garlik since they are all part of one company. Taste is fine. If you haven't tried Saboten, you'll like this one.

There are lots of other interesting dishes that do not seem French nor Japanese to me but are worth coming back for.

Travel 2011

Since last month, I've been itching to travel all because my birthday's coming up, my weekends are supposed to vanish, and my last trip was August 2011. But I don't have any companions, those who are free don't have money, and I was not free when those who had money were going to travel.

About a month on, no surprise trip coming along yet. About four days ago, a friend said we can meet up in Milan for a weekend, another just sent me a message today that I can spend a few days in Bratislava, and the following weekend in Prague with friends. But dear friend can't go to Milan anymore so there's no point going to Prague and Bratislava. All other destinations seem to be too expensive or I've been there already. I do not want to travel alone.

So to pacify my deprived soul, here are a few snapshots of the places I've been to outside Manila this year. For others, it may seem a lot, but for people like me, this list needs to be longer. Not to sound ungrateful but, who said it's wrong to make the most out of life?

Coco Beach, Mindoro

Nagsasa Cove, Zambales

Typhoon Bebeng-ed Out in Donsol, Sorsogon

Endless stopovers in Istanbul

Dubai, United Arab Emirates 

Baku, Azerbaijan

Prague, Czech Republic

Frankfurt, Germany

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Somewhere in Viet Nam, I forgot. I'm a bad traveller. :P

Mekong Delta, Viet Nam

Bangkok, Thailand

And that's all for now, as of August 2011. Rest of the year, surprise me with a trip, please? I've lowered my standards. A local trip would suffice. But please, not alone. 

Japanese Fine Dining

My family loves Japanese food and we can eat at Japanese restaurants consecutively every time we're out. This weekend, we went to Kimpura, one of the oldest traditional Japanese restaurants in Manila. It's been around for more than three decades.

During this visit, we had the sirloin and seafood teppanyaki, a sashimi platter, a mango and kani salad, some soft-shelled crabs, and cold green tea noodles.

It's generally pricier than most restaurants but what you get at Kimpura is absolute service by a real institution. :)

Brunch

It's a lazy rainy Sunday and we're all just hanging out at home. We bought bacon for the first time in years yesterday and brunch was a great excuse to have a little luxury.

We prepared homemade wheat waffles with bacon bits, smoked Edam and some fruit jam.

Simple joys!

Southeast Asia by Rail

I've always been a fan of trains may it be intra-continental ones, within a country, the classic tram or the modern metro above or underground.

Been through a number of train rides across Europe and now that I am trying to think of the most memorable one, each one seems to stand out. What I remember most between the ride between Vienna and Prague was the extreme change of scenery from the "wild" looking plants in the Czech Republic and the suddenly seemingly "orderly" flaura growing along the tracks in Austria. Then there was this beautiful border town along Usti nad Labem between Prague and Dresden. Just love little villages along the river. And once on a train between Berlin and Amsterdam, I remember how industrial and flat the view was. Just seemed to be an endless view of meadows with the occasional factory until you slowly see the windmills and irrigation tracks. Then there was the underground tram ride in Budapest -- the oldest of them lot for posterity purposes.

Yet one trip I will not forget is the one between Antwerp and Rotterdam. It had the dullest scenery of all train rides I've had yet the most luxurious seats. Cherry and purple velvet cushions with tables like that of a first class plane ride. I was on the way to Rotterdam to have dinner with a friend after killing time in Antwerp for a few hours. I was so excited and eager to go to Rottderam that I boarded the wrong train -- the Thalys train from Paris. And I don't remember the ride because of the velvet seats. I remember it because of the EUR 55 fine I had to pay for a trip that lasted less than an hour for boarding the wrong train. Too much excitement is bad! Thankfully, my dear friend treated me to a Japanese buffet in Rotterdam. :)

So there it is, my occasional brush with trains. A few weeks ago, I did some metro rail exploring with my sister around Manila and was surprised with the convenience of going around the city. We have about three rail lines in Manila, all of them awkwardly connected requiring long walks among them. I often take the line along EDSA -- the city's main road but rarely the latest line -- LRT 2 and never took the oldest line -- LRT 1 until a few weeks ago. LRT 1 goes to all the historic districts and it's amusing that all the stops are marked by landmarks within the area. It's too bad though that it's only plastered on the train's ceiling and not found on the website nor distributed as a rail map at any of the stations. When the weather is good, I want to come back and explore.

But what really got me excited today is finding out that Southeast Asia is pretty much connected by rail and I can go all the way to Bangkok from Singapore and see a few Malaysian cities along the way. Yay! (See this link.) Despite my airline background, I love travelling by train. It always goes through scenic routes, there's no traffic, you can walk around and it always begins and ends at the city center. All those good things make me forget that I have to carry my things up and down platforms.

I've never travelled in Southeast Asia by train nor alone and knowing this fact gives me a slight comfort that it can be done safely and enjoyably!

Dim Sum at Luk Yuen

Before having dinner at a Singaporean restaurant the other night, I had some dim sum with T and D. Dim sum is like small portions of food usually steamed, fried and sometimes broiled earliest associated with drinking tea among travelers along the Old Silk Road (which can extend from China all the way to Turkey).

Our Dim Sum place of choice in Makati was Luk Yuen. We weren't planning to eat much, just a merienda, which is really just a light-in-between snack that most Filipinos have.

While waiting for them, I was served some crunchy and salty fried wanton wrappers as I ordered a serving of taro puffs. Taro puffs is my ultimate dim sum favorite and I only like it from Luk Yuen. It's fried mashed taro with minced pork filling. It's just always so divine with the chilli sauce. The only taro puff better than Luk Yuen is at the Mandarin Oriental's Tin Hau restaurant. Now that is very high end.

When they arrived, we ordered a serving of radish cake and hakaw (shrimp dumplings). They weren't the very best we've had but were good complements to the taro puffs and hot tea. The wait staff were even generous enough to give us hot soup. All in all, total bill was under US$7.00. Such a gastronomic bargain!

Working Class Foodies

My dear blogger-friend recommended Working Class Foodies over the weekend and now I am addicted! "Siblings Rebecca and Max Lando, her dogs, and friends and family, on a quest to find the best local and seasonal ingredients the city has to offer, and turn them into delicious meals - all while keeping the budget under $8/person." Check out this video.



I'd do the same from time to time and if only I have a video cam of sorts. Maybe a little project D and I can do at home. And we've got a dog too, Chewie. :)

Capones Island and Nagsasa Cove

Although I am from Zambales, I never really heard of Capones Island and Nagsasa Cove until a week before I joined some friends for a weekend off. I was familiar with Anawangin and was intrigued: how could the beaches have pine trees?

It had been a long first quarter of 2011, with three trips cancelled so far, I decided, I was not gonna flake on this one. I almost did but I was persuaded to show up, and thank God, I did! For roughly US$58, all we had to do was show up at the meeting point in Quezon City, and we were driven away from the city for a weekend. This rate included private roundtrip transport from Manila, meals at the cove (2 lunches, one breakfast, one dinner and one merienda), the tents we slept at, the service and humor of the tour group we hired.

At Work or Not

I should not be blogging but I suddenly have free time at work. And below is a cartoon I received from my work e-mail a few weeks back: Work-Life Integration. Indeed the boundaries for both have blurred in my life and I am thankful that the dots are connecting bit by bit. It would be delightful for work and life to be integrated --- doing what I love and enjoying every bit of it. But sometimes, it's just too much. Then I wish, I need Work-Life Balance. Again.

Coco Beach

Began 2011 with a quick escape to Coco Beach thanks to a Bank holiday. Here, you can enjoy happy hour by the beach, grab some books from their multi-lingual library, delight in generous seafood and carnivorous calories, have a massage and forget that some staff can make your stay less than idyllic. Despite the rustic rooms, which foreigners apparrently prefer, it's all good in Coco Beach. I wouldn't mind going back.

Lavenda Cafe

Another enjoyable lunch captured through my camphone. Was out having lunch with M and V in Makati last weekend. It was raining and instead of crossing over to Greenbelt under the rain, I suggested Lavenda Cafe along Benavidez Street in Legaspi Village.  

This cafe has been around for almost a year now and has been my go-to place for comfort food either on the way home or by delivery. For me, it's Japanese food next door. They've got nourishing ramens that take away all the illness keeping you in bed; sushi and sashimi platters that make you want to have with some sparkling wine; and my favorite bento pictured above -- tempura bento for only PhP180. It comes with three pieces of shrimp, some veggies, kimchi, half an egg, some sashimi (salmon and squid this time),  and some miso soup on the side. They also serve some Italian food, cakes and alcohol even before lunch -- all I have not tried because of my loyalty to their Japanese fare.

Here are some snapshots from food delivered on my birthday. Me and M attended a function with not much food and so ordered the rest to be shared with the rest of the family.

Home-made pizza

Last Sunday, T had a guest, and requested D and I to make some merienda. Merienda is a light snack taken between the major meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner but never after dinner) in the Philippines.With our handy oven toaster, we made pizza with the following: left over pan de sal, store-bought tomato sauce simmered with garlic and dried Italian herbs, some red bell peppers, Greek olives, Czech blue cheese, and Dutch cheddar cheese.  It's yummier than it looks!

Strawberry Waffles at Home

I can't believe my last post was almost six months ago - September! It's been insanely busy since and tonight is the first evening that I actually have nothing much to do. It's just nothing much because it's just checking final exams and papers, and the semester is officially over once those grades are submitted.

Even if I've neglected this blog and had lots of jobs to do, I haven't stopped eating and did a bit of travelling too. For starters, here's some waffles I made at home a few weeks back. Waffles from our local Maya hotcake mix, honey from Palawan, and strawberries from Baguio.

Here's to definitely more posts to come!