Hula-Hula Seafood and Barbecue House

I suppose that even if they want to, most couples cannot enjoy lunchtime with their spouses because their significant others would usually be away at work at midday. I suppose I lucked out then, since as I work for/with my husband, we have daily lunch dates. :)

We usually eat at the office when we have baon I packed from home. Sometimes we buy from my suki point-point (a.k.a. turo-turo/carinderia). Often, when we have to head out for business meetings, we have little adventures trying out restaurants we've never been to before.


The photo above was taken on one of those lunch dates, at the Hula-Hula Seafood and Barbecue House at Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong. The restaurant serves fusion cuisine (Hawaiian-Filipino-Japanese-etc) and in the menu are items like Island Paella in Bamboo, Bangus Sisig, Spicy Seafood Udon... you get the drift. :)

That above is their Davao Gulf Luau Feast. It's actually a feast for 3-4 persons (don't worry, we didn't finish all of the food!), and is made up of Grilled Mussels, Tuna Belly, Squid and Liempo. It's accompanied by Fish Kinilaw, Mango Salad and Cucumber Salad, and two heaping (more like mountains) of two kinds of rice: Pineapple Fried Rice (the light yellow-colored mound) and Baby Shrimp Fried Rice. The feast is served on a giant bamboo tray (the size of a four-seater table) lined with banana leaves, so you can actually eat straight from the tray and feel like you're dining in some island and not in a busy mall. :)

And how much was that? P695.00 plus the cost of drinks (I had a guyabano shake for P95.00) and VAT. I suppose for a party of 3 or 4 the cost would be about P300 per person, same amount you'd shell out for a meal at Dencio's or Gerry's, or a plate of pasta at Italianni's.

And how was the food? Good. I think it's comparable to Dencio's and Gerry's, only the presentation is a novelty and the ambiance is far less noisy and far more conducive to an enjoyable lunch. (I don't know about dinnertime or Friday nights though.)

Hula-Hula has another branch at Westgate Alabang, which we've been to about 3 times already. Apart from being closer to us, we like this outlet better because it is bigger and more spacious, and the airconditioning is better than the one at Shangri-La Plaza. The last time we were there we also ordered the Crab Maritess (proclaimed as their bestseller, garlicky and cholesterolic). While dining we were treated to a modernized hawaiian dance number by the food attendants. :)

Luk Yuen

My Luk Yuen staples: Deep Fried Tofu, Fish in Tausi, Beef with Kangkong and Bagoong, Bird's Nest soup and Tossed Rice Noodles. Worth the drive, worth the guilt, worth the little extra.

Hong Tai Yang

We discovered Hong Tai Yang as we drove home from Binondo one Sunday, when we took a detour that led us to Macapagal Boulevard. We were wondering where we were going to have lunch; Macapagal Boulevard is dotted with restaurants but we were in search of something new, and so Seaside, Gerry's Grill and classmates were out of the question.

Hong Tai Yang's billboard beckoned : "Over a 100 food choices." Clearly it was a marketing jab but what the heck, we drove in and followed the arrows to the back end of the Hobbies of Asia compound.

To our surprise, the restaurant was bustling with diners. And there, a stride from the door is the buffet counter filled with quite a variety of shabu-shabu (hotpot) and grill ingredients -- dimsum, hakaw, meats and poultry (fresh and processed, including tocino and bacon), innards and other laman loob bordering on the exotic, fish and seafood, lots of greens and other veggies....

We had a choice from among chicken, satay (which I took) and sinigang (Mike's choice) for the hotpot broth. Half an hour later we have tried half a dozen "courses," using the Teriyaki, BBQ and other condiments available, then helped ourselves to the all-you-want ice cream and halo-halo. Hay, patay na naman ang diet!

When we asked for the bill, the waiter was profuse with tips: "'Pag pumunta po kayo dito dapat yung gutom talaga kayo, tapos 'wag n'yong bibiglain. Yung iba kasi nabibigla, ayun, nagsasawa agad. Sayang din ho kasi 'yung bayad n'yo."

Oh, okay!

Anyway, we did come back four times more (and better prepared) after that, with the kids, with mom (on Mothers' Day -- boy, was the place packed!) and some friends. The kids liked the idea of being allowed to cook their own food -- and the seemingly endless supply of ice cream. :)

Hong Tai Yang opens from 11 am to 11pm daily. Lunch buffet costs P360 per head; dinner P395 (excluding rice and drinks). Kids pay only half (except on holidays). The place gets really full on weekends and special occasions, so the best time to come would be for weekday lunch, or call in for reservations.

Hong Tai Yang is at the back end of the Hobbies of Asia compound, along Macapagal Boulevard. (The entrance to the compound comes right after the Blue Lotus Spa.) HTY's frontage faces the Senate Building and is on the same row as Susan the Cooking Diva's kitchen.

Maki Mo 'To?

After my Spaghetti House craze came my Teriyaki Boy fad. But I didn't go bananas over the teriyaki -- I went there almost everyday for the California Maki and Futo Maki.

Sorry to cross your hopes, but nope, I am not infanticipating. This craving is strictly weirdo.
Shown here are the makis I ordered at Teriyaki Boy in Megamall, right when we took a break from my ninang dress adventure. Sorry if the photo leaves much to be desired -- there's only so much that can be done under poor lighting and with a camphone.


The makis, however, performed according to expectations.

The Old Spaghetti House

Have you tried the TOSH at Festival Mall? How was your dining experience? For me it was a Hit-Miss-Hit-Miss-Hit experience.

The HITS come from the fact that their house spaghettis are generally good and affordably priced. (Cheapest is Pesto at P90.) I like the variety of sauces too, compared to those of similarly priced Sbarro's, where you only get to choose between Meat Sauce, Tomato Sauce and Cream Sauce.

How do I like it? Let me put it this way: we've been at TOSH eight times in the last two months (yes, unbelievable-but-true). And in those eight times I've had Pesto with Grilled Chicken (top right) FOUR TIMES (yup, unbelievable-bordering-on-weird), and Pasta Negra (top left) twice. I had Puttanesca and Oriental Spaghetti the other two times.

Mike likes the Seafood Marinara (bottom left) so much he's had it FIVE times. [Yep, the man's LOYAL :)] The other times he's tried Pasta Negra, Arrabiata and Pesto, both of which earned his thumb's up. :)

My kids like the Four Cheese pizza, and the Nachos Supreme, which comes with salsa, cheese and aioli dips. We've also tried Cheese Logs (deep fried rolled pizza crust stuffed with cheese), Calamares. At one time, Gambel had their Grilled Pork Chops while my lola had the Pork Scallopine with Wild Mushroom Sauce. Both got good reviews.

The MISSES come from inordinate waiting time (to be seated; to be served) and inconsistent service quality. At one visit Mike's glass of red wine, and the pizza we ordered came when we had already finished our meal and had asked for bill out! On another visit one waiter simply slid my pesto from his tray to the edge of our table, turned his back and walked away, with the unspoken instruction of "Go get it yourself." (Gasp!) The tables are also so small, space is cramped for a party of four or more. You need to finish a dish or two and have them cleared out to make space for your other orders. They don't have condiments ready on the table and you'd need to ask for parmesan, pepper or chili flakes. And horrors! No knives! How do you cut your pizza?

The saving grace has been the taste of their food. Kundi lang yon, naku...

September Birthday Cakes

Wow, is it October already? And I have unposted entries and recipes from as long ago as May? Whoa!

---------------

September is birthday-busy for us. Mike's and Gambel's birthdays have 10 days in between them, and in the interim too is my lola's birthday, on the 19th. So what dates are Mike's and Gambel's birthdays? You do the Math. :)

Gambel's 6!

Gambel's birthday this year actually falls on a Saturday, so I didn't make any plans for a party in school. (We had planned to eat out.) But Gambel my Boy Wonder beat me to the no-party plan and broadcast to the whole baranggay the news of his upcoming birthday, complete with details of his supposed party fare. Kahiya naman, so I threw a mini-party anyway in his school. I hosted some party games, and served home-cooked spaghetti, chicken lollipops, and his birthday cakes:

The Banana Cupcakes answer the need for nutrition (at least the cake's not all sugar-- it packs some Vitamin A and Potassium in there) and the need for individual portions (so as to save the effort of slicing the cake). I put in a candle each so every child will have a candle to blow and there wouldn't be a wrestle for a turn at blowing the birthday candle. :) On Gambel's cupcake I put a number candle 6 for distinction. :)

Mama turns 82!

I had wanted something a little grand for Mama (my lola) because this is her first time to celebrate her birthday with us after a while of being away in NZ. But her birthday fell on a busy Tuesday, and on account of my fatherin-law's condition at the time she insisted on scrapping party plans. So instead we treated her to simple, impromptu lunch at Max's Pacita.

I bought a Mango Cake roll from the restaurant's bakeshop and decorated it with some meringue, and a birthday candle:



My lola, the gracious lady that she is, appreciated the simple celebration, despite the fact that she deserved so much more. God bless my lola.



Mike's Birthday

We marked Mike's birthday without much fanfare in the family residence in Makilala, North Cotabato -- at 12:10 am we called him inside (he was out with friends and relatives who have come to condole with us) and sang him his birthday song.

Later in the day I made Banana Cake (again) -- this time, two unbelievably large trays. It was my first time to bloat the recipe to such large proportions, I was second-guessing myself and silently praying (that the recipe turn out okay) as I mixed. 'Twas my first time too, to bake in a wood-fired pugon.

The cake turned out okay, I guess, judging from the fact that the first tray (which made 100 slices) was wiped out within 5 minutes of placement on the dining table. :)

Shanghai Noodle Soup

For 3 days and 4 nights in Shanghai Mike and I were deaf-mute adventurers. Deaf-mutes because we can't understand or speak Chinese beyond the Suh (Yes), Poh (No), Shishi (Thank you") and Po Yung Shi (You're Welcome) that I learned from the meeting with our supplier; adventurers because we shied away from the big and better known restaurants and went out to the side streets of Nanjing to try quaint noodlehouses.

(Un)fortunately there was a dearth of English speakers among the waiters and shop owners; and only one shop had an English menu. I had to stand by the counter and look out at the trays the servers carried, pointing to the dishes that looked good, gesturing that I wanted to order them. (Can you picture how funny that was?)

In the end, since they were mostly noodle houses, we ended up eating a different kind of noodle soup each day. One of them is the dish pictured above. :)

***

Noodle-mania rubbed on us, so we were still hung up on Shanghai cuisine and had noodle soup the night following our return.

For this I just put together pre-soaked rice noodles, some siomai, bok choy, chayote, strips of smoked squid, a swig of light soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil.

Pan de Sal Pandemonium

She adores the smell of freshly baked bread. He likes biting into the warm dough, savoring the crusty softness of each bun.

It's been their daily indulgence for weeks now, starting their mornings with Pan de Manila pan de sal and a cup of freshly-made coffee which they share between the two of them.

Sometimes she spreads butter; sometimes he chooses cheese. Sometimes he plops spanish sardines on open sandwiches. Some days it's liver spread for her; some days it's peanut butter when she craves for something sweet. Most days though they tear the pan de sal with their fingers, and take turns dunking the halves in their shared cup of coffee.

Days aren't the same when they start without this ritual, like when he failed to buy their daily ration on his way home one night, and they awoke to a pandesal-less morning. Gingerly they sipped their coffee, trying to compensate with almost every item in their bread basket. Ube Piaya, Red Ribbon Banana Crunch, mongo ensaimada and corner-bakery-pandesal bites later, they found themselves still longing for the aroma and the texture that's uniquely in their favorite Pan de Manila.

And so it has been that, when their supply is spent, they hie off to the nearest Pan de Manila outlet and replenish to ensure they have a ready stash for breakfast the next day. Oh, they laugh about this craziness between themselves, but he drives and she comes with him anyway, whether it's after dinner or the early hours of the morning (sometimes, still in their pajamas!), to the Pan de Manila outlet they fancy. The staff at the Zapote Road, South Expressway and Guadalupe must know them by now, this Bonnie and Clyde of pan de sal.

Pork Steak

Last Sunday was one of those times when my husband and I craved for dissimilar food. For lunch, he wanted fish while I craved for meat. Para walang away, we had both. I made Pork Steak (the Pinoy Bistek using pork) while he grilled a Betilla (a relative of lapu-lapu, maya-maya and bisugo). I also made him some cucumber-pineapple salad to go with the fish.

It was also fantastically warm inside the house, and so we were one in saying it was time na kumain kami sa labas (eat out)-- literally. We had lunch in our breakfast nook, a table straight out of a fastfood court, near our pocket garden. :)





PORK STEAK

What's In It?

1 k pork kasim or pigue, sliced into 1" strips
juice of 4 to 5 calamansi*
3/4 c soy sauce
5 T brown sugar
1 t coarsely ground black pepper
1 small onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, cut into rings for garnish
5 T cooking oil



Kitchen Conjugations:

Marinate pork in calamansi, soy sauce, pepper and brown sugar for at least 20 minutes. Heat oil and saute garlic and sliced onions until onions are soft and translucent.

Add in pork slices (without the marinade) and stir fry for one minute. Cover and simmer until pork is half-cooked (or after about 10 minutes). Add in marinade and simmer for another 10 minutes or till meat becomes fork-tender.

Stir-in onion rings and let simmer for 30 seconds or so. Check seasonings, correct any over-saltiness by adding a teaspoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar and simmering for another minute.

---------
I've already set my mind on Pork Steak when I realized that I've ran out of calamansi. So instead I used half a teaspoon of Knorr Sinigang sa Calamansi mix for the marinade.

This is a large-batch recipe; this dish serves 16 people (half a kilo of meat is good for 8). The leftovers will keep for half a month in the ref, or for at least two days in room temp. For food safety be sure to reheat before serving.

Packed Lunch

See how the Daing na Bangus is packed? I used the top of a Dexter's Pizza box. Kept the fish crisp, and absorbed excess oil. :) That veggie dish up there is Soy Sauce Pakbet.

I was supposed to bring this stash to the office for Mike and I to share, but since he got stalled by bank-related errands I had to eat at home, by myself. :( Hmp. Nagpaka-pagod pa daw ako.

I bought the bangus from our suki for P100.00 per kilo, and paid extra P20.00 to have them deboned. Then I marinated them in a mixture of vinegar, crushed garlic, a little salt and crushed peppercorns for 1 day in the refrigerator. (Some cooks opt to add soy sauce in the marinade, but that will prevent the bangus from getting crispy during frying.)

Soy Sauce pinakbet is an attempt to find a substitute for bagoong, because I need to reduce our sodium intake for health (and vanity) reasons. :) In about 2 teaspoons of olive oil I sauteed garlic, onions and tomatoes, added sliced squash, okra, sting beans, eggplant and ampalaya, and stir fried for 3 minutes. I added two tablespoons of soy sauce when the vegetables were crisp-tender.

I would have topped it with crushed chicharon like I used to, but bawal na eh. :)

85/15

We spent Friday night (Feb. 24) to celebrate our 10th anniversary at The Farm at San Benito, the Hippocrates Health Resort of Asia. Being a health resort The Farm serves only raw and organic vegetarian food at their restaurant, the 85/15*.

Meat-eaters and junkies that we are, we braced ourselves for bland, inexciting food. (We even brought along a just-in-case-we-go-hungry stash of a loaf of wheat bread and a jar of portoguese sardines.) We were pleasantly suprised then when we were served good-looking gourmet food. Dinner was a 5-course meal: Garden Salad with Caesar Dressing or Italian Tomato Dressing; Cauliflower Samosas with Assorted Chutney; Indian Spinach Soup with Sesame; Baked Tofu Mardas with Sauteed Vegetables on Mango Chutney and (Brown) Rice Pilaf and.... surprise! Piña Colada Cake...which even had a itty-bitty scoop of choco-sorbet on top, made of nut milk.

So entertained was I by the food presentation and so overwhelmed was I of the chef's skills and creativity--imagine having to vary your menu daily and living with the constraints of using only organic ingredients (meaning, no enriched flour, no msg, etc) -- that I forgot to take pictures of what we ate! Which is a shame, because the Piña Colada cake was really pretty. :(

(And guess what, we didn't get hungry and didn't touch our just-in-case stash!)

I had a chance for snapshots the following morning when we had breakfast. Fresh fruits, home-made bread, home-made muesli and granola, and a second-showing of Cauliflower Samosas lined the buffet.

The photo above shows my breakfast plate -- fresh fruits and muesli, a piece of the cauliflower samosa, and two kinds of homemade bread (the pinwheel cookie look-alike is actually dessicated coconut and something resembling ground nuts), which I all enjoyed. (Mike had fresh fruits, granola with nut milk and a samosa.)

We both got up for another plate, sampling the other breads and the jams -- banana lime, prune jam, choco nutella among others. I even had a Cappuccino, which was once again a toast to the skills of the chef who found a substitute for coffee beans. The overall dining experience was made even more enjoyable and extraordinary by the ambience provided by the jungle and nature surrounding us. Dining out in the open air we were serenaded by the chirping of birds and refreshed by mountain air.

(Off-topic: I just have to say, the restaurant's rustic-nature theme was executed tastefully and with extraordinary understated elegance, consistent with the overall image and presentation of the whole park.)

How did we know the ingredients were organic? First off, The Farm is in the super-outskirts of Lipa City and is on a mountain in Bgy. Tipakan; going out for supplies is so tedious (and costly), the farm owners and staff would probably opt to grow the ingredients themselves. Second, we did see and inspect the vegetable garden, as you can see here :)

At noontime we checked out to go back to reality, but before heading home we stopped by Robinson's Place in Lipa City to meet up with my friend Haidz who I haven't seen for ages. We had lunch at Tokyo Tokyo, where I found myself struggling to make a choice for which item to order. (All seemed oily, salty and unhealthy. :P) Anyhow, I settled for Tempura while Mike had Beef Misono a.k.a Beef Swimming in Saturated Fat. :P Is it possible, The Farm has made converts of us overnight?

The answer came when we got home, when I weighed in and found to my ultra-happy surprise, that I lost 2.5lbs from that overnight conversion. :P (Imagine how much I could have lost if we stayed for 3 days or so!) And eureka! This could be a way to lower Mike's cholesterol!

Well, gotta go peel apples for breakfast!

--------------
*Why the name 85/15?

We have named our restaurant 85/15 in order to represent the ratio of raw-to-cooked foods that we provide at every meal. The reason we serve 85% of our food in its raw, unadulterated state is because raw foods contain enzymes that cooked foods do not. Enzymes are crucial catalysts for every bodily function and are present in a perfect balance in all raw foods provided by Nature. Enzymes are destroyed by heating foods above 42 degrees Celsius so we use specially designed dehydrators that give raw foods the appearance of being cooked without overheating and destroying the enzymes. Your soup will be served warm rather than hot in order to preserve these valuable nutritional rejuvenators. (From www.thefarm.com.ph)

Kamay Kainan

I woke up lazy on my birthday and decided I wouldn't cook. (If I had my way I'd spend the day having a complete body massage.) Mike decided we'd have a lunch blowout at Kamay Kainan instead.

The resto is in the food court of Market! Market! in Global City, Taguig. For P218.00 per person, you can eat all you can.

On the buffet table: (in order of appearance from the stack of plates...hehehe)
1. Bopis
2. Lechon Paksiw
3. Fried Bangus
4. Fried Tilapia
5. Binagoongang Baboy
6. Papaitan
7. Caldereta
8. Menudo
9. Beef Steak
10. Kare-kare
11. Tahong soup
12. Fried porkchop
13. Pork Sinigang
14. Beef Nilaga
15. Lumpiang Togue
16. Adobong Pusit
17. Inihaw na hito
18. Inihaw na Liempo
19. Steamed Oysters

And in the salad bar:
20. Lumpiang Ubod
21. Garden salad
22. Sliced green mangoes (with bagoong)

And we were seated at our table, we were given Kakiage Tempura and a plate of lechon. :)

Thumbs up for the: food taste and quality, serving (eat all you can nga, e!); resto cleanliness; f&b prices; service (friendly, accomodating staff).

Little problems with the layout/space. The resto was jampacked. If you plan to come on busy days like holidays, better call ahead and make a reservation. We were lucky to find a table outside, but the others weren't as lucky and had to wait a while to be seated.

My best note for the day: I love their hand-churned ice cream! Hadn't there been my weight and my waist to worry about, I would have eaten a pint! :) I settled for a cup. A big cup. :)

Ichiban and Goto de Caliraya

I've been an unofficial food/restaurant reviewer for the longest time. Friends know that when I like something I tried, I go all-out telling the world to go try it. And when I hate it, I also go all- out telling people to avoid it. So here goes, my first written food review, to tell you what I've lately found to be OK, and also what I found worth my okray (in English, lambasting). :)

OK: Ichiban :)

Located at the west wing of the foodcourt of SM Southmall, the store must have just opened recently (that, or I've not been going to that mall often... hehehe). On their menu are Japanese resto staples: tempura, teppanyaki, buri and yaki. I went for Ebi Tempura Bento (shrimp tempura meal, sold at P99.00), expecting the fare one usually gets from Tokyo Tokyo.

Well, I had a pleasant surprise. Not only did the food look better (I give points for presentation...hehehe), all three items on my bento box (tempura, sauteed mongo sprouts and rice) tasted better than those in Tokyo Tokyo. (They had a home-cooked feel to them; and the quality approximates that of Teriyaki Boy, which is priced higher.) What's more, the shrimps were bigger, and the serving, larger (4 pieces vs. 3 at Tokyo Tokyo). The only thing I found wanting was the tempura dipping sauce, which, in my opinion, needs a little more grated ginger. :)

If and when I go to Southmall again I will definitely get their 6-piece ebi tempura (no rice), which sells for P115.00, and probably try their teppanyaki. And yakitori. And soba. Hahaha.

Okray : Goto de Caliraya :(

This quaint eatery's in Chrysanthemum Village (in San Pedro, Laguna), so I suppose this part of my review will only concern you if 1) you're from the area or 2) you like travelling great distances and trying quaint eateries. :) Anyhow...

Goto de Caliraya started in the late 80s, first getting attention for its hot, tasty goto (congee with ox tripe) but later blooming and adding home-cooked Filipino dishes like Kare-Kare and Bulalo to its menu. Service is by point-point [turo-turo ;) ], and you either enjoy your meal on garden chairs under their shady trees or you have it packed to take home.

It's a little more pricey than the other point-points in the area, yet the place is often busy and packed, owing to the home-cooked goodness of the food, the cleanliness of the place, and well, perhaps, the "ambience".

This afternoon Mike and I had late lunch there, ordering Ginisang Upo, Ginataang Tambakol, and Bicol Express. I found those okay, what I didn't like was the steamed rice.

To me it looked, smelled and tasted like it was in the early stages of spoilage. The grains were moist and soggy. Mike said it wasn't panis, just that they used mumurahing bigas. (Two translations: cheap rice, or rice you can curse!)

Well, I don't care about their cost-cutting measures. I paid for good, edible rice and I expect good, edible rice. What's more, business logic dictates you serve good rice so that customers eat more (more sales) and enjoy their meal more (customer retention). If costs are rising, to serve at the same level of quality you can increase your price, or cut down on quantity. I can't get it why they have to serve bad rice! (And yes, to answer your question, I take MBA seriously. hehehe.)

I didn't have the energy to raise hell about my cup of bad rice. (Normally I speak up and at the minimum, send objectionable food back to the kitchen.) In this case I just lost my appetite altogether and we just left, Mike assuaging me with a promise to have salad at Pancake House.

Well, on hindsight, can you imagine what spectacle it would have been, me, hands on hips, lecturing the turo-turo staff about the business repercussions of them serving bad rice? That would have been one for the books. :)

At any rate, in case you're wondering, no, I don't plan on coming back there. And yes, if the almost-spoiled-rice is any indication, their food stinks.