My favourite things..Part 2

This is a continuation to my recent Manila post. The previous post is here.

I told the penguin that I don't quite fancy filipino cuisine as i didn't like what i tasted when i was there as a teenager.

Keen to change my perception on the local cuisine here, Pingu brought me to try Chicken Bacolod.

~*~*~*Manila - Day 2*~*~*~

Market Market

I was told that Bacolod is a large city in the Western Vicayas of the Philippines famous for their Chicken Inasal. Chicken Inasal is a roast chicken dish marinated in herbs, spices and vinegar, served on a bamboo skewers (almost similar to our 'ayam percik' in Malaysia in looks, but the taste was tangier).

I realised that pinoys love rice with everything. For a start, I was kinda surprised when my Mcker's breakfast (not this trip though, it'll be on another post) came with a lump of molded white rice to go with the fried chicken. Same goes for KFC.

I reckon if i stayed here any longer, I might get carbo-overdosed. :P

So anyway, we ordered a serving each of Java rice with crab roe topping. Yummz..

Beef sisig

Pingu recommended the beef sisig, a local dish which reminded me of fajitas. I didn't expect a hot plate filled with onions, red and green peppers and bits of beef and liver, but it was good stuff. It arrived sizzling and smelled of meaty goodness.

Oh, and there were chunks of fried lards in there. Who wouldn't love this dish?

Chicken inasal

The specialty at Chicken Bacolod is of course, the chicken inasal— grilled chicken on a skewer. We had the thigh meat.

Mango insalata

I love this simple mango salad.

The special prawn sauce (which somehow reminded me of our local rojak prawn/belacan sauce) complemented the green mangos, tomatoes, and onions really well. Definitely whetted my appetite.

Our lunch for the day.

We were adamant not to over order as we didn't wanna end up feeling super bloated like the night before.

Have to admit that we did well. :)

~*~*~*Serendra @ The Fort*~*~*~

We went to Serendra for dinner. Boy, were we spoilt for choice. Pingu's been here for 6 mths now and he's still not done with trying out every single eatery here.

Serendra (located just 5 mins walk from our place) opens up a whole new world of taste. Here, you'll find a fusion of world-class dishes seamlessly incorporated into a chic and modern dining atmosphere.

For foodies like us who would want to have a taste of just about everything and in the hunt for what the great Philippine kitchen has to offer, Serendra is the place to go.

Serendra offers Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Brazilian cuisines, etc - there is absolutely something to please your palete.

The fountains and sculptures lends an 'atas' (upscale) accent to the circle of restaurants in Serendra.

picture: http://anton.blogs.com/awesome/2006/09/serendra_piazza_1.html

~*~*~*Dinner @ Healthy Kitchen*~*~*~

Have i told you that we were spoilt for choice? We spend like closed to 20 mins checking out the menus of each restaurant, trying really hard to decide on a restaurant eventhough our tummies were screaming hungers the entire time.

We finally decided to dine in this new restaurant on the block, Healthy Kitchen.

Like its name suggests, it's all about healthy eating here. There's an extensive selection of salad, interesting mix of healthy appetizers and loads of whole wheat pastas and breads to boot.

Healthy Kitchen, unlike the other upscale restaurants, has a very homey, cosy setting.

Great choice hun!

Chicken Adobo pasta

The chicken adobo pasta was fantastic - I didn't expect this local pinoy dish will go so well with the pasta. I'm so changing my mind about filipino cuisines already.

I also love love love their home made bread. It was full of whole-wheat-wholesome-goodness.
Left me craving for more. Seriously, this picture doesn't do the slice of bread any justice at all. :P

Lory's Pizza

Found out that the owner, Lory created this pizza for herself one day and everyone started ordering it and this is how the name came about.

I love the thin crispy crust of this whole wheat pizza. The turkey bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes in alfredo sauce, topped with organic fresh mozzarella was cheesilicious.

~*~*~*Desserts @ Mary Grace*~*~*~


We didn't wanna stuff ourselves silly even though we were famished as we wanted to hop over to Mary Grace for desserts.

(note: I took this picture off someone's post - refer to source below. It was at night and my camera doesn't produce good night shots)

picture: www.ourawesomeplanet.com/awesome/2007/06/cafe-mary-grace.html

picture: http://www.marygracecafe.com/

There's something sweetly unique here in Mary Grace cafe. You'll notice that every tabletop is different. A closer look reveals that beneath the glass tabletops are testimonials written on various pieces of paper (some vintage looking, some super cutesy :P) by satisfied customers. Pretty awesome I'd to say.

Mary Grace is famous for its ensaymadas, cheese rolls and iced teas. If you're here for the first time, the home made cheese rolls and ensaymadas are a must try. There's nothing like indulging in these cheesy delight in such a laid-back and relaxing place.

2 words: comfort food.


Cheese rolls

There is a block of cheese stick in the middle of the roll. Soft and moist, every tantalising bite melts in your mouth.

The popular Ensaymada

I forgot which flavoured iced tea Pingu ordered (sorry hun :P), I had the Sangria iced tea. This refreshing red tea with a hint of citrus definitely helped aid my digestion as I was still bloated from dinner.

We didn't order the cheese roll nor the ensaymada as those were too rich for us (but i did tapau-ed some home for my family in KL). We shared a choc mousse cake instead. I was surprised it wasn't too jelak-fying :)

Good food, great company, coupled with a cozy setting makes Mary Grace a fantastic place to hang out. I can't wait to go there with you again darl :)

~*~*~*Manila - Day 3*~*~*~
Pingu's pad

Breakfast

Since we've bought some fruits and greens while grocery shopping at Market Market the day before, I decided to make us salad with shaved honey ham, served with honey balsamic vinegar. I thought a light hearted and healthy breakfast would be a delightful change.

We had grapes, cherry tomatoes, eggs, pomelo, mangoes, shaved honey ham and romaine lettuce. Healthy eh? 

As I was due to fly back to KL that very night, we were both a little saddened by the fact that i'd be leaving in a few hours. Feeling 'mm seh tak' (difficult to part) already.

We went to Grappa's @ Greenbelt 3 for lunch.

The decoration at Grappa's is simple yet stylish.

Me camwhoring with my new Charles & Keith quilted arm candy.

We both heart liver pate :)

Mmmm... mMMmm..

Linguine Tutto Mare

I've missed Grappa's red sauce pasta heaps ever since the ones in Malaysia went de-funct. This really made my day.

We were both indecisive..So we decided to go with 1/2 Beijing duck, and 1/2 Quattro Formaggi.

Tartufo

Chocolate gelato with a crust of cruchy choc chips in a bed of whipped cream.

Tiramisu

I was rather disappointed as i loved Grappa's tiramisu to bits. This just didn't do it for me.

All these stomach stretching experiences brought back fond memories of when i used to go traipsing for food. It was fun doing it with my McPingu.

Hun, I'm so glad you're a foodie like me. xoxo

To sum it all, the trip to Manila was one excellent trip - overflowing with love and lots of fantastic food finds. I couldn't have asked for more (err..actually i could..i'd wished to be able to see my Pingu more often).

to be continued...