Helping by Eating: Knorr's Food for Change at Mercato Centrale (Part 2: The Sisig Post)

Just recently Knorr had a food tasting event called Food for Change wherein for every ticket helps fight hunger, you also get to sample up to 50 food concessionaires at Mercato Centrale BGC.You get to vote who's the top

So here's some of the best sisig and bagnet I tried:

Chef Bab's alone has 3 versions of sisig on display
Crispy Pork Sisig - unlike other sisigs, this one is chopped roughly resulting in bigger pork cuts

Chef B's Crispy Pork Sisig

The version with mayonnaise

Pork Dinakdakan

Pork Dinakdakan - This one is slightly different. They cut the pork lengthwise, there's no crunchy stuff. Just tender pork slices made a bit spicy with sili, very good, where's the beer?

 Crunchy Belly by Carlos Kitchen

They lay those golden morsels of bagnet in front of you, like a spiderweb luring the unsuspecting fly, Oh my, these are wonderful but...

Manila Q's Bagwang still rules. I've been a loyal patron of Bagwang, this is the still that I am drawn to when I'm at Mercato. I think they were the first to offer bagnet cooked like chips then infused with garlic. Very, very delicious. I don't blame you for salivating.

Crunchon: This place has spot on crunchy sisig, probably because they use good bagnet (pork belly).The pork is not overpowering, its not swimming in oil, there's less umay and the crunchiness is just mind-blowing.

Other concessionaires:

Bagnet with rice 120 bucks

sisig with mayo, umay and grease galore

 

Helping by Eating: Knorr's Food for Change at Mercato Centrale part 1

Last October 26, we were at Knorr's Food for Change Program at the Mercato Centrale. For 300 pesos per ticket you can sample up to 50 food concessionaires at the Mercato Centrale, the Knorr booths and help fight hunger.

Knorr's Food for change grabbed from their FB page

The program was hosted by Atom Araullo featuring recipes by Chef Marvin Agustin. I'm not really a big sinigang fan. But the chance to sample over 50 food types at Mercato was indeed quite an experience. So let's check out some of our food tasting finds

Fajitas with aoili, I had 3 of these yummies, Thanks Knorr

Get to vote for the best food concessionaires

Takoyaki with crabstick in the middle, Ready Ike? Kick the baby!

Baby Back ribs and Peking chicken

Knorr sinigang stall, the sourness wasn't overpowering

Mini Tacos, good but I wish it was bigger

Orange you glad its kwek-kwek?

A feast of cholesterol-laden yummies

Ilocos Empanada. just too good to pass up

Freshly cooked Ilocos empanada

This is the Vigan version but not as good as Ilocos, plus its oily too

Roast Beef, the whole brisket

Angus Tapa Salpicao

With so many food items, where do you start?

Check out the part 2 of this post featuring sisig and other good stuff.

Where to get good Roast Goose pasalubong

Everytime I go to HK, there's one thing that my dad requests for pasalubong - its Roast Goose. Yep, the whole bird. That would pose a problem, given the size of the bird and the Avian Bird Flu warnings.Oh well...

There are a lot of places that sell good roast goose in HK, (there's Yung Kee at Central), but if that won't work around your sched, let me suggest going to Java Road/ Electric Road in North Point. This place has a lot of stalls selling Roast Goose, they will wrap the it for you and put in a nice box, just request for the sauce to be separated or  you might risk getting the whole thing confiscated at the airport. The Roast Goose is a lot cheaper compared to other places (Welcome to North Point), they also have other items like Roast Duck or Roast Pork, Barbecue Pork, White Chicken- all good to go. This place is near the market, just take Java Road, its near the Java Road Municipal Building/ Cooked Food Center.

 

Tiangge/ bazaar that sell clothes for mature ladies, walk straight ahead to MTR exit and North Point Ding Ding Tram

NB: North Point holds a lot of good memories for me,
this is where we usually stay during our HK trips when we were young.     
Plus the people here are really helpful and friendly.
Plus the food is cheap.

Lucky you there's Golden Fortune part one

Late dinner? We brave the Manila traffic to go a seafood restaurant called Golden Fortune at Soler Street in Manila (there's also one at the back of Madocs), where the dimsum noodles and congee goes as low as only 48 pesos from 9:00 pm onwards everyday! No wonder this resto is never empty. You don't have to worry about getting cheated, they serve the same quality of dimsum whether its peak or off-peak time. And the dimsum steamed to order.

There's a lot of good choices here for dimsum. Even the radish cake looks different.
Here are some classics and new stuff. The siomai here is good, its sized right, has a bit of pork fat and the taste is enhanced when you dip in chili sauce. Other choices include Shark's fin dumpling (no shark and fin) tastes "standard", taro and corn siomai, rice roll,
lo mai kai (like suman), Thai fried shrimp cakes (a must order), hakaw, spare ribs, Japanese sio mai and more.

Right in the heart of Manila

Shark's fin dumpling

Counter-clockwise: Taro siomai, Chicken feet, beancurd roll, steamed spareribs

Oh my, Siomai

Beancurd roll like springrolls in sauce

For the adventurous: Taro Siomai

I just noticed that their beef noodles are bit overcooked resulting in soggy noodles during the evening as compared to ordering it in the morning. I suggest going for shabu shabu late in the evenings, where you can get the stuff also at a discount. Short orders are not included in the promo fyi.

Rarely can you find a place that serves good, authentic dimsum at a price this low. Kudos to Golden Fortune for coming up with ingenious ways to enjoy our dimsum. Remember, foodie heaven starts at 9 pm :)

BTW there's also a merienda promo
from 2 -5 pm with the same pricing

Golden Fortune Soler

G/F Peace Hotel, 
1283 Soler St. Binondo, Manila (02) 244-2777




 

Yuen Kee 源记茶餐厅 at Tsimshatsui Hongkong

Yuen Kee is one of the cha tsan ting (tea house) in Tsimshatsui

They have branches around the area, Granville Road and one near the Mira Hotel
We tried the one in Kimberly Road. They specialize in beef but we only knew of this when we already settled our bill.

We tried the Wanton Noodles and the Barbecue Pork Rice
plus some Chai Sum on Hoi sin since this was our first stop and we were really hungry.
Well lucky you they have an English menu, but we ordered based on what we were familiar with. They open late til 2 am.

The food is so-so but I can't say that for the others since they specialize in beef and tripe noodles but this place is inexpensive and still better than some Chinese restos in Manila.
Good place if you're on a budget since most of their stuff is inexpensive.

Roast Pork Rice, glazed right and tender

Wanton Mee with Choi Sum on the side

Yuen Kee Restaurant
G/F 18B Granville Rd,, Tsim Sha Tsui
尖沙咀加連威老道18號地下B

Bring protection before eating :)

Whorific name, great food

Taken in Hong Kong
at the Langham Place Foodcourt

Tito Chef in BF

Dads.
Lolo Dad's.
Lola's Best

The list of restos paying tribute to our loved ones seem to go on and on.
You can add Tito Chef to that list.

Opened in June last year at BF Homes,
Tito Chef is a restaurant/ bake shop that offers culinary treasures at affordable prices.
Each dish was beautifully plated.
But be wary of ordering too much, because the tables will get filled quickly because the plates are just too big and heavy.

The setup is casual dining, with levelled up menu entrees,
but you can drop by for a dessert or two,
The entrees are priced about 200 - 400.
Not bad.

But how's the food?

Truffled Mushroom Puree Php 150

Crispy Bagnet Salad P 230

Crunchy Calamari Php 280

Smothered Pork Chop Php 250

For a resto with 4-star Zomato rating, I'd say everything was average to above average.
The food was presented very well.
But some things just don't do it for me like the Truffled Mushroom Puree
which was bland as bond paper and the anchovy dressing of the salad was too strong.
The pork chop was a bit ok.
The servings were strictly for one and you might feel "bitin" if you're sharing.
However, the menu still has a lot of promising items to try.

Tito Chef
President's Avenue
BF Homes Paranaque

Spoon Rating
2.8 out of 5 spoons

Kitchen Greenbelt, you'll keep coming back to this classic

Every time I visit Greenbelt, the first restaurant that comes to my mind is Kitchen. This place has been around for a long time and its hard to imagine going to Greenbelt without this place. I've  been comparing this place to Neverland, where the menu, the staff, the food never seems to grow old. After all these years, the food is still as good. I hope other restos use Kitchen as a case study.

Swirloin Sirloin - The rice in this dish can feed an army

Called Ribbit coz its frog no, its actually pork spare ribs

Swirl Around - Pumpkin Soup with seafood

If you haven't tried this place, their restaurant is set up like a cafeteria with long tables that you have to share with other diners, and  the menu has creatively named entrees (ie Head Master - Deep Fried Squid Heads, Quack Doctor, Adobo Duck Flakes) The pricing is just right and some entrees are good for sharing like Egg On (P 190) Crab Fat rice with Mixed Veggie Omelette. Personally my favorites are:

Caps and Rolls ( P140) - Lettuce Wrap in Hoisin Sauce with crunchy noodles

This is a staple at Chinese lauriats called "Tsun Mwan"

 It's ground pork with peanuts wrapped in lettuce

Eat Your Spinach P 180 Lettuce, Spinach, Soft Boiled Egg and peanut brittle. Yum!

Lazy Oaf (P195) Herbed Chicken Leg with Spinach, really delicious

Sad news, as of April 2015 Kitchen is now closed.

Spoon Rating
4.5 out of 5
Still the best after all these years

Kitchen
G/F Greenbelt 3, Paseo de Roxas  
Ayala Center, Makati (02) 757-4565 to 66