Good eats at Legazpi Sunday Market

What's the best thing to do on a Sunday morning?
How about trying the exciting goodies here?

Legaspi Sunday Market has almost 100 vendors selling stuff from freshly-cooked food, pastries,vegetables, art and gift items. Last Sunday I saw a guy looking like Bobby Chin going around and trying the stuff, pity I wasn't able to ask if he's the real McCoy.
And don't forget that the Bon Chon-like Manang's Chicken started as a stall here

Turkish Baklava

Anyway, here are some of my favorites.

Takoyaki!

P95 per dozen needs some bonito flakes but good

Monster Burger has quarter pounders for 90 bucks

look at how big those patties are

Potato Wedges, P65, gravy tastes watered down, avoid!

A stall selling Souvlaki and Kebabs

Roast Duck Noodles, perfect for rainy days.

I love, love, noodles.
Noodles cheer me up when I'm down.
Noodles bring my tummy joy.
And this one just hits the spot.

Wai Ying's Roast Duck Noodles.
Roast Leg of duck on a bowl of hot steaming noodles
The oil of the roast duck leg blending with the soup is pure heaven.
And its a steal for less than 160 pesos here in Manila.

Wai Ying is found in Benavides Street Binondo.
Serving up delicious dimsum and congee.
But this one is what I order every time.
 
A new branch has opened near DLSU near W Taft building being constructed
Its not as good as the one in Binondo, but it can do for now.

You can read about my old post in Wai Ying here.
http://kainmanila.blogspot.com/2011/06/get-sum-dimsum-at-wai-ying.html

Sunday lunch

We look forward to Sunday, its the day of the week when my sisters
and nephews and nieces visit us. Its also the day of the week to experience my
Mom's best dishes.

My mom's very meticulous when it comes to details.
For this feature, we had a very Asian cuisine mixing a lot of Chinese-inspired dishes.
I just had to take picture because everything tasted soo good.

Cereal prawns just the way they do it in SG

Soy Chicken

Fish with Mango Sauce

Chili Crab with Alavar Sauce

shabu shabu soup

Thanks Mom!
Don't ask me for recipes because I just eat :)

Spoon Rating 5 out of 5 for everything

Reminiscing Ms. B's Tuckshop

There are a lot of good restaurants, but few serve unforgettable comfort food. Ms. B's Tuckshop was one of those rarities. Tucked at a quiet location on Jupiter street, Ms. B's has already closed but the great food served there will forever live in our minds and palates through pics.

We were lucky to try this place two years ago. The menu was just written on their blackboard of a wall.  This place served stuff that foodie legends were made of, too bad they didn't long enough to tell about the tale. Heard the awesome chefs were a team of Singaporean and his Pinay gf who trained in New York.

Their stuff is a foodie wet dream.
Check out this Bagnet burger, it's literally two pieces of Bagnet (Deep fried pork belly) stuffed between a bun.

OMG between bites

Bagnet x 2

This blackboard also serves as their menu

kamote fries and homemade ketchup

I can still remember the taste of their Calamansi Beignets.
These babies are the most delicious things I've ever tasted
and its just plain French doughnuts and confectioner's sugar, but they have a sauce for you to dip in. If you've seen Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", you'll
know what I mean.

Dear Ms B owners, I'm still waiting for you to open to a new location soon,
for now I will only enjoy the pictures and the good memories I had of this
little place called Ms B's Tuckshop.

Why we keep on going back to Yabu

When you're the master of something, better make it consistent.
And this is one rule that Yabu abides by, that's why they're on top of the game.
 
And I've been to different Yabu branches, and the consistency and flavors remain the same.
No wonder there are long queues of people waiting to savor their katsu (pork chop).

Yabu takes pride in its katsu, deep-fried and breaded with the skill of a master. Trust me, I've been to other places, no one else fries the katsu like Yabu does.

Try the 3 Sauces for the salad: Wasabi, Vinaigrette and Goma

Like a ritual, you grind the sesame seeds and pour tonkatsu sauce

Choose from 2 kinds of chops
The Rosu has a fine layer of fat
While the Hire is has none

Katsudon! Rice overload!

12o g Hire Katsu

If you're ready to splurge you can try the Kurobota Pork,
which is the "Angus" of pork (Php 575 for 120 g). This one has the super tender, melt-in-mouth taste with every bite, but the local ones are as delicious.
(It's a 500 pesos porkchop, my God, it better be good)

Yabu's Katsu sets comes with unlimited rice, cabbage, fruits, cucumber slices and Miso soup.

90g Hire Katsu

Don't miss the ala carte stuff too
The creamy crabcakes were good, especially the softshell crab.

They used to offer this Soft Shell Crab set. Now its available alacarte

They also serve great desserts like Lava cake. (still looking for pic)

You can't go wrong with Yabu, they have great food, excellent service, and unlimited servings of rice and salad. Come in hungry, leave with your tummy very satisfied. Expect long lines.

Spoon Rating
4.5 out of 5

Yabu
Moa
Megamall
SM Aura
Southmall
Robinson's Magnolia

Zao Vietnamese Bistro

One thing I love about Vietnamese food is variation.
No Vietnamese food tastes the same, the flavors are constantly revolving and modernized.
Be it spring roll or pho, it's not the same experience every time.

Zao takes the barbecue and does it Vietnamese style.
The house special according to the server is barbecue spareribs (P 295) to which I agree was one of the good ones I've tried compared to other barbecues. This one has a sweet, garlicky marinade, the meat was tender, and was grilled quite well.  They give you a sweet vinegar as sauce.

Since we're just three eating, we also had the Stuffed Tofu and Zao Fried Rice.
The Stuffed Tofu was average, it was a quite bland and tasted like a Chinese resto reject.
The Zao Fried Rice was ok, it has salted eggs, bits of squid and fish sort of like Salted Fish fried rice but with weaker flavors. The Crispy Spring Rolls (P 195) were ok as well.

Overall, it was so-so. Avoid the tofu and the fried rice. Go with the barbecue stuff and dine happy.

spring rolls

Grilled Spareribs Best dish in the house

Zao Fried Rice

Stuffed Tofu

Zao Vietnamese Bistro
Unit 1C16 Serendra, 26th St Fort Bonifacio, Taguig  
(02) 856-2819

Spoon Rating 2.8 out of 5
Price: Average

Whatta food at Watami

If there's a global restaurant chain that's doing it right, its Watami. Found in Hong Kong and Singapore, Watami has 2 branches in the Philippines - one in Mall of Asia and one in Glorietta.

Watami offers affordable good Japanese food with a more modern menu compared to traditional ho-hum usual Japanese fare. From food to presentation, everything was right went we went here. Here's what we ordered:

We had the Tonpeiyaki (Php 295) its like Japanese omelette with cheese and cabbage but the taste reminds me of cheesy takoyaki! This one is very good, although it may be a bit pricey for an appetizer, This one is super good!

This one's the Deep Fried tofu with Tempura sauce in stone pot (Php 175)
Kinda expensive because its just 4 pieces of tofu, but it was served piping hot and we finished it off right away.

Self-grilled short ribs (Php 295)
They give you the grill, the tender ribs and lots of butter. Do magic, voila! Hello delicious.

Not in pic
Pepper beef rice in Stonepot (php 190)

Sort of like Pepper Lunch and they serve the pot with thin slices of beef and corn and rice.
This time we let them do the cooking. This was good too.

This one was worth the trip, don't miss Watami. This place is my current favorite.

Spoon Rating
4.5 out of 5

Watami
2nd Floor Seaside Drive
Mall of Asia

Highlands Prime Steakhouse MOA

You can see the steaks being grilled through this glass

Lamb shanks

Make mine Surf and Turf

We were here to celebrate the birthday of our uncle.
The Highlands Prime Steakhouse is the Manila equivalent of the members-only
Tagaytay Highlands. The restaurant retains the log cabin ambiance for the diners in Manila to savor. 

To savor the experience, we complemented the steaks and ordered prawns on the side.
We had the rib-eye steaks split to two, so everyone can have Surf and Turf! 
The steak is of course, delicious and the tender, and the meal superb. Cheers!

Sea Bass

check out the menu  and the prices here
http://www.zomato.com/manila/highlands-prime-steak-house-mall-of-asia-complex-pasay-city/menu

Highland's Prime Steak House 

2nd Floor, North Wing, Mall of Asia Complex (MOA), 

Pasay City

02 5560768, 02 9013243

 

My Kitchen by Chef Chris

We were surprised that the chef owner of C' Italian Dining, has set up shop in Manila. C' Italian is famous for the pizzas and of course, its a very long drive from Manila to Clark. Thankfully, the must-try pannizas can be found in Paco, Manila.

My Kitchen by Chef Chris' location may be tricky if you're not familiar with Paco, it's in Oasis Park Hotel, a very small boutique hotel near Paco Park and the office of Unilever Philippines.

The ambiance was cozy, and classy. And it was packed with a lot of foreigner guests despite the "not-so-usual" location.

First off we ordered the Angelico Panizza (Php 690), (of course, that's what we came here for in the first place.) According to the menu, this one has chorizo, salami, bacon and mushrooms. Perfect for meat lovers and two hungry diners who love to roll away.

Panizza = Delicious

Angelico Panizza

Apologies for the "pa-cute" pic

You roll it like this

Pork Tenderloin in Red Wine Sauce

We tried to veer away from pasta this time so we also ordered the Pork Tenderloin in Red Wine sauce (P570 I think). The pork was tender, a bit "Salpicao-ish" but the sauce was begging to be poured over rice haha. This dish was OK. My partner-in-crime, loved it, for me it was so-so.

We were happy with My Kitchen with Chef Chris and of course we'll be back.
The panizza is here is a great, great experience and of course, imitations have come up,
but Chef Chris' version is still the best. The service is great, the staff are attentive and can explain the dishes in the menu well, but other dishes though are quite pricey.  
Parking might also pose a problem, but as if it's going to stop you, right? :)


My Kitchen by Chef Chris
4 out of 5 spoons

Oasis Park Hotel, 

1032-34 Belen St Paco, Manila 

 (02) 521-2371

Here's their menu

www.munchpunch.com/my-kitchen-by-chef-chris-oasis-park-hotel/menu 

 
 

Hong Kong Roast/ HKR Food Express - A Taste of HK in MLA

Where do you grab great Chinese when in Makati?
Stop by HK Roast to sample some great Chinese dishes at a budget.

Started by my high school friend Mary Chan, Hong Kong Roast or HKR wants to bring to its customers an authentic taste of Hong Kong, to be authentic enough they even brought in Black and White, the milk that they use in HK tea houses or cha tsan ting for their milk tea.

Mary is especially proud of their Asado or Barbecue Pork. But for me their bestsellers are the Salted Baked Chicken (this runs out quick), the West Lake Soup (very good) and the Fish with Corn Sauce. If you're a fan of curry, don't miss the Spicy Beef Curry ( Php 259), its not too hot, the beef is tender and best paired with a bowl of plain rice.

Salted Baked Chicken 288

Salted Fish Fried Rice

Sweet n Sour Fish Fillet - this one's ok

Spinach with 3 kinds of egg

My mom is an instant favorite of their West Lake Soup (P 185), its an egg drop soup with bits of beef. Its cooked upon order. I'm happy with the Salted Baked Chicken (Php 288) and Shallot Rice (Php 65). Its shredded white chicken served with a dollop of chicken skin on top. Don't miss the Spinach with Egg, a new twist to the vegetable dish, stir-frying spinach then adding in 3 kinds of egg (including century egg and salted egg) in sauce.

Try also their Milk Tea and Lemon Tea.Rice toppings? They also have it.
HKR is HongKong worth going back to. They deliver, too.

Spoon Rating
3.5 spoons out of 5


HKR Food Express
7467-C Bagtikan St. San Antonio, Makati
(02) 553-7846

Ju

Here's their menu from Munchpunch
http://www.munchpunch.com/hong-kong-roast-hkr-food-express-san-antonio-village/menu