Pancake Wars: Maple vs Slappy Cakes

Nothing says "the holidays are here" like all day breakfast.
I don't know if it's just me but I can't help but associate pancakes with Christmas.

First stop is Slappy Cakes at the SM Aura.
DIY pancakes? What a great concept!

Salppy cakes has hot griddles on your table so you can make your own pancakes and toppings while waiting for your other orders. Their bestseller is the buttermilk (Php 225)
They give you one pancake dispenser like catsup bottle. All you do is the pour it in the hot griddle and make the pancakes according to size. Flip it and you're ready to go.

Upon seeing the menu, I was turned off when I saw that they charged 45 pesos if you would like to have maple syrup. (How can you eat pancakes without syrup!!???) But gladly they said maple syrup were free that day, they also gave a clear gooey liquid like... gasp Caro!!!

Anyway, I like their pancake mix. And the buttermilk pancakes turned out a bit crispy and toasty, just like I wanted. Be sure not to touch the griddle with your hands.

The menu is quite limited with some local breakfast must-haves like tocino (pork or chicken), longganiza, tapa and bangus. These were ok nothing fancy.

Chicken tocino with scrambled egg and mango compote Php 250

And because we brought along a child, we also ordered their spaghetti (Php 290), not too shabby as well.

But one of the must-orders is the Southern Chicken Tenders Php 390 (did you see the size of this thing?) And the breading is as thick as the chicken fingers making them look like bloated tempura fritters. This also come with fried potato wedges. Good to share.

My overall rating - satisfactory although the menu only has limited entrees.

The day after, we ate at MAPLE.
I've seen this place packed each time I'm at San Antonio. But last Sunday we were able to get a table with friends. Their menu is a hodge podge of Southern and American classics. We settled for 3 items which were new on their menu.

Clam Aglio Ollo
Savory Pancakes
Fish and Chips Basket

Savory Pancakes

I was floored when the orders came in, the plates were good to share. And everything we ordered were really, really good. The Savory Pancakes were probably a frustrated masterpiece of what the chefs at Pancake House (They also own Maple) wanted to do all along. With whipped butter and country ham in-between stacks of pancakes, this is what lipsmacking pancakes should be. Add crunchy bacon and every bite was like pancake pearly gates. Must try and share (Php 390)

Clam Aglio Ollo

  
The Clam Aglio Olio (php 410) came with generous portions of clams with shaved parmesan cheese in the shell, toss in salmon, canadian bacon (?) in spaghetti with a slightly garlicky and hot sauce that's almost soup like, this is like having the best worlds. 

Fish and chips came in generous portions as well, and extra lemon is required.

At first I thought Maple was expensive but you get what you pay for. Plus they don't scrimp on the ingredients. And the dining experience is great, nice service.Great view of Sanctuario de San Antonio Church as well. I will be back.

Spoon Rating
Maple
5 out of 5
Delicious versions of well-loved recipes


Slappy Cakes
3 out of 5
Novelty of doing your own pancakes, a plus for kids.

Ramen Diaries: Mitsuyado Sei-men

There are ramen. And there's tsukemen.
Tsukemen are dipping noodles, just like the Chinese toast noodles that you dip into the soup before eating. The difference? While the Chinese variety merely separate the noodles from the soup, the tsukemen's soup base is thicker, having a sauce-like consistency.

Mitsuyado Seimen's bestseller is the Cheese Tsukemen.

At first you would think it's spaghetti with thick noodles cooked al dente.
But then you pour in the cheese (the cheese is like cheez whiz) and start dipping it into the soup, the magic happens...an exceptionally tasty and gooey ramen you can slurp.

 

Delicious whether you're a ramen lover or not. I was expecting to be overwhelmed by the cheese although I kept adding in moderation and the slight tartness of the ramen soup somehow balances things out, making it a ramen experience worth going back to

Other stuff we ordered: Gyoza , 5 pcs. pan-fried and definitely better than Ukkokei's ho-hum gyoza.

Gyoza P 180

Black Pepper Chicken Don Php 260

I loved the Black Pepper Chicken, they were very generous with the chunks of chicken
and the taste of pepper wasn't too overwhelming. For those who are not in the mood for ramen, this one's good.

Stuff that didn't make it in the pics: Chasyu Ramen

Check out  the place! It feels like you're dining in a movie set of war time Tokyo. Great concept. And by the way they also have a bakery next door named Yamato.
Thank you Mitsuyado I'm now a fan.

Mitsuyado Sei-men
22 Jupiter St Belair Makati
Thier menu: http://www.zomato.com/manila/mitsuyado-sei-men-bel-air-makati-city/menu#tabtop

Spoon Rating: 4 out of 5
Really good tsukemen, nice interiors, price a bit on the high side

Foodie Alert: 50% off at Dusit Thani Basix Extended!

Enjoy Dusit Thani Hotel's Basix Buffet at half off with your Citibank credit card.
Their promo is valid from Monday to Sunday for a minimum of 3 diners and a maximum of 12 per card.  I've been to Basix a couple of times and they have great food selections from Japanese favorites to Indian. Even the dessert is top-notch, they even have a cotton candy machine. Plus bottomless sodas, beer, and red wine.

Here are the discounted prices (Up to Jan. 16):
Lunch P 725
Dinner P 850
Sunday Lunch Buffet P 925

Crispy Pork Bagnet from Basix Buffet

From Nov. 15 -  Jan 16, 2014
Extended until March 31, 2014

This promo is extended but they have raised their prices :(
New prices for March 31
Lunch Buffet 1550 775
Dinner Buffet  1800  900 
Sunday Lunch 2050  1025


Please contact Basix to resereve
T: +63 (2) 238 8888
E-mail: dtmn.basix@dusit.com

To know more visit their site.

https://www.citibank.com.ph/gcb/promos/cards/1311_dining_dusit.htm

Xin Tian Di dimsum buffet new items

Just recently we were back at Xin Tian Di because we can't get enough of their stuff.
I'm happy to find that the menu has new items and some of the weird stuff have been phased out like the Malay Cake that literally tastes like sweet sponge cake.

The ordering system: by the piece, they cook per order
My tip: skip the super filling items like noodles and rice.
And order the good stuff like hakaw and deep fried shrimp dumplings

Check out the photos to appreciate. Enjoy!

 XinTianDi is located at
4/F Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila
Ortigas Ave. QC
(02)6337222 loc 7240 to reserve

don't miss this Steamed Seafood Dumpling with Superior soup

Chili Wantons

vegetarian spring rolls, this time i'll pass

 more choices for the ravenous eater

bland flied rice, needs mo salt

hakaw yummy

They call this Ampalaya Roll but its just painted pastry with chocolate inside

Lomaikai or Ma chang sticky glutinous rice with meat

Left to right: Chocolate dumplings, coffee jelly, birds eye dumplings,

 fried hakaw, hakaw, chili dumpling, spring roll, etc.

Pig out on these Deep Fried Shrimp Dumplings, really good

Ramen Diaries: Kenji Tei Greenbelt 5

My uncle has a theory about BF Paranaque being the launchpad of established dining places in Manila. And I can't agree more.The legendary Conti's started here. Kenji Tei started as a small ramen house that rocked the ramen revolution.
 
They now have a place at Greenbelt 5 that has really nice interiors. The menu has other entrees aside from ramen. 

Appetizers:
Cheese Gyoza  (house specialty)
Imagine deep fried gyoza with cheese and cheese inside? Instead of shoyu you dip it in mayo with hot sauce. This one's really good, the gyoza skin is a bit thick though and best enjoyed hot.

Miso Butter Corn Php 258
We were a bit overwhelmed by the butter in the ramen.
There's just something about this dish that is quite off.

Gomoku Shio. This one is simple, memorable and good piping hot.
The egg is quite off, making it look like mami. Php 268

Here's their menu
http://www.zomato.com/manila/kenji-tei-ramen-house-greenbelt-makati-city/menu

Kenji Tei Ramen House: 3/F, Greenbelt 5, Legazpi Village, Makati.
2 spoons (4 spoons for the cheese gyoza!)

Rating
Zero Spoons - Not coming back
One Spoon - Something's wrong here
Two Spoons - Average Joe
Three Spoons - Good but can do better
Four Spoons - Yummy, la
Five Spoons - Where have you been all my life?

Ramen Diaries: Ukkokei Ramen Ron

Being one of the most hyped ramen in the Philippines, Ukkokei had its own share of  urban legend (or sad truth) The story goes like this, an influential governement guy comes in this place before closing, insists on his order of ramen but had his order refused by the badass Japanese chef (No soup for you!) Then there were reports of... Ukkokei being closed down a few days (tax problems, they say) Well, now they have re-opened and new branches have sprouted all over the place. In fact, there's a new one at the Fort.

What is Ukkokei? Native manok!

Tacky menu design

Their Menu

I was at Ukkokei Ramen Ron some nights ago and I can't believe out of the awesome ramen choices, I ordered the most lame. (Hand slapping head)

sensei will haduken you if you still order when its closing time

The crew tries to give good service

Perhaps you might have read my other entry about Hokkaido Ramen Santouka,
where they had the creamy delicious Shio ramen. http://kainmanila.blogspot.com/2013/10/ramen-santouka-hokkaido-legendary-ramen.html

Ukkokei's version (Shio P300) is quite average and it tasted like noodles in chicken soup.

Ukkokei Shio

But we also ordered the corny and buttery Miso Butter Corn (P 360) and this was very good, better than the overly cheesed version of Kenji-Tei. There's still a bit of "umay" but butter in soup is good.

Miso Buttah Corn

We also ordered the Chahan (Flied Rice) and the Gyoza. Their gyoza is like Voldermort,
it tastes so ordinary and to say its not good is something that should not be named (shh)

My sister had the bestseller Tantanmen. I had a taste of her oily soup. It was... ok, ok, good. (no arm twisting here) I heard they only limit this to 20 - 40 bowls a night.

Spoon Rating

3 spoons
(Hey it's just me, but you can comment/ disagree below)
I'll probably go back to try other stuff.

Rating
Zero Spoons - Not coming back
One Spoon - Something's wrong here
Two Spoons - Average Joe
Three Spoons - Good but can do better
Four Spoons - Yummy, la
Five Spoons - Where have you been all my life?

Butterbeer and Starbucks Christmas brews

Image grabbed from Wattpad.com

So I get dragged to Starbucks to try Butter Beer.
Butter Beer for all us muggles out there, is one of the concoctions in the world Harry Potter. (Harry Patah as said by Dumbledore)

But apparently Butter Beer is a secret recipe at Starbucks according to one Facebook post.
You can actually order it as a custom drink and when we went to Starbucks, apparently there were already two guys who ordered it for the day.

here's the recipe from via DaleBacar.com

A Crème Frappuccino base, made with whole milk (not skim or 2%, which will mess up the consistency)3 pumps of caramel syrup3 pumps of toffee nut syrupTop with caramel drizzle

There's even a more consistent recipe 

There is also a hot alternative to the drink (as there is with the "real" butterbeer):

Whole milk steamerCaramel syrup (2 pumps for a tall, 3 for grande, 4 for venti)Toffee nut syrup (2 pumps for a tall, 3 for grande, 4 for venti)Cinnamon Dolce syrup (2 pumps for a tall, 3 for grande, 4 for venti)Top with whipped cream and salted caramel bitsOptional: 1 shot of espresso (2 for a grande or venti)

The Barista instead referred us to order this:

1 Venti Caramel cream frappucino

3 squirts/pumps of toffee nut syrup

According to Harry Potter Wiki
Butterbeer is a popular wizarding beverage described as tasting "a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch

 Here's the end result:

This drink is so evil (and full of that cannot-be-named calories)

This is sooo sweet. I can feel it Avada Kedavra-ing my tooth. 
I'm can't stand... the... sweetness.... Must.. stick... to... Peppermint Mocha Latte. 

Whoever thought of this. Good marketing stratergy for Starbucks. Bravo!
But drink at your own risk

Help Haiyan victims, support these restaurants

I commend Yabu for doing the Dine for a cause event yesterday. Giving all their profit to the victims of the typhoon Haiyan. Haiyan is locally known as Yolanda has damaged a big part of the Visayas region, mainly Samar, Leyte, Ormoc and Tacloban plus other towns. Judging from the Facebook pic with long snaking lines waiting to be served in the restaurant, the event was a success.

Photo grabbed from Yabu's FB page.

Moving on, there are other restaurants who have pledged to donate their earnings to the Philippine Red Cross. Let's support these restos. Here's a jpeg I grabbed from FB and also posted in Mr. Anton Diaz's ourawesomeplanet.com.

Photo courtesy of ourawesomeplanet.

Even places like the Triple V group are doing their share

I sincerely hope that relief goods and help personally reach the people. There is just too much bickering in social media that you don't know who to believe anymore. But despite some shortcomings of the government I think they are doing their job, its just the damage is just too overwhelming and spread to different areas.