Chicken Wings and Pita

Our delayed Father's Day celebration was postponed since Dad is still not feeling well. My twinnie Ivan was gracious enough to lend his time and resources and took me out today and helped me pick out gifts for Dad. :)

All of you must know that day-outs with Twin will never be complete without foodtrip. A while ago, instead of our usual North hangouts, we opted for Makati since we'll be waiting for Nikos, who had to attend to a photoshoot in at Chino Roces. Today marks the first time in months that Ivan trod down to Makati to hang-out.

Last time he was in Makati, Bon Chon hasn't been launched yet. So we had:

The original double-fried chicken from Korea: Bon Chon. We ordered 6 pcs of  Soy Garlic Chicken Wings (P185). True to food reviews, the coating was crisp and sweet, like really thin, salty candy. Had just the right spice. Did not taste "soy" nor "garlic", though. The meat was a bit dry, though. Less oily than its "local" counterparts. Rating: 3/5. 

Bulgogi Wrap. (P125) Ay, I really liked this one. The beef was tender and nicely marinated and had this sauce that beautifully bound the veggies and meat. Compared to shawarma, the beef was soft and juicy, a far cry from the Persian way of shearing/roasting meat. It had hints of soy and chili. Serves one, but its a meal in itself. Rating: 4/5. (picture by spot.ph; I accidentally deleted the photo I took!)  

Chicken sandwich meal with fries and soda. (P145) This was Bon Chon double fried-chicken fillet in a bun. Really crispy coating, very tender meat. It had the same taste as the Bon Chon wings, but since the meat is bigger, it felt that we got a better deal by ordering this. Went well with the spicy mayo. This one reminded us of KFC's Zinger, but less oily and had more layer of flavors. Rating: 4/5.

 After shopping for Dad's gift, we got the chance to visit a friend whom we haven't seen for the longest time. Catching up made us hungry, so after this surprise encounter we wanted to have dinner somewhere near Chino Roces. That way, it's easier to fetch Nikos from work. We then had:

Wingman's Honey Mustard Buffalo Wings (P180 half dozen). This is the sweet sister of my favorite Classic Buffalo, and I must say I'd pick the Wingman Honey Mustard wings over Bon Chon's Soy Garlic. Wingman serves bigger pieces. Truthfully, I'm used to eating wings with ranch dressing: the tangy ranch balances the sweetness of the Honey Mustard. Meat was tender and more juicy than Bon Chon's. Rating: 4/5. 

Wingman Cheese Quesadilla (P200). Yep its a bit costly, but for me, it is worth its price. The menu says it has "three imported cheeses"; I don't know if what they used were really imported cheese, but the quesadilla did not disappoint. Serving was big; it was plump, filled with cheese and you can feel the coarseness/silkyness of whatevercheeses they used and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a glaze of tangy cream cheese and chives on top and the pita they used was soft and chewy. The fire roasted salsa provided just the right amount of kick. Rating: 5/5.

Nikos still wasn't ready and so we wanted to be a bit closer to where his team was having dinner. We trooped to the first-ever branch of Amici at Don Bosco and had Caramia. 

Ivan's order: SansRival. Yep, kinda like the real thing. Tasted the butter and the cookie crumbs and it was pleasant in the mouth: the contrasting textures of the crumbs and the soft ice cream made me remember bakeshop Sans Rival. Pricey, though. It used to be P45 per scoop. Now, its P75! Tama ba, Ivan? Mahal! Rating: 3/5.

Will have this next time!

I wanted to try their Gelato cakes and asked for their best sellers. I was told that the mixed berry cake was the best, but I felt like trying Banana Blast. It had big frozen strawberry slices that topped banana-chocolate and strawberry gelato scoops. Too sweet for my taste, its as if having two servings of banana split. Yup, it tasted like banana split sans the real banana, but it had a cookie crust. Crust tasted like crushed Oreo shells. Also pricey. Rating: 2/5.

Nikos came and had his meal while telling us how his day went (which was superb, btw. So proud of him!). We decided to have coffee in Starbucks Corinthians before house-crashing in Mandaluyong. So we had:

Tiramisu Cheesecake. Forgot to ask how much this is. It had a thick layer of coffee-cheesecake which was kind of tough to slice and was too sweet for my taste; it also had a topping of chocolate fudge (equally tough and equally sweet). Redeeming quality: it was true to its premise, it reeked and tasted of coffee. Rating: 2/5.

We decided to go home after Ivan experienced the onset of a massive headache, which was probably caused by too much food (or too much outfit planning for me haha). 

Promise to go out with these two again next week, after my Cebu trip. :) 

Eastwood Food Junction

...sits atop Blue Onion, across Yummy Roast. Ivan, Nikos and I vacillated on choosing Super8, Green Lantern and Forever and a Day  and ended up food-tripping in Eastwood.

The night started at Pancake House. Ivan was craving for mami from Pho Hoa (mami also known as "pho") but he had an aha-moment: he wanted pancakes. We had Banana Pancakes, Mediterranean Pasta Salad, and Best Tacos in Town while waiting for Nikos.

We then watched Nikos devour Chicken-Pork Asado at Razon's. 

We had Happy Lemon. I like their branch in Eastwood: the space bigger, the lounge area had plush couches, and they give you this nifty contraption in place of number stubs:

Takes "waiting for your order" a bit further. Beats Starbucks' system of claiming drinks!

We really wanted to watch a movie and tried our luck getting seats for Super8, to no avail. Nikos had another order of Happy Lemon and we settled on eating our feelings (whut!).

We've checked out Food Junction a couple of times but we always end up eating somewhere else. We never thought there were tons of good finds there.

We had authentic takoyaki from Maru Maru (it was yum but it lacked octopus filling, btw. Kid Manga's is better, and of course, that shop in Little Tokyo, Makati); we then had Mexican-Korean Fusion afterwards.

Kimchi Quesadilla. Super spicy but it works! It had pieces of korean beef bbq inside. There were bits of cheese inside, too, and it kind of mellowed the kick of kimchi. May smokey flavor pa sya, most probably coz of the beef bbq P65!  Rating: 5/5

Their Kimchi Quesadilla was YUM. Definitely unique, I've never had Mex-Korean fusion before.

Miso-glazed Chicken Tacos. Ay, this one is a  must-try. Spicy but sweet, and the chunks of chicken are big. It had this tangy white sauce that bonds the kimchi and the miso chicken. The serving is small, though. But its worth it, at P65! Rating: 4/5

We wanted to try Fu Yoh's offerings (Sing-Malay-Chinese ata ito) and we had this:

BlueBerry and Cream Cheese Roti with Chocolate Sauce. This is by far my favoritessssstttt dessert na ever. The roti had just the right consistency: crispy browned parts and "makunat" soft parts; it was hot and really perfect with the tangy cream cheese and blue berry filling. It was not too sweet, thus there wasn't any "umay" factor. P75. Rating: 5/5.

There are other shops in Food Junction but we were full already. Next time, we're going back for Meztisa Adobo from Adobo Connection Spinach Cannelloni from Burger Pocket. 

Next week, perhaps?

Stark reality

I realized that my only true profession is to experience life fully. This collection of memories is the core of my craft, and nothing else.