Updates! (Heavily photo-laden entry)

Sorry if I've been MIA for May. I've been busy/stressed over other things that I've neglected blogging. Don't distress however because I haven't neglected food for sure! When I write reviews, I have to write them fresh. Meaning usually right after I eat or the day after max, just to get a concise article while the taste is still lingering in my mouth. So, because I've been slacking my lazy ass of for May. I'll just be showing photos of where I ate at recently and I'll do reviews when I eat there again. Sarrryy! :p

First up is at Cul-de-Sac at Sto. Nino Village in Banilad. According to Wikipedia this word means: A cul-de-sac (literally "bottom of bag") is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road (UK, Australian and Canadian English) or court (American and Australian English) meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet.

Here is a picture to better illustrate what cul-de-sac - the word and the restaurant both, looks like

It's really just quite a small restaurant, which is really what most of the places I frequent at look like. Basically your hole-in-the-wall dining places. They have an indoor airconditioned dining area and an outdoor patio dining area.

They serve mostly fine dining stuff on the menu but the prices are relatively cheap, approximately under P150 per dish and each meal comes with a complimentary ice cream for dessert. The food wasn't anything really worth craving for. It was alright, I'm pretty neutral about the taste of it. But considering the price that you're paying for it, I'd say it's not bad already. They also have some function rooms which you can rent for a small price, I assume, using their existing menu for ala carte as a reference.

Up next is, Abaseria in Mabolo. Just so we can ground everybody on these unfamiliar words, Abaseria means sari-sari store in Spanish. For those who have been here a few years ago but haven't had the chance to come back again, they have relocated but they are still situated inside the village however they have moved to the rear part of the area.

This revamped restaurant is definitely roomier and better designed than the old one. They still have their delicacies and accessories merchandise along with some Spanish regime memorabilia hanging on their wall. The prices of their merchandise and food are pretty high (Imagine, P150 for one bowl of monggo soup compared to P20 for that in a carenderia!) for me, considering you can get the same kind of food at a good canteen or cheaper Filipino restaurant but I think eating at this place is really more for the experience than the food itself especially since they really do go the extra mile for the presentation and aesthetics of the food as well as the homey interior of the whole place. I reckon that this would be a perfect place to bring some foreign visitors for a walkthrough of the Cebuano lutong-bahay, minus the humid temperature and flies that we locals are accustomed to, in a carenderia.

The last one is going to be a bit different because it will be the first time that I'll be writing about a non-Cebu place. As some of you know, I run a business which leads me to travel quite frequently to Manila. There is a much celebrated weekend market in Makati which has always tickled my fancy but I never got around to coming to it because I'm always attending to some business matters on Saturdays that I'm in Manila. Thankfully, I was able to make some time for it a few weeks ago when I was in town.

Salcedo Market
(sorry this is not the best photo to represent this glorious food fest but I don't have anything better)

This weekend market features home made recipes and specialties by micro entrepreneurs, who mostly have corporate day jobs or run other businesses during the weekdays but want to showcase their culinary prowess during the weekend. A lot of these foods and other products aren't readily available at the malls so you're really in for a treat when you go to this market because you will surely see or taste things that you haven't before! I heard that there is another weekend market in Makati at Legaspi Village, so that's definitely on one of my must-try things soon!


Just a peek at some of the stuff we had at the market: Thai Iced Tea (P50), Japanese pancakes (P16 per piece), Sharksfin siomai (wasn't that good for me so I didnt remember the price, sorry!)

That wraps up my gastronomical updates for the month of May. I've been starting June with spicy Asian and Mediterranean-ish dishes so keep posted for those!



P.S. I've placed the addresses of the said establishments above for anybody's reference


Eternally famished,
Pearl

• The Old Cul-De-Sac 29 Maya St. Sto. Nino Village Banilad, Cebu City
  

(open on Mon-Sun 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM)

• Abaseria Deli and Cafe 39-B Pres. Roxas St. cor. Cong. Noel St., Villa Aurora Subd, Kasambagan
  

(open on Mon - Sat 9:00 AM - 10:00 PM and Sun 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM )

• Salcedo Market Jaime Velasquez Park, between Leviste and Tordesillas Streets, Salcedo Village, Makati

(open on Saturdays 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM)

Fudge (Desserts Review)

This is going to be the first dessert only review that I'll be doing. I don't think I've told you all what a huge dessert person I am. I just looooooovvvveeee cakes and pastries. I'm a big patron of Cream and Bake but unfortunately their two outlets are quite inaccessible from my area. They're located beside every Joven's Grill which has two branches: Capitol (limited parking and store hours) and Mandaue (very far from where I live which is in Labangon). Anyway, as I was making one of my few trips to the Mandaue branch, a new cafe caught my eye. The name simply spoke for itself, FUDGE. And that could only mean one thing, DESSERTS.

I don't exactly know why it took me so long to get around to eating there but finally it happened a few nights ago. We already ate dinner that time so we decided to just drop by for desserts. Fudge is located along the Banilad-Mandaue road near the Vienna Kaffeehaus which is beside a Caltex gasoline station.



And without further ado, let me welcome you to their immaculate dessert fridge.

(awwwwhhhhh -- thats heavenly music if in case you didnt get what it was supposed to be)

Here is a picture of their menu. I decided to shoot menus from now on so I could give you an idea of basically how much each resto's food generally costs. I honestly, I don't check prices too much because I just zero in on the food. Other people have vices and hobbies where they spend their money on. I, have FOOD. Enough about me.



We decided to get 2 out of 3 things as posted with pictures in the menu. The Ultimate Combo and Tre Colore. I didnt get the Lava Cake because it's such a common dessert on any menu at almost every other restaurant and I wanted to try something unique. The third dessert we ordered was the Tres Leches. The description reminded me of crepes and I like creamy, milky sauces.

First off, the Ultimate Combo.


Price: P110.00

I take back whatever I said in my previous posts that cheesecake couldn't taste any different. I didn't think it was cheesecake until I bothered to read the menu after debating with my friends what this dish actually was because it didnt taste like the conventional cheesecake my taste buds were expecting! Props for creativity on this one. They surely took a twist to this dish to making it taste different. As the menu said, it was a combination of oreo crust, cheesecake, mango float and tiramisu. I generally stray away from mango based desserts because 8 out of 10 times the mangoes are usually sour. Fortunately the ones in this dish were quite sweet. What irks me about this dessert however is the fact that it's named ULTIMATE combo. It's a common misconception among people that this adjective is positive when its exactly the opposite. Ultimate means last or final. I cannot fathom why anybody would put this word in a product or service. Aside from that, this is a pretty okay dessert and I must say, the presentation is really very appealing.

Up next, the Tres Leches.


Price: P80.00

I dont know why it is, but this dessert just doesn't look pretty in pictures. I expected this to be the best tasting dessert from all our orders but on the contrary, it didn't taste that great. I found the sponge cake too sweet and it just didn't jive well with everything else, mangoes and cream and everything. Not my cuppa tea.

Now, saving the best for last. (drumroll please) ... the Tre Colore


Price: P120.00

HEAVEN!!! This dessert tastes as good as it looks!! I cant stop raving about it. It's three layers of chocolate: white, milk, and dark chocolate. I'm not a big chocolate person but this dish just made it for me. Each kind of chocolate contrasted with each other that the dish overall ended up tasting really different. The sweetness of the white chocolate matched with the creaminess of the milk chocolate and neutralized by the bitterness of the dark chocolate. Genius. Totally, totally in love with this dessert.

I checked out the other things they have on their menu and they happened to serve plated meals as well. They had this dish that particularly caught my eye, a pesto omelette for their all day breakfast. Definitely on my must try list. Next time I will try to eat a meal there and I'll write a review for it.

We also ordered some choco balls which cost a measly P10 per piece, for our friends back at one of their car shops. Boy was it a hit! Everybody loved it and they surely couldn't believe that it was so cheap!

Overall, I like this restaurant. I can't wait to try their other desserts. Who knows their lava cake would taste different from the usual too. Stay tuned for another review from Fudge!


Eternally famished,

Pearl

Simply J's Cafe/Restaurant

Nothing gives me a bigger thrill than discovering a new restaurant to eat at. Luckily, a friend recommended this new place for a lunch get together a few days back and I felt like I found a treasure. I was pleasantly surprised with this restaurant because I pass by it quite often and have always felt drawn to the cute exterior but I never dreamt that there was a cafe inside that country crafts store! Out of excitement, I forgot to take pictures of the facade but here is a peek of their homey interior.




The place is very well decorated and has a very cozy and quaint feel to it. It's very much ideal for small family meals or just simply chit chats with friends. Even their menu matched their theme!



We ordered the calamares for starters, garlic and mushroom fettucine for our pasta and the baby back ribs, steamed cream dory with coconut and lengua for our entree.

I particularly think that calamares generally tastes the same and not too different. I mean, there's only so much that you can do with calamares. So for me this dish in general, not just at this restaurant, isnt anything out of the ordinary. I just liked that it wasnt thickly breaded and it wasnt gummy.



The baby back ribs were DELISH! The meat was tender and it just melted in your mouth. I liked that it wasnt overly sweet, unlike the Casa Verde ribs. I normally dont like sweet food in my meals so I didnt take to ordering this but wished I did after I took a bite from my friend's dish. The serving is also generous and very much worth its price of P200.



My other friend had the lengua which she said she's been dying to try because it was supposedly one of the restaurant's best dishes. And she was right! The gravy was not too salty and the consistency of the tongue was just right, not too gummy nor too soft. It was just right for my taste.



I ordered the fish. Cream dory has always been my favorite so it was a no-brainer when I decided to get this. It was wrapped in a banana leaf topped with a curry like sauce. I didnt expect that this dish was going to be curry since I'm not a big fan of it. But then again the menu said that it was coconut fish so I guess it was my fault. I was just taken with cream dory that I immediately ordered it without thinking. This dish wasnt' bad really, but it wasn't great for me either. Maybe it would suit some other person's taste buds with a liking for curry, but not mine. My friend happened to like it however.



The pasta was a nice breaker for everything else that we ordered. It was a good dish to neutralize the taste buds before moving on to another dish. It's lightly flavored with garlic and topped with mushroom, cheese and some herbs. I would recommend this to somebody on a diet. It doesnt feel sinful but its not exactly bland either. I'm not on diet, so this pasta was simply a side dish to my meal hehe.



For my drink, I had the Guava Lemon cooler. I liked its fruity taste (which was really like four seasons) so much that I had two rounds but my friend said it tasted like Tempra medicine. I havent had too much Tempra in my life to liken the taste to so. If you have, you might want to skip this.



Now let me just fast forward this story to later in the evening when I met with my boyfriend and some of his friends. I told them of my recent discovery which was lying just by the corner of one of the guys' shop. Curious with the place, they decided that we should all eat there for dinner. So I ate at Simply J's twice in one day but I didn't mind :)

They basically ate what my friends and I had for lunch but I want to slip in this article the Bolognese spaghetti that we had for dinner.



When it was served to us, we initially thought that it would taste sour since the orange colored sauce looked intimidating. But when we started to dig in, an array of flavors burst in our mouths. We were very surprised that it didnt taste as sour as we expected. The flavors blended very well with each other. I'm not sure what the ingredients of Bolognese spaghetti is since I'm not into Italian food as well but I can only guess that there was a hint of oregano in there, pepper, maybe some garlic and obviously tomatoes.

Rewind to lunch so we can move on to what we had for dessert. We had mango parfait, panacotta and fruity cheesecake. I was led to believe that there was going to be an assortment of fruits in the cheesecake but apparently its just plain blueberry cheesecake. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in catching up with my friends that my impatient self only got to take a picture of the parfait and just chomped down on everything, only realizing later that I didnt get to shoot the other desserts. Sorry, I'm still getting used to this food blogging thing. I still have to remind myself to take photos before I eat sometimes.



The parfait was good, there was a lot of cream in the dessert which is something I can totally feed on forever. The mangoes werent sweet though, it was borderline sour. But I can see a lot of potential in the dessert had the mangoes been better. I found the panacotta bland and the cheesecake tasted like, well, blueberry cheesecake. Again, its one of the dishes that I think couldnt taste any different, like the calamares.

For lunch, we spent under P1,200 for our meal. In general their dishes cost around P150-P200 each. I'd say their prices are mid-range but worth it for the ambiance and the taste of the food. I want to keep this restaurant a secret forever because I have a penchant for non-mainstream things but I guess it wont be too much of a secret now but I'm not too sure again because I dont think I have a lot of readers on this blog hahaha.

As mentioned, a con would be its location. Although it is strategically located (N. Escario extension near Parklane hotel), the restaurant is fronted by a crafts store which sort of conceals the restaurant from the public view but I think this is still an advantage in itself for the few people who patronize this cafe because it is quite small. If the place would be jam packed, its lose its quaint charm and it just doesnt vibe with the whole feel of the restaurant.

Here is a picture of the restaurant from the side, taken when we went back for dinner. Again I didnt get to take a picture of the facade but it's by the corner across those strip of establishments beside Parklane.






So that's that for now. I've just decided to sneak this blog in to idle my insomnia away. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.



Eternally famished,

Pearl

Vibe Gourmet

If you're looking to experiment but aren't willing to blow your budget in a fancy restaurant, then Vibe Gourmet is definitely the place to go. They serve gourmet food, minus the gourmet hole in your pocket. However, don't expect the ambiance to match the whole gourmet experience but sit tight for a culinary adventure that you will surely enjoy.

Vibe Gourmet was made by a friend's recommendation, maybe some 3 years ago or so but only recently did we get around to eating there again and the food there was something we surely missed! It is located across the old Cebu Doctor's University gym. Situated in a little nook which is concealed by the Cebu Doctor's hospital, it's not somewhere that you'd go to to look for something to eat lest you already have knowledge of this restaurant's existence. Honestly, the exterior doesn't look extraordinary either so I wouldn't expect a passerby to be drawn to eat there on a whim.

Most of the diners I suppose, are employees of the nearby hospital and/or boarders living in the area. The restaurant has more of a feel of a cafeteria than an actual restaurant. It's not something that bothers me, really. As long as the dining area is clean and the service is good. But again if ambiance is what you're looking for, then this is not it. For sure it's not first date material. It's the "years-in-the-running-we-need-to-stop-impressing-each-other-and-get-practical" kind of place to eat with your partner, if you know what I mean :D

Everything in the menu is under P100!

Very spacious dining area

Remember in my previous post when my boyfriend and I ordered a meal good for four people? Well, we did it again. We have a knack for ordering an extra dish whenever we dine at a restaurant with plated meals. I particularly like having variety in my food hence plated meals almost always never work with me and I'm left with having to consume the extra rice that comes along with it :(

So without further ado let me present to you the three dishes that we ordered.

Lemon pepper chicken - P85
Garlic rice add on - Sorry I didn't get to take note of this

Vibe Gourmet is best known for their chicken. Most of the time I tend to stay away from dishes with strong flavors (e.g. lemon as a main ingredient) because I find them too overpowering and more often than not, I find the other flavors lost with the pungency of the main ingredient. But I was pleasantly surprised when I tried their lemon pepper chicken that there was a pretty good balance in the ratio of the spices put into the dish. There was enough sour, salt, and a little spicy kick in the chicken to give it a discreet tangy taste.

Herbs & spicy chicken - P85
Garlic rice add on - Sorry I didn't get to take note of this

This dish sure looks like boring old fried chicken to anybody but once you take a bite into it, you will surely say that it isn't like any fried chicken you've tasted before. It has a distinct flavor to it brought about by the herbs and spices (duh, I can't come up with a better description aside from the name of the dish) mixed in the batter. It reminds me a lot of the Malaysian rendition of chicken rice. I'm sorry if I cant put into detail exactly what it tastes like because I am not familiar with what the main ingredients of Malaysian cuisine are but on a side note, I will use this moment to show off the very spicy and delicious meal we had in a local cafeteria at Malaysia last month.

(NOT AVAILABLE AT VIBE GOURMET)
Rice topped with some insanelyspicy sauce whose ingredients are unbeknownst to me and vegetables and with an equally spicy chicken to match. Plus crab. Didn't I tell you plated meals are just aren't our thing?! Please excuse my hand in the frame as I'm ecstatically delivering food to my mouth

If those pictures weren't enough to make you drool, then I don't know what would. What I know wouldn't however, is this unexciting and plain pork belly from Vibe Gourmet. Considering how they manage to put unconventional twists into how they prepare their chicken, you will be very disappointed at how awfully dry and awry this dish tastes.

Pork belly - P60
Biryani rice add on - Sorry I didn't get to take note of this

In honesty, the pork belly isn't half bad at all. It just failed, relative to the other dishes that we ordered. If we had only this dish maybe we would've said that it was alright. I wasn't too crazy about the biryani either as it tasted more like instant curry from a packet than actual biryani.

We ended up paying P300+ for everything for our beyond average gluttonous appetites. On average, if you have an average appetite like the average person, P100 should be enough to cover a meal. I think that's a very good deal considering their servings are pretty generous already and the taste of the food in general, really goes beyond expectation.

The cons of Vibe Gourmet for me I think, would be its location and parking. It's not that accessible because its not right by a main road nor is it situated in a commercial area. You have to go in an alley to get there. That being said, it also follows that parking is not always that easy. With eager towing trucks going around the city, we sometimes find ourselves craning our necks through our meal to see if the car hasn't been dragged away by the city government yet. It's either that or we pay for expensive parking at the nearby Coco Mall.

Overall, dining at Vibe Gourmet has been very satisfactory for us. Their service is fast, and the food is also affordable. I have yet to try their fish as I always opt for something chicken whenever I eat there. Maybe I'll do that for another review sometime!


Eternally famished,
Pearl

Han Guk Kwan Korean Restaurant

In my 23 years of existence only recently did I come to know the joy that is, Korean food. It never occurred to me to experiment with it until a good friend introduced the cuisine to us. From then on, I was hooked! There was a distinct flavor in their food that was so new and refreshing to me, although I really cant quite put my finger on what it is. My palate was just so excited with being introduced to a new taste.

The first resto where we ever tried Korean food was at Han Guk Kwan. We've been to other Korean places around the city as well. But to date, we still couldn't find a Korean resto to match this one. Han Guk Kwan is located at La Guardia Lahug. It's right beside C24 by the Archbishop Reyes-Lahug intersection, you can't miss it.

Tried to take a picture of their panaflex but the glare from the fluorsecent lamps was too strong that it drowns out the text. Sorry for the bad image quality, just took this from my phone :(

The location is very accessible and parking is ample. The inside of the restaurant is very spacious as well and you rarely see people eating alone since their servings usually call for sharing.

For those who haven't tried Korean cuisine, you get a myriad of appetizers even before your main course arrives. And the best part is, its free and refillable! We ordered the budae jigae, sam gyup sal, and galbisal. Below is a diagram of our meal, sans the budae jigae which deserves a solo pic on its own later. Keep in mind that there is no specific set menu for the appetizers, they will serve you whatever they have available.

1- galbisal (beef ribs), 2- samgyupsal (pork belly, literally meaning three layered meat in Korean), 3- sesame oil + rock salt, 4- ssamjang (another form of sauce, whose taste I can only liken to bagoong but oddly enough, this sauce doesnt contain any traces of shrimp), 5- Korean salad (with the best vinaigrette dressing EVER), 6- tofu (sorry dont know how it was prepared), 7- beansprouts, 8- radish (I dont like this appetizer at all, sorry), 9- steamed egg, 10- garlic

In the background of the picture is also some lettuce which you eat with your samgyupsal and galbisal. Basically, how they eat their meat is different from how we eat ours. We pair it with rice but they like to wrap their meat around in lettuce. For reasons that I cannot fathom, it goes without saying in any Korean restaurant that these meat must be ordered in at least 2 servings. Don't ask me why.

Grilled meat (minimum or 2 servings)
Samgyupsal - P200 per serving
Galbisal - P400 per serving

Barbecue your own meat to your liking on their stone grill. When satisfied, roll your meat around the sesame oil with rock salt, lay it on your leaf and top it off with the ssamjang and roll. Voila! Thats how you eat your samgyupsal. You can opt to put kimchi, garlic or any of your other appetizers on top of your meat before rolling. Be creative and do whatever you want with your meat!

Finally here comes the budae jigae. This dish was concocted during the war. Its a high-calorie stew with crazy ingredients that I can imagine only a very hungry soldier can surely think of putting in. There's kimchi, spam, hotdogs, tofu, and some meat along with noodles. Talk about a heavy meal!

Budae jigae - P400
If you think this is heavy enough, wait till you get your two bowls of rice along with this dish!

The service in this restaurant is also good. They're very well-employed. So you almost always have a server at your attention. And being regulars of this restaurants, they already know more or less what we want so that's definitely a big plus.

All in all we spent P1,200 for this hefty meal . Normally it can feed around 4 people or so but my boyfriend and I have beyond normal appetites so we're an exception :p However this meal surely left us full to the brim! When we eat out with friends in this restaurant we usually shell out approximately P300-P500 per person and we always leave very much sated.




That wraps up my first official review. I hope I pursued you to try Korean food, for those who havent. I don't know if there's even somebody reading this blog but I hope in the future someone will hehehe :)

JOED'S LUTONG HAPON. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE

So we went to Joed's out of curiosity since this place has garnered very good reviews from friends. Passed by lunctime yesterday only to be told that it was closed because they "ran out of stock". We went back in the evening. Although the place was jam packed due to the dinner time rush, we were quite excited to eat and patiently awaited to be seated despite our grumbling stomachs.

When we got around to ordering, almost everything we wanted on the menu was sold out. No beef, no ramen etc. Still, we took it upon ourselves to put this mishap aside since they really were accommodating to a lot of people. So we ordered 7 bowls of katsudon, 2 bowls of karidon, 3 tempuras, 2 califonia makis, a sushi set and 2 1.5 litre bottles of Coke. I can still remember that a mass was going on midway in the nearby chapel when we got to the carenderia. We got seated shortly after the mass ended and TV Patrol was on (I knew this because we were seated quite closely to the televistion set). The news ended, Mutya went on. Still no food.

Finally, a small serving of thickly breaded shrimps came into sight and we breathed a small sigh of relief to see at least one part of our order arrive. But much to our dismay when it was served to a nearby table, who came later than us by the way. Feeling very hungry and annoyed by now, we complained to why they were served first when we arrived earlier than them. Apparently, it was a mix up because the waiter had failed to inform the cook/manager that we had switched our table (There were maybe 6 burly men in our group who had to crunch their knees to fit into that corner table, so we opted for a more spacious one). Within earshot of us, the waiter and the cook argued over the incident to which the cook nonchalantly replied, "BAHALA KA". Whether she was pertaining to the waiter or to us the diners, is beyond me but its definitely not a nice conversation to overhear especially when youre waiting forever for your food to arrive. I guess its not a good idea to have only a crew of 3 (waiter, assistant cook, chief cook/manager) serve a hungry crowd. It was waste of time, ergo a waste of money. Not to mention, the customers are left very very very irritated and hungry.

When most of our orders finally arrived, after maybe a good 45 minutes of waiting (midway along Mara Clara mind you), only then did the waiter tell us, "Ay sold out na diay ang california maki og coke". Talk about a dining nightmare!!!

The food was alright for its price point. Personally I found the katsudon a bit flat and bland. I dont know if it was because the cook was in a rush to make it or if it just really tastes that way. My friends said the karidon was good. I'm sure they have other better dishes that we could have tried but a harrowing experience like what we had is more than enough to traumatize us to NEVER COMING BACK to this place again. At least until they have better management.