Ippudo in Manila

During our honeymoon, hubby made sure to bring me to his favorite ramen place - Ippudo in Yokohama. I don't remember now if the taste was life-changing but I do remember him telling me that to signify that the ramen was delicious, I should make loud slurping noises. It's not easy to do though without the sabaw spewing all over the place.

 

Look, there's also a line.

 

Birthday Dinner at Bistro Filipino

For his birthday, hubby treated me to dinner at Bistro Filipino, Chef Laudico's restaurant at the Fort. It also served as our Valentine's date. At first we thought that the prices would be insane but there's this uhm, not exactly a promo, but a scheme wherein you pay P799 something for a four-course set. This dinner happened a month ago and I've conveniently forgotten those details, sowee.

I managed to take pictures of my food only haha. For my appetizer, I chose the trio of lumpia cone, wagyu salpicao and kilawen. The lumpia was a hands-down winner, my eyes literally rolled in ecstasy. As a wanna-be cook, I was trying to reconstruct the ingredients in my head. It still tasted like lumpia but much much much better. Try this, I tell you!

I chose the Hot and Cold Sinigang soup mainly because I was intrigued how it can be hot and cold at the same time. While it was still yummy, I prefer my soup hot, so I think my stomach was kinda shocked with the cold soup. This had two pieces of shrimp in it and after the appetizer, I was already feeling quite full.

I knew I was eyeing another dish for my entree but it wasn't available and the waiter recommended the Wagyu Kaldereta. The beef was tender and flavorful and served on a bed of silky sweet potato mash. I was really really full by this time, the serving may not look much in the photo but it was more than enough for me.

Thankfully, I still had room for dessert. This was the Trio of Desserts: Tsokolate Oh!, Yema Bicho Bicho and Flourless Chocolate Cake. I didn't mean to order two chocolate desserts, I think the Maja Blanca Cheesecake was not available. The desserts were also yummy but it was kinda overwhelming to have two chocolate desserts at the same time.

 

This four-course set is really worth the price. I'd go back just for the lumpia alone! :)

Bistro Filipino
Net One Building

Bonifacio Global City

 

Recovery Food

Sometimes I wish I live or work neare Fort just so I could try the new places popping up over there. I'm no foodie, I just like new stuff.

We happened to be in the area yesterday and hubby remembered me mentioning Recovery Food to him. He was planning to go to MC Home Depot anyway and Recovery Food is just across it, so we decided to have lunch there. I ordered the Spicy Sweet Tuyo while hubby ordered the Tapa De Morning.

We ordered the "half recovery" bowls because the waiter said a "full recovery" bowl was good for two. The spicy sweet tuyo was good and generous, and it's not everytime that a restaurant offers tuyo. The bite of tapa I had was also good, sweet and tender. Our only beef (pun intended) was that the rice was kinda bitin - serving-wise and price-wise (our orders were P180/each). And this is coming from me who was a bit full from breakfast that time and who does not eat much rice anyway. Their side salad was also good, too. I read that Recovery Food is by the makers of Mamou - a fixture on Instagram posts which I have yet to try. I also saw from Instagram posts that their ramen is good, maybe we'll get to try that next excursion to the Fort.

 

Pampanga x Olympus PEN

Hubby has been harping for a mini-vacation for a while. Valentine's Day and his birthday provided the perfect opportunity to get away. At first, we thought of going to Tagaytay, then hubby said, why not a food trip in Subic/Clark? He saw a good deal on Agoda.com for an overnight stay at Fontana Hot Spring Leisure Parks - he was sold on the hot springs part - but more on that later.

After booking a room, I realized that it was the Hot Air Balloon week-end. However, we were too lazy to get up at 3AM. So instead, we set off to have breakfast at Pancake House NLEX first before heading to Clark.

Can I just digress and say I totally commandeered the car CD player on this road trip? And I played Taylor Swift and A Walk to Remember OST - props to hubby for not complaining. (Yay, true love!)

After breakfast, we headed straight to Fontana. We passed by the Hot Air Balloon thingie and encountered a bit of the traffic jam. For this trip, I brought the Olympus E-PL1 which is "on loan" from hubby. I am so in love with the in-camera art filters that I decided to shoot most pictures with them - specifically Diorama and Pinhole.

We were early for check-in so after registering we explored the grounds. (Note: I decided to post unedited pictures - save for cropping and resizing)

Is it just me or does the tree resemble a giraffe? (Diorama effect)

Hallway (Pinhole effect)