Must Try: Bistro Group Promos!

Here are some good promos from Bistro Group restaurants that I stumbled upon:

Fish Unlimited at Fish&Co. - Greenbelt

My wife emailed this promo to me.  Being a Fish and Co. fan (I am actually a Bistro Frequent Foodie cardholder) I would definitely try this one out.  However, I don't think they would allow me to use the BFF Card together with the promo.  Anyway, the 20% discount may probably be used on the drinks, though.  Please click on the picture for details.

Get 250 pesos off from Italianni's 

Speaking of discounts, I got a 250 pesos discount from Italianni's just by joining their mailing list.  The discount comes in the form of a mobile coupon which would be sent to you once you have successfully completed registration.  You need to purchase at least 750 pesos to avail and again this promo can not be used with my BFF.

I know what I would order again the next time I visit them though. Here are pictures of the food we ordered:

This is my favorite, the Sicilian Salad

This little number is called the Fettuccine Frutti de Mare (it means fruit of the sea)

Italianni's is such a kid-friendly place they allow kids to make their own pizza.  This one is a bit overcooked though.

Even this little fellow was trying to get a piece of pizza

BPI Real Thrills

And finally, I can get P1,000 pesos off on my next dine-in for an accumulated purchase of P 5,000 pesos at Italianni's, Fish and Co., TGIFriday's or Pig Out by using my BPI Credit Card.  I'm almost halfway through this promo and by using my BPI card to avail of the promos above, I may be on my way to getting that 1,000 pesos soon.

http://www.mybpimag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=739&Itemid=1018

Happy Eating!

Buffalo Wings with Ranch Dressing

I have been meaning to try out this dish when I came across the recipe in the lifestyle section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer while having my usual lunch break.  I love buffalo wings, especially the ones served at Friday's or Don Henrico's.  In these places the wings are somehow bigger since there is more meat which is actually carved out from the breast part of the chicken.  If you would choose to buy wings cut up from the grocery though it's a different thing all together but then again who would buy 3 whole chickens just to get the wings?

The Buffalo wings in itself is quite simple to make.  Just have them deep fried with breading.  It's actually the sauce that makes the difference for Buffalo Wings. Normally the sauce is made by mixing together Hot Sauce (depends on how hot you want it), 1 tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce and 2 tbsp of melted butter.  However, for the one that I made I came across McCormick's own version of the Buffalo Wings sauce in the grocery so instead of buying the ingredients separately I relied on their ready mix instead.  McCormick's Buffalo wings comes together with their fried chicken coating (which is step 1 while the sauce is step 2.)  They have it in Original, BBQ and Hot.  I tried the BBQ flavored one.  To evenly coat the sauce to the chicken wings, you must place the sauce in a plastic container (Tupperware or used ice cream tubs) place the cooked chicken inside and give it a good shake (dance to it if you like.)  Voila! You now have Buffalo Wings.

This is the part where I had to be creative.  Normally Buffalo Wings is served with Bleu Cheese dipping sauce.  But since Bleu cheese is hard to come by I have decided to make my own Ranch Dressing instead.  To make the ranch dressing prepare:

One cup of Mayonaisse
2 tsp Fresh Lemon juice or Calamansi Juice
1 Tbsp Cream
Tarragon
Sage
a dash of Powdered Garlic
Salt and White Pepper to taste

Just combine all of the ingredients and whip them with a fork until fully blended.  Serve it beside the Buffalo Wings and garnish with celery sticks on the side if you wish.

Happy Eating!

Tried recently: Buckaroo's at Pearl Drive, Pasig

I have always been familiar dining at Pearl Drive in Ortigas, Pasig ever since my Unisys days.  I remember the time when The Old Spaghetti House was not yet expanding as fast as it is now (before they were even called TOSH) the first TOSH branch were my wife and I ate at was at Pearl Drive. That TOSH branch is now gone and the one that replaced it a Chicken Ati-Atihan Branch also folded up recently.  So now that most of our Saturday afternoons are spent at my daughter's playgroup at Pearl Drive, my wife and I have tried a majority of the restaurants in that area.  Pancake House (staple family restaurant), Rufo's (great tapas!), McDonald's (again?), Jollibee (where else isn't this bee present anyway?), Buddy's (yummy pancit, will blog about that another day), Mang Inasal (you already know this story and this branch was the last time we ever attempted to eat there, never came back ever since), Chicken Ati-Atihan (where Mang Inasal sucked this one it excelled, too bad it closed), Starbuck's (same comment as Jollibee's), and even Mozu Cafe at Linden Suites.  A Yellow Cab Pizza already opened there just a few weeks ago and that seems to be a good decision since there is a school nearby where the lunch money of the students is definitely not just average.

But now, there is a new place where my wife and I have been enjoying our lunch as we wait for the little girl to release excess energy.  The place is a Texas inspired restaurant named Buckaroo's Grilled Pizza and Burger.  Buckaroo's menu is mainly composed of grilled food (even the dessert is grilled, no kidding.)  So far, we have tried the burger and the grilled meat varieties.  Here are some photos of those we have ordered.

Above are the porkchops with Barbecue rice.  I particularly like their side veggies as it has turnip (singkamas.)

This one is their T-bone steak also with BBQ rice.

This is their porterhouse steak and Sun rice (because it's yellow.  I think the name was intended as a pun. Sun rice, Sun rise?)  notice the turnips are already gone?  Can't resist eating the turnips.

We have also tried their pork ribs, savory chicken and a dessert called crispy mallows ala mode (imagine a
Rebisco mallow dipped in batter and deep fried.  Served on top of ice cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup.  Well at least I hope the ice cream is fat free, hehe.)

And since this is Texas inspired the servings are BIG.  Specially the pork ribs to share which comes with marbled potatoes which is quite good.

What could be better for Buckaroo's is if they can be flexible with the sidings.  When we eat at Fish and Co to order their Grilled Porkchop Basilico, I always make it a point to have the veggies replaced with the Seafood Rice so that my wife and I can share the order.  In the case of Buckaroo's there are times that the sidings (in my opinion) don't really go well with the meat like the BBQ Pork Belly with French Fries.  It would have been better off with rice, mashed potatoes or marble potatoes.

Staff service is also very good and very courteous.  Food comes out just in the right time which gives us an assurance that the meat is grilled well.

Overall, I give this restaurant a rating of "Are we coming back to eat there again? Oh hell yeah!"

Visit their website at http://buckaroosonline.com or their facebook account http://www.facebook.com/pages/Buckaroos/285580186140 (this one is updated.)

Mang Inasal will be majority owned by Jollibee

The financial muscle and influence of Jollibee never ceases to amaze me.  As of this posting, I just went through a news article stating that Jollibee Foods Corporation  will buy 70% of chicken barbecue fast food chain Mang Inasal for 3 billion pesos.  Injap Investments of Mr Edgar Sia II will still retain 30%.  The offer was hard to resist according to news reports that is why the Sia's took it despite their intentions of going public this year.

My two cents worth: if you methodologically opened a Mang Inasal beside a Jollibee at every instance then you have taken JFC's attention.  If you've made Jollibee try to make a chicken barbecue variant in their menu then you are seen as a threat.  I think that in this instance JFC blinked, the logical solution for JFC is to acquire you.  Well played, Mang Inasal.

Anyway, what does this mean for Jollibee and Mang Inasal then?  My hunch is that the Jollibee chicken barbecue would be gone soon (and good riddance too!)  Mang Inasal would probably have a mascot (haha!)  We could probably see more Mang Inasal advertisements and product offerings.  A kiddie meal perhaps, where the toy is a bow and you can use the bamboo skewers as an arrow.  Or, they can get Bamboo as an endorser so that he can sing the song "Hinahanap Hanap Kita" again while holding bamboo skewers.  (This is the song used in the Mark Bautista commercial, this was originally sang by Rivermaya when Bamboo was still the lead vocalist.)  

But seriously, judging from the model they have used when they acquired other units like Greenwich, Chowking, Delifrance (which they sold again) and Red Ribbon they never really changed these companies and let them grow on their own.  Most probably that would be the same for the acquisition of Mang Inasal.  If Mang Inasal would improve their services I would probably change my stance on Mang Inasal then http://execlunch.blogspot.com/2010/09/repost-of-old-fb-rant.html.  

I tip my hat off to Mr Tony Tan Caktiong for another marvelous business decision.  Jollibee's influence and financial prowess never really ceases to amaze me.

Off Topic: This My Friend is a Man Bag

I am a bag man.  No, not the crime bag man, but friends who know me since way back knows that I always carry a bag at one point or another.  I carried either a belt bag, a clutch bag, a laptop bag, a portfolio bag or a backpack.  For the past few months I have been carrying a soft bag to protect my cellphones.  But I have been putting too much other stuff on this soft bag that made me realize that I need to bring a bigger bag again.   Good thing my wife gave me as a gift, this leather postman's bag from Wade shoes.  And I say this is one perfect man bag for me (*self high five*).  Cool enough to bring and yet professional looking.   (Thanks again honey, love you a million!)

 As you can see it's made of fine leather with magnetic snaps to fasten.  Quite roomy with lots of compartments to put in everything you need to bring along.  It has a strap to carry it like a shoulder bag or wrap around like a body bag.  It's leather so it's water proof, good for the monsoon season.  Case in point, today after having a drink at Cable Car it was raining hard.  No worries, I just placed the bag over my head and it protected me and all the things inside the bag from the rain (don't want to get my unfinished "The Time Traveler's Wife" "The Bro Code" wet now, wouldn't I?)  It's also lightweight so it doesn't strain my shoulder at all.  I remember carrying a Targus laptop bag before where the bag is heavier than the laptop itself!  I had daily back and neck problems because of that.

We bought the smaller version so that it would not be mistaken as a laptop bag.  But today I over estimated the capacity of the bag as a big bowl of Japanese Ramen wasn't able to fit inside it (don't worry it's uncooked.)  So here's a cool tip care of Mrs Executive Lunch, bring a fold-able bag put it inside the postman's bag.  You'll never know when you would be faced with another big bowl of Ramen situation in the future.

Twist and Shout!

Scene: A woman is alone in her house on a stormy night when suddenly she sees an outline of a man against the light from a flash of lightning.  She grabs a broom thinking that it is a burglar or worse a vampire.  As the man comes nearer she grips the handle of the broom much tighter.  Suddenly the man raises a red and yellow bag and says "McDonald's delivery."  The woman realizing this just pretended she was sweeping the floor.

This is the new commercial from McDonald's as they return one of my family's most beloved junk snack food the McDonald's Twister Fries.

Yes, it's that season again when McDonald's would offer their twisted (and I mean it in an endearing kind of way) and flavored french fries.  Which makes me wonder why they don't serve this as a regular item on their menu.  Agree?

My Tsukiji Experience

One of the most wonderful places to eat in Makati is the Milky Way Building at the corner of Paseo De Roxas and Pasay Road.  It houses the restaurants El Cirkulo, Milky Way Café, Azuthai and Tsukiji.  While I have eaten at Milky Way and El Cirkulo ages ago, this week I had the honor of eating at this very good authentic Japanese restaurant.

Tsukiji is located at the 3^rd floor of Milky Way and once I’ve stepped inside I immediately smelled the aroma of Japanese spices.  It’s like going back to Japan all over again.

First of was an appetizer of Aka Baku or Pickled Red Radish and Kimuchi a kind of Kimchi while sipping red wine.  The Aka Baku is a bit sweet and not at all overwhelmed by the vinegar.  The Kimuchi though is spicy but still slides down well to the throat.

A few minutes more and my favorite part came, which is the Sashimi.  There were seven kinds of sashimi in one big platter, which of course includes my favorite Tuna and Salmon sashimi in different varieties.  Here there are also squid, scallops and shrimp sashimi. Good fresh sashimi would almost as if it melts in your mouth.  Again this brought back memories of my Japan trip 3 years ago, as the Sashimi is so fresh and well made that you think that you only need to go to Japan to experience it.  I remember that when I was in Japan, the chef pleaded with us to finish the sashimi in the next hour or else they would lose their license.

Next off came the main course (and another bottle of red wine.)  Our gracious host treated us to Yakiniku (grilled meat.)  The trick is you have to grill the meat yourself according to your liking. But the best part is that the beef is a well-marbled Ohmi Wagyu Beef, which is already marinated, in their special sauce.  The slices are just about paper-thin but even if you grill it too long it doesn’t seem to burn up.  I knew that quite well because one of my companions forgot to turn his beef over.  Mukhang nakalimutan eh gusto ko na sanang kunin J

To compliment the beef we ordered Kani Salad.  (Yup no rice for that evening, parang diet ulit, yes!) Their Kani Salad is by far one of the best I’ve ever tasted.  Composed of shredded cabbage with crabmeat drenched in Japanese mayonnaise one order is too much that I wasn’t able to finish it all. Even the Japanese that I was with was quick to note that they used real crabmeat!  (So meron palang fake na crabmeat?)

At the end of this meal, we ordered Milky Way ice cream for dessert.  My two companions ordered avocado but I got intrigued and ordered their Atis (sugar apple) ice cream instead.  Wow! It does have Atis bits on it. 

For a nightcap, we were served some hot green tea.  But then again this means that this pleasant dining would have to come to an end.  So we called it a night as we give our final Kampai!  But after that I have to go back to the office and resume my quarter-end closing.  Did I just say that we finished two bottles of wine? Oh dear, hello headache galore.

Excuse me for the lack of pictures, as I was in General Manager mode when this splendid dining experience happened.  Can't be just snapping pictures of the food in front of my boss now wouldn't I? When I go back there it would have to be Blogger me instead.  To know more of what I am talking about, do check out www.tsukiji-restaurant.com.  They have an electronic version of the menu that looks exactly like the menu in the restaurant.

3 Weekends*

Okay, the title seems to sound melodramatic but this entry is about how my family and I ate at three different Chinese Restaurants each weekend all because of my craving for one particular dimsum - Siopao! (steamed buns or bao, for the benefit of my foreign friends.)

I love Siopao.  Ever since I was young I grew up eating Siopao at Ma Mon Luk Restaurant in Quiapo or at Ramon Lee in Sta Cruz.  My father would also bring home Siopao after his shift at work.  And yes, it also is because of my Filipino-Chinese heritage (my Grandfather is pure Chinese.)  I like the Bola Bola variety better as against the Asado (the one with the red dot at the center.)  And somehow, it seems to be best paired with Mami (noodle soup.)

Weekend One: Super Bowl of China, Glorietta 4 Ayala Center Makati

Super Bowl is one of my favorite Chinese Restaurants.  I celebrated my birthday with my entire family there once.  It is also the restaurant that broke my "no rice" diet that lasted for 8 months.  That is why we decided to go there when my Siopao craving started.  So when we were already settled at our table with complimentary crackers already served.  I simply ordered without even looking at the menu "Siopao, Bola Bola" I said, confident that they must have that on their list. Right? Right? Nope. "Sorry po Sir, Asado lang meron kami." *gasp*  Super Bowl how could you have failed me!  After all these years!  Okay, enough of the drama.  "Sige iba na lang, Diced Chicken with Salted Fish Fried Rice, Egg Drop Soup at Lechon Macau."  As I said, this is my favorite place so I know the food is really quite good but I didn't forget to write about it on the Guest Feedback Form either.  Let's see if they would heed to my request.

Weekend Two:  Kowloon House, SM Makati Food Court

You may wonder, why we didn't try the one at Park Square I?  It's simply because the place is too small for dine-in guests and besides this is still the same Kowloon House as that one.  This time no doubt about it, one Jumbo pao (ground pork, sliced meat, sausages, salted egg all rolled in one delicious steamed bun) for me,  pork pao for my wife, Beef/Wanton Mami and Sharks-fin Siomai.  I never get tired of eating Kowloon House's Siopao. Their Jumbo Pao is simply one of the best tasting, fully filled Siopao available in town.  And to top it all, this one big piece of Siopao only costs 55 pesos!  And remember what I said a while ago about the Siopao that my father brings home after work? Yes, this is that one.

But then again this is an SM Foodcourt where it's noisy, tables are not cleaned immediately and you get to be approached by all types of individuals who wants to sell you something (from Yema to a House and Lot) without any respect for your privacy.  It's tough eating there, it's a jungle.  And like any lion protecting it's pride, you have to roar at the next person who will try to approach you while you are eating in peace.  Because of this the Siopao experience seems to only get half a point credit for me.  Right Siopao, wrong place.

Weekend Three:  North Park, Glorietta 5 Ayala Center Makati

In this particular instance, we didn't go there for the Siopao but to claim the two free lemonade that we got by using a BPI Credit Card on our previous visit.  The lemonade is really good and made fresh.  This time ambiance is perfect, same as Super Bowl's.  I ordered the Nanking Beef Noodles and Siomai while my wife ordered the Boneless Fried Chicken Chops.  These already filled me up since I already had bibingka and tsokolate batirol for snacks so I just had my Siopao for take out instead.   What I ordered is their Taipao.  Like the Jumbo Pao of Kowloon House this is one big bun with everything on it but instead of the sausage they have shit-ake mushroom on it (haha, remember Austin Powers?)  I really meant to take a picture of the Taipao before I ate it so that I can post it here but then again that's what Siopao can do to me :-)


*note: I originally wanted to use the title "Siopao-man" for this week's entry but I don't want the topic to be confused with the Larry Alcala character, a superhero who loves well, Siopao of course :-)