Cheap, satisfying, yummy street food I eat!

I love street food.  The wife might cringe and make funny faces, but I do plan to introduce Athalia to the wonderful world of street food.  To be honest, however, I haven't really gotten my fill of these tasty and cost-efficient (sosyal version ng mura!) delicacies.  I miss...


Balut.

Ok, so maybe not that much.  I was able to corner a balut vendor outside the gates of our compound a couple of weeks back.  Yummy!

Kwek-kwek.

These are actually quail eggs that are fried in some mysterious orange batter.  I don't get these here in Cebu, but a bigger variety is available in Lapu-Lapu's city market, am not sure though if they substituted the quail egg with chicken egg or day-old balut.  Technically, what they sell are not kwek-kwek but tokneneng.

But nothing compares to Manila's kwek-kwek.  I guess it's because the orange coating is proportionate to the size of the egg.  Over here, you get to eat too much egg with miniscule batter.

Taho

This is actually one street food that the wife approves off, somewhat. And that is because I try to buy taho while it's still very hot.  The combination of soya pudding, milk pearls and caramel syrup is just heavenly.

Isaw

Isaw is plainly chicken intestines cooked over open charcoal fire. Yum.

Palamig

Before Thirsty! came into existence, Filipinos have always quenched their thirst and tried to cool down with palamig.  I grew up trying to decide which between sago't gulaman or fresh buko should be named my favorite.  But I also loved the melon drinks, avocado shakes, and those pink things that has gelatin in them.

Tempura and fishball. 

 

I don't think a Filipino exists today that have never tasted these.

Scrambol

Honestly, this is one street food that I sorely miss.  I think that it has been a good 15 years since I last had this.  A pink liquid blended with crushed ice (this is not strawberry mind you) comes out a creamy, yummy and cold drink, topped with powdered milk and some cheap version of Hershey's choco.  Some top it with sago.  This is the original shaved ice baby!

Dirty goto, dirty mami and dirty ice cream.

As a kid, I snacked on dirty goto and dirty mami, depending on which vendor came to our street first.  They usually have this sidecar that carried their gigantic pots and a stack of stools (wala pang monobloc nuon).  People had the option to take the goto or mami home or try and balance it on thin planks on the sidecar's sides.

I loved the dirty goto more because of the litid and the ugat.  But the mami had its moments.

And yup, who grew up here and entered their teens without this?

Yup, dirty ice cream.  A favorite of mine was to have it served sandwiched in a burger bun!

Puto bumbong

Ahhhhh... puto bumbong is my "sadly" food.

Sadly, it was only available during the early hours of the 9 day novena every Christmas season.

Sadly, it doesn't last that long.

Sadly, it's nowhere to be seen in Cebu.

And its close cousin:

Runners-up: Siomai sa Tisa, BBQ, hotdog on sticks, all other chicken parts.

Almost: I almost included Cow Label and Tarzan bubble gum having grown up with these... only that they weren't really street food.

Images used for this blog post are all culled from the Web.  I don't own them

Golden Cowrie (Mactan Marina Mall)

Almost every Sunday, you'd find us at Golden Cowrie at the Mactan Marina Mall.

They have really good food, and unlimited rice to boot.  Our favorites include the fried tadyang:

The halaan soup (the imbao soup is a favorite too!)

Inihaw food:

And the drinks:

The good:  No two ways about it, if it is Filipino food you're craving for, then you should definitely try Golden Cowrie.  The good food comes with a reasonable price tag, so much so that two viands, unlimited rice and drinks would set you back for around P500.

The bad:  Being a regular at Golden Cowrie, there are times when one would wish that there was something new on the menu.  But Golden Cowrie's menu has been the same and has been relatively unchanged since the restaurant opened.  They should really introduce new fare!

The wish list: I'm just nitpicking, but Golden Cowrie food could use some presentation. :) We could use a wider selection of desserts, too (because we don't think budbod with tsokalate counts as one).

This post was written by A.

Bubble Bee Teahouse

If you want a good place to enjoy good food, cold drinks and just chillax, then head on over to Bubble Bee Teahouse.  It's at the TSI Bldg. in North Reclamation Area (if you're coming from Mandaue, it's past ParkMall, right beside the nearest Shell station.)

Their cold drinks are around P95 to P120 each, and they have lots of flavors to choose from.  If you want hot tea, it's much cheaper at P60.  You can ask to have more pears, lychee jelly, mango or taro pudding added to your drinks too.  Nothing fancy in that it actually reminds me of pearl shakes like Zagu, but, you have to admit, they have some really cool flavors like Blueberry Slush, Milky Watermelon Slush, and Kiwi Green Tea.  Or you can always try their own version of Taiwanese Halo-halo, which is good.

If their drinks are okay and reasonably priced, then you will be wowed by their food.  Appetizers like French fries go for less than P100, but that is about one of the very few things on the menu that go below P100.  Pasta bowls go for around P180, while main courses go above P200.   We ordered their calamari for P180 and a bowl of beef stroganoff for P200.

If that sounds expensive, I'd tell you that it's well worth the price.  This is their calamari:

And this is their beef stroganoff:

Not only are these dishes delicious, two hungry people can share each and still feel full afterward.

The food and the drinks are good at Bubble Bee Teahouse, but if that is not enough, then go there with friends and enjoy the ambiance.

They have two flatscreen TVs that show concerts (they really should change their repertoire, though, because both times we've been there, they showed Beyonce on stage, and it can get really noisy and loud).  They have comfy sofas, an Indian area where you could take off your shoes and lounge on the carpet and cushions.  You and your friends could also borrow board games that you could play.  If you just want peace and quiet, you can stay downstairs.

We went there recently when there wasn't too many people around, so the food we ordered arrived quickly.  The first time we were there, however, it took a good 45 minutes to one hour for the food to be served.

This post was written by A.

May 10, 2010

Ang Presidente ko, hindi guwapo, hindi bongga, hindi nakapagasawa.  Pero sana dala niya ay pagbabago.

Chef Iris' Destressing Routine

Sometimes you get lucky.  Life gives you a set of friends who just happens to share the same passion with you.  One Sunday morning, we saw ourselves hieing off to Liloan for a rare treat: Chef Iris Sasing is cooking!

After some 1.5 hours of preparation, we were really to roll.  That pita bread would turn into something magical, this:

This taco salad was great, and would simply put tacos by Mooon or some other mexican place to shame.  Yummy to the bone, except there's no bone. 

Next up, penne pasta, goat cheese, basil leaves, ham, veggies and then some turned into this:

And as presented, that penne in warm caprisse salad became more delish as:

And guess what this is?

If you answered yummy food that should have been expensive, you're right too.  But to be more specific, it's shepherd's pie:

And for dessert? Some schmanzy gelatin: panna cotta!

 Admittedly, these are not everyday fare even for the chef extraordinaire and graceful host.  So what did she have for dinner last night?  Even yummier:

Humba lover and food aficionado Atty. Bongkie Sotto proclaimed it as one of the best... and showed it by decimating the humba in 30 minutes flat, with conversation going on.

An Aside: Yes, We're DoFollow

This blog is dofollow.  Which means that we help you with your search engine rankings by providing you with a backlink to your blog or Web site that counts with Google. 

But if you're here to spam, don't bother.  All spam comments will be deleted.

Camwhoring at the Banana Booth

Before, there was Neoprint (which thankfully came at a time when I was in my teens so it was okay to pose in front of those pink machines and look crappy) and there was Foto-me, that instant ID picture taker.  Sadly, however, Cebu doesn't seem to have a Foto-me, so there goes one opportunity to be a camwhore.

Banana Book at the 4th Level of Ayala Center Cebu now offers a better alternative.  Enter Banana Booth. 

Yup, it's a digital version of Foto-me.  At P95, you get two copies of your pic column composed of 4 different poses. Like Foto-me, it gives you around 5 seconds to think of how to pose next and if you're the type who likes to have coordinated poses with friends, then you have 5 seconds to deliberate and pose as you like.

Banana Book actually offers other services for the vain: photo books, photo magnets, photo bracelets, among others.  You can customize ref magnets with pictures of you doing different poses, making different faces, wearing different colored shirts. In fact, you can have the Banana Booth print cut into two -- for the separate columns -- and get a ref magnet (the same size and length of one column) from them for P30. You only need to stick the print into the magnet. 

Banana booth pictures come in sepia, full color, or black and white.

If you have a little one, getting her to stop looking upwards (at the camera instead of the screen) might be a challenge though.

A Banana Booth has also been spotted at the occasional bazaar at the Asiatown IT Park.

You can also cram the banana booth.

This post was written by A.

Women Loving -- Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz

Joy Cruz is a beloved professor who imparted to me the more intricate techniques in Art Appreciation (both for ArtApre1 and ArtApre2) and Literary Criticism.  I put that in sentence case for the sheer respect I have for both courses back in college.  Ms. Cruz has a Palanca, M.A.'s earned from DLSU, enviable teaching credentials under her belt and lots of literary types the likes of Alfred Yuson, Virgilio Almario, Bien Lumbera as friends or colleagues.  She was one of my coolest professors, and she's a self-professed lesbian (bisexual?).

So it is understandable why I had some sort of pseudo-intellectual orgasm when I found a book titled Women Loving written by a Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz.  I wasn't sure it was the same Joy Cruz, the cool professor, but I bought it anyway.

Having said that, I am going to be honest and say that it sucked.

The premise of having a book that explores the thoughts, feelings, beliefs, lives and loves of lesbian women is just irresistible, I think.  Also Alfred Yuson's recommendation on the back of the book, convoluted and verbose as it is, is quite convincing.

But if you are looking to gain insight in that sense, look elsewhere.  Women Loving is a nice collection of stories where one or more, or all characters are lesbians to varying degrees, but that is it.  Sometimes, lesbianism is not even a central theme, but more of an afterthought.  It's as if Cruz finished a story 10 years ago and decided to include it in this collection, so she just adds "by the way, I'm a lesbian" at the end of the story.  Sappho would have been livid.

What the reader is given is an avalanche of stereotypes.  It is easy to feel like the book was written by a straight guy posing as a lesbian.  Nothing of the intuition that riddles the pieces in Ladlad, nothing of the acerbic realities and witty introspection that is present in Louie Cano's worst blog posts.  The reader is left with the feeling that he/she is being cheated of a sneak peek into the mind of a genuine lesbian.  And like most of us who can only aspire to be lesbians in this life, it feels like Cruz is an outsider looking in... taking notes and relating to us what she's seeing, hearing and feeling, but never what she is experiencing.

There are times when you find yourself really entertained.  Cruz does write killer proses and her imagination gifts the reader with the most impeccable details and imagery.  And there are times when a story starts off as having enough potential to make you read on, hoping that like a dental extraction or a bad breakup, it would get better.  But that simply does not happen.  And perhaps it is knowing how good a writer Cruz is that makes the disappointment more glaring.  You know that Cruz could translate angst, mental quandaries, and psychological dilemma well into words, so when you don't read these even when the story is shouting for it, you know that it was simply not intended to be there.  Cruz can make ink transmute into blood, she is that good, but she doesn't use that power here.

I've finished the book just last week, and I can't remember a single story or character.  Nothing stands out.  To me it's all a mishmash of the same boring person with nothing to do, only that she has different names and finds herself in what should be interesting situations.  I guess it's a lot like life that way, you are given everyday to live life and you choose to sleep.

Finishing the book, it makes me wonder if I were not mistaken.  Maybe this book was really not written by the Joy Cruz I know.

This post was written by A.

RaiRai Ken - Gaisano Grand Mall

Mactan has had a Rai-Rai Ken for the longest time, but they close after 2pm only to open at 5pm and they don't have proper airconditioning.  At least not the few times we were there.  So it was nice to see Gaisano Grand Mall open with a Rairai Ken branch.  And we just had to try it out.

Bummer.  Their airconditioning was not working too when we got there.  They said that they relied on the mall's airconditioning which conked out the day before.  And they had no fans. But that didn't stop us from ordering their Ramen.  My absolute fave.  Rairai Ken, I think, has the best ramen in Cebu, barring those expensive authentic Japanese places where you're forced to take off your shoes and squat like an Indian to eat.

This ramen is far from Japengo's version, which tastes like overcooked instant noodles.  Dining at Rairai Ken is always a pleasure and for somebody who has a picky eater as a wife Japanese food is a rare treat.

 This tofu soup came in free with the wife's order.  We forgot to take pictures of what she had out of sheer heat and hunger.  But she said it was good as well.

Rairai Ken is quite pricey, where a good meal for two people could easily run up P500 to around P700, but it's worth it.  In fact, it was so good that the wife was terribly inspired that upon arriving home, she worked on origami geishas

and raped the kokeshi dolls.

Just kidding.

Rairai Ken had cool lanterns and great interiors too.

Now if they could only work on their airconditioning!

This post was written by A.

Brewpoint Mactan

For years, Mactan Island has been getting the short end of the stick.  While Cebu has been getting a bulk of the region's development, Mactan in particular languished.  The Island does not have a single cinema with the closure of Gaisano Mactan's cineplex.  For a while there good coffee was nowhere to be found on Mactan, unless you count McDonald's brewed coffee (which is too acidic for me).

Enter Brewpoint.  One of the three coffeeshops I know in the island, and the only one worth being tagged as a coffeeshop and not having to contend with Caucasian habitues looking for a good time.  Having a tagline like "Making Mactan Island better one cup at a time" might seem lofty, but all it takes is a visit to know that they're working on it.

First disappointment was their lack of food.  I first found out about Brewpoint from Facebook where there were shots of pasta and cakes.  When we got there, I was told that they still are not serving food at the moment.  We came back after a quick lunch at Dimsum Break and got these for dessert:

I had the Mint Mocha, and the wifey's first comment was, "Where's the whipped cream?"

The whipped cream less concoction was good, however it could have really used the whipped cream not just for the aesthetics, but for added taste.

The wifey and the kid shared the Chocolate Cookie Blast:

This one, was yummy. :) It was really rich and the flavor stays with you hours after you've left.  

You should really try their champagne rose cake:

The kid really liked this one.  We also did. Champagne rose is one of a kind, and it was good. To-die-for even.

But probably the best thing about Brewpoint is that they provide you with a cozy place to hang around especially on a lazy and HOT Saturday afternoon.  It was this hot outside:

But inside it was really comfortable.  So much so that it was a perfect for some mother-and-daughter tete-a-tete.

I heard that they also have Wi-fi, but I was laptop-less during the visit so I couldn't check.

Brewpoint is at the ground floor of the GMC Arcade, two doors down from Dimsum and two doors up Rose Pharmacy.  GMC Arcade is across the old PUJ Terminal.

This post was written by A.