HOT DATE NIGHT AT FLAME: DISCOVERY PRIMEA

        Since Rina and I had Rain, we admittedly don't get to go out on date night as often as we used to. Not for anything, but we both do feel kind of guilty when we leave Rain at home and we go out and enjoy a night out by ourselves. Truth be told, our little Rainbow makes all our our family days (or nights) out so fun, it never really bothers us. 

     However, during our staycation at Discovery Primea a couple of months back, Rain decided to stay in the room with her yaya and watch Disney Channel instead of having dinner with us.

    Since this gave us the opportunity to go on a date night without straying too far away from our little girl, Rina and I made the most of it.. And as you could imagine we fell in love.... This time with the food of Discovery Primea's premiere restaurant, Flame! 

    (And one another again of course hehe)

DISCOVERY PRIMEA MAKATI: TAPANADE

     I've been meaning to visit the restaurants at Discovery Primea for quite some time now, but with my work and all, visiting Makati has become increasingly difficult. A lot of my food blogger friends have been raving about it, further amplifying my agony. Thankfully, I was able to spend the weekend at the Discovery Primea (more on that in my upcoming Vlog!), giving me the opportunity to try two of their restaurants, including the flagship cafe, Tapanade.

ASCOTT SERVICED RESIDENCES PART 2: CAFE ON THE 6th!

        During our recent Staycation at Ascott Serviced Residences in Makati, we had the pleasure of having our dinner and breakfast at Ascott's Cafe on the 6th. With its delicious food and relaxed ambiance, It took only a few moments for me to ask myself why I had never eaten here before! 

TEDDY'S BURGERS IS BAE-CON ME CRAZY!

      Teddy's Burger's arrival here in the Philippines in Mid-2014 had a huge impact in the foodie world. The line to get in during its opening day was ridiculous, and stories of grown men going through desperate not to mention pathetic lengths to gatecrash the opening ran rampant. Since that memorable first visit to Teddy's, I have been back around two or three more times with Rina, and we tried a few more burgers that was part of the original menu. 

    Recently, Teddy's added quite a few more items to their menu, including breakfast and rice meals, as it's slowly carving a name for itself as more than just a burger restaurant, and offering more "Diner"-like fare.   

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME AT RAFFLES HOTEL'S LEGO AWESOME SUNDAY BRUNCH

         When I was a kid, my brother and I were huge lego fans. We had quite an impressive collection of different parts that we would just throw into this humongous, heavy, lego-issued carry case and sort things out later. Soon, my friends had much cooler cases with different lego designs, but couldn't store as much lego bricks in it as mine, so despite the fact that my bro and I would have to lug around this clunky case, we preferred it to any other the fancier cases, simply because it could fit MORE bricks, which would lessen the chances of two siblings fighting over who gets the blue ones. 

   The mere fact that to this very day, Lego has found a way to remain relevant and become a staple in our pop culture is a testament to how iconic this product is. You know a brand has made it when it gets the Lego treatment! From Starwars, Marvel, DC and even Disney (Yes, geeks, i'm aware that the first two are owned by Disney, but you know what I mean)!

   After the Lego Movie came out on Blu Ray last year, it gave me an opportunity to introduce the wonderful world of Lego to Baby Rain. She may not be able to build a Lego Death Star just yet, but she did love Emmet (Whom she calls "Mr. Lego Man") and Wild Style.

   Her fondness for the movie got me excited to see her reaction when we would visit Raffles Hotel's Lego-Themed Awesome Sunday Brunch, that's happening at their flagship restaurant Spectrum all of February and March! 

IL PONTICELLO: BRINGING SEXY BACK

      I don't know if you know this, but I used to work in a Post Production House in Makati. I started at around 2007 or so, and our biggest clientele came from advertising. Whenever there was some sort of event or function.. Or if you wanted to take a client out, one of the go-to places to do so was Il Ponticello. 

    Truthfully, I know the place is an institution, but I don't have any fond memories there.. Well. Let me correct that - I have no memories of the place whatsoever. I know they served Italian cuisine classics, but I never tried any of the dishes, because I thought it was more of a bar than a restaurant.. and I don't drink, so all my visits were always very brief.  

    Cut to 2014. Il Ponticello is back, and it's better than ever. With a jazzed up Modern Italian Menu that will definitely captivate your taste buds, It was time for me to make up for lost time and discover what made Il Ponticello the iconic hot spot that it is.

THE TANTALIZING TREASURES OF TURKEY AT MAKATI SHANGRI-LA

               Another good thing about becoming a food blogger, is how it expanded my horizons when it comes to different cuisines. Yes, I still am rather picky when it comes to what I eat, but I am given opportunities to sample dishes from the far reaches of the globe that wouldn't be too accessible to me in the past. 

          Turkish cuisine is definitely something new to me, as I don't really have Mediterranean food often, but I was nonetheless intrigued when I was invited to a special luncheon hosted by Makati Shangri-la, as they unveiled some of the dishes that would be part of their "Treasures of Turkey" section of Circles Buffet. 

RECESS BY CHEF CHRIS: MY FAVORITE SUBJECT!

          Since he opened "My Kitchen" in the Manila area a few years back, the name of Chef Chris Locher has been synonymous with incredible food. Although I must admit that I had not yet been able to visit it yet, it was most definitely in my Bucket List of places to try. 

          I had heard that Chef Chris had opened a new concept restaurant in the more accessible Makati area called "Recess" (Incidentally, my favorite subject in school, and the only one in which I had perfect attendance), I knew my title of "Food Blogger" was at stake if I didn't go out of my way and visit it right away. Especially when I found out that the menu was comprised of Chef Chris's take on "Comfort Food".

  

THE ROYAL TREATMENT AT ARISTOCRAT

        I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I spent the first few years in my life growing (or not growing) in the good ol' U.S. of A (Which probably contributed to my picky palate). I was six years old when my family and I moved back to the Philippines after a five year stay in America. 

      The day after I had arrived, I still remember the first meal that my grandmother prepared for us. That images of that dish is still ingrained in my memories, to this very day, simply because what I saw scared the living crap out of me. It was a big bowl of black slop, with little bits of animal parts I couldn't make out floating around. I asked my yaya, "What is that?" and she answered, "Dinuguan.". I looked up at her and asked, "What's Dinuguan?". Never one to B.S. me, she got straight to the point and said, "Pigs blood". I made a face and answered, back, "Yucky!". My mom called me to come eat lunch, and I said, "I don't want to eat the blood of a pig!" and run up the stairs and into my room. Seconds later, my brother followed me into the room. I went up in tears, because in my six year old mind, I was afraid that moving to a strange land such as the Philippines meant being forced to eat food made from the blood of an animal and other exotic dishes.  

    Two minutes later, my mom and dad came into our room, saying that I shouldn't have stormed off, and I should apologize to my grandmother for insulting her food. I was in tears and said, "I hate Filipino food!". That moment, my grandmother entered the room with a tray in her hands, and a warm smile. I didn't have the guts to tell her that I didn't want to eat the food she brought, but thankfully, I didn't need to say anything. She walked in the room, and said, "Richie, you don't have to eat the dinuguan if you don't want to. I prepared this for you.". 

     I was half expecting to see an animal's head perched on to a plate, but instead, I found two plates (for me and my brother), with six slices of Spam, a cup of rice, and a bit of ketchup on the side. Needless to say, we tore into the plate like ravenous cheetahs having a field day with the carcass of a gazelle.  

    Later that evening, at around dinner time, my dad walked into with a bag of food. I won't lie to you. Whatever was in that bag, smelled really good. He said, "Hungry?". I was being bullheaded, and I just replied, "I don't like Filipino Food.". He dipped his hand into the bag, and pulls out a sandwich unlike any other I had seen before. "Its a flying saucer". he said of his strange, round, sandwich. He went in for a bite, and I gotta say, it looked really good. My dad continued to pretend that he didn't notice me watching him, and continued to focus on the TV. He then pulled out another sandwich from the bag and said, "All yours.". I hesitated for a minute, but in my mind, decided that sandwiches are considered American food. 

   I was pleasantly surprised with what I found inside after my first bite. It was definitely new territory for me. It was very meaty, but the flavor was something I had never experienced before. It was only after I had finished my last bite that my dad took the empty sandwich wrapper from me, to throw in the trash, and with a smile said, "That was called "Adobo Flying Saucer". It's made with Chicken. A very popular dish in the Philippines.". I was a little annoyed that I had been had, especially since my Filipino food boycott was still in full effect. My dad, with a laugh, said to me, "See? Filipino food isn't so bad, right?".

   The days following, my dad would bring for me take out food at least once a day, introducing my brother and I to basic Filipino food staples, such as their Chicken BBQ, Liempo and Pork BBQ.. All from Aristocrat.     

     More than 30 years later, I found it ironic that my journey into exploring Filipino Food would continue where it all began: At Aristocrat restaurant, whose standards in food and service still stands tall, till this very day.  

ON OUR WAY TO STOCKTON PLACE

        This was one of those restaurants wherein Richie really really really regretted not being able to make it. It was all because on one photo:



        A picture can paint a thousand words. But this photo made Richie speechless sulk in his work desk for the whole night. Hehehe... But we’ll get back to that later...

SEEK YOUR SOLACE IN ONE GREENBELT HOTEL

           I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I left my job of six years a couple of weeks ago. Though I'll definitely miss the people that I worked with, One of my biggest regrets would be not making the most out of the amazing places to eat along Arnaiz Avenue. There were several excellent restaurant in the neighborhood, such as Nihon Bashi Tei, The Cheese Steak Shop, and Hai Shin Lou, all of which I had the pleasure of dining at more than once.  

         I would sometimes think to myself how nice it would be to be able to afford to dine at every single one of these restaurants one by one before I left. One of those restaurants was Solace Wine and Dine at One Greenbelt Hotel.

      Someone upstairs must have been listening, because just a few days removed from my last day of work, I found myself walking through the doors of Solace. 

UKOKKEI RAMEN RON & THE RAMEN NAZI

Time to get their Tantanmen on

            Again, I will repeat, that I'm not really that big on Japanese Food. Which would explain why, in the one year and one month of it's existence, The Pickiest Eater In The World has only featured two Japanese restaurants, which technically don't really count because : 

              A) John & Yoko is more of a "Japanese Fusion" Restaurant

              B) Yakimix is a smokeless grill place where you pretty much just 

                  cook bacon..

              C) And Yakimix's buffet food is a mix of Chinese and Japanese cusines

      A TV Commercial director and fellow foodie (Also the only person I know who has actually tried "Butter Beer") I work with, Direk Paolo Dy, visited our new office one day. As I showed him around, I grumbled that I'm going to miss having the restaurants in C. Palanca to choose from. Then he said, "Well at least you're just down the street from " Ukokkei"!". I stared at him blankly, and then he looked at me, all baffled and replied, "You DO know what  Ukokkei  is, right?". I told him, that I wasn't really into Japanese food, but he would have none of it. As a client, Direk Pao is a joy to work with, because he's one of those laid back directors that is easy to talk to and always seems to be in a good mood. So when he gave me an intense look, and told me in a firm tone, "One of these days we are going.", I knew I was in the presence of a man who takes his Ramen seriously. 

       A few months later, lo and behold, Direk Pao treated me and some of the PostManila peeps  for a job well done on one of his projects. Take one good guess.