BROTZEIT OPENS AT EDSA SHANGRILA MALL

One of my best friends in High School, Thomas, was a German national. His father was an expat, and his mother was a home maker, and they settled in and made the Philippines, Cebu in particular, their second home. During my High School days, it was usually me that was doing the hosting of sleepovers, but there were a couple of times that I crashed at Thomas' house after a night of.. umm.. As much as I would love to say "hard partying with some hot chicks", it was more like "A super cool night of Dungeons and Dragons".

Something I always looked forward to, was breakfast in Thomas' house. Thomas' mother, always made sure that despite the fact they were living in a country so different from their birthplace in so many ways, their original culture would not be forgotten by her son. And she did so in simple ways - one was their food.

Sure, after hanging out with us, Thomas got the hang of eating rice with every meal, but at home, when his mom would prepare breakfast, It would be the good old fashioned German way. I was treated to an array of sliced sausages that I had never tried before, different types of breads, and a whole slew of cheeses to choose from, all served up on wooden boards. That was a mere glimpse of how amazing German Cuisine could be, but ever since then, their food kept me enthralled.

There aren't very many German restaurants to choose from here, so hearing about Brotzeit German Beir Bar & Restaurant opening in Manila brought music to my ears.

(Cue in "99 Luft Balloons" here.. Sorry that's the only German song I can think of right now).

NO CLOWNING AROUND AT PAGLIACCI, AUTHENTIC ITALIAN FOOD - RINAZ

It has been years since I last stepped my foot inside the Podium. I don’t even remember the restaurants that I have tried there. I think there was just one and I don’t even remember the name. It was only until a few days ago when I came back to have dinner with blogger friends that I realized how many establishments were there already, and how much I have been missing, particularly a little Italian cuisine heaven called Pagliacci.

RACKS RIBS: FALL OF THE BONE GOODNESS - RINAZ

         “Ang swerte ni Rina!” (Rina’s so lucky!) Richie frustratingly tells my sister last week. “Since I have work, she’s going to have lunch with a few blogger friends to cover Rack’s new Pork Belly dish!” I can understand how frustrating this can be for Richie. You hear bacon / liempo / and other pork dishes, you immediately think “Richie!”.  To a point that friends and acquaintances often tag him to any photo or meme about bacon in facebook. 

         And the funny part is he’s loving it!

WHAT ABOUT BREAKFAST AT CAFE 1771?

I forgot to take a cover photo, so here's a picture of Rain, taking delight in squishing my face. 

        I'm a big breakfast guy.. I'm fairly certain I've said that more than once on this blog. It's funny because I don't get the chance to eat breakfast on a daily basis. I wake up, get ready for work, and the first meal of the day is whatever i'm having for lunch. But when Rina and I got the opportunity to taste some of the items of Cafe 1771's breakfast menu, there was no way we would pass that chance up! 

I GOT STUNNED BY THE BURGER KING STUNNER MEAL!!

A few days ago, I visited Emerald Avenue for the first time in a very long while. Emerald Avenue has a special place in my heart because the office of my very first job was located there. Its actually quite humbling when I look back and remember that from a cramped office of my boss’ business wherein I was the very first employee, the company has grown, and branched out to different companies, giving jobs to around one hundred employees. Although I do have many fond memories of Emerald Avenue, an annoying little factoid is that there weren’t too many places to eat at when I worked there. Now, it’s the home of practically every single fast food restaurant you can imagine.

               One particularly painful discovery for me, was the sudden presence of Burger King at the ground floor of the building beside where I used to work. I cannot express how many times I felt that an exhausting working day could have been made even a lot better by one of their flame grilled burgers and an ice cold glass of Hi-C Apple.   

               During my stroll along Emerald, the lure of Burger King was too strong, I couldn’t help but drop by (I really didn’t put up too much of a fight). Since I was on the go, I wanted something quick but filling and not too expensive. So what could Burger King possibly have in store for me?

               A meal that would leave me completely stunned.

FOODGASM II ON MARCH 9, 2013 AT MERCATO CENTRALE!

       Last August, I had a blast at "Foodgasm", the food tasting event organized by the UP Economics Society. So when I was invited to be a Blogger Judge once again, the only answer I could give them was HELL YEAH!! 

MY SINGAPORE FOOD STREET OPENS IN MEGAMALL - RINAZ

Sorry I can't do silly poses like Richie does thus this is my cover photo hehe

        As far as my poor memory can remember, the first time I had Singaporean cuisine was when we were in Singapore last 2010. I have been hearing about the wonder that is Hainanese Chicken Rice and how much of a “must-try” Singaporean dish it was. So during our trip there we made sure that we get to try it. And I’m glad we did!

        Thankfully, Singaporean restaurants are slowly emerging here in the Metro, and a recent that just launched was My Singapore Food Street (Formerly Orchard Road) in Megamall. Thankfully, Richie again had work so it was me again who ended up trying their scrumptious Singaporean meals! (I’m kidding hun! Of course it’s more fun when we’re together. But you have to control yourself from eating the food first before I take a picture!)

FRISCO FUSION AT HYPHY'S!

       I was surfing the net, minding my own business when I..umm..  "accidentally" ended up on the group buying site known as "Deal Grocer" (I'm really not an addict). As I mentioned from my previous Group Buying post, this was the same site that used a portion of my blog in their review of "Mochiko" (That statement is totally irrelevant to this post, but i just thought i'd mention it). I had never heard of the restaurant "Hyphy's" before (hell, I wasn't even sure how to pronounce it), but the name Bruce Lim did ring a bell with me (And not just because it sounded like Bruce Lee, either).

    The deal was "Pay P350 for P500 worth of food", so I thought it was worth a shot. Besides, I hadn't been to "The Veranda" in Robinson's Galleria yet, so I thought it would be nice to be able to drop by there for the first time in almost two years. 

    Hyphy's boasts of San Francisco inspired comfort food with a Filipino twist to it. Honestly though, at the moment, apart from "Rice-a-Roni" and Clam Chowder, I can't think of any other food that is associated with San Francisco, so i figured our trip to Hyphy's would be an interesting experience. 

FEELING PHILY'S DINER!

Challenge accepted!

        Among my immediate family members, only my sister Raquel checks out my blog with any form of regularity. My Sister Rosemarie and my brother Ryan, do not at all. However, one time, Ryan DID stumble unto my blog when he asked me if I had eaten in Kogi Bulgogi before. He took a look at a few posts and his only comment was, i'm too "mainstream". 

      Yeah, to be honest, that's not something I can really contest. But what can I do? You hear about a place, then you wanna go check it out. It's not my fault if it's usually located in a mall or something. 

     So when Groupon Philippines had a promo for "Phily's Diner", a place I had never heard of before, I thought it would be a good opportunity to uncover another hidden gem. 

I SAW RED AT BUGSY'S

The O-Desk Christmas Bash

        Rina has the most intriguing job. She works with a whole bunch of people, but the thing is, they don't see each other, because they all work from home. It's actually pretty cool, and she's enjoying it, because she gets to spend more time with Schatzi. I think it's the perfect set up, because since we both want to have a baby soon, this way she doesn't have to worry so much about traveling back and forth from the house to the office. If I worked from home, I probably wouldn't get anything done, except catch up on series and sleep. Of course, if someday this blog starts earning for me, I'll have that luxury, but until that day comes, it's off to the every day drive to Makati for me.

    Since everyone works from home, you can imagine that their Christmas party wasn't your usual office yuletide celebration. It was actually a lot like a chat room "eyeball" (Although I've never actually been to one, I imagine thats what it would be like) Rina had a blast because a lot of them have become her "chat mates". She's gotten to know a few of them rather well, especially when they share the same shift and she doesn't have so much customers. Even though I don't usually go to Rina's office parties (cuz of my shyness), I went when I found out it was "Bugsy's" (I'm so easy).The temptress that is Rina, knew exactly what my weakness would be and said, "If you go with me, you can blog about the food of Bugsy's - FOR FREE."

    In that one sentence, she said two things that appealed to me. "Food" and "Free". So i gave her a deep sigh, and replied, "Fine, I'll go, but only because I can't stand to be apart from you, even for two minutes..", which was met with a slight rolling of her eyes, and a triumphant smile.