TENYA'S WINTER SEAFOOD TENDON: A WONDERLAND OF FLAVORS

        Here's a bit of trivia in case you didn't read my previous posts where I mentioned it... Rain's favorite food is Shrimp Tempura. Although she calls it "Crispy Shrimps", every time we go out and you ask her "What do you want to eat", there's a 99% chance of her saying "Crispy Shrimps!".  

       One time when Rina passed by Market! Market!,was intrigued with a sign she saw for a "Winter Seafood Tendon" from Tenya, a restaurant known for their tempura. During our next visit to Market! Market!, Rina asked if we could try it. Since I knew I would be outvoted 2-1 by my girls, I decided not to even try to protest and instead was excited to get my fill of some Tempura myself!.

BANAPPLE... ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING

      During the early years of my blog, I posted my visit to Banapple. Though I enjoyed the food, its one of the entries whose photography I am not proud of, simply because it was taken during our pre-blog, pre-DSLR days, with Rina using her trusty iPhone 3. Just like Italianni's, Flapjacks, Ma Maison, and The Stock Market Cafe, I marked Banapple as one of the places that I needed to return to and take better pictures. 

     Banapple is one of my places on Earth, and their food deserved a second entry.

THE RETURN TO NORTH PARK

The prodigal son has returned.. and boy is he hungry!

                I've declared my love for Chinese food time and time again, so it comes as to no surprise that this is the cuisine that has the most posts here in my blog. Given that I have so many other cuisines to explore, I decided to take a break from Chinese for a while, to give myself a chance to explore other cuisines. At the same time though, I felt it was a travesty that I had not yet included one of my all time favorite Chinese restaurants, North Park, in my posts.

                My love for North Park goes back to the mid-90's, when I first got back to Manila. I just graduated High School from Cebu and my sister wanted to take me out. She knew I formed a band in high school, so she started taking me out to watch rock bands, in order to meet some new people. She took me to the old "Weekends Live" at The Atrium to watch bands like "Advent Call" and "The Breed" and to "Kalye" along Palanca St (which is, coincidentally, where I work now), where she introduced me to Wolfgang and Razorback. After a long alcohol infused night (I was designated driver so because I don't drink), everyone would get hungry, we would usually end up at the 24 Hour North Park branch along Makati Avenue. 

         On our way there, my cousin Raffy suggested two things for me to try  that he believed I would love. And to this very day, there hasn't been a time that i've gone to North Park, and DIDN'T order those two dishes. (Far away look, followed by a single tear down my cheek)