Brasas: Latin American Street Food

November 16, 2012. Friday.

I've always loved how diverse the food offerings in Podium were. There's Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Filipino, American restaurants all over this small upscale mall. And just recently I've discovered a new addition to Podium, Brasas which serves Latin American Street Food as their name mentions. I got to try out eating here a couple of weeks ago as Kim had me tag along with her co-workers.

At first glance, I thought the place would be serving the usual Tex- Mex fare. I was pleasantly surprised at how different the menu looked like compared to a Tex- Mex joint. For one, the menu had a whole lot of rice meals compared to sandwich wraps. We had to go over the menu at least twice before deciding on what to order, because everything looked good!

Note: Even though we ate with her co-workers, Kim didn't take note and pictures of all orders, so it would be just our orders that would be highlighted in this entry. 

We ordered a regular sized Beef Wrap with extra Monterey Jack cheese.

Beef Wrap (220php) with extra Monterey Jack (30php).

We had the wrap halved since we wanted for us to share both orders we had. I was little disappointed with the size of the beef wrap when it arrived on our table. Considering they had a smaller size for the wraps (pequeno), I expected something a little bigger. Good thing it tasted really good! The meat had this nice grilled tenderness to it that really went well with the tomatoes, onions and bell peppers. The extra cheese provided a nice extra salty flavor to the wrap. The taste was enough to temper my disappointment a bit.

We also got Pork Rice Platter.

Pork Rice Platter. 190php.

Like with the wrap, the serving of the rice platter really looked small. Or at least, small- ish compared most local restaurants. It looked, smelled and tasted good, though. The pork really tasted good, and had a grilled- melt-in-your-mouth goodness that was perfect with the chimichurri. The chimichurri was also really good (much more better than the ones we have tried before) that Kim had to ask for an extra cup of it. Except for the serving size, we really couldn't think of any negatives for this dish.

For drinks, we ordered the Guarapo and Latin Iced Tea.

Guarapo and Latin Iced Tea. 90php and 60php respectively.

The curious kid in me just had to order Guarapo, because it sounded different and new. At first sip, I wanted to spit it out immediately. Guarapo is sugarcane juice with lime. It was sweet but tasted really funky for me. Kim liked the Latin Iced Tea, which had a nice lime flavor to it.

Brasas is definitely a place we would want to come back to and try their other menu items. I'm actually already eyeing the Puerco Asado (slow roasted pork belly). The place is a bit small and cramped, so I'm not sure how packed it gets during the lunch and dinner rush since it is near a lot of offices (including mine actually, haha). Despite it being small, it had this upscale- hole in the wall joint vibe to it that was really homey. It's contradicting I know, but I don't know how to better describe the place. Except for the small servings, Brasas definitely gets top scores from us.

 

Brasas Lating American Street Food
5th Floor, The Podium
ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City
https://www.facebook.com/brasasphilippines

Uncle Moe's Shawarma Hub

November 10, 2012. Saturday.

We wanted to hangout at Citizen Pub but it was still early when we arrived at City Golf. I thought they opened a little earlier in the afternoons during weekends, but I guess I was wrong. It was about 4PM and they don't open until 5. Since we were already parked and we were hungry, we settled for Uncle Moe's Shawarma Hub.

I frequent Mister Kabab and Ababu for my shawarma and kebab fix, but I've never tried Uncle Moe's before. A quick browse through their menu would show that they are priced almost at the same range as Mister Kabab and Ababu. Uncle Moe's also serves beer and for a good reason, they're located in the middle of Ortigas and Pasig which is accessible to a lot of office workers and residents looking for a place to hangout.

We got the ball rolling with a plate of Ox Brain.

Ox Brain. 75php.

I was surprised at how small the serving of Ox Brain was but then again, it was only 75php. And that might also be a good thing, since ox brain is very fatty and high in cholesterol.

Kim got Keema with Buttered Rice.

Keema with Buttered Rice. 110php.

Keema is minced meat. But this one looked more like the ground beef you get from the market or grocery. It tasted good, though. It was seasoned well and the onions provided a nice aroma and sharp taste to the meat. And as is it is with any other fried meat, it really went well with the steamed rice topped with butter.

And I ordered the Kebab Platter with Buttered Rice.

Kebab Platter with Buttered Rice. 170php.

The platter had 2 pieces each of beef and chicken kebab and buttered rice. Both were really tender and still juicy. I just thought that the beef was a bit bland, that's why I had to put copious amounts of the garlic sauce on it.

Compared to its neighbors in the City Golf coumpound, Bugsy's and Citizen, Uncle Moe's is a no frills, stripped down establishment. The menu is cheap and the place is simple, but the food is good enough. The servings were a little smallish compared to Mister Kabab and Ababu, but at their prices, it's nothing to complain about. I don't know how the place looks like during the night time when the people start to trickle in, but then that would be a good excuse to come back here and take a look.

Uncle Moe's Shawarma Hub
City Golf Compound, Julia Vargas Ave.,
Brgy. Ugong, Pasig City
(02) 469-4787

Crisostomo

November 9, 2012. Friday.

There was an accident along C-5 on this day, so we were stuck in traffic for more than an hour. Mind you, that was just from Quirino Medical Center to Eastwood. As that was the case, we were really hungry for dinner. We were already debating on where to eat and what to eat while in the car. Crisostomo popped up a few times during our conversation, but we were apprehensive that the dishes would be too much for us to share. In the end, the glutton in us won out and we settled at Crisostomo for late dinner.

Crisostomo serves cuisine that can be best described by their tagline, "Turn of the century Filipino dining." Behind the playful names based off on Pinoy history and culture are dishes that are well prepared and well thought off. The bulk of the menu is based on traditional Filipino dishes, coupled with some that are fresh takes on classics as well.

We were really hungry but it still took us some time to order food. Almost all the items on the menu looked really good. We wanted to have a bit of everything! The following are what we ended up having.

Sisig Linares. 250php.

This is just pork sisig. Kim really didn't like it since it was off the crunchy variety. I thought it was okay, and the picture might not show it but it was really plenty for two to share and quite filling too.



Sinigang ni Kapitan. 450php.

Kim likes shrimp so we had to order a dish that had shrimp in it. And since we also wanted something to warm our stomachs, we ordered their version of sinigang na hipon. The sinigang had 7 (or was it 6?) pieces of shrimp in it, and it was just enough for both of us to divide. The soup was hot and sour, and it tasted really good for our hungry tummies. I also loved the fact that the veggies in it were not soggy like it had stewed in the soup for a long time. The ones in the dish still had a good snap to it.
 


Calamba. 350php.

The moment I saw this on the menu, I knew we had to order this. Calamba is tortang alimango with crab fat sauce. I like to have egg almost all of the time when I eat. And to have that coupled with crab meat and fat? Food bliss. The crab meat was really soft and complemented the texture of the scrambled egg, and the crab fat on top of it provided a nice rich, salty flavor to it. I really loved this one, but Kim only took about two spoonfuls of it since she said she just tastes the egg.

Halo- Halo ni Crisostomo. 95php.

We were both already full by the time the waiter offered us desserts, but I saw the Halo- Halo and I quickly ordered one for myself. No matter how much I prod her, Kim just wouldn't even dare try to one spoonful (she really does not eat Halo- Halo in general). The Halo- Halo was really packed with all the different sahog, but I quickly found out that ordering one was just a case of takaw tingin. I was just too full to finish it.

Crisostomo isn't fine dining, but it does count as an upscale establishment. Expect the prices of most of the dishes to be on the higher end of the spectrum. But despite the pricepoint, you won't feel shortchanged with this establishment. The service is great-- fast and efficient, and so is the place and its ambiance. We'll be coming back here again to try the other Filipino dishes they have.




Crisostomo
2/F Eastwood Mall, E. Rodriguez Jr Ave
Bagumbayan, Quezon City
(02) 710-1693
http://www.crisostomo.ph/

Uncle Cheffy

November 2, 2012. Friday.

If you love slow cooked, tender, slide off the bones goodness.. then you're in for a treat with this post. Be forewarned though, the amount of food in this post is much more than what a normal couple orders. But then again, we don't order conventionally. Ever.

Kim has been bugging me to eat in Uncle Cheffy for a while now. It has never really caught my fancy because my initial image of it is panizza, and I don't like panizza. But last Friday, I finally gave in and we took in late dinner at the Eastwood Mall branch.

I quickly browsed through the menu if there were food items other than panizza that we could order. I spotted the Grill and Specialties section, and saw that they had steak, ribs and chicken. Almost everything was slow cooked inside a brick oven which guaranteed tender and juicy meats with all the flavor locked in. My sense of relief quickly turned into dilemma, as we couldn't decide which one to order. Then I saw the All Meat Barbecue Platter. It didn't matter that it was for 4- 5 people, we just had to order that.

All Meat Barbecue Platter. 1,600 php.

That's it. That was our only order for the night. ONLY here is just a huge understatement. This platter contains chicken leg, lamb breast, pork and beef ribs. It also comes with baby potatoes, rice and house salad. And for the meats, you can dip it in your choice of either bbq sauce, chimichurri sauce or tomato salsa.

Everything was really good! Well, except for the beef ribs which really tasted weird despite it being tender. Even quoting it with the bbq sauce didn't help. Other than that, everything was really comparable to Cue's A Lil Feast platter. One caveat about ordering a spread this big with only 2 persons to go through it, is that the meat grows cold on you and the juices and oil start to crust on it. But since we were really hungry, we managed to go through a little more than half (finished the lamb, and most of the chicken and pork ribs) of the board before it really got cold.

We really enjoyed the lamb and chicken. I loved how the chimichurri sauce went well with the lamb breast which was really fatty, so it really had a lot of flavor in it. The sourness of the chimichurri provided a nice contrast to the richness of the lamb. The chicken tasted like good old deep fried chicken but without all the excess oil that came with it since this one was brick oven cooked.  The pork ribs was okay, but it was nothing different from all the baby back ribs we have tasted all over the city.

We're definitely coming back here to have lamb and chicken. We probably won't order that big platter again, just the half that we liked. And I just might finally give in to ordering panizza.

Uncle Cheffy
2nd Floor (al fresco area), Eastwood Mall,
Eastwood City, E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue,
Bagumbayan, Quezon City
(02) 470 2750 and (02) 3837215
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Uncle-Cheffy/195383127315

Hooters

October 20, 2012. Saturday.

After a long day of going around Mall of Asia, we just had to get a heavy dinner. But we also wanted to eat at somewhere new (again!), so we walked around San Miguel by the Bay from one end to the other. Finally, we came upon Hooters, which was just right because I also had a burger craving going on.

Entering Hooters, you'll instantly feel being transported into the USA. I couldn't tell the difference with the wooden interiors between the local Hooters and the ones from the States. There were memorabilia, old signs, bumper stickers spread around the place. And of course it wouldn't be complete without the Hooters Owl and Hooters Girls. An owl "hoots" and girls have, uhm, "hooters". One thing I noticed that was different with the local version of this American favorite, was that there was no white cotton/ spandex shirt and orange shorts on the girls, but no worries they were still scantily clad in black.

Kim got us Fish and Chips to share.

Fish and Chip. 395php.

This has got to be the weirdest Fish and Chips. The tartar sauce it comes with was just too sour.. lemony sour! It tasted and smelled like lemon squares, so it was really weird dipping the fish in it. Good thing that the fish was good on its own even without the sauce. Lightly battered and fried, and not too oily.

She also ordered Boneless Wings for herself.

Boneless Wings. 395php.

One would think that not having any bones in your chicken wings is the greatest idea ever, since you can just concentrate on the meat itself. But it just isn't eating wings without the bones, and the effort you put into painstakingly trying to remove the meat off of it. The taste of the sauce itself was just so- so, but I think it would be enough to satisfy any wings craving.

And I got myself a Mushroom-Swiss Burger.

Mushroom-Swiss Burger. 495php.

I've had better burgers than this for the price. Wendy's Bacon Mushroom Melt would totally kill this. I had the patty well done, and it was so well done that there was no juice left in it. It was that dry!

For drinks we got an Iced Tea and Coke, both bottomless. At 90php each, we sure are glad that both were bottomless!

The prevalent theme of this dinner was that everything was just mediocre. But since there really are no other places like this in the Philippines, you have to try it at least once. In my opinion, the oddity of a restaurant using sex appeal in a mainstream market in an annoyingly self righteous Catholic country is enough to justify the jacked up prices.

Hooters
https://www.facebook.com/HootersPhilippines
Cluster D, San Miguel by the Bay,
Mall of Asia, Pasay City,
Philippines
(02) 556 4946
info@hooterspacificasia.com