food trip

food, desserts, coffee, jp and me

the bluetooth feature in my phone miraculously worked without problems yesterday allowing me to upload all 51 photos from the phone's gallery into my laptop. the photos were taken from middle of last year upto just a few weeks ago documenting mostly how i have been spending my time when im neither working nor asleep: eating or having dessert with coffee, mostly hanging out with jp.

i remember a time when jp avoided rice and contented himself with bread and tuna for dinner. he would usually take his dinner after gym and ate at his office desk which was located right behind me. long gone are those tuna days. today, it seems we eat everything but bread with tuna.

there was a time when we would have "oreo w/ caramel sundae" at mcdonald's every day. another time when we would have "bunch o' lunch" at shakey's every friday. still another time when we're craving for ribs and steak. other past favorites or cravings are seafood teppanyaki, flame-grilled burgers, onion rings, donuts and jp's all-time favorite: pizza.

it's a good thing that jp and i have similar attitudes towards food and dining. we both like trying out new places to eat, obviously. but later on i have noticed that just like me, jp would often order the same dishes from these different restaurants. he would often have a favorite from a certain restaurant and would order that same dish the next time we visit the same place, with a few changes.

it is not seldom that our cravings are the same, either. here are some similarities we share when it comes to food:
(1) we both like pesto, tomato-based pasta with seafood
(2) we both like grilled fish, seafood especially with teppanyaki sauce
(3) we like baby back ribs and steak, barbeque
(4) we both like mango juice
(5) we both like coffee
(6) we both LOVE bread

there are a few differences also, but we seldom find problems with these. for example, jp likes his food extra hot and spicy so we always have to request for some hot sauce, tabasco or extra sili. jp hates talong and okra, so when we're having sinigang, these vegetables would often go to my plate. atsara which usually comes with barbecue are also often transferred to my plate, which i am always happy to accept.

some of the places we've frequented in the past are as follows:
(1) racks in megamall (for their baby back ribs)
(2) conti's in boni high street (for their filipino dishes, steaks, pastas and free coffee refill)
(3) brother's burger in boni high street (for their onion rings and flame-grilled burgers)
(4) teriyaki boy in market market (for their seafood teppanyaki and gyoza)
(5) selah in cybergate 2 (for their lunggo and cheesecakes)
(6) red kimono at the podium (for the seafood teppanyaki and tempura)
(7) when in malate, our favorite would be the kwago grill, on top of the blue room for the live acoustic music and cheap but good filipino dishes (P25 for a pork barbecue)
(8) when in eastwood city or the katipunan area, we would often dine in at fazoli's (to satisfy our pesto and garlic bread cravings) or stop-over at this Petron gasoline station near UP Diliman Campus and dine in at sicilian express (for some really good pizza and salad)
(9) when in quezon city on our way home to lola, we would sometimes stop-over at mister kebab along west avenue for some special chelo kabab with grilled tomato
(10) for our donut cravings, we go to krispy kremes at boni high (for my chocolate iced custard filled donuts) and go nuts donuts (for jp's pastillas de leche) at the Petron gasoline station in Katipunan or at the fort in taguig
(11) the coffee beanery in edsa shangri-la mall (for their pork & chicken adobo and tocino)

food featured above are from selah (cheesecake), kopi roti, sizzling pepper steak, sicilian (pizza), mcdo, UP isawan, conti's (coffee), crepes & cream, and texas smoke em (lime pie)

here are our other favorites, but have not had the chance to visit again:
(1) cafe ysabel (for the ambience and excellent quality of food) in san juan
(2) cafe juanita (for their bagnet and other filipino dishes) in mandaluyong city
(3) restaurant at the 31st floor of the vivere suites in alabang (for a fantastic view of the bay and the city)
(4) bag of beans in tagaytay (for their freshly-baked breads and fruit platter)

there are many other amazing restaurants we're interested to try out around the metropolis, restaurants you did not know existed but have had loyal followers throughout the years. i do not hope to be a food critique (i am far too simplistic for that), but i wish to get to know my city a little better and be able to share this experience of discovery and *wonder* with my friends and favorite people. if you have suggestions on where to eat next, please let me know!

here are other photos from our various food trips.