OUR AWESOME PLANET: December 2007

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Sunday, December 30, 2007

Chefs' Quarters - Malate version of Duo

I'm happy that Robinsons Manila Midtown is bringing a new life to the restaurant scene in Malate. One interesting concept is Chefs' Quarters which offers fine dining at P200-P400 price range.

What do Le Soufflé Restaurant in Makati, French Corner in Alabang, Duo Steakhouse and Wine Bar in Serendra and Chefs' Quarters in Malate have in common? Answer: the tandem of Larry Cortez and Chef Mauro Arjona. They were pioneers of Le Soufflé, worked with Billy King to setup Voulez Vous now French Corner in Alabang before they decided to setup their own restaurant Duo in Serendra and now, their second restaurant, Chefs’ Quarters in Malate.

We love the concept of great service, good food at a casual dining atmosphere. We recommend the breakfast menu and they are open as early as 7am. There are plenty of parking spaces in Robinson's Manila Midtown and we like to hang out here this holiday season to avoid the crowds.

Chefs' Quarter's Menu
Sharing Appetizers, Salads, Soups | Fish Selection, Pasta & Rice Selection, Desserts | Beef, Lamb & Poultry Selection | Breakfast Menu | Snacks and Pica & Pica |(Photo Menu) Breakfast, Pasta and Rice Selection, Beef, Lamb Poultry | Desserts, Fish Selection, Salads, Sharing Appetizers

"Smile, papa!" said Aidan. This is one of those rare occasions when we would bring syoti with us during our food trip.

Hot Chocolate in a mug (P100). We love this Belgian Hot Chocolate! You must try this.

Tessie Tomas Salad "Old Time Favorite" (P295+). A Combination of Roasted Prawn, Marinated Salmon & Shitake Mushroom with Mesclun Salad in French Creamy Balsamic Dressing.

This was described by inquirer in the article Fine Dining on a budget as "A mainstay on the menu and definitely an attention-grabber is the Tessie Tomas Salad, named after the Imeldific’s occasional alter ego." I would describe it as an ordinary salad with a bit of branding to give an excuse to charge P300+.

Pan-Fried Salmon Gravad Lachs (P280+). In dill mustard; served with scrambled egg, hash-brown potato and coffee.

The breakfast menu items in Chefs' Quarters are something to rave about. We were quite impressed by the quality of the salmon, and the way it was cooked.

Chef's Quarters Steak (P395 +). 6oz US beef top blade marinated in chef's special blend with potato vegetable compote and garlic-parsley butter.

Rache loved this steak although I find it a bit oily.

Chef's Quarters-6 <%2

December 30, 2007 in 04. Restaurants that are worth to try once, 31. The Best of Malate and Old Manila | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack

Friday, December 28, 2007

Heads or Tails - a new kaya place in Mall of Asia

Heads or Tails is a franchise from Thailand and I heard stories of people lining up in the food court of Siam Paragon (The flagship beautiful mall in Thailand) just to get a taste of their buttered toast and kaya toppings. We love kaya so we decided to try them. They are trying to replicate the concept in Manila by situating Heads or Tails in the food court of Mall of Asia.

(BTW, I forgot to ask why it is called Heads or Tails)

Heads or Tails specializes in Buttered Toast and Toppings. We tried the Strawberry Fruit Jam topping (P40) and the Taro Kaya Topping (P40). We like the Taro Kaya but we find the fruit jam ordinary which I ordered for Aidan.

Heads or Tails
She is a Thailander on loan to train the local staff. They just opened middle of December in Mall of Asia.

We would suggest to try the kaya toppings which come in Taro, Vanilla or Pandan flavor.

Heads or Tails
Thailand - Singapore - Malaysia - Indonesia - Philippines
2nd Level, Main Mall, in front of SM Food Court.

December 28, 2007 in 32. The Best of Mall of Asia | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBack

Paseo de Bahamas - Great Hangout place in Midtown

So after breakfast at Chefs' Quarters and dessert in Sucree, we came back on December 25 evening to hang out with my brother. We were surprised to find an inuman place that serves great food.

We were brainstorming on how to go about our 100days tour of the Philippines in preparation to write my book, Our Awesome Planet: Philippines. I was convincing him to join me and we would start a weekly internet show called Our Awesome Planet Live or Where in the Philippines is Aidan? (any other suggestions?) during that 100 days trip. You should see the awesome wedding videos of my brother Rommel and Iggy who are partners in Cinematic Concepts. I would like the internet show to have the same cinematic treatment but filmed you tube style.

We were dreaming on Christmas Day and hoping in comes true in 2008. We were dreaming of being sponsored by Canon for all our photo and video equipment. We love Canon and we won't settle for anything less :) (sorry for the Nikon fans out there...) We were inspired to give an alternative show to see the beauty of the Philippines in our own eyes and share it with the rest of the world. We plan to do it ourselves with the help of some friends, the support of our families, few sponsors that we would like to work with and a few donations from friends of OAP.

So much for that dream... let's go back to Paseo de Bahamas. We love the service, the great food that we did not expect and the beer tower concept. Check out their menu:

Beer Tower (3 Liters) (P450). Aidan was our taga-tagay and we finished this beer tower which contains probably about 8 bottles of San Mig Light.

The 450 Beer Tower comes with this pica pica platter.

Spaghetti Arabiata (P158). Spaghetti Pasta with eggplant & bacon in spicy tomato herb sauce. This was the cheapest pasta but not the cheapest in terms of taste. The serving size is about right for one person with a good appetite.

Salmon Duxelle - Grilled Salmon with mixed vegetables (P250). My wife and I kept raving about the juicy salmon taste of this grilled salmon.

Beef Shank "Osso Buco Style" with Mushroom Rissotto (P385+). The Osso Buco is tender with an awesome mushroom risotto and mushroom gravy sauce (I think).

Banana Split with Chocolate Sauce & Nut (P145) and Amaretto Caramel Flan (P115). We tried the dessert and we would recommend to go to Sucree instead.

Charisse, Rommel and Aidan's version of the Korean pose.

Paseo de Bahamas
Level 1 - Alfresco Space
Robinsons Place Manila-Midtown Ermita, Manila
Telephone: +632 528 4017 or 567 1911
Email: paseodebahamas@yahoo.com.ph

anton signature

December 28, 2007 in 31. The Best of Malate and Old Manila | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack

Sucree -- Midtown's Dessert Place

Sucree Torte (P850 Whole/ P125 Slice). Imagine a double layer of chocolate-almond sponge filled with chocolate ganache followed by a silky layer of creme brulee and amaretto flavored chocolate mousse, enrobe in shiny chocolate coating. A torte that truly deserves our name.

Sucree opened their second branch in Robinson's Midtown. After eating in Chefs' Quarters, Sucree is the dessert place to be. The virginity of Sucree was featured in Lori's Manila's 10 Best Desserts, 2007 and was described as:

"Anyway, the aforementioned Virginity is what I’d expect in a cake tagged with that appellation. It’s pristine in color — almost white actually, (virginal!) – a sponge cake perfumed in vanilla caressed by the lightest layer of dulce de leche. Occasional bursts of macadamia praline add textural interest and keep the mouth enticed. Truly, while this cake is purely immaculate in looks, there’s nothing virginal about it in taste."

We decided to try the most expensive cake which is the Sucree Torte but we were disappointed. The creme brulee was out of place in a chocolate cake. We should have stick to Lori's recommendation.

Sucree Cake Menu 1 | Menu 2 | Menu 3

Sucree Patisserie & Cafe
2nd Floor Robinson's Place Manila-Midtown
Original Branch at Sct. Borromeo, South Triangle, Quezon City
Tel. No. +632 4150943
Mobile No. + 63 922 8042253

December 28, 2007 in 31. The Best of Malate and Old Manila | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBack

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

San Miguel Bay Walk @ Esplanade, Mall of Asia

Thanks to Henry Sy for creating the Perfect Bay Walk Gimmick Place in the Esplanade @ Mall of Asia. For those who missed the Manila Bay Walk demolished by Mayor Lim, the Esplanade is a better alternative because it has...

Manila Bay walk ambiance with decent restrooms...
Seaside Paluto restaurants with Aling Tonya's, Trinity or Julie's iHaw-iHaw...
Pier One and Padi's Point inuman place with a nice view of the fireworks...
Clean and secure ambiance with security guards on motorcycles...
Plenty of parking space and near SM Mall of Asia...

The entire place is branded as San Miguel by the Bay which means only San Miguel products are sold (I don't mind). The only thing is they built it tooo close to the bay. I do hope they will able to maintain the cleanliness of the place and Manila Bay.

Missile Head Art Work