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Top Meals - Makati's Secret Bicol Comfort Food

Friuli Trattoria and Ateneo Foodies

I got invited by the cool dudes of MIS Association of Ateneo to give a talk on blog marketing in the KinEITics IT conference. It was nice to meet Lance, Lorenz, Francine and Mark in Friuli Trattoria in UP Village for our pre-meet before the conference. I've know a lot of restaurants in QC area but this is my first time to hear Fruili. Thanks to the MISA guys for suggesting Friuli to me. Fruili is a small Italian restaurant that is a favorite among Ateneo and UP foodies.

Tre Formaggi (P160). Another classic pizza of three cheeses - mozzarella, cheddar & blue. A treat for cheese lovers.

This is the best pizza of the house and you can order one for takeout because this is quite unique. The blue cheese taste stands out in this 3-cheese pizza with wheat bread crust.

Magherita (P160). Simply a combination of garlic and herbs smothered with 2 layers of mozzarella cheese topped with fresh tomatoes.

The magherita is done well and this is another bestseller for Fruili.

Jonas' Pares

All-Time-Favorite Pares (P100)

Another unique treat in Robinson's Place - Pioneer, is one of the mall outlet of the popular Jonas Pares restaurant in Quezon City.

Jonas is credited for inventing the term "Pares" which means the pairing of beef and rice.. It also refers to the value meal of beef, rice and soup. It was founded by Lolly Tiu in 1979 who envisioned a restaurant providing fine-dining quality food at a price affordable to masses. What makes Pares so special is how the beef was prepared and cooked. Seventy percent (70%) of the beef is lean meat from beef flanks; the rest of the 30% is from fat. The beef is tender because it was slow-cooked in a charcoal-fed fire for at least 12 hours! Anythying you cook for this length in time will definitely becomes soft; add to these the various spices it is definitely tasty and yummy.


Jonas has a simple menu. Aside from Pares, you can order mami, siomai, siopao or spring rolls.
All Time Favorites and Mami | Siopao, Drinks and Desserts | The Story of Jonas

Be honest, have you tried pares before? If you haven't tried the carinderia version, check out the upscale Jonas restaurant version in Robinson Place Pioneer.

Bacolod Chicken Inasal Express - The Best Bacolod Chicken Inasal Place in the Heart of Makati

8 Secrets of the Authentic Bacolod Chicken Inasal

Paa (P88) or Pecho (88) Authentic Bacolod Chicken Inasal.

Do you know that there is an authentic Bacolod Chicken Inasal in the heart of the Makati District? Two of the authentic Bacolod Chicken Inasal places in Manila are Joel Torre's (JT's) Manukan in Greenhills and Bacolod Chicken House Express in Makati. These are the two places where people from Bacolod satisfy their craving for an authentic chicken inasal. Here are the 8 secrets of the authentic Bacolod Chicken Inasal:

1. The authentic Bacolod Chicken Inasal place cooks the chicken 100% raw which makes it juicier than the commercialized version. Some of the commercialized Bacolod Chicken Inasal places use chicken that is already half-cooked (or worse cooked already and just reheated).

2. The secret in the flavor of the Chicken Inasal is in the orange atsuete oil sauce.

3. One of the Bacolod favorites is the Isol (P38). In Bacolod, Isol means atras and it refers to the chicken ass. The right way to eat isol is to put everything in your mouth and eat it (including the tail bone).

Other Bacolod favorites are the Baticolon (P30) and Atay (P40).

[Flavors of La Salle] Solomon's Guest House

Be Our Guest @ Solomon’s

One of Malate's secret places is called Solomon's Guest House. It is the practicum restaurant of De La Salle - College of St. Benilde School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management. Only the creme dela creme of the batch are allowed to operate and run the restaurant for a particular term. Since it opened in May 2003 to the public, they now have 14 batches of students serving the Solomon Guest House. Batch-14's theme is Mediterranean Cuisine and Solomon's House Classics.

It is named after a De La Salle brother - Br. Solomon Nicholas Leclerq who was martyred during the French Revolution on September 2, 1792 and the first to be beatified among the La Sallian brothers on October 17, 1926. The Solomon Guest House is hidden along one of the side streets from the corner of De La Salle - College of St. Benilde Angelo King Building.

What we love about Solomon house is that you can eat their Parm Crusted Fish classic complete with presentation and ambiance for less than P100. Also, their paninis are sold for P65 only. The service is very good and the students are very professional. We love to bring our guests here. However, the Solomon House fails in comparison with all the other practicum restaurants that I have been to. That is sad because CSB's culinary arts has the highest tuition and they are on trimestral basis.

[Flavors of La Salle] Mama V Resto

Beef Tapa (P89).

Mama V @ The Providence Tower is what I would call an All Filipino Restaurant. It probably serves all the Filipino food that we loved since our childhood. Beef tapa (in 12 special flavors), tocino, pork chop, corned beef, sisig, 9 pork variations (afritada, binagoongan, caldereta, kare kare, menudo, patatim, pochero, sinigang, sweet and sour), macaroni salad, spaghetti tomato, adobo, pork/chicken barbecue (in 12 special flavors) and chicharon. The menu is targeted to students and most of the dishes are less than P100.

It was established way after we graduated from DLSU and it caters to La Salle, CSB and St. Scho crowd. The place is not sossy but it is patronized by the students. Finding a parking is always a challenge so better avoid the heavy traffic hours (usually late afternoons)

Mama V Restaurant Menu | The Mama V Story

One interesting thing worth checking out is the P5/per song 24 hours a day Karaoke. There is no entrance fee, no cover charge, no person/per hour charge. The private air conditioned rooms can comfortably sit 5-10 persons but I usually see more people inside the room. I miss the college days where you hang out in a karaoke to celebrate someone's birthday and the more squeezed you are inside the room-- the better it is (if you know what I mean :)

(For room reservations with advance food orders, call Tita at 02 440 8749)

[Flavors of La Salle] Do you remember Garaje?

Garaje

We have always wondered what happened to our favorite Garaje turo turo place in La Salle. Garaje was the favorite food hang out place for DLSU engineering back then and most student raved about that place in the 1990s. Fast forward to 2000, it already moved to a nearby location where there are no signs and you can only see a small door beside a sari sari store. We actually got lost and had to call a few folks to give us direction. This place gave us an idea to do a series on restaurants/ food places around the La Salle area that is worth blogging about.

We lived in the Malate area near DLSU, so we decided to have our family lunch in Garaje. Rache was still pregnant with Josh but this did not stop us from reminiscing our college days ignited by the Garaje food.

Lime 88, Street Food na Pina-Sosyal

I must admit, we had second thoughts of going to Lime 88. It appeared like any one of those inuman place in Mandaluyong and we don't want that especially we have Aidan in tow. We saw bikers who lived in the Mandaluyong area, patronizing this place. Sometimes, you might see Mac Mac Cardona or some of the basketball players eating here because they say, they just live nearby.

One of the reasons I agreed to do a taste test of what Lime 88 has to offer, is because of Chef Archie Val Juanta. He worked as senior chef in M Cafe and currently a chef in Paseo Uno, Mandarin Hotel. He will soon be the corporate chef of Hagen Daz, Max Brenner, Olivers, Tea n Therapy and Blue Steak and Bistro, Trinoma. Given that credentials and the ambiance of the place, you can only expect excellent food at very affordable prices.

Daryl, Earl and Chef Archie Val Juanta -- Owners of Lime 88, Mandaluyong

Chef Archie decided to convert his lola's ancestral house (these days anything old is called ancestral for sossy effect) into a restaurant. It serves Filipino Street Food with a twist or "pina-sosyal" as he would call it. It is a very interesting concept where I can bring my visitors to an authentic street food experience prepared in a clean and nice way but of course, nothing beats the original.

I will always remember to not judge a restaurant by how it looks but by how the food would taste like. I'm going back to Lime 88 for sure and I do hope the place remains to be a secret. We almost tasted everything in the menu and this was the first time we had such a wonderful taste test experience.

Lime 88 serves a fun menu, check this out. Let me know what do you think are the most interesting one...