Yoji and the Foodies

Kopiccino, you had me at Choco Granules…

Arguably, the best instant cappuccino drink around. Kopiko has done it right. Nescafe, take a lesson.

Quickly’s 20-peso Upsize is so worth it. Just don’t choke on the “sagos”.  I just ordered a Taro Taro Overload.

Alabang Town Center (ATC or Town, depending on where you live) is slowly upgrading its mall to resemble that of the garden theme malls in Greenbelt and Glorietta. The outdoor wing is now home to newly-opened restaurants that include Johnny Rockets, Barcino, P.F. Chang’s, Abe, and Jamba Juice. They are the pricey bunch and very rarely do regular folks like us dine in these food joints.

Our mission was to try Jamba Juice. We’ve witnessed the hype but reserved judgment until the time was right to try the smoothies without the Jamba Juice Banana Man shaking his money maker on us.

 

Jamba Juice

When we asked for the bestsellers, Strawberry Wild and Banana Berry were immediately offered. I strayed and ordered Peanut Butter Moo’d instead. I give high marks for the texture because it stays true to its name. It’s thicker than most fruit shakes but not as thick as milkshakes. It is like drinking liquid choc-nut.  It tastes good on the first few sips, then satiation sets in. It is definitely not a thirst quencher.

Although Jamba Juice has something unique to offer, it had me wanting. I half expected a party in my mouth, but that didn’t happen.  It has plenty of gimmicks but short on taste.

I bought a yellow flesh watermelon because there’s no red variety around.  I know for a fact that the yellow flesh variety predates me but it is only now that it has become widely available (but then again, I tend to live under a rock from time to time).

They are sad to look at.  Boring, even.

But they are awesome! “Where-have-you-been-all-my-life?” moment at first bite.

I’m a sucker for anything mini. So this mini whole wheat pizza crust went straight to the grocery cart and into the oven.

I had no fancy cheese and sauce around, but I did have Ques-O and a leftover spaghetti sauce.

Not bad.

Looks like Village Gourmet has serious competition.

I found a sausage stand inside SM Hypermarket SM Las Pinas. They sell sausages by the gram (35 pesos per 100 grams). I love sausages, especially the snappy kind. The name of the sausage brand escapes me at the moment but it has a windmill logo (could be along the lines of Dutch Windmill…). I have tried all of the sausages they have on offer, but the one that made an impression is the schublig.

Schublig is a sausage, the history of which I have no knowledge of, but  according to a post in sausagemaking.org forum, it’s a smoked Swiss sausage made of beef, pork, spices, onion, and non-fat dried milk.

I didn’t have a hotdog/sausage bun but I have a wheat roll (Gardenia wheat pandesal, actually). It was necessary to slice the schublig. I am not sure if this is an acceptable practice among the Swiss.

Really great alternative if you are on hotdog fatigue.

If you have no idea how oily frozen hash browns can be, just have a look.

These hash browns were baked in oven. No oil added.

Not as oily as fried?

Looks ok. Still not oily enough to make you  hurl.

Now this is oil city. This is not water.

The next time you crave for a hash brown, crave something else.

Kowloon House makes the best siopaos back in the day. Many years ago, perhaps a decade or so before Hen-Lin, we would get our asado siopao fix from Kowloon House. For dine-in, they would serve 2 petite siopaos in miniature a bamboo steamer. It was a real treat.

Then Kowloon House started to fold, one branch at a time. There were a few that stayed on but they were not accessible. We have looked elsewhere to find our siopao fix. It’s always a hit or miss when it comes to siopao. If we wanted safe siopao, we get it from Chinese restaurants, but it made things expensive because it meant buying other good stuff like hakaw, siomai, and other dimsum.

But that has changed. A Kowloon House mini take-out place stands in what used to be a pawnshop along Alabang-Zapote Road. Naturally, we had to give it a go.

They no longer serve 2 mini siopaos, but 2 regular size siopaos for P55 pesos.

(I cut this in half)

Bola-bola siopao with sweet and chili sauce

The siopaos still taste wonderful. Great to have Kowloon House back in the neighborhood.

So we ordered Yellow Cab Pizza, post-acquisition. Yes, Yellow Cab was acquired by Pancake House, a company that has been on a buying spree for the past few years.

Nothing’s changed. The pizza is as oily as ever. Everything tastes wonderful. Still wonderful.

I didn’t know you can request for the pizza to be sliced in squares. Strange though that we had no problems polishing off 8 normal slices but when they are sliced differently, we couldn’t finish them. Weird diners.

The spaghetti has giant meatballs. Extra meatball is P45.

The spicy chicken wings are as spicy ever.

We like Yellow Cab a lot, but we prefer the cheaper and less greasy Domino’s Pizza just a couple of blocks away.

We planned for a Greek lunch at Cyma in Alabang Town Center but the place was jampacked. The only tables available were outside where the sun can scorch the diner. It made us wonder why we are having a summer weather in October.

The Mexicali next door was deserted. We decided to go for Cafe Mediterranean. It was a much safer choice and we didn’t stray too far from the Greek theme we were aiming for.

I’ve always wanted to try the lamb gyro in Cyma so it was the sensible choice in Cade Mediterranean too.

The picture may not show it, but thick slices of lamb meat are in there. The pita bread has always been great in Cafe Mediterranean and if not for it, this meal would have scored dismal marks from me. Lamb meat has a mild flavor taste that goes well with the house garlic sour cream and hot sauce.  The vegetables were fresh and crispy but I wished I had requested for less onion slices.  I can’t get over the fact that the lamb is tough and sinewy. Evidently, they were not from the best lamb cuts. I understand that since the meat are to be sliced anyway, there’s really no need for prime cuts of lamb. But it was a pain to chew them. Now there really is a need to try Cyma’s version just to have some sort of comparison.

My friend went for the fish kebabs and Greek salad. I was half hoping they would be served in skewers. I think I had been watching too much travel shows.

(This is just 1/2 of the salad)

My lamb gyro was a letdown but I wouldn’t turn my back on  Cafe Mediterranean. Just give me pita bread, some tomatoes, cabbage and garlic sour cream and I’m one happy camper.