Yoji and the Foodies

The Old Spaghetti House also serves brewed coffee. It’s surprisingly good. What’s curious though is the coffee cups they use:

Does this mean The Old Spaghetti House is affiliated with Caffe Mauro?

I seriously thought that Adobo is the knee-jerk response to the question “What is your favorite Filipino food?” It turns out, Sinigang (baboy, shrimp, or beef) is king!

As they say, it’s hard to mess up sinigang. I disagree. Many eateries and food places have become so greedy that they skimp on the one thing that makes a sinigang a real sinigang — the broth. There are numerous ways on how to make the sour broth. Making it from scratch is always the best option but for those who do not have time, the “sinigang” mix is the only option.

It took 30 mins to get the necessary ingredients and assemble them. The pork sinigang cut is 140 per kilo.

Sinigang na baboy is not my number 1 favorite but when it’s done well it’s way up there in the Top 3.

Friday nights have become “looking forward to” nights because I get to see my friend/s without having to travel for long hours. More time to eat and chat and less time being stuck in traffic. It is also in those Friday nights that we get to try every single food offering in Starbucks. Starbucks is not a place you go to for food but after 2 hours of coffee drinking, the brain starts to remind you that you need solid food.

We set our eyes on this solid food. Ham & Cheese Croissant.

The Boss gave it 4 stars.

It was bound to happen  — ordering Spaghetti Bolognese at TOSH (The Old Spaghetti House – SM Center Las Pinas)

The first 2 visits, we completely ignored the pasta (read: the specialty). The third time proved to be the best because we really enjoyed the pasta!

Pesto-Sun Dried Tomato Spaghetti with Chicken

Spaghetti Bolognese

The garlic bread is as awesome as the pasta. I think we found a nice place to hangout on a regular basis (or until we couldn’t stand the sight of spaghetti any more).

I went to the market today as a favor to a friend who needs a price list for that “thing” she needs for her business. I was more than happy to do this for her since I’m excited for her new venture. The plan was to go straight to the supplier then back home. But you see, this is one of the biggest wet-dry markets in the south. It’s just not possible to ignore the good stuff.

Needless to say, I got sidetracked. I ended up with 1 kilo of lansones, half kilo of peanuts, fried lumpia, and a kilo of these:

Mangosteen! They normally go for 100 pesos per kilo but I found a charming vendor who was more than happy to offer me 80 pesos per kilo. She even told me to save the shell and boil them. Apparenty, most people who buy from her use the shell for medicinal purposes.

To crack the mangosteen open, most people I know score the center (cross-wise) and crack it open. I, on the other hand, opened the shell the way I would an avocado. That’s why it looks weird in the photo (haha!). It does not matter how you open it, just enjoy the fruit… which I did. Immensely.

A kind soul sent a huge block of Edam cheese that weighs a ton!

Edamer or Edam cheese tastes pretty much like the mozzarella you buy at the grocery. It’s not salty and it does not smell. Cheese this huge could make A LOT of pizza using a variety of bread. My mind is on cheese party mode but I have limited ingredients at the moment, so I ended up making an open faced grilled/toasted cheese sandwich (sort of!).

Fellow foodie Shoppinjer finally bought the Tefal Activys Oven she had been lusting over for the past 12 months (or so).

In less than a week, this new kitchen toy has managed to bake brownies, chewy choco chip cookies, and pandesal. The size needs a little tweaking (she still has to buy cookie cutters, mold, and other baking contraption hehehe).

Fighting off flu-like symptoms for a week made me lose  my appetite. Sure, I could use a few pounds off (especially on the backside) but not this way. Not. This. Way.

I ended up eating fruits, wheat bread, and cereal for a week. It was a week of healthy eating but The Avenger said I looked pale and I should go out more. I did go out and found my appetite getting “back into the swing of things”. Thanks to this Crispy Pata from Manoy & Cucuz.

This is a mean looking crispy pata that is best eaten with cold beer instead of rice. It’s something that macho men would enjoy eating during a drinking session celebrating a sports victory or just plain male bonding.  I would prefer a more refined version of crispy pata from Barrio Fiesta or Max’s, but this Cucuz version is the spark that I needed to jumpstart that part of my brain in charge of bringing back my appetite to normal level.

After being coaxed into having my feet pampered, my friend The Boss and I went for a very late lunch at Old Spaghetti House in SM Center Las Pinas.

We were blown away by the Thai Salad Crunch (I am not sure if I got the words in the right sequence! haha). It’s crunchy, refreshing, sweet, sour, and nutty. It’s an assault to the palate.  A very good assault.

A week later, The Don and I find ourselves in the same place, but different food.

The fries were re-fried. I could tell. It’s crunchy and oily.

The roast beef is cheesy. A little too cheesy and rich for my liking, but it is interestingly good.

This chicken bbq is huge but fell short of expectations, taste-wise. The bbq sauce is an imported brand, straight from the bottle. I bet.

Although the food the 2nd time around is less than stellar, I enjoyed taking pics of the antique-ish display.

These two items I want to bring home:

Next time, I’d order the house specialty: Spaghetti!

Scramble is what you get if you combine crushed ice, food color, essence/flavoring, sugar, and powdered milk. The concoction is placed in a sturdy styro container and then mixed using an electric egg beater. The constant beating (scrambling) will give it the foamy consistency.

Of course it’s nothing new. In fact, it’s been around even before I was born. My first taste of scramble was when I was in Grade 1. It was my last too. The school principal (a nun) said that if we buy another, we’d burn in hell. Of course that’s what I heard her say, but what she really said was that the scramble sold by manong in his tattered sando may be Thyphoid Mary in disguise. The water may be contaminated and the contraption used for scrambling may not be properly cleaned.  Of course I got scared. It was easy to scare a 7 year old back then.

So, when I saw Scramble Mania (20 years later), I didn’t know what to feel or how to react. There’s my childhood version of the sandman.

I didn’t buy the first time because I was in a hurry.

When I came back months later, there really is a mad scramble.

It’s the SM 3-day sale at SM Sucat, hence, people trooped to the mall en masse.

I saw how they made the scramble and the process didn’t change much. Not at all. The mall version of scramble lets you choose toppings (2 and 4 pesos  depending on your choice- candy sprinkles, mallows, extra milk, chocolate).

Like so:

Not bad for 10 pesos (10 oz.).  Nostalgia factor makes me overlook the fact that the powdered milk is a little salty.