Hand-Pulled Noodles at Pot & Noodles House

Lamian is a type of hand-made or hand-pulled Chinese noodle. The hand-making process involves taking a lump of dough and repeatedly stretching it to produce many strands of thin, long noodle. At Pot & Noodles House (Ground Floor, Food Garden of Trinoma Mall, QC), you can watch how the noodles you order are made. Various flavors of hand-pulled noodles are served here at two types of serving - the snack size and the regular size. Price ranges from P100 to P170.00 We ordered chicken mushroom noodles and Taiwan beef noodles. Definitely hand-pulled noodles taste better than the ordinary noodles - they are soft, thicker and white-colored.

Kaya Toast? Kayang Kaya!

We had lunch with friends at the Old China Town - Kopitiam at Maria Clara St. near Banawe, QC. Old China Town serves Singapore and Malaysian dishes. Well, I am not here to review the main dishes but their Kaya toasts. Kaya toast is a popular snack among Singaporeans and Malaysians. It was my first time to taste a Kaya toast and it was good. My kids loved it also. Essentially, Kaya spread made of coconut, egg and sugar and butter or margarine are spread on two pieces of preferably toasted bread. We had several orders of Kaya toasts that the owner offered to sell their Kaya Spread to us. So each of us took home one bottle of Kaya Spread (P138.00 each). Here is a video of Apple preparing Kaya Toasts at home. The secret to a delicious Kaya Toast is ofcourse the Kaya Spread and the bread (wheat bread when toasted becomes crispy unlike ordinary bread).

Rice Toppings with a Twist at COMBI

Along Maginhawa St., Teacher's Village, Quezon City, in the same building as Friuli Trattoria, is a small "retro" restaurant called Combi. They serve rice toppings with a "twist." Look at the pictures of the pork sisig and beef kalderata rice toppings and the mapo tofu side dish - notice anything different? Yes, the crispy and "twisty" white noodles on top of the main dish. They are there not just for decoration but for added texture and unique taste when eaten with the main dish - it's a "combi"!

The pork sisig was crunchy but a little oily (the crispy noodles somehow balances the taste, removing the oily taste). The beef calderata was tasty and delicious - the rice serving though is modest but a bigger serving will be appreciated especially if the dish is really tasty. The fried mapo tofu was colorful and also good (although a little spice is preferred). They have other dishes in the menu - katsudon , inihaw na liempo, fried siomai, arroz ala cubana, chicken bbq, beef steak, pork bingoongan and chiken fritters. They also serve fried cookies for dessert (although we haven't tried them yet).

The place is frequented by young adults, and indeed the place targets them as costumers. The music, the available magazines, the color-motiff of the place (as well as the plates), are young and hip. Even the price is affordable to students (but not as affordable as the cafeteria food, of course). The price range is between P78 to P89 for a rice topping. They open at lunch time.

Anthony Bourdain eats Pampanga's Sisig

I just watched the popular author and tv host of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain eating Pampanga's famous "Sisig" at this video from YouTube.

Yes, Bourdain visited the Philippines last year and featured Filipino cuisine including street food in his show, "No Reservations." He actually visited three places - Manila, Pampanga and Cebu. Watch him eat "Tapsilog" for breakfast and then he tried the chicken balls and taho along the busy streets of Manila. The pancit palabok was also featured. In Angeles, Pampanga, Bourdain ate goat meat, sinigang na bangus, chicken liver barbecue, sisig, "Pako" or fern salad, kare-kare and quails. In Cebu, (Go to Bourdain at Cebu) he had high praises for the famous lechon of Cebu. To quote him from his blog "It can now be said that of all the whole roasted pigs I've had all over the world, the slow roasted lechon I had on Cebu was the best." He ranked it number one followed by Bali and Puerto Rico. Wow! At least we're number ONE in something good (not only corruption! ooops! I am just so proud to be a Filipino). Bourdain also visited the dry fish market of Tabo-an, Cebu.

I don't know when this episode will be shown in the cable tv in Manila. Anyway you can watch the show at YouTube c/o mrfhardy's video.

Battle of the Chickens!

Recently, we posted a survey about fastfoods for "pizza & pasta" and "burger & fries." This survey is still on going. Cast your vote.

We are adding another survey. This time on restaurants and fast foods that serve their own special brand of chicken and preparations or combinations - Jollibee's Chickenjoy, KFC's finger lickin good' original recipe, Max's "sarap to bones" fried chicken, McDo's chicken, Shakey's Chick and Chips, Andok's and Baliuag's lechon manok, Kenny Roger's Roasted Chicken, Savory's, Aritocrat's chicken barbecue and the Inasal Chicken Bacolod . The list only inlcudes restos that you will usually find in the big shopping malls. I know there are other restos that serve delicious chicken recipes. But let us limit the list at the moment and focus later on specialty chicken restos.

The survey asks "If you want to eat chicken, where will you go?" In the poll at the right side, you may vote for as many restos you want. So vote now.