Mmmmmmasseto

Don't you love finding out about a secret address before everyone else?

Masseto, the wine lounge-cum-restaurant, is well-known amongst the wine aficionado set and is fast becoming the preferred resto of choice amongst the ladies-who-lunch-and-sometimes-enjoy-a-tipple-or-two set. Headed by executive chef Tippi Tambunting (who also owns the catering arm, Saltine), the food is simply presented yet utterly delectable.

My first time here, I was very impressed with the plush interiors done by Maja Olivares-Co but wasn't used to the spare plating sans garnishing. But like all things, the culinary world has its own trends and apparently the spare, albeit clean plate is one currently ongoing (remember my Alain Ducasse entry?).

Needless to say, Masseto grew on me and after doing a shoot for Tatler with Billy and Eliza Valtos who love both the food and wine, I came to a better understanding of it.

Of course, the wines are divine. They store their most expensive ones in the vault (the space where Masseto is used to be Security Bank). Talk about precious cargo!

So when my girlfriends wanted to get together and also celebrate my birthday (Trisha O, Trisha B and Moe- thanks and till the next time!) I suggested to introduce them to Masseto.

As a venue in which to enjoy wine, the pica-pica is superb.

Highly addicting parmesan crisps with goat cheese

Chorizo fritters 

Bacalao fritters with garlic sauce

I don't know how Tippi does it, but all of these appetizers were crisp, tasty and not at all oily, and went perfectly with a crisp white wine. But of all the dishes on Tippi's menu, I must say I love this the most. Its Bottarga (Italian roe) pasta:

Because of this, I ended up buying a bunch of ready to eat packs of Bottarga when I was at Muji in Hong Kong :)

Then Tippi treated me to Strawberry Pavlova for my birthday. (Thanks again Tippi!)

I haven't been here since then, but Margie had gone recently with some girlfriends and Tippi served them lobster that wasn't even on the menu....fantastic! I heart you Masseto!

Masseto
114 Valero Street
Salcedo Village
Tel +632.810.3565

Getting a room at Apt 1B

I'm baaaaccckk!

Yes, back to Apartment 1B, my friendly Salcedo neighborhood hangout. This time, Marga and Amy treated me for my actual birthday and we had brunch and dalandan juice.

Now, Apartment 1B has got to have one of the best damn brunches in town- everyday, except Sunday (weirdly) and until 3PM! Yes, you heard right folks, I said 3PM!

I always end up ordering the same thing.   

Here's that dalandan soda that I adore!

Of the three brunch meals, can you guess who ordered what?

Carnivores delight

Eggs Benedict with Canadian ham

Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and spinach

I made my photos extra big for you to salivate over. Just look at that hollandaise sauce! Sometimes I split this with Kate so we can get dessert too. Missing Kate here!

So did you guess?

Marga (in the middle) opted for the the first brunch. Amy (on the right) got the eggs Benedict with Canadian ham, always the ham. So that leaves me with the smoked salmon option. In the States, sometimes brunch menu items say they have salmon so I get eggscited and order it only to find out its not smoked salmon, but regular salmon ew.

But not at Apt 1B- they give you the good stuff! 

But we also had dessert- sin- which is why I probably didn't have dinner that night:

This multi-layered crepe cake grew on us

Deadly turtle pie

 Thank you ladies! And for the lovely pressies as well, ones that I use all the time and get many compliments on :) Love you!

P.S. Hi Robbie Dinglasan, thank you for inspiring me to finally post this entry today. Glad you enjoyed the Apartment!

Angel's food for my birthday

On April 26, I celebrated a milestone birthday (21?) and to celebrate my family and I ate at Angel's Kitchen along Connecticut Street in Greenhills for Sunday lunch. It was my first time to visit but I've heard so many good things about the food, plus it was kid friendly, close to the house and right next to fun Japanese store where I ended up buying mochi ice cream. But i'm getting ahead of myself.


Dining at Angel's Kitchen made me feel like we intruded into someone's house. Should you decide to eat here, you really need to make reservations as the place has limited seating.


There were so many items on the menu that sounded so good, we decided to share them all.  These are the starters: 

Margie ordered this salad of blue cheese, walnuts and apples

huge pieces of salpicao- this went quick!

succulent gambas

Then for the main event, there were so many delicious dishes, you couldn't name one as a favorite

forget Chow King and Jericho Rosales, this orange chicken is the bomb!

 Although this one below was the Manny Pacquiao of them all. How ingenious to make chicken tocino look like barbecue?

barbecued chicken tocino and tinapa fried rice

As you can see, they are very fond of pairing meat with some sort of fried rice- definitely a complete meal! This was garlic ribs with Chinese fried rice, which my dad liked

This one above was pork binagoongan and pinakbet fried rice. Since I'm allergic to bagoong, I skipped this but it is supposedly the specialty of the house. My sister loved this!

This is what I ordered, lamb curry. So there you have it! Filipino, Chinese, Indian, Spanish (Dad ordered the lengua which said was also yummy). There was so much food, we even took home some for dinner that night. 


We had to leave room for the dessert:

One happy satiated family! As Jack, my brother in law, said: "Eating here is like having someone who really, really loves you cook for you." With so many items on the menu of so many different cuisines, we didn't think Angel's Kitchen would pull off every dish, but they did, and for such reasonable prices. My father-in-law is happy to have found a new place to dine at!


 Thanks for celebrating with me family, I love you!


Angel's Kitchen 

57 Connecticut Street, North East Greenhills

San Juan, Metro Manila

Philippines

+632.744.1018

House of Mouse

Hello, dear readers!

Let me begin this entry by apologizing for my absence. You've always been in my mind and the photos in my hard drive, but I unfortunately ran out of time to post. I do hope to make it up to you with these new entries that will bring you back to your childhood.

When you were a kid, did you ever want to stay at a Disneyland hotel but never got to?

Well, my family decided vacay to the wonderful world of Disney but in Hong Kong, and was it an adventure!

First off, my yaya (nanny) didn't have the proper docs to get a passport so this was our first trip without one.
Secondly, there was an amazing deal on Cebu Pacific so we left through Clark.

Disclaimer: I will never again fall for an "Any Juan Can Fly Promo" of Cebu Pacific for it is all a sham, sham, sham! Hidden charges and inflexibility will make you want to wring their necks later on, aside from the fact that they play annoying games while you try to sleep on the plane. My only condolence was that Enzo got sick on the plane ride back to Manila so we left a goody bag for the flight attendants to find.

But it was a very good trip and bonding experience; a special one for Enzo's memory banks.

Since Enzo didn't know what he was in for, I think hubby and I were more excited than he was.

When we finally arrived at the hotel at noon (from a flight time of 7AM, don't ask), we ate at the Chinese restaurant, the Crystal Lotus. I was too tired to take photos of the food but here are the interiors:

They also provide special plate ware for the kiddos:

But Enzo had Burger King at the airport so he just pretended to eat. Pooped from the day's travels, we just had room service for dinner.

Early next morning, we headed to the Enchanted Gardens for buffet breakfast, and they say there is a queue so its good we went early. This is what HK$250/ adult, $150/ child gets you:

Mickey-shaped pancakes!

Mickey waffles!

Breakfast of champions (Caloy)

Breakfast of skinny Minnies (me)

But this is not why its so popular. Guess who we got to meet? Enzo took our photos:

Everyone got so excited to meet and eat with the characters that they, well, forgot to eat. Disney employees had to tell guests to sit down.

The next day, away from the mania, we chose to eat breakfast in the more dignified saloon.

By this time, we were quite tired of everything Disney, plus we had exhausted eating at all three restaurants and room service. I wanted to show Enzo the "real" Hong Kong (read: eat somewhere else and do a little shopping not Disney-related) so we took the train to Kowloon.

After checking out Muji at Ocean Terminal, we ate Japanese food. They had these awesome lunch deals! By this time, I had to adjust my order to what Enzo liked to eat, and what he wanted was beef. So I ordered the Surf n Turf for HK$188- what a steal compared to Disney Hotel prices where they charge you $100 for a hot dog!

When we got back to Manila, for lunch we had some good old KFC in the car. Nothing like some junk food after 3 days of hotel food!