Double the Fun (Part 2)

Another restaurant that I ate at this week was Cafe Juanita in Burgos Circle, Fort Bonifacio, for my dearest friend's birthday dinner.

I've eaten at the original location several times. I find it amusing how, after admiring the shabby chic interiors there, you can buy a piece of it yourself to take home!

Peebee had all the food laid out on the table, family style. I've heard some people say that the franchise at The Fort just wasn't as good as the original, but it tasted the same to me. It just lacked in knick-knacks!

Sinigang again! They served each bowl individually as we sat down

Adobo cooked two ways: crispy flakes and regular. Delicious! I like the flakes the best. You can never do it at home without it tasting really oily.

Here's their version of laing. We were joking Anjeanette (whose hubby and their family hail from Bicol) that she would be a critic of the dish. She said the flavor was good, but didn't understand why each leaf wrapped a piece of pork.

Aside from mish-mash interiors, Cafe Juanita prides itself with a mish-mash menu, perfect for people who want to eat all sorts of things at the same time (like me!).

I love Thai food, and this mango catfish salad didn't disappoint, even though it was a "Filipino" restaurant

As I mentioned in part one of this post, I'm allergic to kare-kare, but look at its similarity to the sinigang from Mamou Too

Looking at these photos now reminds me of what a friend in LA told me when I took him to the only Filipino restaurant there, the Jeepney Grill. He said, "Filipinos like to eat a lot of fried or brown foods." Here's another brown fried meat, with brown sauce on top

The crispy skin is so yummy you would give your right kidney for it! This next dish is a winner. It's deep fried lapu-lapu with tamarind sauce (yes, its brown too!). It seems that Cafe Juanita has mastered the art of the "deep fry netting techinique"!

Last but not the least is dessert. Because a friend had eaten a different version the day before, when I saw sticky toffee pudding on the menu I ordered it. It was very good, but a bit on the sweet side

A perfect end to a meal with good friends and a family I have known for years!

Another plus for Cafe Juanita is that my 6-year-old was playing with the celebrator's 7-year-old nephew and let's just say they were a bit rowdy with their fighting techniques. Now, my son is usually well behaved. Nobody complained (though I did read on a restaurateur's Facebook they wanted to ban children from their restaurant. You can tell they don't have any!). The food was good old home-cooking, nothing hoity-toity, and somewhere you can bring your whole family (and even a yaya or two). Thank goodness for places like Cafe Juanita!

Happy birthday Peebee!!

Cafe Juanita
Burgos Circle, Fort Bonifacio
Tel +632.403.1952

Double the Fun (Part 1)

You just can't keep a good resto down.

There are some restaurants in Manila that just do so well, they've spawned through mitosis and now one can choose to dine at the original location or the new location.

The first one is Mamou Too, now located on the ground floor of Power Plant Mall in Rockwell. Malou Fores, its owner, said after four years in operation (it celebrated its anniversary just last month), Mamou had room to grow and had found its new home in Rockwell.

I like the fact that Mamou and Mamou Too both belong to the periphery of Makati. It's quieter, more relaxed, has a good crowd and best of all, away from undesirables (those who have passed by Havana in Greenbelt know what i'm talking about). Also designed by architect Jorge Yulo, who did the originals interiors too, Mamou Too offers everything the same: same quality food, same friendly service, same weekend brunch, same outdoor and indoor seating, same dinner reservation time slots. Soon, it will offer merienda and early cocktails.

The first time I ate here it was about 9:45pm and the place was packed! They kindly accommodated us even if last call for food was 10pm. I love theirs newspaper style menus

Their fresh, homemade bread rolls, served piping hot

And of course, the beautiful, delicious, USDA prime steak

And the choice of sides

And who can resist their dessert? love love love this key lime pie! You almost don't want to share it.

Then when I went to Mamou Too earlier this week, Annie, the manager from Serendra who was pinch hitting there, made me try the Pork Kurobuta sinigang. Now I had sinigang for lunch that day, but I couldn't resist- Kurobuta pork in sinigang???

The Mamou house iced tea

Does this look like sinigang to you?

The broth, which looked a little like kare-kare, made me dubious. I am allergic to kare-kare, but Annie insisted it is the way Malou makes her sinigang. I love how Malou's timpla (mix) is just the right touch.

It was sour and rich, with whole chunks of sigarilyas (which I loove!), okra, green sili and radish. The pork was so tender it simply fell off the bone. I can imagine that this is how sinigang is supposed to taste like, sans powder or mix...

And it came with this version of bagoong rice, which I devoured.

Technically I am allergic to bagoong too, but it was very subtle. I took what I couldn't eat home, ate it for lunch the next day and even shared it with my office mates! Now that is value for money :)

Only time bagoong will show up in this blog! Accompanies the dish

So, in addition to the steak, duck adobo flakes, vongole, Cuban chicken and pork and eggs Benedict, I love the sinigang at Mamou too!

Mamou Too's tables were all reserved this day too, and I imagine it will be this way for years to come. Lucky Rockwell residents who don't have cooks (or even if they do) can order from here and have home cooking, all at the same time.

Kudos to Mamou and Mamou Too!

Mamou Too
G/F Power Plant Mall, Rockwell
+632.822.6218

The good old country life

Fete Champetre or country garden parties were a popular form of entertainment in 18th century in France and famous artists even painted these scenes in their artwork.

In Manila, lovers of French cuisine can have a party of their own at the charming Champetre, the new restaurant of Marc Aubry, which stands where the former restaurant of Marc Aubry (Je Suis Gourmand) at the ground floor of the Net One Building at Fort Bonifacio Global City.

When I used to go to Je Suis, I remember with fond foodie memories their salmon with arugula salad, foie pate,  escargots, lamb shank and coq au vin. Thankfully, Chef Marc kept some of the old dishes and added quite a few new ones as well.

The first time I ate here was with my Assumption friends and respective partners (minus A who was busy burning calories by riding bikes up steep mountains and other things of that sort). We sat at a round table by the deli and practically had to shout at each other to be heard.

The place was more upbeat and vibrant, the lighting a little too bright and the furniture a bit shaky. This is definitely your French bistro comfort food round the corner, forget romantic dates here.

Going on to the food. The menu was written in a curlicue type font, making it hard to read. It was easy to see they still had the oldies but goodies, such as the foie pate and escargot- those were ordered ASAP.

These snails as just perfect; hot brown morsels drowning in herb butter. I love dipping plain bread into its sauce!

The foie pate was creamy and delicious- you couldn't ask for a better homemade foie pate anywhere else in the city!

It seems that my friends and I always have our favorites wherever we eat, and here's what they got:

Salmon salad

Mushroom soup

Seared foie gras salad

Because I read One Big Bite before coming here, the specially ordered Steak Tartare they had eaten beckoned to me. I loooovve ordering things off the menu! I just had to try it!

So I asked if I could order it, and they said I could. Then I asked if I could have it seared like how I had it in Aix en Provence with Christophe, and they said they could! I loved the restaurant already! I got a main course portion with fries on the side. Here's how it looked

 Basically a hamburger, done the French way. And, oh, except its raw inside. And this one had tons of capers! OK I am allergic to nuts and sometimes I'll order, like a salad and take out the walnuts piece by piece. I tried taking the capers out one by one, but there were just too many! They overcame me and conquered me. I could no longer eat the thing. It wasn't the same steak tartare I had in Aix at all- duhh.

That's what I get for being adventurous.

The other, smarter diners ordered these colorful, yummy-looking dishes

lamb chops

Steak frites

Grilled prawns ratatouille

Grilled scallops and mushrooms

Onglet

As you can see, each main course in heavy and quite filling with a hefty portion of sides that can feed a small family of 4! We didn't have any more room for dessert, plus the restaurant was already empty on a Thursday  night at 10pm!

I was there again recently with a different group of friends. A very boisterous, everyone has their own opinion and it needs to be heard type of friends, hehe! Good friends to hungrily finish 3 bottles of red wine with! It was also a Thursday night, and this time the place was packed. A bunch of men in the back room, and all types of groups in the front.

We ordered the same escargot and foie pate but this time I just had to have the eggs en cocotte with Portobello mushrooms. And it did not disappoint me - it totally made up for that steak tartare (which I won't be ordering again). In fact, there are so many interesting dishes on the menu that one should come back again and again just to try them all.

I also ordered the veal cheeks bourguignon with creamed cauliflower, but it was L's overflowing seafood risotto that made me salivate. On a heap of creamy, cheesy risotto goodness there were about 4 kinds of seafood- and not just the cheap-y squid ring type, I'm talking about the jumbo prawns, seared scallops and sea bass!

I know what I'm having next time...

And we got to order dessert: the apple tart and the chocolate mousse, both extremely satisfying. Too bad I forgot my camera for that night....you will just have to go there and order it for yourself!

If this is country living, who needs the city?

Champetre
632.815.8801