Food

Mikey’s Eats (February 2, 2012)

I had to pick up my car from the shop today, and since the shop is just down the street from my mom’s office, I was able to have lunch with her. This means I’d be able to have lunch in a place I wouldn’t necessarily want to spend on if I were on my own.

We ended up eating in Ukiyo, a Japanese restaurant on the 6th floor of Alphaland Tower (that building on the corner of EDSA and Chino Roces Extension).

I didn’t have much of an appetite for lunch because I had late heavy breakfast of Palm Corned Beef (w/ Cholula Hot Sauce) and leftover Honey Glazed Ham, with garlic fried rice, fried egg, and hot chocolate (I believe in a healthy lifestyle). But of course, I wouldn’t pass up the chance to have something I enjoyed, so I ordered my childhood favorite Unaju (grilled eel in teriyaki sauce over a box of rice), and I shared a portion of Uni (sea urchin) sashimi with my mom.

20120202-152933.jpg

The Uni was, as always, delightful. What was noteworthy was the wasabi. Usually, the small dollops of wasabi served with sashimi would dissolve into soy sauce, creating a wonderful mixture of saltiness and nasal-spice. This time, the wasabi crumbled beautifully into the sauce, so that whenever I’d dip a piece of Uni in it, particles of solid wasabi would join the party and sing splendidly (and loudly) to my sinuses.

20120202-153119.jpg

I thought it rather odd that the Unaju cost twice as much as it normally would in other Japanese restaurants (the ones I go out on dates in–no need for mom’s spending powers), but I chalked it up to the beautiful setting, the cozy ambience, and the waitresses’ Japanese costumes (complete with socks and sandals). I discovered, later on, that there was second fillet of Unagi under a thin bed of rice. It was a happy surprise.

Hurry up the Cakes verdict: Not a bad lunch.

Standard
Food, Wrestling

Mikey’s Eats (January 31, 2012) and Post-Rumble Raw Musings

Mikey’s Eats is a series of chronicles of what Mikey ate in the given day. It is not the official Hurry up the Cakes review of the dish or restaurant discussed.

Last night, we ate at the new Pho Hoa, which is the same as the old Pho Hoa, except it’s in Festival Mall and it shares its space with MyThai and the old College classic Jack’s Loft. Thanks to Anthony Bourdain’s food porn second memoir, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook (Amazon link), I had been craving for Vietnamese pho for a while now, so we ordered the Beef Brisket and Tendon Pho, along with some Fresh Spring Rolls and a Grilled Pork and Shrimp Rice Meal.

The Pho was tremendous—the noodles were perfectly cooked, the brisket tender, the tendon heavenly. And the broth! The sexily delicious beef broth, bean sprouts, some chili sauce, and a squeeze of lemon all combined to tell me to say a prayer to God in heaven, because I was having some damn good food. (At Festival Mall. Who would have thought?)

The sudden rush of flavors and spices, salty and sour and spicy and umami, sealed the deal for the Brisket and Tendon Pho to be the star of the evening. She took center stage and didn’t allow her Spring Roll buddies and Grilled Pork and Shrimp chorus to share her moment—the Pho had stolen the show.

This used to be a bowl of Brisket and Tendon Pho. I was hungry, and it was delicious.

Hurry up the Cakes verdict: Good food night.

Monday’s Raw (which I can only watch Tuesday night here in Manila) was one of the best in recent memory, with a perfect balance of pure, athletic wrestling, story advancement, and silly soap opera drama.

Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler was, as expected, clean and violent and beautiful. I wouldn’t mind watching a couple hours of Dolph Ziggler bouncing around and getting beaten up every week. He’s that good.

Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk, even if it was inexplicably interrupted by Chris Jericho, is an early match of the year contender. What excites me is that Jericho’s involvement will make sure there will be several more surefire contenders in the coming months.

The Undertaker’s Return and subsequent WrestleMania challenge to Triple H was melodramatic, soap operatic sports entertainment at its finest. And, just like last year’s challenge, not a word was spoken. We all know that those two are sharing the main event stage with Rock and Cena at WrestleMania, but I’m glad that WWE is taking the time and making the effort to make us enjoy seeing how they get there.

(For full results, go to WWE.com.)

Standard
Food

Mikey’s Eats – January 30, 2012

Mikey’s Eats is a series of chronicles of what Mikey ate in the given day. It is not the official Hurry up the Cakes review of the dish or restaurant discussed.

For “lunch” (it was 3PM), my mother and I ate in my favorite restaurant in the world, Sakura Yakiniku, along Pasay Road. We had the Ume Dinner (US Prime Rib Karubi) for two, the lovely, baby-poop-like Uni sashimi, and classic Salmon sashimi (breaking Anthony Bourdain’s rule of No Fish on Mondays).

Uni sashimi @ Sakura Yakiniku

US Prime Rib Karubi grilling to medium rare

For dinner, Mom wanted to have something light, so we ate at Mary Grace, at Greenbelt 2. She had the Mushroom Cream pasta, I had the Vigan Longganisa sandwich and Mary Grace Hot Chocolate, and we shared a Three Cheese Ensaymada. It was light, sure, but it sure wasn’t healthy.

Vigan Longganisa sandwich dipped in Mary Grace Hot Chocolate

There was a lot of walking that day, which I’m hoping cancelled out the calories. With the Rumble in the morning and the great food for lunch in dinner, it safe to say that it was a very, very good day.

Hurry up the Cakes Verdict: Good food day.

Standard
Food

Cheapest head I’ve ever had

Last night, we had dinner in Japanese restaurant Tatami, in Serendra, Fort Bonifacio. I chose to eat there for one reason and one reason only—their menu said they had the all-too-rare Grilled Hamachi (Yellowfin Tuna) Head for only Php450.

That’s just USD10.

Normally, Japanese restaurants would charge anything from Php900-Php1300 for a serving of half a Hamachi Head. But Tataki had it for 450 Philippine smackers. And they had all the usual accoutrements with it too—shaved radishes, slices of lemon, and teriyaki sauce.

So I ordered it, wondering in the back of mind if there were going to be any trade-offs when it came to freshness or cooking quality.

myWPEdit Image

There was none.

The meat was perfectly grilled, the bones were almost milky with Hamachi oil, and the cartilage, brains, and eyeballs were to die for.

As you can imagine, my dinner table was a mess afterwards. My girlfriend took a video of me licking and sucking what remained of the fish to utter delight. I’d post it on here, but I want to keep this site PG.

It blew my mind that such a rare, high-quality dish only cost 450 pesos. And if you’re anything like me (a foodie an eatie that loves eating well, but loves it more on the cheap), chances are it’d blow your mind too.

Tatami is located in Serendra, at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. You can reach them at +63 (2) 901-1870

Standard
Food

Ribs, part 1

A few days ago, while having lunch at T.G.I. Friday’s (don’t judge me), my girlfriend made a startling observation: I have not tried a single recipe of ribs that I liked.

I had been complaining about how their “Best Ribs Ever” were not very good, and had the same flaws as all the (bad) ribs recipes I have ever tried–the meat was dry and stringy, and it was overwhelmed with sauce, which would have been a good thing had it not been disgustingly sweet. It’s the same everywhere–in cheap cafeterias, high end specialty bistros, american food family restaurants, and event catering. The same dull meat in the same terribly sweet barbecue sauce.

The thing is, though, according to my girlfriend, I keep trying ribs in every new place I go. Maybe it’s good here, I think to myself, before I order my regret-in-fifteen-minutes plate of sweet, crappy ribs.

So after a bad lunch of the “Best Ribs Ever”, she says, Maybe it’s not the ribs, it’s you.

Me? But… but… I love ribs! I love the tender, falls-off-the-bone meat! I love the sauce dripping down my arms and the sides of my mouth! I love the sheer joy of leaning back, seeing a plateful of clean bones before me.

I love it… but she made me realize that it never actually happened.

What was going on? Were those visions part of a sweet dream from days of yore? Were they memory implants, like Wolverine had in the Weapon X program? Were they merely my subconscious, repeating what I’ve seen from old restaurant commercials or celebrity chef TV shows?

I needed to know the truth. I needed to figure out this desire. And, most significantly, I needed to finally find damn good ribs.

Standard