Airplane Food: Etihad

I've only been abroad a couple of times, and I know for a fact that good airplane food makes a long trip easier to bear.  I traveled to Dublin from Manila, and during the first flight to Abu Dhabi, and here was the meal I ate:

My doll, who is now my official model for some of my foodstuff, is showing the menu from which I chose which food I ate during the trip.  The next pic shows the meal after it was handed to me. 

The Menu:

A la carte:
Arabic beef tagine with green beans and kasuba rice

Dessert service:
Warm sakoo, kidney bean and coconut pudding

I have to say that the food was good.  The main meal tasted like beef curry, and the beans were very tasty.  The portions were small, but I guess that's to be expected.  The veggies which were presented like a salad were fresh, and the bread and butter which served as an appetizer was fine, even if the bread was not hot.  I had mango juice, but I found it quite sour (maybe it was green mango?).

The pic above is the meal itself.  It was an Arab dish whose name I actually forgot.   The dessert, seen on the 2nd pic, was coconut and kidney bean pudding.  It was sweet, but it wasn't outstanding.  I had hot chocolate (Milo) while eating the dessert.

I'm glad the food was good, and it filled me up in spite of the small portions.  The combination of tastes was okay, passable in terms of instant meals.  I hope the experience is the same for other travelers. :3

Want Want Shelly Senbei

I've always liked this snack since I first saw it, and I was glad to see it at Gourdo's.  I never really knew its name until I saw it again.  Here it is:

I guess what really draw me to it was its unusual taste.  It was sweet and salty at the same time!  I tasted something similar to this before, but I can't find it anymore so I guess it went defunct, so I am really glad I found this as a substitute.

Aside from having 2 tastes which miraculously blend in a single bite, it's also very...crispy?  Sorry for the uncertainty, but same as its taste, it has 2 opposing textures: its soft but also crunchy at the same time.  Great, isn't it?  You get to try out a lot of things in a single serving.  It's also quite cheap, only 35php for 8 pieces.  The only drawback is that you might not be satisfied with 8 pieces after trying out such an unusual snack :3

Cake Overload at Contis

I just got my diploma and I decided to treat myself to something sweet.  I was at Trinoma at the time so I thought of a place where I have been quite a number of times: Contis.  I ordered 2 cakes (Gluttony, I know, and I now cringe thinking about all the calories I consumed): Mango Bravo and Strawberry Cheesecake.

Cake 1: Mango Bravo

Sorry if it's not a very good shot, I forgot my camera again and I had to use my I-phone.  As you can see, the cake is divided into layers of wafer-like cake, with a single layer of chocolate cake and layers of cream, mangoes and nuts.  The topmost layer is filled with cream, mangoes and nuts, while the side was cream relished with chocolate.

The wafer layers were so sweet and tasty and they literally melted in you mouth.  They blended well with the mangoes, cream and nuts.  The overall flavor was not overpowering, but it made a very sweet dessert which would no doubt satisfy any sweet tooth out there.  Besides, the portion is huge, so if you feel you can't finish it by yourself, there's always enough to share with a special someone <3

Cake 2: Strawberry Cheesecake

After a very sweet cake, I decided to try something less decadent, so I tried this.  When I tried the layers separately, the strawberry topping was quite sweet, the cream part tasted like sour cream and cheese (the taste was actually quite overpowering that I couldn't handle it without taking a gulp of water afterwards) while the bread on the bottom was like grahams, but not as flavorful.  After tasting them separately, I decided to eat it as a whole.  Lo and behold!  It mixed wonderfully in my mouth, without any of the flavors overpowering each other.  Well, I did get tired of eating it after a while (probably since I already ate one cake), but thankfully, the cream on the last part of the cake was able to change the taste so I was able to finish the whole thing.  I guess in all it was good, but you need to get used to the flavors first.

The Mango Bravo cake was always their best seller, so it was no doubt that it was good.  I tried the Strawberry Cheesecake out of whim, and although I might not recommend it to someone who will be taste testing, I would still say it was pretty good and interesting.  This is one of the reason I come back to Contis again and again and again :3

Contis

Trinoma

Tya of the Blaring Sounds

Sorry reader, but no pics today for this post.  It's because I accidentally left my camera home and the place was quite dark so my Iphone 3Gs was of no use.  In any case, even without pics, I want to share a good hang out place at Scout Esguerra: TYA.  (I know my description of the food will never be enough, but it will have to suffice for now.

The first thing I noticed about the place was that it was quite small, about the usual place of any bar or bistro.  No dance floor, just seats and tables and people eating and drinking.  Actually, majority of the people were drinking.  Ambiance wise, it was good, and they had a non smoking area as well (we got seated there). although I have to say you'd most probably go there and have drinks while enjoying the music rather than have a nice chat.  You see, the music was quite blaring so it is quite hard to carry on a conversation.

Food: What We Ordered
Finger Food 1: Private Idaho
The name might sound a bit fancy, but actually it's just french fries with a garlic sauce dip.   How was it?  It was actually just passable.  The dip tasted fine, it's just that the fries were not very crispy at all.  It was not very salty, which was good for me, coz I was never a big fan of salty fries.  It had some toppings on it (I'm not sure if they were green onions or chives, but in my opinion they didn't do anything for the food.
Finger Food 2: Lynrd Skynrd
Baked Potato Skins.  My favorite.  I had always liked these appetizers ever since I had my first taste of them, and I have to say that Tya does a good job on them.  Topped with cheese, bacon and green onions, they were quite a feast for me.  Added with a sour cream dip, it was divine.  I have to admit, after eating a lot of it you might get tired of the taste because of the cheese, but it's still really good.  It was something which I enjoed a lot.
Meal: Surfin Safari
It was a dish of mixed vegetables, tenderloin strips in sauce and boiled prawns with a mashed potato in the middle.  Overall comment: it was okay.  The mixed vegetables were really too salty, and I had to take a sip of my mango juice to wash off the taste.  The tenderloin strips were also salty, but at least they tried to balance out the flavor with a hint of spice (which still wasn't enough to overpower the salt).  The meat was tender, and I didn't have any trouble chewing it.  The mashed potatoes were good, they tasted like potatoes, weren't too buttery or oily, and the creaminess was just about right.  The best part of the dish were the prawns, they were sliced in half so that there were right and left portions of the shrimp and you just scooped the edible part out.  The taste was good, with a hint of butter and some sweetness.

All in all the experience was fine.  I enjoyed listening to the music (which I kinda felt like dancing to), and the food, even if not superb, was good.  I guess their forte is finger food, being a bar and such.  I should try their other food next time for a better view of how good the culinary experience in their place could be.

Tya
Sgt Esquerra Avenue, Quezon City

Another take on the Banana Split

Yes, we ate at Cara Mia again today. Dessert time! As I said in my earlier post I wanted to eat Mango Sansrival again but my friend dissuaded me and we tried out another new gelato cake: the Banana Blast.

Yes, in my opinion it was another take on the classic banana split, but instead of having a banana fruit it is replaced by banana gelato. It was a concoction of strawberry, banana and chocolate gelato with strawberry and chocolate syrup (I forgot what the base was hahaha). The whole thing was utterly delicious. There were no extra ingredients, it was made so that no taste is wasted. The strawberry was sweet, the chocolate divine, and the banana was utterly fruity. It was a match made in heaven, and was totally worth it.

Gumbo: The New Orleans Food Fiesta Part 2: Main Course

Okay, I was just being lazy which is why I didn't make the Gumbo entry a single one. But in any case, here are the main courses we ordered:

Main Course 1: Grilled Pork chop

Looks appetizing, doesn't it? The buttered veggies were good (my friend and I both agreed on that), but the mashed potatoes were a tad bit too buttery tasting for my taste. The pork chop was good, it was medium well I think, but there were some parts which were too burned that it tasted like charcoal. I think it was meant to be a single serve dish, as compared to the other dish we ordered as an entree.

Main Course 2: Seafood Jambalaya

My friend shared this entree since I realized I couldn't finish this by myself (yes, I picked this entree, but the pork chop was suggested to us since we weren't certain what other entree to order). It was absolutely good, and it is no wonder that it is their best seller. It was not spicy, by my request, but it was very flavorful. It was also not salty despite the shellfish and various seafood included in it. My friend and I had a good time finishing it; in fact, it is the first dish that we finished! Although they said that the portion is good for 2, I think that if I were hungry enough I will be able to finish it by myself! As for my friend, he said that if he didn't need to share it he could have finished it alone.

Total bill was ~900php including the service charge. We didn't get drinks since I was worried we will not be able to finish all of our food if we had drinks as well. For the quality of the food, the price was worth it. Also, we got it cheaper than we would have if we ordered each dish separately. It was definitely worth the visit, and I'd recommend it to my other friends as well.

Gumbo

3rd floor Midtown Wing

Robinson's Place Ermita

End note: Yes, we were able to finish everything, despite the lady manager saying it was good for 4-5 people :D

Gumbo: The New Orleans Food Fiesta Part 1: Appetizers

Okay, I guess I was kinda in a good mood today due to the fact that I finished my clearance that I decided to eat somewhere new with a friend. After roaming around Robinson's Place Manila for a while, we decided to eat on Gumbo in the Midtown wing. Why we decided to eat there was because of my whim of trying out something new (as opposed to eating out at Racks or Friday's where I have eaten and he hasn't yet), and because the lady who was trying to get customers to the shop gave us a coupon for a free burger if we ordered one of their main entrees.

We got seated near the window (they were out of cushioned sofas where I initially wanted to sit), and I guess the ambiance wasn't that bad. Our server (I forgot her name), was kind enough and suggested various things for us in the menus, but in the end we settled for something like a family meal wherein you get 2 appetizers and 2 main courses for 800php.

Freebie: Bread and Olive Oil

Okay, I I have to admit I like their bread. It was soooo crispy! I mean, you didn't really have to dip it in the oil to enjoy it as it was good in itself. *smiles giddily* I guess it was their version of garlic bread, since the oil had some of the taste of the burned garlic added to it.

Appetizer 1: Onion Rings

Yes, this picture was taken after we'd already started eating. The onion rings weren't crispy, but they weren't soggy either. As seen in the pic, they weren't oily either, which is a good thing for me. I didn't like the breading very much, but I think it tasted well with their dip (mayo-garlic dip, I think). Therefore, I was only able to eat it with the dip. My friend thought it was hard to eat a lot of it cause after eating a few the taste slowly becomes boring.

Appetizer 2: Buffalo Wings

The not too spicy wings were my friend's choice, since he wanted something hot (and yes, it was a disappointment to him the it wasn't as smokin' as he expected it to be). It was actually good, although the carrots which came with it tasted funny (I think it was with the peeling and cutting, they didn't get to cut all the bad parts). On the better side, the veggies were still crisp.

I didn't know the sauce which came with it, but my friend nixed the item after a taste. To assuage my curiosity, I also tasted it. Horrors of horrors, I thought it was spoiled! I called the attention of our server and asked her about the sauce. Since she was unable to answer my question adequately, I just told her it tasted weird and that it had things on the bottom of it. She then called the manager, which explained to us that it was tartar sauce with blue cheese. Cheese! I had to smile, since I honestly thought it tasted like mold (or what mold is supposed to taste like. LOL). After mixing the blue cheese evenly within the mixture, I found out that it was a taste which you could get used to.

First part of the scrumptious dinner done, main courses to follow.