Guinness! Guinness!

I drank Irish beer!  It was the first time I've tried it, and I have to say it was different from what I expected.  First, it was quite heavy, and after finishing the tall can I know I can't drink another.  Unlike beer from the Philippines it wasn't that bitter, but it wasn't tasteless.  It's quite hard to describe since I really haven't tasted anything like it.  I also drank a bunch of ciders (see the picture at the end of this post), but I preferred the beer's taste.  I now believe it when they say Irish beer is different :D  Cheers! I can't wait for Arthur's Day :D

The Station House at Raheny, Dublin

We went to a nearby pub to get some Irish food today.  I was treated to a meal of Roast beef, while my mom ate some fish and dips.  Here are the pics:

What can I say?  The food was good.  The roast beef and the gravy was delicious, the meat wasn't too tough.  The gravy tasted of herbs, but it did not overpower the meat and it blended well together.  The potatoes were 2 different dishes: one was mashed and another garlic.  I preferred the garlic potatoes, but the mashed potatoes were also good.  I guess the tastiness was the deciding factor, since the mashed potatoes were a bit bland when compared to the garlic potatoes.

The only problem for me was the vegetables, which was comprised of lettuce and broccoli.  They were overcooked, and there was almost no taste left to them.  They melted in your mouth, and that was not good for vegetables, at least for me.

I had a taste of the fish with tartar sauce, and it was also good.  I'm not quite sure what fish it was, but it was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  The tartar sauce tasted a bit like mayonnaise with some herbs.  It tasted fine when combined, although I still preferred my roast beef.

In all, it was an excellent experience in eating good food.

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.