Beef steak Tagalog

Homemade coffeehouse scones

Here's a great addition to our mornings these days. Coffeehouse scone recipe from the joy of baking. I can make them in  my turbo broiler. 

Restaurant review: Fish & Co Mall of Asia

Date visited: April 18, 2015

Just before 630pm on a Saturday we decided to grab dinner at Fish & Co. Perfect timing because there were lots of seats. Once the dinner crowd started coming in the restaurant was packed. 

We ordered popcorn shrimp, a lunch portion of Philadelphia fish and chips, classic fish and chips (lunch portion) and sambal shrimp. With 2 iced teas and a bill of P1700 the meal was a bit pricey for 4 but not bad for the quality. 

Overall food quality was very good with the exception of the popcorn shrimp which looked nothing like the picture on the menu. Plus the shrimp was dry and you can totally tell by the dark brown breadcrumbs that the shrimp was overcooked. 

The bathroom and restaurant were nice and clean. A standard you would see with the bistro chain of restaurants like Italianni's and TGI Fridays. 

The lunch portion of the fish and chips is a perfect size for kids they can even share 1 if they don't eat that much. Sambal shirmp was very good if you like spicy food. 

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

Food: 4 out of 5

Ambiance: 5 out of 5

Service: 5 out of 5

Cleanliness: 5 out of 5

Restaurant Review: Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen SM Aura Taguig

For: Zomato

Restaurant Review

Restaurant: Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen

Location: Powerplant Mall Rockwell Makati City. Level P1

Date: January 25, 2014

Even though there was a big hype about ramen in 2013, my husband and I never got into that.  Just to see what all the fuss was about we decided to look for a ramen place. 

We chanced upon Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen in Powerplant Mall in Makati. It was 4pm and the place was empty.  The ramen noodles cost about P380 for a bowl.

We ordered YUZU-TAMA Tonkotsu P 380, Gyoza P230, and Yaki Tonkotsu P280. The YUZU ramen turned out to be spicy and eating a bowl of it will surely clear your nose if you currently have a cold.  The soup tastes well rounded with many other flavors aside from its’ spiciness. It was indicated in the menu that this ramen has one of the spices from the Kyushu region of Japan.  The ramen also comes with pork, nori, egg, and spring onions.  The gyoza was just ok.  For me, gyoza tastes the same in all the Japanese restaurants.  No big difference there. The Yaki Tonkotsu was a big plate of stir-fried ramen noodles mixed with pork and vegetables such as cabbage, carrot and monggo sprouts. When you order the waiter asks how you like your noodles cooked.  You can choose from hard, normal or soft.

They give a really big portion of noodles, so value for money is good.  Also, we were still full by 8pm even though we ate around 4-5pm.

Overall, the cost for 2 customers is just under P900. Service was quick, but not sure how fast you would get your order during rush hour.

Banana bread

What do you do on a Sunday afternoon when you have frozen bananas in the freezer?  Banana bread of course!  

Preheat your oven to 175C and grease a silicone bundt pan with oil. 

Whisk together 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda and a pinch of salt in a bowl and set that aside. 

Next, get a room temperature egg, and whisk that in a separate bowl. Add 3-4 mashed ripe or over-ripe bananas. Mix in 1/3 cup melted margarine or butter making sure to temper the eggs first to avoid scrambled eggs. Add 1 cup or a bit less of granulated sugar making sure the sugar dissolves in the butter. Add 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract to the wet ingredient mixture. 

Add in the flour mixture to the wet ingredients until incorporated. Do not over mix or the bread will be tough!

Pour all that into your prepared pan and bake for 20-30 min or until you can smell your cake and the top browns. You'll get a lovely crispy crust on the bread. Do a cake test to determine done ness. 

I couldn't help but cut a piece to taste it!

Restaurant review: Mu Noodle bar Glorietta Makati City

Small place with simple design. Small menu but good food!

I visited Mu Noodle bar in Glorietta last June 2013.  I forgot to take pictures, but here is one from wanderwithmee.  The place looks calm with clean lines and mostly black furniture. Their menu only has 2 pages, but the dishes were well presented.

We ordered their Seafood Chao Mein, extra soy sauce based soup and extra egg.  The Chao Mein was delivered promptly and most pleasing of all was that their shrimp and squid were cooked to perfection!  The extra soup was a perfect complement to the noodles. Extra egg is only actually half an egg, but it went well in the soup.

The meal was not more that P300, and good for 2 not-so-hungry girls.  I would definitely come back again to try their other dishes.

One thing about the Glorietta restaurant, they have seats lined up on the wall, and many of the customers take seats there.  There are high seats and tables in the center of the restaurant, but nobody likes sitting there.  You will often find the seats on the wall full, but the higher stools empty.  Customers tend to choose another restaurant if only the high seats are available.

Chocolate chip cookie science

 Some nights you just want to have a light dinner and then retreat to your comfy bed and relax for the rest of the evening, but then you start watching Man VS. Food and hunger strikes. Don't you wish you had a jar of cookies to reach for?

For the next two weeks, I will be experimenting with chocolate chip cookies recipes to see which mix of ingredients will bring me THE chocolate chip cookie.

I want a big, fat, crisp on the outside chewy on the inside, chocolatey bite.  Thanks to Bakerbettie, I will be mixing bread flour and regular flour, brown sugar and white sugar, and putting quality chocolate and maybe even a bit of cornstarch or graham crackers.

I want my cookies to look like this

and not like this

After lots of experimentation here are what mycookies look like