Hana

I will be forever grateful to  dear friend,   Nina,   for telling me where I'd find the best takoyaki in the Metro! 

  

Hana is one of the restaurants in Makati's Little Tokyo.   Bright,  cheery and cozy,  it is easy to get comfortable there.  Oh,  and about their takoyaki balls?   Let me just say that Nina was spot-on.  Definitely the best I have tried.

 

Watch the art of making takoyaki balls right before your eyes.

   

 Authentic,   freshly made,  and need I say delicious?!!!   These balls are to die for.

Yabu

 

What is there left to write about Yabu that has not been written yet in other blogs,   newspapers,  magazines and social forums online?  Absolutely nothing.  So I would let the photos speak for themselves.  Obviously from the shots,   it would be easy to see that we had a gastronomically  superb time there!

 
I,  too,   enjoyed  making my  own sauce by grinding the sesame seeds then adding the house tonkatsu sauce to my  desired timpla.

We were able to pick the table we liked because we came early.   By the time we were done eating,   there was a long line already at the door.

 

 

 The birthday boy was happy with his dish!



 
 So,  it is true.   You have not had tongkatsu until you have tried Yabu.  :)

 I intend to come back for more.  Soon.

 

Mochicream

 

Oh,  it was definitely good.  Sweet and soft and creamy,  just the way others who have tried it described it.   It wasn't easy choosing from among all these varieties that came in  different pastel colors.  

   

I went for the chocolate but was,  unfortunately,  not available at that time;  so I settled for the Chocolate  (or was it Caramel???) Macchiato.   Hubs picked the Vanilla Pudding  (was it?  Sorry,  I couldn't recall very well.)

 

After paying for my mochicream balls,   the salesperson instructed us to wait for about 5-10 minutes before taking our first bite to thaw the balls out  a bit until they're soft enough to dig into.

 

It was good sweet stuff,  and really easy to like but definitely not easy  on the pocket.  Each mochicream ball costs about P75-P90.   So that was a quick  'almost'-P200 bucks for  hub and I,  with one ball apiece.  I would have gotten me a bilao of a Dolors Sapin Sapin,   a native sticky sweet delicacy similar in consistency as these balls,   for far less.  So would we try it again?   Maybe not.

Las Paellas

 

Nothing can beat that great feeling I get after enjoying a great meal!  At Las Paellas Cafe in Promenade,  Greenhills,   that was exactly how I felt. 

It was a very filling and hearty meal from start to finish.
 
This paella was really really good!

I am very easy to please when it comes to lengua dishes.  And this one,   not surprisingly,  did so.

 

 Price is not really that cheap.   But for the taste,  the service and the ambiance,   I can say one would be happy to pay.

Krazy Garlik

 

The restaurant's name may turn some people off.  Not everyone likes garlic.  But for us that day at Resorts World,   we were too hungry to be picky with names so we decided to make a go for Krazy Garlik.

  

Save for these two small bottles,  one with minced garlic drowned in corn oil and the other with minced roasted garlic swimming in olive oil,  the table setting looked like any other restaurant we've been in.   The place didn't even smell garlicky at all.   (Though I would not have minded if it did.)

 
(salad)

We ordered various items on the menu,   both a la carte and solo plated to be able to try as much as we can.

 

(Lemon Chicken???)

 

(Mongolian Beef?)

 

A la carte dishes were the pesto based seafood pasta and the tofu with mushroom plate.

 

(their steak for solo dining)

The food,   definitely,  didn't fail.  Every single bit was just delicious.  The steak was a litte bit tough,  though.     Nothing garlicky about it,  unless,   of course,  you add a dollop or two of the minced garlic on them.    On the downside,   food's a bit overpriced,    if you ask me. 

Toffee Banana McFlurry with Oreo... Is This?

 

Is this really how McDonalds' Toffee Banana McFlurry with Oreo should be?   Because the last time I checked their website,    the  TBMcFlurry should look like this.    But I got this sloppily made McFlurry instead.   I wanted a soft serve sundae,  not a milkshake. 

Goldilocks Leche Flan

Classic never goes out of style. Even in food. And sometimes, they get even better with time, just like Goldilocks Leche Flan.

 

I recently had this at a friend's place and found it much creamier and less sweet than it was,   just the way I   want my leche flan.      And it seemed to have lost that tinge of lemony flavoring, for which I am ecstatic about.   I have always hated lemon flavor in any leche flan.

  But please, Goldilocks, can you pack this in a non-drip, non-messy tray to avoid spills and clean ups. That cover just isn't tight enough. The rim of the tray and the bottom of the box was all sticky and gooey when I got home to open it.