Monday, April 4, 2011

Yogu Iloilo

I spent three lazy days in Iloilo with no travel buddy ad without a real itinerary. So most of my afternoons were spent lazily walking around the city, trying to look for gastronomic delights. On my second day in Iloilo, I decided to check out this adorable yogurt shop I found in Smallville.

The place was called Yogu. The whole shop was made out of an old container van and was painted all white. They had pink nets that acted like canopies and had really cool pink accents inside. (check out the uber-cute pink ashtray in the photo). They only had plain yogurt and a limited menu of toppings... So I decided to indulge in all the pink cuteness (even though it's not really my thing. I thought it would look better in the photos though) and decided to order some Frozen Yogurt with Strawberry Sauce and Strawberry Flavored White Chocolate Chips.

I swear, it is one of the best frozen yogurts I've ever tried. It was tart and had a really yogurt-y taste. It was refreshing, it was affordable (around 100 bucks, if I'm not mistaken), ad the staff was very friendly too. Loves it! I soooo wanna visit Iloilo again.

Afrique's Iloilo

I recently went to Iloilo (alone.loser much?) and decided to chillax for three days and explore what the city has to offer gastronomically. I was referred by soo many people to Afrique's so I checked it out during my last day in Iloilo. I ordered their Osso Bucco which was HEAVENLY! The sauce was tangy and savory and had ust a little spice. Plus, I could really make out the taste of the lemon rind, which helps cut through the velvety and uber-tender umptuousness of the beef. I think i just had a food-gasm.
And in true Pinoy fashion, I ate my Osso Bucco with white rice. LOL. I lurve that it didn't break the bank though. I think the dish cost around 275 pesos. That's pretty affordable, in my opinion. Oh, and the waitstaff looked gorgeous. teehee.
And this place mat with a kitschy article kept me entertained as I waited for my order (which didn't take very long). I needed it because I have the attention span of a goldfish (2 seconds). I wish I could have staed in Iloilo so I could have MORE Osso Bucco and maybe even try the rest of Afrique's offerings.

Mamma Maria's Davao Take-out

Mamma Maria's Davao has opened last year but I've only eaten there once. Last week though, we had ten visitors over so we decided to take some pizza out. Their thirty-inch pizzas cost a little over a hundred, so we decided to take three pizzas out. We didn't realize that thirty-inch pizzas were THIS BIG.
This is how you know that you are going to have left-over pizza for a week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.


Was it good? I'll tell you when I've digested all of it.

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Krua Thai

My family eats out every Sunday and one of our default Sunday afternoon go-to places is Krua Thai at the Metro Lifestyle Compound along F. Torres Street. We looove their food because we enjoy the salty+sweet taste of Thai cuisine; plus the prices are not bad. The photos below show some of Krua Thai staples (the things we order almost EVERY TIME we're there)
(clockwise from top-right: Thai Mango Salad, Thai Calamares, Tofu in Red Curry, Black Pepper Fish, Thai Spring Rolls)

Thai Mango Salad: Honestly, I never tried this dish. I don't like Green Mango and I don't like vinegar. So I don't try it. However, the rest of my fam swears it's yum-o.
Thai Calamares: If you expect uber-crunchy pieces of breaded and fried squid, you won't get it from this dish. It's dipped in batter and fried much like Battered Chicken so it's slightly crunchy and slightly cake-y. But that's not a bad thing. it's really tender too.
Tofu in Red Sauce: If you are under the impression that tofu is bland and tastes like sponge; well you might be swayed into thinking otherwise after trying this dish. it is slightly spicy, tangy, salty, and well-balanced. Plus, can you really go wrong with curry? (Ok, so my brother hates curry..but he's just weird like that)
Black Pepper Fish: Don't let the name scare you. Although it tastes really, really, REALLY like black pepper, it isn't spicy at all (or I just can't feel the spice because my tongue is always coated in alcohol) and it tastes AWESOME. I swear I could eat it FOREVER.
Thai Spring Rolls: Everybody who knows me (ok..not EVERYBODY) knows how much I love spring rolls, and I extra-love (this might even be lust) Thai Spring Rolls because i enjoy eating spring roll wrappers stuffed with rice noodles with steamed white rice...because it's carbs plus carbs on top of more carbs! Take that South Beach Diet!

(Clockwise from top-right: Chicken in Red Curry, Chicken Pandan, Pad Thai, Thai Calamares)

Chicken in Red Curry: This dish is basically like the Tofu in Red Curry. It's basically awesome...and that isn't basic at all. Wut?!? I know. I'm crazy-stupid today. It's real good. Unfortunately, my weird-a$$ brother can't take heat so we ordered this with Mild spice. BUMMER.
Chicken Pandan: This dish is basically marinated chicken wrapped in Pandan (or Screwpine for all you social-climbing Filipinos who pretend that they don't actually add PANDAN in their rice everytime they have visitors over) Leaves and then pan fried to golden-brown (and crispy) perfection! Seriously: chicken + frying...do I really need to explain why this is awesome?
Pad Thai: If you aren't into sweet food... you might not like it. But I like it. It's flat noodles with a sweet sauce and some shrimps and nuts and wrapped in scrambled egg. It is said to be one of Thailand's signature dishes. It tastes GORGEOUS. Plus, I love the mouth-feel of the silky noodles with the nuts.


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