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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Culinary Creations: Paprika Dory, Mango Salsa, Bean and Pea Soup

One of my culinary idols--My Tita Pura-- visited us in Davao a couple of months ago. i decided to welcome her wth some of my Culinary Creations. Here is what I prepared:

Bean and Pea Soup: Now, soup is not one of my best suits. i do not really know how to make a good soup so I decided to boil some peeled and diced potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, onions, and some garlic. Then, I strained out the veggies and put it straight ina blender to make a thick soup (almost paste-like). Then, I put it all back in the water I used to boil it in and mixed it until I achieved a thick but smooth consistency. Then i added my faves: green peas ad garbanzo beans

Paprika Dory with Mango Salsa. This was very easy to make. I simply marinated the dory with fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, and paprika and then pan-fried it.

The Mango Salsa I made with it simply contained diced ripe mangoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and some parsley. I used to put some onions in it but it turned out to be too strong. So for this one I added caramelized onions to give it a sweet taste. I did not season it with salt or pepper as I liked the clealiness of the taste

Hummus: I also made some hummus by blnding some garbanzo beans, sesame oil, olive oil, black pepper, salt, garlic, and some lemon juice until I achieved a super smooth consistency. I served this with some flour tortillas.

Oh and I served some roasted chicken that went with the hummus and tortilla. It was marinated with cumin, salt, pepper, maple syrup, garlic, onions, and then cooked in the Turbo broiler. It was pretty good.

White Hat Frozen Yogurt Cebu

White Hat is one of my fave frozen yogurt spots because they serve some of the best Mochi PLUS their froyo really tastes like yogurt. I know it is probably made from powder which tastes like yogurt and is not actually yogurt (because how can powder have bacteria? The heat kills it. and yogurt should have bacteria) but among all the froyo stores, this comes the closest to the real yogurt taste in my opinion. Plus, the place is sooo cute.

Tempura SM Cebu

Sometimes, you just cannot help but to crave for Japanese food. My Nipo-cravings hit me whil I was in Cebu and so I started to scour SM City for a decent looking Jap place. We found this place called Tempura, which was very interesting.

When we read the menu, we saw that the prices were pretty decent.

I ordered some Age Dashi Tofu which was served at room temperature and was sooo soooo soft and lovely. I also had a Yakitori Chicken and Rice meal, and some Kakiage (veggie) Tempura. The Yakitori Chicken was relaly sweet and tender and had the smoky taste I really, really like. The Kakiage tempura was lovely. I looove that it was tender and crunchy and perfectly cooked.

My friends ordered Prawn Tempura (which was lovely), some Kani Sashimi, Tonkatsu 9which I failed to try out).

However, when I get back to Cebu Three weeks from now, I will definitely go back to Tempura.

Oh, and by the way, we ordered all this:

1. Yakitori
2. Agi Dashio Tofu
3. Kakiage Tempura
4. Prawn Tempura
5. Tonkatsu Platter
6. Tonkatsu Toppings
7. Kani Sashimi
8. Sashimi on Rice
9. two Mango Shakes; and
10. Water

and we paid a measly 1,200. AMAZINGLY cheap..esepcially for Japanese

Oh, and if you are wondering..well, yeah. the three of us ate all of that up