McKenzie Rex

There is that taste of delicious, home-cooked food at McKenzie Rex in Singapore.
Memories of Mckenzie Rex popped up while thinking of that tasty, crunchy little squid, that is their specialty.

We enjoyed all the food that we ordered at Mckenzie Rex.
It's an unassuming restaurant at No. 66 Prinsep Street, nearby Raffles Hotel.
It was introduced to us by our cousins Ella and Marnie who also told us they frequent the place because of the food they serve.

It was a full meal for us when we were there.
In fact, we visited the place twice.
Prices were reasonable, and depended on the size of the order (small, medium, large).

Crabs are served, as well as vegatables, that resembled our own chop suey.
I hope to be back in this fine city.
I sure won't miss to drop by Mckenzie Rex.

Mouthful at Meisters

My wife and I had a pleasant, and surprisingly sumptous lunch at Meisters today.
It was 1 p.m. and coming from a meeting, I was hungry.
We walked from Paseo deo Roxas to Greenbelt 4.
We had decided to have lunch at Meisters (by Almon Marina) at the food court.
I was about to order the footlong, but decided to shove it upon seeing the 6-inch-with-pasta combo.
I was surprised both tasted so delicious.
It was a mouth-watering meal.
I surmised the store name is "Meisters", but the products are Almon Marina.
The roast beef sandwich was jaw-dropping.
The bun seemed soft as 'Mamon' of Red Ribbon.
Then it crunched as my teeth reached the middle, owing to fresh letuce sprawled between.
The pasta was a delight.
The footlong cost P115. A full meal.
But I was swayed to take the combo at P145.
Indeed, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
But it was all worth the walk and the money.

Cafe Lawis in Dauis

In between a very hectic working day today in Tagbilaran city, we had a late afternoon snack in the town accross the island called Dauis.
I went home to Bohol for some legal work for the family corporation.
I took a side trip from Cebu as I was having hearings there.
Anyway it was the first time I visited another restaurant in Dauis called Cafe Lawis.
What a spectacle!
There was an unexpected view like no other.
Cafe Lawis is on the premises of the old Dauis church so nobody can miss it.
My hearing is that Bea Zobel developed the area to the tune of P7M---probably more.
The church was renovated.
Visibly changed was the roof of the church.
The restuarant is both indoor and outdoor.
It's an artist's lair obviously.
Outside, it was a breath taiking view of Tagbilran and the main Bohol island.
Dauis is in Panglao island accross.
I remember Saturday afternoons, my grandfather would ask me to drive him for the 4 o'clock mass at the Dauis church.
But I never thought there was a view to marvel just beside the church.
So if you ever come to Panglao island, try to visit Cafe Lawis.

They got nice food, too.
There this sandwich made out of chicken adobo.
Their dessert is a must-try.
They call it Souffle.
My utter lack of sophistication betrays my ignorance of this term.
Its the first time I've heard such kind of dessert.
Its made of soft muffin served hot, with a creamy liquid like tsokolate, and with ice cream.
Now beat that.
It was what I called a food trip.
We went with my Tita Ito, Tito Jun, Tita Milet and cousin Ating.
We seldom get together nowadays so it was fun to hook up once again.

Sans Rival Spaghetti

One of the oldest snack bars in Dumaguete City is San Rival along San Jose Street near the Rizal boulevard.
This is primarily a pastry shop, serving tasty cookies and cakes concocted by the sagarbarria grand matriarch, the woman shoe childrena nd grandchildren call "Abu".
She has passed on the trade secrets to the children who have enlarged Sans Rival from a six-table snack shop into a fully operating restaurant.
Sans Rival is already a permanent fixture to our city's show-window of home-made delicacies.
One afternoon, we dropped by Sans Rival to savor again their own brand of spaghetti.
I accompanied my order with tuna smacked in wheat sandwich.
My wife also ordered her spaghetti plus a choco roll.
For take-out we ordered a box of mango bars (P183 per box), and jam squares (P138 per box).

Jams squares is also good for pasalubong.
It is a square-formed biscuit that has a bit of dried mango in the middle.
There are many other delicacies at Sans Rival.
The main item of course is its namesake, San Rival.
There is also the original "chewey-crunchy" silvanas.
If you are a visitor in Dumaguete City, you can't afford to miss Sans Rival.
Sans Rival is truly among Dumaguete's unique treasures.

Jo's chicken Inato

Perhaps, Dumaguete's most immediately recognizable dining place for your favorite chicken barbique is Jo's Chicken Inato.
Jo's Chicken, located along Silliman Avenue, right at the back of Dumaguete's version of the "White House" (official residence of the Silliman University president), still emits that alluring aroma around town.
When my parents relocated to Dumaguete City from Tagbilaran almost forty years ago, we settled in a two bedroom apartment at the Flores compound along Silliman Avenue.
The rent during that wonderful, and memory-filled time was P250 per month.
We resided there for around seven years.
As I was growing up in that once pollution-free neighborhood, I happened to witness the beginnings of what is now that multi-million peso business of Jo's Chicken Inato, beside that apartnment we lived along Silliman Avenue.
From a very simple chicken barbique stand, then personally run by Jo Ng and husband Jesse (he has passed on), Jo's chicken Inato has metamorphosed into a multi-branch barbique business.
Having that rare privilege of witnessing how the industrious Ng couple built their "chicken-inato empire" through sheer hard work, I am not suprised at the breadth of its expansion.
It was---as I saw it---literally a labor of love, as the couple diligently, tirelessly fanned the flames of a fruitful and flourishing enterprise.
It has carved its own identity in the community that has made the place distinctly Dumaguete.
Jo's Chicken Inato's latest, if not biggest outlet is now located along that cozy shoreline in San Jose town.
I missed Jo's Chicken, so in one of our simple gatherings with visiting, former Dumageuteno-friends, I insisted we have lunch at Jo's.
It's always nostalia when you return to something pleasurable, after a long absence.
The chicken barbique tasted the way it was.
We enjoyed eating good old chicken inato, while recounting the days of our childhood.
It was more peaceful, a lot simpler, then.
Stress was a stranger.
But time moves fast and steady like the ticking clock.
Stress is a stranger no longer, but a dreaded companion.
We always want to go back to simpler times.
But now we are only left to savor the food, while we cherish the memories.
We enjoyed while it lasted...

Mongolian Food

We are fond of Mongolian food.
I don't know exactly what that is.
I can describe it as food mixed with an array of ingredients.
Most of the ingredients are vegetables, like cabbage, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes.
Then you put your choiced meat, chicken, beef, pork.
You mix it with slice onions, crushed ginger, nuts.
There are different choices of sauce you can be mix with the ingredients you have loaded.
Then it is cooked and mixed.
Last weekend, we found this food store that offers Mongolian food at Cash and Carry.
The Store is named Mongolian Quick Stop.
We learned it has branches in SM Makati, and Waltermart along Don Chino Roces.
Very delicious.
We had been captivated by the Mongolian food we ate one dinner in Baguio, the famous Oh My Khan.
The Mongolian Quick Stop offers a similar treat.
Its affordable.
Priced at P175, you can have all the ingredients you can load on the bowl.
For a smaller bowl you can fill it at P139.
Try it.

Savoring Savory

Tita Mamel and Tito Gerald Quelapio recently treated us to a dinner at Savory.
Savory is the restaurant that cooks the finest fried chicken.
It is a very old recipe, perhaps, matching the longetivity of the popular's chicken house Max's Restaurant.
If the older people can remember, Savory Chicken was already popular before. It had its restaurant at the heart of Binondo, Manila's Chinatown.
But it appears the third generation of this family-run business has adopted a strategy of opening branches in various locations in Metro Manila.
We had dinner at Savory outlet in SM Tiendesitas.
It was a sumptuous dinner.
Savordy chicken is so tasty you can eat the chicken by itself.
That is how tasty the chicken is.
It comes with its very unique matching gravy, which all the more makes the chicken a lot tastier.
The next time we ate, we invited our LA-based classmate Oning, who also held his thumbs-up for Savory Chicken.
We went to the branch at SM North EDSA.
There is also one Savory branch at Glorietta IV, over at Food Chioces area.
It offers a "Salo Meal" good for two persons with two slices of Savory chicken, plus side dishes for only P290.
There are various chicken restaurants sprouting all over these days.
But the old Filipino chicken recipes are hard to top.

Faved rebel resto

Occassionally, we partake of a weekly salo-salo of home made food, drinks and refreshments in a park in Makati at Velasquez Street.

Every Saturday there are a variety of home made food sold to the public.

They range from common Filipino food and dishes like sinugbang isda, barbique, lechon, roasted calf, to French food (which I can't recognize, nay remember), Italian pasta and pizza.

I brought my camera one Saturday and what caught my eye was a food stall which perhaps could be a favorite restaurant of the dreaded terrorists/bandits from the south.

Meantime, a stall selling roasted calf had a catchy and amusing name for thier store.

If you are in Manila, tyring visiting Veslasquez park in Makati, along Alfaro Street.

There is different kind of a food festival going around the area.

Best halo halo in town

If you ask me or any member of my family---specially my kid Josh---which makes the best halo halo, the answer would be Razon's halo-halo of Guagua.
Guagua is one of towns of Pampanga province, th home province of the current president. Guagua made headlines over a decade ago when Mount Pinatubo erupted. Guagua was one of the towns severely affected by Mount Pinatubo's wrath.
Razon's halo-halo is homemade type of halo halo, with delicious ingredients. The only ingredients I can identify is the banana. It is capped with leche flan, a sugar-milk-egg combination that is sprawled at the mouth of the elongated container atop the heap of crushed ice.

Nothing beats the Razon's halo-halo.

While it originated in Pampanga, the name and procduct spread down south to Metro Manila.

Now, Razon's halo-halo has several branches in Metro Manila, the latest of which is the One at Greenbelt One.

Everyone we have invited to taste Razon's halo-halo always had a good review, even those who are not fond of iced refreshments.

The branch we occassionally visit is the Razon's at Market Market at The Fort. Gthere is also one along Jupiter Street Makati City.

An order of halo-halo costs P60. But you may just get another one.

Ice Kachang

We savored Singapore's version of our halo-halo.
If the Philippines has the halo-halo, Singapore has their Ice Kachang.
It comes in many varieties or flavors, but with basic ingredients.
Ice Kachang is made up of finely crushed ice with different kinds of fruits, more or less the same kind which are placed in our halo-halo.
It also has syrup and milk.
The fruits are placed first on the bowl before it is covered with a mountain of crushed ice. The colored syrup then is poured on the several portions of the slopes of ice.
The last is the mango topping poured at the top of the heap of ice which slides down to the foot of the mountain of ice.
You can order a variety of toppings like mango topping or corn toppings, among others.
The ice kachang with mango topping, which is poured after all the ingredients are in place already, was most delicious.
Ice kachang costs S$2.20 or a little less than Php70. The cost rises a little depending on the toppings chosen.