The 'AlDub Meal'

Are you one of the millions bitten by the AlDub bug lately? I am, with no recovery in sight yet. Haha! Who doesn't find those two young ones cute and adorable? Oh, to be young and in love! Alden Richards, Maine Mendoza (a.k.a. Yaya Dub), as well as the three lolas - Nidora, Tidora and Tinodora have become my family and office mates' daily source of happiness and entertainment, that one day now isn't complete without watching their antics in the Kalye Serye segment of Eat Bulaga. 
And for the millions of AlDub fans like me, there is the "necessary" "AlDub Meal" of chicken fillet a la king with a drink at McDonald's. I've had it three times since its launch a month ago. The creamy, buttery sauce that is generously poured on top is delicious, its mixture of flavors blending perfectly well with the fried chicken fillet. So good to eat with rice for lunch or dinner. Well, as it goes, this meal is a "must" 
for AlDub fanatics out there. Haha! 
Thanks to Alden and Maine's TV commercial promoting the crispy chicken a la king, McDonald's sales grew by 470 percent, according to Margot Torres, vice president for Marketing Communications at Golden Arches Development Corporation. 
Wow, the magic this pair has!

McDonald's Chicken Fillet a la King

Maine and Alden in their first McDonald's TVC

But whether you're an AlDub fan or not, McDonald's Chicken Fillet a la King deserves a try. It's one delicious treat at only P59. with a drink. Won't you get it now at the store nearest you? 

Happy eating!

Today's Word: Proverbs 3:5

When we experience troubles, we often think hard of solutions, sometimes losing hours of sleep at night. But when I became a Christian, I learned that we could (and should!) entrust any problem to God, and rely on Him to solve it, or lead us into the best way to resolve it. Sometimes, what we think is the best way to solve a problem isn't the same as God's, so we must surrender it all to Him. Let us trust that the Lord's way is the best, because He sees our future, and knows the consequences of our every action. We may not understand what is happening at present, why God is allowing us to undergo trials, but let us have the confidence that in the end, the Lord will make everything good and beneficial to us, yes, even those troubles that we suffer.
God bless you today. 

(Thank you, Christian Care Ministry and The 700 Club for this photo)

Afternoon tea and more at The Royal Piccadilly

When I was in my teens many full moons ago, I would read my older sister's Mills & Boon pocketbooks and swoon over those poor (well, by their standards) but young and beautiful women becoming sweethearts (Oh, I'm old; this word is unheard of these days. hahaha!) with rich royalty or handsome and successful businessmen. As those novels had England as setting, I'd often read about the characters having their ceremonial and traditional afternoon tea and wondered 
about how scones looked and tasted like. 

Fast forward to more than 20 years later, and here I was, finally coming face to face with and actually eating scones at The Royal Piccadilly! Just imagine my excitement! This charming foodie place is on Katipunan Ave., which my co-worker/friend and I reached one afternoon through a cab ride from our office in Visayas Ave. We were famished and raring to have merienda. 

Oh well, this place was the perfect one for merienda - only this time,  it wasn't like any other merienda we were having at the office cafeteria, but really, finally, THE afternoon tea! Yeeey! 

We had:

Seafood Caesar Salad

Carbonara

Afternoon Tea set

Pot of apple, cinnamon and raisin tea

Our friendly server preparing tea for us

Love, love, love this very aromatic and delicious tea

Red velvet cupcake

Interiors

                                        I love these faux desserts and sandwiches !

The Royal Piccadilly at the 2nd Floor of Petron-Katipunan near UP Town Center in QC

Oh, wow! What a great merienda it was! From the seafood salad to the carbonara and the desserts - everything was delicious! Note that the Afternoon Tea set itself was just dessert to us. Hahaha! What big tummies we have! And the scones..the scones! So that's what it is - it's like a cookie but it's bigger and thicker and a little more chewy. I think there were raisins in it and it was served with jam (blueberry) and English cream. It was perfect with our hot apple, cinnamon and raisins tea. Yummy! We were offered many tea flavor choices, by the way. I wanted peppermint but it wasn't available to I picked the apple, cinnamon and raisin 
which wasn't a bad choice after all. 

Anyway, aside from the scones, the Afternoon Tea set also included two macadamia cookies, a carrot bar, a cupcake (I chose the red velvet one), four mini sandwiches, and the pot of tea. What you could have in the set depends upon your choice and the prices vary accordingly. 
If you're coming for lunch or dinner, you'll have many other food choices at The Royal Piccadilly. Choose from their rice meals, burger and pasta.  If you're coming for just coffee and cake, that's fine, too. 
As for the prices, I think I may have lost our receipt but to give you an idea, all of our orders amounted to over P900. The Afternoon Tea set that we had was I believe the most pricey at around P330. But there are sets 
that cost below P300.

Well, try The Royal Piccadilly, folks, and enjoy the ambiance of this lovely place 
and the good food, but of course. 
Happy eating! 

Amo Yamie Crib: A year after

It's nice to be back! 

This was how I felt setting my feet again last week inside Amo Yamie Crib, that hip and cool food and movie house at the University Belt in Manila. It was also around this time of the year when I was there with my daughter in 2014, when this place was only probably less than two weeks old. And boy, was I impressed! The place is  bigger - much bigger, now also occupying the next three units beside it on the second floor of Gordi Plaza Building on Legarda St., near the corner of C.M. Recto. The menu hadn't changed much, though, from a year ago. But I was happy to try some of their food and drink offers that I didn't get to taste before. I was at Amo Yamie Crib 

with a younger crowd - two of my kids and their friends. 

We had:

Mini bites (four mini burgers) and fries, P99.

Clubhouse sandwich with fries, P95.

Nachos, P89.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Flower Pot, P89

Blueberry cheesecake, P69.

Red Riding Hood (red velvet cheesecake frappe), P139.

Oreo & Juliet, P129.

Mocha Wish, P109.

Cafe Latte, P75.



Menu

\


Counter



Cribs



Live music!




What we loved? The mini-burgers, fries, nachos and our drinks. Yummy! The clubhouse sandwich was also good but not something to rave about, likewise our desserts - the flower pot red velvet cake and blueberry cheesecake. But as you can see in the pictures, this place is unique and the ambiance makes this place so worth the trip especially if you're coming from another city and even on a rainy day. 
The "cribs" make a perfect hang-out place for friends for hours of sharing stories and laughter. The live performance by a singer was something also new to me - I think they didn't have this before - and surely, added more fun. One of the crew members told us any customer 
could join in the singing. 
And I still haven't told you, Amo Yamie is a movie house, too. Any group of people may rent one room for around P500 for up to three hours to watch a movie - with unlimited popcorn for everyone! Sounds nice for a real bonding moment with the whole family or barkada, right? 
Well, if those won't make you head over to Amo Yamie Crib right now, I don't know what will. Haha! By the way, another good thing is about to happen. Another Amo Yamie Crib is opening soon in Manila, this time on Espana Blvd. Aren't we Manilans lucky? Hehe..
Well, that's all for now, folks! 
Happy eating!  

Lovin' all-day brekkie at Tapa King

Tapsilog, short for tapa, sinangag and itlog, is a favorite breakfast fare among Filipinos, not excluding moi. For this reason, many restaurants offer it and not just in the a.m., but all day long. Moi is happy, but of course, because I love tapsilog even for merienda or dinner. Good thing, a number of foodie places offer it as a specialty and serve it any time of the day. One of such restaurants is Tapa King, which started its operation in 1987. Now 28 years in existence, it already has branches in different parts of the country and has even expanded abroad. A few months ago, Tapa King opened a store quite near our home - at the new Sun Mall in Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City. Good thing so I could have their tapsilog more often, as well as some of their other offers.
Here's some of my favorites here:

Tapa King, P142.

Spicy tuyo, P162.

Beef Steak Filipino, P85.

Chocolate cake, P65.
 TK Burger, P60.

French fries

Mushroom soup, P35.

Inside Tapa King at Sun Mall in Welcome Rotonda

Tapa here at Tapa King is indeed a royalty in taste - rightly spiced, and tender. I love that it's not saucy like at another famous tapa place (did I just give a hint there? Hehe..) but not dry either. I also enjoy their spicy tuyo, which is really my No. 1 favorite for brekkie at home, where I could fry it to a crisp.  Meanwhile, I also loved the Beef Steak Filipino although it didn't appeal to me at first sight. The beef was "anemic-looking" so I thought it was bland. Good thing it turned out to be delicious, just rightly salty. The burger was my daughter's order and she said she liked it, together with the fries. The chocolate cake was a bit of a surprise 'coz I didn't expect Tapa King to come up with a good one. But it was - moist and delicious, with the just the right level of sweetness. 
All these make Tapa King one of my favorite all-day breakfast places. 
Find a branch near you if you haven't tried it. 
Happy eating!

Ka Tunying's Cafe: The place to be on Visayas Ave.

If you watch shows at the Kapamilya channel especially Kris TV, or regularly watch the news even at the Kapuso network, you've probably seen or heard about Ka Tunying's Cafe - that bakeshop/restaurant owned by Anthony "Tunying" Taberna, a news reporter and radio anchor of ABS-CBN. This homey place with classic and classy interiors opened last week of August but just about 7 days later, a gunman pumped bullets into the building's facade (it's a stand-alone establishment), shattering glass walls and balustrade. Fortunately, the incident happened in the wee hours of the morning when the store was closed, so nobody was hurt 
and Tunying himself was not there.

But anyway, the happy news is that this cafe offers lots of yummy stuff - smoothies, coffee, frappes, breads, pastries, and Filipino all-day breakfast. I've been here with my officemates maybe 5 times - either to eat and have coffee or just buy bread to take home. By the way, Ka Tunying's Cafe is on Visayas Ave., Diliman, Quezon City and is in my office neighborhood, that's why my co-workers and I are frequent customers.

So far, we've tried:

Creamy Baked Bangus with Rice, P225.

Tinapang Galunggong with rice, P175.

 Arroz ala Tunying, 150.  

 Pandesal Platter, P175.

Blueberry Danish, P85. 

 Strawberry Danish, P85.

 Banana muffin, P25.  

 L-R: Chocolate, strawberry and blueberry muffins, P35 each

 Agimat, P145.

 Supremo Latte, P65.

Kapinoychino, P65.

 Tunying's Blend brewed coffee, P55.

Dalandan Ginger Iced Tea, P65.

Ensayamada, P135.


Balikutcha - the sweetener they use in their drinks which they buy from Ilocos. 
I loved eating it as dessert, though. :)

Interiors

 Main dining area on the second level

Cup-shaped chairs 

 This is inside an enclosed area upstairs. Once, I saw Tunying having lunch 
here with some guests.

Balcony dining area

Stairway leading to the second level

Counter, ground floor

 Menu boards

 Part of the bread display area

 Just some of the breads available

                                     Ka Tunying's Cafe on Visayas Ave, Diliman, Quezon City

We loved just about everything, including the drinks. My friend raved about the healthy green smoothie called "Agimat" - a mixture of cucumber, ginger and kalamansi. She said the three ingredients' flavors blended perfectly well to make a refreshing, delicious drink. Even their iced tea is uniquely delicious. It has the flavor of dalandan instead of the usual lemon or kalamansi. There's also bits of black gulaman (or was it really?)  in it. Another one-of-a-kind drink here is the "Ensayamada" which is inspired by the Pinoy favorite bread "ensaymada". 

Now you may drink your bread. Hehe..

Now on to the food. I love that they serve brown rice, which is healthy and recommended for diabetics like me. I had it with tinapang galunggong with tomatoes and itlog na maalat on the side. Yummy! My friend had the Creamy Baked Bangus then, which I tasted and liked. It had cream so it could be cloying after awhile, though. Good thing it was also accompanied by itlog na maalat and with atsara too to balance flavors. Another time, I had Arroz ala Tunying which was loaded with chicken and eggs. Delicious and comforting to the tummy, especially on a rainy day. My friend had the Pandesal Platter then, which consisted of four pandesal with different fillings - Spanish sardines, fried egg, corned beef and pulled pork adobo. 

As for their bread and pastries, my top favorite is the baguette, which I make into pizza at home, while my kids love the blueberry muffins and floss bread. My officemates swear by the Danish - both the blueberry and strawberry, and the raisin bonnets. 

Oh well, there's just so many things to love here at Ka Tunying's Cafe - the food and drinks, the ambiance, even our selfies with the guy (Anthony) himself, who is very funny and accommodating - always obliging to selfie requests from customers. Pay this cafe a visit, folks, but be warned! Making a choice (among the drinks and breads) is tough. Haha! 

Happy eating!