Chef Paul's rocks!

I have loved rock music for so long, starting in high school (Admittedly, that was a long time ago. Hahaha!). I would always watch gigs and concerts by my favorite Pinoy rock band The Dawn. I also listened to foreign bands - U2, INXS, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus and so on. Last year, however, I stopped listening to them when I became a born-again Christian because Suddenly, my taste in music changed. No, I didn't shun rock - only this time, I preferred Christian rock music and began listening to Christian artists like Jake Hamilton. 

Anyway, there is this cafe that I discovered - happily - in my office neighborhood that might as well bring out the rockstar or well, rock fan in anyone 'coz it's rockstar-themed. Quite unique and very clever! I'm talkin' about Chef Paul's on Visayas Ave. which opened early this year (or was it late last year?). It's a coffee and desserts place that makes you feel like rockin' wherever your eyes lay on. Painted on the wall at your right once you enter is a huge picture of The Beatles and another of the iconic Pinoy band Eraserheads. All around are old vinyl records hanging from the ceiling, real guitars on the walls, and cassette tapes cleverly used as napkin holders. There are the usual tables and chairs but one part of the inside is elevated and you'd just sit on the floor and eat on round glass tables placed on top of car tires. Still another part 
you'd have to reach by climbing a few steps of stairs. 

And the menu - it gave me a few good laughs! Consider pasta dishes like SPAMdau Ballet, Eltuna John and CarBONOra, Alfredo Mercury and Elvis Pesto.and mocha milkshake named Mochamical Romance (My Chemical Romance used to be my daughter's favorite band before she became a Christian herself). The dishes themselves are quite ingenious. Otherwise  simple dishes are given an unusual and exciting twist. Consider this: for a hamburger, they have a beef patty sandwiched by waffles instead of bread buns and champorado crowned with whipped cream and served with bacon, ham and Spam instead of the usual tuyo. I had this champorado last week and it was delish! I've been at Chef Paul's four times 
since last summer and these were what I've tried so far:         

'2Pac' - waffle burger with cheese and mushrooms

Champorado with Spam, ham and bacon

'CarBONOra'

'Eltuna John'


'Bacon Jovi' bacon waffle sandwich

'Meatloaf' - Spam waffle sandwich

'Bob Dylan' blueberry waffles

'The Beeftles'

'Pink Floyd' Strawberry Milkshake and 'Mochamical Milkshake'

Cafe Americano

Iced Tea

Their Menu

                                                                        Interiors

Cassette tape cases as napkin holders

The Beatles, Eraserheads on the wall

I have definitely added Chef Paul's to my list of favorite foodie places 

for the yummy and cozy factors. Check it out, guys!

NOTE: This place has permanently closed.

'Flu diet'

Around this time last month, I was down with the flu and was confined to bed for four days. On the fifth, I went out, but only to go to the doctor. I was feeling so weak and without an appetite which was rare! Hehe..Truth is, I rarely get sick and in fact, it was my first time in 46 years to get the flu. Whew! I wish never to catch it again because I don't like it when I lose the desire to eat. 

There were just five things (food!) that my waning taste buds wanted:

Nilagang baka. This was the only ulam I wanted with my rice. The soup was comforting and satisfying.

Green mango with salt and chili. The sourness of the unripe mango coupled with the zing of the siling labuyo was an antidote to my lack of appetite. I'd eat this with much gusto! 

While I was sick, even eating made me feel tired. Porridge to the rescue! Because it's easy to swallow, less effort was required to eat.

Lanzones. I constantly craved for this when I had the flu. Thank God it was lanzones season when I got sick.

Turon. The sweetness of this Filipino snack favorite somehow gave me an appetite. I had this on hand for those times I was hungry but had no desire to eat.

Without any of these five, I would have been happy to go. hungry on those days that I was sick.      Thanks to my househelp, who was patient enough to cook or buy what I wanted to eat. 
                             Stay healthy, guys as it seems to be flu season because of the 
                                                              ever-changing weather.

QC Food Festival 2014

It was an overcast Saturday last October 11 and it drizzled every now and then but these didn't dampen the spirit of foodies from all over the metro who eagerly trooped to Maginhawa St. in Quezon City for the first ever Food Festival here. The event was part of the celebration of Quezon City's 75th founding anniversary this month. Indeed, what better place to hold a food fest than Maginhawa St. which stretch has metamorphosed from a quiet community into a food mecca over the years. Many of the residences opened up their garage or ground floor to serve food to the hungry, mostly students from the neighboring University of the Philippines. I've eaten twice in this area but it was only last Saturday that I got to walk the long stretch 
(it was so tiring!) and see the many restaurants there.

It was amazing how many foodie places you could see in one street offering all kinds of food like Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Persian, Italian and others. There are various Filipino restaurants, categorized according to regional or provincial cuisine. I saw two that specialize in dishes that trace their roots to Quezon Province, for instance - Cafe Quezon and Bowl & Brew - which got me so excited as I hail from this beautiful place in Southern Tagalog. If you're planning to go on a food trip to Maginhawa St., you'd go crazy 
trying to decide where to eat! There's just too many choices!

Anyway, I was invited to the QC Food Festival by one my friends and together with some others from media outfits, we gathered at Hillcrest Wellness Cafe, which for me is a very interesting place because one, it is owned by a Baptist pastor (I'm a born-again Christian and we consider Baptists and Methodists as siblings in the faith) and two, it offers healthy food which appeals to me because I am now trying my best to eat healthy, being recently diagnosed with diabetes (sigh..sigh). Anyway, food (and drinks!) was really good here at Hillcrest. I especially liked the Chicken Pesto Pasta and Herbed Chicken Sandwich plus the Banana Oat Smoothie. The pesto was oh-so-flavorful without overwhelming the taste buds. If you'd consider, it was really a  bit (just a wee-bit!) bland, allowing you to adjust the taste as they put small jars of salt, pepper and parmesan cheese on your table. I didn't have to add salt, though, because the taste was just right for me. It was in fact, perfect!. And it wasn't just the food that I liked at Hillcrest Wellness Cafe, even the ambiance was relaxing and cool, considering the subdued colors of the walls enlivened only by some hanged artworks. However, it could be a bit cramped when many customers are inside. Also, it could help if the service could be a little faster. Anyway, thanks much for our lunch/snacks. Mwaah!

Beef and tomato pasta

Chicken pesto pasta

Herbed chicken sandwich

Banana Oat smoothie

Mountain blend coffee

Iced tea (I failed to ask what made this green)

Bible verses and wise sayings dominate this part of the interior

After Hillcrest, we decided to check out Gayuma ni Maria but after a long and tiring walk, we didn't like that we were inside a jam-packed place and would have to wait to be seated so out we go and proceeded to The Sweet Spot where we had cakes for dessert - Chocolate, Red Velvet and Carrot. All these were lip-smackin' good. Not that I ate a whole slice, of course. I only ate one spoon of each cake.(sigh..sigh)  The place is pretty cool, too, perfect for
 friendly and romantic dates.

Carrot cake. Love, love, love!

Red Velvet Cake

Chocolate cake

Inside The Sweet Shop

As it was already dinnertime when we finished at The Sweet Spot, we headed to Jek's Ku--Bo where I had hoped and imagined to finish a steaming bowl of beef bulalo but alas, there was a looong line of customers and we were running out of patience so we walked and walked again, searching for another place to eat. After some time, we stopped by Pan de Manila for some of our favorite pandesal (for the next day's brekkie), and then ended up at the eatery at the end of the loong street - Rodic's. All restaurants were full of people and as Rodic's was the last one on that street, we had no choice but to wait for a table because even it was jam-packed! Not bad, though, because I had wanted to try Rodic's, too, which tapsilog is a byword among UP students. Finally, we got to try it ourselves. It was good and the serving was huge. In fact, my daughter (who, together with the bunso, I tagged along, I failed to mention) 
and I just shared an order. Diabetics can't eat a lot anymore, you see.. sigh..sigh

Pork barbecue and rice

Longsilog

Rodic's famous Tapsilog

Anyway, by the looks of it, the QC Food Festival was a huge success, with restaurants putting up tables out on the street and throngs of people ogling at and eating those delectable-looking food that I imagined to be yummy and filling as they were eye candies. The overall mood was very festive and indeed it was a lot of fun seeing all those peeps searching for new foodie places to try or going back for their favorites. I am so looking forward to the 2nd QC Food Festival in 2015. Cheers!