Eat, Shop and Relax at Batam

It was like my friends and I were going to Indonesia without any plans at all. Oh, we have. We planned to just figure it out when we touch down Batam. So there. As we arrive at Batam Centre Port, we checked some booths around the area offering hotel accommodations and travel packages. While I was inquiring to one of the receptionists, I thought being a millionaire in Indonesia is okay but being asked for a popular singer in the Philippines is more fun. While the reception is holding my personal details which revealed I have the same surname with this popular balladeer not only in Philippines but Southeast Asia. She could not help but asked my relationship to him. Well, I jokingly said he is a close relative to me, can't you see the resemblance? LOL She was referring to, Christian Bautista.

Anyway, we finally got our place to stay and now we are ready to explore the small but busy island of Batam.

There's not so much to go in Batam Island like a tourist attraction or a famous spot but this island nearest to the fine city, Singapore, definitely has something worth visiting for.

As the title suggests, here are the top three reasons to go in Batam Island, Indonesia.

Breakfast Buffet at Imperial Palace

Imperial Palace Cebu houses a restaurant that will surely give a mouth watering experience that is Familia Restaurant. You can enjoy your plate with flavors of the world from Japanese to Western, or maybe Oriental for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not to forget, the desserts that is most famous. Ready to dine in?

Craving for Kimono Ken

I am currently making a list of places that I would love to dine to when I get home in time for the Christmas holidays. And one I am craving for right now is Kimono Ken, a Japanese restaurant located at the lower ground and food court of Shangri-La Plaza Mall at Ortigas.

I love Japan and one of the reasons is all about their food. The Japanese cuisine has many types of seafood and vegetables with fresh and rich ingredients that are well balanced and healthy. That is why Japan is also known to have the longest life expectancy of any country in the world.

Here's a Chicken Cheese Rolls and Kani Salad Maki. You can get a 6-pieces Chicken Cheese Rolls for Php160, it's a deep fried breaded boneless chicken rolled with melted cheese and vegetables. And Kani Salad Maki for Php150, a combination of rice, crabstick, mango and cucumber salad.

Of course, by default we have Crispy Shake Salad for Php200 and California Maki for Php125. We always get to order this set because it's really good in the tummy.

The food taste and serving is really impressive. The place is clean and the crew are very warm. For me, it's really worth the money and that is why I have it on my list. So that's it, you know where to find me. :)

Check out the other four Kimono Ken locations in Manila, and more details at http://www.kimonoken.com/ website.

*Note: The given prices was that of last year (2010).

7,107 Flavours: From Philippines To Singapore

7,107 Flavours is a Philippine restaurant that aims to bring about the best Filipino Food from all the 7,107 islands of the Philippines. How about that.

So where can you find this promising place? Nowhere but in Singapore. Yes, on the second floor of Marina Square, a shopping mall located in the beautiful Marina bay area, is where the Philippine cuisine brought to world consciousness as a mainstream of Cuisine of Choice.

Pinakbet SGD12.5

We start off from the northern Luzon island of the Philippines, Ilocos. Pinakbet is a popular Ilocano dish served with variety of vegetables and cooked with bagoong. Sometimes associated with dinengdeng but they really are different with each other. The one they served us (in the picture) is cooked with bagoong alamang, well, I know the taste of our pure bagoong we used to cooked our Pinakbet, and this one is really not it. Though, the taste is also impressive. This meal comes with Bagnet also but with a higher cost.

Bicol Express SGD18.5

Now we go southern tip of the Luzon island which is the Bicol Region. I have been to Bicol and I've also tried some of their best dishes in town like Bicol Express. Bicolano style of cooking is known for spicy hot chillies and coconut milk, and this is what made of the Bicol Express. And with this 7107 Flavours' version, it tasted like the same dish I have tried before. Yummy. Tasty. Spicy.

Crispy Pata SGD27

"Pampabata", as what they jokingly say in Tagalog which means, it's gonna make you younger. Yeah right, of course -- younger to die. (LOL) Anyways, it's not like you've always eaten this for the rest of your life, so stop worrying. Once in awhile, it's okay to devour to this devilish meal. Crispy Pata is a pig trotter or knuckles that is deep fried to bring out the crispness. Many restaurants in the Philippines served this as party fare.

Overall. The price is worth it. The food is just great. The ambiance is sooo good, I can almost feel the Philippines in the air and the Filipinos there are all warm. There is acoustic playing wherein customers can jam if they feel they wanna sing their heart out.

Surely, there's always a place for Filipinos in everywhere. Try 7107 Flavours and you'll see..

Pinoy Food To Celebrate

I celebrated my special day with my friends indulging to the delicious Filipino foods. I asked someone to cook for me some of my long missed favorites back in the Philippines. But I have to skip for Pinakbet, Bagnet and Dinengdeng for now.

Here are some equally and more familiar Pinoy foods to celebrate:

Adobo

Adobong Baboy

Adobo is the more popular known dish in Filipino cuisine. This Pinoy's Best is a pork stew with vinegar and soy sauce. You can have Adobo as chicken or mixed of pork & chicken and even seafood (squid) variations.

What's good with this Pinoy food is that it does not easily get spoiled, so it's also the favorite packaged meal for mountaineers and travellers. 

Sinigang

Sinigang na bangus (Milkfish Sinigang) 

Another famous Pinoy food that I really like is Sinigang. Tamarinds (sampalok), tomatoes, and onions makes this dish truly with such a distinctive taste. Sinigang can also be cooked with pork, shrimp, or beef and also chicken but in this case, it's sometimes called as Sinampalukang Manok. 

Tinola

Chicken soup with chayote

Tinola is a chicken soup with wedges of green papaya or chayote and moringa leaves (marungay or malunggay). We usually eat Tinola during dinner. Sinigang is best served during lunch while Adobo is all-time good in any meal of the day.

The Pinoy foods for the day was really superb because they have captured its authentic taste. (Pinoy na pinoy talaga) It's super yummy and we super missed it. Good thing, the place I am staying has a good chef and also we can order personal menu of Filipino cuisine. 

Lau Pa Sat Food Festival

For food lovers, here is another place you will surely love aside from the sinful indulgence of Makansutra which I have previously posted.

I had my lunch at Lau Pa Sat Festival Market, a wet market known long time ago as Telok Ayer Market.

I must say, its the grandest hawker I have ever seen in Singapore because of its architecture that stands out amongst other hawkers. You can chose from a variety of Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Muslim/Halal, and our very own Filipino food.

Lau Pa Sat still remains unfazed with the rise of high buildings and establishments around the area. This is definitely the spot for family, friends and lovers.

The nearest MRT station is Raffles place at the red line. You may take Exit I or F. Then walk towards Cecil Street and along Robinson Road, you will see Lau Pa Sat on the corner.

Filipino Food: Bagnet Ilocos

It's been months now of taking in foreign food into my digestive system. Though I don't have any problem with that, I just miss our very own Filipino food. My taste buds are dying about it already.

Well, aside from Adobo known as a Filipino dish, there's just about a number of delightful meal you can find in every corner in the Philippines. We all have our very own finest delicacies in our provinces like Bicol Express is to Bicol, Lechon ng Cebu and Batchoy is for Iloilo.


In Ilocos, we have Pinakbet. But since I have blogged about how to cook Pinakbet already. Here's another specialty from Ilocos, the better ingredient of Pinakbet which is equally known Ilocano dish called Bagnet. In other areas it is called chicharon. This is a pork loin being fried until it gets temptingly crispy.

Here's a simple step on how to cook Bagnet:

1. Choose the best part of a pig, pork loins
2. Plunge the whole meat into boiling salted water for an hour or two or until tender
3. Use a strainer and remove the water to dry
4. Submerge in hot oil for another hour or two until color is brown and crispy
5. For condiments, we use bagoong(mixture of fermented fish) with kamatis(tomatoes)

And Voila!!

by http://www.bobbyrica.com

Here's the devilish Bagnet for your hungry tummies.. yumyum..

So, can I be your chef now?? :)

Makansutra: The Art of Eating

Hungry?!? much??


Makansutra is gonna take you in a plunge of a sinful dinner.. a food experience you don't wanna miss when in Singapore. The ambiance is so good as you can feel the cool air and the warmth of people celebrating on the streets.

It all happens in 8 Raffles Avenue, Makansutra Gluttons Bay offers a selection of Asian food from Malay to Chinese, Indonesian, Indian and even our very own Pinoy Food.






I have been here for a number of times now and always keep coming back. This is a great place where we meet friends, enjoy the spectacular city view and the festivity of food.


Makansutra starts at 5PM-2AM during Mondays to Thursdays. While its 5PM-3AM on Fridays and Saturdays. They also serve during Sundays at 4PM-1AM.

This street celebration of food, noise, smells and open-air ambiance is similar to
Banchetto in the Philippines. which I also featured on my recent posts.

Banchetto: A Street Festival of Pinoy Food

How's your FRIDAY people?


Still have that food inside you last night? Well, I'm talking about the street celebration of Food they call, Banchetto. As their tagline would say, it's “a different ambiance, a unique concept and an awesome dining experience!”

And yes, you can enjoy a variety of street food worth a hundred peso or less.






Hungry still?
But wait!! there's more.... :)








Visit Banchetto every Friday 12 midnight until Saturday 11 in the morning just right at the middle of Emerald Avenue Street (now called F. Ortigas Jr. Ave) in Ortigas Center.

During Wednesdays & Thursdays at 8.30pm until 6am the next day, another Banchetto is held at FORUM Robinson's Pioneer. Located at the back of Cybergate Plaza and Tower 1 Delivery Bay area of FORUM Robinson's Pioneer Street corner EDSA, Barangka Ilaya, Mandaluyong City, Philippines.

Tramway Buffet Plaza First and Last Bloody Date

Can you pile up plates this much?
Can you keep your stomach with unlimited foodies?

My friend Pepper and I just celebrated our first and last bloody date tonight. We tried the newly opened Tramway Buffet Plaza at Worldwide Corporate Center located along Shaw Boulevard. An eat-all-you-can restaurant similar to Tramway Buffet Garden in Timog Avenue, Quezon City where we used to have our team dinner and celebrations also. (I think they're somewhat related but with different management)

We kinda had a little struggle as we approached their reception area, they were hesitant that we go in by batch. We were not allowed to enter if we're not complete as not to confuse them. They also asked us to pay already before entering so I paid in cash (they are not yet accepting ATM and credit cards) and after that, they gave us our own weapon(spoon and fork). I told the receptionist if they can just let my officemates enter while I'll wait for the others. In fairness, they took them in. The receptionist was courteous. She explained to me that since they have a few resources yet, they would somehow do the kind of process for the first few operations.

Anyways, we had our buffet and we enjoyed it a lot. The food was average, the place is spacious, not that crowded yet and so we got more food. They also refill immediately. hehe They have function rooms charged for Php1600/3hours for the meantime, while they create menu set packages that will be consumable for the charge of function rooms.

Dining cost per head at Php218.






I believe they have their Valentine Opening Promo at Php118. Yeah, we should have gone there earlier. LOL

Tramway Buffet Plaza serves lunch at 11:30 am to 3:00 pm and dinner at 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. For your inquiries, you may call them at these numbers 7066351 / 8617129.

My cheap travel to Singapore

Planning for a cheap travel to Singapore? Well, here are some notes I made for low cost travel and also, I have been doing on my upcoming travels.

Usually the first thing I do is to look for airline promos or travel deals and packages over the internet. For me, it is better to have cheaper expense on the flights or airline fare so that we can allot more on the food or hotel accommodation. So when I was browsing the net and stumbled upon Tiger Airways Promo for Singapore, I immediately invited some colleagues to join me.

The next thing I knew, I was already building up a list of hotels/hostels and an itinerary of activities. For budget-conscious tourist like us, we opted to stay on a hostel that costs SGD16 a night. The place is just a walk away the mall area and the train station. We have 24/7 internet WIFI access while enjoying our sit on their entertainment lounge. Cool air-conditioned rooms and clean. We also have free breakfast included. It was indeed worth the pay because they were friendly and helpful to our needs.

We trip over the place mostly by train but we also tried the cab or taxi giving us a rate not higher than SGD5. But one thing also is that, I kept a print out of a map so I can just ask locals where the place is and if it is near, we can just walk. It is a good exercise after all. Even at night it is safe because I believe that most of the place is secured with cameras.

We were able to visit Universal Studios located on Sentosa Island, Singapore. We had our ticket at SGD72. It is SGD6 cheaper during weekdays. Universal Studios will give you SGD5 voucher each for retail and food that can be used on stores inside the theme park. This was a rush booking. Good thing, some fellow travellers advised us to book online. Because it is more convenient to pay via your credit card than to line up in a pool of tourist wanting to experience the thrill rides in Universal Studios.

At SGD9, we already have a bountiful meal in a store located at the mall. But we also tried in outside stalls where chicken rice is at SGD3 and we did like it. We also brought snacks and cup noodles in our backpack just in case. LOL It is cheaper because we all share our meal and just divide the expenses among ourselves. A small mineral water costs at least SGD1.30, so we have with us our own drinking bottles filled with water or juice that came from our hostel. So if we frequent going around, it really save us money a lot. We also visited a few friends in there and gave us a treat. It is fun and great you also have some friends or contacts in the place you are planning to visit because they can really help you in any way they can.

If you were into vices, it is not gonna help you save your health and neither your pockets. Cigs costs SGD10 per pack. If you enjoy going to resto bars and have some booze, it is also expensive. Well, it is not really part of our travel so we skipped on this. But Starbucks did not escape us. We chilled at Esplanade and we have our fave drink at around SGD10. A good way to end our cheap travel to Singapore. So I hope this helps you too.

Panalo ka sa rambutan

Some time last week my officemate offered me a fruit that gave me a date treat back in the past, rambutan.

It was an event on my first company, I was asked on the spot to join that dating game which I never thought I will ever join and win. Good thing, we had someone who will answer for us to hide our identity as searchers.

I couldn't pretty much remember all the questions but I can assure you, my front was really good on this. Even I, was kinda surprised with the answers his giving. I was like, okay, just answer it all for me.

The last question I thought gave the searchee had her idea whom to pick was, "If you were a fruit, what would it be and why?"

My front courageously answered, "I'm a rambutan! Well, judging by the looks, you might feel disgusted or something you wouldn't eat upon.. But sorry you, because if you never try, you will never know what sweetness is waiting inside.. :P"

Nephelium lappaceum or popularly known as rambutan came from the Malay word rambut meaning hairy caused by the 'hair' that covers this fruit.
After all the questions, the searchee has finally decided and whew!! she picked me. Everyone was just yelling and just went wild.

We just absorbed the crowd and enjoyed the gift checks to Delifrance. :)

Bangus Ala Pobre Dinner at Red Ribbon

Enjoy your dinner with a cake and free Del Monte pineapple drink (355ml).

Just buy Bangus ala pobre on some selected Red Ribbon stores for only Php 120 and your solved.

Other menus are also with cake and drink but costs Php 138. You can select 1 from 5 delicious cakes.

Promo period runs only for the whole month of July.

Order is applicable for dine in and take out.

Tilaok with Max's 65th Year

Dinner na ba?!

Gusto mo ba chicken-all-you-can?

Tara na sa Max's!

Max's Restaurant is celebrating its 65th Year of sarap-to-the-bones chicken and is launching the biggest chicken-all-you-can promo in the country. With their heartfelt gratitude to their patrons, they are giving away chicken for only Php165. Just wait for the tilaok signal so you can enjoy dine in from 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm daily.

Chicken-All-You-Can promo runs from June 17 to July 17, 2010 for customers nationwide.

Lutong Ardee

Kamakailan, dumating ang aking pamilya sa aking tinutuluyan. Nasa finishing phase na ang aming project, pero naudlot dahil mas ginusto kong asikasuhin sila lalo na tong makulit kong pamangkin na si Jelo. Sobrang energetic at bibong bata, at para lang kaming magkasing-edad kung mag-usap. andaming gustong gawin, daming gustong puntahan, daming tanong at daming kwento. Andami-dami. Isama pa ang pagiging adik nya sa digicam.

Since nandito sila at nagcracrave ako ng mga pagkain samin eh ayun pinaghanda ako ng Mama ko ng masarap na dinengdeng. Sobrang nabusog na naman. Dami ko na naman nakain. Wahaha. Tapos, kung ano-ano pa ang pinagshopping para sakin. Hayy..akala ko aasikasuhin ko sila.. si mama talaga, sobrang ako pa ang inasikaso.. :D

Nakabonding ko din ang dalawa kong sis about their whereabouts and mga other relatives namin dun sa province. Nagpaiwan pa nga sila for a day and syempre it was my time at ayokong hayaan na umalis sila na hindi nila matikman ang aking hinanda.
Ang lutong ardee..pinakbet :P



Sensya wala akong pic nung dinengdeng, naunahan ako ng gutom at naubos ko agad.. wakokok..

*Dinengdeng - Ilocano dish with various veggies classified with bagoong(of fermented fish)-based soup. Depends on you if you want to add leftover fried fish, or other meats.