Would you go to this far end of the mall (not to mention the top floor) to get a fix of your froyo cravings?

Hmmm, let me think about it….

I don’t think so! (*wink*) hahaha

It surprised me that AD chose the PLAIN frozen yoghurt and NO toppings at all.  He would usually want to add toppings but this time, he settled for the plain one.  For me, I got the flavored one - STRAWBERRY for diversity.

As I tasted mine and his froyo, I told him that my froyo was better than his but he begged to disagree.  He was very insistent that his was better than mine.  I didn’t stop there and told him, mine has the tangy taste and his was kinda sweet.  I liked my froyo better than his.  He, too, was very sure that he liked his froyo.  At least, he knows what he likes.  End of story.

Check out the froyo (ice cream and smoothies) prices.  They’ve even got different prices for their toppings!

Price alert:  For those who would just have FIC ice cream, better buy at their FIC stall downstairs before heading to Lulubelle’s for their froyo or smoothies.  The FIC ice cream at Lulubelle’s cost more or maybe Lulubelle’s servings are proportionate to its price, that we weren’t able to check.

FYI, FIC stall and Lulubelle’s have the same owners.

Lulubelle
3/F Playground area

Power Plant Mall, Rockwell
+632 515.8129

I wondered why Stock Market was called Stock Market and this was the reason behind it.  You can also purchase kitchen stuff at the Stock Market but I’m not sure if it would be cheaper than your favorite Gourdo’s, Rustan’s, or The Chef Nook’s store but do check them out while you are waiting for your food.  You might find something of interest to you.

Cream of Porcini Mushroom Soup with Truffle Oil (P260).

I loved the taste of this soup!  I love mushroom and I love trufle oil!  But suddenly, it dawned to me….they might have used my favorite Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom too!  I do not know how you would be able to know because the trufle oil was all over the soup…light but still, I can’t dissect the taste.  It was creamy and the color was similar to Campbell’s.  There were more mushrooms bits but it could easilybe added…so I’m not sure…but I liked the way the trufle oil with the creamy soup tasted.  Can’t wait to make my own again!

Cornmeal-Crusted Salmon with Horseradish Hollandaise and Rice Casserole (P490).

The rice casserole was lacking in taste.  Wish I could have tasted more of the salmon.  All I can say is that the salmon meat was not overcooked.  It was fork-tender.

Fork-Tender Beef Short Ribs with Sauteed Beans and Corn Risotto (P420).

Loved the risotto!  Creamy and definitely with trufle oil!  Urgh!  Can I have more of these please?  Made me forget the beef short ribs on top.  I think I was expecting it to be similar to pork ribs.

Prime Burger with Grilled Pineapple, Bacon and Caramelized Onion (P380)

The burger pattie was a bit salty but maybe if eaten with the grilled pineapple, it should be just right.  I noticed that there was also pesto sauce on the bun maybe to add flavor to the burger.  It did take on another level but not to the rave level.

I’m sure there will be improvements on their menu and store presentation in the coming days before their grand opening on the 15th of October. By the way, to those who want to try out Stock Market before the 15th, there would be an outright discount of 10% on card charges while 15% off on cash payments.  If you’re going to try them for lunch or dinner, better reserve and call them or be prepared to dine somewhere else.  Another thing, the table at the corner (along the couch row, I love couch seats!) would be the best seat in the house.

The Stock Market (Beside Friday’s)

Bonifacio High Street, Taguig City

02.8566300, 02.8566301

 We’ve been scouting for a new restaurant at Greenbelt 5 but this is the newest we could find…Kai Neo Japanese Restaurant in a new location.  The place was not fully booked (actually, there was only one table which was occupied) so I was not worried in case AD would be in his active state.  We also brought JX that rainy night because we were celebrating my MIL’s birthday.  So, for us, we are full house.

Roasted Grapes and Tomato Salad with Sesame Dressing (P280+).  Interesting but what was more intrigued us when we tasted the mushroom toppings.  It looked like the mushroom was the one roasted instead of the grapes. The dried and thinly sliced mushroom tasted cashew nuts!  It was yummy!  I had to stop myself from getting all the mushroom toppings and leaving all the greens for the family to eat. By the way, the salad and everything else were also good when eaten altogether. It’s just that I loved the mushroom toppings the best that’s why I just can’t stop raving about it!

Portobello Mushroom Confit Salad with Maple Ponzu Vinaigrette (P280+).  Another intriguing piece of salad.  The Portobello mushroom was just sooo tasty!  We didn’t know what or how it was prepared so we asked the server.  He said that it was cooked with grapeseed oil then cooked on top of a salamander. Hmmm, I don’t know about that but it taste damn good!  The portobello mushroom was so soft.  If only, I could order just the portobello mushroom…The salad combination was simple yet very surprising once tasted.  Love those mushrooms!

Age Dashi Tofu (P140+).  Eating healthy with soft tofu squares. I loved the very tasty and crunchy seaweeds on top!  Perfect partner for the bland taste of a tofu.  I now remember when I was still a kid, I’d love to eat those seaweeds.  I would finish off so many packs in one seating…I could just imagine AD being addicted as I was with the seaweeds.  Would he eat as many as I did? Or maybe JX would eat the most!

Dragon Roll (P240).  Unagi skin was crunchy!  Yes, it was also spicy..but that was all I remembered…I was just too hungry to dissect the sushi roll.

10 hours Buta Kakuni “Braised Pork Belly” (P350+).  I was hooked when I read the 10 hours cooking time of this pork belly so we ordered it.  I was excited to try but when I saw it, I was kinda disappointed with the looks of it.  That was it? Yes, it was.  Good thing, they’re rice was plump and on the moist side so we got 2 cups of plain rice more to enjoy our order of pork belly.  The white plain rice was a separate order, fyi.  The rice that it came with the pork belly was not proportionate with the pork belly as obviosuly seen.

Dessert: Banana Nutella Harumaki (P180+) rolled in sesame fillo topped with caramel, chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream. “Kai’s interpretation of banana split”.

I loved the design!  I’m not sure I was able to taste nutella there though because I popped the whole ice cream and squeezing the banana sesame fillo into my mouth.  Talk about gluttony!

Verdict: It’s good that we tried Kai once again.  The first was when they were still at Greenbelt 2 (during their first few months of operation) and I know we were also celebrating a family member’s birthday.  I just can’t remember who.  I also remember that I loved one of their appetizer with portobello mushroom (again!) which is not in their menu now.  Actually, HB doesn’t even remember that we’ve eaten there.

KAI Neo Japanese Cuisine
Unit 1-112 Greenbelt 5
Ayala Center, Makati City
Telephone: +632 75705209 to 10
Email: kairestaurant@yahoo.com

Blue Eagles led the Green Archers to one of their favorite nook — Fruili…inside UP village.

Putanesca (P120). Angel hair with our version of putanesca - made of tomatoes, capers, anchovies & olives.

This pasta felt light.  Simply feeling healthy as we take our fork with swirled pasta into our mouth.

Magherita (P160). Simply a combination of garlic and herbs smothered with 2 layers of mozzarella cheese topped with fresh tomatoes.

Tasty bites of this pizza will surprise you with a crunchy ending.

Spaghetti Meatsauce ( P 110). Beefy Tomato sauce served with spaghetti.

Definitely, good!  All because Lance really made sure that we get a taste of this…this is one of his favorite.

Tre Formaggi (P160). Another classic pizza of three cheeses - mozzarella, cheddar & blue. A treat for cheese lovers.

This really is a treat for cheese lovers.  The blue chiz flavor really stood out which I loved!

Tuna and Mushroom (P100). Spicy white sauce with tuna & mushroom served with spaghetti.

I also liked this tuna and mushroom but the presentation was not that appetizing.  The pasta looked like it was overcooked.  I liked the spiciness of the white sauce and the light taste of the tuna.  I love love mushroom too!  I’m happy that this tuna and mushroom didn’t taste the usual “can” (lata) taste.  I would’ve finished this off but hesitated to do so.  I had another dinner to go to..have to have space for that dinner.

The dessert menu is not their homemade stuff but it came from the usual supplier of Italian resto…you’ll know what I mean if you take a peek of there lineup…pharaoh’s delight, after8. tiramisu and tartufo nero/ bianco…but order anyway, if you want to have a sweet ending.

This is a good find!  Place is a little bit of cramp.  No fancy place, only good and affordable food!

We’re back, Cafe Juanita!  This was one of our date place when I was still working in Mandaluyong eons ago.  We’d go to Cafe Juanita whenever we have longer lunch time or dinner time because of the longer cooking time.

I was quite surprised to find that Cafe Juanita was more alive than our previous dinner visits but I was glad too!  At least, it was in a festive mood, just in time for Christmas.

Juanita’s Caesar Salad (P 242).  Glad to have ordered a veggie salad this time…I’m up to my neck eating meat and meat these days…How am I going to lose the pounds I need to lose?!  And aside from that, I need to eat healthy as JX would also need the nutrition the most!  I liked the salad, sauce generously mixed with the greens.

Dinuguan with chicharon (P230?).  HB decided to order this dinuguan.  It was not in the menu but just sticking on a wall in front of our table…new dish….Dinuguan!  And so we tried…I am a sucker for sauce…and this lacked the sauce I wanted but nevertheless, this tasted good.  I could taste the coco cream but wished I could have more sauce to mix with my rice.  Fat content on the pork was considerably fair.  The chicharon was kinda stale.  But overall, it was okay.

Kare-Kare ni Juanita (P483). Always served with pride as one of our specialties: Ox-tail and tripes stewed in peanuts and toasted rice with tropical vegetables.

If you’ve noticed, we have been eating in Filipino restaurants these days AND been ordering Kare-Kare (though of different variants) and so far, I have liked this BEST.  The sauce tasted real…made of peanuts.  It was grounded to bits.  The bagoong was also good to complement the dish.  At least, the kare-kare didn’t rely on the bagoong to make the dish delish unlike the previous kare-kare we had (I haven’t blogged about it.)

Sticky Toffee Pudding (P89).  I didn’t like this dessert.  If I remember it right, the pudding tasted like Food for the Gods and I do not like Food for the Gods.  Wished I was the one who ordered the dessert.

If I had the chance, I’d try their Sunday Lunch buffet…another date place too!

Cafe Juanita
No.2 United Street corner West Capitol Street, Brgy Kapitolyo, Pasig.
Telephone Number: +632 632-0357.

We just came from a meeting in QC…it was late for dinner (for me at least) but HB convinced me to have dinner here…

He said that we rarely go to QC so we have to maximize our trip…and off we went to this place called Adarna…We had to ask exact location from a nearby gas station and parking boy from Trellis but they were not familiar with the resto…and so we went on until we found Adarna…Yes, we are always on an adventure whenever we look for a new resto…never give up until we land on the restaurant with our obvious hungry faces.

Wow!…it was like an old house but not the eerie kind of house.  By the way, they have 2 function rooms which they named, Silid ng Bituin and Silid ng Reyna.  You can reserve the rooms with a minimum consummable of P5000.  The function room can fit 15-20 pax each room.  You get to feast on the photos of the Local Actors and Actress and Carnival Queens.  At first, I didn’t quite get what Chef Ginny was talking about when she was telling us the story of the Carnival Queens so I had to asked it again.  The Carnival Queen is similar to our Miss Universe now.  The only difference between the CQ and Miss U is that the Carnival Queens come from the prominent families with the samequalification as the Miss U candidates.  How interesting and how different is the CQ term as what we know of it now.  The rooms would definitely be one of the conversation topics during your gathering.

Piassok (P304).From Mindanao, experience this exotic Sulu dish of beef chunks cooked slowly in smoked coconut cream and ten spices till tender then buttered and grilled just before serving.

Hmmm…so this is piassok…kinda surprised to see just 3 chunks of beef….but at least it tasted good…you can taste the coco cream…but I wonder what the 10 spices where….I forgot to ask…I was too excited to even remember.

Seafood Special (P471). A true-blue Manila family shares an Iberian style seafood dish of shrimps, scallops and fish in a flavorful tomato-olive oil suace topped with bell pepper, fried onions and parsley.

A sweet tomato sauce that enticed my palate…shrimps, scallops and fish with the Batanes rice…hmmm….yummy but i was wishing that the fish was not breaded (meaning fried beforehand).

Batanes Yellow Rice Family Size (P130). From up north, a rice dish that is so simple it is elegant. Turmeric, garlic and a bit of pork flavors the rice for a special treat.

Practical side of me, instead of ordering a serving size of the Batanes rice which cost around P60, we opted to order the Family size since this is twice the price of a solo size but 5 people can eat it.  We brought the leftover home.

Platanillos con Mangga (P150). Light cream on crepe twirled into a cone and finished with rhum-flavored mango slices.

I wished AD was with us.  I’m sure he will be soooo happy with the dessert.  He’ll be in sugar high for sure.   This would not taste good if we include this in our doggy bag so off it went into our tummy.

They made a Sari-sari store for the kids and kids at heart.  The candies and party favors are for FREE.  These are the treats you had when you were young.  You name it, they have it.  I’ve tried to name a few to see if they forgot something but it was just out of stock!  Tex cards, plastic balloons, chocnut, bazooka, mint candies, marbles, sampaloc…Kids and Kids at heart just loved these treats the most, that’s why it easily disappeared!

A….for Adarna….Awesome concept!  Love to go back to try their other interesting dishes with friends.  Good company with good food.  A great place for bringing your special someone!

Adarna Food & Culture
119 Kalayaan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City
Telephone: +632 926-8712
Mobile: +63 917 961 8113
adarnafoodandculture@yahoo.com