We’re having a Japanese craze now!

Ukokkei Ramen Ron serves the best ramen in town!  We got this tip from a Japanese friend of HB.  They serve 3 types of ramen — soy sauce-based, salt-based and miso-based soup.

While waiting for our friend, we ordered gyoza (we also know where you can get the best gyoza in town!) to fill our growling tummy a bit.  Before we knew it, the gyoza were gone in a minute!   P120/ 5 pieces.  We were hungry!

Ukkokei Miso (P300 + 5% S.C.).  Our friend, Joelle, ordered this ramen which our server recommend as the bestseller but I don’t think Joelle agreed because the bowl was still half filled.  The ramen was a miso-based soup with pork as toppings.

Ukkokei Nirra Niniku Karamiso (P360 + 5% S.C.).  We don’t usually order ramen in a Japanese resto but this resto served the best ramen so what do we get?  Ramen, of course!  This was all-vegetable soup with some spiciness.  The slices of shitake mushroom you see were not very tasty…maybe because it all went to the soup. I liked the soup for it was very flavorful but I always get distracted with the soup’s oiliness and the vegetable (I had lots of the hard parts of the petchay.) that I forgot to really take note of the flavor.   I would like to think that the oil that I was referring too was the chili oil.

Ukkokei Shoyu Koumi (P330 + 5% S.C.).  Tasted this and this was way better than mine.  The liquid travelled smoothly through my throat although HB felt it was oily too, like my soup! Good thing, I got to taste the soup because it was gone afte 5 minutes!  Yes, he was that hungry that he forgot to really share the soup as in exchange with mine.

The ramen I’ve tasted here are way better than the ramen we always order at Isshin.  It’s just too bad that they don’t have any dessert line-up where we look forward to ending our night with just a simple nata de coco or ice cream like we have at Isshin.

Ukokkei Ramen Ron

Patis Tesoro Bldg. (beside La Regalade, diagonally across Kink Cakes)

Pasay Road, Makati

Closed on 2nd & 4th Sundays of the month

When I got a text from Cecil about their restaurant, I immediately informed HB but it wasn’t until now that we tried this restaurant for several reasons (not much buzz around the town, closed when we went there past lunch hour and hesitation to try out some restaurant owned by a hotel = maybe not value for money).

Ignorant me, asked our server what Astralis meant and he told us that it was a name of this wine (oh so expensive!  Who dare to drink this? They don’t sell by the glass but by the bottle!).  I do hope this taste good as I do remember that price of a wine does not equate to a good tasting wine and of course, this is not applicable to every wine lover.

Astralis also means star.  I guess it is one of those names of a star.  Funny, I thought it meant Heart or something related to love because of the bread plate and the cloth design of the chair.  So much for my thoughts! Pfft!

Complimentary bread (Foccaccia bread with olives, sundried tomato and sea salt bread) served with butter.  The bread and butter was not a match.  The waiter took our suggestion that it is best paired with sauce such as pesto or balsamic vinaigrette with olive oil and surprisingly, our server smilingly served us with these!  Hope they’ll serve these instead of the butter.  Nice service!  Service deluxe as if you were dining at Diamond Hotel.

Baked double-broiled mushroom soup (P220+)

I was excited to try this out.  The phyllo sheets made it more exciting…but it kinda went downhill…the moment I got to taste it.  Buhuhuhu…it lacked the mushroom taste…I would have expected it to be tasty since it was even double broiled…maybe because the actual mushroom used was not of good quality.  After sipping more of the soup, HB said it tasted like monggo (bean) soup minus a hint taste of mushroom.

Sato-san’s Japanese Mentaiko Spaghetti (P460 +) spicy cod roe, nori on cream sauce.

I loved this pasta especially with nori which adds character to the dish (We asked if we could have extra nori because as you can see, it was gone after we took our forks into our mouth the 1st time).  This pasta reminded me of my younger years when I used to love cream-based pasta.  I was not yet mindful of what it would do to my body but now,  I’ve changed my preference to tomato-based pasta.  Although, I still eat the rich-based pasta on an occassional days.  The spiciness  from the cod roe was just right.  I was secretly hoping they could’ve added more!

I wish I was a good and well-practiced cook so I’ll know that this pasta was easy to make!  We’ve been had!  Wondering how I knew?  Check Chubby Hubby’s recipe on this Mentaiko pasta…I like his version of soft-boiled egg to add richness (as if the cream and mayo are not enough!).

Btw, would you know where I can buy good mentaiko?  Japanese stores?  And then I’ll add nori (I love eating nori when I was still a kid!  And it is just now that I realized it has nutritional benefits — high in fibre, vitamins, protein and minerals. It also  provides calcium and iron, strengthens the circulatory system and help lower cholesterol.) and the japanese mayo in my cart!

Chicken stuff with gorgonzola, mozzarella, and stilton (P390+) with mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini.

Trio cheese!  Nice combi.  Enjoyed every bite of the chicken where the cheese was generously spread.  Tasty!  Only complaint was the size of the chicken…Usually for the price, we’d have a quarter of a chicken.  Oh well, no can do so we just cleaned off the plate!

It was also a good decision not to order the dessert (not that I was not tempted by their Le Royale!) because we got 2 bags of dark chocolate chip cookies from Astralis (It was trick or treat day at Rockwell.).  It was yummy!  We finished it off before we can leave some pieces for AD.

If you want to try new stuff, maybe you’d like to indulge yourself a little bit…Astralis is offering wine and raclette buffet on Mondays and Thursdays.  Time to unwind especially these days!

Astralis by Diamond Hotel

R1-144 Lopez Drive

Powerplant Rockwell Center

+632.703.2688

JX and I just got from Havaianas Playback event at Boni Hi Street.  I think I had more fun than JX!  AD was with his Poppa doing their Ultimate Pampanga Tour so it was only JX and I.

Here’s what I did (Low-tech me, I again didn’t capture any photos.  I have an excuse, I was carrying JX.):

1. Registered and got the Havaianas Passport for me to be able to play.

2. To earn points, you have to play games and there are corresponding points.

3. After playing, go to their redemption center.  Playing doesn’t stop there!  They will be giving you a pingpong ball (# of balls depends on how many points you earned from playing) and eventually will land into a pocket hole.  The hole it lands to has a corresponding letter and has a corresponding prize.  Easy huh!

4. Don’t forget your kite!  Because you joined, you get a kite!  I got one!

TIP:  Playing under the sun means you need to be in your comfortable attire.  And also, I do hope you are none other Havaianas sandals (yes, not the other sandals…)  Also, bring towel for you will sweat a lot! :)  But truly fun!  When was the last time you really played those games?

I was in grade school when I last played Chinese garter (Wait a minute!  Is this a Pinoy game?)!  I aced it when I played a while ago.  I was also carrying JX at that time! hahaha Kidding!  I tried piko (just learned how today!) which was fun too but super tiring with all the jumping around!  I didn’t like sipa but played it anyway.  I only get to hit it once and the sipa drops unto the floor.  Bummer!  I didn’t get the chance to play patintero and tumbang preso because we had to go home.  Sleeping time for JX.  By the way, JX had fun with the sungka!  He was trying to eat the shells!

So, what are you waiting for?  Get dressed and head for Boni Hi because I’m sure there are a lot of goodies waiting for you there!

Lastly, they are offering 20% off on selected Havaianas slippers at the store ONLY FOR TODAY! Is it time to buy another pair?  Well, this is the right time!  Because you get to save 20% of the original price of Havaianas pair!

Ghana flavored Hot Chocolate (P80).   Kids loves this and so those who are kids at heart…that’s me!  We also got the Ecuador flavor hot chocolate and it was super!  If I can describe the hot chocolates, Ghana is cool while Ecuador flavored is the serious one.  There were also several flavors which is worth mentioning and would definitely try the next time we visit the QC area…Ivory Coast (nutty in taste), Madagascar (taste like raisins) and Peru (floral taste).  Interesting indeed!

Sachi Nama Chocolates at P350/box.  We were given a free taste of this nama chocolate and tasted similar with Royce.  I cannot say what taste better because it has been so long since I’ve tasted Royce.  Have you tasted them? Oh and by the way, we heard that Royce would be bringing their chocolates here in the Philippines!  Sachi Nama Chocolates have several flavors:  Champagne, Dark Chocolate, Green Tea and Strawberry. Are there any flavor that I missed?

Cakes should be pre-ordered 2-3 days prior so we weren’t able to taste any.  There were several desserts displayed but it was not appealing to us.  Good thing, their hot chocolates were enough for us to forget what we intended to eat.

We took home a pack of the Ghana (or Ecuador) at P175/pack.  They have those sugar-free tablets (P220/pack) but we were not quite sure what flavor it was so we opted the one we have tasted.

Heavenly Chocolates (after A Taste of LA)

Unit 1, Roces Centre

127 Roces Ave., QC

+632.666.2208

Aidan excitedly went ahead to serve us with the pizza.

Gorgonzola Pizza (P330). Tomato, Mozzarela, Blue Cheese, Oregano, Olive Oil.

I was happy to have ordered this pizza because of the blue cheese.  Usually, I would get the Formaggi Pizza but ever since Fruili, it reminded me of how much I was fond of blue cheese.  I just got 2 slices and I’m done.  The pizza crust was chewy while they were able to achieve a crunchy crust.

Cannelloni agli Spinaci (P298). Baked Cannelloni stuffed with spinach and cheese topped with bechamel and parmesan cheese.

I shouldn’t have ordered this because this was just re-heated.  I just thought I wanted a pasta that we don’t usually order and a pasta without any meat.   Oh brother!  We’ll just return for their other dishes…

Next pit stop: Heavenly Chocolates before going home…

Bellissimo Ristorante
105 Unit E & F Scout Castor corner Tomas Morato, Quezon City 1103
Telephone: +632 376-5746, 414-0274, 411-8335
Mobile: +63922 882-1701
Email: akmontano@gmail.com

Pink Kitchen

18-19 October 2008

11am-10pm

Entrance Fee:

200pesos for ADULTS

100pesos for CHILDREN below 12yo

It is just too bad that I will not be able to go here this year! Let me know if this is better than last year…Check out my HB’s post for a recap of last year’s successful Pink Kitchen and some tips for this year.