Making Banoffee Pie with My Little Monkey

I've been so hooked on Jack Johnson lately. Like really really hooked. He's not gorgeous, but he has such a fantastic kinda husky but soothing voice. Think a sweeter sort of lazier version of John Mayer.

You better listen to that song. It's lazy, it's sweet- it's a sweet lazy afternoon song.

..And I'd totally be listening to it again if I was making another pie.

Let's get rocking.

Mamou and Bar Dolci (HEAVEN!)

This is going to be my favoritest post ever (even more than the oyster one). Just looking at the photos and remembering the sheer and utter awesomeness of this meal makes me so happy! I am now planning 

(in the back of my brain) to do this again with my sister next week! Eating out with my sister is the fun-est thing ever and I really wouldn't trade my fluffy, crazy little sister for all the Birkins in the world! :) Anyway, are you ready to go insane?!

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Fantastic Coffee at Le Monde, Surry Hills

I've got quite the crazy schedule this semester. There's 9-7 Wednesdays. I find it totally repulsive especially since my class the next day starts at 9! But anyway, I've got this 2 hour break in between classes, and of course from all the design crit and stress, my friends and I want- more than anything- to slip away and relax. One of my friends, who happens to be a barista suggested this lovely place on Foveaux.

Oh BTW, it's one of the BEST places for coffee in Sydney.

interiors.

There's the special board with all the lovely sounding things on it. 

'

The cococoffee station.

Masseto, Makati

The other night my mom, sister, brother and I had our regular start-of-the-weekend dinner, and we gave Masseto a try.

M is for Masseto. This reminded me of The Secret!

What I've Been Eating

As I've said in my previous post, I am starting on a quest for clean eating and happy living. Here's what I've been pigging out on!

Salad with balsamic dressing, feta, toasted walnuts, and a poached egg

Whole wheat toast with brie and organic honey

Muffins and Cookies

I've been baking a LOT lately! Our graduation pictorials are coming up and I'm on a desperate bid to lose weight. More importantly, my mom has banned  us, once and for all, from all packaged foods (Rice Krispies, Oreos, and even Late July cookies are no longer allowed) and so we've been MAKING our treats instead of buying them.

 I also recently learned about carbohydrate sensitivity* and I think I suffer from it. The rains have also caused classes to be cancelled, giving me time to get creative in the kitchen. So it's like the whole universe has aligned to get me baking pastries from real ingredients that are actually good for you! Imagine! A treat that isn't nasty for your body or for your waistline.**  I've recently tried baking with whole wheat flour (something I've wanted to try for such a long time, but haven't had time to do) and I discovered that it was really easy to bake with!

Kitchen, Greenbelt

Have you ever tried Kitchen? It's a pretty okay place at Greenbelt 3. My friends and I ate there before watching Transformers 3.

Minty water

Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancakes!

Precisely 3 hours ago, I was craving...

 Pancakes with bananas and strawberries.

I fully resisted and didn't cook any.

But then.. After dinner, my cousin asked me if we could make some.

Well, I succumbed.

ME, OH MY, GOODNESS!

A Second Take at Ninyo, Katipunan

Few months ago, Daryl told me about a lovely fusion sort of molecular gastronomy restaurant that's just near Ateneo. She said they have great ideas (like WOW! How do you actually come up with those sorts of things?) but then there were issues with the temperature of the food. Well, I'd say it piqued my interest, and that's why I made my way there with my family one Sunday night.

Btw, Daryl's post on Ninyo here!

The whole restaurant has a rather traditional appearance which is most certainly contradicting the food that they serve. Tables and utensils wise, it was classy, near the fine dining side but tuned to Filipino twists and culture. On the menu, there were plenty of fascinating things, all sounding rather unusual, novel, and inventive.

My Dad's Birthday

So my dad turned forty-plus the other day and we had a ginormous feast with all the aunts and uncles and cousins. I've come to love our ginormous feasts at home more and more. It's reached such a point that I have a ginormous feast at home by myself every day... So now I can't fit into my tan leather and polyester Safari girl look shorts. I'm on a real diet now. I'm serious.

Chef's Table, The Fort

There seems to be a something these days about reinventing and innovating when it comes to Filipino cuisine. Everybody is trying to make a sophisticated, modern, fusion, or haute version of it. And guess what, I think fellow Filipinos are loving it. That's why more and more of them are popping up. One of the most popular of the lot is Chef's Table.

Crab Cakes- P370
Freshly picked crab meat,
seared and baked to perfection
served with sampaloc aioli.

For starters, we had some crab cakes. I like crab cakes. Also fish cakes. These crab cakes had a fragrant fishy thing going on, they were also loaded with pimiento and bell peppers. There was a glitch though, they were salty. Not just salty, extremely salty. Almost to the point that it would be inedible.

Shi Lin, The Podium

Shi Lin is one of those places with a chef from China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, what have you? 

..And here are the interiors, nothing flashy.

It's fairly plain and simple with oriental influences.

This is a bowl of their peanut sesame noodles. Apparently, it's a dish that they're popular for. It's amazingly fragrant with peanut and sesame. Duh. It's really moist and at times too rich. The noodles have an unexplained fantastic bite to it. Sorta magical. And it sort of reminds me of a different take on a peanut butter sauce.

Banapple, Katipunan

That's my MUSCULAR sister.

The folks over in the Ateneo have been going loco over Banapple the past few years, and I think the fad has faded a bit. Nevertheless, they still serve some darn decent grub. They've also branched out opening up various satellites over the Metro.*

Cool, sorta greeky tables.

Totally retro interiors with all the
figurines and hippie things gracing the shelves.

Cake selection for the day.

Breads, brownies, and cookies!

There's something about Banapple, maybe it's their charming homy retro interiors, or their over excessive use of smileys, or the perfectly mastered Banoffee pie. It's simple, down to the bare essentials, basic, good grandmomma-kinda home food. Yeah.

Mamou, The Fort

My sister and I have taken to eating out a lot lately. By a lot, I mean more than usual. Our latest favorite restaurant is Mamou, at the Fort! These days, the weather has been absolutely schizophrenic (parched and hot one moment, and mercilessly pouring the very next second), so I guess you could say we've been doing a lot of comfort eating. And where does one go when one seeks homey, tasty, warm food? Mamou, duh.

The bread basket (they usually give you four teeny-cute buns, and of course you can ask for more if you still want more) 

The Best Night of My Life

My auntie Van came home from the States recently (now she's gone back in the US again) and we had quite a few parties to celebrate her being here! My favoritest party was this particular evening, when the cosmos aligned to grant me my favorite, most heartfelt food-related wish.*

Pig-out with the Sister

Do you have a sister? Or a brother, at least? I have this theory that if you have a sister/brother, you are more likely to be happy and "normal" than if you are an only child. But that's just me!

I love-love-love my sister, but she can be a really bad influence when it comes to food. I always end up eating way too much. Like this one time when we...

Tourne, Fort Strip

I always enjoy dining with my friends Cheska and Brian.* They're cheery pleasant people who are undeniably up for a new foodie experience. Want proof? Here we go, Mercato Centrale, Greenhills area,

Chinatown. So it was a definite must to have a meal with them since I'm in Manila.

I asked them to suggest a restaurant since they're such good food hunters. HAHA. They suggested a newly opened restaurant called Tourne, duh. I googled Tourne but there hardly was any info about the restaurant except the fact that it's owned by a chef that trained in the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu.**

We got there early.
So it was still pretty empty.

A quote by Alice Waters up on the wall.

The ambiance is elegant, all white, clean, and pristine. Despite that, it was cozy too. The staff look prim and proper. And the huge window allowed customers to peer into the kitchen to watch the chefs in action.

Myron's, Rockwell

When was the last time you were supremely disappointed? If you've been a consistent reader of this blog, you probably know just how much I love Myron's for their steak and their oysters. But last week's steak meal was quite bad.

These cupcakes have absolutely nothing to do with Myron's. Heehee. (Left to right: red velvet, chocolate with chocolate frosting, chocolate with vanilla frosting, vanilla with sugar frosting.) My friend Vince just happened to be in the same restaurant and he just came over to our table and shared them with us – they're from Sweet Life by Ange. Really tiny, really cute, and really adorable. They made me want to have babies so that my babies could eat baby-sized cupcakes. Nonsense? Yes, truly, nonsense.

Easy Peasy Banana Bread.

Nanas are cool.

You know what ridiculous?

The price of bananas in Australia.

They run for $12/kg.

That's around P550 pesos for a kilo.

I like love bananas and I've been craving them crazy.

Now that I'm in Manila, I've been eating a lot of bananas, yes, like a monkey.

Kalamansi Muffins! I LOVE.

I miss these muffins.

My brother had bought them for us in the Real Coffee and Tea Cafe.

Tootsie's, Tagaytay

I touched down in Manila last last Thursday, really early in the morning. I got home to our lovely new house and spent my time in the shower. It felt like home. YAY! I asked my mum what she was up to for the day and she said she was heading to Tagaytay to do some furniture hunting.

It's no secret that Tagaytay is a common destination for folks in Manila especially during the weekend. But lately, the traffic has been increasingly intolerable, a supposedly 1 1/2 hour trip turns into a long ass journey. Once you get there, there's always the issue of where to eat. And these days, common restaurants in Manila have been setting up shop up there, people just usually pick whatever that seems convenient otherwise their usual or favorite.

It's because of those sorts of things that small restaurants like Tootisie's have a rather small opportunity to shine.* The place is very cozy, sort of a country home setting almost. It's fairly reminiscent of Mom & Tina's too. The items on the menu are obviously personal and dear to the owner. Some were even noted with the respective person that it was associated with.