Tokyo Tokyo TriNoma Flagship Store Launch (August 23, 2018)

Weee!!! For once, a flagship store is near my house! 

Tokyo Tokyo unveiled its recently revamped and remodeled flagship store in TriNoma, and the good news is it's not just the place that got a makeover. They also unveiled new exclusive menu items that can only be found in their TriNoma branch! 

Memories At Le Petit Soufflé (September 6, 2017)

I'm so sorry world!!! When I did the draft for this post, it was to be entitled 'What's New at Le Petit Soufflé', but since this is still from September last year, I now have to entitle it as 'Memories at Soufflé'. I got so busy with work from then on that I barely had time for anything else. I got to the point where I barely even left the house because of how hectic my schedule got!

Knorr Funlasang PinoyFinals (August 26, 2017)

It's the final round!!! You may have seen the ads and the calls for entries for Unilever Food Solutions' Funlasang Pinoy competition awhile back. This day was the final challenge round for the contenders, wherein the first ever Funlasang Pinoy winner was born/crowned/lahat na!

Funlasang Pinoy basically is a recipe ideation contest, using Unilever Food Solutions products to give a twist to kaldereta, sisig, sinigang, tapa, and pansit. Out of soooo many recipe entries, they narrowed it down to the top 10 to compete on this day. Out of the 10, 1 was unfortunately unable to compete (though the reasons were not disclosed), hence 9 finalists who battled it out. Criteria for judging, of course, had a big chunk going to how creative the participants were in their recipe twists.

My Kushikatsu Daruma Experience (August 24, 2017)

NOOOO DOUBLEEEEE DIPPINGGGGGGG!!!!! 

If the tissues, wall signages, menu reminders and all that still don't get to you, then wewwww!!! 

The "No Double Dipping" rule is enforced in Kushikatsu Daruma as it's a Japanese chain. In Japan, wherein shared seating is not unusual, sitting with strangers can and will happen. Traditionally, to prevent waste, Kushikatsu Daruma serves one big tub of sauce per table instead of 1 tub of sauce for each diner. One needs quite a big tub of sauce to be able to properly dip and coat the Kushikatsu, so serving one tub per diner is gonna be wasteful. Since there's just 1 tub per table, and in Japan, strangers could get seated together, which is why there is the practice of no double dipping. In Manila, there is no sharing of tables as far as I know, but this is a tradition that the Manila branch wishes to uphold. 

And now, what actually is Kushikatsu? 

Kushikatsu refers to delectable fried foods on sticks. It sounds so simple in theory, but the management of Kushikatsu Daruma had to send their chefs to Japan for a month to make sure they get the technique perfectly! Frying food seems so basic to us non-Japanese people, but to Japanese people, there is a lot of dynamics to frying. Japanese cooking will consider the batter, type of food being fried, type of fryer, and the things together in a fryer at a given time. Adding a new item to the fryer makes the oil a little bit cooler, so in Japanese philosophy, you'll need to know how to readjust the cooking time of all the other things in the oil with respect to the temperature change. AND I am perfectly sure there is still a much, much longer list of complexities I'll never know of hahahaha 

Saga Wagyu At New World Manila Bay (February 23, 2017)

I used to think I knew what beef is about until I tried authentic high grade wagyu! 

Wagyu, sadly, I think, is a term that is over abused. Almost every single restaurant will advertise having wagyu beef, when a lot of times, the beef probably isn't wagyu. Like the cow could be Japanese but did not grow up with the techniques and diet used on what would count as a wagyu cow. And actually, who are we kidding? Oftentimes we see the meat already cooked, if not mostly cooked, that we never really get to see if the marbling is as nice as we'd hope it'd be. 

I am privileged to have been invited to New World Manila Hotel to see the wonders of Saga Wagyu beef for myself and taste what really is authentic wagyu. I used to think I knew wagyu with my tries before, but I realized that all the other times I've tried this, I was probably fooled because I don't remember my past experiences being as profoundly life changing as this. 

Make It Fresh with Oster (December 8, 2016)

Last week, I attended a demo event at Gourdo's SM Megamall featuring Oster's Versa Blenders. They are expensive (at Php18,700 ish per unit), but the price is justified by the additional features and benefits that it has. For one, its extremely fast blades give the user the real power to make ice smooth (like legit smoothies we'd get from Starbucks or Jamba Juice). It also has a soup function wherein it not only mashes the ingredients you put in but also heats it up so that the moment the process is done, the soup you have is literally ready to serve. This can, in theory, turn all sorts of foods into a mashed form the way you have never imagined before. 

Char Casual Dining Opens In Manila

Hungry and tired office people, rejoice! The ultimate hunger busting comfort food from Singapore has made its way to Manila. And this is the kind of comfort food that's not just comfort, it's a fancy kind of comfort. This restaurant made it to Singapore's Michelin Guide for this year! And you better dine here quick because who knows, one of these days they might get bestowed their own Michelin star?

The lines at Char Casual Dining are often long in Singapore, and in Manila, I think reception will be just as warm, if not hot (is there even such a term as "hot reception?). And perhaps if their Michelin-star-deserving food does get a star for real, the lines will even be longer. Dine now or fall in long lines in the future! It's also worth saying that this place is all about the right kind of Cantonese food to hit the spot for hungry souls, with dishes that are made for sharing.

Unilever Food Solutions' Knorr Golden Salted Egg Powder and Rock Sugar Honey Sauce Launch (September 9, 2016)

2016 is indeed yet another strong year for foodies, as things are about to get more experimental! I am so happy that Knorr (technically Unilever Food Solutions in this case since this is not going to be a consumer product) has already brought in two strong players in the food crazes of today-- Knorr's Salted Egg Powder and Knorr's Rock Sugar Honey Sauce. 

What this means is that as diners, we should be ready for a whoooole new wave of marvelous dishes featuring salted egg and rock sugar sauce in restaurants and food businesses in the country. Salted egg powder is not only for chips-- it is such a rich and umami-loaded flavor profile that there are sooooo many possibilities!!! It can be used in virtually any dish, actually, but I am particularly looking forward to a wave of lava buns, salted egg cheesecakes, salted egg ice cream, and a whole lot of fried foods. The same goes for the rock sugar sauce--think of it as Chinese salted caramel, it has the taste of oyster and soy sauce but with the kick of sweetness from the honey and rock sugar profiles. It is a very unique taste in itself that I can say that it's its own sauce. It's not oyster sauce, not soy sauce, not teriyaki sauce either. 

A photo posted by M. Perez (@marileneperez_) on Sep 9, 2016 at 4:17am PDT

Aquabest Bloggers' Night (+Review of Grills and Sizzles)

Hi everyone! It's event time! So these are some of the photos I took during Aquabest's bloggers night. Initially, I actually thought that this was super sketchy because I mean it's so unusual for a water company to host a blogger's event. It's normal for restos to do it, or for makeup brands and clothing brands, but not really for water not unless the company is making vitamin water or flavored water. 

It was even sketchier that they were teamed up with a skincare and spa. I was actually quite reluctant to go at first until I found out that it was going to be held at Grills and Sizzles. The place is so near where we live that I was thinking that should this be a sketchy event for real it'd be easy for me to call for help and get picked up. 

Thankfully, when I got here, it was a legit event hahaha. 

And aside from the event being legit, I was fed very well...