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 

Landers Super Crazy Sale (June 14-18, 2017)

Hear ye! Hear ye! From now till Sunday, it's Landers' Super Crazy Sale!!! 

Mom and I went to Landers yesterday so we can snag discounts on meat and frozen foods. In general we've been so busy lately, so I've been eyeing to buy chicken nuggets, dumplings, and other frozen foods that are easy to prepare. 

I thought I'd share some photos of the energy in the air at the sale. It was crowded, but thankfully they got rid of the surprise sales, so it's a lot more peaceful and orderly compared to what most would remember of past super sales. If I may say, there were plenty of guards and ushers making sure that lines are orderly, mobile, and that shoppers in line to pay were not a nuisance to shoppers still walking around. 

Landers Superstore is Now Open!

Weeee! The last time I decently got to shop was a few months back before this weekend, which is why it's so nice to find a new place for foreign favorites. So hooray, welcome, Landers Superstore! I'm not exactly sure of which holding company or group owns this so I have no idea of the business history per se, but this is basically your big superstore filled with imported goods kind of shopping experience. 

This will be very hard to miss because if you drive by EDSA northward, once you see Home Depot, you are already almost here. It looks so small in this photo but it's very big in real life, so you will surely not miss this. 

Ippudo Philippines Visit

 

I love ramen. It's no secret. This is why when I was sent by my boss to do fieldwork in SM Megamall, I was motivated to finish everything quickly so I can already have ramen at Ippudo. 

I know, I'm a lagger when it comes to this one. Our family isn't really the 'goes out every Sunday' kind of family, and we don't really make concrete efforts to try new food places. This is why that when it comes to food, unless I make the trip myself or someone invites me, I don't really get to try what's new because of my family's laggard ways.

Pepper Lunch and Some Adventures (June 16, 2014)

I just love Pepper Lunch. I remember years back when we had this in Singapore. It was about 6 years ago that there still weren't any outlets here in the Philippines. We loved the concept so much that we were really pleased when we found out months later that they were already setting up shop here in the Philippines. 

Whatever I order from them, I always end up happy. 

My Beloved Choto Stop

Today we paid a visit to one of my most favorite places in the world-- Choto Stop. 

Honestly, had I not gone to Japanese language school I would've never known that such a place existed. I remember it vividly this one summer day five years ago when my foodie prof brought the whole class to a "field trip" as this was just about 6 minutes walking distance from our school. My teacher had been raving and raving about this place to the class as a wonderland with all sorts of fresh and dried/storage friendly Japanese foods at 80 per item that there just had to be a field trip. 

That time, it had been about two days since delivery date (they have deliveries monday, thursday and saturday, not sure now though) so the fresh items were already running low, and I feel guilty up to this day that I took my classmate's (the one who originally kept on bugging our prof to bring us there) Meiji original pudding that she had to settle for Meiji milk pudding. Thankfully, we became good friends after that, and as far as I know, I think (I think???) she took no offense about it hahaha. And I think she also realized that milk pudding tastes better than original custard pudding... 

Right now, there's no more stocks of Meiji pudding coming in, and there's Morinaga brand here. I miss Meiji because they had the largest tubs of pudding, as in you were paying the same price for a tub of pudding about 1.5 times larger than the others. But I do understand that nothing lasts forever and that the luxuries of five years ago cannot be enjoyed today due to inflation. If they brought in Meiji pudding now it'd probably cost Php100-120 and probably turn newbie customers off given that there are Topvalu brand and other budget food brands that sell 3 small tubs of pudding in a pack for Php80. 

Going back to my first field trip, I even remember that I had to borrow money from another classmate as I was soooo unprepared to spend money that day (I don't bring large amounts of money when I am just expecting to go to school then go home, and that I never knew back then that such a wonderland existed). With all of the store's contents, I just came back home with a tub of Meiji pudding and a pack of dango (it was mitarashi flavor). 

More photos after the jump!