Happy at Happy Lemon: Green Tea, Cream Cheese and other Things

Tired of Starbucks and Coffee Bean? Are Serenitea's sugar levels not high (or low) enough for you? Time to try something new. Happy Lemon is a popular tea franchise in Hong Kong, and thanks to a few trendy entrepreneurs, its now here in the Philippines! You can visit Happy Lemon's first Philippine foothold at Promenade Greenhills (in between Starbucks and Coffee Bean!)

What used to be the comic book section of Fully Booked is now a trendy tea house, Happy Lemon has a really (as in really) wide selection of tea drinks. You'll probably find something you'd like if you look hard enough. For me though, this was the only drink that caught my eye:

My drink (left) was Green Tea with Rock Salt and Cream Cheese! Now ain't that something new? When I ordered this, the lady at the counter asked me: "Sir do you know how to drink this?", "Nope!" I replied and she told me how to drink it: "Don't mix it, just drink it". As  you can see, the Green Tea and Cream Cheese are separate from each other. So when I drank it from a straw, it tasted like what it looked like, cold green tea at first, then cream cheese later. Rather disappointing! Nothing special at all.

 Halfway through, i just ended up going against ate's advise and mixed it up and it was a whole better experience. That super light  aroma filled green tea was given the weight of milky and creamy cream cheese with just a little kick of salt in every drink. It was a real pleasure to drink. It was NOT a Starbucks Green tea clone, No it wasn't, It was something else.

Then a friend of mine tried the same thing, and here is what I missed about ate's instructions. DON'T USE A STRAW! If you think about it, when drinking straight from the cup, the green tea at the bottom would flow through the Cream Cheese and Rock Salt, carrying the taste of the two. Now that's pretty clever!

Now if I could only remember why I had a straw in the first place!

A Bit Peckish for something Turkish: Authentic Turkish Shawarma

Shawarma is almost as common as Siomai on streets nowadays. Its in every street corner, cafetria, food court and school canteen in the Country! And they're pretty much the same when you look at it. A "trunk" of beef near an open fire being spun around and shaved away by some sweaty dude charging 50 bucks a wrap. Its a good business, with some longevity unlike some fad foods *scramble* Ahem... And like siomai, I think its here to stay, regardless if its made out of cardboard and stray cat meat.

No, not the werewolf

But what about the real deal? How about some Authentic Turkish Shawarma right here in the middle of the Metro! And it ain't too expensive to boot! Jacob got shawarma no sweaty street dude can get you on your lunch break!

That my friends, is what heaven looks like (if it was from Turkey!) Beef, vegetables, some crazy herbs and spices wrapped in a rather intriguing way and you got yourself an Authentic Turkish Shawarma. And its made by Jacob, who's an authentic shwarMAN! Nope, no store bought coleslaw or hastily prepared yogurt  sauce here, its the main ingredients that drive the flavor. It made me realize how much yogurt and chili sauce I use on regular shawarma. This one didn't need any! If you needed some sauce, they had a sort of lemon water vinegar thing in a condiment squeezer but i hardly found myself reaching for it. It was just bite after bite of Turkish delight!

  And the way its wrapped is cool. Its not like some loose table napkin wrapped around meat. They wrap shawarma so tight that its almost like a meat pocket! No messy spills here, and there is meat in every bite! no annoying end where all you get is a mouthful of dry pita!

It's not just regular beef Shawarmas that they've got.Theres a schedule!

Mondays and Thursdays get you healthy high protein Chicken

Tuesdays and Saturdays bring the ever reliable (and lovable) Beef AND lamb

While Wednesdays and Saturdays net you some Salmon Shawarma

and they deliver! twoanyone! 

If you wanna take a trip to Turkey Town, just head on over to Ortigas Center. Its on Sapphire Road, ground floor of the AIC Grande Tower not too far from Gold's Gym and Crowne Plaza. And greet Jacob with smile, coz once you seem his, you'll know this is the real deal!

View Jacob's Shawarma in a larger map

Ginayumatized!

UP Teacher's Village is a treasure trove of small nice places to eat. It's still a "village" for all intents and purposes, the place is full of houses mixed in with some small time restaurants that quickly grew in to what they are today. Yes, they grew.... but Teacher's Village doesn't have that "commercialized" feel, it still managed to stay homey despite all the restaurants sprouting about. That's the "flavor" of the place, a small slice of Philippine Suburban land with a healthy sprinkling of "this and that". A "Village" with everything you'd ever need.

Where's a good place to eat?

If you drive down to where Maginhawa and V.Luna meet, you'll find this pretty little gem.

As the name implies, Gayuma ni Maria is a date place / trap, a place where you bring your date so that he or she will fall in love with you because "ginayuma mo siya". Built inside a small house, the place is nice and cozy with the right mix of comfort and sappy love references, a real girly place.

How about the food? the so called "Gayuma"? Gayuma ni Maria loves LOVE! And they name their food with all sorts of crazy hints at love, from sappy to downright naughty!

They even have a special treat every Wednesday, a surprise meal just for 69.... pesos! (what? thats the peso price! hehe)

They say that chocolate puts people in a romantic mood, It's been a staple of the dating scene for years and I doubt it'll go out of style anytime soon, So Maria went on and decided that chocolate isn't just a dessert: It should be the main course!

They also say that "Once you go Black, there ain't no coming back!" which is what Maria hopes to achieve with this dish! The "Once you go Black" is pan fried dory with a side of fries. What makes it so black? CHOCOLATE! These fish are covered with Chocolate and Cheese! As Maria would say... "once you go black...."

Its good dory, don't get me wrong. The Chocolate is an exciting concept but once you try it you'll soon see that the taste of the fish overwhelms it. On the first few seconds of the first bite, the warm chocolate is there, but after that its just plain dory. (It's all dory from there as the chocolate cools off, you soon forget that there was chocolate in the first place!)

It could be said that too much chocolate would make it a dessert dish, but I think too little chocolate just makes it regular Dory. Maybe this gayuma is playing a bit too safe, a lot more people would eat regular fried fish than one covered in chocolate. But doesn't that defeat the point? I think the combo would work, they didn't clash at all, the dory just overpowered it. Maria, if you read this, amp up the chocolate on this baby! That'll make for one helluva potent gayuma me thinks!

Think different? Want to try to go Black like i did or try out what other crazy gayuma Maria has to offer? Here it is on Google Maps, head on over there and let me know what you think!

View Gayuma ni Maria in a larger map

Ramen Feast!

Yup! That's about it, you can get two ramen dishes for as low as P 160 next week at Yoshinoya! Limited time offer only at participating branches!

Can anyone say "Cheap Dinner Date" ?

It's still  the regular Yoshinoya Dishes but its gonna be hard to beat value like that! And Yoshinoya IS one of the "better" Japanese Fast Food places in the business.

I think they do care for their customers unlike some companies that try to lock you in with schemes and loyalty cards *cough*pancake house*cough*orange card*cough*, Yoshinoya does stuff like this to celebrate good Japanese Food just cause its good Japanese Food  (or to bring in more customers at night?). Remember the eat all you can beef bowl contest they held a few years back? GENIUS! (if you can get past the fact that the beef bowls were 90% rice)

OK... Maybe they are just in it for the "money" , but hey, Good Food and Good Value, it's a Win Win anyway right?

Keep it coming Yoshinoya! Lets have that eat all you can Yakisoba please!!

Zen Tea

Milk tea is getting popular nowadays... arguably, the best place to get some is at "Serenitea"; branches have been popping up all over the metro and a trend is starting. Though I like Serenitea (even though at times I think its gonna be just the next "Zagu" craze), its a tad to pricey. Almost or even above the hundred peso mark! Zagu and Quickly weren't that expensive with all the pearls, crystals and what not! So Serenitea reminds me more of Starbucks than almost defunct pearl shake stands of childhood memory. (I'm not really a fan of Starbucks)

If you want affordable and good tasting milk tea, here's a place you might want to try out!

A friend introduced me to the place when we were out on lunch break one day. We drank at a small stall located across UA&P on Pearl Drive (Ironically in front of a Starbucks). Its in Ortigas Center, Here's a map if you can't find your way.

View Zen Tea in a larger map

As for the pricing, It ain't that bad!

Everything under 70! and they come with the Pearls too! Now thats's more of a bargain don't you think? The flavors of Serenitea are more "Authentic" but this stuff isn't a slacker in the taste department! No "sugar levels" here, Zen Tea is straight to the point, just give your flavor and size and that's it! the XL its pretty big too! I think bigger than Serenitea's! I don't see this place dislodging the heavyweight Serenitea, but I think its worth a shot for all those Milk Tea lovers out there!

Patalo is kuya sa PIC eh!

Happy New Year!

How was the Holidays? I'm sure you guys had a swell time with all your family, friends and FOOD! (ah yes! the 3 F's of happiness). I'd like to share one meal in particular that for me, was one of the more memorable ones from the end of 2010.

I got invited to a really big Christmas Party Dinner from my "Work", and the main "Attraction" was the Surf and Turf Main Course! (Steak and Shrimps). I didn't really love the grilled Shrimps, they were a bit too salty for me, not as fresh as they should be, but the Steaks were a different story!

Surf and Turf

Why were the Steaks great? : lovely brown texture in the outside and beautifully pink and juicy on the inside! And I think the fact it was 60% taba that made the steak all the more flavorful.

Spot the Fat

Damn good steak, even great without Rice our Sauce. That is a sign of a great steak, good enough to be eaten alone! I had 3 of these (I only ate the meat mind you, i still have a shred of sanity in me when i devour my food) and it was off to desert!

The regular mix of fruits, cakes, and fruit cakes were at the table but there was on thing that took by breath (and a few heartbeats) away:

THIS BABY

At first i thought it was a Cheesecake with a generous amount of cream, but I was wrong! The top was like a thick Egg Cream and the bottom was ICE CREAM! yup! Ice cream and not Cheese Cake! and I love Ice Cream Cake!

Of all the dinners I had this Season, this was the one I remembered the most!

What was your holiday feast?