Gourmet's Palate

It's so nice to find places with a good variety of simple food that are all good! Here we have, GOURMET'S PALATE =)

I think this is the first place we looked for when we got the chance to go Aguirre St. in Paranaque. There are two branches along the stretch of Aguirre, which just proves that people in this area love this place. The place is small and very casual. People can just come in shorts and flip flops to enjoy hearty meals and snacks.

Nothing really gourmet..but good ol' tacos, burritos, spag, rice toppings and char grilled burgers on the menu =)

Gyoza

Crispy gyoza ..good on it's own or as a side dish with there yummy rice toppings.

Nachos

We picked out the stuff we want on our nacho chips...sour cream, cheese, jalapeno and tomatoes

Shrimp Siomai

look at that....

real shrimps! hahaha not bad and pretty cheap too

Spaghetti! Php 47.00

We love this!!! It's redolent of the spaghetti at pancake house only waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay CHEAPER! Served with toasted garlic-buttered pan de sal! We always come back for this.

Soft Tacos

YUMMY =)


Burrito

The tortilla is very thin and loaded with cheesy rice and beef!

Mongolian Rice Bowl

This is really great! The rice is so flavorful and every bite is never boring...you get some veggie bits, chicken, beef and an egg to boot. It's a big generous bowl of rice love! hahaha



I apologize by not taking note of the exact prices of the food we have tried..but just believe me when I say everything is definitely under your budget...all are less than a hundred some less than fifty pesos!!!

The burgers here are really great too...like brothers burger..only cheaper =)

Red Kimono Buffet =)

Sometimes it's healthy to challenge the capacity of the stomach and exercise one's digestive prowess and metabolic powers!!! =D hahaha By that, I mean ocasional BUFFET trips! We were both REALLY HUNGRY and up for some Japanese! The RED KIMONO at the UP Ayala-Hub, offers ala carte buffet for Php 495 per person! Not a a deal! Rule is, we just gotta have at least one rice dish from the menu. No problemo! =D

Spicy Tuna Maki

Salmon Maki

Kani Sticks

It was like thin lumpiang shanghai.

Tofu-Spinach Terriyaki

Layers of grilled tofu and spinach with peanut and terriyaki sauce. I have had this dish before at the Red Kimono branch at the Fort...this one had a slightly sour taste---perhaps the tofu was not of good quality.


Gyoza

Chicken Terriyaki

This was good =)

Chicken Kamameshi

This was our rice dish of choice (as if all those makis don't have enough rice yet inthem ;P hahaha! ). I LOVE KAMAMESHI RICE!!!! The paella of the Japanese! We just both LOVE THE BURNT PART of the rice at the bottom---YUM!!! I miss Kamameshi...whatever happend to that resto?


Tonkatsu

Their Tonkatsu was served with a side of mashed potatoes! Yummy furai!

Ebi Tempura

Our last dish...last SAVORY DISH!!! hahaha They were cruchy and yummy!

Ah ...just when the waiters thought we were through...we had to have some dessert! There is always room for DESSERT...S!!!! =D

Chocolate-Coconut Balls

The manager told us this was one of the kid's favorite treat! I has to try naturally =) They were like Dunkin Donut munchkins...but more dense...borderline of being a truffle and a munchkin hehehe. THEY WERE YUMMY!!!

Buko Pandan

Something lighter and cool....


Green Tea Ice Cream (Big Scoop brand)

Something cooler! hahaha Ice cream is always good...and we always have more spce gor this!

I think we did pretty darn well for two people...don't you think? They have a clean plate policy..and we definitely complied!hehehe We enjoyed our ala carte buffet here more than at Zensho because the quality and quantity of the dished served are definitely bigger and better here. We also liked that service was good and fast, rendering a consistent influx of food!!! hahaha We only wished they offered more dishes with meat and seafood and perhaps some sashimis.

We were definitely satisfied and worth every penny for what they charge!!! We must come back...YOU must try =)

Hanakazu and Cafe Francais

Aguirre St. in Paranaque is indeed a treasure trove for foodies! We contemplate whether to have Japanese food or Pizza for dinner...and I suggest why not just have both =)

We start with Japanese. Is'ntit but fitting to start of with light dishes =) Hanazaku, seems to be always packed during dinner time....and we find out why....

The place is very casual. It had the typical interiors of most Japanese restos you would find in Pasay road...a sushi bar and counter upfront...simple tables and couches inside...and they do have those private rooms with wooded sliding doors, where you leave your shoes outside and get seated close to the floor=)

We were give complimentary tuna furai.

Yummy! Like tuna sashimi lightly breaded and deep fried.

Clear Soup
A clear tasty broth with shreds of veggies and those peculiar looking fish balls floating in tem. Those balls had a texture of fishballs or squid balls perhaps...had a clean tatse and a funky streaking of pink and green----looking like rainbow veined quail eggs! hahaha Does anybody have an idea what these are???

Gyoza

These are probably the best gyoza we have ever had to date. We loved the thin delicate texture of the wrapper holding the yummy ground meat. Soooooo good!!!

Tuna Maki

I didn't get the name of this maki...but is was so lovely and delicious!

We would definitely come back to try the ramens, don buris, makis, sushi and sashimis!!!

We had to go to move to our next stop...Cafe Francais to try their Pizza! =)

This is jus a hop and skip away...Cafe Francais is a quaint looking European resto...having a feel redolent of being at Belinni's in Cubao. It has rustic euro-bistro cafe interiors with an al fresco dining area and a little organic market area along side.

Artichoke,parma ham and olives pizza

The pizza was ok...nothing great about it...and didn't quite live up to our expectations.

For this evening we concluded we should have just stuck with our Japanese dinner...perhaps we should have tried the entrees at Francais?...perhaps..perhaps...oh well you can win them all =)

Food Tripping at Ortigas Home Depo

HELLO MY FRIENDS!!! My goodness...have I missed blogging! I have the usual excuse of being extremely busy at work, for my backlog in posting. Too busy to blog for a while...but NEVER too busy to EAT! =D I have pages of uploaded foodie pics sans the write up...so sad not having enough time to share yummy experiences.

Enough with my apologies...I take time now to share two of the most recent places we have tried. I have hear and read and gotten invites to try out new places in Ortigas Home depot. We have attempted many times to go here...but parking is sooooo difficult on late night weekends...not to mention traffik to boot.

Finally, one raining evening, after watching a horror flick (Drag me to hell....) we decided to erase the scarry images in my head by EATING!

We first went to HERMANOS. We decided to seat at the al fresco area so we may order from the neigboring reso ...Jalapeno....but the rain poured harded forcing us to move inside the resto, where they do not allow outside orders without paying for corkage =(


The place is quite nice, with wooded tables and chairs, with golblets for wine already in place.

We were served complimentary bruschetta...wich were nice crunchy baguette slices topped with tomato salsa with red and green bell pappers.



We ordered the Paella Balls, which were one of their most popular dishes.

They were...paella rice breaded and deep fried served with tomato salsa and atchara. The remind me of risotto balls ...but these kinda lacked in a little something something...perhaps they should have put in bits of paella meats...like bits of chicken or prawns...just something to add a little varietie and surprise as opposed to just biting into just rice. I think adding little morsels of protein or veggies in the balls will add more interest and dimension to this dish. Nonetheless it was good..but kinda too heavy a starter and gets kinda boring after your 3rd ball =) Or maybe one isn;t supposed to have 3 or more balls? Well, we had more than 3 balls each---definitely...we manage to finish all ...just the two of us =)

see the cross-section of the ball....

just rice ....

This was recommended by our waiter. Chicken breast pieces, cooked with chilles and olives. It struck me as ...a chicken caldereta dish of somesort. It was too spicy for me...and something we wouldn't think about again after trying.

The rain calmed down a bit, so we moved to Buffalo Wings and Things, just a jump...skipping Jalapeno (we will just save that another time)

The place is a casual fast-food joint...teeming with people.

We ofcourse ordered Buffalo Wings...but after that hot and spicy chicken dish...I kinda didn't fancy having anything that spicy. You can pick the portion size and the strength of heat of your wings and even the sauces and dips. I picked the butter-parmesan sauce.

Our order came piping hot and the wings very crisp..kudos to that. Unfortunately, we were kinda disappointed withjust getting like 2 pieces of wings for Php 140.00 (or was is Php 120.00---even if it was 120..still too steep for two wingies) the butter parmesan was just like melted butter poured on our wings, needed a bit more salt. In general it was ok..perhaps we should have stuck with the original BUFFALO sauce.

Mini burgers...

Three cute burgers...with a thick pattie. The buns were very soft...the burger was good...but nothing exceptional. We like white castle burgers way better =) hahahaha

Everything is worth a try ei?! ;P