Pancake House Take Out

Weekend meals at the office, in our cases are usually all time boring. That’s why we are forced to buy take outs or order out at places that serve affordable yet good food. But sometimes you have to pay extra just to get something that would surely take away the stressful ambiance of staying in the office for long hours. For this weekend meal, Nyokie was kind enough to buy us take outs from Pancake House.

. . .spaghetti with meat sauce –

My all time fave from pancake house. Never get tired of it. And all those years the taste is always the same except the serving size, of course.


Jellybean had the grilled cream cheese sandwich with potato salad on the side. Loved the sandwich but gave the potato salad to Tapioca. Somehow it tasted weird for me. Prolly because of the pineapple.


Tapioca had grilled ham and cheese sandwich with french fries on the side.


There you go folks. And that’s how we survive our weekends in the office. I know it’s kinda hurtful on our pockets but we had no choice and it’s for the weekends only though.

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Best Friends

In the past months I’ve been going to Sikatuna Village for my monthly braces adjustment, Lara (Vanjee’s sister) and I always see this restaurant in bright pink and green that is so hard to miss when taking the LRT 2 and dropping off at Anonas station. The foodie in me is always eager to try new places to eat but with the both us having our braces newly adjusted, the thought of going o a food trip doesn’t seem to thrill us.


One day Tapioca was heading to Gilmore to buy a bigger capacity hard drive for his PC and I decided to come along with him. We went to Anonas to take the LRT 2 when Tapioca spotted the restaurant in bright pink and green sign reading Best Friends. We haven’t eaten yet so he thought of having breakfast there. But I already had ice cream on my mind ( imagine ice cream for breakfast? yeah definitely soooo me!!! ) and since we’re heading to Gilmore I just knew where I wanted to eat and that’s at the Nestle Creamery near Gilmore.


When we arrived at Gilmore the PC stores are still closed so Tapioca and I walked a bit to Nestle Creamery. Unforch the creamery won’t be open til 11am and I have a shift at 12 noon so that means no ice cream for me. Sigh. Tapioca tried his very best to console me and promise we're going back there next time and he’ll make sure Nestle Creamery is open. (As of this time Nestle Creamy is gone and now replaced by soon to rise condominiums.)


No dinner plans that night so we both decided to try Best Friends and we’re so glad we did.

. . . sago’t gulaman

Just okay but it’s cheaper compared to Chowking.

sinigang na baboy . . .

At first the server told us that this is no longer available because they ran out of veggies. We said we don’t mind cos we’re just after the sour soup. When it arrived at our table, the sinigang was served in a super huge bowl! It just didn't seem like it on the picture but it's really big. Approximately good for 3-4 people. We were like, “do you think we can finished the entire thing? I think we ordered a lot.” You betcha. By the way, the soup was really good and had the right amount of sourness. And the meat, it was tender and amazingly I did not have a hard time chewing on it.

. . . buttered chicken

Another item with big serving from Best Friends. It’s super good on its own. No need to dip it on sauce. Love its crispy coatings accompanied with whole lotta butter. Lip smacking goodness.

. . . mixed pancit bihon and miki

Nothing fancy. But it has a distinct taste or flavor that I’ve known only from this version of Best Friends. And the part that Tapioca loved the most . . . eat all you can rice! And wait there’s more. They’re open 24 hours. Yay! Another food discovery from Tapioca and Jellybean.

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Tonight's dinner...

Tapioca fried this fish and it was cook medium. I would prefer it to be crispy and fried through and through. But he wants it this way. Since he fried the fish we will have his way.



Salted eggs the way Jellybean likes it . . .


I like my salted eggs mashed with lots of finely chopped riped tomatoes. This way the saltiness of the egg is balanced with the acidity of the tomatoes. He did not like it so he made his own.


Salted eggs the way Tapioca likes it . . .


Salted eggs with tomatoes, onions and soy sauce? I told him the egg is already salty, why add soy sauce? Well, he likes it that way period.


Despite our differences we had a wonderful dinner while watching episodes of Big Bang Theory. Both of us happy with our own versions of salted eggs.

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Hap Chan

As much as I would love to go on a food trip, having braces can be very difficult, irritating and painful especially when it’s newly adjusted. At times like these the only thing I have in mind is congee (or lugaw). Nothing else can whet my appetite with the exception of cakes and ice cream of course.


Then, there was Tapioca wanting me to try this Chinese restaurant in Ali Mall. With my condition on his mind, he made sure they serve good congee. It made me think. When did a congee ever tasted good, I mean they all tasted bland, right? Anyway, I still found myself heading to Hap Chan for a late dinner.


When I got to Hap Chan the guard won’t let me in because according to him they’re already close. I called Tapioca on his cell phone and finally they let me in. Tapioca already ordered our food, the last order for the night.

. . . congee

I had this one and as I said before they all bland no matter what.

yang chow fried rice . . .

Just okay I think. Tapioca finished 2 orders of this (hehehe). He just loves anything fried rice.

. . . lemon chicken

He was raving about this. Too bad I’m having difficulty chewing so Tapioca had this all by himself.

mapu tofu . . .

Now this one here is the winner. It’s robust with flavors unknown to my palate. It’s spicy but just enough. Tapioca said he can taste a hint of liquor on this dish. Prolly that’s why it was so delish. My braces were just newly adjusted but I can’t help taking pieces of the tofu leaving the meat parts to Tapioca.


After dinner, we went to 711 and bought a pint of ice cream for dessert then we headed home to play some guitar hero and rock the night away.

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Ristras and Serenitea

We have been watching Man Vs Food lately and Tapioca always turns green with envy from watching Adam Richman eat all those gigantic food especially one of his fave Mexican food, burrito. Then one day, I discovered a restaurant offering burrito and they also came up with a challenge like the one in Man Vs Food. I told Tapioca about it and next thing I knew we were heading to Ristras with officemate Christian and his Italian girlfriend, Iris.

. . . Iris and Christian

When we got to the place Tapioca changes his mind and decided not to take the challenge. He wanted to take his time eating the burrito to enjoy it. The guys got the burrito. And us girls got the quesadilla. Upon ordering, they will ask what meat do you want to go with you’re burrito or quesadilla. They have chicken, shredded pork, roast beef and a lot more. Then they will assemble them in front of you.

Here’s the burrito and a basket of tortilla.



Tapioca paired his burrito with Mexican beer, called Corona and I had their home made sugar cane lemonade. The lemonade was quite pricey for such a small cup. As for the taste, it was just okay.


Here’s our quesadilla. It’s as huge as a 12-inch pizza folded in half and it’s full of meat and all the Mexican goodness. Iris told me that we had to treat this quesadilla as an enemy, and that we have to conquer it and bring it down. I only managed to finished half of this one, though. It was very filling.


I still like Jalapeno’s quesadilla especially their sour cream. Tapioca would have to agree with me. It’s just that the servings are big but taste wise we are still rooting for Jalapeno’s burrito and quesadilla.


We ate our food al fresco and it was extremely hot that day. We noticed a lot of people going to Ristras were going to the other side of the street to a store called Serenitea. After that very filling meal we decided to chill at Serenitea and order some tea to help digest the food we ate and to cool down on this super hot weather.


From the name it self it's obvious they're selling tea. But this place isn't just any other tea places. This is a tea haven. They have an extensive menu just for tea alone and they serve it freshly brewed. Hot or cold. With or without milk. And you can choose the sweetness level from 0% to 100% or beyond. You can also add sinkers on you tea like pearl, crystal, black bricks, pudding, lime jelly, and QQ. I tried one of their best sellers, Hokkaido with 50% sugar level and it was perfect. Just the way I like my tea. I would love to try all their tea especially their milk tea but this place is just too far from our place. They deliver but in San Juan area only.

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Another Brekky Meal We Had For Dinner

. .. corned beef topped with eggs

cream of mushroom soup with shitake mushroom . . .

The soup was great though with my braces on, chewing mushrooms can be tiresome.


Dinner or breakfast? I'd say both.

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My New Hair Do (and Tattoo?!?)

I got my very first (and probably my last) dreads when I was in Sagada. A Rasta friend did the thingamajigy at the bottom part of my on head. He said if I wanted to get rid of it, I just had to cut it off and it wouldn’t be noticeable. For some reason, I kept it for years. It was a memory of my getting out of my comfort zone and doing things I had never imagine . . . like getting a dread. And then I thought my next step is to get a belly button ring and and then a tattoo. But today I decided to chopped the dreads off cos it was too long already and my back itches if I forget to take it out of my shirt. In the end I eventually get tired of it.

. . . so long, my rat tail

Now, thinking about the belly button, if I get tired of the belly button piercing I can always take it out, but the tattoo? It’s another story. If I get one, it will be with me forever. No taking back. Thinking about it then, I wanted a tattoo just for the heck of it. Just like the dreads. Now I’m kinda worried. What if I get tired of the tattoo just like the dreads? Oh yeah I can have it removed but it will be more painful than getting one for the first time. And having it removed will create some discoloring or scaring of the skin.


This definitely needs a lot of time to think about. But for now I can be contented with henna tattoos or the more colorful and funny looking temporary tattoo art. Here we are trying out different designs.

colorful dragon . . .

. . . playful UFO

. . . alien-ator

If you would like to get a tattoo just like I do, I suggest to try these before choosing a real tattoo just for fun .And what's good about it is, it wouldn't hurt at all.

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Simply Ingenious.

When typhoon Ondoy attacked Metro Manila last September, we got stucked in the office with no spare clothes and little food left to eat.


At times like this creativity and lots of common sense help us survived. Stuck in the office, feet tired from wearing shoes all night and day, an idea sprung out from an officemate.


Made from card board and scotch tape. Nothing can be more comfy than this improvised slip on.

. . . nicey, eh?

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Just For Fun

Celebrity Watch

Marky Cielo (not his real name)

spotted. . .

. . . sporting a black leather trench coat

(the same trench coat Jellybean wore before)

with gray/black scarf, unlabeled shades + helmet . . .

HOTTIE or NOTTIE ? ! ? ! ?

Gay or Lesbos (pronounced with silent s')? ! ? ! ?

Whatcha think?

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McKinley Hill And Alexandre's Croissant

Been hearing a lot lately of a gondola in Manila, just like the one in Venice and Macao. And I was like "What? You Sure? Is that for real?" One day, decided to check it out myself since I always pass by McKinley Hill.


So much of the talk about gondola, to my dismay it's still under construction. But anyway, I had a bit fun on my trip. It was a long walk but pretty much enjoyable because of the nice sights. Classy designs and constructions of buildings/condominium full of lushy greens which lessen the polution in the area. How I wish I could afford to live in a place like here.




Tired from walking and also a bit disappointed from not being able to see the gondola, I hired a taxi which brought me to The Fort. Then I saw another classy looking store called Alexandre. I told the taxi driver to drop me there and as I went inside the store I've learnt it was a bakery cafe selling mostly of croissants in different variety. Tapioca loves croissants and he always orders this at Starbucks. I got interested and bought 2 pieces of almond and butter croissants.

. . . Nicey packaging, isn't it?

Once I got home, we tried them right away. Tapioca said they're okay, nothing special. As for me, I like the butter croissant. It's flaky on the outside but pillowy soft inside and the butter was very distinct. I just love anything with butter :-) . The almond croissant on the other hand was kinda tough. It's strange cos I got these early in the morning and I believe the croissants are freshly baked. I am no bread expert here so not sure why it's tough unlike the butter croissant. Or maybe it's just the way it's suppose to be. Any croissant experts who could shed some light?

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