As the family is always unusually excited about new places to explore, we were amongst the firsts to check out SM Aura.  So after around 2 hours just to park, we ventured into the mall which was apparently not as spacious as it seemed from the outside.  Most of the stores were still closed but we were more disappointed to find that most of the restaurants were yet to open. 

Apart from fast food restaurants, only Brasas and Pepper Lunch located at SM Aura's food court called Food on the Four was open.  And, everyone was lining up for Brasas so we trusted the crowds judgment and joined in.  It took us more than an hour to reach the counter.  Was it worth it? 

The Asada Platters were limited to two options.  As we were too hungry to settle for Wraps and Salad, we ordered both selections.

♥ Carne Asada Platter (220 php)

We were so glad to try Brasas!  The Carne Asada Platter was delicious!  Never thought Latin American food could be so sensational.  The beef strips were tender and succulent

♥ Pollo Asada Platter (180 php)

Although I liked beef more, my family enjoyed the Pollo Asada Platter.  It was slightly leaner and less succulent than the beef but still as good to say the least.


Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
Brasas is certainly a must stop for Latin American Cuisine!  I'm also impressed with their reasonable pricing.  I look forward to trying more of their offering. 

Last month, the family decided to take a stroll at Eastwood City because it's a first time for my mom.  By dinner time, we began searching for a food establishment that can only be found there.  We had a difficulty in choosing so we googled for "Eastwood City Restaurants" and the first thing that popped out is Galileo Enoteca Italian Restaurant and Deli so we headed there.


For those who aren't very familiar with the place, we found it a bit conspicuous since the dining area is found on the second floor and the sign outside is the only hint that it exists.

It would have helped if it had a menu by the door so passers-by would have an idea of its offerings.  But, then again, I think it got as even more curious as we went straight up.

Upon reaching the second floor, we were enchanted by its traditional wine cellar ambiance.  It had brick walls and ceilings, slate tiles and wooden tables and fixtures. 

They had a chiller which not only displayed goods for sale but also ingredients they actually used.  It was not appealing for me.

Each table had dining wares already set up.  The light yellowish lighting, laconism and warm vibe gives off a distinctive cozy and romantic fine dining feel.

Food

Complimentary Foccacia Bread with Tomato and Balsamic Oil Dip

We were immediately attended to.  After our orders were taken, we were served a complimentary platter of their warm and tasty Foccacia Bread with Tomato and Balsamic Oil Dip.

Pizze

Shrimp & Garlic (420 php)

The Pizze selection was limited so it was an easy choose for my seafood-loving family to choose the Shrimp & Garlic.   It was a delicious brick-oven baked thin and chewy pizza topped with mozzarella, shrimp bits and garlic.

Primi Piatti

♥ Spaghetti Ai Fruitti Di Mare (390 php)

Of course, a staple dish when fining Italian would be pasta.  As previously stated, it is a familial preference to lean on seafood than meat during dinners.  We ordered the Spaghetti Ai Fruitti Di Mare which had a tangy tomato-based sauce with shrimp, squids, clams and mussels.  This is exactly how I like my red sauce pasta to be cooked!

♥ Fusilli Al Salmone (350 php)

Due to the rarity, I could count the number of times a white sauce pasta has impressed me.  This Fusilli Al Salmone which is a cream-based pasta with fresh herbs and salmon bits is definitely one of the best I've tried yet!

♥ Penne Con Funghi Porcini & Tartufo Bianco (400 php)

Two of my favorites: mushroom  and white truffle oil merged in one pasta dish, how could I even stop myself from falling in love with the Penne Con Funghi Porcini & Tartufo Bianco.

Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
Galileo Enoteca Italian Restaurant and Deli is a hidden treasure for authentic Italian.  I highly recommend this place for its excellent ambiance, service and food quality.  We enjoyed every dish we ordered and my family is not even inclined towards Italian cuisine. 

Last year I got the chance to try Rockwell's 2nd Ultimate Taste Test and it was so much fun!  A year has past and Rockwell's 3rd Ultimate Taste Test will be held on September 14, 2013 (Saturday).

The will be 50 confirmed participants. Although I'm a frequent in food markets, I can see that there are a lot of new food concessionaires with new products that are worth checking for especially for the desserts!
 

1	The Plaza Premium Baked Ham	The Plaza Premium Baked Ham - Hamwich & Hampanada	Appetizer
2	Cakeworks	Peanut Butter Oreo Dip	Appetizer
3	CURRY BAR	CURRY BALLS	Appetizer
4	Big Jack's	Ricepop	Appetizer
5	BITE by Chef Jam Melchor	Truffled Tuna Crudo & Burrito Taquitos Roll	Appetizer
6	ALA DUTCHE CHRONICLES –Condiment House	TU’KA – Gourmet Spiced Vinegar	Appetizer
7	2407 Weekend Bakery & Cafe	Oatie - Granolie & Choco - Oaties	Appetizer
8	Yuan's Wings	Yuan's Original Chicken Wings	Main Dish
9	Butter Nuggets	Chicken and bacon ravioli with tomato sauce and cheese	Main Dish
10	Schmidt’s Gourmet Hotdogs	Wagamama	Main Dish, Appetizer
11	SHIFU MASTER'S KITCHEN	Pata Bihon & Shifu Milk Tea	Main Dish
12	Diplahan Lechon	Dipalahan Lechon	Main Dish
13	Flavor Avenue	Bagnet paella	Main Dish
14	Generals Lechon	Garlic Lechon	Main Dish
15	GoldenducK's Premium Meat Products	GoldenducK's Premium Burgers & GoldenducK's Sisig	Main Dish
16	Flavors on Fire	JALAPEÑO ALFREDO & FUSSILI CHOCOLAT	Main Dish
17	Bad Decisions Premium Burgers and Drinks Joint	The Patriot	Main Dish
18	The Sultry Chef	Sultry Roast beef with saucy gravy & Tuyo Pasta	Main Dish
19	The V Deli Vegetarian Delicatessen	Veggie Sisig Shawarma & Veggie Sisig Quesadillas	Main Dish
20	Verity Enterprise	Rice bomb	Main dish
21	Dennis The Grillboy	Crispy Pork Sisig & Tortilla Banana	Main dish
22	Conrad and Co. Inc	Coco Royal Coconut water and juices	Drink
23	THE JUICE BARISTA	King Kong Apple Pie	Drink
24	MALAGOS AGRI-VENTURES CORPORATION	Malagos 65% Dark Chocolate  & Malagos Chocolate Drink	Drink
25	Moshi Moshi	Louie's sea salt chocolate chip cookies	Dessert
26	Jack Frost Premium Ice Cream	Artisan Ice Cream	Dessert
27	Everyday Mom	Black and White Cupcake	Dessert
28	The Noodle Bakes	Tosi & Garth Vader	Dessert
29	Everything with Soya	Chilled Soya Pudding in 4 flavors	Dessert
30	So-made food enterprises	Moringa (malunggay) cookies & Almond ginger cookies	Dessert
31	Sugarhouse	Cream Puffs	Dessert
32	Catherine’s Cakes & Pies	Apple Pie	Dessert
33	Pocket Pies	Banana Cinnamon cookie pie & Smores Pie	Dessert
34	F.A.T. Cupcakes	Cupcake	Dessert
35	Jameson's Gelato Manufacturing	Gelato	Dessert
36	Cream of the Crop	Sulu Coffee with Salted Muscovado Swirl & Malunggay with Langka (*And Capsicum Tablea)	Dessert
37	Bronuts	Bronuts	Dessert
38	Munchster Yum	S'mores Pancake Cookie & Red Velvet Pancake Cookies	Dessert
39	Ruby Red Kitchen	The Original Monkey Bread	Dessert
40	Sweet Kiss	Space Cakes	Dessert
41	Franchino's Food	Frosted Lemon Cookies & Creamy Salmon Dill	Dessert
42	Uni-Chefs Catering	Trifles & Cookies	Dessert
43	Gorby Balls	Graham Balls	Dessert
44	KATE'S SPECIAL MUFFIN	DIFFERENT KINDS OF MUFFIN	Dessert
45	AMY'S Fruits & Vegetables Cakes	Choco ampalaya delight cake & almond pumpkin melt cake	Dessert
46	Shmallows	Shmallows Marshmallow Spread	Dessert
47	Blue Toque	Ensaimada with Special Cheese Topping	Dessert
48	Hearts & Bells	Cakes	Dessert
49	Hacienda Macalauan	Live Greek Yogurt	Dessert
50	House of Macaroons	Coconut and Custard Macaroons	Dessert

Last year, I was able to finish them all.  Well, see you on Saturday and let's try them all together!

Here's the details! Book you tickets now!

• What: Rockwell's Ultimate Taste Test: Be a Food Critic for a Day! 
• When: September 14, 2013, Saturday, 11.00 am - 9.00 pm
• Where: Rockwell Tent  
• Ultimate Taste Test  Fee: P585/head.
• Inclusive of: 
• Food Taste Portions from a minimum of 50 Home-Based Food Vendors for the entire Saturday
• A bottle of San Miguel Super Dry, Premium All-Malt or Cerveza Negra (For foodies 18 years old and above only
• Food Critic Ballot for voting your favorite food discoveries.
• Donation to Rockwell's Typhoon Maring Beneficiaries

A few weeks ago, we saw the poster of the Ramen Burger Poster at Wrong Ramen.  It is a collaboration of Wrong Ramen and Umami Hambaagu House.  Since we knew Wrong Ramen is usually packed, we planned to visit Umami Hambaagu House instead to be able to dine comfortably. 

As expected, there were only few customers at Umami Hambaagu House.  We were able to order and seat to our convenience. 

Ramen Burger (240 php)

Everyone was excited so no one thought of ordering anything else other than the Ramen Burger.  It came in such a nice packaging which raised our expectation to another notch.

Ramen Burger (240 php)

The Ramen Burger is uses ramen as a bun.  As you can see, there are sesame seeds on top with pan-fry marks.  For topping it had braised pork belly, fried egg, Japanese mayo, tonkatsu bonito barbecue sauce, lettuce, Umami Hambaagu House's signature beef and pork patty. 


Upon first bite, every was intrigued.  But it soon faded away once we felt how oily it was.  I initially though, it was a bit crispy but the ramen is soggy and it seemed to have absorbed the oil of the pork belly and burger patty.  It wasn't even that hot.  The Japanese mayo and tonkatsu bonito barbecue sauce failed in making the bland beef and pork patty more enticing to eat.  We all couldn't finish it on our own.  Hmm... so I guess it wasn't out type.  But, worth the try still just for the experience.  We regret not ordering from Umami Hambaagu House's normal menu though. 

Tsinoy Foodies Other Ramen House/Shop Reviews
Akira Restaurant 
Curry Bee Japanese Curry Shop
Hanamaruken Ramen 花丸轩  
Hokkaido Ramen Santouka
Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen
Kitchitora 1 | Kitchitora 2
Kokoro Ramenya
Menya Genki Tonkotsu Ramen
Miso-Ten
Mitsuyado Sei-Men
Moshi Koshi 1 | Moshi Koshi 2
Rai-Rai Ken Ramen House
Ramen Bar
Ramen Cool
Ramen Ichiban-Kan
Ramen Nagi
Ramen Sora
Ramen X (Closed)
Ramen Yushoken
Ukkokei Ramen Ron

Back when we were little kids, life was slow and relaxed.  I still recall when my little sister would cheat our siesta time and play as soon as our yaya would step out of our room.  Oh, how we miss those days when we were the ones refusing to sleep and now it has become a luxury we could barely afford.   And caffeine  become our allies in coping with our responsibilities.  We grew to love coffee and tea.  My little sister even admits her coffee addiction.

After our pleasant experience at Akiba Cafe's first branch in Megamall last year, my little sister and I were quite excited to try the wider selections at their second branch at Ash Creek.  Ash Creek is just on the opposite side of Madison Square in Greenhills. 


The store is very visible along Ortigas Avenue.  It has adequate parking too.  According to my other little sister, it's more convenient to drive through and grab a quick drink here in the mornings before going to work. 

The place was spacious and cozy.  It has lofts and a bar type table on the side too. 

Drinks

Classic Hot Kohi

Tokyo Cappucino Regular (110 php)

Little sis ordered the Tokyo Cappucino which she loved before.  Being particular with coffee, she told me that it wasn't as strong and aromatic as she remembered.

Flavored Hot Kohi

Mt. Fuji Kohi Regular (140 php)

Craving for more caffeine, I ordered a Mt. Fuji Kohi for little sis because she raved about it before.  But since this had more cream than the Tokyo Cappucino, it was lighter. 


Caffeine-Free Chiru

♥ Black Sesame Chiru Regular (140 php)

While my little sis is loyal to the familiar drinks, I opted to try something new with the Black Sesame Chiru.   I've always been a black sesame fan.   I've tried black sesame mochi,  mochi ice cream (Mochi Creme and Mochiko), ice cream (The Cake Club and Hongkong Roast) and macarons.  But, this is my first time to try it as a drink.  Upon first sip, I instantly fell in love with the perfect blend of texture and flavor from the crushed sesame and cream. 
 

♥ Cookie Butter Chiru Regular

Ever since the Cookie Butter became the latest food trend, many have dared to infuse cookie butter to every form thinkable such as doughnuts (Krispy Kreme and Go Nuts Donuts), cookies, brownies and all sorts.  But, none have dared to go as far as making it into a drink like Akiba Cafe's Cookie Butter Chiru.  I have to admit, I expected it to be thick and heavy but it turned out to be silky smooth and effort-less to gulp.  You haven't enjoyed the best of Cookie Butter until you've tried this!


Trifle Drinks

♥ Matcha (Green Tea) Trifle Tea Regular (110 php)

Although I was delighted with the new chiru offerings, my heart will always belong to Akiba Cafe's Matcha (Green Tea) Trifle Tea.  It's a must order for me in every visit.


Katsu Donburi

♥ Tori Katsu (325 php)

Little sis tried the Tori Katsu and loved it!  She let me try so I could join in with her on her gleeful episode.   Indeed the crunchy golder brown coating and the tender and succulent chicken meat was impressive.

♥ Rosu Katsu (325 php)

The Rosu Katsu was also to rave for!  The crunchiness is as sensational as the Tori Katsu.  The pork meat was chunky yet juicy and tender.  Little sis said she liked this compared to Katsu Cafe's Pork Katsu which was obviously made out of grind pork meat.
 

♥ Tamago (25 php)

Who doesn't love egg?  This umami rich food is captivating in whatever way it is prepared.  But, never have we been overwhelmed with eggs until we tried Akiba Cafe's Tamago.  It has the fluffiness of cotton candy, puffiness of marshmallows and yet, runny yolks!  Seriously, my home-cooked scrambled eggs is nothing compared to this.  I can't help but wonder how they make this!

Classic, Teriyaki, Japanese Curry, Garlic Wasabi, Seaweed and Parmesan (55 php/additional sauce)

I personally find the plain katsu a satisfying viand on its own.  But, the sauce made it even more irresistible.  Every sauce had its own flare but we had our favorite pairings.   For us the best match for the Tori Katsu is the Teriyaki while the best match for the Rosu Katsu is the Japanese Curry.  We're guessing that the Garlic Wasabi, Seaweed and Parmesan would definitely complement the Sakana (Fish)  Katsu well.

Cakes
s

♥ Banoffee (80 php)

♥ Banoffee (80 php)

I've been wanting to try their Banoffee so this time finally gave it a try!  I usually find a Banoffee too sweet for my threshold but this one swooned me over.   The rhapsody of texture of the light and smooth cream, slippery and mushy bananas, thick and chewy toffee, heavy and crunchy crust is superb. 

Japanese Cheesecake (120 php)

Too bad we couldn't share the same enthusiasm for the Japanese Cheesecake.  Our expectation of a Japanese Cheesecake would be soft, light and creamy like that of Mother's Crepe or Tokyo Cafe.  Instead we got this... It was hard and not in a good way like that of my favorite Sarah Lee Butter Pound Cake but in a stale kind of way.  And, the thick crust was even harder.  Little sis didn't want to eat another spoonful of it so I had to gobble it up on my own which was not a problem for me thanks to the of delicious drinks. 

♥ Sweet Potato Cake (130 php)

Little sis will never forgive me if we ended with that so I suggested that she try the Sweet Potato Cake was one of my favorite cakes at Akiba second to the Green Tea Cheesecake.  As expected, she loved it and we were all smiles as we went on our way home.  


Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
Akiba Cafe has always been a great choice for drinks and cakes.  Now, it got even better with its delicious meals.  That's what I love about Akiba Cafe.  There's always something worth coming back for.