Su Zhou Dimsum

I had seen Su Zhou Dimsum in Malate before, and thought to go back to try it some other day, but never did. So when I saw that they had a branch at Robinson's Otis, I definitely made it a point to try their famous xiao long pao. This was actually my second visit. I didn't have my camera with me on my first visit, and almost forgot to take pictures this time. So here we have the 2 remaining steamed xiao long pao, and the 1 remaining pan-fried xiao long pao. We also ordered some fish fillet and fried rice. I forgot what the fish fillet dish was called but it was delicious! Simple food - lightly breaded fish fillet with egg white-cornstarch sauce, some onions, carrots and green pepper, but done really well! It was all gone before I remembered to take a picture.

Their xiao long pao, of course, was much better than what you get at the usual dimsum places in
Onpin. The only other restaurant's that could come close would be Gloriamaris' xiao long pao. Truth be told, it was even better than the xiao long pao we had in Shanghai. We had xiao long pao at one of the restaurants at the Yu Gardens, which Shanghai residents told us was the place to go to for xiao long pao (to be fair, those restaurants did do a brisk business on xiao long pao, and it seemed to be their specialty since even the locals were ordering it table after table).

Su Zhou's xiao long pao was served piping hot. The way to eat it is to use your chopsticks to gently transfer it to your soup spoon (you may dip it into the vinegar/garlic dipping sauce first if you prefer), bite off the top 'peak' to release the heat and maybe cool the xiao long pao a bit, and when it's cool enough to eat without burning your tongue, slowly sip the 'soup' and eat the xiao long pao, taking care not to spill any of the delicious soup. Yes, xiao long pao should have that 'soup' inside the dumpling. Su Zhou's xiao long pao is delicately flavored - with a hint of ginger, the taste of pork, and not too salty nor too sweet. But it is well-flavored. Personally I prefer the pan-fried version. There's just something about pan-fried dimsum that makes it taste better - like fried siopao, potstickers, pan-fried gyoza..

Do check out Su Zhou Dimsum and savor their xiao long pao, making sure not to spill any of the soup. From my experience, the service at their Robinson's Otis branch was a bit mediocre and the staff seemed to be just idling and not as spiffy nor as well-trained compared to the better restaurants, but their food is superb! (When the supervisor served us our xiao long pao, I had to ask for chopsticks and soup spoons...) At P90-95 an order for 4 pieces of xiao long pao, it is a bit expensive, but it is definitely worth trying and going back for maybe every 1-2 months...

Lunch at Banapple

I had lunch with my friend J at Banapple the other day. Since the last time I was there, I only took out a Banoffee Pie, I took the opportunity to sample their meals. J ordered the Asian Crabstick and Mango Salad Sandwich and a slice of the Amaretto Cheesecake (the waitress said that this was a strawberry cheesecake). I ordered the Salpicao Rafael and a slice of their supposedly other specialty, Apple Caramel Crumble Pie. You can check out their menu & pricelist here. The place was packed and we were third on the waitlist.





The Verdict:

We saw the servings of pasta at other tables, and they are definitely value for money. The servings are big enough to satisfy you if you are hungry! I didn't hear any praises nor complaints from J, so I'm guessing the sandwich was good enough. As for my Salpicao Rafael, it was tasty. It wasn't the dark, garlic and soy sauce affair that I expected of salpicao. It was more of like a cross between a salpicao and a teriyaki. Nevertheless, it was good enough and value for money. Banapple's food isn't the knock-your-socks-off great tasting food that other reviews make it out to be, but it is above average. Sometimes I wonder if my standards are too high. But if I know I have tasted better or can make better, I don't consider it superlatively great tasting!

The Amaretto Cheesecake was also above average. It was good. The Apple Caramel Crumble Pie though, was another matter. The cinnamon was too strong, and I like cinnamon! I basically had to force myself to eat the pie, and couldn't finish it. I left maybe a third of the pie on the plate and concentrated on eating the crust, the pie's only saving grace. I couldn't taste anything but cinnamon. Even the crumble topping tasted like sawdust and cinnamon. I know I'm never ordering that again! You know how they can fix that pie? Maybe remove 3/4s of the cinnamon they put in there. Add some brown sugar and some water to the filling, and maybe a dash of nutmeg. And bloody add some grated cheese, sugar, and breadcrumbs to the crumble topping. The pie and the topping was too dry.

Overall, the great thing about Banapple is that it serves good food at hefty servings at affordable prices. The service was good, although it seemed that there was only one waitress. She was cheerful but whenever we noticed her serving orders or bussing tables, we couldn't help but think kawawa naman siya (poor thing!) since the place was really busy and she seemed to be on it nonstop. We were there for almost 2 hours since we did a lot of catching up.

Banapple's Banofee Pie

I have read the raves about Banapple's Banoffee Pie. So it should follow, like a bear to honey, that I have to try it! How can I resist? A get together with friends last weekend gave just the perfect excuse to go buy the whole pie.

I read that Banapple opened their second branch in Tomas Morato. Good! That means no driving all the way to Katipunan. I'm really not a QC person and I think I would get lost if I tried to go to their original branch. Their Morato branch is actually located on the ABS-CBN side of the street, on the second floor of a new promenade-type building.

So, how is the banoffee pie, you ask? As you can see from the picture, it has a graham type crust, BIG chunks of ripe bananas dripping with a yummy yummy thick caramel sauce, and is topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this an 8. I would definitely buy it again someday.

I liked the bananas and the caramel fudge sauce, they really went very well together. Whipped cream and chocolate shavings - hmm.. they were okay, nothing wrong with them. One thing I wasn't crazy about was the crust, though. I felt that there was too much butter in the crust, and since I was eating the pie cold, it sometimes felt like eating butter sebo.. I hope you understand what I mean. I like butter, but I just don't like eating cold butter. I prefer butter slathered on bread (at room temperature!).

But in any case, we ate half of the pie during the party, and the leftover half was gone in less than 2 days, so I guess it's okay. I would buy this pie again, if only for the bananas and caramel fudge sauce! The whole pie only cost P510.

Banapple Pies & Cheesecakes is located at the 2nd Level, Il Terrazo, Tomas Morato cor. Scout Madrinan, South Triangle, Quezon City. Tel Number 413-2675.

Takoyaki at New Hatchin

I was craving some takoyaki so we went to New Hatchin to get some. The takoyaki are P78 for 8 pcs. If you like takoyaki you should really check out this place. The takoyaki are only available on weekends and only until supplies last. Last week we went there after 5pm and they had just run out of takoyaki.

In the picture you can only see 7 because I already ate one before I remembered to take a picture. They should definitely be eaten while hot (but take care to avoid burning your tongue!). I bought a couple more orders to take home and they were not as good cold/room temperature as they are when eaten freshly cooked!

I ended up not buying anything at New Hatchin since boyfriend was in a hurry to go home.. :( Hahaha.. he said whenever I go to New Hatchin, Japanese Home Centre and similar stores, that I always need to "inspect" everything! Ah well, it's true! I hate missing something and I always want to know everything that's available. For future reference, you know.. ;)

New Hatchin Japanese Grocery is at 7602 Sacred Heart St., Cor. Metropolitan Avenue San Antonio Village. City, Makati City. For those not familiar with the place, look for the big Toyota at the start of Jupiter St. Go towards the Meralco branch and continue going about 1 block. You should see New Hatchin right after Buma and right before the BDO.

New Hatchin Japanese Grocery & Hana

So, after my Ortigas Japanese shopping spree, The Cat and I went to New Hatchin Japanese Grocery in Makati. Wow, I can't believe how often I've passed by that street and never noticed they were there. When we got there, they had already ran out of takoyaki and the takoyaki stand had already packed up. But never mind, I was looking forward to Hana's takoyaki. They better be available, dammit!

Entering Hatchin was like being warped to some corner of Japan. Everything was Japanese, everything was in Japanese. I was looking for some sakura denbu but could only remember the "sakura" part. Well, you can imagine it wasn't exactly easy to look for sakura denbu by just describing it as "sakura-something that you use to turn rice pink". The Cat was laughing at me for my epic fails the whole evening! Anyway, since The Cat (a.k.a. neko-chan) knows kindergarten level Japanese, I kept asking him to figure out what something was - what's this? what's that? Don't know? Bad kitty!

I bought some naruto, and a box of the plastic grass thing you see in sushi servings. Also bought The Cat a green tea mochi. Kitty like. He was also pestering me to get the unagi (his favorite), but methinks I should buy that later since I still had a LOT of stuff in the freezer/ref. Also, I don't know how to cook it. Yet.

We then went to Little Tokyo, and the first restaurant we see is, tada! Hana! Well, of course takoyaki would definitely be ordered! The takoyaki was delicious! It has real octopus bits inside and has a more complex flavor than the takoyaki we normally get at the malls. One bite and you know that this one's authentic! At P100 for 6 pcs, it's affordably priced. Will definitely be going back for it.

The restaurant is a small one, and would probably seat around 20. But with that being said, you can really feel the authentic Japanese vibe! You can also see the cook preparing your food, and some Japanese customers, regulars, we presume, talk to the cook. It really is a nice place to hang out if you were Japanese. Quite homey.

Here are pictures of the food we ordered at Hana. The food was good. Not wowerrific good, but delicious and well-prepared. We ordered the Cream Fish Mullier and the Sukiyaki Beef platter. We asked for the house tea which was also nice. It was barley tea. The taste might take getting used to for some, but it has a clean and flavorful taste.

New Hatchin is located in Sacred Heart St., right between Kamagong St. and Metropolitan Ave. in Makati. Little Tokyo is along Pasong Tamo (now known as Chino Roces Ave.) near Makati Cinema Square.

New Bombay + Daiso & Japan Home Centre Haul

I was reading Kaoko's blog last night (www.kitchencow.com) and was inspired to do two things today: 1. go shopping for bento stuff, and 2. eat at Hana.

So off I went today, grabbed The Cat (a.k.a the boyfriend, who likes to think he's a cat) along for a day of fun, food, and shopping.

The plan was to go to 4 places - Daiso at St. Francis Square, Japan Home Centre at Robinson's Galleria, New Hatchin Japanese Grocery in Makati, and at least have an authentic takoyaki at Hana.

But we were hungry so we first had lunch at New Bombay Restaurant at the 4th floor of the Podium, near the cinema. I forgot to take pictures! We ordered our usual vegetable samosa, mattar paneer and naan. I also ordered a chicken dish. Ack! I forgot the name of the dish. Suffice to say that it was the last on the list of chicken dishes that started with Chicken Tikka Masala.

The verdict:
Yes, we are regulars at New Bombay restaurants so here's our take on this new branch's food -

• Vegetable Samosas - the branch at the Columns (corner of Ayala and Buendia Avenues) has better vegetable samosas
• Mattar Paneer - the branch at Glorietta (near A Venetto) has the best mattar paneer, imho (ask for mild spiciness).
• Chicken dish whose name I forgot - better than the mattar paneer :)

After lunch, we hied off to Daiso in St. Francis Square. At first I wasn't sure if we found the right store because the big sign said "DYI", but that was the right store after all. I ended up buying a lot of stuff, The Cat was nagging me about spending so much on unplanned expenses. Hehe :) But I couldn't help it! Pictures of my haul:

In the pictures are some small plastic containers (I'm thinking for fruit, sauce, pudding, jello..). I also got an egg slicer. I didn't even know they had the 6-wedge slicers now. I also bought the Winnie the Pooh bento that Kaoko had on her blog, some cookie cutters I might use as fried egg molds, foil cups, and a heart-shaped onigiri mold . These items mostly cost P88 each, with some at P66.

After Daiso, we went to Galleria to browse through the Japan Home Centre branch there. Almost everything was at P88 again. They basically have the same things on sale. I only bought a few items not in the Daiso branch I went to - a regular triangular onigiri mold and a flower puncher (for punching flower-shaped nori?).

I hope these recent purchases help and inspire me to make cute, colorful bento!