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!