KATIPUNAN Food Trip: Healthy Dining at Gino's Brick Oven Pizza

February 28, 2015


KATIPUNAN Food Trip: Healthy Dining at Gino's Brick Oven Pizza


I highly recommend the food at Gino's Brick Oven Pizza. It's healthy, fresh and full-flavored. I'll share with you my two favorite meals that I always order every time I go there. No matter how determined I get to taste the other food on the menu, I always end up ordering these two meals. 

These are my two highly recommended meals:



SUMMER SALAD with BURRATA

This salad is made up of greens, prosciutto, sliced parmesan and pine nuts with dalandan dressing.
You can order the salad alone (195 pesos) or with burrata (440 pesos)
My tip: Make sure to order this salad with the burrata. This salad becomes unique when you eat it with burrata.

Cutting open the burrata with a knife, you see all the mozarella and cream oozing out of the mozarella shell.


What is a burrata?


Burrata, meaning "buttery" in Italian is a fresh cheese made from a mix of mozzarella and cream. The outside thin shell is a pasta filata curd made of buffalo and/or cow's milk mozzarella while the insides contain a soft, doughy, stringy, mixture of curd and fresh cream. (source: cheese.com)

This is how I eat the salad


PROSCIUTTO PIZZA


This thin crust pizza is made of tomato sauce, prosciutto, kesong puti, and arugula 
and cooked in a brick oven.

The size is around 9 inches, cut into 6 slices, and cost 420 pesos.

My tip: Make sure to try this pizza dipped in Gino's spicy honey shown below. 
The unique taste of sweetness and spice adds another dimension to this dish.

It's a great idea to combine honey
with the flavor and spice of red pepper.



INSIDE THE RESTAURANT
The restaurant is small and is almost always filled with people.


LOCATION:

2nd floor (on top of Mercury Drug), K2 Building
341 Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City 

Food Tripping at UP DILIMAN: Where to Find the new Beach House Canteen

February 20, 2015


Food Tripping at UP DILIMAN: 
Where to Find the new Beach House Canteen

Beach House Canteen, located at the back of the UP Diliman Main Library, near the Sunken Garden, is one of the iconic places in UP. It has been serving pork barbecue to UP students for the past 28 years. When we were students in UP, my husband and I frequent the place. Our lunch dates were mostly at the Beach House canteen. We usually order pork barbecue, rice and monggo guisado with tinapa flakes. So we were saddened by the news that on July 9, 2014, the Beach House Canteen was evicted from UP by virtue of an order of the Quezon City Regional Trial court (see the news feature from Rappler.The Beach House Canteen eventually relocated outside UP.

Recently, my son visited the new Beach House Canteen. Below are the photos and the information he gathered.


HOW TO FIND THE NEW LOCATION OF THE BEACH HOUSE CANTEEN:


1. It's located at C.P. Garcia corner Ocampo St.
The map below shows the distance from location of the old Beach House canteen to the new location at C.P. Garcia.



2. Look for this big banner at the corner of the road. 





THE PRICE OF PORK BARBECUE

25 pesos per stick


Size of barbecue: 6 inches




OUTSIDE AND INSIDE THE BEACH HOUSE CANTEEN







CONTACT INFORMATION:


Landline: (+632) 264-08-27
Mobile No.: (+63) 932-646-3610 (contact person: Elmer)

OPERATING HOURS:
Monday - Saturday: 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM

NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TERMINAL 3: Where to Find SM Kenko Spa

February 10, 2015


NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 
TERMINAL 3: Where to Find SM Kenko Spa


There are two branches of the SM Kenko Spa: 

1.  At Level 4 Food Court

You can see the food court on the left side,
and the spa on the right side.

The front of SM Kenko spa at the Level 4 Food Court


2. At Gate 113 of the International Departure Area.

You can see the sign gate 113 on the left.

The front of the branch at Gate 113


What's the difference between the two branches:

1. The passengers who can use the spa
The spa located at the food court can be used by passengers of both domestic and international departure flights.
The spa at Gate 113 can only be used by passengers of international flights since it's located across one of the boarding gates of the international departure area.

2.  The services available
The spa located at the food court  offers massage, lounge stay of 2-5 hours so you can sleep if you wish, use of the shower and a manicure and/or pedicure, and wifi. 
List of services

Promo rates from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM.



The spa at Gate 113 offers only massage services.

You can view on the right side of the photo how the massage lounge looks like

Rates of massage services


HONG KONG: My List of Best Souvenirs or "Pasalubong" to Bring Home

February 9, 2015

HONG KONG: My List of Best Souvenirs 
or "Pasalubong" to Bring Home





SWEETS HOUSE CHA CHA CREAM PUFFS


Why buy in Hong Kong:

You can only find stores serving this delicious cream puffs in Hong Kong.


My tips:


1. Make sure to taste one immediately after you buy it. Nothing beats the experience of tasting it, while the top is slightly crunchy. You lose the crunch on top if you wait till you get home or return to your hotel to eat it.

2. If you plan to bring it home as "pasalubong" or gifts to loved ones when you return to your home country, make sure to buy it on the day of your departure. By experience, the cream puffs last only 3 days at most. The cream becomes slightly sour on the 3rd day.

3. My number 1 favorite is the classic custard cream puff.




The other cream puffs I like:

Matcha cream puff

Chocolate cream puff




Packaging:


Each box can store 6 cream puffs. 


This is the assorted box of cream puffs.

The Store:




Where to Find:
3rd Floor, Harbour City, Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.
On the same floor as City Super
Beside Cooked Deli, the fast food of City Super
Operating Hours: 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM


This is the 3rd floor of Harbour City

Cha Cha Cream Puffs is beside City Super





Check out Harbour City Floor plan HERE  for location.





Price List

Choices of Cream Puffs



 CHEWY PEANUT CANDY WITH BLACK SESAME BY PASTILERIA KO KEI


Why buy in Hong Kong:

Their products are only available in Macau, Hong Kong and Singapore.

My tip:

Buy at least 4 large packs to get a discount


One large pack is 63 HK$
If you buy four packs, each pack is just 57 HK$, or 6 HK$ off each pack.

Packaging:

The large pack (480g) contains around 20 individually wrapped peanut candies. 

The small pack (280g) contains 4 individually wrapped peanut candies.


This is the large pack

This is what's inside the pack

This is what the black sesame peanut candy looks like

The Store:










Where to Find:

Shop A, Ground Floor, Howard Building
44 Hankow Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong





View Hong Kong Stationery & Nice Shops in a larger map





MACAU RESTAURANT PORTUGUESE EGG TARTS


My tips:


1. Make sure you eat the egg tart immediately after you buy it. It's the best time to eat it while it's hot. The puff pastry is crunchy and the egg cream in the center is so creamy and soft. When you eat it cold, it still tastes great but the pastry is no longer crunchy and not as creamy.



2. This is great to bring home as gifts for people at home. It lasts long and can be reheated in the toaster to make the pastry crunchy.



Price:

9 HK$

Packaging:


Each box can store 6 egg tarts.



The Store:


Note: There are 2 branches of Macau Restaurant in the same road almost across each other. The bigger restaurant have more egg tarts available.


Where to Find:

The bigger restaurant:
25-27 Lock Road, Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong

This is the front of the bigger restaurant along Lock Road


There are usually more egg tarts available in the bigger restaurant



The smaller restaurant:
UG/F, Tsim Sha Tsui Mansion
40-46 Lock Road, Tsim Sha Tsui Mansion
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong


You go down the basement to get to the smaller restaurant

This is the front of the smaller restaurant



 View Hong Kong Stationery & Nice Shops in a larger map




LADUREE MACARONS



Why buy in Hong Kong:

Only few countries in Asia sell Laduree macarons, and one of them is China in Hong Kong. Laduree french bakery is known to be the inventor of the double decker French macaron.





Where to Find:

Shop 3224, Level 3, Gateway Arcade,
Harbour City, Canton Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Check out Harbour City Floor plan HERE  for location.






THE MAP BELOW SHOWS THE SUGGESTED ROUTE
IF YOU PLAN TO BUY THE SOUVENIRS I MENTIONED ABOVE


Start at Macau Restaurant at Lock Road to buy the PORTUGUESE EGG TARTS, then walk to Hankow Road to buy the BLACK SESAME PEANUT CANDY, then walk further to Harbour City where you can buy both the Sweets House CHA CHA CREAM PUFFS and LADUREE MACARONS.