chocolate eating petrol heads

ive never really been a tv person.  must be my upbringing.  i only get to watch because hubby is such a tv monster and in the rare moments that i do turn on the tv myself, its always cnn, fox news, mtv or TMZ (for my dose of hollywood tsismis!!!).  but if there is one thing hubby and i enjoy watching together, its english automobile reviews.  we get a kick out of laughing at the goofy reviews of tom ford in Fifth Gear and the adventures of jeremy, richard and james of Top Gear !!!  they never fail to entertain us, hubby with car information and i with the show production.

tonight we were watching the latest episode of fifth gear and was snickering at the review of the BMW X6 when our hungry tummies signaled for a little snack.  actually it was induced by a text message from AST that they had dinner at Charlie’s and had the philly cheese steak describing it as super goood!!!  so with our tummies impatiently grumbling i decided to go down to the icebox to see what we could munch on and delightedly found Desage Chocolates from my mom.

Desage Milk Chocolate

i picked the milk chocolate, well, because hubby is not much of a chocolate fan, actually not at all (how odd is that?!), and left the dark chocolate for a rainy day (for me hehehe!).

this is the 2nd or 3rd time my mom sent us these gold and silver ingots and they are really good! the ones wrapped in gold are milk chocolates and the ones wrapped in silver are dark chocolates.

Desage Milk Chocolate

this is best slightly chilled and allowed to melt luxuriously in your mouth. the outer part is smooth and creamy when it melts and the inner part is a little powdery and milky which, when combined gives a unique experience

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hungry dragons welcome the ox

early sunday morning i braved the market and bought the contents of our fruit basket which are now displayed on our dining table.  its a pretty sight similar to that we had last january 1.  i like having a lot of fruits at home!  i might just fill our fruit basket more often than just to welcome the new year!

i read somewhere that having pig’s leg for the chinese new year would bring good luck & since i was craving for something crunchy (& cholesterol laden) i suggested to hubby that we eat out for dinner. he wanted to eat at cafe juanita but i suggested we eat at rockwell since i did not really feel like eating too near home

so a reservation was made at C2 for 6pm and after shopping for a few items we took our seat at our requested table by the window and ordered.

C2 is one of the few filipino restaurants hubby will eat in without saying its like eating at home.

its probably because the pinoy dishes here are served with an interesting twist.

our pandan iced tea came first

carafe of pandan iced tea

because my dining partner does not drink water, i had to give up my “drink only water philosphy” and share the pandan iced tea … actually it didnt really take a lot of convincing! hehehe!

for starters we got lumpiang lucena

this was made of longanisa bits, beansprouts, coconut strips and carrots.  the wrapper wasnt as crunchy as we expected but it was a good twist from the usual spring rolls.

aligue rice
we were debating whether to get this or the sisig rice but since we were already getting porky for our main dish, we thought we’d go sea food for our rice.  we love this version because the aligue gives the rice just a hint of flavor, not too suffocating or salty, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

and of course, because i was craving for a crunchy bit of pork leg we ordered the boneless crispy pata

if you check munch punch, this dish is not included in their menu but surprisingly, they serve it.  maybe its a little secret…well, not anymore!

this boneless crispy pata was very tasty, and the garlic infused soy sauce was a delight but i wish the meat was more tender, the crumble on touch kind.  the rind was satisfactorily crunchy but i wish there was more to munch on, after all, its the crunchy fatty part i was craving for!!!  the dish was good but not the best we’ve tasted.

the dinner ended with suman and chocolate

now we all know i love chocolate and the bitter kind is the best kind for me.  so when this dish arrived at our table i was delighted to see how the coco looked.

it was dark and it looked pure.  but surprisingly it wasnt as chocolaty as i hoped it would be.

but hey, who am i kidding, we left with an empty dessert dish (and extra gazillion calories on our waistlines)!!

with full tummies, the two satiated dragons headed for home and fell into dreamland with promises not to stuff themselves silly again, only to wake up this morning to tikoy!

so much for promises made in our dreams…

kung hei fat choi!

The Search

is there an explanation why when you dont want an item it just keeps popping up but its when you want it that you cant find it?!

i was sitting by my lonesome today when i suddenly had a craving for dried apricots.  now i know that is not very common here but i know i had seen a pack somewhere before so i headed to the grocery in search of my dried apricots.  i went to the goody section where i found nuts and crackers and dried squid and all sorts of other dried products but no apricots.  i went to the international shelves and found all sorts of asian snacks and western tater chips but no apricots there either…

in other words i did not find any and in my frustration ended up buying dried mangoes!  drat!  now where did i see a pack of those before?!!

leaving the grocery a little frustrated, i met up with some of my friends for dinner at cafe breton at podium and M&R announced that they were engaged!!  AST & I were thrilled!  it was so funny because we were just chatting after our meals and then suddenly MH said something like “hey guess what someone, gave me this” and showed us the sparkly!  hehehe!  it is so typical of her!  see what i mean about finding someone when you least expect to?!… congratulations you two!  its about time!

now id better look harder for those dried apricots and start my diet because i will be attending a wedding next year!

YES!

ive never been a fan of jim carey, well, because i find him too over acting (i know, i know, that’s his job for goodness sake!) but tonight, hubby got free passes to Yes Man and because the reviewer had nothing better to do, a trip to the movies it was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:YesMan2008poster.jpg

armed with my signature hot chocolate (non fat, no whip, extra hot), we took our seats and well, we laughed our heads off!  it was, surprisingly, a good movie!  it was funny without over doing it.  i particularly loved this jumper song scene…

positively themed movies are definitely what i need these days.  i guess no matter how far you’ve gone up the career ladder, there are still experiences that will scare you and render you feeling pretty much the opposite of confident!

last weekend we went to see bedtime stories.  in contrast to jim carey, i like all of adam sandlers movies.

http://teaser-trailer.com/2008/10/bedtime-stories-adam-sandler-new-poster.html

bedtime stories was pretty subdued but still a good watch.

after the movie we went to try kenny roasters at the power plant.

wait a sec, its not like we’ve never eaten kenny’s before, in fact it used to be a staple when makati was our “unwind place” back in college (talk about history!), but ive always been intrigued with kenny’s at power plant because, well, it looks different from the line up and order kenny’s and the menu sported some new dishes.

kenny's roaster and grill power plant

the crew was pretty busy but we were seated right away and our orders taken as soon as we were ready.

as we waited for our orders they us served corn bread

this tasted just like the corn muffins of the original kenny rogers roasters but in a different shape.

our seafood chowder came first

kenny's seafood chowder

i liked this creamy concoction especially because the chef was not stingy with the seafood. there were clams, shrimps and fish fillet pieces among others.

my philly cheese steak sandwich was served next

kenny's philly cheese steak sandwich

the meat was pretty good, it was cut thinly with just the right amount of fat. i did however wish there were more cheese and that the bread was not whole wheat. it didnt really go well.

the chips were however crispy good.

kenny's freshly fried chips

their chips are supposedly made fresh.

hubby’s order of lamb came next

kenny's grilled lamb

it was a good subject for my LX3 but we had better tasting lamb. maybe we should have just stuck to the place’s specialty (chicken!)

despite some disappointments in our ordered dishes, we did however enjoy their service.  the head waiter eagerly attended to our needs and seemed like he was on top of everything, a far cry from “across the counter service” of the original restaurant.

so kudos to kenny’s roast and grill!  a few tweaks in the non chicken dishes would definitely be added asset!

Early Morning Ramblings

i just love early mornings.  the silence that envelopes me just before everyone else at home wakes up makes such a serene backdrop to my surfing session.

this morning i woke up thinking about food.  i realized that the short list of the Gold Spot Restaurants were out and votes could be cast.

Click to Vote for your Favorite Restaurants

the best thing about participating is that you get a chance to win an overnight stay at The Boutique Bed & Breakfast.  I had wanted to try this place out a couple of year ago when it first opened because it featured a unique twist to going to my favorite short trip out of town but we never really got around to it so this might just be my lucky year!!!

speaking of favorites, i have had the chance to try out different coffee bars this past week all curtesy of my overwhelming desire to review *gawk*

my staple of course is Starbucks

i realized that they had a lot of other pastries to offer than donuts and ensaymada. i even brushed up on my coffee choices with the help of a site Starbucks Drink Simplified.

the next coffee shop i tried is Blenz.

hot dark chocolate mocha

i loved this drink but their cappuccino was less favorable, their foam was real sad.

i also tried Bo’s Coffee

Bo's Cafe Latte & Chocolate Cake

their coffee is really good! but i wish they had great pastries to go along with the delicious beverage.  looks could definitely be deceiving!  this chocolate cake was such a disappointment.  the shavings did not melt in your mouth but broke after much pressure from my fork.  the icing was rubbery and the sponge cake was too compact and dry.  but like i said the coffee was delicious!

my last coffee adventure was at Icings.

house blend coffee

their coffee is made in this glass percolator and is very good. the milk they serve is so rich, 1 jigger glass did wonders to my cup of coffee.

because i went there with an empty stomach, i decided to order a panini sandwich. i was feeling a bit adventurous so i got the grilled vegetable panini.

Icings Grilled Vegetable Panini

this is served with chips complete with what else but a vegetable arrangement

a closer look inside showed grilled tomatoes, pepper, eggplant and zucchini

a closer look of the icings grilled vegetable panini

interestingly it was satisfyingly delicious!

life is definitely better with caffeine in your system!  Good morning!