Pinoy Food & Other Cuisine :: Food PhotoBlog and Events |

I love having a juicy steak for dinner as much as any omnivore, but if there’s another kind of red meat I enjoy eating on a less regular basis – lamb. When I was a kid, I refused to eat lamb because I didn’t like the idea of slaughtering a cute, fuzzy creature for food. Then I tried a lamb curry at a friend’s house and never looked back. Well, I still resist ordering lamb at restaurants from time to time, but it’s definitely not something I’d refuse if it were offered to me in a tempting platter.

Last Sunday, my boyfriend and I had dinner with Meryll of Meat and Livestock Australia at Mr. Rockefeller, Greenbelt 3. I honestly don’t know why I’ve never been to this restaurant before – it’s got an extensive oyster menu, a delicious lamb kebab, and the best steak I have ever had in my life. While I will still always have a soft spot for the steak at Katre (the Navarin of Lamb is heavenly too!), the Australian tenderloin steak at Mr. Rockefeller is the king of all steaks.

But I’m getting way ahead of myself! Mr. Rockefeller is called such because they specialize in oysters. In fact, their oyster dishes took up two pages of the menu, which gave us a hard time choosing which ones to try. Fortunately, they allow you to get an oyster sampler plate (P360) – a dozen oysters where you get four pieces of three oyster dishes. We eventually decided on the Buddha’s Heaven, Oysters Rockefeller, and Oysters Pesto.

Read the rest of this entry »

My boyfriend and I usually stick to the city for our dates, but we did something different last night and went to Antipolo for a juicy steak dinner at Hollywood Steakhouse. There’s an old joke that goes, “If he takes you to Tagaytay, it means he loves you. But if he takes you to Antipolo, kabit ka lang niya (you’re only his mistress).” I don’t know about being the mistress because I was the one who decided to go there. More importantly, a classy place like Hollywood Steakhouse will easily dispel any myths about Antipolo being a seedy place for trysts.

Hollywood Steakhouse is a cozy little open-air restaurant that overlooks the hills of Antipolo. It’s owned by the same group of companies that runs Center of Culinary Arts (CCA) in Katipunan, which means that the recipes were developed by CCA graduates. The gorgeous view makes it a lovely place for dates, whether you’re taking your girlfriend, wife, or mistress. The Hollywood theme of the restaurant is not particularly strong, and I found out later that the restaurant’s name is based on its location, which is the Hollywood Hills Subdivision.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pepper Lunch Manila Franchise

My parents and I have heard a lot about Pepper Lunch at the Power Plant Mall, which opened about a month ago, and they’ve been really curious about trying it out. I wasn’t too hot about the idea. In the first place, I’m not really one to eat out and spend money on food. But what had me rather skeptical about Pepper Lunch in particular is the over-hyped way people have been talking about it. Obviously, Pepper Lunch is the hippest, coolest restaurant these days and something tells me that people go there not so much to eat as to be seen eating. But that’s just an impression I got.

I’d have never suggested eating at Pepper Lunch last weekend, but since it was my mom’s birthday and she was curious about the place, I went along with the plan. It’s not as if I were paying for my food anyway.

The bill for four meals amounted to 1,472.00 but since my sister and I wanted dessert, the total reached 1,502 pesos. I’ve heard that the meals in Pepper Lunch aren’t exactly easy on the pocket (average cost of about 300 pesos) but I gave the place the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they’ve got really orgasmic food, and 300 bucks doesn’t quite cover how orgasmic it really is.

Read the rest of this entry »