foodtripping: eat fresh

nestled in one of the buildings along masangkay st. in tondo, manila, is this small eatery called eat fresh. this place has been serving stir-fried noodles before all the other stir-fried noodle stalls sprouted all over the metro a few years back.

along with stir-fried noodles, eat fresh also offers noodle soups, dimsum, squid balls, kikiam and stuffed tofu (which i so, so love). also a must-try are their XL white and black gulaman for only P28 and their curry siomai at P12/3 pcs. (thanks P for the recommendation!)

a large serving of stir-fried noodles costs 38 pesos. here's the lady's hand in action, preparing my and a friend's stir-fried noodles with bean sprouts and green onions.

top: stuffed tofu (pork), P15 each. middle rack: dimsum, lumpiang shanghai, squid balls. bottom rack: more dimsum

lotsa bowls waiting to be filled with delicious stir-fried noodles

stuffed tofu frying

a selection of sauces: (l-r) oyster sauce, soy sauce, chili sauce, sweet chili, sweet and sour, peanut sauce, sweet sauce, hot sauce

in true miss lamon tradition (?), any food trip i go to would not be complete without a scrape or two. heheh. well, i just thought that i would like to have a bit of spice for my noodles so i also added chili sauce aside from the sweet one. little did i realize what effect 2 teaspoons of that chili would have.

l: stuffed tofu. r: stir-fried noodles. i declare temporary insanity when i took this pic. cos after taking one bite of my stir-fried noodles the heat seared through my throat down to my chest. man, was that spicy or spicy? only one remedy available at the moment: ice cream! :D

btw, eat fresh does not franchise so if you would like to try their yummy treats, go hie yourselves off to masagkay street :D

eat fresh food deli

1278 masangkay st., tondo, manila
in front of st. stephen's high school

ying ying tea house pt.2

after what seemed like eons (about 6 months to be exact), i was able to go back to the places i love most in manila: binondo and intramuros. ;) it's also about the same length of time since i had an honest-to-goodness food trip. haha.

back in february, my friend h and i discovered ying ying tea house at the corner of dasmariñas and yuchengco (formerly nueva) streets in binondo. it was still on its soft opening at that time, and when my bro and i went back there today, the place was up and hopping with lots of customers. and yeah, if on my previous post on this resto didn't have any photos, well, i now dub this one---

a food trip with images. yay!

when it comes to eating in chinese restos, i usually order the same stuff: noodle soup and dimsum (usually siopao). so this day isn't so different except that for dimsum, i ordered something funky-sounding: ham soy kok, which is glutinous rice ball with pork filling. at P50 for 3 pieces, i can say that it was really filling, no pun intended.

funky-looking too, eh?

pork filling

the noodle soup i ordered this time around is exactly the same item i ordered the first time: wanton noodle soup. i noticed some changes though, like the won tons weren't that tightly packed like they were before, but still big just the same. still for P80, it was worth it.

wanton noodle soup

pictured here are: clockwise, l-r: wanton noodle soup, fried dumplings with sweet and sour dip, chicken feet and pork and century egg congee.

the fried dumplings cost P120 for 8 pieces. 8. large. packed. tasty. pieces. dip 'em in the sweet and sour sauce... heaven.

for P90, the pork and century egg congee was filled up to the bowl's brim. very, very filling, with lots of pork slices, century egg and garnishings.

chicken feet, chicken feet... as i'm not partial to this, i didn't even try it. but as with the other items we ordered, one order of chicken feet gives you 3 pieces at P55 per order.

and so, as it was when i first ate at ying ying tea house, every bit and morsel of what my bro and i savored today was very filling and satisfying. and yes, easy on the pocket. just make sure you order what you can finish, though. my bro and i were stuffed. thank goodness for the free house tea. even so, you can be sure i'll be back there for the third time. and the fourth. and the fifth...

birthday dinner at choi garden

note: sorry there ain't no pics yet but i'm posting this now before i forget what i want to write. =)

my family and i went to choi garden in annapolis, greenhills last night to celebrate my pa's birthday. by far, it was the best restaurant i've eaten in after cyma. notwithstanding my bros' allergies to seafood (my older bro being the more delicate one), all of us enjoyed our time together.

the restaurant occupies the same building where country waffles used to be. of course they had to change the structure to look more chinese than an american country house. the ground floor glowed red in all its glory from the outside, as all the interiors are in my fave colors--red and black.

upon entry, a short hallway reminiscent of a moon gate greets the guests. it's sort of like a tunnel to another dimension if you ask me. aside from the red and black interiors, another cool thing in the restaurant are the tanks of huge, live seafood imaginable: lobsters, crabs, prawns, etc. and along with the nice chinese music playing in the background, the reddish-black atmosphere of the whole restaurant looks something straight out of a gangster movie. trés cool.

judging from the number of people eating there, it seemed like we won't be getting a table for a while but fortunately a table was just vacated so we snapped that one up immediately. make sure you make a reservation first (especially if you're gonna eat at dinnertime) before winging it out or else you'd have to wait for quite some time like we almost did.

the food... it also took us time to get what we wanted. in the menu is basically your typical chinese fare: fried rice, roast fowl, noodle soups, dim sum, congee, sweet and sour pork, hot pot, the works. there are several items NOT on the menu, though, so ask your friendly waiter for the chef's specials. two such items not on the menu are the hot and sour soup and beef with broccoli in oyster sauce, which we ordered.

besides the hot and sour soup and beef with broccoli in oyster sauce, here are the other items we ordered: braised fish fillet with bean curd in pot, fried pork ribs with salt and pepper (that comes with seasoned vinegar), and birthday noodles, which is simply pancit canton with quail eggs.

because we were so intent on choosing the items carefully (like making sure there's neither shrimp nor crab in deference to me bros), we forgot one important thing: order the rice. the waiter had all but already gone to the kitchen with our order when we suddenly remembered we haven't ordered the freakin' rice. funny, eh? anyhow we got five nice, fragrant cups of steamed rice.

everything we've ordered really tasted great. the amount of salt on each dish is just right, the soup as well the sauces of the braised fish fillet and beef with broccoli are just about the right thickness; the fish fillets, bean curd and beef slices tender to the bite and thick enough for that "oomph" when biting into them; and the pork ribs are well cooked. the birthday noodles, however, just had a few veggies and seafood, not that it mattered to me as i like noodles better than veggies anyway. they don't use msg on their dishes, btw.

but what about the price? you may ask. well, all i can say is that my money was all worth it. the pricing starts at around 170PHP-up, small size. for medium and large, you just multiply the price by 2 and 3, respectively. don't be fooled by the small size as it's good for 3-4 people, 5 even. there were 5 of us and though all the dishes we ordered are small, the servings were generous. to say that we were full is an understatement--we're more like stuffed. and the grand total? P1,290 minus senior citizen (46.07) plus 12% vat = P1,243. that's about P250 per person rounded off. now if there is another resto that serves great food with generous servings at an affordable price like this, let me know.

=)