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Ilocano Dining at Victorino’s

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Pandie Rating: 👍👍👍👍

Since writing this review, Victorino’s has expanded its dining quarters due to incessant demand.

One could say that I’m not an avid Filipino foodie fan. I’ve always been puzzled at the lack of vegetables present during Filipino meals and the abundance of so much oil used in cooking or how they are sometimes all too salty that we even add a salted egg in some fish meals to make it more flavorful. It’s an odd conundrum for me and doesn’t shout healthy at all. But come on, who am I kidding. Filipino food is DELICIOUS (just not my top preference for health reasons). It may give you a heart attack someday but at least life is good. (not promoting eating lechon everyday anyway!)

So when we decided to surprise our friend with a cake on her despedida, one of my barkada suggested Victorino’s, which was tucked away in the little Scout community or Tomas Morato area in Quezon City. Victorino’s is partly engineered by no other than the famous pastry chef/baker Heny Sison who was also the teacher of my (same) friend’s grandmother! Imagine that, Heny Sison has been inspiring decades. I became extremely curious. So with the help of Waze, we found it!
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It’s actually just a modernized ancestral home and my dad likened it to his childhood home with the classic Filipino-Spanish interiors and nostlagic windows. It definitely had a cozy vibe and we were able to get settled in comfortably even when the restaurant was jampacked. It felt like visiting a friendly grandmother’s house. tumblr_inline_n2795u2jUt1qzu0uu

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Ramen Nagi Confessions at SM Aura

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Pandie Rating: 👍👍👍👍

Disclaimer: This review is only applicable to SM Aura branch circa 2014. I have tried Ramen Nagi at Robinsons Ermita Mall and it was one of the worst Ramen experiences I’ve had in my life. Maybe the worst. So this review is only reflective of SM Aura branch.

Everyone’s been riding on a Ramen roller coaster craze here in Manila. It’s akin to the milk tea craze back in the 2009 (exact year escapes me) and now there are ramen places mushrooming everywhere. Unlike milk tea which one can only mix so much, the local and ordinary ramen was thrown into a melting pot of culinary creativity and err experimentation! I liked my good old fashioned Ramen with – no fuzz, no swirls, just me, soup, pork and noodles. What more could a ramen purist ask for, right?

Well that all changed when I tried Butao Ramen in Hong Kong last September 2013 (which will be on a follow up post soon!). I have also tried Ukkokei Ramen’s Tantanmen (which was my current fave that time and deserved a separate post) so I was eager to try this famous ramen place. Ramen again is something which I don’t particularly crave unlike say, cake or something (oh you Desser-loving Tiff!).

So to the advise of my fellow foodie adventurers, we lined up 30 minutes before at Butao and were the first customers in line. Glad to say, the wait was worth it as I tasted the most delicious fusion Ramen I have ever tasted in my life. So when I heard that they decided to invade the Philippine Ramen scene, I was all “YES PLEASE BOMBARD US WITH RAMEN GOODNESS OH LORD ALMIGHTY!” But my inner pessimist and skeptic said “You know, it might not taste as good as the one in Hong Kong, just saying.”

Throwing all worries away, my optimistic self dashed into the doors of Ramen Nagi. To be more precise, I debated and convinced my mom to go to SM Aura since we were in the vicinity and I knew she loved new things and we’ve never been to SM Aura before. Then I sneakily suggested to climb up all the way to the rooftop (why is Ramen Nagi located so far away O_O) and try Ramen Nagi. At first we were a little lost but thankfully despite it being located at the edge of the mall, we found it, thank goodness to those signs!

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Small group or big group, small dude or big dude, Ramen Nagi is a place for everyone! Not sure if they accept reservations as there usually is a long line. But go there before peak hours and I guarantee that you’ll get a seat. My mom and I went there at 5:30pm and surprisingly, they weren’t full!

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Mom’s B-day Celebration with Spanish Tapas at Las Flores

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Pandie Rating: 👍👍

Odd how as a former Spanish colony, we hardly get any good tapas restaurants around here. Casa armas has been one of the more reliable and delicious restaurants that offer tapas but when a friend recommended Las Flores to us, my mom immediately quipped that she wanted to go here for her birthday since you know, French is too mainstream already for special occasions. Spanish cuisine is one of my most favorite cuisine because of its diverse and rich flavors and its tapas seem to be a lost art in our country where everything is judged by serving size.

Las Flores is tucked away in a little corner of BGC near Burgos Circle (you may almost miss it if you go out at night!) and its exclusivity (and probably beautiful people) is what draws the “crowd”. The restaurant tries to rev up its “authenticty” by having customers served by a mix of beautiful and handsome Spanish people. The Spanish manager was also very hospitable and approachable to all the diners. We were quickly seated as we have already made a reservation 2 days before for my mom’s birthday.

By this time, I had a HUGE expectation for the food because I was famished and was drawn by the menu which boasts of exotic dishes with fancy Spanish titles. We were warned of the small servings (these are tapas after all) so my parents decided to order the following:

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1. Patatas Bravas – PHP195
– Potato wedges in spicy sauce. These were probably the best potato wedges I had in a while and the serving was generous. But i kind of regret ordering this dish because… They weren’t the Spanish tapas I imagined that I had in Barcelona. I didn’t need to spend 195php for potatoes, right?

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