Food Journey At Singapore

I was in Singapore last weekend and I loved it! I had my camera, a pink suitcase that's only 7 pounds heavy, and a stomach ready to take in the food, glorious food. Normally when I travel, I really want to take in the food in the city, so I shun away familiar food stalls that I see in Manila, unless, of course, it's very famous there.

It's actually my first time in Singapore so I was really excited. In my weekend stay there, I really loved the city, on how everything's super clean and organized, not hogging escalator space and everything's always on time. The MRT system is super organized, and they have a very complex train system. Took us I think just half a day to master the whole thing.

Anyway, back to food. We've been doing a lot of walking there, since we take the train going to wherever, so we all need energy. We learned when I got really moody from being hungry on the way to Sentosa so whenever the need arises, I should always EAT. and I mean EAT! No restaurants for us though. Food Court and Hawker-style is the way to go.

Vivo City is a mall that reminded me so much of Eastwood City Mall. It's an MRT station (Harbor Point) and it also houses the monorail going to Sentosa. After a day at Universal Studios, we wanted to just eat somewhere at Clark Quay like a fastfood joint before heading back to the hotel. Thankfully, I saw a food court at Vivo City and I was like, "wait! let's check this place out!"

The Food Republic at Vivo City was super aliw. It was very reminiscent of the streets you see in movies, something like old Chinatown, complete with paper lanterns and decorations.

The food's really cheap too, there's so much to choose from and I admit being overwhelmed especially since that was my first day ever in Singapore. So I settled for this place where I get to choose combo meals, depending on the combo you want. I think a dish that's one meat and two veggies cost like 4.50 dollars. I asked if seafood is also meat, and they said yes. The lady at the counter was kind to tell me what dishes were there, and what was good. I settled for chili prawns, kangkong, and string bean.

I was also glad that we were armed with bottled water because the food I ate was really, really spicy. It was a good thing that I love spicy food. The veggies weren't soggy and the shrimp was really fresh and had the texture I wanted. There were ladies too with carts selling dumpling or teas. I wanted a serving of dumpling but I was full already.

Breakfast was another very familiar place. I think I see this place in Manila, but I'm not quite sure. Anyway, malls weren't open yet save for a few food shops at Funan Digital Mall, which is right next to our hotel. This place looked inviting, and well, I've been solely intrigued with soft boiled eggs.

Ya Kun Kaya Toast had a set meal of toast, soft-boiled eggs, and either coffee or tea. I chose cheese toast since I wanted something filling and seeing Horlicks drink as another option, I had that as well. The cheese toast was yummy and cinnamon-ny, with just the right mix of sweet and salty.

The soft boiled eggs are seasoned first with salt, pepper, and soy sauce before spreading it on top of the toast or eaten on its own. It was really, really yummy and now I know why my pole teachers are crazy about it too. The Horlicks tea tasted like Nesvita instead of Ovaltine, but it was okay. :) At least I was fueled for another day of walking.

Union Square Mall's located at Novena Station, where we had lunch. This is one thing I love about SG - a mall is always connected to a train station and malls are always connected to one another. And each mall has a food court, with the same style. The Union Square food court's smaller but it was okay. Here, I had a big bowl of Yong Tao Foo.

Yong Tao Foo is like a mini shabu-shabu. For 3.50 dollars, you get to choose 7 ingredients of your choice and put it in a bowl - veggies, seafood, sausages, dumplings, whatever you want. If you want more, it's 50 cents additional. Then, they put noodles and cook your choice ingredients in a broth. You have a choice whether to make it plain soup or spicy laksa. There's a special dipping sauce where you can dip your food before eating (it also serves to cool it down). It's such a big bowl, would you believe I finished the whole thing? That's what I mean when I say all that walking makes me hungry.

For dessert, we went to another familiar place. Okay, so I vowed to eat local food right? Cut me some slack, because I missed this place because it permanently left Manila shores:

Baskin Robbins!!!!!!!! It used to be in ATC where the Crocs store is now, I think, back in the 90s. They're no longer in ice cream format here, just hard candy inspired from the ice cream flavors but it's not the same. I need dairy too!

We took a train from Novena Station to Ang Mio Ko to get to Singapore Zoo. We decided to make our way na lang to Orchard Road, after we couldn't figure out the bus changes.

After scouring through Ion Orchard, it's back to the food court for us for merienda. I had two spring rolls for I think 2 dollars.

The Kachang is an ice dessert consisting of jelly, red beans, palm seeds, sweet corn, a cone of ice and then topped with colored syrups and condensed milk. It's similar to our native halo-halo. I first saw the Kachang in Asian Food Network. I thought it was really easy but I found out that it's very difficult to make. You have to form and pack the ice just right because if you pack it too tight, it can be too firm and hard. The shaved ice should just flake off delicately and melt in the mouth along with the syrups and milk. This kachang has ice cream but you can choose to have durian instead if you're a durian fan. Obviously, I'm no durian fan.

During our last night in Singapore, I wanted to have a taste of the famous stingray. Good thing my friend Frances told me there was a hawker place 10 minutes away from Raffles City, in a place called Makansutra Glutton's Bay, which is an outdoor eating place with the great view.

[image credits]

Unfortunately, I had to borrow images for this part since it was drizzling but no rain could stop me from eating stingray, just taking pictures so I had my trusty camera tucked in a waterproof bag and I savored an entire stingray all by myself. They cook it super fast too! Only 5 minutes! Stingray is available for 10, 15, or 20 dollars, depending on what size you order. I fell in love with it at first bite. It's super spicy! Thank god for Jasmine Tea to tone down the spice burn.

My last SG lunch was at Raffles City mall. Raffles City is like the Glorietta counterpart, a mall within Singapore's main business center. You can have dessert or have a fancy meal at the restaurants at the basement or rather, go up to the food court.

I had rice, one veggie dish, and chili squid. :)

If you notice, I haven't posted anything beef or pork though, so feast your eyes on black pepper rice, just letting you know that there's food to eat should you not be allowed seafood.

Of course there are other dishes that SG is famous for - like black pepper crab, cereal prawns, chili crab, and carrot cake (which isn't like the carrot cake with the cream cheese frosting, but deep-fried, like okoy). I wasn't able to try those due to lack of time but will do, if I ever go back to SG. Trust me, I will go back and eat the dishes I fell in love with and more.

For refreshments, I suggest to ditch the soda and go for canned teas or bottled teas that aren't in Manila, a famous brand I saw around is Yeo teas, and I giggle all the time because I get reminded of my good friend Yeoh, because of the name.

My friends told me to try Chrysanthemum Tea. It was the first drink I tasted in Singapore when I got in Changi. It's like a stronger iced tea though, I prefer the Wintermelon or Jasmine Tea (same brand, Yeo).

If only I could take the entire foodie place of SG with me back here, in my little pink suitcase I would. It's a place I learned to love - organized train system, spicy food, and literless roads and all. When I posted our SG pictures, it's all food instead of scenery pictures. But hey, that's when I do when I travel. I have fun, eat, and drink (tea!!!).

Peanuts and Chocolates: Stuff to take home from Bohol

When going on a vacation, one of our main concerns, aside from where to eat of course, is what to take home. The safest thing to take home is food, provided it's airplane-approved and it's not such a hassle to bring home. For one thing, we all love to eat so we can't go wrong with food items. The souvenir foods we got from Bohol though, were sure hits and something we'd like to share to all of you.

Pasalubong finds are found in tourist shops or if you have the time and patience, the local supermarket. We got our souvenir items from a tourist shop during our tours. Aside from these, the Tagbilaran airport also has a little stand in the waiting area where you could shop for last-minute finds.

Wallets or keychains inspired from tarsiers or knicknacks or whatever reminds you of Bohol, they got it.

Of course I'm here to talk about food of course. One thing I noticed about the snack finds are the abundance of peanut products - peanut crisps, peanut fingers, star peanuts. These peanuts are a result of alternate cropping, which means after a period of planting just rice, the soil needs to rest. In that period though, it's time to plant peanuts, which requires less water than rice. And what to do with those peanuts? Make peanut products of course, like the Peanut Kisses, another specialty of Bohol:

This picture here was taken in the airport where we both needed a little munchie.

It's so cute shaped like a Chocolate Hill, except it's peanut. It tastes like peanut brittle too. I do suggest to have water in handy while munching this one.

The peanut kisses are already available in filipiniana shops here in Manila, but not the star peanuts, which are clusters of peanut meringue shaped like stars.

The taste is similar to peanut kisses, except this one's texture is smoother. If the thought of too-sweet meringue makes you gag, this one's not too sweet. As with all peanut products, I do recommend a tall glass of water to wash this down, if peanuts tend to make you all scratchy. Needless to say, those with gout or peanut allergy should stay away from this.

I do have a solution to you guys though... CHOCOLATE! You could take home a Hillcolate, which is a chocolate-hill shaped chocolate snack that can't get any cuter.

If snacking isn't your thing, then nothing beats good ol' tablea, which are blocks of cocoa powder that you melt in boiling water before lacing it with milk and sugar. Swear that and broas or homemade cinnamon sugar butter biscottis and I'm all set! I prefer my tablea the way my mom makes it: thick and mild with a 2 tablets:1 cup ratio. My first attempt at tablea making had me at the 1:1 ratio that I saw when I googled recipes on how to make tablea drinks but I found that I could taste it better with a 2:1 ratio, or maybe it's because the discs are so small. I like the tablea so much, I actually felt bad we only got little of this, since we were just going to try it out. thank God there's tablea in the supermarket or Kultura shops here.

Of course there are other mentionables like kalamay, dried mangoes, and broas. Inasmuch as we'd like to take the whole tourist shop with us, we had a baggage weight limit so we had to keep it at that. In buying souvenirs though, it really pays to buy from reputable shops and supermarkets with strict quality control.

What's Cooking At Amorita Resort

If you have read my makeup blog, I'm currently in Panglao Island in Bohol. Much of my adventures could be read there but here, I talk about what I ate there, specifically in our resort, Amorita Resort, which is along Alona Beach in Panglao Island. Amorita's a pretty new resort, and it's got super first-class amenities and tour packages depending on your budget or preference. It's a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for - from remembering your names to making sure you're hydrated with complimentary water bottles in your room and refreshing water by the front desk up to being conscious with your health by lighting citronella burning oils to ward off mosquitoes.

Amorita's breakfast buffet comes with every stay. Breakfast is only from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM. What's nice about it? They do not keep the same menu every single time. Yesterday, they had daing na bangus, ham, sausage, fish fillet, pork schnitzel, and chicken for protein source. Now it's tapa, tocino, longganisa, tuyo, fish fillet, and herb chicken. They have fresh fruit juice with their fruit bar that also changes. Yesterday, I had mango. Today, I had watermelon. All the juices are real and made from real fruit. The buffet is available at the Saffron Bar and Restaurant. If you're a first timer and don't know where it is, look for the infinity pool. Do you see the chairs and dining tables and the bar near it? There you go! If not, memorize the look of this picture:

Another thing I saw in the breakfast buffet is their honey buffet.... sweet honey infused with flavors to make them more interesting. There's lemongrass honey, pandan honey, apple honey, tea honey, and coffee honey. The coffee honey was quite interesting but I gravitate towards the lemongrass honey for quick shots of it followed by a glass of water. Pandan honey I use to sweeten my plain yogurt and cereal.

Yep, Winnie The Pooh sure would love to see this.

For lunch, here are some of our tried-and-tested mentionables:

Carnivores would love The Prime (Php 320), the burger with half-pound beef patty with grilled onions, fresh tomatoes, melted cheese, and salad.

The grill has also variety of choices to try, from seafood, red meat, and white meat with your choice of starch (rice, potato, or fries), and dressing. If you have no idea what to get, your attendant could suggest.

My Blue Marlin (Php 300) tasted good with Lemon Caper Butter Sauce. It melts in the mouth and you don't get that "fishy" odor or taste.

The grilled pork belly (Php 240) I liked, for someone who doesn't eat pork. It had a good amount of meat and the sauce we chose to go with it was tangy peppercorn butter.

For dessert, I loved the Turon De Bohol (Php 145) so much that we had to have it twice. It's got not one, not two, but five turon rolls with jackfruit and banana. If that's not enough, vanilla ice cream and nuts seal the deal. How do I describe it? Basta, masarap sya. Yun lang. Walang tatalo promise.

Another mentionable for those who love spicy foods but are in a budget is Spaghetti Aglio Olio, which is a simple spaghetti dish made of garlic, chili, and olive oil. It's so good that we didn't get to take a picture of it to think we ordered it twice. I warn you of the spice. Guaranteed you will need water here. Lots of it. Then pee later. The pasta they used here is fresh, so it's kinda curlier than the pasta we use at home.

Of course we couldn't taste all the dishes but so far, these are our favorites. The food's really good but their service is remarkable. During each meal, they ask you how your food is. They're very conscious as well for each client's personal concerns, like saying beforehand that all dressings contain patis (fish sauce) and/or anchovies. That, and a whole lot of nice stuff to see for yourself. :)

Must-Try: Ming's Halo Halo

En route home from Batangas, Mike, Nix, and EJ suggested to stop by this place for halo-halo. Although we were experiencing a bit of drizzle that time, it was still hot and we needed a bit of a cooler to lower the body temperature.

Along the highway to Tagaytay, this open-air restaurant is home to good halo-halo. It uses real carabao's milk so it's richer. To get here, from Sta. Rosa exit, just follow the road that leads to Tagaytay. Look for this sign. There you go.

Aside from carabao's milk and finely-shaven crushed ice (i.e. no tooth-crunching ice bits), this type of halo-halo contains all the goodies we find in halo-halo, minus the beans. Anyone with gout here? This halo-halo is for you. As for me, I've never been a fan of beans or garbanzos. I leave those out. I was lucky that this one is legume-free, so I was able to enjoy it, except for much of the milk part, since I'm lactose intolerant and full cream milk is one of the stuff that I avoid. I was able to consume finished the fillings down to the last piece. Good thing there was EJ to finish off the milk for me.

For less than 200 pesos, you get one serving. One tall glass is already good for 1 person, although some could opt to share, especially if you're not that hungry (but we were heheheh). Anyway, the catch though is this place closes early, especially on weekdays so best go here before 4 p.m., since according to Mike, the first time they went here they were a few minutes late from closing time.

Another must-try is the puto (I think it's around 28 pesos for 4 pieces) which they serve hot, in contrast with the halo-halo. Oh, and before leaving, this place is great for photo-ops as well, with the scenery.

Exotic Dishes abound

Location shoots for me are a chance for me not only to experience a new place, even if it's local or international. In last week's shoot, I had a chance to not only travel but experience a different kind of meal.

Exotik restaurant at Caliraya is known to serve exotic dishes, exotic meaning not your regular poultry, meat, or fish. But it's like you'll never guess until you eat it. For me, this was something new for me, since the most exotic thing I ever ate was uhm, well... isaw.

For a very basic start-up, I had fresh buko, served from the shell, with a spoon to pry the meat. I was told to put ice inside for a refreshing treat, since it was quite a hot day.

First dish that was served to us, which was a regular favorite, Crispy Pata. Since a horrid experience made me shun away from crispy pata, I skipped this, but my colleagues who still eat crispy pata adored this, diet begone and all.

Second dish looked like ordinary tapa.

Turns out, it was tapa, but not ordinary beef tapa, but Tapang Usa, or deer tapa. Funny, the concept was quite quasi-cannibalistic for me though (Bambi eating... err... a Bambi?) but I had to think deer, deer, deer. It was good though. The meat was softer than the tapa I usually have for breakfast, and a bit sweet. I went for seconds and thirds, and it really went well with the pinakbet.

This dish-happened to be Exotik Restaurant's bestseller -Ginataang Pating - shark meat this time. I'm really intrigued too, since I never had shark meat before, and shark's fin soup doesnt count. The coconut cream and ginger flavor masked the rather "fishy" shark meat taste but I like how it had little bones on the shark, or is that because it was deboned well (my comparative anatomy is quite rusty at this point to decipher the shark and bony fish's skeletal system comparison). It's basically the same like eating fish meat, with larger chunks. It's not tough at all, but not as melt-in-the-mouth as dory. It was good nevertheless, and this I enjoy with plain rice and Sinampalukang Manok soup on the side.

Other meat served in the restaurant are manta ray, duck, and eel, but we didn't have to try this too. I'm quite interested on the manta ray though, as I never thought of it as meal.

Aside from the food the restaurant is also a menagerie of birds and exotic animals. I saw a huge albino python that really caught my eye.

Beautiful, isn't she? Humongous too.

The hornbill is another character, I can't believe I'm seeing one eye to eye a creature I usually see on TV documentaries. It's so cute, it actually posed for the camera. :P Before I grew attached to it (having to tend to birds at home), I had to leave for the next location with the crew.

This restaurant is an adventure in itself, sight and taste. Plus I like the open-air atmosphere as well. Staff are friendly and they are there to answer your query, especially if you're new to exotic flair.