Happy Seafood and Fish Treats from Max's.

Dear Max's Chicken,

Although for forty days, I'd pass on the to-die-for Crispy Pata (literally to-die-for) and signature chicken, thank you so much for your seafood choices that you served to us last Monday. The rain and the chores I had at home didn't stop me. Although it was mainly Yeoh who egged me to go if I want to live to see the next day. Whaddya know? I didn't regret it.

Not only did the seafood/fish dishes make Lent less of a chore, but just in time for summer, when eating fresh yummy seafood reminds us of a beach picnic while we're in the concrete jungle.

Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet was a mixture of tasty and healthy. Before the guys took pictures, I already popped a bell pepper in my mouth so poor dish had to be angled. :P

Some are traumatized to eat bangus because a sliver of a fish bone is usually pried in the meat and you have to be OC and careful that no bone comes in contact with the esophagus. This one had nada tinik. Boneless bangus is really boneless. Yummy too even without the vinegar and atchara sidings.

My favorite would have to be a steaming hot pot of Sinigang na Hipon with crisp veggies, a hot, sour tamarind based broth, and bright orange crunchy shrimps. I love that this bowl wasn't stingy with shrimp. I'm a sucker for good shrimp, but these weren't crinkly, old, wrinkly tough shrimp. The shell could easily be peeled off the meat and it wasn't much effort to chuck out all the shells so I could devour them.

Guilty as charged!

Speaking of shrimp, another shrimp dish to behold is the Camaron Rebosado, which were shrimps (wheee) dipped in batter served with sweet and sour sauce. Sige na nga, hindi sya tempura. I thought it was tempura in the picture, but I forgot that tempura uses bread crumbs.

If anyone got hooked to the seafood bug and decided to sample out all the seafood dishes, be sure to get the special seafood fest frequency card, which rewards the bearer a Chicken-All-You-Can treat from Max's upon completion of all six stickers, which should be done in the time frame from March 8 to April 30, 2011.

I am totally serious on the Sinigang na Hipon and Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet that got me hauling seconds and thirds. So I think I know now where I'd be on Friday if I get too lazy to cook. :P

Yummy Tuesday Crispy Pata at Max's

I've heard of Max's Crispy being the favorite among those who go to Max's. A close second to the famous Max's fried chicken (if not a tie), this is also one that's always being ordered. For some reason and my personal experience, Max's at Tagaytay has this as their specialty. The richness of crispy pata goes and balances well with one of their bestsellers - sinigang -a steaming and sour soup with veggies in a tamarind base.

From January 20 to February 20, 2011, Max's has a promo called the Crispy Pata Feast, an affordable and perfectly planned set meal good for four with this bestseller. Last Tuesday, Max's invited a few of their blogger friends to taste test this at their Greenbelt 1 store.

First up, is the famous Crispy Pata served hot, steaming, and crisp.

This also comes with spices and sauce, which we ordered seconds as well. We love slathering the meat in sauce before pairing it up with a cup (and a half) of steamed rice and chasing that down with an ice-cold Pepsi glass. If your BP readings allow it, have some skin and fat as well. To totally wipe out the bone, you could split the two bones in half, since there's still meat wedged inside.

Since the Crispy Pata is fatty and rich, a hot bowl of Sinigang na Bangus would be a good accompaniment for this. You could either slurp this as a "warm up" for the stomach which would work hard. The tarty soup balances the richness of the Crispy Pata, and the bangus and veggies bring health to our diet too. As our gramma says, we should not miss our veggies, even with a sinful dish like this.

Buko Pandan for dessert? Why not!

This feast for 4 is quite affordable, costing Php865 for the whole thing. During the event, we were told that not only is it available for dine-in but you could order to go online by logging on to www.maxschicken.com to place orders online (yes, they accept credit cards).

Chicken-All-You Can Burpday with Max's (and new dishes too!)

Max's chicken has been iconic for almost all of us and I have yet to see someone who has not attended a birthday, baptism, wedding, and/or function in Max's. Their fried chicken paired with Jufran banana ketchup is treat to anyone and the meat is tender we have to keep coming back for more. Max's invited a few bloggers last week to celebrate with them as a way of saying "Thank You" for years of patronage. For that night, they resurrected the recently-concluded "Chicken All You Can" only for us. Yay! And who wouldn't resist to the limitless Max's fried Chicken?

I like Max's fried chicken fresh and juicy and piping hot as it arrives at my table.

The perfect companion to bottomless chicken is none other than banana ketchup. Would you believe that I finished 1/4 of the bottle for my first piece?

Yeoh first experienced Chicken-All-You-Can in his hometown in Naga. Rice would be our perfect companion to neutralize and desaturate our chicken. In moderate amounts of course.

After we stuffed ourselves with chicken, this is what's left of the pieces. They're not called sarap to the bones for no reason. Combined, we do not reveal how much Max's chicken we had.

Aside from treating the bloggers to Chicken All You Can, Max's also introduced to us two of their new dishes. First up is binagoongang baboy with manggang hilaw shreds on top. It wasn't too salty and I like the contrast the manggang hilaw gives. In fact, I'm glad there's manggang hilaw in the first place. What's bagoong without that, come on? The thought of manggang hilaw and bagoong makes me want to get the nearest green mango.

Another dish is their chicken caldereta. Caldereta got me smiling from ear-to-ear. I can't cook the dish from scratch but I love it and I would go to anyone who could cook a mean spicy pot of it and thank that person for lifting the sunshine notch a good ten miles. This caldereta is no exception and with Max's chicken, I had to keep lunging for this and Yeoh had to stop me.

Group photo-op, as you could see, all the bloggers are happy, full, and content.

It was a happy birthday for Max's Restaurant and with the banana ketchup bottle almost empty (I prefer soaking my chicken in ketchup and chili), I left with a happy smile too. (Note to self: Vegan for two days) . Thanks Max's for celebrating your birthday with us.