My Weekend in the Weekend Markets

Hello 2013!

This is my post for 2013! I'm really glad that I finally snatched some time to do blogging. I know I have mentioned this a thousand times that I'm not feeling inspired to cook nor to even take photos. But I'm happy to say that this weekend I got in the mood to take photos.

First things first. I love farmers organic markets that opens only on weekends. I get to find hard to find produce, plus they are all organic. I go there almost every week, to either to shop or just look around for something interesting and then eat with friends. But I never took photos in all the years I've spent going there. So I did some last Saturday:

 L: My "must buy" in the market. I love jackfruit! R: A young girl looking at the cotton candies.

Fruit stall that sells tropical fruits.

The same fruit stall also sell freshly roasted chestnuts.

This vegetable stall  I think is the biggest stall of vegetables in the market. They got almost all of the veggies I'm always on the look out for. However, I recently lost my fondness of buying my stuff here because they are too pricey in my opinion, after buying I felt like robbed :P;  they are always crowded; they sometimes say different prices for their produce, I guess because they get confused and can't focus due to a lot of buyers; and this weekend, they forgot to put my cherry tomatoes in my grocery bag, and unfortunately realized it when I was already home - i had to buy it again today. Long story how it happened and not exactly their fault because I could have checked, but I was absent minded. I guess the bottom line is they are just quite a bit unorganized when they get crowded.

This is the first stall you'll see in the entrance. These kiat-kiat shrubs(?) look adorable. Kiat-kiat is also known as mandarin.

So this was my Saturday. On Sunday I went to Legaspi farmer's market, which basically the same as this, but only more options in the produce, and more diverse food selection, arts and crafts. In summary, I ended up with a lot of fresh produce that's resting now in my fridge. I went crazy with cherry tomatoes though:

The left most is the most common tomato size. The second one was the cherry tomatoes I'm used to. However, the last one was just super cute I can't resist, I must buy! It reminds me of alatires.

Cherry "alatires" tomatoes up close.   (segeway : I used Fuji finepix X10 in this photograph, not bad for a compact camera, eh?)

So since I have so much cherry tomatoes, it has to go first in the menu.

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Sunday Lunch at Sonya's Secret Garden

Sonya's Garden, a place I consider very special, a place I would go back to over and over again. I have shared so many special moments with my friends and loved ones in this place, and over the years, it has not disappointed me. It's a long drive from the city but the trip is always worth it. Well, at least the trip going there. I don't really appreciate the trip going back because I just hated the bad traffic conditions there on the weekends.

Sonya's garden is sort of a retreat place. They have a huge land covered in lush vegetation, where people are free to explore. There's bed and breakfast, a spa, country store, bakery, and their famous restaurant that I noticed they have expanded. They have a number of dine-in rooms now that can cater for events, as well as just people who'd like to dine. The restaurant looks sort of a huge green house, filled with beautiful colorful chandeliers, Hispanic and native interior. Tables are dressed with delicate embroidered cloths. The ambiance is just healthy and relaxing. The food they serve is all organic. They grow their own vegetables! How about that? They have a la carte menu, but the most famous is their set menu where both meat lovers and vegetarians can enjoy!

1. The first course is salad. It is served with a collection of organically grown green and leafy vegetables, various salad toppings - all refillable. You can eat as much as you can. Toppings were consisted of mango, turnip, melon, mushroom pate, sliced black olives, white cheese, chopped hard boiled egg, anchovies, and a sort of tapenade. The dressing they serve tasted like ceasar dressing.


2. I arranged my salad and kinda like the taste of this green rounded leaves. Unfortunately, I don't know what it's called.


3. The main course is pasta served also with different topping and sauce. They serve 2 sauces; tomato based red sauce and creamy chicken white sauce. It comes with capers, ratatouille, black olives, shiitake mushrooms, and the famous salmon belly.


4. We had 2 servings of salmon belly since my friends are just crazy about it.


5. The desserts were bite size turon (banana wrapped in lumpia wrapper and then deep fried), sweet potato, and the yummy (my favorite) chocolate cake. It is served with taragon tea.

And before I forget, they serve fresh dalandan juice!

After lunch we took a lot of photos in the area, bough some goodies in their country store and bakery, and then left with a full stomach. Every year I visit this place. I just wish that the traffic condition there improves soon as I'd like to go often. I don't mind the long drive.

Oh, and I brought home a souvenir (it's not a cat) that i'll tell you about soon.

Stomachs full and just enjoying our dessert

Some nice area in the secret garden.

Look what I found! A thirsty cat with a class. Isn't it cute?

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Brunch at Wee Nam Kee

We finally got to try Wee Nam Kee on Tuesday, a Singaporean food chain that I hear so much about every so often. It's just at Ayala Triangle Park, about 10 minutes walk from our condo. Miker, a friend of mine, who's also been raving about the food they serve in this place, mentioned that it's always busy in this restaurant. It takes about 30-40 minutes of waiting time before you can sit down and eat, and that there's always a line up. In short, it was in demand. Luckily, there were hardly people when we came in. It's probably the less hectic hour so it wasn't as close to what he described.

Hearing these things built up my expectations, I must say. And I wasn't quite wowed. Not sure, maybe I'm just so used to Chinese food and has been to numerous Chinese food joint of different classes that I didn't go too crazy about Wee Nam Kee. A lot of people may object, but it's as good as my good old North Park and Tianenmen, minus the oil. Don't get me wrong, the food was fine. I guess I'm just a victim of over marketing that I expected some sort of food orgasm and didn't get it.

Here's a run down of the foodies I tried:

This is Wee Nam Kee's famous roasted Haianese chicken, single serving. The chicken is tender and tasty, it goes perfect with their ginger side sauce.

Baby Kailan leaves in garlic sauce. It was a bit different from the picture in their menu as I was expecting some sort of green buds/flowers. This one is also pretty good. I love the fact that they didn't drown it in sauce like how North Park would prepare it.

Cereal Prawns, Wee Nam Kee's signature dish. The breading reminded me of Ceralac, an infant snack. I must say I totally dig the crumbs. I was more interested in it than the prawns hehe.

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A Day at Little Tokyo

Outdoor dining at Little Tokyo. I love sun.

My #1 must have when in a Japanese resto. Most of my friends don't like it, but I am totally crazy for it!

This is my #2 must have, gyoza.

Takoyaki, the vegetable ball :P

The bento box filled our hungry tummies.

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A Visit to Chef's Table

Mark took me out for a dinner date last Saturday at Chef's Table in the Fort Bonifacio, Global City. We used the Valentine's day as an excuse to have a 5-course dinner in this quite popular restaurant. Chef's Table is owned by a quite famous chef in the city, Chef Bruce Lim, who I knew from a food show on the Asian Food Channel. Anyways, here's a short summary of our dining experience.

I was welcomed with a single pink rose, super nice :).

Checked the set menu for Valentine's Day.

Chili on this yummy cocktail, very interesting. That's my date btw, distracting me.

Shellfish and seafood explosion in coconut-lemon grass soup. Super yummy!

It's actually a set of four food samplers but I didn't take photo of the balut dish because it's not that photogenic and I don't eat it. This was also where the picture taking stopped. I was starving.

The food were great and was very pleased with the taste. I have a ridiculous obsession with salt, but I never needed one in this meal. The taste is just perfect. What I was trying to figure out during our dinner was that the set menu didn't seem fit for a dinner date. The menu have shellfish and crab as main course, something that I will never order if I'm out on a date with a prospect lover/boyfriend. If you can remove an oyster, a clam, or a mussel from its shell with a fork and a knife without touching the shell and not making a big mess, then it's not a problem. Thing is, girls will be girls. On a date (a potential bf that I like big time), I'd normally order something that's easy to eat. Not necessarily to eat like a bird, but just something that's not messy. Girls can get tensed specially when they are out with someone they like, and of course, we want to impress and make the evening perfect. What more if you'll eat crab? lots of squeezing and digging in and finger licking action. I squirted crab sauce (whatever it is called) on my face twice trying to crush it to get to the meat. Luckily, I was with my husband-to-be and we were already over that impress/get impressed, turn offs and ons stage hah.

After the delicious meal, I realized that the menu does actually fit, may not exactly for teeny dates, but for Valentine's day. Everything was an aphrodisiac, from the soup down to dessert. Plus, touching food (with clean hands please) is quite intimate and seductive. How could I miss that (well, I was hungry and couldn't think right)?

Anyways,I wasn't quite wowed by the dark chocolate panna cotta. I'm not really big on desserts, but it's quite chewy for a panna cotta. Also, it was quite weird that they served my main course when I wasn't done with my appetizer yet. Not really a biggie, but the table was quite small to accommodate 2 big plates on one side at a time. The dessert was also served a few minutes after serving the main course. It's not also a big deal, but I would want to have my panna cotta to be nice and chilled :). We also ordered a cocktail that never came, then found out after 20 minutes that something broke in their system that caused our cocktail order to not reach the bartender. Doh!

Well, maybe it was just a busy evening.

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