Tastebuds

Tazza Cafe

We had the chance to eat at Tazza Cafe, located at Ma. Clara, for my mom’s treat for her birthday. My cousin told me the story of how my aunt found this place. My uncle and three aunts were on their way home when it rained really hard and the streets have become flooded. My uncle urged the driver to proceed straight ahead and that’s when they were met with the flood on the road. Water washed inside the vehicle. Luckily, they found Tazza Cafe where there is a carwash service just beside it. They stayed in the Tazza Cafe while waiting for the flood to subside.

My other cousin was just telling us about the spa located at the second floor of Tazza cafe, and voila we visited this place, well to eat. : )

The food here is pretty good. The Nachos with spinach sauce dip is a good appetizer. I spotted some enticing menu items and I was choosing between chicken or pork. My cousin ordered porkchop ala pobre (I’m not sure if this is the exact name) and so I chose that as well. It was really good with lots of onions 🙂 It was really good or I was easily satisfied. But I was happy with lunch then. The food took longer to serve but it was okay, probably they only have one cook at the time. They serve breakfast all day long with drinks (choices of coffee or blended iced tea).

Happy Lemon

We finally tried Happy Lemon, which is a famous milk tea brand in Hong Kong and offers many flavors. There was a queue when we arrived and the place was filled with people. I didn’t know what to order but I tried the Milk Tea with Taro. It was good but I suddenly missed the ones I’ve tasted in Taiwan. My sister ordered Roasted Milk Tea (without the pearl sago; we don’t like the bubbles so if we order, we say one bubble milk tea without the bubbles or pearl milk tea without the pearls). It tasted like the Gong Cha, a milk tea chain in Taiwan but also franchised in Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries. Later, we found out that the one with Rock Salt Cheese are the recommended and must-try drinks in Happy Lemon.

Mien San

The word has been going around about eating here. I remember passing by this place several times before it was renovated. They just had a small door leading to the restaurant then and the design is not as catchy as it is now. My cousin told me that we should eat there some time, she had tried dining there and the spicy beef noodles is really good. My aunt wanted to treat us here for dinner (if there’s a parking space available) and it’s a good thing that Chooks to Go allowed us to park at their space. Surprisingly, it just took us 15 minutes to eat. I glanced at my watch and it was just 7pm when our orders arrived, but at 7:15 we’re already done. We ordered the Spicy Beef Tendon Noodles as recommended both by my cousin and my aunt. I just shared with my sister since one order is pretty big. We also ordered one onion pancakes. The noodles is really good, really fine and smooth, not that full compared to other noodle-houses. And according to my sister’s friend who is from China, the soup is very delicious, 很到味.

The price was much expensive than we expected but the serving is big so it was okay. We have tried noodles at Lan Zhou La Mien that cost just 100 pesos (before 80 then 90 pesos) and the serving is really big, but my aunt doesn’t prefer this noodle because it’s very heavy in the stomach.

I think it is an advantage to renovate stores or reorganize when given the chance because it renews the brand and the ambiance at the same time. Like when Delifrance was changed to Cafe France, they made new promotions of CF and people are refreshed with the new look.

Chooks to Go!

Roasted chicken which doesn’t need gravy… The smell is very inviting every time we pass by a Chooks to go stall. But watching all those chicken makes you think of the number of chickens sacrificed, well my sister told me this. I remember when we attended a birthday party, and they served fried pigeons as a typical dish in the Chinese cuisine. And as I was about the eat, my brother and sister asked me if I heard the birds chirping. Yes, I did. It made it harder to eat the pigeons with their repetitive reminders of the sound. There was a magic show then and of course the pigeon part was featured. I was wondering if it was that pigeon, but they said it’s some other bird which probably got inside the restaurant. Oh well, I did finished the food despite the guilt trip.

The roasted chicken is tender and juicy, but I think the ones we had was not cooked enough because the surface is not that golden brown on all sides yet. We had the chance to cook roasted Rosemary chicken before and it’s really good if it’s nicely cooked on all parts. It’s also tasty even when we’re not professional cooks (amateur ones really), it took us the whole day but we enjoyed preparing the dishes for dinner then.

Conti’s

On mom’s birthday, we ate dinner at Conti’s. My brother recommended this, since they have also tried this when they had catering services in their company. This was also the one that my aunt wants us to try before but didn’t got the chance to. The food was really good and they offer a lot of choices not just pastries. My sister and I had Chicken Salpicao and shared one strawberry yoghurt shake. I think we also ate real quick then, not in a hurry, but probably hungry.

It suddenly rained really hard when we went out, good thing my sister had her hooded jacket even when we didn’t have umbrellas with us. My brother borrowed it to fetch the car as we wait at the covered walk.

I’m grateful for the opportunities to try out new restaurants that is not on our usual list and am looking forward for our next food adventures…