IT really looked and felt like Christmas when Museum Café, also known as M Café, and its sister restaurant Kabila launched its Christmas menu recently. After all, M Café, located at Greenbelt, was all dressed in holiday style, with glittering lights and holiday accents all over the place, including the long table for media; a group of carolers came and rendered beautiful Christmas songs for guests to enjoy; and the food was a-plenty and so good. Chef Kalel Chan must have served 14 festive holiday dishes that covered everything from appetizer to dessert.
Museum Cafe corporate chef Kalel Chan
Carolers set the holiday mood at M Cafe
Jamon & Queso Plate
M Café and Kabila actually offer two Menu Sets designed for six people and two Menu Sets that can serve 10 people, but all these menus start with Jamon & Queso Plate, which has pineapple glazed ham with queso de bola, mini pan de sal crostini, calamansi honey and sugar coated cashew nuts served on a wooden chopping board.
Ensaladang Kabila
There’s also Ensaladang Kabila, which is a delicious combination of ripe mango and green mango, turnips, guapple, pomelo, tomato salsa, salted egg and pili nuts tossed in calamansi dressing and served with M bagoong on the side.
Fresh Lumpia
The Fresh Lumpia turned out to be a feast for the eyes, because the stir-fried palm hearts, carrots, pork and shrimp filing was wrapped in a lattice-type egg wrapper and not the usual plain flour lumpia wrapper or egg wrapper. The lattice-type lumpia wrapper was see-through, so you can, well, yes, see the filling inside. It’s served with ground peanuts with sugar, garlic water and muscovado sauce.
Fried Kangkong Crisps
Also not to be missed is the crunchy Fried Kangkong Crisps, which is crispy kangkong leaves with squash flower served with smoked milkfish dip.
Halaan Soup
For the soup, there’s Halaan Soup. The clams are so fresh that you can actually taste its full flavor in the soup alone. Plus, it’s cooked in lemongrass, so imagine the flavor of lemongrass melding with the taste of fresh clams. This one is a winner by itself.
Gindara Mayonessa
Another seafood classic, Lapu-Lapu Mayonessa, has been given a different twist by Chef Kalel. He used gindara instead. So he calls his version Gindara Mayonessa, which is baked gindara fillet topped with mayonnaise, chopped boiled eggs, capsicums, relish and onion.
Grilled Chicken Inasal
Lengua Estofado
Chorizo Callos
Kabila Porchetta
Seafood Kare-Kare
For the main event, M Café and Kabila’s Christmas offerings are very impressive — Grilled Chicken Inasal (grilled chicken marinated in lemongrass-annatto oil, served with chicken oil on a smoking hot lava stone, with papaya atchara on the side), Lengua Estofado (on tongue stew cooked in tomato sauce, olives, mushrooms and cream), Chorizo Callos (ox tripe and pork hock stew with Spanish chorizo, chickpeas and tomatoes), Kabila Porchetta (pork belly roll stuffed with lemongrass, tamarind leaves and garlic, slow roasted until crisp), and Seafood Kare-Kare (assorted seafood, banana heart and other veggies in peanut sauce, served with bagoong dip).
Other options on the Christmas Set Menus include Smoked Bangus Crispy Fried Lumpiang Togue (fried spring rolls stuffed with beansprouts, smoked milkfish, carrots and French beans), Smoked Bangus Salad (cherry tomatoes, cashew nuts, Laguna white cheese, salted egg, milkfish crumbs on Romaine lettuce with smoked milkfish), Chicken Galantina (roasted chicken stuffed with pork, raisins, cranberries, cheddar and capsicums), BBQ Pork sa Tabi-Tabi (grilled pork skewers with homemade barbecue sauce and papaya atchara), Pinaputok na Labahita (deep-fried labahita fish with tomato salsa, salted eggs, green papaya atchara and calamansi dressing). All these are served with Pandan Rice, hot steamed rice scented with pandan leaves.
Ube Tres Leches
Brazo de Calamansi
And dessert? There are four desserts to enjoy this holiday season: Salted Egg and Queso Bibingka (local rice cake with salted eggs and queso de bola), Ube Tres Leches (purple yam chiffon cake soaked in three kinds of milk and topped with desiccated coconut), Buko Pandan (pandan jelly, buko shreds, tapioca on coconut cream plus macapuno ice cream and melon shreds), and Brazo de Calamansi (burnt meringue cake with calamansi curd filling instead of the usual custard filling of classic Brazo de Mercedes).
(Museum Café and Kabila Filipino Bistro are located at the Ayala Museum Complex, Makati Ave. corner De La Rosa St., Makati City; with telephone numbers 757-3000 and 757-6000.)
HOW would you like Wild Mushroom Truffle Pasta, Bone Marrow Foie Gras Burger, Bagnet with Thai Sauce, Tenderloin with Spiced Taro, Stuffed Squid with Black Ink Rice, or Paella Negra for your lunch or dinner?
Sounds delicious? They are. These ‘gourmet’ dishes, concocted by talented chef Marco Legasto for Twenty Two Jupiter Bistro Bar, are inspired by international favorites enjoyed by Filipinos but given a different twist to marry the familiar and the unique. The Bagnet with Thai Sauce (Php400), for example, offers the all-time favorite Ilocano crispy pork dish but, at Twenty Two Jupiter, it is served with Thai sauce, which is not usually done. Steaks are usually accompanied by mashed potato and buttered vegetables, but for its Tenderloin with Spiced Taro (Php670), Twenty Two Jupiter pairs it with spiced taro or gabi leaves, which is better known as laing, and potato chips. And Bone Marrow Foie Gras Burger (Php500)? You’ve probably never heard bulalo and duck liver being combined to make a sinfully gourmet burger!
Tenderloin with Spiced Taro
Bone Marrow Foie Gras Burger
Such interesting dishes form part of the lunch and dinner menu of Twenty Two Jupiter, a new restaurant located at — yes, you guessed it right! — 22 Jupiter St., Bel-Air, Makati City, which is the stretch of Jupiter St. that is near EDSA. Opening its doors to the dining public last August, 2014, the 60-seater restaurant is owned by a group of 12 businessmen who are constantly looking for a place to go to after work, a place where people can talk, enjoy good food with good drinks mixed with a little entertainment.
A bistro bar, Twenty Two Jupiter is a restaurant by day and a bar and watering hole with live entertainment by night. It serves lunch and dinner, boasting of a surprisingly extensive menu teeming with very interesting items. It has a lunch menu, some set menus to choose from at an affordable Php240 per set menu (*you just need to add Php200 if you want soup and dessert of Rum Cake with Butter Dulce Gatas Sauce or Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing to go with it), appetizers, main courses, desserts, and, of course, a full range of beer, cocktails, single malt, whisky, rum, gin, vodka, tequila, other liquors, and red and white wines by shots or bottles.
Rum Cake with Butter Dulce Gatas Sauce
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
The menu offers Filipino favorites, such as Goat Kaldereta (Php480); Spanish dishes, like Lengua Estofado (Php450), Slow-cooked Ox Tripe and Tail (Php380) and Paella Negra (Php650); Asian staples, including Hainan Chicken (Php280), Korean Beef Stew (Php390), Seafood Malaysian Laksa (Php290), Chicken Tikka Marsala (Php 380) and Lamb Rendang (Php485); Italian selections, like Wild Mushroom Truffle Pasta (Php420) and Italian Beef Stew (Php380); and a host of steaks, such as Rib Eye Steak (Php2,000 for 300 grams and Php2,500 for 500 grams), Tomahawk Steak 1 kg. (Php3,800) and T-bone Steak 1000g (Php4,000).
Slow-cooked Ox Tripe and Tail
Paella Negra
Hainan Chicken
Lamb Rendang
Wild Mushroom Truffle Pasta
Even its appetizer menu includes yummy treats — Four-cheese Croquetas (Php300), Chorizo and Saffron Shrimp Gambas (Php350), Nachos with Chorizo Cheese (Php290), Truffle Popcorn (Php250), Seared Tuna (Php350), Jalapeño Pops (Php290), Scallops with Foie Gras and Mushroom (Php550), Crab Cakes (Php350), Baked Oysters (Php380) and French Mussels in Mediterranean Spices (Php290), among others.
Appetizers galore, from top: Four-cheese Croquetas / Scallop with Foie Gras and Mushroom / Seared Tuna / Jalapeno Pop
Chorizo and Saffron Shrimp Gambas
Nachos with Chorizo Cheese
By around 9:30 p.m., Twenty Two Jupiter transforms into a bar with live entertainment, with dim lights, a relaxed and cozy atmosphere, good company, and good food. “Guests are actually surprised because there are very few bars that actually have good food. They’re normally just used to bar chow,” says Twenty Two Jupiter president Vince Tanjutco.
And while there are only a few parking slots in front of the bistro bar, street parking is allowed in the evening and arrangements have been made for parking slots at Buendia Car Exchange, which is just across the street.
A resto by day and a bar by night, Twenty Two Jupiter rocks.
(Twenty Two Bistro Bar is located at 22 Jupiter St., Bel-Air, Makati City; with telephone number 556-7097. It is open from Monday to Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. onwards.)
SM Hypermarket’s The Best Pinoy Street Food 2014 grand champion Jose Nestor Guevara II receiving his prizes from celebrity chef Boy Logro and SM Hypermarket store manager Angelo Nazareno
AFTER going through several grueling cook-offs, lugaw and barbecue stall owner Jose Nestor ‘Jones’ S. Guevara II of Las Piñas emerged as the grand champion of SM Hypermarket’s Best Pinoy Street Food 2014 cooking competition.
The Grand Finals of the cooking competition took place at SM Hypermarket Cubao on November 28. The 10 finalists, representing their own branches of SM Hypermarket, faced off one more time in two rounds of competitions, with challenges posed by celebrity chef Pablo ‘Boy’ Logro.
The first round of competitions during the Grand Finals saw the 10 finalists being paired off into five teams to see how well they can work together and whip up delicious meals as teams. Chef Boy’s challenge was for the five teams to prepare a unique and delicious noodle dish, with planning, grocery shopping, cooking and plating to be done in one hour’s time.
The 10 semi-finalists with event hosts Tess Bomb (extreme left) and Papa Dan (extreme right) and celebrity chef Boy Logro (center), from left: Harrison Arcilla, Maricon Luares, Eloisa Cabrales, Merly Co, Jose Nestor Guevara II, Hercules Umali, Pacita Limjoco, Mark Steven Loresca, Madel Lopez and Jose Alejandro Cruz
Group 1: Maricon Luares and Harrison Arcilla
Group 2: Merly Co and Hercules Umali
Group 3: Pacita Limjoco and Mark Steven Loresca
Group 4: Jose Nestor Guevara II and Eloisa Cabrales
Group 5: Jose Alejandro Cruz and Madel Lopez
The teams — Harrison Arcilla (SM Hypermarket Clark) and Ma. Concepcion ‘Maricon’ Luares (Cainta) as Group 1, Hercules Umali (SM North EDSA) and Merly Dulay Co (Adriatico) as Group 2, Mark Steven Loresca (Muntinlupa) and Pacita Limjoco (Bicutan) as Group 3, Jose Nestor ‘Jones’ Guevara II (Sucat Lopez) and Eloisa Cabrales (Batangas) as Group 4, and Jose Alejandro ‘Sandok’ Cruz (Baliwag) and Madel Lopez (Rosales) as Group 5 — were all able to do that.
Tasting their noodle creations and giving them scores were not just Chef Boy and the Board of Judges composed of Chef Niño Logarta of CDO, Chef Paulo Sia of Unilever Philippines, Chef John Volley of Purefoods and food blogger Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet, but also a hundred other people in attendance. Their votes were counted and emerging as the Top Two teams were Groups 2 and 4. So, emerging as the Final Four based on the noodle challenge were Hercules Umali of Star-BAKS Sizzling and Frappe in Quezon City (SM North EDSA), Merly Dulay Co of Merly’s Gotohan in Pasay (Adriatico), Jose Nestor Guevara II of Lola Ebeng’s Lugawan & BBQ-han in Las Piñas (Sucta Lopez) and Eloisa Cabrales of Cab’s Burgeria in Batangas (Batangas).
The four semi-finalists who advanced to the grand finals, from left: Merly Co, Hercules Umali, Jose Nestor Guevara II and Eloisa Cabrales
The winning noodle dish of Umali and Co
The winning noodle dish of Guevara and Cabrales
It was time to go solo once again for the final round of competitions. Chef Boy brought out a plateful of his signature Crepe Surprise, a savory seafood crepe, and had the four grand finalists take a look at it and then taste it. The ultimate challenge was for them to replicate the dish and give it their own take within 30 minutes. This time, it was just Chef Boy and the Board of Judges who decided on the grand winner and, after much discussion and deliberation, Jose Nestor ‘Jones’ Guevara II emerged as the grand champion of SM Hypermarket’s The Best Pinoy Street Food 2014 cooking challenge.
Hercules Umali whips up his own crepe
Hercules Umali’s crepe
Merly Co doing her best
Merly Co’s own version of Chef Boy’s crepe
Jose Nestor Guevara worked calmly on his crepe
Jose Nestor Guevara II’s winning crepe
Eloisa Cabrales worked fast and finished first in the final round
Eloisa Cabrales’ version of the crepe
“Elementary pa lang, magaling na akong mangopya. Marami kaming street food vendors, pero dito (Best Pinoy Street Food), naipakita namin ang galing namin sa pagluluto, na ang kalidad ng pagkain namin ay di nalalayo ang lasa sa mamahalin,” says Guevara, who took home a prize package worth over Php100,000, including an SM Prestige Card loaded with 50,000 points, large food packs, ingredients, cooking equipment courtesy of SM Hypermarket’s Food Service Center.
*(“Back in elementary school, I was already a good copier. There’s plenty of us street food vendors, but here (Best Pinoy Street Food), we were able to show our skills in cooking and prove that the quality of the food we cook isn’t really far from gourmet dishes.”)
The four grand finalists with the Board of Judges, which included food blogger Anton Diaz, Chef Boy Logro, Chef Nino Logarta and Chef John Volley
Guevara is also set to run his own food stall at SM Hypermarket, rent-free for a year, as part of his prizes. His small food business, Ebeng’s Lugawan and BBQ-han, occupies the garage of his family’s house in Las Piñas and is named after his mom. Since the church stood right in front of his house, his clientele is composed of parish personnel and church-goers. It’s open only on weekends to cater to this market, and so he is on the lookout for other ways to earn a living. As grand champion of The Best Pinoy Street Food 2014, he now gets the opportunity to operate a food stall at SM Hypermarket without having to worry about rent for a year.
Other sponsors were Purefoods Funstuff Nuggets, Tender Juicy Hotdog, Fiesta Ham, Crisp n’ Juicy, Star Chickn’ Tasty Hotdog, Thick Cut Bacon, Unilever Food Solutions, Nestle All Purpose Cream, Maggi, Knorr, Bounty Fresh Chicken, Bibbo Hotdog, Bibbo Cheesedog, CDO Ulam Burger, Funstastik Young Pork Tocino, Del Monte, P&G and Joy.
Europe and America’s favorite biscuit with coffee is now available in Manila
THERE’S no better way to enjoy a cup of hot, freshly brewed coffee than with bites of deliciously crunchy Lotus Biscoff caramelized biscuits.
This is why Lotus Biscoff cookies have been Europe’s coffee break favorite since 1932. In 1985, it became America’s favorite cookie with air travel when it was introduced as an in-flight treat that made long flights and multiple connections much more bearable and enjoyable. It became a welcome mid-flight break that reminded airline passengers of the comforts of home and therefore helped them relax. It is being offered with coffee or tea in Delta Air Lines (United States), Brussels Airlines (Belgium), Middle East Airlines (Lebanon) and El Al (Israel). Last year, in the U.S. alone, more than 90 million Lotus Biscoff cookies were consumed.
Known as “The In-flight Treat,” Lotus Biscoff caramelized cookies are a great accompaniment for coffee because of their unique taste, which comes from the sugar’s caramelization during the baking process. A hint of cinnamon and other spices add a special twist and flavor to Lotus Biscoff cookies.
Lotus Biscoff caramelized biscuits and spreads
Chef Patrice Freuslon and Vicky Veloso-Barrera’s delicious bites made with Lotus Biscoff biscuits and spreads are presented during the launch
Vicky Veloso-Barrera’s Mini Biscoff Cupcakes
Now, Europe and America’s favorite cookie to go with coffee has landed on Philippine shores. It was formally launched over coffee and bites at the posh Society Lounge in Makati City. The place was set up to look like airline counters manned by attendants who greeted ‘passengers’ for check-in. Allegro Beverage Corporation served overflowing coffee, while Society Lounge’s renowned French chef Patrice Freuslon served up an array of delicious dishes infused with Biscoff biscuits and spreads along with savory pasta and creamy soup in shot glasses. Also presented were Biscoff Creations made not just by Chef Patrice but also by the Tiny Kitchen’s Vicky Veloso-Barrera using Biscoff products. Biscoff ladies, dressed like flight attendants, presented Veloso-Barrera’s Mini Biscoff Cinnamon Rolls, Mini Biscoff Cupcakes and Crazy Biscoff Parfait along with Chef Patrice’s own mini bites.
Bart Bauwens, general manager, International Distributors, Lotus Bakeries-Belgium
Emie San Beda, product manager for Lotus Biscoff, Fly Ace Corporation
Hosted by TV personality Daphne Oseña-Paez, the Lotus Biscoff launch was also graced by Bart Bauwens, general manager, International Distributors, Lotus Bakeries-Belgium; and Emie San Beda, Lotus Biscoff product manager, Fly Ace Corporation.
Incidentally, Fly Ace Corporation is the exclusive distributor of Lotus Biscoff products in the Philippines.
Lotus Biscoff’s Original Caramelized Biscuit is now available in 125g, 250g, 1.875kg., 156g, 124g, 500g packs and in Lotus Biscoff Original Caramelized Biscuit Twinpack Innerbox 20x25g packs in all leading supermarkets. Also now available in Manila are Lotus Biscoff spreads in Smooth 400g and Crunchy 380g variants. These sweet and creamy European spreads are an alternative to nut butters and chocolate spreads and are made with original Biscoff cookies. Aside from spreading them on bread or toast, it can be mixed with fruit slices or added as a secret ingredient to your favorite recipes, yes, even savory ones. Both the Biscoff biscuit and the spread are made with no artificial colors or preservatives and have zero transfat per serving and zero cholesterol, too.
25-layered Tonkatsu from Kimukatsu comes in seven flavor variants
SITUATED right in the heart of Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Bonifacio High Street is becoming more and more popular as a dining destination to go to and a new gimmick place to be at. There are just so many restaurants and bars to choose from that even if you’re at Bonifacio High Street every day, you won’t run out of new places to dine at and gimmick places to try with friends and colleagues. Adding to its charm are sprawling open spaces and gardens, so you don’t feel ‘suffocated’ by a concrete jungle. The restaurants and bars also offer different cuisines and dining concepts so you get a different vibe when you visit each of them.
You can even go food-tripping with family or friends.
The Bonifacio High Street Food Crawl was curated by food blogger Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet and hosted by RJ Ledesma of Mercato Centrale
Just recently, Bonifacio High Street presented its newest and most exciting dining concepts by hosting the Bonifacio High Street Food Crawl, as curated by food blogger Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet and hosted by Mercato Centrale’s co-founder and organizer RJ Ledesma. It involved six new dining concepts — The Wholesome Table, Village Tavern, Cue Modern Barbecue, Tampopo, Kimukatsu and Wolf & Fox GastroPub — so at a rate of two to three dishes per restaurant and with six restaurants involved, by the time the Food Crawl was over, everyone was almost ready to literally crawl home.
THE WHOLESOME TABLE
A dining concept put together by health advocate Bianca Elizalde and businessman-restaurateur husband Juan Elizalde, this new restaurant advocates healthy eating and takes great pains in making eating healthy more appealing even to the younger generation, who generally simply go for what they like to eat, be it healthy or not. It does this by using natural and organic ingredients sourced from local farmers who do things right in their respective farms. Its meats come from happy cows that have been allowed to graze on fields and eat grass, pigs that had space to wiggle around, and chicken that got to forage on the earth.
The food at The Wholesome Table — which make use of ingredients that are antibiotic free, nitrate free, unprocessed, raw, fresh, organic, cold-pressed and superfood — espouse the farm-to-table concept. It is comfort food that allows diners to go back to basics, to familiar and comforting dishes that they grew up with but made more healthy. It’s good, light and healthy food without sacrificing taste.
The Wholesome Table at Bonifacio High Street Central serves healthy dishes
Enlightened Bowl (The Wholesome Table)
Organic Mushroom Fritters (The Wholesome Table)
The Barcelona Pizza (The Wholesome Table)
Wholesome Mojito (The Wholesome Table)
For the Bonifacio High Street Food Crawl, The Wholesome Table offered the Enlightened Bowl (Php320), a salad platter of brown rice, nori, mixed seeds, lettuce, cucumber, pickled onion and avocado in ginger dressing, topped with fried tofu, shiitake mushrooms and pea sprouts; Organic Mushroom Fritters (Php320), breaded balls made with mushrooms; The Barcelona Pizza (Php690), a Spanish-inspired pizza with tomato sauce, turkey chorizo, shiitake mushrooms, roasted garlic, fresh mozzarella and Grana Padano; and Wholesome Mojito (Php120), a non-alcoholic drink combining Spirulina, Chlorella, honey and mint).
VILLAGE TAVERN
Village Tavern at Bonifacio High Street Central is the first branch of Village Tavern outside of the United States. It originates from North Carolina, with a Filipina as corporate executive chef, and offers classic American food with elevated twists, using only the finest ingredients and freshest produce to create delicious and inventive American dishes.
Village Tavern serves American cuisine
Roasted Bone Marrow with Sourdough Beer Bread (Village Tavern)
Flank Steak (Village Tavern)
Black Pizza (Village Tavern)
Some of its most popular dishes are indulgent selections on the menu, such as Roasted Bone Marrow with Sourdough Beer Bread (Php350), which is best eaten by scooping the bone marrow paste on toasted bread slices, like a pate, then topping with parsley and taking a bite; Flank Steak (Php595), prepared using Certified Angus Beef or CAB; and Black Pizza (Php475), with squid ink incorporated into the dough to give it a dark, charcoal-like hue. Really interesting!
CUE MODERN BARBECUE
Cue Modern Barbecue, also located at Bonifacio High Street Central, redefines the concept of barbecue with its “long, low fire and slow cooking process” of preparing food. The Moment Group of Restaurants’ first venture in 2012, it has a menu made up of heirloom recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation, using homemade rubs, marinades and sauces on top quality meats and other ingredients.
Cue serves gourmet burgers, such as Cue Burger (a 6oz. house blend, rib eye patty, with mozzarella and smoked Provolone cheeses, chorizo slices, arugula with a slap of red wine barbecue sauce on butter grilled buns), The Wine & Coffee Burger (which is served with a unique spicy coffee mayonnaise) and The All-Lamb Burger (which is made with 100% New Zealand lamb patty).
Cue Modern Barbecue redefines the concept of barbecue
Campfire-style Skillet of Queso Fundido (Cue)
Hot Pork Belly Tips (Cue)
Bonifacio Sour / Sweet Soul Picnic (Cue)
The full restaurant menu is made up of soups and salads, grilled items, pastas, The Chopping Board selections, and desserts; while the Porch menu for outdoor dining offers bar chows such as Campfire-style Skillet of Queso Fundido (Php190), white cheddar, chorizo, cilantro, red tomatoes and flour tortillas; and Hot Pork Belly Tips (Php245), with Dijon honey and Bourbon charsiu and charsiu barbecue dips.
As for cocktail drinks, two of the most interesting ones are Bonifacio Sour (Php225), Buffalo Trace Bourbon, egg white, lemon, calamansi and red wine float, served short; and Sweet Sour Picnic (Php225), fresh watermelon, cardamom, Sauza Tequila Gold, agave, fernet branca on the rocks).
TAMPOPO
A casual and comfortable Japanese dining place, Tampopo is a Japanese tonkatsu and ramen restaurant that landed on Philippine shores by way of Singapore. In a survey conducted by HungryGoWhere.com, it was voted by 421 diners to have the best ramen in Singapore.
The restaurant was put up by a Japanese who settled in Singapore and specializes in two of the hottest Japanese dishes the world is going crazy about in recent months — Ramen and Tonkatsu.
Tampopo’s open kitchen
Deluxe Black Pig Shabu Ramen (Tampopo)
Pork Loin Yanagawa Set (Tampopo)
The simple, minimalist interiors of Tampopo
For its ramen offerings, Tampopo serves both Kyushu and Hokkaido style ramens. Tampopo’s Deluxe Black Pig Shabu Ramen (Php460) offers an extremely flavorful soup that has been boiled for 48 hours to produce an almost melting texture on the pork and Kyushu ramen noodles.
The pork that Tampopo uses for its ramen offerings is imported Kurobuta, or black pig, which is as premium to pork as Wagyu is to beef. The Tonkatsu, such as the premium Pork Loin Yanagawa Set (Php370 for Premium Pork, and Php570 for Black Pig), is breaded using breadcrumbs imported from Japan and utilizes a unique frying technique that cooks the meat in 100% vegetable oil heated up to the exact temperature and time. It is cooked with sauce and egg like Katsudon and is served with Tampopo’s version of Miso Soup called Tonjeru.
KIMUKATSU
When it comes to Kimukatsu, this Japanese restaurant also specializes in Tonkatsu. It has the most famous pork cutlet in Japan which is so good that the restaurant has opened multiple stores in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Sendai and other cities.
Kimukatsu
Kimukatsu’s 25-layered tonkatsu comes in seven flavor variants
A closer look at the cross section of Kimukatsu’s 25-layered tonkatsu
The restaurant is very proud of its crispy battered 25-layered Tonkatsu that originates from the Shibuya district of Japan. Yes, 25 layers! The pork is prepared fast in a cold area to achieve the thin layers of pork with fillings that come in between. Besides having a 25-layered Tonkatsu, Kimukatsu’s pork cutlets come in seven flavors — Cheese, Garlic, Yuzu Pepper (Japanese lime and chili), Black Pepper, Original/Plain, Negi Shio, and Lime Shiso (Japanese sour plum) — with the ingredients incorporated into the pork layers.
No one makes Tonkatsu like this. To savor all seven Tonkatsu variants, diners can order the 7-flavor Kimukatsu Set (Php2,400) that comes with rice, with dips available at the table for diners to enjoy.
WOLF & FOX GASTROPUB
Wolf & Fox GastroPub is an English style pub owned by restaurateurs Marvin Agustin, Ricky Laudico and Raymond Magdaluyo. It is named after two fictional characters, Mr. Wolf, the sophisticated and traditional, and Mr. Fox, the quirky and creative character. Wolf & Fox believes that people can be divided into the two characters based on their personality traits, and so the gastropub offers two types of menus that have been designed to cater to the Mr. Wolf and Mr. Fox people. They are aptly called the Wolf Menu, which offers more traditional English pub fares; and the Fox Menu, which makes more creative dishes available to diners.
Wolf & Fox GastroPub at Two Parkade, Bonifacio Global City, transforms into a different “animal” at night
Bangers and Mash (Wolf & Fox)
Traditional Fish & Chips (Wolf & Fox)
Tequila Sunrise (Wolf & Fox)
The gastropub has become a favorite after-office hangout among friends
So, how about Bangers and Mash (Php34, homemade Cumberland sausage with skin-on mash and caramelized onion gravy; and/or Traditional Fish and Chips (Php35, beer-battered sole fillet, served with skin-on fries, tartare sauce and malt vinegar?
Wolf & Fox offers great European dishes during the day. These are also available in the evening, although the place itself transforms into an entirely different ‘animal’ at night, becoming a fun and exciting hangout place for a drink or two with great European bites with friends after office hours.
