dekaphobe.com | Food, Travel, and Lifestyle Blog

Note: This restaurant is already closed.  After spending the day island hopping in Honda Bay , my friends and I were given the rest of the afternoon to take some rest before we headed out again for dinner. I think the sun got me really tired that I slept for 3 hours. Hahaha! :P Our travel agent, Tiara, brought us to this place called Bilao at Palayok for our dinner.  Bilao at Palayok is as native as its name. It was like a huge Bahay Kubo complete with native furniture. We decided to have our dinner Pinoy style and chose the low table. inside Bilao at Palayok

I love doing the grocery.  I find it more practical to buy in bulk than run to the convenience store each and every time I need something. I also keep tabs on which grocery has lower prices, same goes when I have to buy a new gadget, like a camera or a laptop. I have recently discovered Save22 Philippines ( http://www.save22.com.ph ), a price comparison app and website that keep tabs on prices of products from different stores around the metro. Save22 originated in Singapore and is responsible for making prices lower in their country. Available on Android and iOS, you can scan the bar code or type the name of the product to see which store has the least expensive price.

Note: This restaurant is already closed.  Note: This restaurant was renamed to Siklab  The Bistro Group has recently opened its first Filipino concept restaurant, Smokin Hot BarBQ , which just opened this month. The 140-seater resto looks very simple yet classy, which can also be said with their take on our favorite Filipino dishes. I'm a huge fanatic of anything grilled, and I was really excited to try what Smokin Hot BarBQ had to offer.

Note: As of May 28, 2013, this location has been renamed to Uncle Cheffy's. Note: This restaurant is already closed.  My friend from Malaysia was back in Manila once again (yes, the same one I had lunch with at 8 Spices ) for work. He's not going to be back for a long time so along with my former workmates (technically, my former clients), he gave us a dinner treat to Chef 's Quarter. I was curious about Chef's Quarter for a long time, especially their panizza. :) We didn't have any pork dish for this dinner because my Malaysian friend is Muslim, so no all-meat panizza this time :( The resto was very spacious, and even has function rooms for private functions. We were seated at the booth, which was dimly-lit and cozy.

After our dinner at Skybox, my friends and I went to Itoy's Coffee Haus for a nightcap. It was mentioned by our guide during the city tour that Itoy's is one of the most popular coffee shops in the city. inside Itoy's Coffee Haus Itoy's is a cozy cafe located at the near the Palawan Provincial Capitol. The coffee shop both has alfresco & indoor areas and even has free wi-fi. The place was really crowded compared to the resto where we had dinner. Unlike other coffee shops, most customers here come in huge groups. We weren't in the mood to have desserts so we had drinks here instead. 

I was recently invited to the grand launch of Dakasi at their newest branch at Dela Rosa Carpark, Makati City.  Since I'm not that huge with milk tea (my tummy doesn't like it), I brought my milk tea fanatic friend Rhoda with me. Upon checking their menu, Dakasi also serves a huge variety of non-milk tea drinks, which I was excited to try. inside Dakasi Dela Rosa Dakasi is a Taiwanese milk tea brand with locations at China, Hongkong, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and The Philippines. The first Dakasi location here in the country opened last February 2012 and now has 19 branches inside and outside the metro.

Note: This location is already closed. The Creamery has focused on its catering services. Check out their Facebook page for more information.  Before we went to the Mall of Asia Arena to watch Paramore's concert , we had dinner at The Creamery Resto and Ice Cream Bar. Ms. Michelle Co of Masatami gave me a Christmas package and this includes a GC for The Creamery (thanks a lot Michelle!) so my friends and I tried The Creamery for the first time.  The Creamery is actually inside the Selecta Kids Universe. Hey, we're watching a bagets concert, so might as well be thorough about the bagets thing. Hihihi. :) The staff was kinda busy fixing the area, maybe they're preparing for a kiddie party as it's more popular for being a kids party venue, but they accommodated us  anyway. While waiting for our orders, we entertained ourselves with the toys at our table. Believe me, even a mature person would get curious too. 

Note: This restaurant is already closed. It's been months since the PEx Gluttony Society  had a meet-up. I remember the last time was November at Dillinger's (but I wasn't able to blog about it). Miko suggested that we try the newly-opened tapas bar at The Fort called Tapeo . inside Tapeo Tapeo opened during the last week of February and is currently on its soft opening. This small quaint place offers a good selection of wines, homemade sangria, and of course, tapas! Tapas is what the Spanish call their appetizers or snacks that usually eat with their wines. As Ate Mel explained to me, tapas started when the Spanish began using bread to cover their wine glasses to protect it from flies, then they added meat and other toppings to the bread.

My family and I were on our way to the supermarket to do our weekly groceries when I chanced upon this stall called Mila Flores Special Pitchy Pitchy. I was craving for pichi-pichi for quite a while so I bought a box after we finished doing our groceries. Pichi-pichi is a Filipino native dessert made of cassava or kamoteng kahoy and usually topped with coconut shavings. Back in grade school, I would usually buy a piece of pichi-pichi after lunch. If the canteen doesn't have pichi-pichi during lunch, I really get sad. Though I love coconut shavings on pichi-pichi, I love it more with cheese. Who doesn't? I think everyone goes crazy whenever there's Amber's or Arny Dading's Pichi-Pichi in office parties.

I was recently invited by Outback Steakhouse to try their new weekday lunch menu and their other bestselling dishes. Much as I hate to admit, this was my first time to visit Outback so I was more than excited that evening. Their Glorietta location is a well-known hangout place for drinks and simple gatherings. The bar is located on the first floor and the dining area is on the second floor. The second floor is unexpectedly spacious, with new lighting fixtures and wooden flooring. And yes, the second floor also has a bar. :)

Note: This restaurant is already closed.  One of the perks of being a blogger is creating friendships with fellow bloggers. Aside from food blogs and travel blogs, I also enjoy reading personal blogs. Reading personal blogs is like knowing somebody thoroughly even if you haven't met them yet. These blogs give me insights on how other people deal with real life and I'm happy to find out that there are people crazier than I do. HAHAHA! (I'm joking! :P) I was fortunate to finally meet two of my favorite personal bloggers, Jay and TR . Jay was in Manila then for a short vacation, so we took the chance to have a quick meetup. Since we agreed to meet up at Eastwood Mall, we chanced to see Kogi Bulgogi so we decided to have dinner there. Also, Jay always mentions that he loves Korean food. :) Kogi Bulgogi is the sister resto of Tokyo Cafe , Stackers Burger Cafe , Peri-Peri, and Parmigiano. Their Eastwood branch has been there for ages but I haven't given it a vi

Note: This restaurant is already closed.  It's our first day at Puerto Princesa . Since we only have 3 days to explore the wonders of the city, we didn't have much time to explore the popular foodie places around. However, my friends and I tried a few spots, some of which I'll be featuring here soon. Puerto Princesa is known for its exotic food, like the Crocodile Sisig and the Tamilok, however, just any other human, I just want some comfort food. Skybox is one of the places recommended to me by friends. We have seen it earlier during our City Tour so we didn't have to ask around when we went for dinner. Skybox looks a bit like a sports bar with an outdoor kitchen. It has both al fresco and indoor dining areas. We chose to dine inside the resto because's there's a musician playing outside and we wanted some peace and quiet.

Note: This restaurant is already closed.  It was a rainy weekend when my foodie friends and I got to try this Filipino buffet resto called Primero Casa Filipino. The weather was so awful I thought I'd be late. But the weather didn't stop me nor affect my mood because I was excited to try this resto. Primero Casa Filipino is a Filipino buffet restaurant, events venue and bar near Tomas Morato area. Formerly known as Chef Laudico Casa Filipino, they have since changed management and improved their offerings. inside Primero Casa Filipino's main dining area bar at the other room I was quite surprised on how spacious this resto is. It has numerous private function rooms and even a bar for drinking parties. And yes, the former ancestral house is really classy.

I'm recently becoming more adventurous with home cooking. I also have a stack of food magazines and recipe books that I read all the time. One of the recipes that I recently dared to cook is Shepherd's Pie. I've read versions of this dish from food websites and magazines, but this one's a modification from Chef Tatung's recipe from Breakfast Magazine (Oct-Nov 2012 issue). Shepherd's Pie This dish looks kinda complicated to do, but it wasn't difficult at all. I just thought that it would be another dish that the kids would like, but surprisingly, it was my dad who liked this.

Note: This restaurant is already closed.  It's been almost a year since I visited Cafe de Bonifacio in Podium . As much as I love trying other cuisines, Filipino food would always be home. I was extremely amazed at how they turned traditional Filipino dishes into modern and world-class food. I was even more ecstatic when they recently opened Oriang at The Fort. Oriang is named after Andres Bonifacio's better half, Gregoria de Jesus. Serving popular dishes from Cafe de Bonifacio, Oriang also has new modern Filipino dishes with the help of Chef John Cu-unjieng. The resto is quite spacious, with both indoor and al fresco dining areas, and decorated with modern Filipino designs with photos of their signature dishes on the walls. Oriang has a bar that serves original house cocktails and other alcoholic beverages.