End of Sem Part 1: The Fish Shop, Potts Point

The BEST way to end a semester is to have a smashing night out with friends followed by a sleepover and brunch the next day. 

No pressure, no stress, just pure chilling. #YOLO

Ps. That's probably the reason behind my atrocious food photos as well. 

View from Potts Point

Clearly, I wasn't able to take a picture of what The Fish Shop looked like outside. But obviously, as you can see, the decor was very beach-y in the most American-beach-shack way, I reckon.  I thought it was fantastic though. 

Who knew this could be so tastyyy?
Drink for the night! 

Christmas FEAST

Every 24th of December, I'm the master of the kitchen.

Nobody could say otherwise.

This Christmas was a bit of a whirlwind.

It was chaos. It was quite the rush. 

I spent 2 hours slaving in the kitchen- I usually spend half a day.

Despite that, we had a lovely and might I say simple simple dinner.

And as always, I try to make it better than the previous year.

Mesa, Mega Atrium

MESA is obviously gaining in the Filipino food scene. They have some brilliant concoctions that ultimately challenge your perspective on Filipino food, but nevertheless, they reflect the key aspects of the cuisine. Ultimate WIN I must say.

Crispy Tawilis with Mangga on a spoon- P135

The fish was crisp, the batter was great, it was REALLY fresh and not the slightest bit oily. Good stuff, brah. The contrast of the sweet sweet mango was fantastic against the fish. Each spoonful just made me want MORE. This dish is a MUST!

Banapple, Katipunan

That's my MUSCULAR sister.

The folks over in the Ateneo have been going loco over Banapple the past few years, and I think the fad has faded a bit. Nevertheless, they still serve some darn decent grub. They've also branched out opening up various satellites over the Metro.*

Cool, sorta greeky tables.

Totally retro interiors with all the
figurines and hippie things gracing the shelves.

Cake selection for the day.

Breads, brownies, and cookies!

There's something about Banapple, maybe it's their charming homy retro interiors, or their over excessive use of smileys, or the perfectly mastered Banoffee pie. It's simple, down to the bare essentials, basic, good grandmomma-kinda home food. Yeah.

This is How You Make Fish & Chips- Chloe Stylie.

HOHOHO. I find myself using this "word" so often these days. Why so? Maybe I like the ring to it? I really don't know!

My mum defrosted some dory fillets and asked me to quickly whip up a batch of fish & chips! Being a good daughter (right, right, right Chloe), I obeyed. And of course, I had my 2 lovely assistants to help me! Oh how I love having Shaye and Star helping me in the kitchen.

As for the chips, we picked camote over potatoes cause they're supposed to have more nutritional value. I like them a lot too! I'd be munching them nonstop whenever I'm in Max's. NO JOKE.

Just so you know, the culinary classes in ISCAHM are proving to be very helpful! And that's where this recipe for fish and chips comes from as well!:) I find that this version is lighter compared to one I usually prepare!:) SUCCESS!

Fish & Chips
1.5kg Cream Dory Fillets
Salt
Pepper
Lemon
Oil (for frying)

Beer Batter
250g Flour
320ml Beer
30ml Vinegar/Apple Cider
3 Egg Yolks
3 Egg Whites
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Paprika

Marinade the fish fillets in lemon juice, salt&pepper

Beat the egg whites until they form a soft peak.

Buenisimo, Eastwood, Philippines

FIRST agenda today- GYM. Oh DEAREST BEACH BOD, come to me! Well, it doesn't completely make sense since it'll be autumn-ish when I arrive in Australia. But I think a spanking smoking HOT BODY still accounts for a lot. That in mind, I will NEVER get fatter again, I swear. Okay, too much sidetracking now.


SECOND- Day out with my import friend, Robin. 

Italian, Right?
NOT.
Guess again.

Really homy-  fine dining interior!

We kicked the afternoon off with a pleasant lunch at Buenisimo. Okay, this place most certainly puzzles me. Initially, and up until the few moments before I entered the restaurant, I thought it was Italian. I bet you'd think the same thing especially given the look of the place. It's actually SPANISH.

Gambas!
I tried the sauce, it was LOVELY.

Robin, being such a regular knew what he wanted even almost before the waiter handed him the menu. He said the gambas and salpicao are must tries. Well, obviously we ordered that. I took forever to decide, I think I've never been this indecisive when it came to food! I was starving after hitting the gym, so I thought I'd get a pasta! And just to make sure we're stuffed, we shared a fish dish too!

One of the Christmas Parties

I'm counting down the days. It's 8 days left before Christmas at the moment, but can you feel that Christmas is right around the corner? Cause I certainly can't, it feels like a fair bit away. And for some reason, I can't find all the Christmas-sy songs in my iPod either.

A few days ago, I went my friend, F's place to cook for a Christmas Party. I was reasonably tired after spending the whole morning at ISCAHM (which I still think is AWESOME.) We cooked a whole mod podge of different things, and I enjoyed myself a lot. By the way, F finished Diploma of Culinary Arts and Kitchen Management in ISCAHM. So I learned a quite a bit from him.

Moroccan Lamb Tagine.
It was cooked for at least 12 hours.

Beautifully deep fried paprika spiced fish.

There was hummus, a simple salad, paella, lamb tagine, a cous cous stuffed chicken, paprika spiced beer battered fish, a mango torte, and apple pie. It was such a fulfilling meal. There was obviously a lot of variety, and of course, the people who had the meal enjoyed it a lot.

Silky Smooth Hummus

The hummus had just the right configuration. It felt light without being taken over by olive oil. I swear I could've had it over and over again with wholemeal pita bread. The lamb tagine had the typical Moroccan spices and flavors. It was a bit too heavy for my taste that evening. But i really loved the raisins in the stew.

Stuffed and Trussed Chicken with Cous Cous Stuffing

My favorite thing would probably be the cous cous stuffed chicken. It delivered a lot of flavor cause the cous cous had dried fruit and nuts even though it might sound a little weird and a little out of your league. The chicken remained really succulent and moist. I definitely had to do with the basting of butter over and over again.

Paella with Artichoke Hearts, Mussles, Squid, Prawns and OTHER THINGS.

The paella was packed with flavor. There were a lot of ingredients. I bet y'all I couldn't even remember each and every one of them! They came together in such an epic harmony. We were extremely generous with the saffron so the rice was amazingly fragrant with the scent.

Cuerva's Mango Torte

The mango torte came from a place called Cuerva which is apparently really famous for that particular dessert. But I'd say that I like the one from Dulcelin more since there's the crust is 10 20 times better! I love the nutty crusty of Dulcelin's. Oh, and there's a lot of whipped cream too!

Apple pie with the best crumble topping ever.

As for the apple pie, I seriously can't remember where it was from but it has the most delightful oatmeal crumble topping. I skipped out the apple and I was just heading straight toward the topping. Yes, if you must know, it was THAT good.

The caroling children

There was a special program from some children who were caroling around the neighborhood as well. They were orphans and they were funding for their cause. It was so heart-warming and I could've sworn I saw some people teary-eyed.

So dear readers, tell me, what do your Christmas parties look like?

Uncle Cheffy, Eastwood City, Libis

However cheesy it may sound, I absolutely love having lunch with my grandparents. When I was a kid, I loved it cause they pay for everything and they spoil me to bits. These days, I pay for the meals but it's such a small price to pay in exchange for quality time with people that I love.

I asked my grandparents where they would want to eat, they told me it's my choice. But it's like I already knew that they wanted to head to Eastwood. They love the new mall so much because its very clean and not crowded. They hit the mall once a week at the very least. Despite wanting to head who knows where to grab some grub, I reluctantly agreed on Eastwood.

Uncle Cheffy :) zoom in to see me! jokes :)

There are a fair bit or restaurants there and it took time for us to decide. As I've said, my grandparents head over that area pretty often so they've already tried almost all of the restaurants! One of their favorites is Uncle Cheffy. If I'm not mistaken, it's related in a way to (or even by) Chef's Quarter. 

The ambiance I've found quite relevant to the food. I wouldn't be able to pinpoint a particular cuisine that it is focused on but what I can say is it's influenced by Filipino and Western cuisines. Sometimes restaurants that are diverse tend to be all over the place and messy. In this case, it was presented professionally and very appealing. There were all sorts of interesting dishes on the menu and it took us some time to actually decide on what we were having. Today, I was feeling extra hungry after the gym so we ordered a feast.

See grandfather and the Cheese, Cheese, Cheese Panizza?

For starters, we had a panizza which they're fairly popular for. We opted for the Cheese, Cheese, Cheese. A panizza with mozzarella, parmesan, cheddar, gruyere, blue cheese, herbs, and extra virgin olive oil. It was a tad bit overstated on the menu, from what I could pick up, there was mozzarella, cheddar, and blue cheese. I was disappointed because I'm such a cheese freak and there just wasn't enough of it! I was expecting it was gonna be cheese overload! It had 3 condiments- tomato salsa, lettuce, and alfalfa sprouts. Even though there wasn't heaps of cheese, I really enjoyed it and liked the idea!

Pumpkin Flower (???) Soup

Because of my absurd appetite, I ordered a soup as well! The menu said it's a pumpkin flower soup, never heard of a pumpkin flower soup and I found it quite fascinated and I agreed to order since the server said it's a bestseller. The soup was hearty, but I just couldn't fathom why they called it pumpkin flower soup when in fact it's just pumpkin soup! Disappointing.

Thai Style Fried Pla Pla

For our mains, the 3 of us split the Thai Style Fried Pla Pla and Beef Medallion "Steak Tagalog". These two dishes were equally winners. The fish on it's own without being doused by sauce had a distinct sweetness that I couldn't get enough of. It was fried beautifully resembling a piece of art one way or another.

Beef Medallion Steak Tagalog!:) So Filipino inspired, I'm loving it!:)

The beef dish had such potential and inspiration behind it. It's a bold western move to use beef medallions, and the way of implementing some Filipino influence was to cook it in such an inspired Filipino way. The idea behind it would probably from the "Bistek Tagalog". There was Carabao Milk Cheese on top of them and a green mango, tomato, and onion salad that was really sour it made me flinch. This dish I absolutely thought was dazzling.

And as for desert, NO, I was full to my throat I didn't even have any space whatsoever for desert! But, I did buy some goodies from the ever appropriate Marks & Spencer which I will blog about another time!:)

Uncle Cheffy
Unit A216 and S201
Level 2, Eastwood Mall
Eastwood City
Libis