Celebrity Chef Cook-off: Day 1 of the Manila Food and Wine Festival 2013

Disclosure: I got an invite to the Celebrity Chef Cook-off at the Manila Food and Wine Festival 2013. The invite entitled me to meals from 2 food trucks of my choice (I chose red and blue). Still, this review is going to be unsugarcoated: praise what needs to be praised, criticize what needs to be criticized.
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When the Center for Culinary Arts invited me to the Celebrity Chef Cook-off and asked me to choose two food trucks, it took me a long time to decide since everything sounded yummy. To summarize, here were the different food trucks:

celebrity chefs Robby Goco, Marvin Agustin, Sau del Rosario, Bruce Lim,
Florabel Co, and Tristan Encarnacion

Impressive line of celebrity chefs: Chef Robby Goco of Cyma, Chef Marvin Agustin of the Sumo Sam chain, Chef Sau Del Rosario of Food Garage and Villa Cafe, Chef Bruce Lim of the Asian Food Channel, Chef Florabel Co-Yatco of the Florabel chain of restaurants, and culinary endorser, Chef Tristan Encarnacion.

Musical Night: Amazing Show at the Manila Film Center

We were at the Manila Film Center in CCP to watch Amazing Show, a musical show featuring popular tunes from musicals and traditional dances of different countries.

The building's front exterior wall featured colorful city designs like this one:

ticket office

Amazing Show was open to local and foreign tourists, but the discounted rates were only for Filipinos. Even their Ensogo promo was open only to Filipinos. The ticket's regular price was P500 and it was great that the Ensogo price was only P250 -- it made the show affordable for a lot more Pinoys. In my review of Shakespeare in Hollywood, I lamented that few Pinoys watch plays, so making Amazing Show affordable would hopefully encourage more people too see theater as a good medium for entertainment, instead of viewing theater as only for the rich and the sophisticated.

Noel Discovery Bazaar 2011

We dropped by the Noel Discovery Bazaar 2011 last November 19 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. The atmosphere at WTC was very festive. Upon entrance, you would be greeted by a lot of colorful booths and displays.

UCC Vienna Cafe (Mall of Asia)

It was already past 11pm and we wanted to eat. We didn't have much appetite and we didn't want to feel bloated so we opted to order sandwiches and fruity drinks instead of rice/pasta and coffee.

Bf ordered the Vienna Cliffhanger Sandwich (P289) and the Hawaiian Sunrise (P179). I ordered the Wasabi Mayo Seafood Pizza Toast (P259) and the Frozen Honey Calamansi Iced Tea (P139). The Cliffhanger is a "triple-decker Japanese bread with bacon, egg, grilled chicken fillet, and mozzarella cheese, dipped in custard sauce, breaded and lightly fried" while the Wasabi Mayo Toast consists of "assorted seafood in wasabi mayo and mozzarella cheese on thick sliced Japanese bread, baked pizza style".

Vienna Cliffhanger Sandwich and Hawaiian Sunrise

Wasabi Mayo Seafood Pizza Toast and Frozen Honey Calamansi Iced Tea

Taste

It was my first time to try wasabi on a toast. The toast sounded interesting but since it was my first time to try it, I didn't know what to expect. Well what do you know? It was awesome! Loved loved loved it! The Cliffhanger was also good, but my vote goes to the Wasabi Mayo Toast's ability to tickle my taste buds. As for the drinks, they were both good and refreshing.

Affordability

UCC's food is a bit on the expensive side. But we were happy with what we ordered and the sandwiches were a lot bigger and filling than we expected so we consider them worth the price. Bf had a hard time finishing his food and I had to take home half of my toast.

Interiors

Because it was already late night, only a couple of customers were there. The cafe was quiet and relaxing. The couches were soft and comfy.

Cleanliness

Spotless.

Service

Good.

UCC Vienna Cafe
SM Mall of Asia
Pasay City, Metro Manila

Bookgasm in the 32nd Manila International Book Fair

Bf and I are both book hounds. One of our simple pleasures is raiding book sales. So when SMX held the 32nd Manila International Book Fair, of course we had to be there. I have a big box of still-unread books, but I can't stop buying books! T_T

Here are some pictures of the registration area and the lobby.

Bf was thrilled to see none other than his favorite author, Prof. Ambeth Ocampo. Ambeth (yeah we're close, first name basis baby...joke!) was chatting with some friends. It was already getting late and they were probably hungry. Bf and I were about to approach Ambeth to have a book signed when a girl arrived and handed them a box of donuts. I told bf that we should just come back after they've finished eating. Ambeth heard me as he was biting into a donut. He put the donut down and gestured for us to approach. That was really nice of him. Other authors would probably have been already (understandably) cranky by then.

I was supposed to take bf's picture with Ambeth but Ambeth's friend asked us if we had a camera and volunteered to take our picture, so I was included in the photo. What a sweet lady! But because we're camera shy, I've cropped the picture before posting it here. That thing above Ambeth's head (beside the denim jacket) is my neck. :)

Icebergs (Mall of Asia) - Just a Quick One, Like Their Service

Just a quick, short review.

We were starving after that Mongkok MoA fiasco. Moody and famished, we ended up in Icebergs. This branch was smaller than other branches I've been in but was busy. We were lucky to get a table.

We ordered their Famous Sisig and Lechon Kawali.

(photos from Icebergs Facebook page)

The food arrived much quicker than we expected. And it wasn't because the food was half-cooked or anything. Thanks goodness, because we were starving!

For dessert, we shared a German U-Boat Split. Our mood quickly improved.

There's not a lot of things in our lives that hot meals and ice cream can't fix.

Icebergs
SM Mall of Asia
Pasay City, Metro Manila
Icebergs Facebook Page

A Three-Way Disappointing Service from Ensogo, Mongkok, and SM Mall of Asia

The glutton in me couldn't resist the delicious-looking dimsum at Ensogo's Mongkok deal offer so I bought a voucher.

The Mongkok promo is in 3 branches, all of which are out of the way for us, but I really wanted to try Mongkok dimsum so I planned on claiming the voucher last last weekend when we went to Ambeth Ocampo's Queridas ni Rizal lecture in Makati. Unfortunately, their Glorietta branch was already fully booked according to the girl who answered my phone call when I tried to place a reservation.

(image from Ensogo's Web site)

I didn't want to risk dining at their Robinson's Galleria branch because of a negative post I read online. In that complaint, the customer was not faultless but the staff handled the situation poorly in what appeared to be a stand-off ("patigasan") with the customer, when the staff could have easily given way and prevented all that drama.

I tried placing a reservation again last weekend, this time in their Mall of Asia (MoA) branch since I would be going to MoA to attend a book fair the following weekend. I called their MoA branch again and again to place my reservation, but noone answered the phone even during closing time. I decided to just try a walk-in during off-peak hours.

Our experience was terrible. We ended up walking all over MoA trying to find Mongkok! We thought we were just misreading the mall directory because we couldn't find the resto. After giving up on the map, we asked a mall guard. He consulted his booklet which showed a different location for Mongkok. We went there and again walked all over the area but still couldn't find Mongkok. We asked another guard who pointed towards another location. Mongkok wasn't there either. We were already going mad due to extreme exhaustion and hunger so we asked another guard. Of the three guards, he was the only one who sounded like he actually knew what he was talking about. He explained to us that Mongkok MoA was under renovation and would reopen in December. So we just wasted two hours! Such a hassle!

MoA: Really, such a big-ass mall can't even spare the time or the dime to update its mall directory and the booklets they give out to their security personnel, let alone to inform and train their security personnel regarding the location of all the establishments? What if, God forbid, a crime happens in one of the shops? The security guards would be like headless chickens running around in different directions instead of being able to respond to the crisis efficiently. Another example of SM's billions resources not being put to good use.

Mongkok and Ensogo: The deal's terms specified that the promo was in three branches then Mongkok suddenly shut down the MoA branch. They broke the agreement. Furthermore, noone informed the voucher holders even though Ensogo and/or Mongkok had our names and contact information. Mongkok's Facebook page made no mention about the MoA branch's renovation and I don't recall Ensogo issuing a similar update. 

I have lost interest in availing this deal. I'll be getting a refund. I paid via Paypal (and won't mind getting my refund as Ensogo credits) so refund should be a breeze. I'll post an update after I get my refund.

Mongkok Dimsum and Noodles

SM Mall of Asia
Pasay City, Metro Manila

World Food Expo (WOFEX) 2011 in World Trade Center

Bf and I went to the World Food Expo (WOFEX) 2011 last August 6, 2011. It was a four-day affair held in two locations: in the World Trade Center and the SMX Convention Center, from August 3-6. Unfortunately, due to our busy schedule, we were only able to drop by the World Trade Center about two or three hours before closing. We had to rush in order to visit all the booths there and of course going to the SMX Convention Center was already out of the question.

We are not in the food business but we're gluttons, er, food lovers, so we were not on the look out for interesting business ideas or any equipment that day. We just wanted ready-to-eat or easy-to-cook food items. By closing time, we have bought the following:

• Supreme Foods luncheon meat
• Vitamin water
• nuts
• dalandan juice concentrate
• mushroom
• kropek
• King Sue processed meats
• siopao
• Tsingtao beer
• Chinese candies

We enjoyed the items that we bought and the food didn't last long (hence the lack of pictures). To be honest, though, I was a little disappointed with the event. Mostly because of the title.

You see, the word "World" in the event title gave me a different expectation. I was expecting more exotic items - those that are common in other countries but hard to find here or not very well known to ordinary Filipinos. I'm sure there are many specialty shops and restaurants here in the Philippines that can be tapped to showcase such products. Some exotic cheeses perhaps, or fancy spices and dips, gourmet chocolates, weird snacks from Japan. Even reindeer meat and wacky KitKat flavors! Things like that. Instead, a lot of the food items we saw were common and even sold in regular supermarkets. There were even two or three booths selling siomai and siopao. The closest thing to exotic that we found was the alligator meat, but we were too chicken to try it.

I acknowledge that we should have gone earlier and checked out the SMX Convention Center as well. I might have found some of what I was looking for there.

If the event was simply called Manila Food Expo, I wouldn't have been disappointed.

World Food Expo (WOFEX) 2011
World Trade Center
Pasay City, Metro Manila
August 6, 2011