New Baits at Fish & Co.

I love fish and chips, and for me, Fish & Co. serves the best! Of course, it is not the only dish Fish & Co. is known for... and just recently, they unveiled new dishes, made by Chef Boutwood, the corporate chef of the Bistro Group. I, of course, was there to try it out.


Shrimp Popcorn
Tender chunks of shrimp coated in our signature spices and deep fried to perfection. Served with chipotle mayo dip.

What a great way to start a feast! It might be simple, but it was just so good! My companions for this food trip loved it, too, that we couldn't get over it even after we tasted the other dishes.


Fish Crab Cakes
Premium crab and fish flakes blended with spices and herbs then topped with cilantro salsa.

I loved that the patties were pure crabmeat and fish flakes without extenders inside, but I am not a big fan of crabmeat so this one was just an okay dish for me.


Smoked Fish and Crab Dip
Smoked Fish and premium crab blended with cream cheese.

Smoked fish and cream cheese just went well together! I loved it with the pita bread (or was it tortilla?), although I wish there would be more bread because the dip was so flavorful that one didn't need to put a lot onto the bread.


Steamed Mussels in Pico de Gallo

I wasn't able to get the details of this dish, but one thing to know is that this tasted so good! I loved how big the mussels were inside, and the ingredients just helped give the shellfish more oomph!


Salmon Canelloni 
Salmon filled pasta sheets topped with cheesy bechamel sauce.

Salmon is one of my favorite fish, but it has a flavor that can be a little overwhelming. This dish had big chunks of salmon (and not the flake kind), but I didn't get the "umay" factor because of the bechamel and the pasta sheet. Eating this reminds me of the Salmon Rillet I got to taste last Christmas.


Fresh Tuna Picatta
Fresh tuna seared to perfection and topped with lemon caper sauce. Served with aglio olio pasta and seasoned vegetable.

My favorite dish of the day! I don't eat raw meat, but even if the inside part of the meat was still pinkish and soft, I ate it with gusto because the outside part was cooked enough to provide the contrast in flavor and texture. Super fresh tuna meat was used - I got to taste its natural sweetness and the lemon caper sauce helped to take out the fishy flavor fish normally have. It was a perfect match for the aglio olio pasta... but even if this dish is good enough for sharing, I would probably finish this serving all by myself.


Soft Shell Crab Pasta
Perfectly cooked spaghetti blended with crab fat and topped with soft shell crab.

Oh my goodness, what a rich, rich plate of pasta! It was another great tasting dish, but because I am having problems with my blood pressure, I only had a forkful of it, plus a taste of the soft shell crab. Now, with the crab... I just wish all crabs would be like this - it was amazing to eat the claws without having to worry about the shells. This would be something my mom would fall in love with.

Two more dishes were part of this new set of baits - the Fish & Co. Paella, which I didn't get to taste that much so I won't have a thing to say about it and the Calamari Tacos, which I didn't get to taste at all. I am not so crazy about Paella in general, so when I come back to dine at Fish & Co., I would try the tacos, because I have tasted beef, chicken, and fish tacos... I wanna know how calamari taco taste like.


Banana Caramel Pie
We ended the meal with a sweet note. It was difficult to chew on the frozen bananas (because I have sensitive teeth), but I loved it a lot! The crust was thick that balanced the amount of cream, and the caramel just bound all together.

These dishes are now available in all Fish & Co. branches, but if there would be a good time to visit the store, I suggest you go there during lunch time because they currently have the Happy Lunching Promo that gives you a full meal - with soup and drink from 295 pesos. This promo is available Mondays through Fridays, but is not valid with other promos and discounts including TBC and Premier cards.

Happy fishing!

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Golden Cowrie Restaurant {Boracay}

For dinner, mom wanted prawns or shrimps. Knowing that the seafood capital of the Philippines (Roxas City) is just a few hours away from Boracay, we knew seafood sold here would be just as good. We walked along the shoreline from Station 2 to Station 3, checking every restaurant's menu. When we passed by Golden Cowrie Restaurant, the staff told us they serve prawns and shrimps, but at the moment they only had baby shrimps. We walked further along, contemplated on considering the eat-all-you-can buffet, but computing the costs, we went back to Golden Cowrie Restaurant.


Garlic Shrimps
We were told beforehand that these were super small shrimps, but we were quite surprised to see how small the shrimps really are! What's even more surprising was that it was very, very, good! It was fried, and even if there were a few slices of garlic, each of the shrimps were packed with garlic flavor... as if the shrimps were fried in garlic infused oil. It was quite addicting, but it was a challenge to chew on the head part.


Baked Scallops
Another dish mom chose. Just like the shrimps, this was another oh-so-good dish. Look at how much parmesan cheese they placed on the scallops!


Grilled Squid
Sister's chosen dish. At first she wanted to eat beef, but in the end she went for the squid. Grilling is not my choice of way to cook squid, but my gosh, this was just amazing! I guess this restaurant have served so many grilled squids that they already perfected the way to cook it. The meat had the right texture, the stuffing was tasty, and it was seasoned well that we didn't feel the need to fix our own mix of condiments anymore.

I ordered a bowl of Bulalo Soup to compliment the dry dishes (which I forgot to take a picture of). It was a big bowl of soup with veggies and corn - kinda like ordering Bulalo minus the beef.


Golden Cowrie Restaurant offers rice-all-you-can and we had a feast! There was also a performer singing folk songs, and when he sang "Homeward Bound," everybody in the restaurant (who knew the song, of course) started singing. Somehow the song gave us a bittersweet feeling because the next day, we were set to leave Boracay.

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Golden Cowrie Restaurant
Uptown Hotel, Station 2 - Boracay
+63 (036)288-2543

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Modern Shanghai - Glorietta 2, p3

Last part of my post about Modern Shanghai.


Steamed Shrimp Dumplings
If my mom loves siomai, the Hakaw has got to be my favorite dimsum. This one looks like tortellini, no? Anyway, I loved that the wrapper was strong enough to hold the filling, and I appreciated that the base wasn't soggy - something I usually encounter whenever I order this dimsum. It tasted like how Hakaw taste like. It was good, but just fine.


Fried Shanghai Noodles with Seafood
I am not sure if this was served like this or one of my companions mixed it already before I had a chance to photograph it, but I just want to say that this tasted way much better than it looked.


Wok Fried Sliced Beef with Broccoli
Beef and broccoli is a common food combination in almost all Chinese restaurants... but the difference is that this wasn't saucy. The beef slices were seasoned well and very tender, and obviously, the broccoli were cooked just right - giving the right crunch.


Eight Treasures in Hot Bean Sauce
This tasted a little like Mapo Doufu / Mapo Tofu, without the very fiery spice. I loved the combinations of all the ingredients... but my favorite was whenever I added the cashew nut.


Deep Fried Squid with Spicy Salt and Pepper
Oh I love fried squid! It would have to be my favorite way of cooking squid... and I also love salt and pepper spareribs. Combining both, I was very excited to try this one, but I was a little sad that the squid pieces were tough. Although it was difficult to bite, it was packed with flavor, and chewing more and more of it allowed me to savor more of its taste. This was served as is, but if ever you order this, do ask for a saucer of vinegar. It would an oomph into the dish. The taste made up for the texture, that my brother considered this his favorite dish among the eleven dishes.

If you wanna know my favorites that day... it would have to be the very first one - the Shandong Style Shredded Chicken and the Crispy Noodles.

Modern Shanghai is located at the third floor of Glorietta 2.

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ABC Wednesdays - M & N

I wasn't able to post something for ABC Wednesdays last week, so allow me to catch up this week, posting my entries for M and N.




I first learned about Mochiko through a Vlog posted by Karylle. I got interested about it, and when my sister and I attended a food event, we finally got to taste it and fell in love with it. Mochi is a Japanese confection made from glutinous rice flour and is filled with red bean paste. Mochicko's Mochi however infuses this confection with ice cream and other ingredients, creating a very wonderful harmony of flavors.

These mochi are quite expensive, but worth every penny. My sister and I loves whatever flavor we go for, but her favorite is black sesame, and oreo & milk, while I love the choco-nut flavor, because it is very Filipino, and is only available in June - the Philippine Independence month.

It is frozen as you buy it, so it is recommended to thaw it for a few minutes before biting into it. Although, don't thaw it for long because you might not appreciate melted ice cream oozing out of the rice dough.



Nigiri Sushi or the Hand-formed Sushi is the type of sushi with oblong sized mound of rice topped with seafood, usually with fish and wasabi. I am just starting to learn how to eat Japanese food, but I still don't go for raw meat, so this one is still something I haven't tasted. :)

This plate of Nigiri Sushi was served to us during a food-tasting event at Minori-Tei.

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Recipe | Kinunot na Pagi

There's this one vendor at the nearby market that sells fish that are quite different from the usual ones. Sometimes she would sell parrot fish or surgeon fish, and my mom would sometimes buy from here, just to try out different kinds of fish. Last weekend, she bought half a stingray.

I have eaten this seafood before, but there's only one way I knew how to cook it - with coconut milk and some moringa leaves. I am not familiar of the process how to cook it, though, so I had to consult the Internet and ask people how to do it.


Kinunot na Pagi

Ingredients:

• Pagi (Stingray)
• Water
• Vegetable Oil
• Coconut Milk
• Sliced Onions
• Crushed Garlic
• Ginger
• Finger Chili or Birds Eye Chili
• Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)
• Malunggay Leaves (Moringa Leaves)

How to Cook:

• Blanch the stingray in some hot water for a few minutes. Scrape off the skin, and boil another pot of water with a little ginger, onion and garlic, and cook the skinned stingray until it becomes soft. Drain water and allow the stingray to cook. Debone the stingray and flake the meat.
• Heat a pan with little oil and saute garlic and onion until fragrant and sweaty. Add coconut milk and allow to simmer, then add vinegar. Don't stir for a few minutes, then add the flaked stingray. Stir, and cook for a few minutes.
• Adjust the seasoning, then add the moringa leaves. Simmer until the coconut milk curdle a little. Serve hot with rice.

Sauteeing the onion and garlic in oil is optional; if you want, you can skip this one and start with pouring the coconut milk in the pot followed by the garlic and onion. Personally, I love this one with super thick sauce, which will need some coconut cream to achieve such consistency. Unfortunately, my mom like the sauce a little thin, so we didn't add coconut cream anymore.

It was the first time for this dish to be cooked at home. We didn't go for the spicy kind (even if coconut milk and chili goes very well together), so for brother, we just had some chili-garlic sauce served on the side. Now that I know how to properly cook stingray, I know for sure this wouldn't be the last time we would cook and serve this at home.

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