Yes you read that right. It’s Chicken-All-You-Can once again at Max’s! For only Php 199.00, we can once again experience eating all the Max’s fried chicken that our stomachs hearts desire. This already includes a glass of any Pepsi softdrink that can be upgraded to bottomless drink for only PhP28.

I had six.

As an added treat to its customers, Max’s is also giving away free PhP 20 money coupons for every PhP200 spent during the Chicken-All-You-Can promotion. A maximum of three accumulated coupons per transaction may be used to “purchase” any Max’s products within a year after issuance.

The promo started last June 10, and will run until July 10, 2011. Chicken-All-You-Can is available between 6:00 to 10:00 P.M. So what are you waiting for? Attack na!

Max’s Pork Binagoongan Php 275.00

Max’s Pork Binagoongan is a dish of tender pork cubes sautéed in a rich, mildly sweet and salty shrimp paste. This classic Filipino dish is served on a bed of fried eggplant and garnished with tomato wedges, fine julienned green mangoes, sprinkled with chopped spring onions.

Max’s Chicken Caldereta Php 352.00

Max’s Chicken Caldereta, a hearty chicken stew in a thick tomato-based sauce with potatoes, carrots, red and green bell pepper and green peas. This dish has the right level of spiciness. Both dishes are great with steamed white rice. LOTS of steamed white rice! If you are figure conscious, I say stop worrying about the pounds and just dive in! One order is good for 2-3 persons.

These will be available until October 15 and will be served with a complementary serving of white rice and a Pepsi softdrink. This promo is for dine-in customers only,but Max’s Pork Binagoongan and Chicken Caldereta are also available for delivery.

Log on to www.maxschicken.com to find the nearest Max’s near you.

I think it was 2 years ago when I first saw Travis Kraft’s video tutorial on Youtube on how to cook Adobong Manok. While I may have laughed at his attempts at speaking a heavily American-accented Tagalog, it has inspired me to write post about Filipino dishes that I love. For my first recipe post here, I am posting the recipe for my version of Tinolang Manok.

Tinolang Manok is one dish which is best eaten hot, on a cold and rainy day., and served with a dipping sauce of calamansi juice, patis (fish sauce) and sili.

Feel free to adjust the recipe to suit your preference.

Tinolang Manok

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken, cut into pieces (best cuts to use are thighs, wings and back)
salt to taste
3-4 tbsp patis ( fish sauce)
2 medium sayote , peeled and cut into wedges or 1 small unripe papaya, seeded and cut into wedges.
1-2 tbsp or ginger, gut into strips
1 medium red onion, minced
oil for sauteeing
chicken stock or water + 1 chicken cube
2 bunches of dahon ng sili ( chili pepper leave) or
malunggay leaves, washed and removed from stalks
whole black peppercorns

Wash chicken thoroughly and pat dry with a paper towel. In a medium sized pot, heat oil and saute’ ginger and onions. Saute’ until onions are slightly translucent and ginger becomes aromatic. Add in chicken. Cook until the meat has turned white and no traces of pink are visible and juice and fat is rendered. Season with patis and allow to simmer until liquid is slightly reduced. Pour enough broth to cover the chicken. If you are using water, now is the time to add in the chicken cube and peppercorns. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add in the sayote. Check and wait for the sayote to become slightly tender before putting in the sili leaves. Season with salt. Simmer until sayote is cooked and the sili leaves have totally wilted.

Tita Lynn’s Flavored Suman sells and serve suman in different flavors-14 to be exact- all developed from a recipe that has been handed down from generations. Flavors include: Original, Cocomas, Tsoko Twirl, Champorado, Choco, Cassava, Yema, Macapuno, Mango, Sweet potato, Mais Macapuno, Langka, Ube. And for those who are on diets or diabetics, there’s also one made with Splenda, the Red Benguet.

It comes with a tsokolate dipping sauce, which really tastes great with the sticky suman. You can dine in, or order to go. There’s also a suman fondue–the sumandue– suman cut into bite sized pieces served with fruit aand a tsokolate dipping sauce. it’s perfect for sharing! The take out suman can also be served in a box and conveniently cut into bite sized pieces.

And the perfect accompaniment to suman? A hot cup of Tsokolate! Ofcourse they do have a selection of hot beverages aside from tsokolate, like coffee, organic teas as well as cool drinks like frappuccinos.

Tita Lynn’s branches are mostly kiosks, but they do have a little cafe at the SM Sky Garden. You can sit and enjoy your sumandue and hot tsokolate in the confines of a cozy and airconditioned nook whatever time of day.

Check them out at Rustan’s Supermarket at rockwell, Shopwise in Sucat, Rustan’s Supermarket at Ayala Avenue, SM Mall of Asia, Tiendesitas, and at Market Market in Taguig.

Tita Lynn’s Flavored Suman
Sky Garden, SM City North Edsa
North Avenue cor. Edsa
Quezon City

There’s a little place called Paul Calvin’s Deli at the Fort Bonifacio Global City that serves good and healthful food, and they have been catering to the appetites of the neighboring offices for months now. I had the pleasure of having dinner there upon an invitation of a friend of mine, and I was pleasantly surprised with the variety of dishes available. Eating healthful here does not mean eating bland and unexciting food.

There’s a mini vegetable salad bar, with choices of dressing and fixings. Main courses on offer are fish and meat dishes. I especially loved the fish fillet with tofu and black beans. The fish and tofu were tender and not rubbery, and it was seasoned just right.

Aside from these, there’s also a pasta station where Chef Paul personally prepares your order. You can choose from different noodles, sauces and ingredients. Just tell the chef what you want, and he’ll prepare it for you.

And what dinner would be complete without dessert? At the end of the buffet table is a selection of sweet endings- a platter of fruits, tarts, kakanins like maja, petit fours and a very unusual leche flan– it had carrots! I’ve never had leche flan with carrots before, let alone even hears, seen or thought about putting carrots in one, but this turned out to be so good. The carrots didn’t over power the custard’s taste at all.

There are also breads available, as the first floor of Paul Calvin’s is actually, well, a deli, where one can buy bread and sandwiches . The breads are baked by Paul Calvin’s at their kitchen in Rizal. 2 of their specialties are the malunggay bread and malunggay loaf. The malunggay bread was another surprise, because I was expecting it to taste like malunggay, but it didn’t at all. It had a little sweetness, was very moist and reminded me a bit of banana cake.

Paul Calvin’s serves buffets for lunch and dinner. If you’d like to try it, the lunch buffet will set you back for Php 275 and Php 375 for dinner, per person.

Paul Calvin’s Deli
Unit 1111 Forbes Town Center,
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
Tel. no. 856-5900 / 660-5839

For only P54, you can now enjoy a bigger serving of the tasty meat-based broth, sautéed pork, fresh vegetable toppings, egg with crunchy garlic and chicharon bits of the La Paz Batchoy soup, or savor the hearty chicken, macaroni noodles with chunky corn, carrot, ham and chicken bits of the Creamy Macaroni Soup.

Just add P10 and you can get a regular softdrink to better enjoy the taste of home-cooked soup goodness in every order.

With double the serving, each bowl makes a filling snack or a meal in itself. Jollibee’s Big Bowl soups also make a flavorful sabaw complement to your favorite rice-and-viand meals at Jollibee.

So grab and delight as you savor the taste of home cooked soup goodness with your Jollibee Big Bowl soup variants.

Gambas in Aligue Sauce

The best innovative finds at Max’s Restaurant are the four dish combinations derived from ordinary homegrown non-meaty recipes evident in every Filipino dining table. The mongo and tinapa being both a common Filipino household viand gives a twist to a new dining experience with Max’s Mongo with Crisp Tinapa Dumplings topped with fresh sliced tomatoes.

Monggo with Crispy Tinapa Dumplings

The Pinaputok na Tiyan ng Bangus rooted from the country’s national fish symbol is a fresh bangus belly grilled in banana leaves. Opening the fish will truly burst surprises into you with its stuffed chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and garnished with fresh tomato salsa.

Pinaputok na Tiyan ng Bangus

The Camaron Rebosado, is a succulent crispy shrimp finely cooked with mixture of fresh ingredients and dipped in sweet and sour sauce.

Camaron Rebusado

Tofu, an adaptable food that is usually fried, baked, mashed, marinated, barbecued, and frozen is enhanced into a scalding plate of Sizzling Tofu glazed with a special sauce and topped with chilis that will satisfy true food connoisseurs.

Sizzling Tofu

Max’s continues to provide exciting dining experiences to the Filipino food enthusiasts with its aperitive and newly innovated main dishes and appetizers – Crisp Tinapa Dumplings and Gambas in Aligue Sauce, a dish where you can savor the taste of luscious shrimp spiced up with garlic and served with soft bread on the side for you to dip in to the flavorful chili sauce.

Crispy Tinapa Dumplings

All these latest food attractions complement their legendary “Sarap-to-the-Bones” fried chicken that will certainly make Max’s not only a brand, but also a cuisine that suits the Filipino palate.

Max’s also introduces the Coco Pineapple Shake, a cool sweet-flavored mix of natural coconut and fresh pineapple- – a truly perfect blend to make your summer delightfully refreshing.

Start getting into a fresh habit, dine-in at any Max’s Restaurant near you or dial Max’s Metro Manila delivery hotline.

Max’s Restaurant
hotline: 7-9000
website: http://www.maxschicken.com

Fried Kesong Puti Php 250

We started off by having a platter of Fried Kesong Puti- native kesong puti rolledin breadcrumbs, deep fried and served with a sweet chili guava sauce and garlic dip. We also ordered the Sentro Pica-Pica Platter which had slices of chorizo, marinated beef tips, barbecued chicken lollipops and bangus spring rolls. it came served with spiced vinegar.

Sentro Pica-Pica Platter Php 350

For the main course, we ordered the house specialty- Sinigang na Corned Beef. A take on classic sinigang, it uses chunks of corned beef instead of regular beef.

Sinigang na Corned Beef Php 420

We can’t talk about Filipino food and not mention Kare-kare. Kare-kare is a peanut-based stew of meat and vegetables served with sauteed bagoong (shrimp paste). It went perfectly with the Bagoong Fried Rice I ordered, which was a meal in itself.

Finally Kare-Kare Php520


Bagoong Fried Rice

The Boneless Crispy Trotter- a boneless version of the Pinoy classic Crispy Pata- deep fried golden brown and very crisp.

Boneless Crispy Trotter Php480

We also had the Honey Garlic Pork Spareribs. These grilled ribs with very tender meat were marinated and basted with a honey garlic sauce.

Honey Garlic Pork Spareribs Php350

To balance out all the meat dishes, we also ordered Rated GG- fillets of galunggong fried crispy served in oil and topped with bits of fried garlic.

Rated GG Php230

The only vegetable dish we had was the Stuffed Squash Blossoms. Blossoms of squash stuffed with chopped shrimp and cooked in coconut cream. I really loved this one because I love eating dishes with gata.

Stuffed Squash Blossoms Php180

After stuffing ourselves full, we ordered some dessert. Nina had Coffee Sans Rival; I ordered the Sentro Cheesecake, and Melo had the Mango Jubilee. We split the Coffee Pie.

Sentro Cheesecake Php220

The Sentro Cheesecake looks like leche flan, and comes served with slices of itlog na maalat (salted duck egg) and keso de bola. The consistency is very smooth and the taste not quite too sweet; and the keso de bola and egg lend some interesting flavors to the cheesecake.

Coffee Pie Php150

I love the Coffee Pie! It was so silky. The crust is made of a chocolate-cashew mix; the center is a coffee filling and is topped with cream cheese and drizzled with toffee sauce. I have to give props to the kitchen staff too because it was beautifully plated. Just like the Coffee Bean Sans Rival.

Coffee Bean Sans Rival Php205

The service was just as good as the food. The staff were attentive and very polite. I didn’t even need to call a waiter to have my glass refilled. Overall , it was a very pleasant dining experience.

Sentro 1771
2/L Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center
Makati City, Metro Manila
Tel No.(02) 757-3940

Kawayan Cove is a 68-hectare high-end seaside residential resort community in Nasugbu, Batangas which is just a two-hour drive from Makati. There, we were toured around the property after dining on a very lavish feast prepared by our very gracious hosts, the Puyats. We dined at the Bamboo Beach Club on Bamboo Beach, the centerpiece of the Kawayan Cove development.

We feasted on seafood like crabs, shrimp kabobs, grilled fish; and on lechon (roast suckling pig) and chicken barbecue.

There we’re also side dishes of salads, atchara and vegetables. And to cap off a wonderful meal is a dessert spread of fresh fruits and native delicacies like kakanins and leche flan!

A delicious feast on a beautiful beach, shared with friends and gracious hosts. It truly is such a wonderful experience.

Click here to see more photos from Kawayan Cove.

Kawayan Cove
Bamboo Beach, Nasugbu
Batangas, Philippines

For more information about Kawayan Cove, call Edge Properties Development Corp. G/F Bldg. A, Karrivin Plaza, 2316 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City, Philippines Tel. 843-9136 to 38 and 843-8820. Or visit their website, www.kawayancove.com.

I seldom go to Rockwell, so I asked Arpee and Noreen to pick out where we’d have an early dinner since they frequent the Powerplant mall. We went down to the lower ground, where most of the the restaurants are. We were overwhelmed with the choices, each restaurant with its own specialty. We were all set to go to Mongkok when we spotted a restaurant that is near and dear to the Lazaros: Milky Way.

I’ve only heard about Milky Way from Arpee’s blog, and I’m glad to finally able to try it. Milky Way is set up much like a turo-turo, where each dish is laid out in glass display and you point to the dish you want to order. My eyes were immediately drawn to the gorgeous pile of Pork Spareribs, and ordered one for myself. I ordered one order of rice to go with it, and a plate of Pancit Luglog.

When the food was served, I went about taking photos as I usually do (except when I’m extremely hungry). Arpee and Noreen, on the otherhand, having eaten at Milky Way several times before, didn’t bother and went about attacking their spareribs and Adobong Pusit. I heard Arpee gushing about the spareribs — how tender the meat was, and how flavorful it is. Quickly finishing my photoshoot, I put my camera and Gorillapod back in my bag and digged in.

I’ve learned to take Arpee and Noreen’s word when they say something’s good, but nothing prepared me for how good the food actually taste. The Pork Spareribs was great in every way — it’s tasty, it’s tender and it has a good proportion of fat at meat. Priced at Php 180 for one slice, it may seem pricey, but bear in mind that it’s a pretty big slice: it’s big enough to share. One rice is not enough for the whole slab, but I refrained from ordering an extra serving because I still have my pancit. The Pancit Luglug was another hit in my book. Unlike other palabok/luglog that tries to overwhelm you with the number of toppings, Milky Way keeps it simple with the delicious aligue sauce, hardboiled eggs, chicharon and spring onions. At Php 90 per order, Milky Way’s Pancit Luglog is a good choice for a filling merienda (try it with their Sago’t Gulaman, which I hear is another clear winner).

Milky Way
Concourse Level
Power Plant Mall
Rockwell Drive corner Estrella St.
Makati City

900 Arnaiz Avenue
Makati City

Ground Level, V-Mall
Greenhills Shopping Center
San Juan