Breakfast in San Juan, Metro Manila

Aside from the restos listed in munchpunch, what are the restos in San Juan where you can have a good breakfast?

I have only blogged here about Cafe Ysabel and Flapjacks here. I didn't like Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Bizu, and they were expensive to boot.

She thought of Cafe Ysabel since she knew that I liked it, but I wanted to try a new place. So I suggested Las Paellas to RKLdG. She said that we can meet after the kids are dropped off at ICA.

She thought that meeting in Promenade would be a good idea, as there are bound to be a lot of breakfast places open because of the taichi and qi gong groups, which she suggested I try joining these groups, as I said that I was visual like her. By that, I meant that I prefer reading to hearing words, but I'm one of the least visual persons I know. Can't you tell from my photos?

My sister's father-in-law is in the group that does either qi gong or taichi in front of Fitness First. I'm really not a follower, so no aero (I tried it, lost the inches, and never went back), swimming (I can swim the four strokes and life-save), yoga (tried it once; beautiful for the first half hour) for me. I tried playing basketball with one basket and varsity members of DLSU and a girl from UP who could also play, so of course, that didn't work out. I tried roller- and ice-skating, but I couldn't balance. Walking combined with a little jogging is ok with JTU and Nexie the beagle, because of the conversation. Tennis serves are difficult, but otherwise, the little tennis that I played was a bit enjoyable. The squash ball's low bounce frustrates me. R teased me about running a marathon, which is of course out of the question for me. So the only sports left for me are badmin and pingpong.

I tried to call Las Paellas and Xocolat, at around 7:30 pm today, using the munchpunch numbers, but both were not answered after 11 rings. So do I trust munchpunch's listed hours, that Las Paellas opens at 11? For breakfast? I remember that Las Paellas stopped serving breakfast. R thinks that the whole floor has become a parking lot. I think that she was thinking of Connecticut Carpark

Munchpunch's list is not alphabetical, and includes Cara Mia Gelateria. So far I have not heard of Cara Mia serving breakfast.

Munchpunch's list is a breakfast list, because when I searched for "San Juan," the list was longer. The breakfast list excludes Gloriamarises, the sis resto Green Maris, Le Ching which would sound good if it had a washroom, Max's which Efren said serves good breakfast, Segafredo, UCC. And I seem to recall, from my visit there last December, that Alex III is now open for breakfast.

I wonder if Bangus is open for breakfast. I seem to recall that Casa Reyes is open for breakfast only on weekends.

Photos taken with JTU's guidance, at Greenhills West, including Jefferson St. Now that's fun, photography as a walking exercise, although it's not much of an exercise!

Related Posts:

Casa Reyes
mango cake
frozen brazo

Gloriamaris Wilson

Cafe Ysabel
lengua
longganisa and tortang talong

Somethin' Fishy

TG, how do you undo boldface? And how do you add photos from Flickr? I read the online Help instructions but could not figure them out.


Without understanding why, I just took Anton Diaz's advice and posted my photos in Flickr. Now I can't post them here. Thankfully, all the Somethin' Fishy photos are on the same page.

According to munchpunch.com, Somethin' Fishy's buffet price is P 345 for dinner, but doesn't say how much Sunday buffet costs. I lucked out with myfoodtrip, too.

From munchpunch.com, I learned that Somethin' Fishy is open 24 hours, so I called up 421-21-21 at 11:01 pm. I also got the number from munchpunch. The man who answered said that he was the cashier (I asked him for his name, which he didn't give me) and told me that the Sunday buffet price is P 395 for food, excluding drinks. After asking someone else, he told me that they can accommodate 400 guests.

July 18 Photos: furniture and P 60 Vietnamese coffee, both of which I really like, at Cocktales.
October 11 Photos: ok carbonara with their free fruit dessert, the latter a big surprise and more the star of the meal than the carbonara. I would order a la carte next time, though, since I've tried the free dessert and the complimentary tea tastes funny.

All photos were taken with my Acer Aspire One webcam.

Ortigas Center Food Tour

A classmate organized some talks, including one from a classmate-Love Doctor at the Podium this Saturday. I'd like to propose to my classmates that I take them on a food and drink tour after the talk. Yummy, fattiest, P 50 (? if I remember correctly, this was years ago, though) sisig and P 8 gulaman at St. Francis Square, San Francisco Coffee (it turns out that there's a multinational San Francisco Coffee, although it's not the one we have here) ice cream coffee, Sebastian's ice cream. At Megamall, we can go to Sukhothai (I couldn't find it in the SM Megamall site, I think that it has changed its name), Mey Lin, Red Mango, Cocktales for wifi ambience, inexpensive Chef Choi at Megamall. I think that it was at Chef Choi where we ordered fried chicken with veggies. It was a small serving, but good value. The place was not bad-looking, a comfortable, spacious, quiet enough experience for the price.

Photos: Caymen cooked dried mushrooms, fish semi-fillet, onion, cauliflower, corn and tauhu. Too bad the bean curd was sour, but the rest of the dish was still good. Also: Arroz caldo, lumpia shanghai and sopas at Somethin' Fishy where JTU treated me for breakfast buffet this month. As in Unimart Coffee Shop and Via Mare, the arroz caldo was one of my favorites. JTU had wanted to eat a la carte as she had been to Dad's and another buffet the day before. I challenged her to eat a la carte after looking at the buffet! She reasoned out that she could eat a la carte portions at these prices. My dad wanted to know if there was parking: Cybermall, City Walks 1 and 2, Eastwood Mall, outdoor parking. He also wanted to know how much lunch buffet costs on Sundays and how big the resto is. Maybe I can answer his questions in a future post. I would have taken more photos if not for a supervisor stopping me. Is it really like that at buffets? The only time in four years that I've been stopped from taking photos was at Chinatown's Best Food. Anton Diaz also experienced this at a Chinoy-owned resto.

I explained to the super that it was for my blog, internet. He gave me a blank look. A waiter later told me that his super wanted to know why the former didn't stop me from taking photos. The waiter explained that it was free advertising, that he would read about how the diners enjoyed themselves at Somethin' Fishy. I told the waiter that restos would invite me to try their food so I could write about them. The waiter said that I should have told their super, and asked me if I had taken my fill of photos. I said yes, even though this was not true. I paraphrased what Anton Diaz had told us in class. I told him that it's not easy to offer their quality, quantity, service and ambience at their prices, as it has not been duplicated all these years.

I mean, you don't need photos to duplicate the simple dishes, the chafing dishes, set-up.

I tried not to be in the way of other diners. I would move whenever a diner was about to get food. It might not have helped that I did not know how to use the Ixus then, as JTU pointed out that I would move the camera close to my subject instead of adjusting the zoom.

I guess I could be more patient with explanations. I tried to go online, to show the super my blog, but Somethin' Fishy did not have access.

AYL commented that Somethin' Fishy's buffet was oily. Like JTU, she also said that there were no veggies. This surprised CYdA: veggies for breakfast?

Fried kamote, pancit do not count as veggies to them. J didn't want to eat the saba because it looked overcooked, which I liked better than saba on the soft side.

Bathroom was borderline clean.

Via Mare

Via Mare Landmark at Trinoma

Via Mare guinomis

Unimart tokwat baboy

Kamayan

Cafe Ysabel

Sisig posts:

Reyes Barbecue

Sidebar Cafe

Restos near JAKA?

SK and I have a 6 pm meeting with DRB, who works at JAKA Bldg. I thought of meeting her at Swagat Indian Cuisine.

Any other suggestions? We need a well-lit resto. Happy Cream Puff? Starbucks Enterprise?

Photos: Vietnamese coffee and iced tea at Cocktales, pulvoron prize that AUY got from myfoodtrip.

I had gotten a cocoa at Cocktales along with the main dish, which made my meal less expensive than their packaged meals. It turned out bad, so I replaced the cocoa with the more expensive mango sago since they don't do refunds. Is it my fault that their cocoa was spoiled? Shouldn't I get a free drink? In the end, my bill was higher than their packaged meal. I only realized this boo-boo as I write this. I keep going back to Cocktales because their staff is very nice, not perfect, the place is quiet, it's near the Exhibit Hall and PLDT where I often went. I wish it on any place there are coffee shops e.g. Salcedo Village. One time, there was a brownout at home and I had a BIR deadline so I kept on going back to Cocktales. I ordered a couple of items for a stay of more than three hours. I even used their phone--was it Bayantel?--to make calls because there was no Globe signal there after Ondoy! I was jahe after a while, so I would go near the escalator to make calls.

I was really surprised to read online that Cocktales is owned by Fruitas, because there's a world of quality difference between the two.

One time when I was at Cocktales, an Italiana (?) (Aetang Ilokana?--a term that I got from an Italiana herself, not discriminatory, as I like Bianca Gonzales!) woman with an American boyfriend maybe a couple of decades her senior (I don't mean to sound judgmental!) told her friend that she didn't have load anymore, that's why she had not been in touch. She wanted to put down the phone quickly before her boyfriend arrived. I really didn't mean to eavesdrop, she was a few tables away, but she was yelling into the phone. It's that quiet in Cocktales!

Nangtsimis pa ako!

I was happy with what I ordered, maybe a Vietnamese coffee. Then Ms. Italiana said of her order, Mmm.

I agree with the perceptive clickthecity review that Cocktales has a mostly female clientele! I rarely see men there! And yes, I also love the quirky glasses and menu book!

I look forward to trying the board games that the clickthecity review mentioned.

Cocktales is a happy experience! Move over, Starbucks, Delifrance, Seattle's Best, even San Francisco Coffee!

When I went there for lunch with Gg, I think that she found the prices too high and she was not impressed with the fruity dessert. She had wanted to treat me for her October bday, but since it was close to my November bday, she asked me who was treating. When she told me how much money she had, which was lower than our total bill, I said that it's my turn to treat!

I agree with happyfoodies, the sago was undercooked, the fruity containers were eye candy! And Cocktales does listen to its customers, as it now offers spiked drinks!

AUY had emailed myfoodtrip for a Friday pickup of their prize, since JTU could not make it a few days earlier, the date when the pulvoron would be available. Leslie of myfoodtrip suggested the Monday after, so that it would be with another batch, that the polvoron would not taste good a few days old. I insisted on Friday, since JTU would be back in Vancouver by Monday. After all, doesn't polvoron have sugar and doesn't an Eastwood office have airconditioning? I asked JTU. Yes, she went.

ASUY had joined the contest only because AJPS had worked there. I turned out that he has relocated to Makati!

So much thanks to JTU, who didn't need to go to Eastwood, especially since she had been there this trip.

Leslie had suggested to AUY that she tell her friends about the promo, as there was another round. I decided to wait until I've tried it before telling everyone. Well, it looks prettier than it tastes. JTU only wanted the plain polvoron, no nuts for her, so she didn't get any. It turned out that there was a guide on the side on which shape was what. I liked coffee and regular, but less than the ordinary pulvoron you can get at Goldilocks and most anywhere else. Sponge Bobert bit into the rose-flavored one then left the rest for her mom. CYdA and I didn't like lavender at all. C said something like eating perfume.

Next time, myfoodtrip offers an unknown prize, be forewarned. Their P 1,000 prize is much better.

Cameras: Acer Aspire One for Cocktales, Canon Ixus 100 IS for the pulvoron.

Starbucks pressed coffee


Ortigas food tour

Seattle's Best Javakula

Delifrance posts:

mushroom soup, water with lemonade

Ladies' room which has become smelly since this post

Seattle's Best javakula and Delifrance water with lemons

Errata: Upo with Chicken

Email from MPOO, on the Upo and Carrots post: "Will try making it at home."

Incidentally, I had said in the Upo and Carrots post that the upo was mixed with tinapa. Meya and Caymen said that the upo was mixed with chicken, as are the celery and carrots.

This recipe uses tomatoes.

Without my asking her to do so, Caymen eventually made the yummier upo with shrimp that I mentioned in the Upo and Carrots post.

Photos: lettuce sauteed with garlic, sigarilyas with shrimp.

Celery and Carrots

ADG, reacting to this post: "Now i understand what u meant by : DID u read my blog...u mean all these foodstuff photos and comments uv been sending me IS your blog?"

Some home cooking veggy photos for EO, who I mentioned in atchara and Feeling Veggyish: yummy sauteed celery with carrots (November 22) and upo with tinapa, which I like fine, but I prefer my upo with shrimp.

Tita Angie's Atchara

Thanks to AZ for the atchara. I hope that you can come up with prices soon so I can buy them for, say, my Uncle, who can only appreciate healthy things.

I slathered the atchara onto meatballs and other fried food. As before, it was neither too sweet or sour. I like it! Not exactly the veggie I can eat on its own when I'm suddenly hungry, but still, I'm glad that it's there. This post is for Eloisa, who I mention in Feeling Veggyish.

Experimented with different settings of the new Canon Ixus 100 IS hehe.

This papaya recipe doesn't have a photo. I would willingly send my photos over, but I'm too lazy to login at the site, especially after Anton Diaz told us that it should be easy to post comments at blogs. Tita Angie's is made of singkamas (turnip) and carrots.

January 10 photos include Tita Angie's packaging. I like the bottle with the bronze cap, which, I just notice now, has ampalaya (bitter gourd). The see-through, spidey bag stuffed with colored, feminine paper is lovely.