Food Coma Adventures

I first learned about the concept of meal kit services sometime last year, or the previous year. While food delivery services are all the rage in Metro Manila (from reduced calorie count meals, to Paleo, to Keto, etc.), we didn't have a meal kit delivery service just yet, which appealed to me so much more. I was praying that something like HelloFresh would eventually make its way to the Philippines; fresh ingredients, already portioned according to my chosen dish, that I could cook myself.

Lo and behold, I finally had the answer to my prayers (thanks to my boss, who first tried it out) in the form of u Cookin, the first meal kit provider in the Philippines.

After seeing posts made my those who had tried the service, including my boss', I decided to give it a go. I placed an order for their Balsamic Sirloin Steak, initially for 5 pax (PhP 650 for all ingredients, already portioned per serving). But I decided to bump it up into 7 pax so I could make our Sunday dinner (which usually includes my brother, sister-in-law, and 3-year-old nephew; soon, I will have to factor in my toddler nephew's growing appetite and his newborn brother who will be eating solids at some point). Thankfully, u Cookin was gracious enough to come up with a package for 7 (at PhP 850), which isn't included in any of their rates.

My box was delivered on a Friday as they don't do weekend deliveries. I placed it in the refrigerator first before thawing the steaks come Sunday afternoon. I started to prep a little before 5pm, in anticipation of dinner.

This was how the box looked. The sides were taped together, and fairly easy to open.


It came with a brochure that let you know which ingredients were already in the box, and what you would need from your own kitchen (the usuals like salt and pepper, olive oil, a pan, etc.).


The step-by-step, easy-to-follow recipe followed in the succeeding pages.


The box had all of the ingredients needed for this dish, except salt, pepper, olive oil, the pans, oven, and kitchen sink. LOL.


In the recipe, it doesn't specify if you needed to peel the potatoes (I ended up peeling them). But I followed the rest of the instructions, in terms of cut and cooking methods (cook in pan + place pan in oven to roast).


While the potatoes were roasting in the oven, I went to work on the balsamic sauce. For the sauce, the box came with a balsamic glaze in a small circular container, a whole garlic, and Knorr chicken cubes (coincidentally, Knorr happens to be one of the brands I've handled for the longest time). Basically, it was just a matter of putting them all together in a pan.


Back to the potatoes. After removing the pan from the oven, the recipe called for stirring them in butter (included in the box) until the butter melted. I ended up throwing in some chopped carrots (from our fridge) for variety.


As for the steaks, according to the recipe, I was supposed to have cooked them in a pan then finished them off in the oven. However, since I had multiple steaks to take care of, I decided to use our griller instead — so I could cook all the steaks at the same time. While I'm no steak master, I tried my best to watch out for and cook according to each family member's preferred temp.


Et voila! Balsamic Sirloin Steak with a side of roasted potatoes and carrots, a la u Cookin (with some modifications by yours truly).

Now here are my thoughts on this service:

Pros:
- I've already liked the concept of a meal kit delivery service to begin with, so props to u Cookin for being the first one to provide this in the Philippines.
- Easy to place an order on their website and it's also easy to correspond with them (for coordinating delivery schedule, payment, etc.).
- Reasonably priced meals. I was so surprised that for the number of plates I came up with, I only paid PhP 850 for everything.
- The recipe was easy to follow. Even relatively new cooks can whip up a good meal.
- u Cookin is expanding their menu. As of today, they added five new meals, which you can already pre-order.

Cons:
- Only one mode of payment (BDO). I hope they include an online payment service (i.e. PayPal or via credit card), or at least expand to other banks or via payment centers.
- Particular to this dish at least, the serving size could be bigger. The steak and veggies only occupied half of a standard size plate. I'm not sure if the serving sizes are bigger for their other menu items.
- No weekend deliveries. If you're planning to cook on a weekend, expect to refrigerate or even freeze the ingredients upon delivery on a weekday.

Minor cons aside, I'm quite happy that u Cookin is now here, and when I run out of recipe ideas, I'm most likely going to order again from them.

I'm pretty sure that this service will be helpful to those who live in condos or have smaller kitchens, or couples and small families (since the ingredients are already portioned; there's no wastage whatsoever). Newbies in the kitchen won't be intimidated either (believe me; I used to be deathly afraid of stepping into the kitchen) because it's quite easy to follow their recipe/s.

And since they've expanded their menu, you can easily try to whip up different dishes — or get ideas and invent your own dishes.

To place an order, visit their Facebook page and follow the order link. And please don't forget to indicate that you learned about the service from me, Tina Araneta, if you decide to give them a shot!

Thanks, u Cookin, for this awesome service! And for those placing an order anytime soon, HAPPY COOKING!

It's no secret that my family and I treat Baguio like our second home. For several generations now, it's been a routine for our families to spend summer vacations and weekends in Baguio. We still make it a point to head up north at least annually.

For many years, we would usually just eat in Baguio Country Club (since that's where we normally stay) and in nearby restaurants in Camp John Hay or along Session Road. Lately, however, we've been more adventurous in terms of discovering new restaurants. Just like most places in the Philippines, Baguio has been upping its game in terms of cuisine and variety options, as well as the quality of food, so my family and I have tried a number of new restaurants recommended by friends and featured in articles.

About a year and a half ago, I was able to eat at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant when I was in Osaka. Months after that trip, I learned that Manila would be bringing in its own version of the conveyor belt experience in the form of Genki Sushi. However, I hadn't been able to drop by since I don't get to frequent Bonifacio Global City, where its first branch is located, all that much.

Two weeks ago, though, they opened another branch close to my home. So I was finally able to check it out together with some members of my family.

Located on the ground floor of UP Town Center (tip: it's near the mall entrance closest to H&M), it's best to head over to the restaurant before its peak hours. There are a number of chairs outside the restaurant for diners on the waiting list; and yes, midway into your meal, you really will see a line of people waiting to be seated inside the restaurant.

And here's a glimpse of their menu. To find out the prices of their dishes (which are grouped by category as well as prices), you can also check out this link.
Your orders will arrive on either level (the upper or lower track), on a blue train or a red train. Once you've taken your plate from the train, there's a yellow button found near the hot water faucet that you press to send the train back. This was the Fried Salmon Cheese Roll — and it's now one of my favorite rolls to eat.

• Once you are seated, the waiters will orient you on the ordering process. It's easy to use their LCD screen ordering system, especially since most of us are familiar with tablets and smartphones.
• Their ingredients are very fresh, and unlike a lot of family-friendly Japanese restaurants with limited sushi/sashimi offerings, Genki Sushi has a very extensive range; even featuring dishes like eel and octopus.
• Their service is fairly quick. At most, it would take 10 minutes for your order/s to arrive. But generally, each of our dishes arrived in under 5 minutes.
• For non-sushi/sashimi lovers, there's a very limited menu featuring rice meals and the like.
• Not all of the dishes will arrive via the trains. For things like beverages, you will have to ask the waiters to bring them to you.
• Perhaps this is specific to the UP Town Center branch, but there's not much noise control inside the restaurant. You'll really be able to hear the music, the chatter from nearby tables, and the clanging of spoons, forks, and chopsticks. Thankfully, however, the trains that carry your food are quite silent as they make their way towards and away from your table.
• The dishes are quite pricey (i.e. P90 to P200+ for four to sometimes even just one piece per dish). Choose wisely and if you're under a strict budget, make sure to hit "View Bill" on the LCD screen every now and then to see your running balance.
• For the quality of the food and the childlike thrill of seeing it arrive on a little train, it's a worthwhile experience.

Genki Sushi, 
G/F Phase 2, UP Town Center, 
Katipunan Ave, Diliman, Quezon City
(+632) 958 5010

Hi, world!

Sorry for the absence of posts (especially "Foodie Fridays", which I wanted to do regularly) the past few weeks. But something's been cooking — or, to be more accurate grammatically — baking lately.

And it's this.

My mom just launched her food business in time for the Holidays!

A bit of a background: in the 90's, my mom was involved with various food ventures. She partnered with some friends, and later on, started a cookie business. She had stalls in malls and in school cafeterias. In fact, some of my friends and even the older alumnae of my high school remember her cookies.

However, she gave up the cookie business and pulled out of the malls and cafeterias she was selling in, and went back to working full-time in the academe. This went on for the last 15 or so years.

Now that she has retired, though, she decided to bring back her first love, and this is being in the kitchen.

My mom, Sonia Araneta, was cooking and baking ever since she was practically in diapers (unlike me; I only started a little over two years ago) and has pretty much gotten both disciplines down to a science and an art form. As unbiased as can be, given that I'm her daughter, I'd have to say that she is one of the best cooks/bakers I know of, and she's been one of the biggest motivations for me to get cooking.

This is why I'd like to encourage you all to support her latest endeavor, Noona's Kitchen!

(And by so doing, you are also supporting my semi-reviving interest in photography and feeble attempts at "design" work!)

The name of her business comes from my two-year-old nephew (her grandson), who calls her "Noona" instead of "Nonna" (Italian for "grandmother"). She is currently accepting orders for the Holiday season for both desserts:

Meanwhile, her Signature Apple Pie (PhP 750) is 9" of apple, cinnamon, and French Crumble Topping goodness. This was a recipe developed through the years, and a love for pie making that began when my mom was just 12 years old — long before the notion of MasterChef Juniors ever existed.


Hopefully, things will really take off these next two months. And I'm quite excited to see what will happen beyond December 2016.

For orders or queries, you may send us a message at Noona's Kitchen's Facebook page, or check out our Instagram page.

For those who've already ordered and love our food (truly hoping that you do!), I would really love it if you could leave a review on our Facebook page. Or if you take a photo of your order, kindly tag us at @noonaskitchenph, or use the hashtag #noonaskitchenph.

Stay tuned for future offerings, and thanks for all the love!

Over the last long weekend, my siblings and I decided to make a trip to Alabang (we live all the way in Quezon City, so driving to Alabang with our traffic situation feels like an out-of-town roadtrip many times). It also happened to be the opening of a new LEGO Certified Store in Alabang Town Center that same weekend, so it was the perfect time to drop by.

But before hoarding new LEGO sets, we decided to have lunch at one of our favorite sandwich places, introduced to us by our relatives, the Zorrilla family. Prior to this visit, only my sister and I had been there before (we ate there sometime in May), but it would have been the first time of my brother, Chuck, my sister-in-law, and my nephew.

Located on the ground floor of Commercenter in Alabang, Elbert's Sandwiches is pretty easy to spot. The mall's layout is fairly straightforward and it isn't a big mall either, so you shouldn't have a hard time finding it.

Foodie Friday is a blog prompt that I've created for the purpose of blogging more regularly. It could feature anything from a new ingredient that I've tried, a recipe that I experimented on, or a restaurant I visited.

Earlier this week, my parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary, by God's grace. And to end the day with a bang, we made reservations for this restaurant my dad had recently heard about, Xiu Fine Cantonese Dining.

Located along Connecticut Street near the Greenhills shopping complex, the restaurant isn't too difficult to find. Many will remember Lugang Café on this same street, which Xiu replaced.

This blog has been MIA from the blogosphere for the longest time! So, my sincerest apologies to the readers (if any) of this blog for my absence. It's not that I haven't been eating out (I always do) or cooking (I sometimes do); it's just that there wasn't anything blog-worthy — at least food-wise — as of late.

But fret not: I have been scouring the metro (and other cities) for food finds, and I've been working on my culinary skills; particularly, baking. In fact, one of these days, I will try and blog about the different kinds of cheesecakes I've already made and perfected.

Anyway, moving on to today's post!

Recently, my family and I went back to our happy place, which we frequent one to two times a year: Baguio. People usually tell me that they're surprised that we go up as often as we do, and even wonder what's there to do in Baguio. To be perfectly honest, we go there without any particular goal in mind except to relax and to get away from the day to day hassle of Manila living (although Baguio is quickly becoming congested and citified).

Still, there's something charming about returning to our childhood happy place and living simply: enjoying the cool air, being surrounded by lots of trees and flowers, getting to walk around... you get the picture.

However, since more and more people seem to be visiting Baguio as well, the city is rapidly playing catch-up in terms of activities, nightlife, and — you guessed it — restaurants.

One such restaurant we checked out on our last visit two weeks ago was something my mom chanced upon in an online article. When she mentioned they served brick oven pizza, I knew we had to try it out. After all, carbs (pasta and pizza) are my favorite things to eat!

(Apologies in advance for the quality of these photos; unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring my SLR on this trip, and the lighting where I was seated wasn't the most ideal for iPhone food photography.)

A few months ago, my family and I tried to make plans for our dad's 60th birthday celebration. I use the word "tried" because my dad isn't a fan of surprises; he's really one of the most low-key people I've ever met. What we eventually decided on was surprising him with a trip to Baguio, but we had yet to iron out all the details (including making sure that each of us in the family would be available on the weekend that we chose).

Well, surprise, surprise; he was the one who ended up saying, "Can we go to Baguio on *this* weekend?" As if he read our minds.

This meant that we had to come up with another plan within that upcoming Baguio trip instead.

Fast forward to weeks later. Through the suggestion of my sister-in-law's aunt, my mom made a reservation for all 7.25 (the 0.25 being my one-year-old nephew, who didn't need his own place setting; haha!) of us at Mama's Table.

On the day of our reservation, we left Baguio City proper around 10:15am so we could arrive much earlier than our 11am slot. We were surprised to find that we made it in less than 30 minutes.

There was no actual sign outside/near the restaurant, so we had to look for this marker along Ambuklao Road.