Food Coma Adventures

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

If you mention anything to do with cheese, I'm SO there. Cheese is probably my greatest food obsession, and almost everyone who knows me knows this.

So when I came across a post on Facebook announcing this new kiosk that opened up in a food park in Marikina, I decided to check it out. And I invited my triathlon teammates who live within the area to join me in this cheese indulgence.

Along a relatively quiet road with restaurants sprouting up left and right, one will see a truck-like establishment aptly named The Truck Park.

Once you enter any of its wide doorways, you will see different kiosks serving different kinds of food: from Mediterranean, to Filipino, to Mexican, to American comfort food.


Their menu is limited, which is expected for food truck establishments, since they need to be able to prep and serve all their dishes at near-lightning speeds. To get an idea of what they serve, check out their menu in their Facebook page.

Two of my teammates were able to show up, and we tried a range of their dishes.


We began with their Spanish Croquettas (PhP 129) and Cheesy Penne con Violy (PhP 179).

Personally, I felt that the penne was your typical tomato-based dish (which, I think, one can pretty much recreate at home); just with more cheese than usual.

But I loved, loved, loved the croquettas! I'm not sure what was in it, but the combination of what I think was chorizo (?), cheese, and the texture of the panko was an instant hit with me. I would go back to order several of these babies, seriously.


What arrived next was the Shepherd's Pie (PhP 225). Again, its flavor was just okay to me, probably because we have Shepherd's Pie at home almost every week. I liked its level of cheesiness, though; definitely much gooeyer than what we serve at home.


Since we were/are hungry multisport athletes on off-season, we had two (!) servings of the Four-Cheese Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup (PhP 179), with Emmental, Cheddar, Mozzarella, and a cheese sauce. The portions were just right for me and I liked the combination of cheeses in the sandwich. However, I felt that the tomato soup could be creamier and sweeter to counter the saltiness of the sandwich.

Note that if you want more cheese scrapings in any of your dishes, you can opt for a Half Scrape (PhP 99) and a Full Scrape (PhP 160). Obviously, you would (and should!) go for the Full Scrape, because why add more cheese without going all-out, right?

Overall, it was a pretty good experience eating the dishes from Cheese Cartel. I'm quite happy with what they offer, as well as the quality of their food, and I'm likely to go back for more sometime soon.

Some notes on eating in The Truck Park, though:

• There's limited parking, as the first picture would show. You might end up parking across the street, or in other nearby establishments if you're not one of its earlier diners.


• Their payment scheme involves a reloadable white card. In one of the kiosks, you determine the amount you think your card should hold, then place your orders in the stall/s of your choice. If you run out of "load" or "credit", you'll have to go back to the kiosk to "reload" (a.k.a. pay more).


• The ventilation was — well, not great — at least when I was there. The entire place was smokey, and after staying there for an hour, my eyes started to water. I'd recommend that The Truck Park explore better a better exhaust and ventilation system.


• The lighting was slightly dim, but it added to a cozy ambiance.


• Considering that we were in an enclosed area and that there were lots of people when we were there, I was fairly surprised to note that it wasn't noisy (there was some kind of soundproofing, whether intended or not). My friends and I were able to hear each other well, without any of us having to shout or talk louder than usual.

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.

If there are two things people associate me with, at least food-wise, they are definitely truffle and pasta. In fact, one of the Creative Directors in my office calls me "Pasta Girl".

Needless to say, I am always on the lookout for good pasta restaurants, especially if truffle is involved. So when I found out that a restaurant close to my office was up and running, I was excited to try it out.

Take note that as of this writing, the restaurant is still in its soft opening stage, so its management team may still be ironing out many details or processes.


I was curious to see how long it would take for the orders to be brought in (considering everything will be cooked from scratch, and customized according to the customers' individual preferences), but I was surprised to see that the dishes started trickling in in under 15 minutes.

In the meantime, my mango juice, sweetened with a freshly pressed sugar cane, arrived first. I quite like how it tasted.


My officemates and I (we were a table of four) got two kinds of dishes, with slight variations per dish: two went for the Gambas (with different kinds of noodles), and two of us went for the Trufa (with the same noodles but different alegrias).

My art director colleague ordered the same dish, with tagliatelle noodles, and also commented on its lack of flavor.

As these two truffle dishes were placed on our table, I could immediately smell the truffle aroma emanating from the plates. However, after the first bite, I could barely taste the truffle; its mushroom flavor overpowered any hint of truffle that may have been there. I had to ask the server to add more truffle flavor to both dishes, which only improved the truffle flavor by a bit, since the truffle oil was just drizzled over the pasta as opposed to being integrated into the sauce.

It was creamy, yes, and I liked the cook on the noodles, but I couldn't really taste anything "truffley" on it, unfortunately. And I was really expecting a lot from this dish given the following:

• Its restaurant name (trufa is Spanish for truffle);
• I have tried so many pasta restaurants in Metro Manila and out of town, so I have reasonable expectations;
• I have cooked truffle cream pasta several times, so I know what flavors to look for.

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.