Star Margarine Choco and Vanilla

I'm not sure if I was just late to the party but it's only recently that I saw new flavor variants for Star Margarine. These new flavors leave me befuddled especially since I've grown accustomed to commercials of Star Margarine being used in rice.

Chocolate and Vanilla in your rice, anyone?

Classic Haw Flakes spotted in the wild

I have not seen this in ages, and it's a pleasant surprise to see that these still exist.

I'm just not sure if this is the only brand left, since I originally remember Haw Flakes being violet/purple in color and thinly sliced, which explains why we used to play with it as "hostia" or the communion.

Southwest Monsoon floods Manila

For the past two days, the rains have been non-stop in most parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces in Luzon, Philippines. I'm personally thankful that I'm personally not as badly affected as the rest of our brethren. I just hope for everyone's safety in this time of calamity. The rains have been so continuous and flooding so bad, that even the BPO sector [call center industry] would have amnesty for absences and double pay for those able to come to work for tonight and tomorrow morning. It's THAT bad. Pictures shown below are not mine, but from the various pictures available through my social network. Be safe everyone.

LRT 2 - Santolan Station, Pasig

Another view of the LRT 2 Station in Santolan, Pasig

Somewhere in Pasig City, Metro Manila

Outside a home Palatiw, Pasig City

At a Shell gasoline Station in Araneta Avenue, Quezon City

Marikina

Ground floor - UST Hospital

Marcos Highway -- Marikina

And despite it all, there are still some feel-good stories, tales of survival and the indomitable will of the human spirit:

KFC Cheese Top Burger

KFC's Streetwise value line seems to be churning out new ideas to draw new consumers to their affordable meals, but this one had me scratching my head. I mean, really? You put the cheese on top of your bread? My first impression was...

How the heck would you hold a burger with the cheese on top? It could be messy. Also, how different would it be if you just put the cheese INSIDE the burger itself.

After what seemingly an endless maelstrom of why oh whys, I settled down. Though I thought that for a cheeseburger, that seemed oh-kay. Pretty cheap considering it is packaged with a drink already. Also, as a way to encourage folks to buy it with the drink, this burger costs just a measly 2 pesos less than the value meal which includes the regular drink.

The cheese is standard fare, as with most burgers these days, which is just fine. There's also something markedly different with the sauce used with this burger. Instead of the traditional mayo they used with the Zinger, and Double Down sandwitches, this one sports a garlic parmesan sauce which gives it a slight cheesy garlic flavor, which for me is a good choice since I particularly dislike plain mayo.

Overall, it was a pleasant surprise, though I still feel that the cheese on top concept is ri-DARNIT-diculous. 

Empanada Avenue -

Last Saturday, while on the way home, I was feeling a bit hungry. Since it was a week before payday, my budget was trying to crawl . I was thinking of ignoring my grumbling tummy till I get home where I can mooch off the stocks at home, but this is something that needs to be addressed ASAP. My choices were a bunch of fastfood restos. I'm not eating there, because my budget would not let me. 

This store caught my eye, and the name seems familiar. I walked in and check what they have in store and if I can somehow fit it in my miniscule budget.

Oh-kay, it seems cheap and I can afford it. Whew!

Other variants/flavors are available.

 Just so that you can see the size as compared to my palm. It's quite small, but it was served hot, which is a big plus, and it doesn't have a lot of breading, which is a bigger plus. The flavor was good, and I appreciated it. Too bad, it's far and I'm not familiar if there are other branches.

Korean Yogurt from Bon Chon

Bon Chon Chicken has been known everywhere for their double-fried, paper-thin skin and delectable soy garlic and spicy chicken. That's a known fact. They are so popular, that there seems to be one within one public transportation ride to and from the next branch. Case in point, there's one in Eastwood Citiwalk, one just barely outside Eastwood, along C-5. There's going to be one in Cubao; Megamall and Robinson's Galleria have their own respective branches as well. I can go on, but that's not what you're here for anyway.

One lunch hour, me and my teammates decided to visit the Eastwood Bon Chon for some good eats. My teammates were intrigued with the long lines and the almost-always jampacked branch. I've been to Bon Chon many times before, but I was influenced by my former boss Bebot and I just fell for it from there.

I've detailed the awesomeness of the chicken in an earlier post, so I won't delve into that anymore. Out of curiosity, I decided to try out their Ko-Yo [Korean Yogurt] and see if it's any different from the typical frozen yogurt offered by other stores.

  

Being a fan of the Banoffee Pie, I tried their take on it to see how it stacks up. 

 

I shared this with my teammates to get their thoughts on it. We have the same thoughts on it: it's different from the regular frozen yogurt, as this seems to have no sugar in it, and have that sour taste that you normally get from regular yogurt. The caramel and banana seems to try and lessen that sour taste, but that's the prevailing thought. Then again, this IS yogurt and I can't knock it for tasting like a yogurt now, can I?

 Also, the crust at the bottom seems to be either old, or is really, really hard. The plastic spoon I used could not break it, and I had to eat it by chunks. I didn't particularly like that.

As much as I love Frozen Yogurts in general, I just could not recommend this. I'd stick to the chicken and the wonderful Chap-chae noodles when going to Bon Chon. I might reconsider but that would not be soon.

Mini Stop Strawberry Yogurt Sundae

Yesterday was a bummer day to say the least. I was hoping to eat out at my regular cheap eats place for dinner since I'm home alone for the evening with my dad out, but since it was a Sunday, they were all closed. Since I was already outside Eastwood, the only two choices were Jollibee, and Mini Stop, lest I want to walk back in and check options again inside. It was already 9PM, and didn't feel like trekking back in, so I settled with eating at Mini Stop's toppers [which is a hit or miss, depending on the branch, or day... or whatever factor there is, it seems]. While on queue, this caught my eye.

If any previous history is any indication, I just had to give it a go. The last offering I tried out was real good.

Mini Stop may be hit and miss with their rice meals [except Uncle John's chicken, which is mostly a hit], but their soft serve ice cream is always a hit if you ask me. Worth the 15Php, and more than made up for the sad, sad, "chicken teriyaki" rice toppers I had.

No, this isn't Selecta Magnum, but I just had to take the obligatory picture

Chicken Charlie chucks chicken a la Bon Chon

Late last April, while wandering around Eastwood Citiwalk, I happened to run into the signs of this upstart opening shop in Eastwood [coincidentally, ahead of more popular Bon Chon chicken]. Coincidental? Maybe, maybe not? What I could notice is that they may be trying to get a foothold of the chicken crowd before Bon Chon could settle down inside Eastwood's confines.

Located at the 4th floor of the Eastwood Citiwalk 2, on the same level as the movie theaters [Eastwood Cinemas 1-4], they occupy a small space but is clearly visible to potential patrons. They serve legs, thighs, and wings, among others, with your choice of the original soy-garlic recipe or their hot and spicy variant.

Menu-wise, it is still a bit thin, with very limited variation outside of chicken. Then again, they were still on soft launch as of the time I dropped by, so hopefully that would improve later on.

Price? Meals start out at as low as 59 pesos to the normal-esque range of 120+ Php. I haven't personally tried the 59 peso budget meal. I opted to order the 2 drumstick meal, while Jasmine opted to get the 3 wings set. We both opted for the spicy variant and we took notes from there.

Size? It was on par with what Bon Chon chicken serves. This appears true for both wings and legs. It's significantly smaller comparing it to KFC, or Jollibee or McDonalds, but you're not really supposed to go here for that. Chicken Charlie [and Bon Chon, for that matter] brings a different

Taste? I've taken to spicy chicken, with this in mind, I initially had Bon Chon chicken's spicy level in mind. Simply put, this is the milder version. Depending on one's preference for flavor, that may be better or worse. Personally though, I would've preferred to get my tongue nearly seared and sweat forming on my forehead while I eat nice and spicy chicken. Still, good though.

If there is anything I'd like to hope to happen, it would be that they could develop additional items that could compliment their main offering. Something like Chap-chae noodles, maybe? 

Jollibee Floats

With summer in full tow and seemingly breaking temperature records each day, Jollibee comes up with a couple of coolers to help stem the heat.

Price may vary from branch to branch... which is weird if you ask me.

I'll say this, McDonalds is way more generous with their soft-serve ice cream and chocolate syrup. For me, that counts a lot. The chocolate and coffee drinks themselves are okay, but I wish they would stop scrimping on the ice cream and syrup.

Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream goodness by Selecta

As I was going home from work today, I saw a big poster at 7-11 Alimall advertising the Magnum, a new ice cream bar, supposedly made from that oh-so-good Belgian chocolate.

  

With the sweltering heat on hand, and my curiosity piqued, I went to 7-11 and just had to try it out, at least once. There's supposedly three different flavors to choose from: Classis, Almond, and Chocolate Truffle. From how I understand it, this was just recently launched last February 28, 2012, and having the chance to "enjoy the royal treatment" is just too good to pass up.

It does come at a price though, of course. Royalty's never cheap. This one set me back 60 Philippine pesos [roughly $1.40 USD], but I bought it nonetheless. Not much choice available as 7-11 Alimall only had Chocolate truffle available at the time, but what the heck.

 

The chocolate coating was so good, and it seemed like I wolfed down the ice cream bar. It was very creamy, and it didn't come off as too sweet for me. It sure seemed like a sure thing that things were looking good, but I had to pass by Savemore Supermarket to have my bills paid, when I saw this in the supermarket:

 

Not only is there a freezer full of royally good ice cream, it was also 10 pesos cheaper than in 7-11. Them's the breaks, I guess. Can't have everything perfect [although it's all good still].

Cheesecake and Sundae in one

Mini Stop has a new offering that I just had to try. One of their new soft-serve ice cream flavors was cheesecake sundae, and I just had to have a serving of that.

Mini Stop offers cheap desserts and their soft-serve ice cream draws regulars because of its affordability and taste.

As a cheesecake fan myself, I tried it out and was not disappointed. It was good. For the price, it's worth a try for everyone, that's for sure.