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.

KFC's BBQ Rods

Just recently, KFC started re-promoting a new offering called the Barbeque (BBQ) Rods. To put it simply, it's an original recipe chicken fried [not barbequed, as the name implies] with a special "barbeque sauce" that makes it different from other menu items in KFC. They have released it before, but it seems they put it in the backburner until recently. Not being able to try it before, I ventured today and tried it out for lunch. To say the least, it was an interesting choice. For 85Php (the price of this meal as of this time of writing), you get two BBQ Rods, one serving of "Java" rice, and your choice of regular drink. Here's my snap on my meal. 

The sauce is sweet, and gives it a bit of a barbeque feel, and since I tend towards sweet sauces, I found it enjoyable at least. The rice was uhm... yellow, but I don't recall Java rice being white and yellow, so it felt like it was a half-hearted effort to make Java rice. That might just be the order I got, I'm not sure about others. The Rods themselves are okay, though I got the impression that I was eating KFC's Fun Shots on a stick. It had the same bite sized chicken, and fried and prepared the same way. All in all, it was an okay dish. Would I try it again? Sure, it's something different, although I don't see it becoming a long-time staple for KFC.