In Part 2 of this continuing coverage of the TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour, organized by Yehey- the country's premier portal and search engine, we visited TriNoma's 2nd level. The easy favorite was La Maison. Also visited Cabalen. We had three more levels worth of food merchants to visit and half an afternoon to go.
By now we realized that twenty to thirty minutes each level
just wasn't going to be enough, if TriNoma and Yehey wanted us to cover all the restaurants on the list. The list indicated five participating establishments on the this level- which meant a scant five or six minutes per resto- and that's hardly enough time at all.
Someone in the group I was rolling with suggested we be more strategic about it: pick a few good ones- restaurants we haven't tried before- and spend at least a good leisurely ten minutes to sit down, hang around a bit, get to know each other some, take some pictures, and basically have some fun.
I have to agree it was a pretty good idea.
The first stop was Pampanga Restaurant
Abe- "where good friends dine", it said at the entrance. A few bloggers were already there ahead of us taking pictures and sampling the food. It offered Filipino food- but had some very unique and interesting dishes. There was this impressive looking
pla-pla (
a fairly large-sized tilapia fish) dish on the table, as well as a roast chicken, and what seemed to be
kare-kare.
I've had the chance to try out Abe in Serendra (
wasn't that the very first branch?). While the restaurant positions itself as a bastion of Capampangan cuisine, they also serve other interesting dishes from other regions of the Philippines.
After taking some pictures, I grabbed myself a plate and got just a little bit of rice to eat with some
binagoongan (
pork stewed in shrimp paste),
lumpiang pica-pica (egg rolls) and tried some of the
relyenong mais (
stuffed corn patties). One of the Abe staff politely explained that the
relyenong mais is actually a pattie made of a mix of corn and shrimp meat bound together with egg and flour- a pretty interesting dish that went rather well with what we were already having.
Our next stop was a mediterranean-cuisine restaurant not too far away called
Hossein's Persian Kebab. I remember seeing one of its branches along Makati Avenue, but never had the chance to try it out. The staff kindly directed us towards a table where they talked about the food they wanted us to try that afternoon- some pita bread, mediterranean-style salad, beef kebabs, with sides of
hummus (
ground chick-pea paste) and
mutabal (
eggplant mash with yogurt). Bring it on, I say!
The Hossein's staff directed us to our seats. I took pictures while the others waited for the food. See, what I liked about Hossein's was that they had us sit down, and then served us in small little groups. There were bloggers occupying two or three tables- and it was a nice chance for us to share food among new friends, even from separate tables. It was then that we finally had the chance to talk about what we did for a living, and swap stories and basically get to know each other.
Over pleasant conversation, I had myself a small plate with a beef kebab and some pita bread and mutabal. The staff graciously offered us more, but we had a couple dozen restaurants left to check out, and we needed the extra tummy space.
Interestingly enough, our little band of bloggers has remained intact up to this point. Shown in the foreground of the picture are husband-and-wife team Michael (
the online forex trader) and Myra (
chef and food stylist). In the background are our online buddies Michael and Christine (
who deal in toys). Not shown, but very much around (
see the last pic on this blog, taken in Haiku) were Jomar, Jolou and myself.
At any rate, we had just about enough time to check out one other food merchant on this level before moving on, so our next stop was the quaint little Japanese restaurant next to Hossein's called
Haiku.
Just like the resto before it, the staff led us to the showcase table. You have to give these guys points for presentation. They used this intricately-arranged salad for a centerpiece, with some wine and an interesting-looking sashimi plate right next to it. The staff then allowed us to hang out for a while and take some pictures of the place, while they prepare our sampler salad-and-sashimi plates.
Personally, as a dude, I prefer more-filling meat dishes and steaks to lighter fare like sushi, sashimi and salads. But I have to hand it to Haiku- the salad they served us (
I think they call it The Best Ever salad- gotta check if I got it right) was downright delicious! My fellow bloggers were busying themselves trying to figure out what's in the salad, but I just wolfed it all down because it tasted quite alright.
We finished our plates just as another group of bloggers were on their way in. Anne, our helpful little guide from TriNoma, joined us at Haiku, and advised us that the fourth floor had a lot of heavy-hitters. Apparently, the two groups before us all had a grand time there- and naturally, we were curious and excited to find out for ourselves.
With that, we gathered our gear and headed upstairs. Oh, and we took the stairs this time to burn off whatever we could to make more room for more food!
More of the TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour coming up, as we explore the fourth level of Ayala's newest mall in Quezon City. You can check out my other write-ups of the Bloggers' Food Tour here:
To all our participating restos, Yehey!, TriNoma, and my new blogger buds- thank you for the wonderful experience.
Cheers!
