Cafe Breton

I believe I have mentioned somewhere in this blog that my favorite part of the meal is dessert and this is a blog post dedicated to one of my personal favorite dessert, the one I customized and the one I personally call "Mara's Heartbreak Crepe", "This is how a heart breaks crepe" or "Mara's Feel Good Crepe" because I get to crave for crepes when I'm heartbroken or when I feel so down in the dumps that I just want to drown myself with all the sweets I can eat.

Here's the best crepe in town (and by best I mean the for ME) by Cafe Breton: 

Mara's Heartbreak/Feel good/This is how a heart breaks Crepe

I can name this crepe whatever name I want because it's "customized". Yes, I get to choose the fruit, the toppings, the sauce, everything and ever since I started eating crepes at Cafe Breton this is what I always order. This is what makes me feel a tad better and a lot guilty afterwards but... what the heck. I'm sad. I deserve to treat myself with a "happy meal".

If you want something else to eat, Cafe Breton also offers sandwiches, salads, cocktails, coffee/tea and their crepes are not just the typical ones that pop into our minds whenever crepe is mentioned, they also have what they call "savoury crepe combination" (e.g. cheese, tomato and egg, cheese, ham and tomato, etc.)

Don't worry about the budget, one crepe can cost you as low as P85 for a banana and condensed milk crepe (Tarzan) and the personalized crepes for P40 for the crepe + P20-P80 for the fruits, P30-P75 for the spreads, P30-P35 for the syrups and for ice cream. You can mix and match whatever combination you like. Budget per meal would be at least P200 per person.

Cafe Breton has branches in The Podium, TriNoma Mall, Tomas Morato, SM Mall of Asia, Westgate Center Muntinlupa, Greenbelt 3 and Robinson's Midtown.

Chili's - Greenbelt 5

During one our dinner dates, my friends and I decided to splurge a little since it was our first time being together again for months so we had dinner at Chili's in Greenbelt 5 during a cold and rainy night.
There were 4 of us (3 girls and 1 guy) and if you frequent Chili's you know that they have big servings. Imagine 3 skinny girls ordering Bottomless Nachos, Buffalo Wings, Grilled Shrimp Alfredo Pasta, Quesadillas, Calamari and Bottomless Iced Tea all at once. The only man in the house wasn't able to do anything about it.

I wasn't able to take photos of the Nachos, Quesadillas and our gigantic glasses of Bottomless Iced Tea though. There were only 4 of us but our table was so full of plates that we had 2 tables connected good for at least 6 persons.

By the end of the meal, we had our leftovers wrapped to go and asked for the bill. We were making wild guesses as to how much our total bill would be. I guessed something around P2,500 total. The other one guessed P1,500. WRONG. Our bill was P3,600++. Crazy but well worth it. We just said we'll never over-order ever again!

It's just that Chili's has so many scrumptious food to choose from and it's difficult to only choose 1 among 50 choices. What's good though is that their servings are big enough to share as a group, so let's say one order of the pasta is P350+ and there's 4 of you sharing, then you can divide the bill to 4. It's not bad at all.

Chili's is great for get-togethers, family and friends dinner, that's my personal opinion.

Chili's has several branches: Greenhills, Greenbelt 5, Tomas Morato and the newly opened one in Powerplant Mall. The best branch for me would be Greenbelt 5 although I have yet to visit their Morato branch. ;)

Abe - Serendra

It was my friend's birthday last Wednesday and his girlfriend planned on a little surprise dinner for him. Nothing huge, just dinner and the 4 of us. Everything was planned, Abe at 7PM, I can already taste the food that I'm going to order. Dreamy.

T-B: Something-something Pla-Pla, Gising gising and Crispy Pork Adobo

Gising gising and Crispy Pork Adobo were my personal "suggestions", my friends couldn't do anything about it since I said I already thought about it since the girlfriend said we're having dinner there. ;)

The pla-pla (fish) was good, it actually looks small in the picture but it would be good enough even for 5 people. I ordered gising gising (kangkong/vegetable) to give variety to our dinner. It's made of chopped kangkong stem and coconut milk (gata) plus some red chili for spice. And my favorite... crispy pork adobo, from the traditional pork adobo this one's deep fried and the sauce is separated. You got to try it! We were so full we felt like sleeping on the couch.

It also helped that we came in early for dinner (6PM), we were just supposed to have a table reserved for 7PM but the waiter suggested that we dine in now or we won't be getting any tables at our preferred time because they are already fully booked. Yeah, we forgot it was payday that day. We were the first customers for dinner, there were 3 waiters who served us and we got great service. A few minutes after we left Abe, we passed by it again and saw the place fully packed.

So, I suggest that if you plan on going there for dinner you should make reservations especially if it's on weekends, holidays or when it's payday. You can call them at Tel Number: (02) 856-0526. 

Their prices are affordable for fine dining, price ranges from P50(desserts) to P600(main entrees). Rice is unlimited. Our bill only cost a little over P1,500 ($35) for 4 rice, Pla-pla, Gising gising, Crispy Pork Adobo, Squid tactics (not in the photo) and 2 Cokes.

Visit Abe at Serendra, Fort Bonifacio High Street in Taguig (near Market! Market!)

Real Coffee's Calamansi Muffins

It's the start of the "-Ber" months again and here in the Philippines, it also means start of the Christmas season which is also equivalent to an excuse to feast on whatever food cravings we have and blame it on the Christmas season. Yes, we're sneaky like that.

So, while I was doing my drafting work earlier in the family room, my cousin was watching a movie on the local cable channel -- When Love Begins, that reminded me of these muffins that were so magical they lasted almost a month before I (and I alone) consumed the whole box and I'm not being sarcastic when I say magical because even though I eat at least one muffin a day, the whole box still looks untouched.

Calamansi Muffins @ Real Coffee, Boracay

Some friends of mine say there's nothing really special about these muffins and that they pretty much taste like lemon squares. 

I disagree. 

Okay, maybe they do taste like lemon squares... a little.

Whatever.

I do believe these Calamansi Muffins rock (plus Jonah's shake).

If you happen to be in Boracay, drop by at Real Coffee for some afternoon "snack" or just buy one muffin for only P35 (less than $1). One muffin is huge, by the way. I don't know how much for the whole box since a close friend of mine just bought it for me for my birthday but it's probably P35 x 12 pcs. Not bad.

Real Coffee is located near Boat Station 1 in Boracay. I also hear they have great coffee thus the name.