Inggo Noms...

Beloved and I stayed at Makati a week ago because of some work-related Christmas celebrations. Since it’s a rare occasion that we’re staying in Makati, we decided to eat at Mendokoro Ramenba. This Metro-famous ramen place is often talked about with its long queues in its somewhat not-as-accessible location in Salcedo Village, Makati. There’s also the couple of scandals the venue is involved in related to celebrity patrons.

The soon-to-be-reviewed Korean place Beloved and I went to that I talked about in my Sebastian’s review was Samgyupsalamat. This is one of the many Korean Barbecue places that has opened up essentially everywhere in the Metro. Its name is a play-on-words with “samgyupsal”, the Korean pork barbecue that’s wrapped in lettuce, often with rice and other toppings, and “salamat”, Filipino word for “thanks”.

Beloved and I had dessert at Sebastian’s at Vertis North after we went to Botejyu a few months ago. Yes, this is long overdue, but luckily I took notes. This is local ice cream place has a unique twist, which I detail after the cut.

Beloved and I have been going to CoCo Ichibanya a lot recently. This curry place had a new branch at Vertis North. We’ve actually been to this chain before and, like Ippudo, it’s proven to be consistent. We first tried it at its first branch at Estancia Mall at Capitol Commons, then somewhere near Rockwell, and finally frequenting it at Eastwood. While Eastwood is quite close to home, Vertis North is a bit cheaper to commute to, so we’re ecstatic to learn it has a new branch there.

My first meal with Beloved the day after I returned from the Netherlands was in Ippudo Eastwood Branch. The primary reason we went here was because they were having a limited promotion where they served the original recipe from 33 years ago. Knowing how consistent Ippudo is through the years no matter the branch or country, we were quite excited to try it out.

After carefully assessing which place in Schipol will give me a nice conclusion for a Dutch experience that’s not beer, I concluded that Grand Café Plaza was the best place to go. Since most places have their menus displayed outside, I managed to find that this place waves its country’s flag on special local items. Since it had one platter that I found most interesting compared to all the other places in the area, which mostly serves pastas or sandwiches, I decided to settle here for my final meal before my flight back home.

My last day in the Netherlands also coincided with my flight back home in the afternoon. When I arrived by train to Schipol airport, I made it my mission to find a place that serves haring. After scouring almost all the food places in Schipol Plaza, I learned that the place happened to be called Happy Seafood.

My fourth day in Wageningen coincided with the last day of the conference. That meant no dinner buffet and also meant I had to find some place for nourishment. I explored the town center near Wageningen University & Research with the help of Google Maps and found an interesting place called Restaurant Toledo. On the way, I passed by a truck that served haring, but knowing what I’m about to do, I decided to head straight to the restaurant.

I had been contemplating whether or not to write about this, since this is Inggo Noms… and not Inggo Zzzs…. While Chalet GEM had been primarily my home away from home in the Netherlands, I did find an excuse on why I should feature this place in my blog… after the cut.

As I explained in my latest Life Update, I needed to go to Wageningen, Netherlands to attend the International Conference ‘Water Science for Impact’ for work. As I wasn’t able to bring my Beloved photographer with me in this odyssey, I’ll use this post to preemptively apologize on the low quality of the images for the upcoming few posts.

Anyway, I stayed at Chalet GEM located at TopParken, a holiday wilderness park. The closest restaurant was De Kantine, or literally, “the cafeteria” located at said park just a very close walking distance from the chalet. My host recommended I eat there as soon as I settled down as the place closes at 8pm. Famished, I opted to take her recommendation rather than venturing to the nearest town centers, which was at least 2km away.