Inggo Noms...

Beloved and I finally got the chance to eat at Pino a couple of nights ago. I say finally because this place is pretty close from home, once located at Maginhawa, then they moved to a street nearby, and we’ve been wanting to try the place out for years. This somewhat Filipino cuisine place apparently also owns BRGR: The Burger Project, so we really were expecting much from it. We’ve also heard praises of their bagnet, so I was making sure to order that.

So, I promised some affordable places that deserve either fame or notoriety. Here’s one of them. Being a UP Student since birth, and being a grandchild of a former UP Diliman employee who lives in the Campus, Rodic’s is practically my Thursday diner. I’ve experienced Rodic’s since it still served its signiture silogs (fried rice with egg) on their signiture metal plates when they were still just over 20 Php. If you’re a UP Diliman student and haven’t eaten here or at least heard of it, you’re either a freshman or a liar.

On the same day we ate the notorious Lechon Pizza from Pizza Hut, me and my friends continued on and had dinner at Kanin Club with a larger company. I’ve heard plenty of positive feedback from this place, but was never inclined to try it because of the first word. I’m not a rice lover, period. Because of the name, I expected rice to be the specialty. However, a friend insists that the Crispy Dinuguan here is a must try. And because it was a pretty large company, I decided to tag along.

Me and my friends went to Icebergs a couple of days ago. This is one of those I’ve-passed-by-this-place-a-lot-of-times-before-but-never/rarely-tried-it places—for me, at least. I think the number of times I’ve been here can be counted in one hand. From its name, you can assume it specializes in ice cream, which it does. The branch I always pass by, especially when I was a child, was the one in SM North EDSA. But the place it’s in is pretty obscure that me and my lola, whom I always go with to go grocery shopping there back then, don’t get to visit it. That, and my family has a history of diabetes. That doesn’t stop any of us from eating ice cream, though.

Earlier, Beloved and I had dinner at Lamesa Grill in SM North EDSA. It’s kinda funny why we ended up here. Beloved was craving for soup, so we first started going towards Yoshinoya. While at the Sky Garden, we passed by Marina, and beloved started craving for sisig. We almost decided to eat there, but I thought it was weird to eat at a seafood grill and then order pork sisig. We ended up going to the next Filipino resto that served sisig, which was Lamesa Grill from the path we took. Do note that there are many bar-and-grills at Sky Garden that specialize in Filipino food, and Lamesa Grill is just one of them.

A couple of nights ago, beloved and I had dinner at Oma. Oma is a semi-Filipino bar and restaurant at one of the junction streets of Tomas Morato. Why I call it semi-Filipino, read on. Anyway, Beloved has been bugging me to go here after learning the names of the two soups in their menu. However, every time we pass by, it’s either under renovation, closed because it’s a Monday, or still not open because the sun’s still up. Finally, after deciding to eat at Burger King, we happen to pass by and see it open so took the opportunity to do so.

Last night, beloved and I had dinner at Mesa. We were in Greenbelt, and had pretty much little choice as most of the restaurants there were out of our budget’s reach. Not that Mesa is for the impoverished, no, but we could afford it. We also don’t usually eat Filipino food, which is what Mesa specializes in. Filipino food for me is composed of either stews or not-so-tender fried/grilled meat or soupy veggies that I don’t really fancy. Not that I don’t eat them, but when given a choice, I don’t pick them. Although we did have a choice today, beloved read a good review on this and also saw that they serve ostrich, so we went ahead.

A few days ago, me and the father side of my family went to Cebu. According to most I’ve asked, Cebu’s primary delicacy is their lechon. I’ve first tried their lechon at the hotel we stayed in, and I must admit that it was far superior than the ones we have at Manila. Of course, it could be because this was a five-star hotel quality lechon. A couple of days into our vacation, I had the opportunity to try out their real local lechon at the food court in the only Ayala Center in the city—CnT Lechon.