Inggo Noms...

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.

Beloved and I celebrated my birthday at The Alley about a month ago. It has been tradition for us to eat at a buffet restaurant each year that offers a free seat on one’s birthday with one paying adult, just like we did at Four Seasons on Beloved’s birthday this year. The Alley is from the same Vikings group of restaurants that basically allows you to “eat like a viking”. The twist on this place after the cut.

Beloved and I had dinner at Cafe Sweet Inspirations a few weeks ago. Despite being a cafe, this is actually more famous for their all-you-can-eat Mongolian rice bowls. I’ve been a patron of this place for a good couple of decades already, as this was a go-to place while I was still residing and studying near the Diliman university belt. Since knowing about this place and since affoding to go here on my own, there’s almost never a year that passed that I haven’t been here.

Beloved, myself, and Const had a late lunch or early dinner at Zaan Japanese Tea House. This was a month ago, when we went to Papa Diddi’s, and, yes, this is the “new place” I talked about in that review. We found this place in one of the popular review aggregators and noticed that it had favorable reviews. Since we wanted to try something new, especially around the Tomas Morato area, we decided to try it out, inviting Const along the way.

Beloved and I had a late lunch at Kureji. This ramen-specializing place is one of the only few opened stores in relatively new Vertis North. Outside, there’s a television that plays their menu items. What grabbed my attention was the fact that the ramen is served boiling, or, in their terms, sizzling. Yes—apparently, they specialize in sizzling ramen. I guess that’s why they called it kureji, which essentially means “crazy” as spelled in katakana. It might also mean “courage”, which sounds similar, and, in retrospect, it really is couragous to try serving something like sizzling ramen.

After going to Tsuta with Beloved and Const, we went to Wrong Ramen since we were obviously unfulfilled on both stomach fullness and savory ramen cravings. We chose to go here because, like Tsuta, this place was unique in that there’s no other branches in the Metro. Also, the last place just made us want real ramen, and we hoped this place would fulfill that need.

A lot of restaurants have been popping up at Maginhawa recently. We were shocked to see that there are a lot of buildings now that seemed to have sprouted like mushrooms. We tried out Westwood, at the building in front of Friuli & Crazy Katsu.

Beloved and I visited Barkin’ Blends Dog Cafe earlier today. This newly opened cafe is one Beloved has been excitedly watching out for. Not because of the “cafe” part, more because of the “dog” part. Beloved is a big dog lover, having two dogs of her own. Here, you get to drink the usual cafe beverages in a room filled with dogs. No, you can’t bring dogs in. I also skipped “eating the usual cafe food” because I believe it’s not allowed in the presence of dogs.

Me, Beloved, and Const tried out Project Pie for dinner. This is a hot place for foodies being a build-your-own pizza place. What made it hot was the claim that you can put as much toppings as you could possibly can on their pies, hence the “Project” bit.

Beloved and I had dinner at Brotzeit some weeks ago. This German bar that serves mostly beer but also food opened its doors at EDSA Shangri-La. This place proved to be a popular watering hole for some of the classier crowd. However, we mostly wanted to go here for their authentic German sausages. We were aware of how expensive the place was going to be which was why we held out for quite a while. Since it was Christmas-slash-bonus season, we finally had funds to feel safe trying out the place, and we did.