La Fiesta - Largest Filipino Buffet

A new buffet has opened in SM by the bay MOA, it's called La Fiesta.  The name is fitting since they serve Filipino dishes in abundance just like in a real fiesta. =)

We tried out their saturday lunch and it's quite good and value for money.  For only P550.00 (P750.00 for weekend dinners and Sunday lunch) we got to eat to our heart's content.  They have so many varieties of food that I didn't even got to try everything I wanted like their balut and isaw. ^^

Their buffet is divided into seafood (mostly grilled fish), street foods (like isaw, bituka, tenga, etc.), roasts (lechon de leche, lechon manok, spareribs, shawarma, etc.), cooked food or "ulam" (dinuguan, crispy pata, kaldereta, pochero, paella, lasagna, pizza, etc.), soup (bulalo, tinola, etc.) appetizers (all kinds of chicharon, arrozcaldo, salads, etc.), drinks (gulaman, buko, tamarind,etc.), and desserts (halo-halo, kakanin, pastillas, sorbetes, etc.).

About the food, I'll just comment on those I ate, and that's not few, lol!  The star of their buffet is the lechon de leche, I'm not a big fan of lechon so me saying it's not bad is actually saying a lot already.  You don't really need the sauce for the lechon because it gets too salty.  My personal favorite is their buttered crabs, so yummy!!!  I'm looking forward to the shrimps as well but too bad, they said they didn't have any deliveries that day.  So the pretty nice "shrimp and mushroom" dish ended up being just mushroom but still nice.

The shawarma is good and the lasagna and pizza as well.  They have 4 kinds of sisig, I ordered bangus and it's very good. =) I didn't like the any of the fish dishes, even the tuna and maya maya.  Their baked tahong is not the best, and the ginataang kuhol still tastes like sand. =( The grilled ribs is too tough, same with the crispy pata.  Since I ate so much heart attack foods already, I got some veggies to make me feel better (LOL!) so I got some very nice chopsuey.  I didn't try any of the soup anymore because I'm too full already and I still have dessert! =P

I always leave room for dessert and I'm happy with theirs.  I had halo-halo, sorbetes, and the yummy leche flan! ^^ I would love to go back again because it's really money well spent. ;-)

Mu Noodle Bar

For our sunday family lunch out today, we chose Mu Noodle Bar in San Juan.  We've been looking for this restaurant since my bestfriend recommended it but we can't find it before.  This time we finally did! =)

Only the 3 of us today and we eah ordered noodle soup.  Mine is beef noodles in soy, my dad ordered char siu pork in soy, and my mom ordered beef curry noodle.  Each noodle is served in hot stone pot which keeps the soup hot while you eat.  It's pretty good and very filling since the bowl is quite big.

We also ordered radish cake which I really like, it's similar to Wan Chai's radish cake in XO sauce from the Binondo branch since the Wan Chai in Banawe doesn't cook as good as in Binondo.  And one final dish we ordered is oyster cake.  It's not that great, Mien San and Shang Tzu makes better oyster cakes.  As for the serving, only the noodles are in big serving, the side dishes are all very small.  All in all, I'll give it a pass and would still go there to eat sometimes.

Banapple - Dark Chocolate Tiramisu Cheesecake

We had lunch today at Banapple, it's the place we go to when we don't want to have chinese dishes, but can't think of any other place we want to go. ^^

We ordered chicken breast parmigiano, herbed chicken roll with basil, baked creamy cheesy penne, and cheese and mushroom pie with potato salad.  The cheesy penne and chicken parmigiano are two of our all time favorites. =)

Before leaving, my brother wanted to bring home a cheesecake so we picked the dark chocolate tiramisu cheesecake, just because it sounded yummy lol! ^^  Well, it sure is yummy and super chocolatey!  But since it's cheesecake, having just a little is the best, having too much will spoil the yumminess.  Even if it's super chocolatey, it's not too sweet and the coffee taste of the cheesecake adds to the unique flavor.

Omurice

My Korean entertainment blog was taken down today.  After numerous warnings, I was expecting it to happen sooner or later, but it's still sad. =(.  I have more time now on my hands now, so I thought I'd invite my brother to cook so our mom can rest a bit today. =)

We tried to make our own version of omurice, the Japanese dish for omelet rice.  We used corned beef and bacon Spam as ingredients for the fried rice.  Turned out pretty good, even our parents liked it! ^^

Cronuts~

The instant popularity of cronuts in New York by Chef Dominique Ansel brought about different versions of the pastry by many other pastry chefs around the world.  This croissant-doughnut pastry has been featured in TV Shows and seen with hollywood celebrities.

So the Philippines wouldn't want to be left behind which is why different bakeshops around the metro are offering their own versions of the pastry as well.  Because of it's popularity, getting hold of this new pastry is quite a challenge.  One has to call for reservation if you want to get at least a box (6pcs.) of them and they also has a set time for pick-up.

There are different pastry shops that I heard are making good versions of this pastry.  Just to feed my curiosity, I went ahead and asked a friend to include a box for me when she was ordering 2 boxes for her family from Dolcelatte.  A box of croughnuts costs 660.00 pesos and they come in different flavors.  The flavors I got are Nutty Nutella, Custard Creamcheese, Blueberry Creamcheese, Peanut Butter Crisp, Chocolate Caramel, and Chocolate Macaroon.  

It tastes better than a doughnut because it's not as sweet and this can cover for a light meal since it's bread, so it's pretty heavy for a snack.  The croissant is crispy on top and bottom and chewy in the middle.  My favorite flavors are the nutty nutella and chocolate caramel because I have a sweet tooth ^^.  The custard is a bit bland for my taste and I usually like blueberry cheese flavors but the cheese on this one is a bit short in flavor.  The peanut butter is okay and those who loves dark chocolates would like the chocolate macaroons because the chocolate is a bit bitter.

My friend asked me if it's worth it, I say, the pastry is delicious, and I'd surely not turn it down when somebody offers me one ^^.  But if I have to call up for a reservation, set aside a particular time to pick it up, brave the traffic just to get there in time, go trough all these hassle just to get my cronuts, I'd say "No, thanks". =)