TELWANDERS.COM

I’ve moved!

A new year, for most, is a chance for another beginning. It is starting from a clean slate and being optimistic about how the whole year will turn out. Different resolutions are made, and have started to materialize.

A list of places to go is the first thing that comes to my head when new year comes. It is probably the wanderer in me that is triggering to do that. In line with this, I am aiming to get more things done for the year as well, changing domain, host and platform are among the things of which I intend to do.

And now, it happens. After the gruesome nights of choosing themes, reading on CSS and HTML, fixing bugs, installing plug-ins, adding widgets, it is now done.

Fellow food, travel and shutter bugs, please continue to follow me at

HTTP://TELWANDERS.COM

The site will continue to experience changes here and there because I’m new to everything there is to put up a site and it is taking me longer than I should. I will continue to post my backlogs on tons of food places, after which, way overdue narratives of European cities, then, let’s see what happens from there. I do hope to have a wonderful year ahead with you! :)

 

Or type in your e-mail to subscribe, ignore the word "query" in the button below :P Just hit the button to submit.


Delivered by FeedBurner

Now, only if I can figure out how to redirect this site to Tel Wanders. Anyone?

Delicious Japanese at Izakaya Kikufuji

Despite the fact that Little Tokyo is walking distance from where I live, a few nights ago was my first time eating in one of its restaurant. Out of random picking, we ended up dining at Izakaya Kikufuji.

I was surprised by the dinner ambiance. The staff were wearing kimonos. There was a bar smacked in the middle of the restaurant with live seafood. Traditional Japanese tables where one sits on the floor, instead of sitting on a chair, are on one side of the establishment. 

I guess the crowd goes here to drink. Kikufuji’s patriots are used to hearty laughter and talking loudly while enjoying a bottle of sake. The restaurant even has cabinets of unfinished bottles so customers can come back and use the same upon return. Everyone who eats here is assumed to understand Japanese for the restaurant does not have menu in English descriptions.

For appetizers, we ordered the Tuna Sashimi (Php 220) or Maguro in their menu. The slices of tuna were fresh. It crumbles a little bit when eaten but there was not a hint of fishy taste. I was also informed by Tales that the restaurant offers different tuna sashimi grades. Now that is something to come back for.

The California Maki (Php 220) came in 8 pieces, which I believe is good for the price. The maki had a little too much rice wrapped around in proportion to the mango and kani. As for the taste, it was really good. The excessive amount of fish roe was great for the texture and the flavour.

I had Tempura Soba (Php 305). I love brown noodles so I figured to order this. It comes with a piece of tempura shrimp, tempura fish and on or two tempura eggplant. I can skip the tempura and order the plain soba (Php 190). The soup tasted great. It was cooked with the right sweetness and fine soup pulp (if that is the correct term). The noodle was not mushy. If the term “al dente” is an appropriate adjective for a Japanese dish, then the noodle was that.

Izakaya Kikufuji’s Gyudon (Php 300) was composed of thin beef, sotanghon noodle, and rice topped with sauce. The beef was thinly sliced, easy on the mouth although it came with a bit of fat. The noodle was good, it was not soggy and resisting when bitten. The rice was soft. The over-all taste was a little sweet with a slight herb-y taste I can’t quite determine. But think of this dish as a soup less Sukiyaki with rice, get the idea?

Because someone loves bacon (I think he’ll marry it if he can), the Enoki Bacon (Php 52 / stick) made its way to our table. It is thin mushrooms wrapped in bacon with an option to dip in Terriyaki sauce. It was a mouthful to chew but quite good. I would prefer it to be less salty. This is a great food to munch on to.

The menu does not offer dessert, so we asked. They offer green tea ice cream (Php 90) which I did not get to try because for every Php 500 spent, you can get a free iced coffee. It was good enough dessert for me. It tasted similarly to the iced coffee powder being sold by Nescafe but I really don’t mind.

If you find yourself in the area, this maybe one of the best places to go. I can’t wait to go back and try the tamago stuff.

Izakaya Kikufuji

2277 Pasong Tamo Makati City

(63 2) 8937319; (63 2) 8936131

Wild Ginger

This is one of the restaurants in Rockwell we frequent. They serve a mix of different Asian cuisines such as Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian and Filipino. The casual atmosphere makes the place homey and un-intimidating. In fact, it is a place where I often see families bond and enjoy their meals.

We usually order the following:

For appetizer, ordering Roti Prata with Curry Dipping Sauce (Php 120) is the best bet. It consisted of around eight small slices of roti, or Indian bread, something similar to a lumpia wrapper, only a bit thicker and the combination of spices in the dip. I would like to think that my taste buds are used to curry so I do appreciate the flavour.

For the main dish, my usual would be their Hainanese Chicken (Php 265). The chicken they serve is half of a whole. For the serving, the price justifies it very much. The chicken was moist and very tasty. It was not as salty and oily as that of Wee Nam Kee and I think I prefer this than the other. The sauces were your usual soy sauce, chili sauce and mashed ginger. The rice was far from being oily but was really flavourful, enhanced by the chicken soup provided, ah, eating this dish for me was bliss.

Another staple on our table is Beef Rendang (Php 245). It is an Indonesian style beef stew that is both exotic and familiar. I cannot quite describe it except that it is really good with rice. It was very tasty. The serving is good for one and does not come with rice, so it is best to order a separate one.

It was only last week that I learned about Adobo and Monggo being a combination, like how Dinuguan and puto are a perfect match as well. These are all Filipino food. Wild Ginger’s version of adobo is called Spicy Pork and Chicken Adobo (Php 190). I am not a fan of different kinds of meat combined in one dish but I tasted a little bit of this one. I did not really get the spicy part because it was not. The pork and chicken were fried before being cooked incorporating adobo ingredients. Both were very tasty and if I did not have issues of meat combining in one dish, I would gladly order this. The Monggo with Malunggay (Php 75) (also known as mung bean stew) on the other hand was a surprise to me. I was forced to eat this as a child but my Mom, for the life of her, cannot cook. So I was left with an impression that monggo does not taste good, until this night. It tasted great. I especially love the texture, a slight roughness feel smoothened by the soup to allow for easy consumption, I am guessing.

For drinks, I usually order their cold soya milk (Php 50) because I do love soya stuff. It comes in a bottle and no, I still haven’t checked (and do not know) if this is being sold in the groceries. I like it so I order it anyway.

The service here is usually efficient and good, but probably when the place is full, like this one particular night, they are caught a little bit off-guard that I feel like they lack people to serve the meals. But they are all friendly and accommodating.

Wild Ginger

G/F Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center

Hidalgo corner Estrella St. Makati City

(63 2) 8981859

Milk Tea Invasion by BubbaTeaLicious

Hi, I’m Kristel, and I'm a milk tea addict.

S dragged me to half of the entire Mall of Asia because we are both addicted to really good milk teas. I’d like to believe that his addiction started during the Taipei trip, mine however, I go way back with milk teas.

It was my first time in Hong Kong when I tasted one. This was already after the boom of Zagu and Quickly but never did I like milk teas from them (maybe because it was powdered). I loved that Hong Kong has milk teas in each and every restaurant. I would always have one (or three) everyday whenever I’m on vacation there.

It was just surprising to me that even if I grew up in Manila’s Chinatown, I never found a milk tea I like. It was hard to look for a restaurant that actually serves one. I found milk tea in Wai Ying, by the way, but milk teas made in Hong Kong were still better.

A few weeks ago, I did not know I was off to find out that Taiwan is the milk tea capital of the world (yes, that declaration was all made up by me :P). There was milk tea in every corner we went, including on the ground floor of our hotel, just less than 20 steps. All of what we tasted was really really really good (have I made enough emphasis?).

Slowly, this invasion is happening to Manila which is very good news to those who love milk tea already, and an opportunity for those who are unfamiliar to know (and love) the drink. There are several names already but BubbaTeaLicious is the first one I have tried.

I ordered one large Royal Milk Tea. At Php 50 for the largest size, I think it was priced really well. BubbaTeaLicious claims that they use the real tea in making their drink which was very evident. However, I am not sure if the teas are freshly made because they had a whole liter of it ready to be converted into a milk tea. This is not how they do it in Taiwan (because they make the tea for each and every order), but I do understand why. As for the taste of the (red) tea, it was really good. I would prefer for the taste of the tea to be stronger and I wonder if the tea were freshly brewed, would it make a difference? Or maybe they can improve on the portion that they put in each order. 

The tapioca, or what is referred to as “bubbles”, was soft and sweet. Just the way it should be for milk teas. I had to ask if I can control the amount of sweetness to be done in my drink, but the staff said yes. I had mine with half syrup only.

For me, it is well worth the price buying one for cravings (and addiction). I actually wish they can put one in Makati with the same price but I know how rent can kill small establishments. BubbaTeaLicious also offers a ton of other things which include fruit shakes and fruit tea drinks. People should really give this a try.

BubbaTeaLicious Pearl Milk Tea Place

2/f North Mall of Asia (beside Potato Corner)

Pasay City

Hainanese Chicken at Wee Nam Kee

Since the opening of Wee Nam Kee, I never saw this establishment without a line. I keep on telling myself I’ll try their Hainanese chicken when the hype dies down but I found myself lining up, during one December night, just for a take-out. Only because I was really hungry that I thought by the time I got to the place I was supposed to go, I wanted to be eating right away. Also, I figured, it would be faster to order to-go instead of painfully waiting in line just to get a table.

I asked the person who receives guests how many minutes will it take for me to get my order, and she said 20-25 minutes. I was taken aback a bit but I expected it as well. So I ordered anyway.

I ordered two personal sets; one was roast chicken rice set, the other was steamed chicken rice set which cost Php 168 each. The set was consisted of a cup of Hainanese rice, a serving of Hainanese chicken (with cucumbers under it) and condiments (that include soy sauce – which was thicker than usual, ginger – probably mashed for it to be spread easily and red chili sauce – which wasn’t so spicy that will cause the throat to hurt but still enough to give the food a kick). 

Roast Chicken Rice Set

The rice was really flavourful, obviously from the stock of chicken it was cooked from. It was also soft. The chicken I found a bit too tiny in portion but was really good. It was tender, a hint of saltiness and flavourful. Honestly, I did not distinguish the difference between the roast chicken and the steamed chicken except for the crisper looking skin (for the roast). This is probably because I do not eat chicken skin so much and I don’t remember tasting the skin of both sets. But in any case, they were both really delicious.

Steamed Chicken Rice Set

As stated in their menu, all personal sets come with soup, which sadly, mine didn’t. I forgot to ask for it and by the time I realized I didn’t get the soup, I was already not in the area. What was sadder is that Wee Nam Kee charged me 5% for service even if I had the food to-go. I actually asked on why it was so, but failed to get a decent answer. It is not actually the cost (because as it can be seen, it was less than Php 20), but the principle. I did not want to make a big deal out of it because I was too tired that time but personally, I don’t think establishments in general should impose service charge for take-out food. 

In all fairness, my order came before 20 minutes. I think the reception person was just managing people’s expectations which she should be applaud upon. But I do hope the establishment re-thinks imposing service charge for take out orders.

Wee Nam Kee
No. 8 Rest of Ayala Triangle Ayala Triangle Garden
(Makati Avenue, Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas) Makati City
(63 2) 8468925 / (63 2) 8468924