A Day Down South

I never expected to travel all the way down Las Pinas just to buy a set of four tires. But I'm actually glad we did.

We arrived at Hazardboy around 10 AM, and unfortunately, the person in-charge of the mounting and balancing machine won't be available until after lunch. Luckily, Eugene (one of the owners of Hazardboy) was kind enough and volunteered to introduce us to good and affordable places.

Our first option was the famous Mang Raul's Bbq, sadly, the bbq shack was still closed when we got there. So Eugene suggested a carinderia this time. I was happy with his Plan B, since I do love affordable, home-cooked food, but boy, was I in for a surprise!

Hidden within the streets of Pilar Village, Las Pinas, was a very unassuming and typical looking carinderia, but one look at their menu took my breath away.



Everything on the menu was really affordable, so we took the liberty of ordering quite a lot.

For starters, we got the Chicken Fingers (Php 150), then a full order of Lechon Kawali (Php 160), Pork Binagoongan Value Meal (Php 100) and Crispy Pork Caldereta Value Meal (Php 100). I initially wanted to order their Crispy Pork Dinuguan, unfortunately, it was not yet available.

Served first was the Lechon Kawali, and we were taken aback with the generous serving portion! Then the value meals followed.

        

Serving size was really generous for all the orders, and the rice was also a full cup.

I love that they used their signature Lechon Kawali as the main ingredient with the other pork dishes. The meat of the Lechon Kawali was soft and well-seasoned, while the skin gave a wonderful crunch!

The Pork Binagoongan did not disappoint. The flavor of their bagoong was not too overpowering, and had just the right "kick".

The Crispy Pork Caldereta was also spot-on yummy! Very saucy and cheesy.

The Chicken Fingers were served last, but, it was worth the wait. The meat was so tender and juicy. It's served with a side of garlic mayonnaise.



I really loved everything that we had for lunch, my only wish is that they are a bit more accessible.

Putsi Ko 'Ay

Rose Avenue, Las Pinas, Metro Manila  - (02) 543 8671

Subic Food-venture : Version 2.0 (Day 2)

For our second day, we went back to Xtremely Xpresso for lunch.

We really love their breakfast food and we wouldn't let our chance pass to try their main entrees.

The following were our orders: Grilled Pork Belly (Php 200), Pan Fried Porkloin w/Milkshroom Gravy (Php 190), Truffle Cream Spaghetti (Php 240), Meat Lasagna (PHp 200), and of course, the famous, Big Ben (Php 749).

      

      

For the side dish of our main entree, we both had the baked potato.

The Grilled Pork Belly tasted like a sweeter version of your typical liempo,  nothing really special about it. Also, I personally did not liked their baked potato. The Porkloin tasted like porkchops with gravy. The Lasagna, on the other hand was meaty, saucy and creamy, all at the same time. The pasta was a bit overcooked, but the taste made everything ok.

As for the Big Ben, it was just ok, nothing really special. It's like your typical pizza, just 20 inches big. I prefer Brooklyn's 10x more than the Big Ben. I wasn't able to take a picture of the Truffle Cream Spaghetti, but I was told that there was also nothing special about it and that they still prefer the one served in Poco Deli.

For our New Year's Eve dinner, we just decided to cook steak and porkchops ( I LOVE S&R!) paired with hot coco, in our Villa, while waiting for the countdown.

       

The fireworks display launched by Moonbay Marina left us all breathless. The entire show lasted for almost 20 minutes and it was nothing short of spectacular. Here are some shots:

      

      



So this basically sums up our Subic New Year Holiday. If you want to go for a quick R&R and a lot of food tripping, then Subic is definitely the go-to place!