Lotte Dream Cacao

Last February, I was one of the winners of Toppo's Valentine's Day giveaway and the prize was a basket filled with Toppo goodies. Now, I'm writing this blog not because I want to divulge to everyone that I won. I'm blogging it because there's  a particular item in that basket that struck my interest as well as my whole family because of its luscious dark chocolate taste.

Tous Les Jour's Strawberry Tiramisu

My sister and I have been craving for some Tiramisu cake and we decided to taste one of Tous Les Jour's Tiramisu cakes in strawberry flavor so here it is:

The moment I opened the box, I can already smell the strong strawberry scent coming from the strawberry powder that's placed on top of the cake as you can see in this picture.

7 inches only :(

Strawberry cream layered with strawberry chiffon topped with a thin layer of whip cream and strawberry powder. This is more of a strawberry cream cake than a Tiramisu. Well, it is indeed called a strawberry Tiramisu after all.

The strawberry cream and strawberry chiffon go well together and the cake was not that sweet actually. I really hated their strawberry powder so I scraped that off while eating a slice.  It's very similar to the Fresh Cream Cake that they're selling, but this one has strawberry flavors everywhere.  I did like the cake (without the powder) because I was able to eat a big slice, but I wouldn't probably buy it again. If I were craving for a strawberry cake, I would buy their Fresh Strawberry Cream Cake or Yulo's strawberry shortcake. And since we were craving for a Tiramisu cake, we should've just bought the old-fashioned Tiramisu cake elsewhere.

3 stars out of 5 overall 

Tous Les Jours
www.tlj.ph

Mushroom Burger in Tagaytay

Last Sunday, we went to Mendez, Cavite to visit Paradizoo with the kids. It was so hot and walking around the zoo was quite tiresome so when we were finished with the zoo trip, we went straight to Mushroom Burger after hearing all the good reviews about it so we gave it a try.

I would like to apologize beforehand for most of the pictures without prices because my basis for the prices is supposed to be our receipt, but my husband told me that when he claimed our food (since it was a self-service restaurant), the cashier took the receipt with the designated number written on it so I was a bit shocked and a little irritated. I wanted to ask them to have our receipt back, but the line was soooo long and we were sooo hungry at that time so I didn't have enough energy to complain.

Looks more like a cafeteria inside

Unli Gravy!

Spaghetti that my son didn't eat because he didn't like the smell of the sauce. He must have thought that this was the same as Jollibee's spaghetti so he just ate the noodles without the sauce. :P

Burger steak meal with mushrooms.
This is what my sister-in-law ordered. I didn't hear any complain from her after eating this so it's either good or just so-so.

 Blueberry flavored pancakes (P99 with drink)!
I was able to finish all 3!They're quite soft and yummy. Nothing to complain about.

Regular burger with cheese (P86 w/ fries and drink)

If I were to rank this, this would be my second favorite burger next to Jollibee Yum with cheese. I liked the pink sauce that they used in it which probably was just mayonnaise and ketchup. But still, I liked everything about it - the patty, the cheese, the cucumber inside and the soft buns. 

Note: Contrary to common belief, the patty was actually made of beef, not mushrooms. They do have a burger made of mushrooms, but we weren't able to order one.

Lomi

Mushroom Burger's Tornado (P35)
This is probably one of the best soft served ice cream I've tasted and the most reasonably priced considering the generous size of it and the richness of the berries inside. The flavor of the berries overpowers the sweetness of the ice cream and I liked it.

They have only one size for the drinks and they're actually big in size. Definitely good value for your money

I actually enjoyed dining here because I liked the food, the simplicity of the place that gives you the "I can eat however I want" kind of feeling, and most especially the reasonable prices! There were 5 of us (3 adults, 2 kids) dining here and the bill didn't reach Php1,000.

When we go to Tagaytay once again, we'd probably return here especially if we're tight on the budget. I'll probably try their chicken meals next and the real mushroom burger. You can't miss this place when you go to Tagaytay because it's situated along the main highway very near Taal Vista Hotel.

Two thumbs up! 

Mushroom Burger
Km. 60, Brgy. Kaybagal
Tagaytay, Philippines
Monday-Sunday – 7:30 am to 11:00 pm
Tel: (+6346) 483-1330
Website: http://www.mushroomburger.com.ph

Kenji Tei in Alabang Town Center

We went to Alabang Town Center because I were to claim a prize from Ayala Cinemas - the 47 Ronin t-shirt and The Wolf of Wallstreet ref magnet. The shirt was so nice and my husband is the one currently using it, but I'm a bit disappointed with the ref magnet. I thought I would be given at least 3 magnets, but they only gave me one. Imagine if I were to travel all the way to their mall and just claim one magnet?

Well anyway, this blog isn't about the prizes. After claiming them, my husband pulled us into his all-time favorite Ramen house, Kenji Tei! If you've read my previous posts about Kenji Tei, they were once located in BF Homes, Paranaque, but they decided to transfer to Alabang Town Center to serve more customers.

So here we are and this was our dining experience:

Mango Juice (P86)

Crunchy Kani Maki - P288
I liked it, but nothing special. I was able to taste the same one in Rio Japanese Restaurant in BF Homes with a cheaper price. This one, though, is bit bigger in serving.

Shoyu Ramen - P288
Yummy as always.

Gomoku Sho Ramen - P268
Did not disappoint as always

I'd really wish they could serve smaller sizes of Ramen for kids. My son loves Ramen, but he still can't finish an entire bowl of it.

Our overall experience was all right. The service was great and the food was what we expected it to be. I just wasn't able to enjoy my food because my 1-year-old was always moving around so I got tired and a bit irritated while holding her.

Downsides:

• All their prices went high! Well, we did expect this to happen because they transferred to a mall so their prices became mall prices.
• Their have a bigger restaurant. Though, I have nothing against bigger restos, but I still liked the old, cozy Ramen house because somehow we were able to enjoy our food more with lesser people around compared with a  big crowd.

 It was quite nice to dine in to Kenji Tei once again. Maybe next time, we'll try some of their new items in the menu.

Kenji Tei Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/kenjitei

SM City BF Homes: The Director's Club Cinema

My hubby and I sneaked out of the house and went straight to SM City BF to watch a movie since it was just one tricycle ride away from our house. We watched 47 Ronin at the Director's Club Cinema just to experience what it's like to watch in there.

Price of ticket: P350 each.
Free pop corn included with butler service.
Drinks not included. You can order inside before or during the movie.

They have another lobby exclusively for Director's Club Cinema.

There were only 2 regular cinemas and 4 Director's Club cinemas.

The reclinable leather chairs are so comfortable If the movie you're watching is quite boring, I'm pretty sure you'll fall asleep in no time.

There are tables in between the 2 chairs. The tables have buttons on them that you can press when you want to call the butler.

There probably are  30 or 40 chairs inside the cinema so it's relatively small. It's really like having your own private cinema.

So there you have it. It's nice to watch in a small cinema with cozy chairs and with a small crowd because it gives you that somewhat private touch, but somehow it lacks something. Maybe because I'm used to watching in big cinemas so I'm used to a big crowd. But for example, if you want to watch a comedy movie, then only a few people would laugh with you while watching it because, again, the crowd is not that big. Well, of course, it still depends on your preference whether you want to watch in a cinema with a big crowd or a small crowd.

One thing that's a minus for me is that I wasn't sitting beside my hubby the whole time watching a movie because of the table that separates our chairs. So are we going to watch here again? Most likely because the chairs are too damn cozy to sit on.

You can also purchase tickets online at http://www.smcinema.com.
Do get their e-Plus card to get special discounts. More info at http:///www.eplus.com.

A Gift For My Motherland

If there is one thing you can give to the Philippines, what is that gift?

Image from:
http://www.atlantishotel.com/azores/route_maps.php

This question is difficult to answer because the Philippines has 7,107 islands and I’m pretty sure those islands have different needs so one gift wouldn’t be enough. I sincerely wanted to help the victims of the typhoon Yolanda and Pablo, and the earthquake victims in Bohol, but I want a gift that the whole country could benefit from regardless of your religion, occupation or Facebook status. 

Corruption, drugs, poverty, child pornography are some of the problems our country had been facing.

In order to think of a gift, one must think of  what our country needs. And to know what our country needs is to analyze the problems that the Philippines has been facing for so long. These problems are (and not limited to) corruption (synonym: Napoles – just kidding!), poverty, drugs, trash, women trafficking and the latest is child pornography where the Philippines is among the top 10 countries with the most rampant cyber pornographic activities according to Virtual Global Taskforce. 

Image from: http://tropicalpenpals.com/the-paradise/

Now, the problems listed are a never-ending loop: corruption leads to poverty and poverty leads to women trafficking, child pornography and even drugs. Some say it’s also poverty that local public officials are corrupt. So let’s tackle the one that’s not included in the loop and that is  trash. 

The Philippines is RICH of trash or garbage. Metro Manila alone collects 1,900 tons of trash in a day. It causes air and water pollution that we all know will do no good to everyone – be it animals, humans or plants.

Image from: http://tropicalpenpals.com/the-paradise/

So what do we do? Recycle – in a whole different level! We all know that recycling reduces trash, but I think the Philippines need to level this up and I’m talking about turning garbage into fuel.

Garbage into fuel?! 

Yes, it's posisble and a Filipino inventor is already doing this and his name is Jayme Navarro, owner of Poly-Green Technology and Resources Inc., using his Pyrolysis technology.  His invention can make street trash like sando bags, garbage bags, Styrofoam into fuel and not just any fuel, but a cleaner, low-sulfur, environmental-friendly fuel.

Now what can this do to our country?

Using Pyrolysis technology, 5000 kilos of contaminated plastic can be converted to 400 liters of diesel and gasoline fuel oil. Manila collects 1,900 tons of garbage in a day so imagine how much fuel that could make in a day! A time might even come that we’re sustaining our own fuel and we don’t need to import anymore. Imagine how much money it can save us and imagine how much profits we can do without harming Mother Nature. It’s definitely the best way to fight global warming. Imagine our own garbage trucks run by our own recycled fuel. Now, that’s leveling up! 

Man pumps up natural/recycled gas to his garbage truck.

Now, back to the original question: what is the one thing I want to give to the Philippines?

It would be a 1-minute infomercial that will inform every Filipino that Jayme Navarro’s Pyrolysis technology exists and it works. That infomercial will also show what benefits it would give to the Philippines and hopefully it would also encourage our government, investors or companies ( local or foreign) to support Mr. Navarro’s expansion of his facilities throughout the country to help lessen or eradicate garbage problem in the Philippines. If the infomercial works and the Pyrolysis tech is being applied in at least 70% of the major cities in the country, then it's a major step for us towards a better and wonderful life up to the next generation and up to the next.  #GLOBEProjectWonderful2014

For more details about Jayme Navarro's Pyrolysis technology, you may visit the following sites for references: 

• http://filipinoachievers.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/jayme-navarro-invented-fuel-from-plastic-trash-bags/
• http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/in-the-philippines-turning-plastic-waste-into-fuel/
• http://gotecotech.com/turn-plastic-into-gasoline-diesel-kerosene/

I love the Philippines very much and I still believe we can do so much to help our country even in our own little things. 

If you’d like to volunteer or make a donation, visit www.projectwonderful.ph

What about you? What’s your gift to the Philippines? 

Answer this question in the comment section below and if my post wins, one reader will be selected from the comments box and will win an I-Pad Mini 2.