As a person relying much on public transportation, I find that I spend a lot of time walking around the metro.  Hoping to get the most of out of walking, I got really curious with the new footwear around the market that will supposedly enhance your walking experience by toning, shaping or improving your health overall.  From Skechers’ ShapeUps, ToneUps, to FitFlops, I wondered for months until my love gave me her Christmas present.

I got my first Vibram FiveFingers pair.

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One Chinese cuisine I never get tired of eating the simple, spicy mapo tofu.  Mapo tofu, also spelled mabo tofu or mapo doufu, is a Sichuan cuisine composed of tofu, chili and bean-based sauce and minced meat.  I liked it so much that sometimes, we have this dish at home albeit in a non-spicy form.

Whenever I'm in a Chinese or Chinese-inspired restaurant, the first item I look for is this simple dish.  Strangely though, most of the Chinese restaurants I've eaten in do not carry this classic dish in their menus.  They do have other tofu-based items in there, but in my opinion, not as good as the mapo tofu.

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Let’s face it, healthy food products normally cost a bit higher than regular “not-so-healthy” options.  Yogurt, or frozen yogurt in this case, falls into this healthy item list making its price quite higher than regular ice cream.  Apparently, there’s a high price tag attached to be healthy.

I Heart Froyo wants to change all that by catering to an untapped sector of the frozen yogurt industry, by offering this frozen delight at low prices.

Yes, I meant low.

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Ahh yes… shawarma.

Sometime in the 90’s, this Arabian wrap became the highlight of one’s lunch or merienda hours in the country.  Stores serving only this delicacy were found in every corner back then.  It got so popular that it was mentioned in a song by Eraserheads, franchises were owned by actors, and became an actual word in the English dictionary.

Nowadays, one can still find Shawarma stalls in major malls and near train stations.  They are not as abundant as before but they have gone great lengths in order to differentiate themselves from the other stores hoping that customers would still want to have a taste of this garlicky delight.  For a few pesos more, they would add cheese to the wrap, give you a hummus dip or simply give you a bigger shawarma. 

And then there’s shawarma rice.

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Christmas season is over and if you’re a coffee lover, you most likely would have gotten a planner or two from the major coffee establishments in the country.  Apart from having a beautifully-designed planner to use in 2011, another perk that comes with it are the handful of coupons that would get you discounts and freebies in that coffee shop.

In this battle, we will pit the planner coupons of Starbucks versus the ones included in Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CB&TL) 2011 Giving Journal.

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I can’t remember being in a Le Ching Tea House before, but my friends tell me it is one of the oldest and most popular restaurants before tracing its roots to its first location in Greenhills Shopping Complex, Shoppesville Arcade in Ortigas Avenue.  It was there way before any of the other Chinese restaurants like North Park and Mann Hann popped up.  Since then, Le Ching has branched out to three other locations in Quezon City.

One weekend, we decided to go Le Ching in UP-Ayala Land TechnoHub in Commonwealth as my love got the spareribs cravings that time.  She proudly exclaimed that they had the best spareribs in town with a very affordable price.

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“Italian passion food”

This is the phrase that the store boldly places on their menu, flyers and even on their store to describe their food.  Piadina Italiana, or simply, Piadina, is an Italian restaurant inside Greenbelt 1 in Makati.   Offering pasta, pizza, and of course their piadina bread, Piadina prides itself of their freshly and healthy prepared Italian food.

Their name, Piadina, comes from the piadina bread which was, according to the excerpt found in their menu, a flat, round & unleavened bread that became an inexpensive substitute for the common bread during the famine.  Dubbed the “poor man’s bread” back then, piadina is now a popular choice among Italians and has become part of the Romagna Culture.

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A strip of bacon, two different types of cheese, two fried chicken fillets, secret sauce -- this is the Kentucky Fried Chicken Double Down.

Since it was very popular across the world and even here in the country (it quickly sold out in most KFC branches during its first month), I dared to try it even if it looked like it was a "heart attack" without a bun since it wall posts and tweets saying positive things about the product piqued my curiousity. After all, I like chicken fillet, cheese and bacon, so eating them combined won't matter much right?

Luckily, I managed to snag one for lunch last November in a newly-opened KFC branch in Starmall, Mandaluyong.

I opted to get the combo meal (Double-down sandwich, regular drink, fix-in) for Php 135 as I was really hungry.  You can also order it ala carte for Php 100 or with a drink for Php 115.

I was given a waiting number as according to the cashier, they were still cooking up a fresh batch.  Perfect!  Nothing like a good hot meal for lunch.  I got the drink and coleslaw ahead of time so I was munching the KFC version of coleslaw while I waited for the "chickenator".

Five minutes after (yes, props to KFC for fast service), the KFC Double Down came in the default KFC red-and-white sandwich box instead of the Double Down packaging I've seen in a couple of photos online.  The scent of oil was strong when I opened the box revealing the chicken fillet, bacon, cheese and secret sauce combination.  It was not as big as a Zinger, but a bit bigger than their cheaper, on-the-go, KFC Chicken Fillet sandwich.

The wax paper lining that separated the carton from the sandwich was almost transparent as it was drenched with the oil that was still oozing from the product itself.  Oil was dripping everywhere when I lifted the sandwich out of its container making me wonder if the secret sauce was actually cooking oil.

Since it did not have any wrapper or bun and the lining was unusable, it was quite hard to eat it like a regular sandwich.  I used the one piece of napkin that they provided me to hold the product, but had a hard time keeping them together as it was quite slippery.

Looking at it closely, I noticed that the bacon was a long, soft, white rectangular piece of pig fat as it did not have a single red meat part as seen in their advertisements.  The cheese indeed looked like two different ones upon closer inspection, one with a darker yellow tinge.  The two pieces of chicken fillet looked like the regular ones they use in the Chicken Fillet sandwich but a bit bigger.  Opening it up, the KFC secret sauce looked like something that you would put on a salad.  I tasted it a bit and it seemed like a mild version of thousand island dressing.

I took a large bite, and wow, there was still apparently more oil residing on those fillets as it immediately gushed through like water breaking through a dam.  I had to ask a passing KFC crew member for additional napkins as I had oil all over the place.

My next bites were better as I actually got to taste the KFC Double Down itself. Eaten together, the fillets overpowered every ingredient in the combination.  You won't miss anything if you've tried their Chicken Fillet sandwich before as these Double Down fillets tasted the same.  The two cheeses tasted similar as from what I've told, the cheese that they placed here were Monterey Jack and its variant, Pepper Jack.

I didn't feel full at all after the meal, really strange as I usually am content with a Go-go wrap or even the Chicken Fillet sandwich.  I also felt a bit sick later in the day.  I played bowling after lunch, and the scores there were reflective of how I felt at that time.  Not good at all.

I'm placing this product under the tag, "one time only", as I'll probably try this only one time in my life.  For its taste and price, I'd rather have a Zinger instead of this double down monstrosity.

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* Captured with a Nokia X6

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My love and I have a sweet tooth (or is it supposed to be sour tooth?) for frozen yogurt.  We often get one for dessert after a big meal and have a constant urge to try out different yogurt places all over the country.  

From well-known yogurt shops like Red Mango and White Hat, lesser-known ones like I Heart Froyo and Fling, to even restaurants who added frozen yogurt to their menu like The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Pancake House, we've been there to taste these frozen delights.  I'll perhaps be populating this blog with more frozen yogurt posts in the future.

Our next stop and first frozen yogurt post in Captured with a Mobile, the Canadian-made Qoola.

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In a world where fried chicken meant a piece of chicken smothered by breading, choked in batter or drenched in oil, Bonchon shows us another way to enjoy our chicken by frying it twice!

Frying twice, a Korean style of fried cooking, separates and "burns" the chicken fat away from the skin.  For the chicken lovers who tend to remove the skin first before eating since most of the fat is locked in there, this frying technique should dispel their worries away.  This goes the same for those afraid that they'll still see fresh blood on their chicken as this method ensures that the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

In Korea, this frying style gave birth to hundreds of "Bonchon" like chicken houses.  Could Bonchon be the start of the next food craze in the Philippines?

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Due to the emergence of different types and styles of serving coffee here in the country, a lot of cafes have popped up ranging from the ever popular group of Starbucks Coffee, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Seattle's Best Coffee, UCC and Mocha Blends to small, more intimate ones like our featured one in this post, Caffe Ti-amo.

To distinguish itself from the hundreds of cafes sprouting around, instead of the usual baked goods like muffins, donuts, and cheesecake partnered with coffee, they opted to go the cool route and paired their coffee with Italian gelato.  With this approach, it opened up a number of possibilities including affogatos and baked items like waffles topped with gelato.  

Caffe Ti-amo caters to the dessert and coffee aficionados of the world, but is their coffee and gelato combo enough to make them stand out from the rest?

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Nothing says like a fresh meal than a one that's cooking in front of you!

My love and I arrived in Pepper Lunch located in Greenbelt 5 Makati just in time as they were already taking the last orders for the day. Famished and tired from a long, eventful day, we decided to take advantage of their weekday lunch & dinner special where their standard pepper rice mixes (beef, curry beef, pork and chicken) cost Php 198 instead of the usual Php 215 (Php 230 for the curry beef).  We added Php 60 (usually Php 80) to turn our orders into a set meal composed of a drink and a choice of either ice cream, salad or soup.

Although we saved around 30-50 pesos by taking their promo offer, it is still quite expensive for a restaurant billing itself as a fast food chain, but is it worth the price?

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Happy new year to everyone!

I hope everyone had a enjoyable start to 2011 so far.  Over here, I had a very enjoyable New Year's celebration with the family and relatives at the stroke of midnight to start the year.  The Christmas ham that my love gave me starred in our dining table, and it was the first one that was completely consumed as well!  Delicious!

A brand new year awaits us all for us to make the most of, to enjoy, live, create, and own.  To start of the year, I've decided to embrace my creative side once more and start writing again.

Welcome to Captured with a Mobile.

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