Brazil! Brazil! @ BGC/Serendra

Ah, so I'm supposed to write a blog every weekend to share some of my foody experiences but unfortunately I've been a bit busy lately.  I missed writing one last weekend but I have some time this weekend so here I am writing again.  Yehey!

My wife has been cringing lately at our credit card bills and I saw the reason why.  We've been consistently eating out for the past few months every weekend and we're racking up some good mileage.  We've decided it's a bit too much and we'll only eat out once a week.  It'll make eating out so much more fun and exciting.

Anyways, last weekend, I decided to take the wife out for a late Valentine's dinner.  Cheapskate that I am, I bought a voucher for P800 (dinner valued at P1,500) at MetroDeal for a valentine's treat dinner at Brazil!  Brazil! located at Serendra.  For those not familiar with Serendra, this is located right across Market! Market in Taguig at the heart of Bonifacio Global City AKA BGC to those who want to be hip.

Metrodeal is a local voucher/discount seller of pretty much anything.  They sometimes have very good deals on dinners, hotel packages, trips to Boracay, and the great thing here is that most of the deals are 50% off and even more.  You might want to check it out if you haven't yet.  Here is the link, but for some reason it's not working right now.  Metrodeal  They must be temporarily down for something.

So back to my story...everything is nice and planned out.  Take the wife out for dinner.  Enjoy the ambiance of a new place.  Enjoy dinner, the food, and enjoy a nice chat with the wife.  So we get there ahead of time of our reservation, the staff was kind enough to show us to our seats quickly.  The place is packed, most likely because it's a Friday night, but it isn't that uncomfortable kind of packed like some other places I've eaten at.  I really hate those.  The seat that she gave us was a table designed for two people, most likely specially done for the voucher promo as we were sitting next to other diners with the same food.  We were seated right next to the ice cream container and right behind me was the salad bar.  This restaurant being an eat all you can place there were always people to the left of me getting ice cream.  So close, that sometimes they would bump me in the elbow.  I just tucked in my elbow for the rest of the night.

Our reserved table for the night.

Brazil!

Salad Bar thingy

I gave the waitress our printed voucher, she makes me sign it and voila!  We're done with that and the waiter ask us if we want wine with our dinner or iced tea.  We of course go with the iced tea as we both no longer drink alcoholic beverages...long story.  The waiter arrives and gives us the drinks, with a small plate of sauces for the dinner, and a tossed salad to begin with.  So far so good. 

The Salad!

Iced Tea!  And some water!

The salad and iced tea were your run of the mill tea and salad.  Nothing really spectacular about it except that it came with the meal and was quick to get to the table.  I had a better salad at Eat n' Go at Megamall.  They have this really great deal for two people but that's another blog. 

By this time we were really hungry already and the salad just came in time to quench some of that hunger.  We quickly gobble up the salad (well, it's the best description I can provide because the salad didn't live long) and then we waited for the main food experience.  And we waited.

And we waited.

And we waited.

And we waited.

And we waited.

And we waited.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive it gave me some time to check out the place.  It wasn't a really big place.  A bit too small for my taste.  It had a festive motive with masks hanging around on the walls.  Most of the interior was of an earth colored palette of oranges and browns.  The crowd was of a more affluent clientele with a few foreigners mixed in.  The couple's sitting to the right of me (left for my wife) were already enjoying their dinners, which was very mouth wateringly torture.  I'm not really sure why this place is called Brazil Brazil! except for the masks could be somehow be related to festivities there and maybe the type of food they're selling...but it just somewhat looked like a good ol' American 4th of July BBQ feast to me...

Masks there were above our table.

Where's our food?

While waiting for our food.

So while we were waiting for our food, the salad now a long forgotten memory, our stomachs grumbling, I first thought that maybe it does take this long as I could see the table next to us eating a somewhat large assortment of meats.  We do a bit of more chatting.  We wait.  We wait.

And when my tummy starting complaining I called one of the waiters over and told him that we haven't received our food yet.  What's taking so long?  All he does is nod, says he'll get the food right away and goes off somewhere.  So we wait.  We wait.  And since we're waiting I took a look around to scope out the place some more.  I turn around and see the this same dolt of a waiter doing what waiters there are supposed to be doing.  He never even went to get our food!  So being the nice guy I am I figured that he "DID" tell someone that our food hasn't arrived so we wait.  And we wait...and we wait.  I looked at my watch and we were now waiting a good 40 minutes for our dinner to arrive.  This is too much.

So I look over to get the attention of another waiter and I noticed that all the waiters were tending to two big tables carrying meats on big hooks and were carving meats onto plates of other customers.  Apparently, when you're eating on a voucher, they don't treat you as kindly.  Must be a societal trait were if you pay for service that is cheaper, you will receive shabbier service.  Taking mental note.

So I forcefully call the attention of one of the waitresses and tell her as kindly as I could in that situation that our food hasn't arrived and it's now almost 45 minutes and going.  We want our foody and we want it now!...Please.  Thank you.

So she goes off to do what she must do.  So we wait.  We wait.  We wait.

And then I couldn't wait any longer.  Waiters going off somewhere and not even telling us how long it would take for our food to arrive....  It's too much.  I'm hungry.  And hungry equals I'm pissed.  So I look around and saw the manager.  I raise my hands like a schoolboy and waived it side to side like I was at a concert of the Back Street Boys to get his attention.  He sees me and starts trotting towards me in a somewhat irritatingly slow motion kind of way when all of a sudden the previous waitress I talked to intercepts him and rushes to our table.  "Sir, your food will arrive in about 3 minutes."  Finally!  An answer.  So we wait.

Fortunately for her, the food did arrive in about that time frame and we thankfully got to eat.

Glorious food!

 The food consisted of a variety of meats.  Sausage, grilled chicken, pork chops, some type of tapa beef, and paella rice underneath all that meat, with two cobs of sweet corn.  I really digged the grilled chicken and rice.  The sausage wasn't bad either as I grew up in Germany where they have some of the best sausages in the world.  The platter was surprisingly good enough and filling enough for two very hungry people.   The couple next to us even had some left overs and took it home with them.

This is meat!

The combination of the meats with the sauces and rice was really yummy.  Although, I wouldn't be able to really say that this is really Brazilian food, it was good enough to entertain my taste buds.  Especially for paying only 800 bucks for a meal for two.

What I really did want to try but couldn't, was that big meat the waiters were carrying around with them and slicing onto people's plates.  Since we weren't there on the eat all you can scheme I just had to sort of look at the meat.

Imagine the Schwarma meat being grilled and they took it off the hook and carried it around with them.  That's what it reminded me of.  Waiters carrying around a big log of grilled meat.  I suppose I would have to come back with the wife here sometime.  Not to re-experience the shabby service we received, but for the food.

So now full of good food and happy again, we asked for our desserts and me not being much of a dessert eater really did enjoy the ice cream.  It was sweet and creamy.  Just the right thing to have after eating all this meat.  I wonder where they get their ice cream from.  I had the strawberry flavor while my wife decided on the green flavored one...don't quite remember what it was, except that it tasted great too.

Thus, being satisfied, and now eating ice cream, a new couple arrived for the same voucher dinner at the table to the right.  Me, being the very good observer, immediately clicked on the stopwatch on my Fossil to time the arrival of their food.

Salad and drinks made it right on time just like ours...and darn it!  It only took their dinner 15 minutes to arrive!  What an aggravating thing to happen.  I would have thrown the waiters a dirty look but I was happily fed and no longer minded.

We left about 5 minutes later and just kind of quietly slipped out of the restaurant.  I turned to my wife and mentioned that it's sort of strange leaving a restaurant without asking for the bill.  Kind of feels like you didn't pay for the meal even though you know you already gave the voucher at the beginning.

All in all, I would recommend the restaurant for its food, but not for its lousy service.  We'll definitely go back there someday, but not this year.  I'll have to forget the feeling of lousy service first before I'll step into that place again.

Food Delivery in the Philippines: Taking Off!

Growing up with Chinese food delivery and McDonald's has made me a big believer in food delivery.  I like the flexibility and options it provides me.  All I need to do is power up my PC and with a click I can have the food I'm craving for.  Up until a few years ago food delivery in the Philippines was non-existent.  It was very frustrating not being able to order for food when you really wanted it.  Especially at 2am in the morning and you really really wanted that hamburger.

Now it's a whole different story.  Everybody is getting into the game.  I now have accounts at 5 different food delivery sites from McDonald's, Chowking, Quickdelivery.ph, Yellow Cab, and others.  I'm very sure there are more to come.  It's a blooming industry and I think if you have/own a restaurant, it's time to consider getting delivery service.  In today's business atmosphere every and any edge you can get above the competition is a must.  The strong survive, and the strong right now deliver their service on demand.

I'm actually really surprised at the quality of service our online delivery sites provide.  The websites are professionally designed, easy on the eyes, and the menu's are universally complete.  Their call center people are absolutely professionals.  Must be because we have so much experience in the call center industry.  Anyways, service is always great.  They always call you within 3-5 minutes to make sure they have all the details of your order correct.  They never get it wrong since I'm the one clicking and choosing my order but it's nice knowing that they check up on it either way.

Two issues I have with the delivery service though is, one, that they never find my delivery address and two, you only have two or three choices of food places after 9PM.  Usually only McDonald's and Jollibee.  There must be something very hard about my location that they always get lost.  But that's a small thing compared to the service they provide.  When you crave and have that itch...it must be scratched.

One service I can recommend from experience is http://www.quickdelivery.com.ph/.  I'm sure you've seen the motorcycles around with the numbers 212-1212 We Deliver Twoanyone.  You just go to their website, sign up, choose your delivery area, find the restaurant you want, and order.  It's that simple.  Someone will then get in touch with you to check your order, and then after 30 to 40 minutes someone will deliver your yummy food to your doorsteps.

As per Quick Delivery's marketing team:  "Quick Delivery has over 300 restaurant partners in over 500 locations throughout the country."

One foody place we tried out for fun was the Empire Deli Restaurant in Taguig.  They're located at Unit 103B, GF The Venice Piazza, Upper Mckinley Road.  Their menu consists of pasta's, sandwiches, and main courses.  I've never been to the place itself, but basing it on the food, I'd stay it's a winner.  You can check out their menu with the link here:  Menu

My wife ordered the Fish and Chips and I ordered the Blackened Dory.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post as we finished eating before I thought of taking pictures.  Must've been hungrier then I thought.  Drats.  It cost us about P550 or so but I was very pleased with the taste and serving size.  The Blackened Dory was in a clear plastic container with the deli sticker on top.  The container was microwavable so that was a good thing.  The delivery guy...of course got lost and it took about 50 minutes for the food to arrive.  The dory was peppery and the mashed potatoes went well with the fish and beans.  My wife on the other hand, wasn't too keen on her fish and chips.  She said it was more batter than fish and the chips (fries) were ...well, just fries.

Overall though, I did enjoy my peppery blackened dory fish meal and I would recommend it.

There are more online food delivery services online but these are the ones I have the most experience with.  Excellent service, availability, and tasty food brings me back for more.  You should try it yourself.

Chowking
Yellow Cab
McDonald's
Pizza Hut
Jollibee

On closing, Pizza Hut has this deal where they will deliver their pizza on time or it's free.  Well, if they deliver to my place, it's usually late.  One time, the delivery guy arrived ten minutes late and when he took off his helmet I could see in his eyes that he was about to cry.  I must admit, it caught me off guard.  When I told him that it was Ok and I wasn't about to claim the free pizza, he couldn't hide his smile and gave me about 20 lollipops.  For the kids he said.  Hmm.  It's just a guess, but I think they charge the delivery guys for the pizza if they are late.  So guys and girls, be nice to the people who deliver and serve your food to you.  It's fun to receive free stuff and free food, but if it's at the expense of others, be kind.

You can email me at:  chickenromano@gmail.com

A new Year...a New Hobby: Blogging

It's always fun starting something new.  May it be fishing, reading a new book, falling in love (for those younger people out there), or simply getting yourself a new hobby.  My new hobby, as you may have noticed, is now blogging. It's less time consuming than my other hobbies, less stressful (even releases stress), and gets my brain a work out.  And it gives me an opportunity to write about things that I think can be useful to others.

What will I be writing about you may ask?  That's a good question.  My high school English teacher once told me, "Write about something that you like.  Something that you know about."  She was also the one who told me that life experience is the best way to find something to write about.  At age 16, writing was hard to do.  No wonder.  Maybe my teacher was right about that.  At age 32, writing does come easier.

So what will I be writing about?  I thought about that long and hard.  A few things came to mind...

1. Food
2. Travels
3. Sports
4. Women
5. Kids
6. Work
7. Photography

Of course the above does not come in any chronological order.  You may even strike out number 4 because my wife will be reading this blog.  Now that I think about it...I know nothing about women.

I now had a short list of things to write about.  But it was still too long.  I needed to focus on a subject.  Maybe two subjects, but not more.  So my old brain got clunking again and I finally whittled the list down to two subjects:  Food and Traveling.  Why those two you may ask again?  That's simple...

I love traveling.  I love eating.  I think of myself an expert when it comes to eating. I've done it for over 32 years.  Come on, how much more expertise should I be getting?  Well, of course I'm not a chef.  I don't know what the main difference between a red onion and a white onion is...besides its color of course.  But what I do know is this, what tastes good and how the ambiance of a place can affect the whole dining experience.  Traveling is of course self explanatory.  Everybody loves to travel.  And fortunately, I'm allowed to travel at least once a year by my boss.  Take a guess who that is?

My wife and I eat out at least once a week.  That's quite expensive actually.  But we just can't help it.  I don't have any other expensive hobbies as of the moment and we enjoy it.  So why the heck not right?  It does add a bit to the waistline but I manage to keep it to a certain adorable size.  So one day, while we were waiting for our food at "unnamed restaurant", my wife turns to me and says, "Since we eat out every week, why don't you start writing about it?  Maybe even someday someone will offer us free food so you can write about it."  Bless her heart.  She's so practical and I love her for it.  And I thought about it.  I said it was a good idea.  And so here we are.

I promised myself (and to my readers, hopefully there would be more than 10 by the end of the year), that I'll write at least one "review," "comment," and/or "experience," call it whatever you want, about a place, resto, venue, business, or whatever constitutes food, fun, and adventure.  Now, don't come running to me and complain about bad grammar or wrong sentence structure.  I really don't care.  This is my blog.  I'll try to make it as honest as possible and as interesting as I can.  I don't want to bore my readers of course.

In the next few days, weeks, and even months, I'll come up with a better web design.  I'll even buy a better camera so that I can fully show the world and my readers what I'm talking about.  What's a photographer with no camera worth right?  I'm currently in the process of choosing a criteria on how to judge a place/business.  For now, I'll use whatever I can think of at the moment of writing.

Since I haven't taken down any detailed notes of the places I've been to in the recent past, my first few blogs won't be as detailed as I want them to be.  That'll change of course as we go along.  I'll fine tune and zero in to what is good and get rid of what I think is boring.  For now, sit back and enjoy reading my blogs.  Bon Appetit!  Guten Appetit meine Freunde!

You my email me at:  chickenromano@gmail.com