For this Weekend Adventure, the Food Explorers visit Mall of Asia to try the Mochi Donuts from Mochi Sweets.

If you've heard of a mochi, it's the term for glutinous rice cakes that came from Japan. And then they made mochi ice creams that had different flavors of ice cream wrapped in a similarly colored and flavored mochi layer.

Now the Mochi Donut is just another form of the mochi ice cream. Instead of an entire mochi "bun" they just punched a hole through it and called it a mochi donut. :D

You have to admit, these mochi donuts look really cute!

This is a half dozen of assorted mochi donuts. 

They assemble the boxes at the store when you order. You can choose the flavor of the mochi donuts that you want to try. :)

The flavors: Strawberry, Roasted Sesame, Ube, Chocolate, Mango and Vanilla

We got this deal through Metrodeal's website. They sell these box of 6 mochi donuts for half the price of the actual. Just P210 instead of P420. :D

I gotta say, my favorite has got to be the Roasted Sesami Mochi Donut.

What are you waiting for? Try it out on your own!

Mochi Sweets
Mall of Asia Complex (MOA)
Ground Floor, Main Mall,
Mall of Asia Complex (MOA),
Pasay City

Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan
Visited: April 6, 2014

This is supposed to be another Wonderful Weekend Adventure post. But I'm afraid it wasn't as wonderful as I'd planned. Sad face.

Vyne is a modern bar and resto found on the 8th floor of W Global Building in BGC. If you've partied at Hyve before, Vyne is just right across it. This is the resto that people can grab a classy and expensive dinner before blowing the rest of their cash at Hyve afterwards.

Before going to the resto, we went to SM Aura first for the Blogapalooza event. I think, I'll write a blog post about that in the distant future.

This is me and my sister just posing in front of the fountain at Serendra. 

So first things first, why are we even at the resto? Well it's all thanks to Deal Grocer. I got a voucher from them worth P1000 for around P600. I bought two vouchers and got P2000 worth for just P1200. So it's a 40% discount, not bad right?  But the food was really pricey, so we only got to try four food items plus drinks.

Me and sis have to take a selfie of course. :D

We're not hipsters but yes, we like taking photos before we eat. Problem? ;D

Oh, just wanted to point out that all the Tapas (Appetizers) were served on a piece of slate instead of on a plate. It's so cool!  

First Tapas: Sisig Empanada P250

When we were done taking our photos and selfies, that's when we started eating. We ate the Sisig Empanada first. That was glorious. It was hot savory, the crust was flaky and soft. And I loved the filling so so much. That was the best thing I've eaten ever. well of course at that time, I was also quite hungry then. You can dip it in the vinegar or in you can put some of the sauce on the slate. But wether you dip it or not it's awesome all the same. Just one small complaint is that there is only 5 pcs on the plate.

Second Tapas: Beef Wellington Burger Sliders P495

The next one we ate was the Beef Wellington Burger Sliders. Those were okay. It's just three small pieces of mini burgers. I wasn't too happy with that fact. But they tasted okay. Juicy and flavorful all the same, but the bread layer is a little hard. Might be because they made it in Wellington style. So yeah, needs some improvement.

Third Tapas: Korean Fried Chicken P380

The next thing we tried was the Korean Fried Chicken. These were pretty good. On the plate were 6 pieces of wings (or 3 whole wings) that were deep fried and coated with a sweet glaze and  sprinkled with sesame seeds. They tasted okay and the dip was pretty good too, but gawd the serving size is small.

Our drinks: Lychee Martini P280 and Maitai P220

The drinks were delish too. I loved my Maitai. It was sweet and fruity and oh so alcoholic! XD My sister chose the Lychee Martini, but she wasn't too happy with her choice. haha. I'm glad the waiter knew the drinks menu well enough to recommend a decent drink to me.

Now on to the last part of our meal. the main dish. This was supposed to be the best thing from the items we ordered because it's a friggin MAIN DISH! Like a Main Event in a boxing match, every other fight is not even worth watching, you're there to see the Main Event.

But this Main dish was a serious disappointment. *Sigh*

Main Dish: Chicken Roulade P420

At first look, the chicken roulade looked pretty good. It was served on a large white plate this time and had swipes of sauces on it and mashed potatoes as base. You gotta admit it looked like a pretty darn good dish. I'd like to think that the Chef of this resto is quite proud of their presentation of each dish. And I totally agree. The presentation is amazing. But you have to have decent ingredients. And this one didn't.

Here's the thing, I know what old chicken smells like. I've stocked chicken as well and forgot to cook it until weeks later. When I actually cooked it (Well not me, my sister did) it smelled bad and this dish smelled way worse. Chicken Roulade is basically chicken breast that is rolled with cheese and then baked, not fried. And baking doesn't hide the smell of old chicken at all. I'm also thinking that the old stock of chicken used in the Korean Fried Chicken is the same stock of chicken used for the roulade. But since the KFC was DEEP FRIED, the old chicken smell and taste was totally masked. Therefore it was delicious.

Another thing to note is that the chicken looked raw. It looked raw and gross and disgusting and I didn't want to eat it at all.

Gross looking Chicken Roulade

I told the waiter that the chicken was gross and looks raw. And they said it was fine and that it's cooked properly. So I just thought "I guess, they don't accept returns?"

Raw looking Chicken Roulade

What started as a pretty good night out ended a bit awkwardly. I wasn't hoping for a refund or anything but I was hoping they'd use fresh chicken or otherwise warn people not to get Chicken Roulade. Oh well. *Shaking head*

I left them the feedback that the chicken wasn't fresh, and they were like "Thanks." That's it. :(
Aren't you going to do anything about it? You're just gonna keep using old chicken aren't you?

Overall, I think Vyne is Okay. The place looks fantastic and it can be a cool hangout for friends. The service is quick. I quite liked the drinks we ordered and the food is okay too, but if the ingredient isn't fresh, I'd rather not order it. Another complaint is that this place has a very small serving size of the food. And this is common throughout all the items we ordered. I guess you're paying for the presentation. But yeah, if you ask me if I'm going back to this place, Hell No. The food is too pricey and I'd rather just cook my own chicken roulade at home than pay almost 500 for old stock chicken roulade.

Vyne
Eight Floor, W Global Center,
9th Avenue Corner 30th Street,
Bonifacio Global City,
Taguig City

Food Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan

Visited: October 2014

For this Weekend Adventure, the Food Explorers visit Marmalade Kitchen in The Forum @ BGC.

This is probably the 3rd time we went to The Forum to eat at a resto. Which is awesome. Just shows how many restaurants there are in the place. I've counted at least 8 restos, well including Mcdonald's. :)

Marmalade Kitchen is on the second floor of Forum. It's cutesy cafe/resto that has a lot of quirky deco..

 There are also a lot of food items for sale on display.

While waiting for our order, we took some more selfies.

Their menu had soups, pasta, sandwiches, and best of all cakes! For drinks you can go for their healthy smoothies or you can choose from their coffees.

Grilled Eggplant and Mozzarella with Pesto Spread on Focaccia Bread

Southern Spicy Wings and rice

Freshly pressed juice

 Green Apple, Celery and Spinach Juice. (I just wanted to try their fresh pressed juice, and the waitress said it was one of their best sellers but when I tasted it...)Eeewwllllcghhgggg 

Fallen chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream topping

The spicy chicken wings were not that spicy nor were they any good. The fresh juice was just awful I absolutely hated it. But thankfully the Eggplant Parmesan sandwich and the Fallen cake was awesome. So overall in the four items we ordered, only half taste good. The other half were not that good. Well for me and my sister at least. You'll have to try the food yourself, but you reaaally have to try the eggplant parmesan sandwich! :D

I guess, the place is an okay spot to grab a nice snack. I also noticed some groups just buying coffee and pastries. So it's a pretty cool place to hangout in. The service is quick, the crew was friendly and accommodating. It's just that the food is hit or miss. Will come back for the Eggplant Parm and the Fallen cake. :)

Marmalade Kitchen
The Forum,
7th Avenue Corner Federacion Drive,  
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
02 6229196


Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan
Visited: February 23, 2014

For this Weekend Adventure, the Food Explorers visit the quaint resto of Gelatone in Greenbelt 3.

Gelatone is located on the 2nd floor of Greenbelt three right in front of Cotton On. For the record, I consider gelato and frozen yoghurt ice cream. They all fall in the same category to me. :P
I think it has one of the best possible spots for an ice cream place coz everyone who enters GB3 passes by their display.

They have a lot of flavors to choose from. They even have ones with liqour. Like a whiskey flavored gelato and an Appletini gelato. :P

You can sample just a little bit of the gelato before you order. I tried the appletini one and it was reaaaally sour. XD

After checking out the flavors, we went inside the resto to order some food. The voucher I got is from +ADeals. PH and it was worth 500 pesos.

 In a booth, selfie!

Panino Alla Milanese P300

We got a chicken panini and two gelato flavors, two scoops each.

Gelato 2 scoops P99 each cup

I'm guessing we got a Pistaccio and the one I will not forget is the Straciatella. The name is beautiful. It just means vanilla ice cream with chocolate in Italian. Cool, right?

Quick! Take a selfie so I can eat the ice cream!!!

The chicken panini was okay. The tomato inside was refreshing. But you really come here for the ice cream, I mean gelato. I loved the pistaccio but the stracciatella was my favorite of the two.

And that's it! A nice snack in the afternoon for 2 at just P500 at Gelatone.

Gelatone
2nd F Greenbelt 3,
Esperanza St Ayala Center,
Makati (02) 729-6377

Visited: February 1, 2014
Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan

The Food Explorers visit Maple in the new East Wing of Shangrila for this Weekday Adventure. Although by the time this is posted, the East wing wouldn't be too new anymore. lol

Maple is located at the lower ground floor of Shang. Since the area is below ground, it's quite hard to get a decent cell signal. I can't connect to the internet down there! Well this issue is mainly for Smart subscribers. So there.

Anyway, Maple is a charming place with chandeliers, wine bottles on walls, and red booths. But they have some quirky deco too. There's a huge tree cutout on the wall and there's also a corner with a bookshelf and little stools where you can read books. I'm not too sure what the books are tho, maybe you can use that area for your kids. :)

Thanks to +Deal Grocer, we got to eat here at a discount.

The menu has the feel of a storybook. 

Cute placemat :)

I was accompanied by my dear brother Renz that day. I call him Bingot. hehehe

We ordered several items on the menu.

Appetizer of a a freshly baked sticky bun, with butter on the side. I'm only saying it's a sticky bun because it was glazed with something sticky and sweet. :P

Swiss chocolate Buttermilk Pancake P360

Look inside! They have chocolate filling between each pancake!

Eggs benedict came with fries

Eggs Benedict Cumberbatch! P315

Naw I'm kidding it's just regular Eggs Benedict on the menu, but I want to call it Eggs Benedict Cumberbatch just for fun. Love Benny. :D

Iced Coffee (I think, I don't know what these things are called for sure) 

It has coffee and ice so I guess it is Iced Coffee

For me the place has a pretty nice ambiance, awesome waiters, and mostly great tasting food. The pancakes were soft, fluffy and delicious. The eggs benedict was too salty for me. haha Never getting that thing ever again. But the Iced Coffee drinks were fantastic! Loved those!

Okay here's where we go from the review of the restaurant to the food's effect on me. I rarely have issues when eating out. But this was the time that I had a stomach issue right after we left the restaurant. Well not exactly right after, I was able to walk out of Shang to help my brother catch a bus home. And I was all set to go to work, but then I felt like I needed to puke, my stomach started to hurt, and I felt dizzy. I couldn't go to work. I was supposed to go to work after our meal, that was like my breakfast. But I just didn't have the strength to commute to UPA at that time. (I was assigned to UP Ayala Technohub and Shang was still 1 hour away.) I was really effed up. I couldn't leave the washroom. And because I have little tolerance for pain or any discomfort I was crying too. I guess I limped myself to an area where I could ride an Uber then I told the driver to take me to the condo. And that's where I suffered for the next 12 hours. I still don't know what went wrong with me or what was wrong with the food. But after that I thought I should stop eating out forever. But of course, the next week I ate out again. I liked the food in Maple. But I guess the food didn't like me.We were thinking that the eggs benedict was the cause of my stomach ache and puking. But there's no way to find out now.

Maple
Shangri-la Plaza Mall
LG/F Shangri-la Plaza Mall, East Wing,
Shaw Blvd cor EDSA Wack Wack,
Mandaluyong (02) 477-8027

Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Renz Pagulayan
Visited: April 21, 2014

Café Breton is one of those homey, simple, nice restaurants that you can visit once in a while when you have a hankering for something french. :P
I like that they have a branch right in the plaza of UP Ayala Technohub. That's my previous work site. So when we're already tired of pantry food, KFC, and Bonchon, we go there. :)

I've only tried to eat at Café Breton twice and these are a couple of pics of food items that I tried there.

The first time I ate at Cafe Breton, I just got a sandwich

Payday is the best day of the month. ^_^ #eatout #tunamelt #sandwich

A photo posted by @carurachan1 on Feb 28, 2014 at 5:55am PST

The other time, we only went there for merienda so I got a Caramel Liegeois

Caramel Liegeois (leejwah) Espresso, Caramel Ice cream, Whipped cream and Caramel syrup @Cafebreton

A photo posted by @carurachan1 on Apr 16, 2014 at 2:46pm PDT

I also tried their bacon cheeseburger at some point but I was so hungry that I didn't bother to take a photo. wahaha The burger was friggin delish tho. :)


The ambiance of the restaurant is nice, you can see the bar where they make the coffee drinks, you can watch them make the crepes there, and that's also where they assemble the sandwiches. The crew is friendly and they respond quickly when you need something.


Overall, you won't go wrong eating at this restaurant for lunch, dinner or just a snack. :)


Café Breton
U.P.- AyalaLand TechnoHub,
Commonwealth Ave UP Campus,
Quezon City (02) 355-6917

For this special Weekend Adventure, The entire Gulay Gang goes to SM Mall of Asia. This time, we're going to cut the Adventure in three parts. Part 3 will cover our quick dessert at Swensen's.

Thanks to +CashCashPinoy we got to enjoy the desserts at a discount. I found this deal of P500 worth of ice cream for just P299.

We got a chocolate fondou set that had fruits, chocolate dip and a set of nine ice cream flavors.

Chocolate Fondue P555

We got a brownie, 2 waffles, 1 banana and 1 mango for the fruits

Their ice cream is absolutely delicious. Even better when you dip your ice cream in hot chocolate! It's awesome! I don't even think we spent too much time eating all of it. It took us maybe 5 minutes tops. bwahahaha :D

And that's it! The Awesome Family Day is over. After licking off the remnants of ice cream from our spoons, we went back to The Picture Company to select the photos to print and after that we headed home.

It's always a pleasure to spend time with your family, taking photos and eating out is definitely a great way. But you don't always have to go out, you can just spend time with your family even when at home and you can have fun just the same. Carla signing off :)

Swensen's
G/F SM Mall of Asia,
South Wing,
(02) 804-0046

Visited: April 12, 2014