Noche Buena 2012

This year's Noche Buena we decided on a White Christmas theme. Everything we served is white except for the Christmas ham of course. Well we tried our best to make everything white anyway but colored dishes are really tasty hehe. Enjoy!

White Christmas Noche Buena. The ham is Purefoods Bone-in Smoked Ham

Choco Santa Cake by Tous Les Jours. We just added the powdered sugar to make it white

Mom's fruit salad

Mom's carbonara

Mom's prosciutto and asparagus

Chao Fan by Chowking

Mom's Lumpiang Ubod

Razzzo Bistro and Serye for Valentines

For Valentines 2012 I treated my family to Razzzo Bistro and Serye since they both had group buying vouchers at that time.

Razzzo is located inside BF Homes along Aguirre Avenue. I've always passed by their restaurant going home from work and I'm glad I've had the opportunity to eat there. The place inside looks very nice. I love the interior designing. I imagined this would be a great place for dates and romantic dinners.

Love the wall designs

 

There are dining booths along the walls for a more private dining experience

I love the chicken and drinks at Razzzo. The chicken is just tasty all the way up to the bone. I'm even craving for it now while I'm writing this. I also ordered a Green Tea Smoothie and it was great! But I ordered one of the combo meals and didn't realize it included a blue soda drink so I had two drinks to finish :(. But they both tasted great anyway. I think the blue one is dalandan flavor.

One of the combo meals that includes chicken, pasta and pizza and a blue soda

pasta

Pizza

Burger

We checked their comfort rooms and I just had to take a picture of it. It's so nicely designed. The whole place is just a treat for the eyes.

Razzzo's comfort room

Near the comfort rooms - me and my sisters playing with the mirrors :P

After having lunch at Razzzo we treated ourselves for some dessert at Serye. There's one located in Sucat road at Santana Grove which is fairly near from Razzzo. Their promo is a cake and a coffee for only P99. I've always wanted to taste their Macapuno Pandan Cake because I love pandan and green cakes so that's what I ordered. It's the best Pandan Cake I've tasted so far :). Didn't disappoint me at all. Not too sweet and just right. My brothers and sisters said their cakes are all good. Below are their pics.

Apple Pie

Chocolate Decadence Cake

Sans Rival

Suman

Mocha Manila Cake

 

Macapuno Pandan Cake

Biscotti to go

Tous Les Jours - Rose Inspiration Fresh Cream Cake

On Mother's Day my sister brought home a Tous Les Jours cake from SM Southmall. It's the first time I've heard of the brand and my sis was all praises about it being high quality and healthy. Well when we first unboxed it we were all oohs and aahs but I was dubious about the taste because the appearance looks too good to be true.

My doubts disappeared the moment I had that first bite. I've always wondered what those cakes in Asian (Korean, Japanese, Tawainese) telenovelas tasted like because they looked so neat and artsy. Well now I've tasted one and it's everything I've imagined! The cream on the cake is just perfect. Not too sweet. The Rose Inspiration Fresh Cream Cake is a strawberry-flavored cake so you get that tangy taste of strawberries inside the cake itself and not as a filling. It's the like the sponge cake has sponged all the strawberry juice while there's a heaping amount of cream all over the cake inside and out. It's just so wonderful. Just like a cloud.

My mom and our family loved it. Mom as a housewife who likes to bake herself said the ingredients are all high quality. She appreciated her cake and her flower as well :).

Tous Les Jours - Rose Inspiration Fresh Cream Cake

Tous Les Jours - Rose Inspiration Fresh Cream Cake (slice)

You can visit their website at www.tlj.ph or their FB page www.facebook.com/touslesjoursph

Noche Buena 2011

This year we opted for a simpler Noche Buena. Filipinos always love to have a "fiesta-like" serving on the table but we're tired of having so many dishes during Christmas and not being able to taste all of them. We decided to limit ourselves five dishes only and the result was fantastic. We were not overwhelmed with the different varieties that's usual in our Noche Buena so we were able to appreciate the few dishes that was served. Since we decided only to have a few we wanted it at least to have some punch. So, instead of the regular fiesta ham we tried this year Purefood's Smoked Bone-in Fiesta ham. We've been waiting for this kind to come out but last year it's either they didn't release any or the supermarket had ran out. When we were told they have the bone-in this year we just bought it right away before they ran out again. For other dishes we have chicken salad and lasagna. For dessert we looked in our recipe books and the Buko Salad Pandan Crepe caught our eye. We had buko salad already for our dessert so we just scooped some from it and put it into the crepe. Lol. It was great. It became my favorite dessert :). So, below are the pics for our Noche Buena. Enjoy!

Noche Buena

from top left to right: Buko Salad Pandan Crepe, Purefoods Bone-in Ham, Chicken Salad, Lasagna

The bone-in ham tastes much better than the regular fiesta ham

Purefood's Smoked Bone-in Fiesta Ham - we actually used the bone for Pochero in New Year's :)

Buko Salad Pandan Crepe

christmas

Mrs. Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake

I have mentioned this in my other posts and so it's just right I should have a blog about it.  Introducing my favorite cake: Baby Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake!!  I bought one for my birthday.  It's been more than a year I think since I last tasted it so it's high time I buy one for me and my family again.  I'm so glad it still tastes the same. Lol. If you love dipping strawberries in cream then you would love this cake. But this cake's icing is not just cream mind you.  It has strawberry bits in it as you will see in the pics.  With other cakes the icing is white and whole strawberries or strawberry filling or jam, or whatever, is just put on top of the cake.  The icing in this cake is pink because the strawberries are already infused into the icing.  I just love the way this tastes.  It's not too sweet and it's refreshing.  I read in another blog that it's like having ice cream and cake in one.  Hmm I guess the satisfactory feeling of it is the same as eating ice cream I agree.  Oh but if ice cream is heavy, this is fluffy and light.  It's like eating a cloud.  And the one thing I like about this cake is they didn't save up on the icing and filling.  They just give you the satisfying amount.  It's almost a sin haha.  Well actually for me it just satisfied my girlhood dreams about this cake.  I know when I was a kid this is what I thought strawberry shortcakes should taste like :).  So below are the pics. Enjoy!

You can visit this site, En Route, for more information on how to order.  It's where I found the contact info because I lost my price listing already.

Mrs. Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake (whole)

close up

more close up

Mrs. Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake (slice).  Two layers of filling! Yum!

Brownies and cupcakes from Bread Monster

My sister brought home these heavenly brownies and cupcakes one day from the Fort. I'm a fan of Brownies Unlimited and I really don't know other brownie brands who are as good as them. Until now that is. Well the cupcakes and brownies from Bread Monster really tastes so good, has a fluffier texture to it and has that melt in your mouth kind of feel. Although it's really good I still can say the chewiness of the brownies in Brownies Unlimited is something I will always crave for especially their Rocky Road. But if you want something new, a different feel but with the same satisfaction then try this out from Bread Monster. My sister said they're located in Market Market at the Fort. Enjoy!

brownies and cupcakes from Bread Monster

food

Dragged at Café Breton, Westgate

I just accompanied my older sister to the mall one weekend to go to the salon and she going to have a facial. It's just one relaxing afternoon and after I'm done I just went to my sister's derma and was ready to go home. So while I waiting for her to come out I was quite shocked when I saw a friend of hers greeting me in front of the derma place. I thought what a coincidence but wait, is it? Then I realized we're both waiting for my sister. As it turns out they're going to hang out. Wow very nice of my sis not to inform me. She did give me a choice though, either she'll take me home first or her friend is going to treat us both out. I really wanted to go home and relax but of course it's kinda rude so I went with them anyway. Yes the treat didn't entice me at all, believe it or not. Hmp.

I'm glad I went anyway. It's been a while since I went to Cafe Breton. Too bad it's not my younger sister who went with them. She's the one who's been wanting crepes for the longest time. I didn't feel like eating dinner though since I'm hung up with this Scottish actor. *Sigh* it's one of my phases when I admire someone so much. So I went straight to dessert since I can eat sweets even if I don't feel hungry.

My sister's friend ordered Galette Paysanne, a whole Hungarian sausage, onions, egg, asparagus with cheese sauce, with Hungarian sausage slices; for my sister the Poseidon, Smoked salmon, dill sauce, sour cream, capers; and mine Strawberry Short Crepe, Strawberry preserve in syrup and cream, a generous serving of strawberry ice cream topped with whipped cream.

I tasted the sausage and salmon. They're both great. The salmon maybe a little too small for its price. I'm not sure if one will get full in that. But my crepe is humungous! It's not a camera trick. It's really that big. I mean the plate is big already and the crepe is almost covering the whole plate. I'm satisfied with my dessert or maybe it was too much for me. It's best when you're sharing it with another person. I love the quiet ambiance of the place. I love their food. I love Cafe Breton at Westgate.

Galette Paysanne and strawberry milkshake

Poseidon

Strawberry Short Crepe

Poseidon and Strawberry Short Crepe with white wine and mango juice

desserts