Home cooked: Pad Thai recipe

Since I left my corporate job, I have been experimenting a lot more in the kitchen. One of the things I wanted to try cooking at home was Pad Thai. I saw this one pot recipe from Tasty.com and it seemed pretty easy.

Boy, was I in for a surprise. I am not sure if it was the heat but I actually got tired preparing all the ingredients. I feel that it could have been more simple if I just sauteed everything instead of frying the egg, tofu and chicken breast separately. 

Yes, I deviated a little bit on the recipe I saw online. I added tofu, removed sriracha (because I have a kid to serve too, but really because we didn't have it in the pantry), did away with rice vinegar and used cane vinegar and a little bit of cooking wine instead.

Here is the full list of ingredient I used:

2 chicken breasts cut into strips 

4 small blocks of tokwa/firm tofu, chopped into small cubes

about 2 cups of bean sprouts

2 eggs beaten

spring onions

red onion (use shallots if you have it in your pantry)

garlic

400 g pad Thai noodles

sesame oil

olive oil

1/3 cup chopped peanuts

For the sauce:

1 lime

1/3 cup red cane vinegar

1/4 cup cooking wine

1/3 cup fish sauce (patis)

1 knorr shrimp cube

chili flakes (optional) 

1/3 cup brown sugar

I basically followed the instructions on the video. I first cooked the noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside. Using the same pan, add about half a teaspoon of sesame oil and some olive oil and cook the chicken breast. Once done, set aside. I did the same to the tokwa. Then, I fried the scrambled eggs. After that, I sauteed garlic and onions. I put in the green onions and bean sprouts into the mix. I later tossed the chicken, scrambled eggs and tokwa into the pan as well. Then, add the cooked pad thai noodles.

For the sauce, mix all the ingredients and pour over the pan. Then add peanuts. You can adjust the taste to your liking. The finished product looked a little pale than the usual pad thai we get at restaurants. People at home did say it was good. At least all the hard work was paid off with their compliments.

I added the chili powder (we did not have chili flakes at home) to my plate as each one of us at home had our own level of tolerance for spice.

Homemade Pad Thai with Chili powder

There you go. Do not hesitate to substitute ingredients that you already have in your pantry for recipes you see online. Enjoy!

Summer Coolers: Rita's Italian Ice and Frozen Custard

Rita's Italian Ice and Frozen Custard is a small ice cream shop at the Greenhills Vmall. It opened about two years back and people went crazy for it. Fast forward today, we finally were able to try this out and we had the whole shop to ourselves.

Based on the pictures I saw in the past, I thought that this was more like an upscale Wendy's frosty. I wasn't really aware of the Italian ice part of it. The attendant told us that the best seller was the Gelati which was frozen custard on top of a cup full of Italian ice. 

Italian ice was like flavored shaved ice or even a sherbet if you may. Honestly, I wasn't much of a fan but tried it anyway.

Counter

 The custard goes out of the machine similar to soft serve ice cream.

Different flavors of Italian ice

Different flavors of Italian ice

I got the large Gelati so I can share with my companions that day. The frozen custard was so good. It was creamier than regular ice cream. Everything inside the cup was Italian ice. I got the Dulce de leche flavor. The lady at the counter said the best seller was mango but I didn't think it would go with the vanilla-chocolate custard twist I got. 

The Dulce de leche ended up too sweet and we were only able to finish half the cup and there were 3 adults and 1 kid sharing. Maybe I should have followed the suggestion to take mango then it would have been more like mango shake. 

If I ever go back, I will get just the frozen custard. Although even then, I feel that it is a little over priced. 

Gelati, large (Php 160)

 The hubby got the Frozen Custard sundae with whipped cream and cherry on top. Classic. I thought it was over the top. I will go just for the plain frozen custard. It was great on it's own.

Frozen custard sundae (Php 195)

Rita's has also opened a shop at the UP Town Center.

Rita's Italian Ice
Greenhills Shopping Center
G/F Greenhills Shopping Center, V-Mall,
Greenhills, San Juan
(02) 650-5859

Summer Cooler: La Lola Churreria Ice cream sandwich

We've been semi-addicted to La Lola Churreria churros for sometime that we can't help buy whenever we pass one or see other people with the pyramid containers at the mall. The only thing that really keeps us are the long queues everywhere (most times we still wait because great things are worth waiting for #hugoat).

There's a newly opened store at Estancia Mall in Kapitolyo so we decided to swing by for dessert. I was so happy the queue was manageable (we were 3rd, in fact). 

They have some new products I didn't really care for so much. There's this bunuelos that looked like doughnuts. What caught my eye was the ice cream sandwich. I love ice cream sandwiches from Klondike, dairy queen to our very own ice cream sandwich sold by the mamang sorbetero. 

Here's the photo of the sandwich on the menu board.

When I got my order, it was served much like an open faced sanwich to my dismay. I really wanted the one on the picture. Oh picture adverts, why do you have to be so false?

Ice cream sanchwich (Php 145)

I tried to press the top churro and sandwich the ice cream as on the picture. Wrong move! The thing just got messier as the churros were hot and just melted the ice cream more quickly. So I caved in and used the sfork the hubby got me. I was in for a surprise on my first bite. It was so so good! Hot and cold at the same time...crispy and soft at the same time. The Davao chocolate ice cream was very nice. I love that La Lola uses local ingredients too. Writing this makes me want to get another one. 

Of course we also got the plain churros with the chocolate dip. We normally get the large dip for 6 pieces of churros because we really want to cover every inch of the churros that we bite in to with hot delicious chocolate.

6 pcs churros + large chocolate dip (Php 110 + Php 100)

The container is handy when you are walking around the mall as it has that small caddy for the chocolate dip too. If you are eating at the shop, be careful when you place the container in the small hole on the table. Better remove the dip first lest it spill over sayang naman. It almost happened to us and it actually happened to the table next to us. 

Take care and enjoy!

La Lola Churreria
LG Estancia Mall, Kapitolyo
Pasig

Summer cooler: Krispy & Buck Ice cream shop

Krispy & Buck is a simple ice cream parlor in Kapitolyo that serves Big Scoop ice cream brand. They have a variety of flavors that can pique any choosy taste bud at an affordable price. Perfect for the heat of summer.

Mr. S loves pistachio and salted caramel. I like chocolate chip, coffee almond fudge and cheese. Still waiting for avocado flavor to become available around end of March.

They also have sugar free options and lighter sherbet.

These are some of the flavors they had when we went there over the weekend.

The serving is humongous. I got a double decker to share with the kid. This is chocolate chip. You can have a double decker with 2 flavors so you get it cheaper by 11 bucks :)

Krispy & Buck

East Capitol Drive, Kapitolyo,

Pasig City

Deals: Cebu Pacific Piso fare

Cebu Pacific Air is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this month. In line with that celebration, they had launched a piso fare campaign that runs from March 8 to March 10.

I have been trying to buy tickets for a trip to Singapore for my mom and myself and have been waiting for a major airfare sale. I was so excited to see a feed on Facebook about this great news. Thing is everybody is on the website now and for the past two days, this is what I am getting when I attempt to book a ticket.

Try and try until you die, right? Hahaha! Not! The good news about all this is, while my 3 year old son and I were staring at this message for a few minutes (while I refresh and refresh...still trying to refresh the page as of this writing and hoping for a miracle), he started to read "Sorry for the slowdown." and "Please make sure to come back later."on his own. I was so proud. He has been great with a few sight words but I wasn't expecting him to read these two sentences on his own. I am a happy mom :)

Kapitolyo eats: No Reservations

There's a bustling new hub in Kapitolyo, Pasig near Ace Hotel and within the complex of Nav. We've never really tried anything else in that area aside from our favorite Thai place. Mr. S and I were surprised at how many new restaurants are in that area which includes Diner on the 16th and Crunchy crab among others.

What finally took us behind Nav is a discounted voucher through Dealgrocer. I bought the voucher that gave us a 50% off the tab. I cannot say no the great deal! Here's what we ate.

Grilled corn (Php 175)

The umami taste to this one was overflowing. It was tastier than the corn from Bad Bird. This has the usual kewpie mayo, bonito flakes and nori.

Lechon Macau Pork Buns (Php 190)

This is a nice variation to your usual pork bun. There's a crunch rendered by the lechon macau and a sweet-sour tangy taste from the pickled vegetables. Everything is sandwiched by a soft and fluffy mantau bread.

Baby pork ribs (Php 349)

For our mains, Mr. S chose the baby pork ribs with Thai glaze and bean sprout salad. This meal came with rice. At first, we were pleasantly surprised because it looked like a huge serving for the price. Later, we were disappointed that the bones made up for much of that volume. The meat was tender but lacking in taste.

Seoul Style Wings and Waffle (Php 329)

I chose the chicken wings for myself. This is actually the first time I've tried chicken with waffles. In other restaurants waffles normally came with buttermilk chicken. I wanted to try this chicken with a unique twist. As with the ribs, I was a bit disappointed as the chicken was not glazed well. They were gracious enough to give me a little more when I asked for it. The glaze was honey with a little bit of chili. The savory waffle was just alright. Nothing to jump up and down for.

Matcha Tofu Cheesecake

Yes, tofu and cheesecake. Who thought that was even a possible combo? This actually works. But I like matcha and black sesame. This could be an acquired taste. Mr. S did not like to consistency plus he has never really been a fan of matcha anyway. Though it was smooth it wasn't as smooth as a regular cheesecake. I brought home some of it and the kid exclaimed, "Green cake!" He didn't want any of it though as most kids, he is wary of anything green in food :)

The bar

They are running promos several times a week. On Thursdays, they have unlimited wine for Php 399. They also have a promo on beer buckets.

No Reservations has stayed true to it's theme of Asian fusion. They have a potentially great menu that could be worked on a little bit more. However, Mr. and Mrs. S agree that the appetizers would be a reason to come back.

No Reservations

Kapitolyo

2/F 16 United St

Kapitolyo, Pasig

(0917) 605-536

The Return of the come back!

I have been offline from this blog for more than a year. I had a new job at a new company that was far away from where we lived and blogging was the first to go due to lack of time. Actually, the new job wasn't that far but the traffic was just horrible that the drive back home would be an average of two hours daily. It would be one hour and a half on good days. The worst was 3 and a half hours. It could be worse, I know. But I had to set my priorities straight.

It was a tough decision to make but at the close of 2015, I finally decided to leave the job to be able to spend more time with the kid. Time has flown so fast and I felt that I should make changes lest I miss out on life with my toddler. He won't be a kid for very long now. Time with him is priceless and can't be earned back.

That said, this will give me more time to spend here at the blog for the next couple of months. There will be a few changes soon (just need to figure how to execute the plan on my own). Google and Youtube will be my new best friends. I am excited for all these changes and more importantly, I am so happy to be able to spend more time with my family.