5 Famous Fast Food in Manila. What's Your Favorite Meal?

Where do you like to eat later? One budget meal, please? I want sundae, can you phone them? I miss that crackling sound when I ate their fried chicken last monday, you might wanna order? They have 24/7 delivery anyhow. These questions you may have asked before or heard somewhere, am I right? Well, the thing is it all boils down to one answer and that is 'fast-food'. FYI, the word "fast-food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam-Webster in 1951. Commonly quick alternative to home-cooked meals.

Nowadays, as malls continue to multiply, as our workload doubles, as our lives become busy as bees, we don't have option but to buy 'takeaway' and eat 'on the run'. It may sound not right because as everyone knows, we find it less nutritionally valuable compared to other dishes we cook in our kitchen. Usually precooked, high in saturated fat, sugar, salt and calories. It has also been linked to obesity, cancer and high cholesterol. But I am sharing this to you guys not to discourage or push you to eat more. Hello! We are in the 20th century now, okay? We all know, yes you know too, that fast-food sells the best food in the planet from fried chicken, hamburger, french fries to my favorite caramel sundae. Let's not be hypocrite, they are really irresistable. I still always believe everything must be in moderation, so, you know what to do. 

It was 2014 when I started not to bring packed lunch at work because of my shift, when I no longer had time to prepare for this, somewhat I also thought it would save my time and money, in short no use of gas in our kitchen and less effort. And since I love all of them, might as well dedicate this post to my favorite fast-food chains in town.

1.) McDonalds

https://www.mcdonalds.com.ph

I'm lovin' it! This household name is also known to their ad campaign "Paparapapa...love ko to!" in the Philippines. This is one of the oldest fast-food restaurant chains in the country, I remember when I was a kid I often attend birthday parties where the venues were usually at McDonalds. And yes I was also I fan of happy meal toys back then, I used to collect it everytime there's a new Disney movie, like 'Hercules'. Honestly, I like the happy meal toys before than today.

Saying Hi! From the famous clown on earth, Ronald McDonald, the primary mascot of McDonalds fast-food brand.

McDonalds mainly sells cheeseburgers, chicken products, fries, breakfast items, soda and desserts. Today, everywhere you go there is McDonalds, and that made them the world's largest restaurant chain(36,538 outlets) serving approximately 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. (wikipedia)

What I like to order is usually the McSaver Meals. How about you? First, even when I was in college, I really like this budget meal, for less than 100pesos(almost $3.00) you have 1 pc fried chicken with rice, softdrink and dessert. "Mc...Mc...McChicken!" A cute commercial I just saw on tv, it was like a new version of cock-a-doodle-do.

Sunday will always be special because of sundae. Which one do you like? Choco fudge or caramel? I hope they would come up a new flavor. What do you think?

Sadly, I got the butt part, but it was still good, especially the skin. Right?

2.) KFC

https://www.kfcdelivery.com.ph

KFC stands for "Kentucky Fried Chicken" with a trademarked tagline "finger lickin' good".

Salute! To the official mascot of KFC, Colonel Sanders.

What I usually order here? The classic 1 pc chicken with rice and soda, plus 1 dessert for less than 100pesos(almost $3.00). Like many filipinos, I'm also a fan of "unlimited gravy" and it's no longer weird for me to flood my plate with this gravy-licious sauce, the technique also here is when you wanna feel full right away, don't worry I understand you're on a tight budget, then feel free to drink a pitcher of gravy, lol, just kiddin'. This made KFC famous, their gravy really stands out amongst other fast-food chains, plus the meaty chicken, plus the mashed potatoes, plus the "krushers" and yes! Everything is Yummy!

Chewy choco brownie on the side. 

3.) Jollibee

www.jollibee.com.ph

A well-loved Filipino multinational chain of fast-food restaurants. Famous to their positive and child-friendly slogan "Bee Happy!". Plus they have the cutest mascot. The most admirable bee in the planet. It is the largest filipino-owned fast-food chain in the Philippines. And on behalf of all filipinos, all over the world, thank you Jollibee for putting the country on the map of this industry. Also being the first to compete with the giant McDonalds, hahah. Still, it's a healthy competition.

Without a doubt Jollibee's popular Chickenjoy is a bomb! Great Evah!

Mango Sundae. Yum!

4.) Chowking

www.chowking.com

Although it is also a Philippine-based chain this fast-food primarily sells chinese food with a touch of filipino cuisine, you heard it, right? Chinese food, that's the reason why I fell in love with Chowking right away. I understand that they always have available "siomai" but you know what I had loved their "orange chicken" first, sadly it's no longer part of the menu. Then surprisingly Chinese-style fried chicken came, another savory food made me realize, there's much better to order.

Chinese-style Fried Chicken

I tried their new "Choco Pao" and it's also good. Perfect snack for everyone.

5.) Mang Inasal

www.manginasal.com

A popular Filipino fast food chain because of its trademark "Unlimited Rice". Apart from the usual crispy fried chicken we can buy in a fast-food resto, this grilled chicken started to boom in the world of fast-food around 2008, I remember I was in college when it became "talk of the town", everyone was like crazy about chicken barbecue of Mang Inasal and the unlimited number of rice servings for free, and what is great about it, you can have it all plus the softdrinks on the side for less than 100pesos. It also introduced a very unique "orange" chicken oil you can mix with soy sauce and put it on your rice. Mang Inasal also promotes filipino cuisine in the market and that's the nicest thing I love about this fast-food, it gives you easy access just in case you wanna eat filipino food.

Chicken "Inasal"- Just in case you don't know, it is a chicken marinated in a mixture of lime, pepper, vinegar and annato then grilled over hot coals while basted with marinade. It is served with rice, calamansi(Philippines alternate to lime), vinegar(sinamak or white vinegar) and soy sauce. A common dish in the western Visayas region of the Philippines, a specialty in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental as well as in neighboring cities and provinces. (wikipedia)

Neither gravy nor catsup is the sauce for "Inasal", either soy sauce and calamansi or sinamak vinegar, infused with lots of garlics, chili peppers and langkawas(a kind of ginger). (wikipedia)

If you haven't seen yet, this is Halo-Halo, a filipino dessert, usually you can buy this during summer but Mang Inasal made it available for all seasons. So if you plan to visit the Philippines, just look for this fast-food. This is a must try! You will surely say, "I ❤ Mang Inasal!".

There you go! I hope you've made the right decision where you wanna eat next, but all of them are really great to try. So no more dilemma, you can go 1 fast-food a day. There are a lot of amazing restaurants and places to go, so see you on my next post about that. I'll continue my walk and search for this. You're welcome!

Makati City: The "Gangnam Style" Experience At Gentleman Korean Restaurant

Ahn-nyeong-ha-se-yo!(that's hello in korean, and that's all I know) Welcome to Korea! Ooppss! Just kidding, I haven't been there yet though, hopefully the soonest? Well, as they say "keep your fingers crossed". Anyway, while the skies are cloudy and dark gray outside, downpour is about to start, me here typing my new post for my blog while enjoying my brewed coffee. Hope you're at your best mode while reading this too, now let's talk about Korea! Not really about their country but my experience eating in a korean restaurant last year with my japanese friends. It was after our business meeting when I was invited to join them for dinner. At first I didn't know where would we eat, I was somehow understood them but all I heard that time was "gentleman". It was just a treat, so I had no choice but to say okay than no way. I honestly miss them now, sadly I can't speak fluent "nihongo", the japanese language, so they had no options but to adjust and talk to me in english. I was still thinking while we were walking amid that evening, along Poblacion, Makati City, what and where is gentleman? Even who is he? What else can I say but? Ikemasho! (let's go in japanese)

    (credit to keiko kato)

Welcome to Gentleman!

Now I know! That was the first phrase I said when we were at the entrance of the restaurant. Do you know Psy? You might be living in other planet if you don't know him, he is a south korean singer, songwriter, and record producer. The creator of "Gangnam Style", it's dance craze hit the youtube by really super storm, went viral and reached one billion views last Dec. 21, 2012. Amazing, right? Not only that, his second song that became also a craze because of its upbeat and novelty music was "Gentleman". Have you seen the video? It was the trend before PPAP(Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen). A korean restaurant named after the infectious dance song of Psy. Can't wait to go inside!

(credit to keiko kato)

I must say, what really excites you when you eat in a korean resto is the grilling part. The first thing you will remember and encourages you to go again.

(credit to keiko kato)

Japanese and Filipinos dinner at Korean Restaurant. Yeah! Because we love different asian cuisines. Happy Tummy United Nations! 

It was my first time to eat in a korean resto and honestly everything was new to me, although some food somewhat had resemblance to filipino food. I had no chance to get their names and prices, so I googled them and I hope I'm correct with all the information. Let's get to know them one by one.

(credit to keiko kato)

Pajeon- a variety of jeon with green onions, as its prominent ingredient as pa literally means 'green/spring onion' in korean. It is a pancake-like korean dish made from a batter of eggs, wheat flour, rice flour, green onions, and often other additional ingredients depending on the variety. Usually recognizable by the highly visible green onions.

What is Jeon? Pancake-like dishes in korean cuisine. Made with various ingredients such as sliced meats, poultry, seafood and vegetables depending on the style and mixed with flour batter or coated with egg batter and then pan-fried with oil. Commonly eaten as an appetizer or sometimes as a sweet.

(wikipedia)

(credit to keiko kato)

Samgyeopsal- a popular korean dish commonly an evening meal, a thick, fatty slices of unseasoned pork belly. Commonly grilled with garlic and onions, or with kimchi together at either side. Dipped in sesame oil and salt mixture, and wrapped with ssamjang in lettuce. (wikipedia) 

(credit to keiko kato)

(credit to keiko kato)

I'm not certain, somewhat this was another version of sweet & spicy korean beef stew, a nutritious food, with its bell pepper and carrots somehow remind me of filipino 'caldereta'. Even if I forgot the name, I'm sure it's my favorite, Yes! I'm certain with that. If in case you know, feel free to comment below.

I first fell in love with koreanovelas when I was high school student and now with korean cuisine. And thanks to my japanese friends who treated me, nice to know we have another one thing in common, our love for asian food. It's a great way to taste the beautiful culture of Korea. This Gentleman Korean Restaurant is highly recommendable to foodies, like you!

(credit to keiko kato)

Flying kisses from our friend, Tamura-san. Thanks for reading my blog. Till we meet again on another post. I hope this guide you on your next food trip. 

Cash & Carry Mall, Makati City: Let's Unwrap The Secret of "Binalot"

"Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and I'm home bound. Staring blankly ahead, just making my way, making a way through the crowd". It was like this song from Vanessa Carlton, like a thousand miles. It was last week when we had to run an errand, we quickly went out of the bus and chose to walk because of the traffic jam just to make sure that we would get to Cash & Carry Mall on time, an unexpected walkathon. We were amid of searching for a much lesser and affordable branded perfumes that time when we decided to crawl for food first. Hahah, just figuratively!

Our eyes roamed around the food court and a unique fast-food caught our attention because of its name 'Binalot'. There were other famous food vendors like Sbarro but due to limited time we sat here with no hesitation, we also felt that it would be lovely idea to have a filipino dishes for our lunch. 

This is really a must try! And thanks to my colleague and friend Salie for the treat! (Photo credit to Tham)

So what is 'Binalot'? In Tagalog or Filipino, it means "wrapped", a traditional local method of wrapping and serving dish in the Philippines using leaves, most common is banana leaves and the most popular when styro packed lunch boxes were not yet invented. 

Sisig- 99pesos

Tapa- 119pesos

Although it was a short time when we ate here. It was worth it to try something unique yet taste good foods and really close to the heart of many filipinos even outside the country. It's nice to see a quick service restaurant serving local and very filipino dishes like adobo, tapa, sisig, tocino, longganisa, salted egg, etc., a somewhat outside the box place to eat and different to the usual "one-piece chicken meal". Thumbs up for giving us ultimate filipino food experience. For more details, feel free to check www.binalot.com

San Antonio, Makati City: Meet The Meats At Charaptor

Breaking News! A dinosaur was spotted dining in a buffet restaurant around Makati City this morning, it was allegedly one of the dinos on the upcoming 'Jurassic World 2', later on bystanders confirmed it was just a mirage when it was not moving and only an image on the tarpaulin. Blah! Don't worry, this false alarm never happened, it was just made by my super creative mind. Anyhow, last week when I had spare time to browse my facebook, there were pictures that I should have featured on my blog like a year ago. But since I had not started my blog that year, it's now overdue, so I don't wanna procrastinate this again. Help me go back to our 'eat and grill' experience with my friends last 2014, at the carnivore-friendly buffet resto 'Charaptor'.

Sunday morning after our shift when we went here, even though I'm living near Makati we rode a cab going here from edsa-pioneer, located exactly at 9755 Kamagong St. Corner Sampaloc St., Bgy. San Antonio,

Makati City, the place was still new to me and it was an unexpected 'eat-out'. 

From a word of mouth to reality. We don't usually go out but that time we felt really hungry and wanted to try an after-office-food-crawl. Oh! That was the Dino on the tarpaulin! 

Rawrrrr Welcome to Charaptor!

We arrived there roughly 10 in the morning to take advantage on a less 100pesos price, good thing even if we didn't reserve we were able to find perfect table with very clean charcoal grill. There were already people inside and we thought it was kinda a lot, so we decided to just enjoy the outside area. Everything was like new since they just opened early that year 2014. 

This unique bbq all-you-can-eat resto became talk of the town not only with their mouthwatering dishes but they have an affordable price, like almost 50% lesser than the usual buffet restaurant price(Php800-Php1,200) in Manila.

Which one will you grill first? Tell you what I had 4 plates for all of these, mostly different kind of sausages. I am not really super meat lover but I don't know why, my mindset everytime I go in a buffet is 'eyes must be bigger than my stomach', I guess not only to taste all the foods that are on the tables but to maximize what I paid. But usually the result is either your stomach will suffer or the excess will be wasted and hit directly the trash can.

Happy Grilling! Like the advice of majority of the resto-goers, never go here without even eating a piece of bread, because if none, you will end up eating 2 or 3 cups of mashed potatoes, well like what happened to me, though it was really tasted good, I felt full right away. So if you can't wait, I highly suggest to just drink a lot of water or enjoy the convo with your friends whilst grilling.

Look at the sausages, oh my! I was melting that time, I don't know perhaps that could be because of the heat from the grill. There are also other marinated cuts of chicken, pork, fresh seafood like fish, squid, shrimp, vegetables, hotdogs, and street food such as 'isaw' and squid balls you will surely love.

There were numerous sauces you can choose from teriyaki, toyomansi, special bbq, steak and a lot more. Colors were from black, dark orange to bloody red.

More meats to grill.

Do you know what's the happiest in grilling? It could be the bonding moment whilst you're grilling and the smoke slowly smothering you and your friends amid a convo 'anything under a smoke exhaust ventilator', everyone is laughing hard while waiting for the foods to cook.

When your friend felt full yet there were still a lot of food on the table.

Groupie after, me with happy and rex. Yes, happy was smiling because she did something goofy, oopps! No, all of us. 

It was a nice grill-all-you can experience, despite of the long wait for us to cook all of the dishes we had on our plates. Honestly, mashed potatoes got us bloated and we had leftovers, the fright of paying additional led us to burning them but there were people next on our table who had left with excess foods on their table without being charged for it, so we decided to just leave it that way. I really enjoyed it and you know what? The craze of this resto pushed them to put another branch in Mall of Asia, Pasay City(SM By The Bay). Congratulations! It's a hit for a span of just 2 years, surely everyone especially those who are meat lovers or true blue food porns will do their 'meet and greet' here. You can also check their site www.charaptor.com for more details.