Dining at Omakase Japanese Restaurant

We never expected for Omakase to be surprisingly good. The Japanese place is usually caught with empty seats. This, we soon realized, was because people had to wait to be seated--which is completely fine.

Of course, there's also the price point. Four thousand pesos for a group of eight isn't so bad, but it's not the cheapest place to eat Japanese cuisine at either.

Omakase Marikina's Sushi Boat. Don't let the mustard-ish blob scare you. It's good!

On the bright side, be it service, plating, or their food itself, Omakase hit my sweet tooth like a chocolate cake baked to perfection.

Tempura Ice Cream. Vanilla ice cream wrapped in crunchy pancake and doused in chocolate sauce. With a cherry on top!

A most memorable selection includes their Japanese Sushi Boat (920 php), Tempura Ice Cream (105 php), and their cheese-dressed, tuna-filled Maki. If I remember correctly, it's called the American Dream (205 php). 

And my final suggestion: a glass of their bottomless Iced Tea (75 php). You can get refills for both Wild Raspberry and Panama Orange in Omakase Marikina--whichever you choose to order.

Sorry, I had to use another Store's Map. Omakase is located in the same building.

Omakase is located in ESJ Building, Gil Fernando Avenue, San Roque, Marikina City. You may call them at (632)631-6588. Check out there menu at Zomato.

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Chevy Burger in Marikina

Hamburger House. Self-service. Pay as you order.

After a few months of wondering why Chevy Burger was always filled with customers, I finally struck gold when my sister decided we go try it.

The large Chevy Burger sign greets incoming patrons as they enter the small joint.

Indeed, the place is small, but the taste is nowhere in comparison to the crowded seats and the overwhelming abundance in ingredients.

This newly opened Chevy Burger is situated along JP Rizal, across Malanday's South Supermarket.

As you could see, the place is jam-packed. When we entered, they were full. For a brief moment, the seats emptied. A few minutes later, it's like this again.

I second this caption. They definitely know their stuff.

Chevy Burger reminds me of Iloilo Glor's Burger or the old American Legacy. They serve good burgers at an affordable price. Getting the Messy Melt at 75 pesos and a tall glass of Iced Tea for 25 pesos is quite rare.

This Messy Melt Burger oozes with "house-blend" cheese sauce. Each bite was filled with meaty goodness.

I just love that the Messy Melt burger had mushrooms. But then, there was the nachos with cheesy abundance.

Nachos!!! Mmmm....

Overall, the #ChevyBurger experience was worth the wait. It was always full and far. So when they opened a branch more accessible to me, I was ecstatic. I think I've blurted out their name a few times than anticipated.

One of Chevy Burger's newest branches is situated along J. P. Rizal Street, Marikina, Metro Manila. They're open from 2:00 PM - 11:00 PM.

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Where to Eat in Iloilo: Roberto's

There's no denying that Roberto's is definitely one of the best places to eat at when you're in Iloilo. They have lumpia shanghai, meatballs, burgers and siopaos. I won't even call it Chinese cuisine because it caters to Filipino taste, too.

My favorite order would be Roberto's fried rice and lumpia shanghai (spring rolls).

Give or take facing-out a couple of spring roll varieties, they've been selling the same menu ever since.... FOREVER. I mean, it was my sister's favorite place to eat at when she was still young (and now she's 39). What's more amazing is the fact that the taste of their food has remained the same for decades now- unlike other restaurants. I guess that's because Roberto's never opened for franchise thereby maintaining a certain quality.

Roberto's Meatball Sauce has as much right to be featured as all their other selections.

They're cheap and the food is well worth the wait in line, especially when there's often a long line of customers outside. 

Just to give you an idea of how much their food actually cost. Of course, prices are subject to change without prior notice.

For those who have eaten the Queen Siopao, you must be familiar with the fact that a) it has its own selling schedule and b) it's a giant siopao (yes, giant small bun!). I recall one of our friends saying that when one eats Queen Siopao, one has to have rice on his plate because its filling is enough to complete a main course.

Total damage... 240.49 php for the three meals inclusive of Iced Tea plus S.C. discount. Not bad for good food.

Roberto's is located at J.M. Basa St., Iloilo City

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RACKS: Great Dine-in, Super Fantasic Barbeque Sauce for Take-out

Aside from eating at Racks, one of our favorite traditions is bringing home with us a couple Racks Barbecue Sauce bottles. Racks has one of the best barbeque sauce and we don't mind spending a couple of hundreds on them for our own grilled cookouts.

Racks Original Barbeque Sauce

So, what's there to eat at Racks?

For appetizers, nothing beats Racks Onion Brick for some good old deep fried crispy goodness. At 165 php (or is it 195 php now), this appetizer can literally be your main course if you're a big fan of onions and crunchy grub.

Onion brick made of sliced large sweet onions fried in crispy goodness.

Add in some Cesar Salad and you'll be regretting ordering that main course without having a tummy of steel. If I remember correctly, this one cost me my Baby Back Ribs meal because I was too full.

Sure, I can eat Racks Cesar Salad alone. But what about my Pork Ribs?

As an avid eater, I certainly recommend eating lightly to enjoy more flavors. This means a salad here, a rib portion there, some iced tea and the rest is history. 

Coleslaw and Mashed Potato Sidings? Not bad!

Sharing is loving and what we usually do as a family is to order 3 courses if there are 4 of us eating. This is to make room for the Mississippi Mud Pie dessert- a must have for the sweet tooth.

This memorable Racks meal was courtesy of the El Pueblo branch at Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

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Legalizing Abortion: YES or NO?

So my boyfriend is a big fan of Thunderfoot because of his educated insights and justifications to his belief. To point out one thing, he is an atheist, which is a VERY VERY big deal to religious fanatics and fundamentalists. What's the point of explaining to a person when they themselves have no whatsoever intentions of listening? One of the comments read:

"Ray comfort has the answers before he has the questions, why bother man?"

In a part of this segment, they were discussing about abortion as being considered murder or killing a human- which is of course, a mortal sin according to the ten commandments.

My thoughts about legalizing abortion is, although I come from a strong family background of God-Fearing people, on a practical and realistic side, it not being a wrong. As much as I want to say "depending on the situation", I will just stick with my former statement. The problem is that some people just want a Yes or No answer. They ask IF questions but when you give them situations to present your point, they avoid answering or tell you that your question is ridiculous. Well, scientist used to think the world wasn't round, but now it is fact.I think it's absurd to require someone to reply with a single word for a complex issue. Why?

First of all, who in the world would want to put themselves in a life-risking situation just to kill for no significant reason. Legalizing abortion will mean more babies/fetuses will never see the light of day, is a cruel thought. But that's a person's opinion. Did that person have experience as a rape victim or someone close to them? Did that person experience the life of a pregnant mother who has eclampsia (or any life-threatening gynecological condition)? Did that person consider a family's impoverish state? If that person's opinion would say, that's a different situation, then he/she has no right to impose his or her opinion without basis because the world has a variety of societies and an abundance of complex situations that no single person or sect can fathom. And even if he/she has had these experiences, who are they to impose their will to the majority of the people.

The fact of the matter is, out-dated rules and laws may no longer apply to present situations. And the problem being, religious fanatics will impose these rules making them feel they have a right to judge someone or impose their own opinion.

I'm not an atheist but I'm not religious either. I strongly believe that everybody is entitled to their own experience based opinions. Fishing for the masses' say is not an assurance that it's right. Furthermore, should the masses' opinions weigh more than those who've had experience?

Doesn't the mother have a right to decide for her own body? As for religious fanatics, here is what I have to say to them. "If God gave us choices, why won't you allow people to decide for themselves and leave them be with their decisions. Who are you to impose your moral standing and religion based opinion?"

Abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality are still moral issues that are being debated. Galileo once defended heliocentrism as the Scripture passages had stated differently. He was even suspected of heresy. But now this theory is widely accepted.

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OUTCOME: The Santan's Success Story (3/8/2006)

Storms come and go. They destroy almost everything weak and helpless along their way. They are like obstacles hindering the growth of plants and animals. With all these deaths in the world, one should be sad. Yet, life is full of storms coming and leaving. As the law of survival says, survival of the fittest. Those who are weak die but those who survive grow stronger, more beautiful and more adaptable to the remaining trials that they will encounter.

Santan plants have been used to beautify gates, fences and gardens. They are cut, flooded and even exposed to heavy typhoons. In spite of that, they grow back and continue to strive. The outcome of which are the beautiful buds that grow in clusters. With the trials to come, remember the santan plant.

note: This image was taken from flickr.com.

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FLEXIBILITY: A Tribute to Imperfection (3/8/2006)

Nobody is perfect. The world isn’t a perfect sphere. The sun cannot perfectly rise at the same moment each day. But the Lord is smart. For in imperfections do we see joy and happiness. What is a world without the definition of success? What is a world,without serendipity and technological advances? What is a love without problems to strengthen the relationship? That is why imperfections exist.

Without imperfections, life would be boring. Though we strive to have perfect lives, we know it would never be like that. Reason why one must be flexible to survive.

(As an engineer) Flexibility can be compared to elasticity. Garters do a good job of demonstrating how it springs back as if nothing happened after it was stretched. Like garters, we experience tensions in forms of setbacks, and we retract to cope.

To minimize damage, people have learned the essence of ‘plan Bs’. In a power plant, plan B is called a contingency plan. In a person’s life, it is called a ‘back-up’. There is no exact science in how people plan their back-up. But if ever someone asks you what you'd do incase all else fails, there's a perfect answer for that, which is to to get up again and start all over.

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