My Favorite McDonald's Meal

I still remember my first visit at Mcdonald's, I was 7 years old then and wanted to own even just one 101 Dalmatians Happy Meal. I really bugged my dad to eat there just so I could have a toy. Cheese Burger was my  first meal at the Mcdonald's, and as time passed, I would try different McDonald's food. When I was in college, there was a time that I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at McDonald's! Needless to say, I really love the food here, and in my four years in college, I would often drop by a McDo branch to order the double cheeseburger with large fries and drink before I travel home.

This year, McDonald's is celebrating its 30th year of providing good fast food to the Filipino. We weren't able to check out the celebrations happening two weeks ago, but last week, my sister and I visited one of the newly renovated Mcdonald's store here in Quezon City - the McDonald’s Commonwealth branch, just outside Ever Commonwealth. Interestingly, this was also the same store where I had my very first McDo meal. 

I really loved the ambiance of the new store, the place was so bright and spacious, the new uniforms of the staff looked so neat. What I really loved the most was how they presented the menu - giving customers a choice whether they like their meals to be in L or XL sizes (kinda like a shirt, eh?),  giving customers choices what to eat depending on their budget. From the counter, I was also able to take a peek at their kitchen and how the staff prepare the food. Seeing the neat and orderly kitchen gave me an assurance that my meal was prepared in a hygienic way. 

It's been past lunch and we haven't eaten our lunch yet so we decided to stop at Mcdonald's for a while before going home. I ordered my current favorite- the Chicken McDO meal with Medium Fries and additional barbeque sauce for my fries (I already lost interest interest with the ketchup since I tried dipping my fries in their barbeque sauce when I once ordered their chicken nuggets).


I really love the crispiness and the saltiness of the chicken and the meat was really juicy. Today seemed to be a lucky day for me, I got my favorite chicken part! I am thankful local fast food now offers unlimited gravy, and since I am a gravy person, I just drowned my chicken in gravy!


French Fries of Mcdonalds is one of my comfort foods, my fast food meal is not complete without these. Since I discovered that fries go well with their McChicken Nuggets barbeque sauce, I don't think I will go back with the fries and ketchup thingy, but of course I would gladly accept the ketchup sachets given at the counter for me to take home. Of course, we do cook fries at home, too, and since we don't have the barbeque sauce at home, I can use the sachets of ketchup, since we use banana ketchup at home. Why do I love the barbeque sauce? Well, the fries are salty and the sauce has this sweet/sour taste. Perfect combination! Now I am starting to wonder where they get the sauce... I should order a gallon! Hahaha.

Well, no need to put what my sister ate that day - she's currently on her "journey to become slenderella," and she went for Chicken McSavers meal, and it looked funny as her chicken piece was so small compared to my chicken. For 50 pesos, sister said it was worth it.

It's been awhile since sister and I went to a fast food to eat. Come to think of it, she couldn't recall the last time she ate at McDonald's and she found it nice to catch up with the flavors of their food. We do eat together everyday at home, but it was just so different eating outside - savoring food, having a girly talk, and sometimes we would watch people, too.

Eating my favorite McDonald's meal and being with my sister... it sure was a fine day.

Jesz

Lee Kum Kee Cook with the Masters

We all know that Lee Kum Kee is known as one of the manufactures of the best sauces. However, what most people don't know (me included - before, of course) is that it was in 1888 when they invented the oyster sauce, and in time, more and more sauces were added to their long list of quality products, which made cooking easier for us. Celebrating its 123^rd anniversary of giving superior quality products to every home, they conducted four cooking demos around the metro featuring celebrity chefs - Chef Sau del Rosario, Chef Sandy Daza, Chef Eugene Raymundo, Chef Him Uy De Baron and Chef Ernest Gala.


Last October 9, 2011 Lee Kum Kee sets the biggest and one of a kind cooking demo called the Cook with the Masters Grand Cooking Demo featuring Lee Kum Kee’s brand ambassador for Southeast Asia and true culinary expert, Chef Bruce Lim at Glorietta Activity Center. Many mall goers and attendees had fun at the activity area while waiting for the cooking show to start. They first had to read about Lee Kum Kee's rich history, then they had to  proceed to the “tasting area” where they will experience the exquisite flavors of Lee Kum Kee sauces (others were combination of different sauces creating another new awesome taste) and finally, the had to drop by “Lee’s Kitchen" to have a picture taken with the Lee Kum Kee products. Completing all steps not only gave them the chance to take home a souvenir picture, they were also given chance to take home some goodies. People also had the chance to shop for Lee Kum Kee products, and for every 300 pesos of LKK products, they can take home an eco-bag, which they can use (and re-use) whenever they shop.

Brigada (a percussion band) opened the program and host Ms. Issa Litton welcomed the guests and audience for the grand cooking demo.

For the first round of cooking, some members of the audience (which they picked before the show started) cooked alongside Chef Bruce. They cooked two dishes - 3 Cups Chicken and Oyster Chicken with Mushrooms.  Both dishes were very easy to cook and are perfect for busy persons. Though both were easy to cook, both tasted really good. 

The second round were participated by the culinary students from CCA and MICAH. They cooked Spicy Seaside Prawns, another easy dish to whip up. for this they used Lee Kum Kee Chili Garlic, Premium Oyster Sauce and Seasoned Soy Sauce for Seafood. It’s a little bit sweet maybe because of the oyster sauce, but it had a wee bit hint of spice, which anyone can tolerate. Of course, if you plan to cook this, you will just have to adjust its level of spiciness.

The third and final round of cooking was participated by the celebrities namely Baron Geisler, Phoemela Barranda, Desiree del Valle, Enzo Pineda, Rocco Nocino, Steven Silva and Djanin Cruz. They cooked Braised Pork Belly, which sounded a bit tedious and time-demanding, but the beauty of the dish was that it was another easy dish to prepare. Come to think of it, we all know that celebrities have busy schedule, but I guess them preparing this dish just testifies that anyone can cook an awesome dish despite their schedules. I do love this dish because it allows people to multi-task - cook and do other house chores. The combination of mustasa and pork blended well, I thought mustasa can only be used for fish sinigang, but thanks to this recipe I can allow myself to eat more mustasa.

Aside from just listening and watching how they prepared the dishes, Ms. Issa Liton threw in some questions to the audience and they will win a Lee Kum Kee products if they answered correctly. Since this is the grand demo, they also introduced the other chefs who demoed from the past cooking shows.

All of us got to take home a mini booklet of all the recipes they demoed from past cooking shows until the grand showdown. All of the dishes were so easy to do and I think the family will get to try almost all of the dishes. 

Jesz

* Beautifully plated pictures of the dishes were scanned from the recipe booklet we took home; all other pictures were taken by my ever dearest sister Jenn of Tara, Let's Eat!

Celebrating Mommy's 62nd

Papa  John’s Pizza

Unit 107-108 Annex 2, Ground Floor

SM City Fairview

Last September 13, our family celebrated the 62^nd birthday of my mom.  We celebrated it at the newly opened pizza house in SM Fairview which is Papa John Pizza. Finally the long wait is over to taste their pizza. Many people said that they have a good pizza. I'm a Pizza Pasta lover and this is one of my long lists that I want to taste.

My mom always want a soup when we go dine out, so we ordered their two soups, the cream of chicken and corn (above) and the cream of mushroom (below), which the family shared.  Both soups are tasty but I love the cream of mushrooms, for me it’s already a full meal because of the croutons and bits of mushrooms.

My sister ordered Garden Fresh Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing.  My sister said that it’s a little bit sour because of the mustard (this wasn't her first choice for salad dressing, but they ran out of Italian Vinaigrette), but she finished it so I think she loves it.

We want to order all of their pizza but instead of ordering one big pizza, we decided to go for 2 smaller size of pizza ( the 9” pizza) with different flavors. We try the Super PAPA Classic Pizza and the Grilled Chicken Deluxe Specialty Pizza.

Super Papa is a combination of Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Ham, Mushroom, Green Peppers and Black Olives.  Toppings were typical for a pizza, but I did find this one really tasty, the crust was so soft and I loved dipping it in their garlic butter sauce.

Grilled Chicken Deluxe Specialty Pizza had Grilled Chicken (of course) as well as ham, bacon, and mushroom in Carbonara Sauce. This was my favorite that night, I felt the taste of all flavors and even my mom loved this too. Good thing mom pushed with this flavor... when we were deciding which two flavors to try, my sister was suggesting their seafood pizza, but mom really wanted this. I guess moms do know best. :) Maybe we can try the seafood pizza next time.

Their pizzas come in three sizes. Their 9" pizzas were normally sliced into six parts, but since we were only four, sister suggested our pizza to be cut in 4, so we could have equal portions. Her salad already made her full, so she only got to eat one pizza slice, the other one she took home and ate it the next day.

I will really be going back to this place, all our food serves hot  and that was the most important to me because you feel the freshness of the food, and their pizzas are not oily. I love the ambiance and their server was friendly and I felt that they were happy to assist us.

For more information about Papa John’s Pizza you may see their website at http://www.papajohns.com.ph

Jesz


*photos on this post credited to http://www.agent112778.com/. Thanks brother!