Girls' Night Out with the BFF

It's Friday once again. BFF had a pretty stressful week, to cheer her up, I invited her to have a spa girls' night out with me.

We're pretty simple ladies. All we need is a decent reasonably priced massage and we're good to go. I was craving for a Thai massage and I searched the web for an affordable alternative to the swanky spas in Makati. I came upon some decent reviews for Ton-Ton massage. All of the reviews that I managed to read agreed on the nice and soothing massage but gave low marks on the ambiance. Me, personally agrees with the review. Ton-ton is a straighforward, massage "parlor", no fancy frills, no designer tea, no comfy lounge and certainly no zen-like ambiance except for dim lights, soft music and a few slats of bamboo. That's it. Barring these, my best friend and I truly enjoyed our massage. After all, shelling out just P375 for an hour and a half of massage isn't bad, BFF even fell asleep and had to be shaken several times to wake her up, he he he. We tried the one along Pasay Road, right in front of The Residences. We'll probably try the one in BF next time. I didn't take any pictures because it wasn't very photogenic. For some images in the BF branch, I got these images from southbound.ph:





I personally prefer the Thai massage over the Shiatsu. Thai massage involves a bit of stretching and lots of deep massages using the masseus' hands, feet, elbows, knees and arms. It is dry massage (without any oils) and you are made to wear lose comfortable clothing for ease of movement, the massage is usually done on a mattress on the floor.

After our massage, we had a simple dinner at Pizza Hut Bistro. BFF is partial to pasta and is alergic to shellfish. We passed by the bistro on our way to another restaurant and decided to try it out instead. It was quiet and comfortable. The food isn't bad and the prices are reasonable.

The Fetuccine Alfredo is a favorite of my best friend. She ALWAYS has this when we go out. So, it wasn't a surprise that she ordered that. She mentioned to me that I actually introduced her to the "white sauce" spaghetti back in the day (maybe elementary days) and she got hooked since then.



I had a Seafood Pasta with Prawns and New Zealand Mussels in White Wine Sauce. I like this also. The flavor is light but quite filling.



We also shared a Salad of Cucumbers and Crabmeat (imitation) with some miso dressing wrapped in rice paper. It was also nice, light and refreshing.



What a lovely evening :-) Can't wait for the next one!

New Bombay Restaurant

It's Tito Boy's last night in Manila after a short visit and we decided to celebrate it with an Indian dinner. Our place of choice is New Bombay Restaurant in Glorietta (right beside Pho Hoa/Bac (?) and Subway).

New Bombay is an intimate restaurant that seats maybe 30 people, tops. The interior is decorated with Indian colors and murals. The heavy chairs even have bells in them and yes, there are plenty of gold, red and orange accents.



We ordered quite a variety of food which was more than enough for four people.

For starters, we ordered the Malai Paneer Tikka, cottage cheese sauteed in cream and cashew nut paste. I like this very much. The cottage cheese is lightly grilled and is very tasty.



My favorite is the Palak Paneer. The menu describes it as Paneer cooked in spinach sauce. Paneer by definition is "fresh, unripened cheese", whatever that means :-)



My mom's favorite is the Dal Makani, thick yellow lentils with spices. My mom can't get enough of this. It's great with some Naan, an oven baked flat bread.



We also had a heaping serving of Vegetarian Biryani. Biryani is essentially an Indian fried rice made with Basmati rice. Basmati Rice are elongated rice granules and "buhaghag" when cooked. I saw an Indian lady at the supermarket the other day, testing the rice guy if Basmati Rice is sticky rice or not. The guy answered, "It's not sticky" and then the lady would try to confuse him again by asking other varieties in the supermarket. Eventually asking the same question over and over again. Poor guy. I wanted to say to the lady to just buy the friggin' rice already!



Anyway, I got carried away with my story. We also had Chicken Tandoori. It's called tandoori because it's cooked in a tandoor oven, usually made of clay that is heated by wood or charcoal in high heat. Sort of like the Indian version of an Italian wood fired oven. I like the cilantro dipping sauce that came with the chicken, great dipping sauce for the naan.



We also had Fish Tikka, bonelss fish marinated in yoghurt and secret Indian spices cooked in a traditional clay oven (Tandoor).



The Malai Prawns were also good. These prawns were marinated in cashew paste cream and roasted in the tandoor oven. The sauce is similar to a barbecue sauce, sweet and tangy.



Overall, I like this restaurant very much. It is quiant, intimate and the food is delicious. I would recommend this to everyone who likes Indian food, or would like to try Indian food. You won't be disappointed. Bring your appetite with you!

In Bangkok!

I'm here in Thailand with hubby. I'm enjoying my stay so far. The food's great! Will blog about it soon.

Oh my, I still have to publish my Sydney blog and now I have more adventures to blog :-)

Life is good :-)

A Sinful Daydream

Last night I had a terrible craving for churros. Churros by definition is a thick coiled fritter of fried dough traditionally dipped in hot chocolate sauce. The very definition of it would probably give your heart surgeon the goosebumps.





The very best churro that I have ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth is from San Churro along Acland Street in St. Kilda, Melbourne. The shop itself is charming and homey, the staff are friendly and smell is so enticing and wonderful. Willy Wonka’s factory might have smelled just as heavenly.







Despite the dough being fried, it wasn’t greasy at all and oh the chocolate sauce, oh my, the chocolate sauce. If I may dare, it’s like an orgasm in a demi cup. The chocolate is simply silky and heavenly, not too sweet, not too bitter. Oh my gosh, just thinking about it, makes my mouth water.



If I close my eyes and picture it, I can almost taste its decadent sweetness…hmmmm...