Healthy Shabu Shabu, Japanese Restaurant in the Philippines

From Healthy Shabu-shabu website

Shabu-shabu is a Japanese food composed of thinly sliced beef and different kinds of vegetables boiled in water. Depending on your taste, beef can be replaced with pork, lamb, or fish. Shabu-shabu is one of the most popular dishes in Japan. 

 Shabu-shabu table setting

This is how the table looks like in Shabu-shabu restaurant. There are four individual pots so you don't have to argue with your friends over how the soup should taste like.

Surprisingly seasonings are fairly simple for its rich flavor. They are one raw egg, minced garlic, chili, and spring onion, satay sauce and soy sauce.

First thing is boiling the broth. It is electric cooking pot embedded on the table. The structure of this pot makes me less worried about burning myself on the flame while cooking this. 

Pot temperature is adjusted by this controller attached on the table. You don't need to study Chinese or Japanese to read this remote. Red button on the left is for turning on or off the pot. Left and right arrows are for turning down or up the temperature. 

This is our main dish for today. I know they are not much. When I tried Shabu-shabu for the first time, I was deeply disappointed by how small the serving can be. Healthy Shabu-shabu offers additional serving of meat or fish for people like me whose stomach is way too big for what they serve. 

Once you have what you need for Shabu-shabu, all you have to do is dumping everything at once in the boiling hot pot. Cooking will be done in less than a minute. Shabu-shabu is quite similar to Chinese Hou Gou. Almost same arrangement; hot pot with chicken or beef broth, several kinds of vegetables, and meat. 

Chinese Huo Guo

Shabu-shabu comes with this noodle and glass noodle. When the soup is boiled with the seasonings and broth for a while, it generates such a rich flavor together with the meat. You should try the noodle at the end since this rich flavor will be smeared through the noodle. 

Halo-halo; http://fun2knowphilippines.blogspot.com/2013/05/halo-halo-stand.html

After having hot soup, eating ice-cold halo-halo will give you a refreshing sensation on your mouth. 

If  satisfied with the taste, sign up for the lifetime membership card. It costs 500 peso and comes with 10% discount for unlimited offer. 

One order of Beef striploin and additional beef and Seafood set cost 946.04 peso, about US $23. 

Link for the previous article; Halo-halo

http://fun2knowphilippines.blogspot.com/2013/05/halo-halo-stand.html

Link for Healthy Shabu Shabu Restaurant in the Philippines

http://healthyshabushabu.com/home.html

Healthy Shabu-shabu Branches

http://healthyshabushabu.com/reservations.html

Mr Choi Restaurant, Chinese Flavor in the Philippines

Despite the size of Chinese population in the Philippines, 1.5 million, about 1.6% of the Philippines population, Chinese people have a great deal of influence in many ways in the Philippines. In fact, Chinese new year holiday was declared as a special holiday in 2012 by the government. Chinese foods are the icon of their culture. Every corner of the big shopping malls has one or two Chinese restaurants. 

Mr. Choi Kitchen is one of them sharing their unique food culture in the Philippines; it definitely looks like Chinese restaurant from outside. 

Red color means a lot to Chinese. It's interpreted as good fortune and joy. Red can be seen anywhere during Chinese New Year and other holidays. During these holidays, people often exchange red envelops with money. They believe that red color brings fortune to people. Since red is deeply associated with happiness, wearing anything red is not appropriate at funerals. In modern days, red remains a very popular and is affiliated with and used by the Communist government. 

Let's go back to our food business again. I had Yang Chow, Birthday Noodle, and Duck Soup. Chinese restaurants are known for big servings. Yang Chow, a popular Chinese-style fried rice dish, is usually good enough for 2 to 3 people so I ordered 1/2 serving instead but it was still good enough for my wife and me. Birthday Noodles, alos known as Yi Mein, is a egg noodles made of wheat flour and made of vegetables. 

If you are not a big fan of Chinese food, ask them not to put herbs in your food. It might smell and taste like perfume or facial lotion. 

With all these food, I paid only 570 peso, about US $13.50. Not bad!

An article on Chinese New Year in the Philippines 

http://filipinoscribe.com/2013/01/23/february-10-2013-chinese-new-year-philippine-holiday/

Here is Mr. Choi Kitchen.

View Larger Map

Sizzling Seafoods, Seafood food vendor in Robinsons Mall

This is my favorite food vendor in the food court of Robinsons Mall. They serve fresh and juicy seafoods such as Lapu Lapu, local name of groupers fish, blue marlin, tuna, and bangus, local name of milkfish. Let's have a look at the menu here. 

 Sizzling Favorites is the best selling items in this vendor. grilled Lapu Lapu is 175 peso, about US $4.20, grilled salmon head is 145 peso, about US $ 3.50, grilled blue marlin is 135 peso, about US $ 3.25.

Salmon heads are either grilled or broiled. 

Grilled Lapu Lapu garnished with fresh chilies and pear slices.  

 Grilled Lapu Lapu is my favorite fish. It's flavored with soy sauce, fried garlic, fresh chilies and sliced pear.

This is salmon head soup, which is called Sinigang.  Distinctive sour taste made of tamarind fruit makes this Sinigang soup very unique.

I decided to have some salad as well and stopped by near salad bar. It's 18.50 peso per 100 gram, about  US 44 cents.

 Grilled Lapu Lapu, Salmon head soup, and fresh salad for lunch.

 Now, it's time to dig in! I had grilled Lapu Lapu and my wife had salmon head soup. I paid 150 peso for fruit and vegetable salad in addition to main dishes, which is 320 peso, about US $7.70.

 Each shopping mall has many vendors but most of them serve either grilled or deep fried ones. Price for one serving food varies from about 60 peso to 150 peso.

Here are the links where you can find more about the article. 

Tamarind Fruit : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarind

Lapu Lapu fish : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grouper

Bangus fish : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkfish

Sinigang soup : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinigang

Pizza Hut in the Philippines and other Countries

Pizza Hut seems to be everywhere in the world. However, the price varies in every country. What about in the Philippines? How much is the budget for dining out in the Philippines?

I decided to have chicken wings this time. It's called WingStreet. It's Pizza Hut's new menu. There  six different kids of flavors available for this dish. Honey BBQ, Spicy Asian, Garlic Parmesan, Mild Buffalo, Medium Buffalo, and Burning Hot Buffalo. 

This is 6 pieces of Honey BBQ. I can hardly think of eating chicken wings without soft drinks so I ordered one of these. 

This is called Tropical Fizz with Kiwi flavor. Basically it's a mixture of Sprite and lime. I have no idea why they name it Kiwi since it tastes nothing like kiwi fruit. 

My wife ordered Choco Malt. 

The total amount is 389.50 peso, about US $9.35; 6 pieces of chicken wing is 219, Tropical Fizz is 59 and Choco Malt is 75 peso. 

Let's take a look at other soft drinks in Pizza Hut. 

Below is the link of Pizza Hut in the Philippines. 

http://www.pizzahut.com.ph/2007/index.php

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Pizza Hut Japan Menu]

 While posting this article, I got curious about Pizza Hut prices in other countries and check the web sites. 4 pieces of Spicy chicken wings and chips is 500 Yen, about US $5. 5 pieces of spicy chicken wings is 400 Yen, about US $4. 

Large size Gourmet pizza is 3,500 Yen, which is about 3,500 Yen, about US $35. 100 Yen is almost about US $100. It's quite interesting to know that they have Super Korean purukogi pizza, which has Korean Bul-go-gi flavor. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Pizza Hut Korea]

4 pieces of spicy chicken wings is 3,900 Won, about US $3.50. 

Large size Super Supreme pizza is 28,900 Won, about US $25,60. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Pizza Hut Thailand]

6 pieces of chicken wings is 109 THB, which is around US $3.64. 

BBQ chicken pizza is 249 THB, about US $8.31. 

Enjoy travelling in the Philippines. 

Sushi ya, Japanese Restaurant

How much should be the budget for eating out in the Philippine? Is everything so cheap there? Let's have a look at the menu in the popular restaurants here.

Our first stop is SushiYa, one of the favored Japanese style restaurants in the Philippines. The one above is Chirashidon, mixture of raw fish, steamed shrimp, egg roll and other vegetables. Tuna and salmon are common ingredients in any Japanese style food store in the Philippines. 

I ordered two of Chirashidon this time; one for me and the other one for my wife. Can you guess how much I spent for this time? 

It was 390 peso. One order of Chirashidone is 195 peso, which is about US $4.70. What do you think?

Let's have a look at other dishes as well. 

100 peso is about US $2.50. 

Coron, Dream Island in the Philippines

The very best destination in the Philippines, Coron Island. There are two most popular tourist spots in the Palawan area; the first one is Coron and the second is Puerto Princesa. Personally, I prefer Coron to Puerto Princesa. Coron offers better chances for snorkeling and scuba diving and affordable accommodation as well. This photo is taken with iPhone4. Far from fancy DSLR cameras. Any ordinary digital camera will take this kind shot. 

Look for any tour guide in Coron island and they will take you this spot. Since this area is always bustling with foreigners busy taking pictures, avoiding the peak season, which is early April and late December, will be a good idea. 

Day tour to these small uninhabited islands costs about 700 to 800 peso, including lunch and entrance fees. The tour starts at around 8 in the morning and ends at around 4 pm. What a deal! Less than $30 for a day trip with lunch. 

I'm sure that Coron should be the first destination when you travel in the Philippines. Cebu or Boracay would be a no match for Coron. 

If you can't swim, sign up for a swimming class right now or you will regret it when you come here. 

Don't forget to buy waterproof camera case or waterproof camera. Adding a bit more on your budget definitely pay you off greatly.