Best Egg Tart found in Lord Stow's Bakery

Eggs, milk and sugar.. These are the little treasures in life that makes life sweeter. Combine them together to create a soft, silky and oh so smooth custard nestled on a flaky rich crust and topped with sugar that has been caramelized using a blow torch then you'd have the perfect egg tart.

And nowhere else in the metro can find this perfect gem but in Lord Stow's Bakery. We happen to pass by Lord Stow's bakery when we were food tripping in Banawe and I just had the sudden craving for their egg tart.


Although I am not a fan of egg pies that are brought home as pasalubongs, I am a big fan of this egg tart. I remember those "pasalubong egg pies" that have a thin dark brown toasted layer on the top which is not appealing to me. Lord Stow's egg tarts have this almost-burnt caramelized sugar that gives a creme brulee feeling.


I remember my attempt at making an egg pie at home since my aunt requested me to make her one. It was luscious but it turned out to taste like leche flan on a crust. Too much sugar, oops! Looking at these pictures make me think that I need not arm myself with an apron to bake one, I'll just leave it to the experts. ;)

Flapjacks' Breakfast -- the Meal of the Day

At Flapjacks, there's no time limit as to what time of the day you can get your breakfast. There's breakfast all day, everyday! They even have a free meal for kids every Saturday and Sunday (up to 2 kids per table).


So, one hot Saturday noon, my friend and I marched down to Flapjacks at their Greenbelt 2 branch armed with P250 worth of GC each. We got it from their website, ain't it grand? (big smiles from us) But only to find out that we can use only 1 GC per table which is fine 'coz we were there for the good food and not the free food.

With such relaxing and good ambiance, it's a good place for a looong chikahan.


Although Flapjacks is famous for their American breakfast meals, one can also enjoy other entrees such as fried chicken, creamy dory, ribs, salads and sandwiches. They do have a wide variety in their menu. Once we were ready to order, I signaled to the waiter but a friendly gentleman approached our table and enthusiastically walked us through their specials. He even recommended us drinks which are so yum! We think he's the manager of the branch since he wasn't in any uniform and was friendly enough to ask every now and then how was our food and drinks etc. This adds to their customer service which was very nice.


My friend (whom requested to be unnamed) ordered the Flapjacks slammer which consists of two toasts, corned beef, sausage (she ordered their Hungarian), bacon and 2 eggs sunny side up! A breakfast fit for a king, I must say. But in this case, fit for a princess. =p The corned beef, as I was told, has a smokey goodness to it and not too salty like the local brands here. She also said that their Hungarian sausage was not that exceptional, it's the usual spicy average sausage. The bacon was fried to crisp perfection and the eggs were cooked a bit underdone which was just right.


I odered their cheezy cheesesteak with a side of fries. I wasn't ecstatic about the steak to mushroom ratio in their cheesesteak but the steak bits in it was tender and cooked just right. I'd say this dish is fairly average.


With the cheesesteak, I had the Blueberry Tofu Smoothie which I sooo loved! It didn't have much of the tartness from the blueberry but you'd still taste it. The silkiness of the smoothie was from the tofu which makes the combination heavenly and cool to the palate.


On the other side of the table, my friend ordered the Strawberry Yoghurt smoothie. A rich strawberry taste blended with yoghurt goodness.


Of course, we won't forget to order dessert! We ordered the Fancy Seven Nutty Banana waffles--butter sauteed bananas, pecans, whipped butter and maple syrup over 2 stacks of waffles and topped with 1 scoop of vanilla Big Scoop ice cream. This is a heavenly ending to our meal. The waffles was toasted divinely and was totally delish when soaked in the vanilla ice cream. The waffles itself was already great and when topped with the sauteed bananas and pecans, it becomes the perfect waffle creation!


The picture below is the evidence of a great food trip experience at Flapjacks!


Well, Flapjacks, we'll definitely be back! =)

Touching the Heart at Causeway Seafood Restaurant

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon than to chow down scrumptious dimsum. My chinese teacher in college once asked us (the Fil-chi's among Filipino classmates) what dim sum literally translate to. We had a few guesses but nobody knew the answer. We only knew that dimsum was one of our favorite meryenda treats. The teacher told us that the literal translation is 'to touch the heart'. Indeed, for several years, dimsum has satisfied the tummy and the hearts of many.


Let's try out Causeway Seafood restaurant's dimsum treats.

Spareribs with Tausi

Crab Roe siomai

Prawn ball

Tofu something

Shark's Fin dumpling

Beancurd Roll

Chicken feet with Tausi

Fresh Shrimp Wanton Noodle Soup for my nephew.. =)

Here's a picture of my nephew. Ain't he cute? He finished the food on his plate. Kit kit, hen hao! =)

A Speck

Can you see what I'm pointing at in the picture above? (I'm the one in the blue shirt, by the way) I was pointing at my friends who are at the bottom of the mountain on the left. Pretty small, huh? Can you also see the mountains, valleys and rivers beyond the mountain I'm standing on? Amazing view, right? That's the wonderful creation of our creator and I felt so small seeing it all. I am nothing but a speck.

This is Di, my fellow mountaineer

We are all specks in this world.

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?" -- Psalm 8:3-4

Oftentimes, we see ourselves bigger than anything else in this world. Even bigger than God! This leads us to our independence from Him. Our success, prosperity or luxuries we experience in life would sometimes lead us to be blinded from the sight of God. But what are we compared to God's creations? Seeing the mountains, the plants, animals and the sky, we look so tiny compared to it. But still, God loves us. So much that even if we are sinners Jesus still died for us on the cross.

Today, I am reminded. A dear friend once told me that not all material blessings are blessings from God. The enemy can make it a weapon for us to break away from God. If God takes away something from us, let us be thankful because He is reminding us to turn to Him again. Isn't God wonderful? It gives me the assurance that He will never leave us and that His love is unconditionally true. Having taken something from my life, I am humbled. Once again, this is His way to tell me He should be in control in my life and that I am small. So let us not lose sight of God.

Lord, thank you for this reminder. Please guide me as I restart my journey in knowing you more. =)

Cheesecake Lovin' at Starbucks

Caramel Apple Pie Cheesecake

One lazy evening, while waiting for my sweet, I decided to stay at a coffee shop to pass the time. Gazing at the cakes and patries in the display case, a certain cheesecake was calling out to me. 'Eat me..,' it told me. So I willingly followed the imaginary voice in my head and ordered the caramel apple pie cheesecake. You might think I'm a wacko but I wouldn't care as long as I have my cheesecake. The dense cake has three layers, first, a very thin layer of graham crust that gives a slightly grainy but soft texture to the cake. Second, the sweet apple pie filling that I'm not really fond of. In the middle is the tangy caramel cheesecake that is dense and creamy and wonderfully soft like my memory-foam pillow (that might be a weird comparison, but hey don't judge me, I love my pillow! ;p). It is topped with what I can only call a crumble (a mixture of flour, chopped nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon). If only I had a whole cake of this heavenly stuff, I wouldn't mind waiting for half a day! (although it would be a lot nicer to be shared with my sweet)

Chocolate-glazed doughnut (with a so-so taste)

(Hmm, I actually forgot the name of this pastry. It's yummy but nothing special about it though.)

Ouchie!

Where is God when it hurts? The question, 'why me?' would often if not always accompany the former. We tend to blame God if things go wrong or if a tragedy befalls the family or in any bad situation comes into our lives. We go down memory lane and think things that we did as to deserve this kind of punishment from God. 'Oh God, what did I do to deserve this?', 'I'll be good from now on', 'God doesn't love me, He's not kind after all' are some of the thoughts that will run through our minds when we are hurt or disappointed with God. Tough times just proves how faithful we are in the Lord. A test that a Christian faces in life inspite of being a loyal and faithful servant.

The book entitled 'Where is God When it Hurts?' (a pretty long title but appropriate nonetheless) explores the world of pain and suffering of mankind. It tries to explain pain skin-deep (literally and figuratively).

The first part of the book shows us how pain is useful to us. Think about it, pain is triggered as a warning of an impending injury. We know not to touch a hot pan because we can feel the heat. We know that we need to rest our feet after a whole day walking in high-heels because we can feel our feet hurting. We know that we need to brush off the ant on your leg because you can feel the pain of the ant bite. As I read the book, I felt lucky to feel pain because it tells us that there is problem area in our body. Just imagine the victims of leprosy who have lost sensation in their skin. Their toes are literally chewed off by rats in their sleep because they don't have any sensors to warn them of the danger. So let us be thankful that we are able to scare off rats that might want to chew our toes!

Maybe you're thinking, well, that's just physical pain but how about the emotional and spiritual pain that we experience? Well, like in physical pain, God is telling us something is wrong in our lives. It's a wake up call that let us know that we need to reflect on our life. Although even if we love God and are faithful, bad things may still happen. We need to turn to Job's story in the Bible. Remember Job? The guy who was a faithful servant even though he lost it all? He had everything, a house, a family, a livelihood and a healthy body but calamity befell him one by one. He lost his livelihood, his family (only his wife survived) and even got boils. God did not explain to Job why but in Job 38-41, God describes to Job His wonderful creation. In the book, it says (I love this part),

God wanted, simply, an admission of trust. The message looming behind the splendid poetry reduces down to this: Until you know a little more about running the pysical universe, Job, don't tell me how to run the moral universe.

This teaches us to depend on God and trust Him fully because He will never leave us nor forsake us. We only tend to trust Him with the good times but when the bad times roll in, we question God. But we should always remember that He should be the master of our lives. Christianity is not about having everything we want in life (usually material things) when we follow Him but we also need to know and obey the will of the Lord for us.

Matt. 6:³³ "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Passage lookup: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=job%2038-41&version=NASB

Random Food Trips

Once in a while, we need to treat ourselves to remove the stress from our daily lives. Let's have a culinary retreat.

Here are some random food photos.

Shrimp tempura salad in Kimono Ken.

Yummy spicy gyoza =)

Chocolate mousse in Kenny Rogers

The original La Paz Batchoy somewhere in Iloilo

Low fat turtle cake

Pistachio cheesecake in Cheesecake Etc.

Tasty dinuguan from Tropical Hut

Home-baked banana cake by yours truly!

My nephew's 5th birthday cake. Ben 10 theme by Red Ribbon.

Banana Split from Pancake House

Tonkatsu Maki in Karate Kid

Desserts in Yakimix

Hot Chocolate from the hospital's cafeteria (simple taste yet addictingly good!)

Hospital food (meatballs, pechay and beef stew). Surprisingly the beef was yummy!


Lamb Kebabs in Go Greek!

Persian feast in Mr. Kabab (pita, humus, kebab, and keema)

Blueberry cheesecake ang mango shake in Cheesecake Etc.

Four-cheese pizza from Bistro Ravioli

Ravioli in Bistro Ravioli