surf break

Snapshots from my friend Carla's birthday weekend in La Union.

I've been to La Union several times but it was my fist time to stay at Flotsam and Jetsam. Every time I would plan a trip, the hostel would be full so I'd have to look for another place to stay (The Circle's a good place too). This time I was finally able to get a bed at F&J thanks to my friend Carla, the sister of F&J's creator, Mia Sebastian.

In my first La Union trip (Soul Surf 2013), I was able to visit FlotJet (and was one of their first breakfast customers!). Ever since then I never failed to visit the place every time I'd pay San Juan a visit. The artist hostel is just so homey and beautifully designed, I can't get enough of its motif--from the pillow and bean bag cases, lamps, color, blackboards, Mer Sea Boku kubo, to the bed setups and room decors.

Not only is this place so aesthetically beautiful; it also gathers the most simple, friendly and down to earth group of people.

Here we are at Elunion Coffee, another go-to when visiting La Union. It's a quaint little coffee shop located by the main road in front of Sebay. The place serves delicious coffee and freshly baked (and moist) cookie skillets.



My regular Elunion order: the Dirty White.

Back in Flotsam & Jetsam, having my post surf papak: Hungarian sausage with tomato sauce and onions, and Truffle fries.



Another yummy F&J staple: their brick oven pizzas!



A FlotJet burger my friend had which came with a generous amount of salad and fries. I had the chicken which also came with salad and rice. Both (or all) being delicious meals!

Mer Sea Boku Kubo, one of FlotJet's common areas that holds some of the best memories of relaxation, good conversations and pig out and jamming sessions.



You'll also find the cutest pets and dog lovers at F&J. Everyone loves animals!

For videos from the trip, check out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImP5X-KKlqU - Jamming sessions as Mer Sea Boku Kubo
https://vimeo.com/99028162 - The surf and F&J night

As for the surf, it was awesome. I loved being in the water along with other professional surfers, learning from them and watching them gracefully ride waves. I was also able to surf more than my last trip so I got more practice. There's still much needed improvement, but nothing feels better than a little progress at something you enjoy doing!

Another short but sweet trip. The beach (or vacations in general) never fails to leave me hungover (not from the alcohol) and longing to go back. Can't wait for the next trip! 

common ware x status

A Common Ware first.

Here's a close up of our feature in Status magazine's STATUSPHERE.

You can still grab a copy of Status' June issue with CHVRCHES on the cover. Lots of interesting people to read up on, such as Robert Nethery, Margaret Zhang, Jack Laskey and many more!

#daniealeats: the genji-m and banzai experience

After many months (years, actually) of feeding Anton Japanese at every birthday, graduation, anniversary or any celebration for that matter, I finally got him Jap crazy. To be more specific, salmon sash crazy. Because of this, every Japanese sulit meal that came across our Facebook feeds or any slight craving for it brought us to the closest Japanese restaurant in the area. It just so happened that a few months back, two new Japanese buffets that offered affordable prices for unlimited Japanese feasts, opened. Once we saw this on Facebook, we scheduled a trip.

Genji-M

Genji-M, Makati Avenue

The first one we read of online was Genji-M. We saw on a blog that it had a promo of P250 off the bill of customers that printed out the Genji-M coupon and brought it when dining in. That's P250 off per head, provided that each person had their own coupon. 

When we got there we were asked to choose between three menus: (1) one with just rolls and sushi, (2) another with rolls, sushi, and sashimi, (3) there was a third but I don't really remember what extra it came with. We chose the menu without sashimi since it was more affordable, and we thought that unlimited maki and sushi would suffice since the list we were handed had quite a hand full of choices. How it goes is they serve you your first platter which contains all the available choices, and after tasting the variety, you get to pick which rolls and sushi you'd like to have again.

I don't really remember the names of all the rolls we tasted, but of course we had the basic tuna and salmon roll. I wasn't so happy with the two because their tuna and salmon rolls had ham and other extra ingredients in it which I don't really like. I usually like them simple with the rice, good sashimi, nori and a little bit of wasabi. Aside from that, the slice of tuna or salmon laid on top of the roll was extremely thin that the other ingredients of the maki sort of took over the flavour of the roll.

From the bunch, one roll that stood out was that maki with cheese on top--yes, cheese. I don't know if this is normal, but never in my life did I eat Japanese maki with cheese on top. I did not like it. We also had California maki in that first platter which I didn't like either. I don't like any California maki anyway, wherever it may be from.

For the sushi, I've had better. The rice that came with it was almost shaped like a ball and was way too compressed, so when biting into it, it didn't feel like rice. Our seared tuna sushi did not taste fresh at all, and the other sushi choices were OK, nothing great. The serving sizes were much smaller than the photos I saw online and again, the rice just wasn't done right.

In the end Anton and I were disappointed with our meal. I don't know if we just so happened to visit on a bad day because according to others, Genji-M is okay. But we weren't happy with the maki and sushi that we got, and I forgot to mention, my Miso soup tasted like water. 

Banzai

Banzai, Mall of Asia

Banzai, Mall of Asia

Banzai, Mall of Asia

Banzai, Mall of Asia

A few weeks after Genji-M, we decided to try out Banzai, the new Japanese buffet in Mall of Asia, Seaside Boulevard. This buffet is kind of like Sambokojin with a more Japanese ambiance, and a slightly wider range of choices. It included unlimited zaru and cha soba (which they don't have in Sambo), pizza, steak and others I was not able to taste. My meal as a whole was actually okay. I had my regular: sushi, sashimi, spicy tuna, zaru soba, tempura, gyoza, steak, Miso soup, and picked on a few meats from Anton's plate. I remember the steak and the Teppanyaki to be good, and the quality of the sashimi, sushi and the cha soba to be mediocre. The noodles of their soba didn't slide off each other once you try to pick them with your chopsticks; they clung to each other like sticky rice. I had a taste of their spicy tuna but didn't go back for a second round (as I usually would) mainly because the sauce tasted more like regular mayonnaise on tuna sashimi.

For the price though (if I'm not mistaken, about Php 899 per head for dinner on weekdays), I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with what I got. It's not great Japanese with regard to the raw dishes, but I'd say the cooked meals are pretty good.

Until next time #danielaeats!