My many favorites at Tropical Hut Hamburger

What is the oldest hamburger fast food chain in the Philippines? If you're thinking Jollibee, you haven't seen the light. Haha! While Jollibee was born in 1975, Tropical Hut Hamburger came to being more than a decade earlier or in 1962 (according to an article I read in the Internet). The first time I got to eat a Tropical Hut hamburger, it was the '70s and I was an elementary schoolgirl (That was before I first set foot at a Jollibee store). I remember thinking that burger from Tropical Hut was one of best things I'd eaten in my young life. 

Today, over three decades later, I still think Tropical Hut's burger is one of the best tasting hamburgers in the country, especially among those served at popular fast food chains. But it's not just the burger that I love at Tropical Hut: There's their fried chicken and the sandwiches. How I love their clubhouse! The fried chicken has the same texture and crunch as Jollibee's famous Chickenjoy and in my opinion, as delicious, if not more. It was just yesterday that I last ate fried chicken at Tropical Hut and hours afterward, I was still daydreaming about it. Haha! Yum! Meanwhile, I love that they serve good brewed coffee all day-long. 

Another thing I like about this fast food chain is that aside from the Westernized offers, they also have Filipino dishes like dinuguan and bistek tagalog rice meals that one could have for lunch and dinner, and palabok and beef mami for merienda. For dessert, they have halo-halo and mais con hielo, among others Tropical Hut has a wider range of dishes than other fast food chains and that's an advantage for it. The sad thing is that there are now fewer Tropical Hut stores in the metro. How I wish there could me more. The branch I frequent is the one at the Quezon City Memorial Circle.

Double Double Burger, P115.

Clubhouse Sandwich, P90.

Clubhouse sandwich with fries.

Chicken sandwich with fries and drink, P81.

2-pc Fried Chicken with rice, P118.

Brewed Coffee, P30.

Real Leaf iced tea. Add P17 when you order a meal and want your softdrink changed to iced tea. 

I agree with the slogan!

My boy loves Tropical Hut's fried chicken.

Great sandwiches and more at Country Style

I'm usually headed for Quezon City on Saturdays to get our organic veggies at the QC Memorial Circle but yesterday was different as I didn't go out of my home city of Manila. It was my water baptism day at the Cathedral of Praise (Yeeeey!) on Taft Avenue and before the ceremony, my son and I met my daughter who had just gotten out of school, waiting at SM City Manila. We had to have snacks, I thought, before the church service and Country Style was my choice as I wanted to have a sandwich and a plate of spaghetti. My two kids agreed and so these we had:   

Ham Sandwich with Iced Tea, P95.

Bagel Deluxe with Iced Tea, P95.

Spaghetti with Iced Tea, P70.

Brewed Coffee, P35.

Not seen here: me - full and satisfied.

 

A dizzying array of donuts and muffins.

My little boy is all smiles over the spaghetti and ham sandwich.

As Valentine's Day was only a few days ago, Country Style's Valentine promo was still on. Lucky me was able to save on moolah. Haha! The ham sandwich, for instance was now just P95 whereas before, it cost P115. I was pleasantly surprised that I only had to shell out P355 for 2 orders of spaghetti, a ham sandwich, bagel, coffee and 3 glasses of iced tea! Not only were our food very affordable, everything was so good and filling too! I liked that the ham sandwich had lots of veggies. My little boy and I liked the spaghetti too - saucy and a little sweet. I enjoyed my coffee as well though it came a little too strong. Meanwhile, daughter said she liked her bagel too and added that it was so filling she was able to finish only half of it. Well, she had a few forkfuls of my spaghetti, that's why.

Aside from what we ordered, you can also have donuts, soup, salad, sausages, omelette and other kinds of sandwiches at Country Style. They have stores at Ali Mall, SM City Fairview, Paseo Center, Market! Market! and Robinson's Place Novaliches, among other places.

Good food, good friends, great day

A week before my birthday this August, I met with one of my best buddies, who I haven’t seen for over a year. This guy, along with his wife, went through really tough times when he suffered a ruptured aneurysm in 2010 and went under the knife twice. It was only more than two weeks after we met up for my birthday treat that year that I received a text message from my friend's wife that he was in the hospital. The almost two months of hospitalization that followed was agonizing for the couple and the rest of their family and even us in their circle of friends. It is truly by God’s amazing grace that he has completed the travel on the long road to recovery.

Some two weeks ago, my friend’s wife texted me asking if we could meet up at Centris in Quezon City.  And so I jumped at the chance to see them.  At noontime, we were foursome not at Centris, however, but in Trinoma (my favorite mall and hangout place). My friend asked for my lunch venue suggestion and knowing that he hasn’t tried Taco Bell yet, I broached the idea, to which they agreed. By the way, there were four of us because the couple brought along their smart three-year-old kid, my godson. So, Taco Bell it was for lunch and we had:

Fiesta Rice, Seasoned Ground Beef, Fiesta Salsa Salad, and Fiesta Bites with Cheese Sauce, 129.00 (Meal C)

Fiesta Rice, Chunky Pork BBQ, Fiesta Salsa Salad and Churros with Chocolate Dip, 129.00 (Meal A)

My lunch.

Crunchy Taco, P39.

Margarita Slush, P39.

Nachos, P39. Note that they're generous with the cheese dip :-)

I’ve satisfied my Mexican food cravings several times here at Taco Bell and walked away happy on all occasions. Food here is delicious and filling without burning a hole in the pocket. My companions this time liked it at Taco Bell, too.  
 For dessert, my friend’s wife asked me again for a suggestion. Without batting an eyelash, I answered “Dunkin Donuts,” because I have this undying love for their Blueberry Cheese premium donut. But as quickly as I gave that suggestion, my mind changed as I remembered admiring the Black Forest cake donut on display at Mister Donut one time. And so off we went there for coffee and donuts. My friends shunned coffee, though, and opted for the Mango Frostbite. I got a Black Forest, of course, while my friends had  Sansrival and Chocolate Mousse cake donuts plus a choco muffin. My brewed coffee was good! I've always liked it at both Dunkin Donuts and Mister Donut. The cake donuts were quite okay, except that my friend’s wife commented that they were really just like regular donuts just prettified.  I agreed. Yes, nothing spectacular about the cake donuts. Although they're not bad, they were way too sweet that you'd want to stop eating after three forkfuls.

Black Forest cake donut, P45.

Sanrsival, P45.

Chocolate Mousse, P45.

Choco muffin, P26.

Mango Frostbite, P35.

Brewed coffee, P35.

Meanwhile. there were two other things (aside from coffee) I liked about the Mister Donut shop in Trinoma. One is the cozy ambiance and the other, the expanded menu. I was impressed that they now offer a penne pasta dish called Baked Cheese Tomato Penne and a burger steak rice meal. There's also a gourmet sandwich, the Chicken Burger with Chips, which looks yummy on the menu display. Next time, next time...  

My good buddy has a caption for this: "Destruction in consumption!"

Anyway, it was time to go a little shopping after we were done at Mister Donut and not long afterwards, to go home. It was one great day I had with good friends, sharing good laughs and good food. :-)

Circles Café: An afternoon at the park

Menu on tarpaulin outside Circles Café.

Inside the café.

Nice country-style interiors.

My brewed coffee (came with my meal).

Tapsilog (well, almost), P100. Brown rice takes the place of sinangag (fried rice).

Spaghetti al Pesto with wheat bread, P125.

Mango Juice, P40.

Mango Cheesecake, P60.

My son loves the Mango Cheesecake.

My boy holding the candies given by the Circles Café owner.

As we eat, this is what we see outside. Nice view! I love trees.

This is Circles Cafe from outside.

QC Memorial Circle.

Fun time for my son at the playground.

It was a work and play Saturday for me and my youngest child. It was palengke day once again and I had to get our organic veggies for the week at the QC Memorial Circle, so I decided to have some fun whilst doing the chore. Fun, my son had (me too!), as I let him romp to his heart's content at the playground before picking up our veggies. This was, however, after we had a nice merienda at Circles Cafe, a quaint coffeehouse tucked into the bowels of the QC Memorial Circle. This side of the Circle was unfamiliar to me till we ate at Serye some two weeks ago. 'Twas good choosing to dine at Serye, it turned out, 'coz I discovered this side of the park, which is quieter than the playground side, where we'd gone picnicking a few times already. It was a major plus that there, too was a row of small eateries and coffee shops here that appealed to me because they looked cozy and quiet inside. Outside these establishments was even more appealing to me because there's a lot more greenery here than in the other side - more trees, more grass and more seats and tables where I imagined I would be reading a book while sipping coffee one day soon. But on this particular day, since I had a small guy with me, I could not, of course, just sit under a tree and read a book. I had to let him play and in exchange, he let me choose where we eat instead of at Jollibee or McDonalds, which are his usual choices. So, Circles Cafe, it was for the both of us. Looking at it from the outside, I thought it  was a "cute" coffeehouse and that it was cool and comfy there as it offered al fresco dining. At the entrance, there's this menu on a tarpaulin and the picture of pesto pasta appealed to my son. Inside, as I ran through the menu, I overheard the woman (I learned later that her name is Tess Garcolitos and that she's the owner of this cafe) telling another customer that their bestseller was the Vigan Longganisa and Lucban Longganisa meals. However, this was after I have ordered the Beef Tapa meal. Rowan, of course, went for the Spaghetti al Pesto. Minutes later, after having spoonfuls of my order, I realized it was wrong for me to say "Tapsilog" when I gave my order because what I was served was not sinangag (fried rice) but brown rice. I read the tarpaulin menu inside and yes, brown rice indeed it was. It was somewhat disappointing but I wasn't gonna fret, of course. After all, I was hungry and anyway, the tapa (beef) was good - well-seasoned and tender and I was happy with it. I asked my boy how his pesto was and he answered on the positive. However, as he went "deeper" into his food, he started tasting something "burnt' and refused to finish his pasta. Being the mom, I finished it for him, of course, and discovered that the "burnt" taste came from toasted garlic bits. This made me review my pesto recipe in my mind as I thought it didn't include garlic (Once I got home, I asked my daughter if she puts garlic in her pesto sauce and she said yes, only she doesn't saute or fry it, she just put it with the rest of ingredients in the blender). In truth, I liked the pesto here at Circles Cafe and  welcomed the nice twist that the toasted garlic offered, but you know how kids are. For dessert, the little guy and I shared a slice of Mango Cheesecake, which was good! My son liked it very much. As I paid for our food, I asked the woman who looked like the owner of the cafe if she was it indeed and she said "yes", and that the man who was there also serving customers was her hubby. She said that they opened Circles Cafe November last year. She asked my son if he liked his pasta but it was me who answered that he did, but not till he tasted the toasted garlic. Tess then asked the cook if she put toasted garlic in the pesto and when the woman affirmed she did, her boss told her not to put garlic next time if a child is ordering. Tess then apologized to my son, then, handed him some candies and Ben 10 stickers. My boy was delighted! Well, isn't that good service?. And yes, good food, too.