THE MERCATO CENTRALE CHRONICLES: MY PINK WASABI

         After the cooking demo of Asia Food Channel's Next Celebrity Chef Winner, Chef Dino Ferrari was over, Rina and I were absolutely famished. It's a good thing that the place we were in, Mercato Centrale, has a cure for such afflictions. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed the food that Chef Dino cooked, however since it was a free tasting session, we were relegated to a small portion size in order to accommodate everyone watching the demo. But if Chef Dino had a stall in Mercato Centrale selling his roasted chicken, I'd be trooping on over there for a quarter leg meal with rice. 


      I had two goals during my trip to Mercato Centrale that weekend, the first was to watch Chef Dino's demo,and the second was to try a dessert stall that I had seen only on Facebook that immediately caught the attention of my taste buds. A dessert stall that broke through the traditional trends of cakes and pastries, and decided to create its own.. 
       
       You MUST try My Pink Wasabi. 

AFC'S "NEXT CELEBRITY CHEF" WINNER DINO FERRARI AT MERCATO CENTRALE!

              Because of my line of work, I rarely get starstruck. My boss is a prominent figure in the entertainment business so it's not anything out of the ordinary for me to walk into his wife, and find him talking in an intimate meeting with a celebrity. I've met a lot of celebrities over the years.. movie actors, professional athletes, both local and international (Wait.. does Keith Martin still count as "international"?), but no one ever truly fazed me. 

        Becoming a blogger, however, has turned me into a fan boy of celebrities from the culinary world. So when I found out that Chef Dino Ferrari, the winner of Asian Food Channel's "Next Celebrity Chef" was going to be doing a cooking demo at Mercato Centrale, I knew that I couldn't miss the opportunity to meet him in person.

      My greatest moment in my Twitter career was when I got a tweet from these two men.. I think you might know the first one..

CHICKEN OVERLOAD: THE CHICKEN RICE SHOP!

         What's your stand on Hainanese Chicken? With its subdued flavors and bland appearance, a few of my friends see it as nothing more than a glorified piece of boiled chicken. Me? Surprisingly, I actually really like it. Perhaps it's because the chicken, when you get the right part seems fatty enough for my standards. Maybe it's the ginger sauce that I love mixing it with. Or it could be the chicken rice itself.. because when it's done right, one cup is never enough. 

            One Sunday morning, I was pondering on where to eat for "Brunch" before we headed off to my parent's place for the actual "Lunch". Since my mom does the cooking and no one has the guts to complain, we usually eat around 1pm or even later, so I thought having a light brunch at around 11am would be a wise move. 


       I remembered passing by the recently opened restaurant, "The Chicken Rice Shop" during our trip to Sandwicheese the week earlier, so I thought of giving that a try. 


       And just like that, any thoughts of a "light brunch" was thrown out the window. 

BREAKING THE FAST: THE BREAKFAST MAGAZINE LAUNCH

Oh sure, when SHE does it, everyone thinks its sexy,
 but when I do it, everyone thinks i'm creepy.

            I've been blogging for a little over a year and a half, and I've been invited to quite a few Blogger Events. I normal don't go to them because I'm actually quite shy in real life (Yes I am, believe it or not.. At first.. hehe..). In fact the first "Blogger Event" I actually went to was the Philippine Blog Awards held early December of last year (I was a finalist, but I didn't win. But I'm not bitter.. Those death threat letters the members of the judging committee received weren't from me, I swear!). However, I did make it my New Years Resolution to try to be more active with these events if I want to take my blogs to the "next level".  


     A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get an invitation to the launch of Breakfast Magazine, to be held at Enderun College near McKinley Hill. Since I had the New Years Resolution-Resolution in full effect, I wrote back accepting their gracious invite, provided I could bring my official photographer (and security blanket) with me. 

        Alexis Cuison, Editor in Chief of Breakfast Magazine, wrote me back saying she was more than happy to have us BOTH attend the launch. 

     With my numerous open declarations of love for Bacon, I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm definitely a breakfast guy. I enjoy a breakfast buffet even more than a lunch or dinner one (Yeah, I said it). I eat breakfast food at any time of the day. 

     So yes, I believe the people behind Breakfast Magazine invite the right guy to their event. 

AND THE WINNER IS...

       So the winners have finally be drawn! Congratulations to all Five people that won, including the four people who won the four Gift Certificates from Box O' Rice, and the Grand Prize winner that snagged the Gift Certificates  worth P5,000 from Cathy Valencia Skin and Body Center.



 

Watch this Video to see the draw for yourself! 

SMILE AND SAY... SANDWICHEESE!

          Are you one of those people that can't have a meal without rice?  Rina and her sister Chaikka, as well as a lot of my officemates absolutely refuse to have lunch or dinner without it. Me, on the other hand, I'm completely ok with a sandwich or burger for lunch. Maybe it's my fondness for bread that helps create a sense of satisfaction in my meals with a sandwich in lieu of rice, because sometimes, I actually even prefer it to a rice meal. I'm always on the lookout for a good sandwich, which is why I was immediately drawn to places such as Chuck's Deli, The Cheese Steak Shop and Elbert's Cheese Steaks.  

      I found out that one of my (and it seems everyone's) favorite restaurants, Bannaple, spawned a younger sibling right beside its first Katipunan branch, called "Sandwicheese", and I was immediately intrigued.  

       So last Saturday, after we took Baby Rain to the doctor for her check up, my tummy started grumbling. I told Rina that I wanted to check out Sandwicheese. 


      Because she was taking care of Rain whilst we were in the car, she wasn't really paying attention and she said, "Yes, yes, I want to go there." I asked her if she heard what I said because she was distracted with Rain and she said, "All I heard was 'Cheese'".

THE PICKIEST EATER ANDROID APP!

              After getting all excited about it only to have it not function correctly when i finally completed it, I finally finished the First Official Pickiest Eater App for Android! I'm using a Galaxy S2 so I haven't made one for iPhone yet, but who knows, maybe some day.


        The App features a RSS Feed to my blog. Flckr account (skip that, because im still working on it). Vimeo Account, Twitter and Facebook page!


       I've tried it myself and it works fine, but I did notice that it takes awhile to load, so please be patient. If new bug fixes come along, I'll update the app as well. 


       Disclaimer: The app works fine on my phone, but like I said, it takes a bit long. If you think the app is screwing up your phone or something, delete it immediately. 
    
       But like I said, on my phone it works fine :)  

       Android Users can download the App here: 

http://174.142.192.87/builds/00054/54238/apps/ThePickiestEater.apk

           Please let me know what you think!

THE SOLE OF MR. ROCKEFELLER

             A few years ago, (way before my blogging days) my boss brought my to a restaurant at Greenbelt for a meeting, called "Rockefeller". The place featured oysters and ribs, among many other things. I don't recall what dish I ordered that day, meaning it wasn't very memorable to me. But what did ingrain into my psychosis for years to come was the dish that my boss ordered: The Alaskan Sole Fillet with Garlic Noodles. 


       Early last year, I thought they had closed up shop already, because I saw the doors being boarded up. Thankfully, I saw from my friends at En Route that they actually just did a little renovation (and I suspect, new management). 

         A couple of weeks ago, Rina took me to work so she could run some errands as well, so I decided to invite her to lunch at Greenbelt, together lunch buddies, My Giant Joel and the Lovely Donna. I hadn't visited the place in over a year, so I was ready to be reunited with my Sole Filet.