Mouth Melting Burger at The Burger Project

Maginhawa St. in UP Village, Quezon City (Philippines) is a food tripper's paradise. From pasta, to burger, to coffee, and milk tea - one only needs to explore the loooong street to find what would satisfy one's palette.

One of the places my mom tried and liked was The Burger Project. She was particularly craving for burger that time when she remembered me mentioning about The Burger Project. If Wimpy (Popeye's burger-loving friend) were a real human being, I would say that The Burger Project could be his brainchild. Aptly named, this burger joint allows their customers to create their own burgers - from the bread, to the pattie, and down to garnishments and sauces. 

As I was not with my mom when they visited the resto, my mom chose the Western Bacon Melt Burger for me (as a takeout). According to the staff, this is one of their bestselling, non-customized burger. When my mom handed me the takeout bag containing the burger, I noticed that it has some weight. It was not extremely heavy, but for a paperbag containing only a burger, it has some weight. When I opened the bag, I was delightfully surprised and almost drooled. The fully-loaded burger has a thick burger pattie, several bacon strips, mushrooms, cheese slices, tomato strips, and those huge onion rings inside the burger. It also has an accompanying bbq sauce in case the customer wants to pour in the sauce in small doses. It took some time before I was able to start eating. And it took me about an hour and a half before I could finish the entire burger. 

In my opinion, it was one of the best burgers I tasted. The burger pattie was cooked just right (medium done) - still juicy and flavorful to think it was a takeout order. The burger toppings and garnishments complimented each other and complimented the burger itself. For its taste and its size, it was worth the price (PHP 235). :)

Project 365: Feb. 18, 2011 (day049): Golden Rolls

I was about to eat dinner when our viand this evening caught my attention. It was crispy, newly-fried lumpiang shanghai or fried spring rolls. For those who are not familiar with the said dish, it is ground pork seasoned with some soy sauce, salt, pepper, chopped onions and garlic. The seasoned meat is then wrapped in a locally-made wrapper (unfortunately, aside from water and flour, I don't know what else constitutes it), then deep-fried to a golden color. It is nice to look at the newly-fried rolls from the sides. They look like folded sheets of golden papers. Of course, these golden rolls are better eaten than just viewed as subjects for photography. :-D

Project 365: Feb. 11, 2011 (day042): Tequila Sunset

We had all-girls lunch out earlier. All of us were in our late-twenties-early-thirties. And as we munched on our meals, the topic of gimmicks, partying, booze surfaced. We had realized that all of us have less gimmicks, partying, and booze since we reached this age. It's not that we totally do not drink or party anymore, we just don't do it as frequent as when we were in our late-teens to early and mid-twenties. Somehow, we are slowly "outgrowing" the phase, choosing dinner and coffee over the more hard-core alcoholic drinks. As one of us have placed it, "parang nasa sunset stage lang". We know, there will still be those occassions when we will wear again our party hats and bring out again our shot glasses, just as sure as the sun rises in the morning, after it settles down for the night. :-)

Project 365: Jan. 30, 2011 (day030): Beri Blueberry Cheesecake

Thank God Zion's condition is already improving. Well, at least his fever had subsided and his appetite is slowly going back to normal, which means his throat's not painful as yesterday. Nonetheless, I still make sure that no / less sweets for him today. As a result, I had a hard time eating this blueberry cheesecake which we bought from Banapple. I had to put Zion to bed first before I could actually eat my slice of cake. Anyway, the blueberry cheesecake was a good break from the chocolate-based cakes/pies we usually buy from Banapple. The cheese and cream layer was not that sweet, as compared to its Red Ribbon counterpart. And the ample blueberry toppings was really good. Perhaps next time, I would try their other cheesecakes. Then again, I could go back to my favorite banoffee pie. :-)

Project 365: Jan. 28. 2011 (day028): A Whole Lotta Kisses

As I've mentioned in my most recent post before this, (i.e. Mickey's Magic Glass), my aunt from the US arrived a few days ago. Being the thoughtful aunt that she is, she brought a little something for everybody. To me and my brother, she brought a whole (read: BIG) pack of Kisses Chocolates. Two things my aunt does not know, (1) I am currently on a diet and (2) I soooo love Kisses chocolates. Diet and my love for Kisses chocolates... hmmm.. may not be the perfect combination. But I guess 1 or 2 pcs in a day won't really hurt. Besides, I still manage to maintain my No-Rice-At-Night diet.. Tsk.. tsk.. Excuses.. excuses.. All for the Kisses! :-)

Project 365: Jan. 26,2011 (day026): Back to Bread

As I go back to my normal routine, it's time to go back to my No-Rice-At-Night Diet. Due to our Cebu trip, I took two days off from this diet. And now I'm back in Manila, it's also time to go back to my bread diet. I was able to successfully do it for the past 21 days, trying to eat 1 or 2 slices of bread at night instead of my usual 1-1.5 cups of rice. I was fortunate enough to lose 2.5 lbs after trying it for about 10days (considering that I only have minimal exercise and workout). I must admit that it was difficult at first, especially if we have sinigang or nilaga as our viand at night. But I guess after the first week, my body slowly gets accustomed to the habit. No longer do I stare at the rice bowl sadly during dinner. Iam contented with having bread at night. I am hoping that I will be able to maintain this healthy habit. I am also hoping that after this, I will also be able to reduce my lunch time rice intake. Good luck to me. So help me God! :-)

Project 365: Jan.16, 2011 (day016): Of Chips and Coffee

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was able to finish Zion's reviewers just in time for his exam next week. I was also able to finish my other weekend chores - grocery, attend the basic photography workshop, check the laundry, fix the room. And since I was not doing anything, I decided to take a short afternoon snack. It was a weird snack craving - coffee and chips. Got curious with the Banoffee Blast-flavored coffee from Nescafe. Fortunately, it tasted good - usual coffee with a tinge of banana flavor. The potato chips were my usual favorite. Nice way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon! :-)

Project 365: Jan.13,2011 (day013): Green Halo

On my way home from work, I decided to drop by the Cubao eXpo in Cubao. This used to be the Marikina Shoe Expo, where lots of shops sell Marikina-made shoes. Today, there are still those shops that sells shoes. But aside from the old shoe arcade, new shops selling various products have also opened in the area. There are also a lot of restos and bars that cater to the younger crowd. One of these restos is the Green Halo. A friend once introduced this resto to me. She introduced this resto as an organic cafe. Having said that, I thought, I might not find the menu interesting because of the mostly vegetarian menu (okay, I admit I am more of a carnivore). But after trying out their Pesto Pasta and French Toast, I began to love this place. I am not really a pesto fan, but I certainly love Green Halo's rendition of the said dish. The French Toast with all the chocolate syrup on top, is very sinful, yet very comforting to tired office workers like me. The nice thing was their food items are reasonably priced. The cozy ambience inside the place was also very conducive to bonding with family and friends. If you find yourself in the busy area of Cubao, try dropping by the Green Halo. :-)

Project 365: Jan. 11, 2011 (day011): Penoy Perstaymer

As we were heading home today, we dropped by our suking eatery to buy our favorite pancit. While waiting for our order, my cousin bought 1 piece balot and 1 piece penoy. Curiosity got the better of me, so I asked my cousin to buy another penoy. I am an avid balot eater since I was a kid, though eating the sisiw was not really my favorite. However, it is my first time to try penoy. At home, after I ate some pancit, I closely examined the penoy. Hmm.. The penoy is marked with an "X" to differentiate it from the balot. I then cracked the egg.. Hmm.. No sabaw (liquid contents).. I then noticed that the penoy is similar to the typical hard-boiled chicken egg. The albumen (white part) tastes like that of the chicken egg, but the yolk (yellow part), tastes like the yellow part of the balut. Hmm.. Tastes good. Hmm.. I am thinking that I should go for penoy rather than balut.. At least no sisiw will be thrown... :-)

Project 365: Jan. 07, 2011 (day007): Sweet Prize

To break the monotony of not doing anything at work, my officemates and I decided to enlist ourselves in the softskills training provided by our Training Department. Under normal circumstances (defined as hectic days with tight deadlines), we would usually pass up on these training courses. But since we are quite tired of surfing the net (as we are also running out of websites to visit), we made use of this free time by attending the Effective Business Writing softskills training. It's a 2-day training which kicked off today, and will last until Monday. I must say that I had a great time today. The training facilitator was able to get everyone's participation by introducing games and activities which were both fun and educational. To make things better and more exciting, she offered prizes to the game winners and those who were able to recite in class. I was lucky enough to catch a small Toblerone bar by just attempting to rephrase a sentence. Nice! :-)

Drooling Over Mango Bravo

Last Sunday, my balikbayan Aunt, Tita Leila (belated happy birthday po!), celebrated her *toot*th birthday (very confidential info.. sorry.. :-D). As a treat for their mom, my cousins Melvin and Michael bought some delicious pansit sotanghon and the very yummy Mango Bravo cake from Conti's. My cousins arrived shortly after we have already eaten our lunch, but that didn't stop us from having about a plateful of pancit sotanghon and some "small slices" of Mango Bravo. We still had some "shyness" left within ourselves that we didn't gorge on the entire cake (had to constantly remind ourselves that it was Tita Leila's birthday... not ours.. tee hee!!).

Anyway, the Mango Bravo cake (despite the small slices we had), was superb! Though my Mom said it was quite "nakakaumay" because of the creamy icing, I still think the chilled mixture of mangoes, cashew nuts, chocolate drippings, and the mala-choco-mouse and sponge cake layers, was really something a sweet-tooth-person like me can't resist. Instant high! (again I had to remind myself that the cake was Tita Leila's... not mine.. tee hee!)

I am now thinking of dropping by at Conti's branch in Serendra (near my office) or in Trinoma to get my mango-bravo-craving satisfied. If my memory serves me right, a slice of Mango Bravo would be around P75 to P85 pesos. Well.. not too bad for 10-15 minutes of palate bliss! Yum! :-D

The Genuine Article - Vigan Empanada

About a week ago, my officemate/friend Shy announced that she'll be spending the weekend in Vigan with her mom (G.I. ang batang ito - Genuine Ilocano! hehehe.. peace tayo Shy! Ü). Right after she announced this, all of us made our "pabili list" (pinagsisihan mo ba ang pag-aanounce mo ng Vigan trip mo, Shy? hehehe..). We requested bagnets, vigan longganisa, and mine was the famous Vigan empanada. I ordered a dozen empanadas so that everyone here at home can have a taste of the famous Northern Luzon delicacy.




Monday morning came, and a woozy-looking Shy came into the office carrying all our "bilins", including my 1 dozen Vigan empanadas (obviously, hilo pa sa byahe ang lola.. hehehe..). Luckily, our office refrigerator, wasn't filled yet (being a Monday morning), so I had the chance to select a secluded spot in the refrigerator for my 1-dozen-empanadas. I labelled the pack with my name, so no one in the office would "accidentally" get it. I was thankful that I'll be going home with my father that afternoon, which means no hassle carrying the empanadas while fighting my way to get into the MRT (yes.. getting inside the MRT is a battle!).

Immediately, when I got home, I asked my cousin to cook/fry a couple of the empanadas (nao-obvious na di ako marunong magluto... hahaha!). It was also good timing because I didn't like our viand that night. I excitedly munched on my first empanada like a kid who's entering Jollibee for the first time (in other words, super sabik! hehehe..). It was N-I-R-V-A-N-A at the first bite!! I texted Shy like an addict high on ecstasy - "Grabe Shy! Ang sssarrraap nung empanada! HEAVEN!!!". It was really sumptuous, a hundred times better than the Vigan empanada we usually buy in Tiendesitas (yes, I am a Vigan-empanada afficionado). One can really savor the longganisa filling, which means that there is ample longganisa within the empanada (hindi tinipid ang longganisa!). The flavor from the parboiled beansprouts (toge) and the grated green papaya were mixed very well with the meat, that even an anti-vegetable person like me was able to appreciate it. Of course, I ordered the special empanada, which means one whole egg was added to each empanada, which provided additional flavor and texture to the dish.



That night, I forgot my diet (deliberately), and chomped on 2 big pieces of empanadas. Forget the diet, forget the cholesterol, minsan lang naman 'to! :-D