Yellowcab Goes Sauceless: Mrs. Hudson's Pizza

Lately I've been reading a lot of reviews on Yellowcab's Mrs. Hudson's Pizza. They've been raving about this sauceless pizza for quite a bit already. Some of my favorite bloggers swear that they like it. Since they launched this food item as a limited edition, and would probably be gone by the end of June, me and my family decided to give this baby a try.

Yellowcab's biggest pizza would be around 18 inches. Since they changed how you refer to your pizza sizes, from merely ordering it based on it's diameter, they now refer to them as regular, family and new yorker sizes. They confused me a bit there. On the bright size, they now give you an estimate on how many people can share each size of pizza (regular-4pax, family-6pax, and new yorker-8pax). We ordered one new yorker size with a pitcher of coke to be shared among the 7 of us.

Since the pizza is relatively new, I didn't really feel too confident of my choice. It didn't help that half of the waiting time my sisters kept nudging on why I didn't choose New York's Finest (our staple dish at Yellowcab) and that given the picture, there wasn't much toppings. Also there seem to be an abundance of tomatoes which would mean that this pizza would have to be high on uric acid---one of the enemies of my aging parents.

When our pizza arrived, I was pleasantly surprised at how big it seemed. Maybe it had more to do with the color than the actually size though since they didn't really deviate from their original measurements. :P I would have liked our pizza in square cuts though (which you can ask the staff to do but I unfortunately forgot).

Upon tasting the pizza, I was again surprised. It was sweet. I knew it would have a bit of sweetness but I never actually expected the pizza to be just sweet! They claimed to have stroke a balance between sweet and salty but sadly it failed my expectations. It was just sweet. It's not bad or anything just wasn't what I expected. The cheese didn't even contribute a bit of saltiness to the dish. We ended up adding a bit of red pepper sauce to make it more palatable. It was just like eating sweet bread. Also, some parts of the pizza was caramelized making me think of toasted bread with butter and sugar on top. Since this pizza makes use of caramelized onions, I think the sweetness of the onions overpowered the dish. The pizza's saltiness it seemed mostly relied on its prosciutto. Again, it didn't do much for the dish in its entirety.

There were more ingredients in the pizza than tomatoes, prosciutto and caramelized onions. There were herbed Boursin cheese, which you can see as lumps in the pizza, that added a bit of creaminess. There were also tarragon and other premium cheeses. Since I don't really know what tarragon tastes like, I didn't really notice. And the other premium cheeses would have been good if they gave more saltiness than creaminess.

Overall, we weren't really satisfied with this pizza. It's not that it's bad, it just didn't fit what we we're looking for. As much as my mom said she liked it since it wasn't salty, she'd still go for our regular New York Finest.

On a brighter side, it was really a different pizza experience. ;)

How was your Mrs. Hudson experience? Share your thoughts. :)

Give them a hit!
Yellowcab's FB Page
Yellowcab's Official Site

Etude House BB Cream Precious Mineral Bright Fit Review

The BB cream has been around for a few years already and yet I have to confess that this is the first time that I actually tried and bought one.

I remember one December afternoon, when me and my friends hung out in Greenbelt that I was deeply fascinated by the texture and appearance of their skin. They looked shiny, flawless and hmm a bit plastic-like. And they told me that they were using BB cream. I'm not really sure if I liked it at that point. For one thing, I didn't like the shine too much. I think I found their creams a bit glittery. So maybe they were using a bit too much? I'm not really sure... I'm not really good with makeup. Actually, I'm a noob (I'm the powder-lip balm-lip stick kind of girl). It was only recently that I tried experimenting with it a bit (It started with E.L.F. Smokey Eye kit but I'll blog about it next time).

One fateful afternoon, after shopping for Bam's birthday gift, I dropped by Etude House. I would usually distance myself from it, really, since I didn't want to be associated with something a bit too girly. I'm not a girly-girl and the shop with its pink motif just screams too girly! :)) It kinda intimidated me a bit but, hey, that's also part of its charm.

I've been meaning to buy a BB cream for myself for more than a few months but I was still a bit hesitant. After reading a few good reviews and also checking out what the product does to the skin, I figured might as well try it. What really lured me in was that they say that you can use it on its own already since it moisturizes your skin, has sunscreen, evens out the skin tone and gives light to moderate coverage. I'm in! :)

When I got inside, they have a lot of stuff! :)) I didn't look around that much and just stayed in the BB cream section and yet it took me more than a few minutes to choose. They have powders with BB cream (I think), other stuff with BB cream, and a variety of BB creams. I was a torn between the Total Age Repair Royal BB cream and the BB Cream Precious Mineral Bright Fit. I settled for the latter since they're almost they same to me with sunscreen protection only higher in the former (SPF45 vs SPF 30). Also, the BB Cream Precious Mineral Bright Fit was cheaper (798PHP vs 998PHP). I'm guessing not bad for my first BB cream.

I was so excited that when I got home, after washing my face, I tried it on immediately. The product was a bit thick that I only needed to apply a little at a time. I accidentally put too much on my first try that it was harder to evenly spread it on my face. After putting it on, I though my face looked a bit greasy but eventually after a few minutes, I think my skin absorbed the moisture and left my skin with just the right amount of shine. I guess that's the dewy look? :P Not too much shine to the point of oily, still I was not used to seeing shine on my face. I'd always gone for matte. I mean the shine was not a bad thing, I was just not used to it. The good thing about it was because my skin looked dewy, it looked more even and smoother. I liked that about the cream. I used it the following morning. Since I was still uneasy about the shine thing, I asked Bam often if I looked oily. Guess what, rather than oily (which was a no), he said that my skin looked smooth. Oh yeah! BB cream for the win! :))

Have you tried Etude House's BB cream? Tell me what you think. ;)

PS.

I don't really have a decent cam as of the moment so please excuse the pictures. I took them from the Etude House Philipines' FB Page and Etude House web. :P Once I get my hands on Bam's phone, will upload pics. :))

Thanks for reading.


UPDATE:

I found a picture of me the second time I used this BB cream (last Sunday where we attended Bam's nephew's baptism). I used the 2nd shade W13, Natural Beige. Does it look okay to you? :)

Voucher Happy at Mr. Chow! And a Tous les Jours cake! :)

My friends and I have a bit of a problem hanging out. Since we finished college, it's almost too difficult to set time aside to just hang out. Mia, Ayen and Kuya Jalil were working, Kat was looking for a job and I, though not working, was going back and forth to Batangas helping out with my sister's wedding. A very good example of this is our birthday celebration. Kuya Jalil and I have the same birthday, March 3. We we wanted to celebrate it a bit later but, by later, we didn't mean APRIL! See how difficult it is? :P Since our birthday was early March and it's now late April, we decided to have a joint birthday celebration with Mia as well because her birthday's on the 23rd. I already found a cheap way to celebrate it thanks to cashcashpinoy.com where I bought a voucher for Mr. Chow's set meal. It cost me 600php, originally 1,200php, and it was already good for five people. Let's see. That's 600 divided by three...each celebrant pays 200! Pretty cheap for the fare :)

On the day of our birthday treat, I was running a bit late. We reserved our seats (prior reservation required to avail the deal) for 1pm but we rescheduled at little before one and moved it to 2pm instead. I got to SM North 2-ish and stopped by Tous les Jours first to buy one of their cute cakes. This one's the Rich Chocolat Cake which I got for 398php. And then I wandered around SM Hypermarket trying to find Mr. Chow.

Mr. Chow was a bit hard to find, specially if you're not that familiar with SM North. The landmarks other bloggers posted were that it was near SM Hypermarket, near Sbarro, Ground Floor...Well yes, it was near SM Hypermarket. Near but they didn't say that it was ACROSS the street from SM Hypermarket (Enter near Tous les Jours, go to hypermarket. Then turn left. Walk towards the exit and woolah! You'll see Mr. Chow! Cross  the street and you're there).

When I got there, the four of them were already seated outside the restaurant waiting for me. I was a bit worried about the time since I was still late for our rescheduled reservation. I asked whether we can still avail the deal and thankfully, it was a yes.

The interior of the restaurant was okay. It was not too small, not too big and gives off a cozy feeling. The staff asked us to transfer inside and we immediately fought over who seats on the couch. We ended up with everybody on the couch with no one daring to sit across the table on a non-padded chair. Haha

They served us our drinks first followed by the soup and then the sweet and sour pork. I would have preferred if they served the drinks with the kropek first though. Then our unlimited yang chow rice followed, then the runner beans and finally our chicken. :) (didn't get a picture of the chicken here though)

The iced tea was nothing special but it was a tad too sweet and not that cold. I guess it needed a bit more ice, to subdue the sweetness and cool it. The food in itself was okay, again nothing special, though I really like the added meat on top of our yang chow rice. It was good enough to eat on its own since you already have your "ulam" there. It would be nice if they added a bit of meat in their yang chow refill as well. The sweet and sour pork was tasty. The pork was not that soft but still okay. Their chicken had a hint of sweetness in the sauce and was juicy. Yet as much as I liked their meat, the star of my meal was their runner beans. Well, how should I put it, the beans were delicious. It was savory, a bit salty and sweet with a bit of a spicy kick. I can already eat it as my ulam and that's a big deal since I only eat veggies on the side. I love it. Hehe It kinda reminds me of my mom's cooking. :) It was really yummy. We cleared our food with almost nothing to spare. Our tummies were really happy with the food but we're not done yet! Now comes the dessert!

For dessert, we had our tables cleared, lighted the candles and made a wish before finally devouring the awesome looking cake. It was "Filled with Dark Belgian Chocolate Goodness, Covered in Rich Luscious Ganache". The wafer stick covered in Belgian chocolate was okay (think of chocolate dipped Stik-O). The cookie shaped heart was okay as well though I would have wished they were crunchy instead. I'm not a fan of pancake-like cookies. The cake itself was yummy however, after a few more bites, I find that this cake was too luscious for my taste to the point of being "nakakaumay". It was too rich. As they say, too much of a good thing is bad for you. Needless to say, me and my friends drank a lot of water afterwards.

Overall, we enjoyed our late lunch. We hang out. Talked a lot. Laughed a lot. Updated each other with our lives. And we ate a lot. :)) Who wouldn't love that.

Have you tried Mr. Chow or Tous les Jours? Tell me what you think.

If not, you can visit them here:

Mr. Chow: Ground Floor, SM North EDSA. (See directions above)
Tous les Jours: Ground Floor, SM North EDSA- The Block
Tous les Jours webpage

Photo courtesy of my friend Kat :)

Chowking's Fish Lauriat and Pork Chaofan

Before anything else, let me tell you about myself. I am a student. I came here in Manila to study. I'm renting my own place and have to restrict myself from going over my weekly allowance. I am therefore almost completely dependent on fastfood. It's not healthy, I know, but cooking in my place is a no-no (unless I buy one of those convection cookers). So I gotta do what I gotta do. Keep myself from getting hungry.

As a child, I remember my family eating out and enjoying their spread. They had better tasting noodles before and I think the quality of service was better then too. Last week, I bought their Fish Lauriat and I was rather appalled by their pancit canton. It looked and tasted like it was reheated more then a few times. The fish itself was ok but the "right" sauce was missing. They serve it with tartar sauce, right? I was given a packet of sweet and sour sauce instead. It was rather heartbreaking since it was the fish with the sauce that made me buy the lauriat in the first place (and that's a 130+php price tag). Also, I was expecting steamed siomai with my meal but I got lumpiang shanghai instead. The shanghai was ok but I was expecting the siomai. I even requested chili sauce and additional toyomansi. I didn't want the chili to go to waste so I used it as dipping sauce for my shanghai and fish. Not bad at all. Nothing really changed with their chili sauce and it was a good thing 'coz I really love their chili sauce.

For today, I bought pork chaofan with siomai. Eating the chaofan without the siomai would have been fine with me but since I tried that before in that branch and felt like something was missing, I opted for the add-on this time. I guess today was a good day for that branch. My rice tasted like I can eat it with out the siomai. I think they even had more of the pork bits and kangkong shreds this time too. I like the slightly salty taste. For me, that''s how fried rice should taste like. A bit salty. The kangkong shreds lends the chaofan a bit of a crunch, which I also love. The siomai was okay. Consistent with its taste. Also I loved that the siomai didn't look over steamed (Their wrappers would have been too soft and well, wet). I ate my pork chaofan with siomai with gusto. I love how the chili sauce with a little toyomansi made this meal so much better (Again, I do love their chili sauce).

I think chaofan-wise, they improved a bit. The service in this branch (Laonglaan) still needs further improvement though. I find that they seem to be undermanned. And also, I seriously would love to have better tasting noodles than last time.

I find that though the service is a bit slow, the food, sometimes, not that good , I still go back. Maybe I'm hoping that one day they'd be back to the old Chowking I knew. Good food. Good service.


PS.

The pictures are not mine. Got it from google search. :p

Charlie Chicken's 3rd Anniversary Giveaway Promo!

I just stumbled upon my friend's post on Chicken Charlie. It's their third year anniversary and they're bringing own the price of their coveted wings to only 10php on April 20! Wow! I'd love to drop by and grab them if I have the chance. :) Here's the photo from their facebook page:

And as if the price drop down wasn't enough, they're also giving away a 16G iPad Mini! I'd like to get my hands on that as well. Greedy me! Hehe

You can read about the mechanics of the promo here.

You can also try these helpful links:
*Website: http://chickencharlie.com.ph/
*Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/chickencharliephilippines
*Twitter page: https://twitter.com/ChickenCharlie_

What are you waiting for? Come on! Join the promo. And don't forget to sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Chicken Charlie! :)

KFC Chicken Chop

I've always been a fan of chicken cordon bleu so imagie how awesome it was to discover KFC's chicken chop!

It had ham and cheese in it! Sandwiched in chicken fillet! And at 69 pesos, what a steal!

I was rather euphoric about this until I actually tasted it. The minute I bit into it, I was expecting the cheese to ooze out. I was a tad bit disappointed when it didn't. Sad to say, there was nothing special about this meal. The closest I got to satisfying my cordon bleu craving was a just few petty bits of ham and cheese. It was my fault any way. The poster did mention BITS, right?

More or less I felt like I was eating plain chicken fillet with their gravy (though I'm not too sure about the sauce. Actually, it didn't left much of an impression on me. Maybe it was a bit sweet...hmm...Sorry. Again, I don't really remember)

KFC Chicken Chop's still okay for me though. It has the same KFC goodness that I like. Too bad I mistook it for cordon bleu though. :P

Eyelash Extensions Noob

One of my friends got eyelash extensions. It looked so good on her that it makes her look like a doll. I was smitten. I wanted one just like hers. So last Saturday, when she asked me if I wanted to go with her to Let's Face It Salon to have her extensions filled in, I tagged along. Exploring my kikay-ness! :))

The procedure was easy to explain. The technician asked me to close my eyes. She the taped my lower lashes and lids with micropore tape. She taped the lower lashes to avoid getting glue on them. She them proceeded to gluing the extensions on my lashes (one extension to one lash). Painstaking process. The glue hurt my eyes :'( It burned. Good thing whenever I feel pain or discomfort in my eyes, they have this pump to blow air on them. To speed up the drying of the glue, I guess, and to blow away the hurtful fumes. :P After almost two hours, the extensions were done! Yey!

The technician handed me a mirror and told me to open my eyes and when I did---PAIN!!!---huhuhu My eyes were red and in pain so she offered to give me a few drops of eyemo. It felt so much better after that. I got the mascara effect for a 1000php price tag. A bit steep but hey it was my first time getting them so I was a wee bit excited. I was advised to not wet my eyelashes for the next 24 hours and some other reminders (sorry, I forgot). The extensions should last for about 2-3 weeks and then I'd have to get fillers if I want to maintain the look. I was really happy with the results. It was a bit too dramatic for me but it was good. It totally changed my aura (at least, that's how I felt :P)

When I was about to go to sleep that day, I really had a hard time washing my face. I had to wash it in two parts. First part's for the area above my eyes and then the second part for the area below my eyes. Then clean the eye area using a wet cotton ball. Spell effort? And that's not the worst part. The worst part was when the morning came and I had to open my eyes again. It was like someone kicked some dirt in them. Same feeling when I took a shower and water got in them. The redness of my eyes became even more visible. And there was still this burning sensation. Not intolerable but disturbing nonetheless. I attributed the redness to the micropore tape since only the lower part of my eyes were affected. The burning sensation must be due to the glue. I was really scared because eyes were irritated. All negative thoughts came rushing to my brain. What if I go blind?

My paranoia got the better of me and I checked with my doctor aunt. She told me to talk some antihistamine. I talked to my dad, also a doctor, who told me to take another tablet of antihistamine a day after and also to consult with an ophthalmologist. I did just that and the next day he told me that the irritation might be due to the glue and prescribed an antihistamine/ anti-inflammatory eye drops. Wow! So much for my journey to kikay-ness!

Two days after my check up, I decided to have my extensions removed. The mascara-effect was too heavy for my lashes that they tend to droop down. Also the extensions poked the area around my left eye. And some of them already fell off. So a few days after getting them, four days  to be exact, I said bye-bye to my extensions. I rather have them removed than suffer anymore!

Having eyelash extensions seem to be okay for some people. My friend really enjoys hers and keep getting them filled religiously. But sad to say, I guess they're really not for me. I don't enjoy the hassle of maintaining them and also the allergy was a high price to pay for fashion. I'd rather keep my lashes au naturel...at the moment. :)