East Japan 2013 Day 7: Around Yokohama

Day 7: November 7, 2013
Yokohama Bay and Chinatown

We had a day of rest after 6 days of non-stop walking around Tokyo and Yokohama. We decided to chillax and have to take our day slow since we will be travelling to Hakone the next day and it will be our 7th anniversary.

First glimpse of Autumn in Yokohama

Our day started a little late and since I am sort of sick and I am still adapting to the cold winds (and its drizzling every afternoon, I did not use umbrella at all). I need comfort food so what better way to end my sickness is to find a restaurant that offers all day breakfast. Being a researcher myself, I am prepared to such thing and I've seen that the famous Hawaii restaurant - Eggs and Things can be found in Yokohama. :) And well, we have an itinerary today!

Eggs and Things is located in Star Hotel in Yokohama, about 20 minutes away from Louie's apartment.

Eggs and Things famous door. We were seated at the patio,
which I loved since I got to do people-watching. 

I was too late to take the picture, the whipped cream stumbled already. This is a 5-pc pancake set with bananas,
nuts and whipped cream on top (cost about Php 400.00)

Strawberry, Vanilla and Honey-Maple syrup. 

YOKOHAMA'S CHINATOWN

Just like many of the countries I have been to, one of their major common denominator is having their Chinatown. I think, these Chinese was able to conquer some of these Asian countries.

After grabbing brunch from Eggs and Things, we walked towards Chinatown (about 10 minute walk from the restaurant). Yokohama Chinatown is the largest in Japan and all of Asia, and is one of the largest in the world. It is surrounded by 4 major gates and five more gates can be found within the area.


One of the gates in Chinatown. 

Walking further down the road, you will see one of the temples in Chinatown and probably the biggest of them all - Kanteibyo Temple. This temple was built in 18th century by the Chinese immigrants themselves.

Kanteibyo Temple. (That's me, by the way!)

Inside the temple grounds. 

Scriptures at the gate. 

After passing by the Temple, we decided to walk farther more down the road and saw very interesting things:

Japanese school backpacks, for real! :) I was tempted to bring back one in the Philippines, but realized I am too old to use this. It really looks good on Japanese school girls! 

Panda stores - we passed by three of the Panda stores along Chinatown. What better way to present the fusion of two
countries than Hello Kitty wearing a Panda suit. :) (Or is it, Panda eating Hello Kitty?)

One of the alleys in Chinaatown. 

Just like many of the Chinatowns I have been to, food is the main attraction in Yokohama Chinatown. Sadly, coming from a big brunch few minutes before, we weren't able to taste some of them. I promised to go back and have a taste (di ba, Louie?).

Walking and sort-of-getting lost in Chinatown, we decided to end the day by meeting some of Louie's officemates for dinner. It was a slow-paced kind of day, since tomorrow will be another walkathon.

A Taste of Everything in Cebu

I have been in Cebu four times - first in 2010, second and third in 2011 and fourth time recently. In 2010, it was only a day trip from our Bohol vacation, where we only got to see the tourist spots in Cebu City and ate in Pino restaurant.

In 2011, I was only in a day trip again in Cebu for one of our projects. I flew in Cebu at 9am and flew out by 3pm. All I did is stay in SM Cebu's Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf while waiting for my flight back to Manila.

It was only this October 2012, that I have the chance to taste everything Cebu has to offer. With 7 days spent in city proper and Oslob, I didn't pass on the food trips. I got to eat on 3 restaurants -  CNT Lechon, La Marea and Larsian.


First stop: CNT LECHON

Location: 1377 Rama Ave, Guadalupe, Cebu City
Landmarks: Near SM City Cebu

Being a fan of Anthony Bourdain, his quest in Cebu on tasting the Filipino food made me inspired to look for the same food he took. I first planned to taste Zubuchon, but near had the time to visit its store. I don't like to eat cold lechon sold at the airport. Good thing, during our visit, we had a office friend who became our tourist guide and introduced us to CNT lechon.

When we arrived at the restaurant, a little before lunchtime, the place was packed. Parking lot was full already and there were almost zero vacant tables. Luckily we found one seconds after the family who occupied it left. Our friend lined up to order, I noticed that it was like a line for free goodies. Long lines as family waits for their respective orders. I remembered we got no.72, waited for about 30 minutes and the place was slowly filling up.

As soon as we get our orders, I was fascinated that their rice is in suman leaves, locally known to be "puso". It was very appropriate to call as such, since it is really heart shaped.

My apologies for those who are in-love with CNT Lechon, but I am not a fan of its saltiness. I personally find it quite too salty for my palette. However, I love the taste of the skin with its vinegar dip. Its crispiness and balance of right flavor is to die for.

Puso Rice

CNT Lechon

Second stop: LA MAREA's WARM BROWNIE CUP

Location: Crossroads, Banilad, Cebu


Our officemate, who was based in Visayas (now he's in Manila) recommended that we try La Marea's Warm Brownie cup. It was our dessert place after we had lunch in CNT.

La Marea reminds me of the quaint cafes found in the metro. It resembles Banapple and one of my personal favorite, Parvati. The place was also packed when we got there, though it has its second floor (which you can reserve for private gatherings and meetings).

Upon entrance, you'll see the shelf of baked goodies, from brownie cups to mini cakes and cookies. They also offer coffee and milkshakes. As recommended, we tried the Classic Warm Brownie cup (though it has more flavors such as white chocolate and triple chocolate). What is so divine with this dessert? Well, talk about the warmth and moistness of the brownie in a cup, topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.

I am a chocolate lover and I can definitely say that this is the brownie cup I will never get tired of eating everyday. The right sweetness of the chocolate in it gave us the best feeling ever - childhood memories and weekends. For Php 95.00 a cup, it was definitely a heaven.

a selection of cakes and pastries

warm brownie cup

Third stop: LARSIAN

Location: Fuente Osmena Circle, Cebu City
Landmarks: Chng Hua Hospital and Robinsons Capitol


To cap off the day (and to end our free day too), we had our dinner at Larsian - the largest outside grill house in downtown Cebu. I have been in Metro Manila's food market such as Banchetto and Mercato Centrale and I have never found such place as organized as Larsian.

Larsian is basically a barbeque place, with individual stalls selling various products on sticks - from isaw (chicken intestines) to longganisa (chorizos), including chicken, chicken skins, pork and fish. Stalls have their respective numbers (if name is not available) and located at the perimeters of the area. You can choose a stall and your choice of food, have them cooked, look for your table and wait for your food to arrive. Conveniently, tables are located in front of their respective stalls. Grills are located at the middle of the area, where stalls have their own grilling "station".

Upon sitting down at your chosen table, a plate of 10 puso or rice in suman leaves are placed on your table. You will just eat what you can and they would count what's remaining and charge you what you consumed. The barbeques arrived after 20 minutes and we dug in. You have the choice of having your hands inside plastic gloves or eat on your bare hands. No worries, you can wash your hands after since wash rooms are available in the area.

Barbeques are sweet, one thing that I liked about it. I love the barbeque sauce that instead of dipping the actual barbeque on a mix of soy sauce, vinegar and calamansi, I rolled it again to its own sauce before I eat it. I probably one of the best barbeques I have ever had. I am tempted to ask how do they do it, but I guess its top secret. Food is relatively cheap - we spent less than 200 bucks for 10 sticks of barbeque (of different sorts) and 6 puso rice.

tables and barbeque selection



grilling stations and our food

Cebu City is one of the best places I have ever been. With its food, night life and various tourist spots, it offers you a variety of choices to do and places to go. I am definitely inlove with Cebu City.

Food Trip in Bangkok, Thailand

Food is always a part of our itinerary. For the past 6 days, we have tasted the best of the Indochine cuisine - from Viet to Khmer to Thai.

These three countries offered food much like what the Filipinos have, what we have, but more tasteful in their own way. Thai food is not an exception. Though I am not a fan of spicy food, I really had the best time of being a street foodie in Khao San Road.


FOOD IN KHAO SAN ROAD

Food is everywhere. Most of our remaining money was spent on food alone, because we can't simply avoid it. And because we are in Bangkok, PAD THAI should be tasted.

Let me show you what we had.

The famous MANGO STICKY RICE

Their Crepes

Noodle selection for PAD THAI

PAD THAI again

Barbeque everywhere

ROTI (IS LOVE)

adding bananas in your roti

Then, "frying" it.

Add chocolate - LOTS OF IT

FOOD IN MBK

Though MBK offer the Taste of Asia food center, we decided to visit another food store because we wanted to try authentic Thai food.

Stir fried Pork

Fish cakes

Chicken with Apple Rice

Very Spicy Thai Noodles

Thailand may not have the best restaurant food, but we really enjoyed what its street offered to us. For sure, when we get back, we will come back to Khao San just for the food alone.

Phnom Penh Food Trip

As I have mentioned on my previous food trip entry, I will never give justice to the food we have eaten by merely posting its pics. I'm no food blogger, so just bear with me on how shallow I get to describe each one of them.

On our first day in Phnom Penh, we asked Mr. Samoun, the good tuktuk driver, to drive us to a restaurant that will offer us authentic Khmer cuisine. Though we felt that street food offer more authenticity, there were no street food vendors when we arrived in Phnom Penh and we don't like to die from starvation. :)

1st restaurant in Phnom Penh: KHMER SARAVAN.

As Mr. Tuktuk Driver stopped in front of one of the many restaurants along Riverside, we were looking around if there is a distinguishable factor that will definitely say, "Hey, looking for Khmer cuisine, come in!". Then he pointed at Khmer Saravan which we believe is the top restaurant along the riverside. There were no customers when we entered and the waitress smiled at us (maybe because we are too noisy and were talking in Tagalog). As a rule in the food trip, we asked her what's their best seller and she mentioned the following and we ordered them:

Amok. Much like the Indian Curry but with more tolerable taste and smell. 

Deep Fried Chicken with Sweet Chili Sauce

Loklak. Resembles to Menudo or Sweet and Sour Pork

Fried Rice with Beef

2nd restaurant: The Happy Herb Pizza

Prior to the Cambodian trip, we were actually researching about the "Happy Pizza", and one of our acquaintances mentioned that we should try the Happy Pizza.

Happy Pizza is offered only to foreigners, as it has marijuana, an illegal drug (both in the Philippines and Cambodia). Marijuana is sprinkled on top of the pizza and according to my friend, there are different levels of happiness, which I think is based on how much "juts" they put on your pizza.

Aside from this, we tried the famous beer in Cambodia - Angkor and Beer Lao. I am not a fan of beer, but I really liked how it tasted. It was far from San Miguel Light that I occasionally drink.

Angkor Beer and Beer Lao

Happy Pizza. Green specks are actually marijuana. 

3rd restaurant: Sinh Foo

Located just beside Khmer Saravan, Sinh Foo offers Khmer food with the hint of different country cuisines. We ordered the following from the said restaurant.

Fried rice in Pineapple

Crispy Chicken Fillet

Frog legs in Khmer Sauce

I still need to work on my food blogging skills, but I think I managed to get decent pictures of the food that we tried. Anyhow, if it looks beautiful, it should taste delicious.

Ho Chi Minh City Food Trip

So after a whole day in Vietnam, I guess the food deserves a separate entry (and this will be a constant part of my travel entries).

Without further ado, here's a rundown of Vietnam's best dishes and drinks.


1. Lunch at Pho Hoa Restaurant in Pasteur Street. This quaint little resto, similar to many of our carinderias, is not the typical location for the best tasting Vietnamese food. As its name suggest, its main offers, or how we ask the servers, "your best tasting dish" or "what most people order here" are the different types of Pho Hoa or Vietnamese Noodle soup. Aside from the noodles, they have on your table, the wedding cake made out of sticky rice and tapioca (cassava), a variety of greens that you can drop on your piping hot noodles and lemons (dayap). We never tried adding more greens (my travelmates have a different understanding of the food groups, which do not include veggies in any form) and lemons on our orders since we would like to taste the authenticity of the noodle soup.

Wedding cake

Chicken Pho Hoa

All meat Pho Hoa

Beef Pho Hoa

Vietnamese tea

The Restaurant, Pho Hoa in Pastuer Street.

Location: 176 Pasteur Street. Just ask the driver to drop you off to Pho Hoa restaurant at Pasteur Street. I believe they all know this by heart.


2. Banh Trang Nuong. A crepe like street food we found near the Notre Dame Cathedral. Nothing is near to this food on our soil, but the best way to describe it is - a lumpia wrapper type heated in an coal stove with bits and pieces of carrots and greens, quail egg and hot sauce.


Location: Near the Notre Dame Cathedral

Banh Dang Truong

3. Banh Mi. A bread with different greens, liver pate, pork roll and ham inside. The bread is somewhat similar to a baguette, but it's mostly hollow in the middle. Smack on the middle of it are greens, liver pate, mayonnaise, prok roll, ham and hot sauce.

Classic Banh Mi

Location: Everywhere. Try it along Pham Ngu Lao Road.

4. Coffee. Vietnamese coffee is the best I have ever tasted. Two of my friends were able to get Weasel coffee (not so sure about the price) and we tried one of Vietnam's famous coffee shops, Trung Nguyen.

Weasel Coffee

Milk with a hint of Coffee

Success coffee

5. Ice cream. We got one each as tradition on our trips but we decided to take another one in Trung Nguyen as my buddy doesn't take coffee. Hands down to this dessert that capped off our Vietnam night.


location: Along Pham Ngu Lao road

Ice cream

PS. I will never ever give justice to the Vietnamese food in this entry. Just see the reference pictures.