Price watch

For the last few days, in the course of going around, we had some comfort food along the way.

The price of bangus (milkfish) has gone up to P240 a kilo while hasa-hasa now costs P320 a kilo. It was at least a consolation that the bangus was ma-tiyan (with a fat, thick black belly) which was perfect  to make into paksiw with ampalaya (bittergourd). And when done, we laced it with a teaspoon of oil. The hasa-hasa we did as sarsiado with plenty of tomatoes. These are our suggested recipes for Lenten meatless days.

Simple Lunches. For the last few days, in the course of going around, we had some comfort food along the way. Neneng’s Barbecue has opened on the ground floor of the South Supermarket. We suggest they simply concentrate on the BBQs. We ordered Batangas lomi. That was a mistake apparently because the dish was tasteless. Looked like it was simply nilaga with hardly any seasoning. We had to ask for soy sauce and calamansi to make it palatable.

From a buying trip to Cartimar we stopped at Pancake House along the Highway. We chose to have the hot roast beef, an open-faced sandwich with generous thin slices of the meat over a thick slice of bread with brown sauce, a slab of mashed potatoes and a little ramekin of carrots. We must say it was OK, although the meat could have been more tender.

Frustration. It was nearly noon and we motored to Molito Lifestyle Center in Alabang with much anticipation of a good Italian or Spanish meal. But no, it was simply not to be! We proceeded to Brera. To our dismay it was still closed and in the course of cleaning up, a young woman put her face halfway through the slightly open door and told us they would open at 1 p.m. They were still washing the glass walls.

Traditional 1 p.m. Spanish lunch time should not be practiced here in the Philippines where lunch goers even go as early as 11:30 a.m. We left and decided not to go back.

We ended up at Yoree, a Korean barbecue resto. The broth of the galbijim was very flavorful. The rolled sushi-type dish had a soy sauce dip. Quite good.

Our earlier plan was to have lunch at Hanakasu in BF Parañaque, but it is normally closed on Mondays. We should actually take note of various restaurants’ off days. 

There is one item that we have been missing in supermarket freezers. This is the Sarangani BBQ Bangus. Sayang, while its selling price has gone up to P92 a pack, it remains to be one of our favorites matched with sautéd vegetables, or taken as a simple one-dish meal.

Let’s all look forward to happy meals sans disappointments.

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