Snacks: Alfort Mini Chocolate

I received this pack as a souvenir (pasalubong) from a colleague who recently traveled to Japan. Though it is now available locally, it is still a thoughtful gift and one that brings back memories of Japan. I used to buy these at the coop store or the convenience stores at railway stations for a quick snack at school or at home.

Alfort mini chocolate provides a quick and satisfying snack.

Details on the chocolate topped biscuits are at the back but this came from Japan so there is no English translation on a sticker like what you'll find from similar products sold in the supermarket.

Inside the box is a tray of biscuits wrapped in foil.

Opening the foil wrapper, the biscuits are revealed.

The chocolate is basically on top. Here's what the flipside looks like.

These biscuits provided me a quick satisfying snack for when you want a 'sugar high' during the day.

-

Roberto's "Jumbo" Siopao, Iloilo City

During our meeting at city hall, we were treated to a nice snack by our hosts. The siopao (steamed pork bun) from Roberto's was a welcome snack after a very early breakfast at NAIA Terminal 3 prior to our morning flight to Iloilo. Theirs is supposed to be the best siopao in the city and it certainly did not disappoint.

Roberto's is supposed to be the best siopao in the city

The siopao is revealed

Inside is a savory meat with egg

The siopao was definitely good and did not disappoint. I am not so sure it is the best siopao I've tasted but perhaps it is the best in Iloilo so it should be added to the must eats in the city recognized for its gastronomical delights.

-

Potato snack - Potpots

There's a new kiosk at the mall near us where we could get some good potato fries. These would either be the typical french fries or what the store calls potpots - what looks like Shakey's Mojos. I got some of the potpots and had some small talk with the vendors who said the potatoes are sourced from the company's farm and not imported. They proceeded to show me their supply of large potatoes as one of them got some to cook.

Fries or potpots?

I got barbecue and cheese flavored potpots to take home. They were an instant hit with the kids, especially the barbecue flavored potatoes.

While we also enjoy fries from Potato Corner,  we thought that Potpot provides a nice alternative for cravings for fries or mojos.

-

Rolls cookies and crinkles

There's a stall inside the Bonifacio High Street Mall that sells really good cookies, crinkles and brownies. The price for each is justified by the quantity and quality of their products. We have seen their stall several times but just have not had the nudge to purchase and try their items. One weekend last month, as I was waiting for the wife and daughter as they checked out one of the shops, I decided to get a few cookies, crinkles and brownies.

Chocolate butternut crinkles, pecan-choco chip cookies, and fudge brownies

A box of Rolls goodies

There are so many cookies, crinkles and brownies out there especially as many people seem to have taken to baking and selling during the pandemic. I thought Rolls' were one of the real deal and truly worthy of a next purchase and serving. Just be careful not to overindulge as too much of these is bad for your health.

-

A quick snack at Pound, Robinson's Place Manila

We arrived early last Monday for a wedding at one of the hotels in the Mabini area. As we were very early, we didn't want to hang out at the hotel while final arrangements were being made at the venue where both ceremony and reception will take place. Since we were near Robinson's Place Manila, we decided to drop by and have a snack. We had a couple of hours to spare so we had time to go around and see where we can have our merienda. We didn't want to eat a lot because of the dinner that would follow the wedding ceremony. I haven't been to this mall and the wife was there only twice before but for meet-ups with friends over lunch. And so we were both surprised to see a lot of options, a lot of places to eat at that we haven't seen in other malls that we went to before even prior to the pandemic.

One of those was Pound, which had a simple enough menu (for us). And so we ordered some sliders (basically mini burgers) and truffle fries. And we had their house brewed iced tea to wash it down. There were only a few customers when we ate there but eventually more came just as we checked out and decided to start walking back to the lobby for a ride to the hotel.

Sliders and truffle fries

The sliders were good and satisfying. The truffle fries were okay. We probably will eat there again but there's just many other restaurants to try out especially if we'll be back at Robinson's Manila. We'll see...

-

Fruits for the week

I am the one who goes to the wet market from our home. I actually like to go to the market on weekends - either Saturday or Sunday. That's where we get our supply of seafood and fruits. While we also buy vegetables there, nowadays we get these from the Sunday talipapa (informal market) in our village. The talipapa though doesn't usually have a lot of fruit varieties so its the wet market or the supermarket for our fruits. A constant would be bananas and I prefer the latundan variety over the lakatan/lacatan. We also usually buy saba, which can be fried or boiled. Fried saba bananas or in the form of turon or maruya are favorites at home. At times, I take fried saba as baon for lunch. It's filling and doesn't make me sleepy during the 'unholy' hours from 1:00 - 3:00 PM.

Our kasambahays like to arrange our fruits on the counter for everyone to see what's available to eat. This way, there's no excuse for not eating healthy.

We make it a point to have fruits at home. We encourage our daughter to have these instead of junk food or sweets especially in between meals (i.e., snacks). Of course, fruits are great as dessert and sometimes with the meals (fried or boiled bananas as part of breakfast). My favorites like atis and kaimito are seasonal and so were mangoes. I usually buy these at the market, too, where I have suki (favorite) vendors for our fruit supplies.

-

Simple inflight snacks

Inflight, there wasn't really much difference pre-Covid-19 and now (not yet post-Covid-19) except perhaps that the flight attendants were wearing PPEs and masks. We were on full flights both outbound and inbound of Manila and the airport terminals were also already crowded. We flew on Philippine Airlines so there was no food and drinks for sale on the flight. But they did distribute some snacks and drinks to passengers.

Butter cookies and water were our inflight snacks for the MNL-TAG flight. For drinks you actually can opt for coffee or tea.

The cookies were by Figaro and not from some obscure manufacturer.

We had green peas and water on the TAG-MNL flight.

Nutrition information at the back of the pack.

The guisantes pack was manufactured in Cebu and is certified Halal.

I assume that longer flights on board full service airlines like Singapore Airlines or Japan Airlines would have modified their inflight meals service in light of Covid-19. We are hopeful that we can soon travel again overseas to again enjoy the attractions in other countries.

-

Healthy snacks?

The wife bought some snacks that we generally regard as healthy compared to the usual junk food that we buy. These were packs of dried tropical fruits.

Sunkist tropical fruits blend

This was produced in Thailand. That came as no surprise as the country is well-known for the high quality of dried fruits they produce. We usually bought dried fruits as pasalubong from Thailand. This was very enjoyable but definitely on the sweet side. You can end up eating a lot if you didn't pour some on a small bowl or plate instead of just opening a pack and eating directly from it.

-

Guilty pleasures - pinasugbu

I found this at the supermarket and did not hesitate getting a pack. I loved pinasugbu since I first had one when I was a toddler vacationing in my father's hometown in Iloilo more than 4 decades ago. Pinasugbu is basically fried saba banana slices dipped in caramelized brown sugar. Often it is sprinkled with sesame seeds to enhance the taste and texture.

Wewin's special and delicious Pinasugbu

Back in the day, I recall we usually bought pinasugbu from Lucy's, which had a shop near the old Iloilo Airport in Mandurriao. I think they closed shop many years ago but we bought from Wewin's upon recommendation of an aunt who said their pinasugbu was just right - not too soft, not too hard on the teeth, and not too sweet (but that's a relative thing, of course). Later, I got our pinasugbu from Biscocho Haus, which had one stop shops around the city and along the way to the new airport.

I checked again the next time I was doing our groceries and there were no more Wewin's pinasugbu there. Perhaps they will restock again soon? I will probably get a couple or more packs the next time.

-

Crocodile sausages at Hero sausages

The wife and I had to go out to get a couple of documents we needed for a case that's been lingering since 2015. It was close to impossible to park our vehicle near the government offices where we had to get the docs so we decided to park at the big hardware store nearby and take a trike to the offices. Actually, I dropped off the wife at one of the offices and parked and took the trike. 

After securing the documents, we took one trike each to the hardware store and went in to get a few items for our home. After getting our stuff, we saw this sausage stand at the ground floor and decided to get a couple of sandwiches to take home. As their specialty was crocodile meat sausages, we got a couple of their Croc Dundees instead of Hungarians as we originally planned.

Nice tagline for Hero sausages. They seem to serve not only sausages but burgers and silog meals as well.

The stand at the ground floor of Wilcon Depot along the Circumferential Road in Antipolo City follows the health protocols set for the pandemic.

They have a pretty good menu for a sausage stand

I was not able to take photos of the Croc Dundee sandwiches. The wife ate here as we drove home (I was driving) while I quickly wolfed mine when we got home. I thought they were a bit on the spicy side and our daughter agreed as she took a bit into my sandwich and passed on the experience of eating a crocodile meat sausage. She is not a fan of spicy food like I am. :) I assume that the spiciness was sort of an attempt to cloak the real taste of the meat? Or perhaps to make it taste like the usual sausages people eat (Hungarians, kielbasas, bockwurst, etc.). I'll probably try one again the next time I'm at this branch of Wilcon.

-

Chocolate review: The return of the dark Snickers bar

I was pleasantly surprised to find the dark chocolate variant of Snickers in the supermarket shelf. I had not seen this in a very long while. I first saw these on the shelves of convenience stores and supermarkets in Japan, and later in the duty free shops in Clark and Subic.

Snickers cacao strong (that's Japanese katakana for cacao)

The Japanese roughly to 230% more cacao than the usual Snickers bar.

Like other imported products at the supermarket, there is a sticker providing a translation of ingredients, nutrition information and manufacturer's info.

Was a little surprised to see that the importer, Mars Philippines, Inc., which is the local subsidiary of Mars Foods is located in our city. However, I was not surprised but somewhat suspicious about the bars being produced in China.

I used to buy these by the box whenever I saw them on Clark Freeport's Puregold Duty Free shop shelves. Those were from the US rather than from Japan. It has a distinctive taste from the regular Snickers as well as other variants now available. As far as I can remember (taste-wise), its the same dark Snickers bar we enjoyed before and so I've included these in our stock of chocolates.

-

Snacks - junk food in Bangkok

I took advantage of my travel to Bangkok to finish some reports. Scanning the nearby supermarket for something to eat and drink while working, I chanced upon some junkfood that we used to enjoy while living in Singapore.

Cheezels and Chachos were available at a supermarket chain of a major retailer in the Metro Manila. I don't find them in their shelves anymore so I assume these aren't generally available locally.

I also like chocolate milk and there are many choices in the supermarket so I have my fill of milk while working late. What I couldn't find was Yakult. There's a local version/brand of the probiotic drink but I opted not to purchase a pack.

-

Peanuts

They say its better to eat peanuts instead of junk food. And there are a lot of articles including very scientific ones that validate the health benefits of peanuts. While there are many peanut vendors around, including at the market, I usually get our supply of peanuts from a suki vendor at a nearby mall.

Selection of peanuts (roasted with skin, without skin, garlic, adobo, spicy, etc.)

There are other nuts, beans and corn snacks being sold. The cashew nuts we get from the vendors at the pasalubong shops along Sumulong Highway.

Our daughter loves nuts and its good that she is not allergic to them. She likes the roasted, adobo flavored peanuts but without the skin. She likes the garlicky taste and munches on the crunchy garlic that's usually mixed with the peanuts.

-

Pocky chocolate covered pretzels

I already featured one of my favorite snacks when I was in Japan. That is the Pocky pretzel sticks made by Glico. A box can be quite expensive at the typical supermarket, retailing around 120 to 180 pesos depending on the variant and the manufacturer. The more expensive ones are those from Japan instead of those made in Thailand. The 'basic' Pocky is the one in the red box and there are many other variants now like strawberry, green tea and cookies & cream that are available in local supermarkets. I found the following variant for what appears (if I understood it right) to be the bitter milk chocolate version of Pocky in a Daiso store. I got it for 88 pesos per box, which I thought was a reasonable price considering I saw the same priced at 160 pesos in a supermarket. I will surely buy me a few more boxes for my cache for when I have a craving for Pocky.

A box of Pocky contains 2 packs of chocolate covered pretzel sticks.

This box is a premium variant and there is even a message box for giving it as a gift.

The chocolate covered sticks are enjoyable to eat in part because the sticks are on the crunchy side. You can also play with it like I do, imagining a stick to be like a cigarette and consuming one bit at a time.  I don't smoke but I had played this pretend thing since I was introduced to similar pretzel snacks when I was a child.

-

Snack time at Dunkin Donuts

The wife and I decided to have merienda while waiting for our dog being groomed at the shop beside our vet. Our search for a place to have a snack at led us to a Dunkin Donuts among a bunch of restaurants along Marcos Highway. Dunkin Donuts serves good coffee and the wife wanted to have a cup to go with a donut (we are at a donut shop after all). While looking at the donuts on display, I spotted their sandwich selections and we ended up getting a couple of tuna sandwiches on ciabatta bread.

The branch was made up for Valentine's Day and they had some promos for boxes of donuts

Our sort of a Valentine's date with tuna melt sandwiches, a donut each, coffee for the wife and hot chocolate for me.

The donuts, coffee and chocolate was as expected and satisfying. We were actually surprised that the sandwiches were good. It was a good heavy merienda for us and we had fun talking about how we didn't go on actual Valentine's dates since we got together. It was February the 13th and so we continued with our streak of not dating on the 14th.

-

Chocolate-covered potato chips

The Clairvoyant and I have been curious about the chocolate-covered potato chips being sold by Royce. They were supposed to be very good and one can easily finish a bag in one sitting. So one time while browsing the foreign foods shelves at the supermarket for soba sauce, I casually picked up a cup of chocolate covered potato chips. Showing it to the wife, she asked me to take two so we can sample them. Each cup was light so we didn't expect much in terms of the amount of chips inside each.

The hiragana states 'jaga' and jaga stands for potato. So 'jaga choco' roughly translates to 'chocolate potato'.

Inside the package are a few chocolate-covered potato chips. The chips have ridges, which I guess makes them easier for the chocolate to attach to.

These chocolate-covered potato chips are made by Bourbon, a Japanese company specializing in snacks. I have enjoyed a lot of their products when I was in Japan so I wasn't surprised that their 'jaga choco' was also very good. It is quite pricey though at 120+ PHP per cup so it isn't something you would want to splurge on more frequently. Still, we would probably be getting a couple of cups from time to time. This definitely counts as some sort of comfort junk food.

-

Puto at kutsinta

I always remind myself of our relative proximity to Antipolo's new public market. It is where we get our fresh seafood and vegetables on weekends. We also found good old kakanin or rice cakes being sold there and we quickly made sukis out of some vendors of puto, kutsinta and sapin-sapin.

I prefer "puto sa bilao" or "puto manapla" than the other types of puto that you can buy from the leading bakeshops. The latter are not really puto since many use flour and not rice for the doughs. I prefer the classic puto that you can buy at the market or at shops that specialize in native kakanin. There are still many of these shops around Rizal especially in Cainta, Taytay and Antipolo.

Puto and kutsinta are traditional rice cakes or kakanin. In the photo is puto sa bilao, which is sliced from a giant rice cake on a flat basket (bilao).

Kutsinta is made of glutinous rice and goes very well with shaved coconut.

-

Chocolate review: Toblerone Swiss dark chocolate

One of our all time favorites is Toblerone chocolate. I have very fond memories of eating Toblerones brought or sent by relatives who were abroad. This was in the 1980s when chocolates like this along with Hershey's, Cadbury, Kitkat and Snickers. These were not readily available on local supermarket shelves and were usually "imported" as pasalubong or souvenirs. Not everyone had access to the "PX goods" stores that sold these chocolates at premium prices and not everyone had relatives from abroad (balikbayan or OFW) whose arrivals are also associated with duty free shopping. Later, as these chocolates became available everywhere I think many had lost their appeal as people wanted to get the "not so easy to get" bars, especially with information now available on the internet.

Recently, I got reacquainted with Kit Kat due to the new variations that came out of Japan (e.g., orange, sakura, and macha or green tea). These were a welcome twist for the chocolate and have become very popular. Last December, I decided to get a couple of small Toblerone dark chocolate bars. We had missed the taste of Toblerone and wanted to have some for old times sake.

Toblerone's version of dark chocolate

Nutrition information and expiration date on one side of the distinctive triangular-shaped package.

The information states a minimum of 50% cocoa for this bar, which is higher than other regular dark chocolates in supermarkets.

Toblerone Swiss dark chocolate contains more cocoa than other regular dark chocolates in local supermarkets. However, it retained its very distinctive nougat from the original Toblerones. That makes us enjoy both the taste of slightly bitter chocolate with the delightful, classic nougat of Toblerone chocolates - definitely something good that makes us reminisce about childhood treats from abroad.

 

A few years ago, I found that Snickers, too, had a dark chocolate variant and had bought boxes of these from a supermarket at the former Clark Air Base. I have yet to find these again locally but will write about them in another post soon.

-

Rural halu-halo

A very popular refreshment for the summer days in the Philippines is halu-halo (literally a "mixture"). You'll find different versions of this around the country being sold at restaurants including fast food chains. The more common scene would be roadside halu-halo stands and those you find in the sari sari stores (neighbourhood stores) and wet markets in every town. The roadside stands are the most informal ones usually manned by enterprising households hoping to make a few bucks for a serving of the treat. These, however, I think gives some of the best (and some will say the worst) experiences for having this summer treat.

But why pine for Razon's or Chowking halu-halo if you are in a remote area without the comforts we'd see in the bigger cities and towns? Certainly, when you're on a stop and craving for some refreshments then you'd probably take your chance by getting halu-halo from a roadside stand. That's not exactly throwing caution to the wind as we haven't heard of any rash of illnesses stemming from such stands. The rule when you're in the field seems to be "if it looks clean and people don't look sick then it's good enough to eat or drink." But then I don't want to include water in this generalisation and I would strongly urge anyone who's uncertain about the water source to opt for soft drinks instead.

Our staff enjoying halu-halo from a roadside stand near the village basketball court.

This was definitely not one of the better halu-halos from the perspective of ingredients. However, on a scorching day it is a  very welcome relief from the heat.

Most of the stuff seemed to me as coloured sago (tapioca pearls) or gelatine. What looked like coconut was actually agar agar according to the vendor. 

Our refreshment with plenty of evaporated milk over the shaved ice to wash down the tremendous amount of sugar to the bottom of the plastic.

So far there have been no reports of food poisoning among us though a couple have reported some LBM yesterday, a couple of days after our field work. Both declined to attribute it to the halu-halo though it suspect the water from which the ice was made to be the culprit. In any case, this is another one of those situations where we say we'll just "charge it to experience." On the extreme side, if it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger!

-

Chilling at the bookstore

Whenever I am at Bonifacio Global City (BGC) and I had the time, I try to pass by the Fully Booked branch there. I like browsing their shelves for books, comics or CDs. I think I usually picked up a book, magazine or comic book almost everytime I'm there despite doing my best not to be tempted considering the escalating prices these days. Books are not cheap in the Philippines and I think this is partly to blame for our being generally immature for our tastes in literature. I mean, honestly, how many people really do read Murakami, Rushdie or Garcia-Marquez who recently passed away? I'm all for the electronic stuff as an aid for developing reading comprehension but there's nothing like a good book or magazine to enrich the mind. 

Recently, I had been at the bookstore again months after the last time I was at the Bonifacio High Street. This time I had some time for myself as I waited for the wife to arrive from their out-of-town workshop. I was surprised to find second hand CDs at the music section and found that most if not all came from Japan. I was certain with this as I saw the CD labels and ended up browsing the CDs as I did whenever I was in one of my favorite used CD shops in Tokyo and Yokohama (e.g., Yamagiwa and Recofan). I got most of my CD collection from those shops and most of these were high quality CDs that were made in Japan or Europe including my collection of classical music CDs. I ended up purchasing a couple of CDs - one classical and another jazz to add to my collection. I was a bit disappointed though that the used CDs were not as inexpensive as I had expected them to be. I recall that good quality used CDs in Japan usually cost me 1200 JPY or the equivalent of about 300 to 400 PHP at the time I was there. So I had to make sure I really liked the CDs I picked up before finally making the purchase. 

I celebrated my purchases by getting some frozen yoghurt at the White Hat branch in the same building. The froyo and lemonade were refreshing treats before I walked back to the parking lot to wait for the wife.

Frozen yogurt and lemonade while reviewing my CD purchases.

-