Aha! Singaporean food in Philippines   I don’t frequent the Ortigas area or any other location outside of Makati (except paranaque) simply because I have poor sense of direction.  Yes ladies, I am the 1 percent of the male population who will admit that I’m not good with directions and I don’t mind asking for directions.  We went to SM Megamall last week because wifey wanted to check out forever 21.  Her sister even flew in from Davao to check out that store.  It’s a girl thing so I won’t go into details.  Anyway, the trip was fun for me because I get to try the Orchard Road at SM Megamall Bridgeway (I think).  I’m a big fan of hawker centers in Singapore because the idea of choosing from a variety of cuisines like chinese, malay, thai, etc. excites me.  The Orchard Road restaurant at Megamall is not a hawker center – it’s more like the foodcourts of Singapore but that’s cool too.  Ok, nuff of the boring intros – let’s jump right in to the food.

You can watch the chef's cook. The old guy looks authentic Singaporean.

Here's the Orchard Road Menu. To order, just mark it there and go to the counter.

645 for 3 dishes, extra rice, drinks and extra malaysian curry sauce. For 50 bucks, you should order that extra curry - it's really good. Come to think of it, it's the only dish that I enjoyed. Ha ha ha

Singaporean Dude Cooking - Bare hands so it tastes better (Ha ha ha)

Hookien Mee. They didn't do justice to the dish. This is an amazing dish in Singapore - sarap sobra. This one.. not too much so don't get discouraged by this one. The real thing is Yummyiah!

For 135 bucks you get 4 short Satay beef. It's decent.

Roast Chicken Rice - wifey said it was "ok lang"

Ok, let me wrap this up and justify why I posted this entry even if I don’t have much to say about these dishes.

1. I don’ t want you to get discouraged with Hokkien Mee.  It’s really good if done right.  Here’s one of my posts when I first got a taste of this delightful noodle dish in Singapore: http://chibog.tumblr.com/post/226988876/my-oh-my-fried-hokkien-mi-is-the-best-this
2. You have to try the Malaysian Curry – even as an extra order.  It’s only 50 pesos!  It saved our meal.  So good!

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So here’s a quick review of one of the first restaurants to start getting heavy traffic in Greenbelt 5 – Fely J’s Kitchen.

It was raining and like everyone else, we were craving for a soup based dish like sinigang or nilaga.  While walking along Greenbelt 2, we started talking about the dilis rice of Fely J’s which was a huge hit for us when we first tried it – we figured that it was a perfect match for nilagang baka…mmmm.

When we got there, it was already 1230 so the place was… I’d say about 70% full already.  Much to our surprise, they did not have Nilagang Baka on their menu but they had a wide selection of Sinigang mixes so we started to lean towards the idea of ordering that dish instead plus everyone else ordered it so the place was filled with its aroma.  While flipping through the 4 page menu, we noticed this intriguing dish – Lengua Rendang.  I figured that it makes sense to use lengua (ox tongue)  as a replacement for beef because it absorbs flavor well and it has an excellent tender texture when cooked properly.  Having said all that, we decided to break out of the expected and ordered the Lengua Rendang instead – an interesting twist of the famous malaysian dish.  The rest is history… this is one of the best Rendang versions that I have ever tasted.  I can say with conviction that this is a must try dish at Fely J’s.  We still ordered the dilis rice of course and tortang talong as a side dish.

Some pictures (note that these shots don’t do much justice for their excellent taste)

MUST TRY LENGUA RENDANG

Dilis Rice – yummy!

Tortang Talong – from childhood

 Fely J’s Restaurant, Greenbelt 5

2/F Greebelt 5, Legaspi St., Legaspi Village, Ayala Center

Makati City, Metro Manila

(02) 728-8858

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Secret Recipe started in Malaysia and has setup shop across Asia. They have excellent baked goodies and they take pride in their Asian dishes.

We went there on a Saturday night at around 10pm and good thing for us they were still open. It was raining and I was craving for some soup. We passed 32nd street and saw the name tickled our curiosity – Secret Recipe.

I ordered the Noodles in Tom Yum Kong – it just felt right because of the weather. It was delicious! Spicy with a sour tamarind taste and you can also clearly taste the lemon grass. A good mix of flavors that is truly Asia. It also had 2 big prawns – Yummy!

The Chicken Cordon Bleu was undercooked so we sent it back. The ham (I think) over powered the flavor of the chicken. It became a ham and cheese dish. That’s just me.

Oooh Lasagna! I know.. I know… chicken cordon bleu and lasagna aren’t exactly asian dishes but we just had to try them. If you saw the pictures you’ll surely understand why. Anyhow, the lasagna was cheesy! Too cheesy. If you love cheese, then you’ll probably enjoy this one. For me, its a bit on the bland side – I kept looking for that tomato taste.

Here’s a list of their award winning recipes – I only tried the tom yum soup and it satisfied me so I’m assuming that the rest in this list are truly award winners. Oh and I tried the marble cheesecake – superb!

• Irish Lamb Stew
• Marble Cheese
• Noodles in Tom Yum Kung
• Choc Mud Cake

And of course, dessert! Classic cheesecake, marble cheesecake and Chocolate cake. Cheesecakes gets a thumbs up! Chocolate cake – too fluffy for me… But who am I to turn down chocolate. It rests happily in my belly.

They also have this promo – for 100 bucks you get a beverage and a slice of cake! Yes!

There might be a store near you:

Ground Level, 32nd St. cor. 5th Ave.
Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Philippines
TEL NO: (+632) 856-2953

Level 4 Robinson’s Midtown,
Ermita, Manila
TEL NO: (+632) 567-2042

Level 5, Shangri-La Mall, EDSA corner Shaw Blvd.,
Mandaluyong City.
TEL NO: (+632) 637-0367

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• June 21, 2008 — Home Cooked Beef Rendang by Jhanki (0)
• November 5, 2011 — Pork Sisig at Relish (0)

Beef Rendang is a Malaysian beef stew dish with cooconut milk and a variety of spices.  It has a rich curry taste, and I want mine hot!  The potatoes were just added simply because I love potatoes.  This dish is tied at number 2 with Caldereta in my all time favorite meals.

Here are some pictures:

(ignore the thai spices bottle, this is a malaysian dish.)

For the recip, check out jhanki’s multiply.

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