There was this errand for car repairs that needed to be done near the Malugay / Yakal Street area of Makati City to coincide with a lunch break, so it called for a quick, no-frills, comfort food lunch mission. Recently someone suggested to try out Wingman at The Collective. This was a familiar area, too, as Offbeat Cafe and their non-conformist burgers and sandwiches were also found in this hipster…

I’ve always loved hotels.  I love the little details they put into things like the way the pencil is placed at a certain angle on top of the notepad, how the robes’ arms are somehow tucked into its own pockets (despite the fact that I rarely use them and the most utility they have is to double as a jacket), even up to the alignment of the tiny bottles of…

  For those who frequent the Salcedo Weekend Market in Makati, there is a high chance that you would have come across the Hillside Ranch brand of Roasted Beef Belly and Corned Beef. These are succulent chunks of bovine that have been sacrificed for the ever demanding consuming public. An invite for a taste test of these Hillside Ranch beauties was held at Trellis in Makati City. Apparently, the purveyors…

Ray: First of all, a disclaimer: These shots of booze and calorie intensive food were taken over a course of a few days and not as one glutton-fest evening. It is just impossible to eat and drink all that food (OK fine it is possible, but just not gastronomically practical). On the great institution that is the London pub, I am a big fan. I am a fan that any…

One thing it has going for it: the air conditioning is so cold, it reminds me of Amsterdam at high noon. Since we’re early, free internet is a very welcome service too.

Ramen is not much of a big deal here in En Route if you will read the articles in this site as of this posting. Pretty much the only places documented for ramen would be as that from Watami branches in the Philippines and the cult favorite Nomama Artisanal Ramen of Quezon City. Nomama is also more of a fusion recipe of ramen, but it is damn good fusion from Chef…

Power Lunch is often defined as a somewhat high-level business networking / meeting / congregation over an extended lunch period. This lunch period can last somewhere to the tune of three hours, as you build your case or continue your networking engagements in the hopes of achieving results. Some even go all the way until Happy Hour starts (which is really a GREAT excuse for that power lunch session). The…

Back in the lunch at Mesclun branch in Linden Suites, a couple of friends got to talking that there doesn’t really seem to be a great Japanese restaurant in the Ortigas Business District area here in the Philippines. If Japanese food was to be talked about, it would always be one of the favorites coming from the Little Tokyo Area in Makati. There is, however, one great find that a…

Hutong – “One of the Top 5 Chinese Restaurants in the World.” That is a tall order given how many restaurants there are around the globe. And what more, to say it in the place that iconifies the best of Asian cuisine: Hong Kong. Surely, there has to be something about the cuisine, location, and restaurant experience in Hutong. What can be in Hutong of Hong Kong that makes it…

Finally! After so long…. Aubergine. Aubergine (French for eggplant) has been in Fort Bonifacio for quite a few years already, quietly hidden on the second floor of the 32nd and Fifth commercial complex. While everything around it has been constructed at a staggering pace, it’s been here all this time, quietly serving great haute cuisine. Sometimes it feels like a guilt trip to have tried younger places in the area like…

During one get together, a good friend mentioned that there is this brand of home-made, non commercialized ensaymada and cheese rolls that just need to be ordered as a small treat once in a while. It comes from Pampanga so it needed some advanced booking if ever you wanted to get a piece of it. Friends said that it was well worth the trouble. If our experience with Yulo’s Strawberry…

Well here’s a swipe at the spicy chicken sandwich market. McDonald’s figured that it can get a good share with their more ubiquitous store locations. It says that it is “Chicken Spiced Right”. At first look, the more premium bun and larger size makes it look like the bigger, flashier brother of their Crispy Chicken Sandwich (which, currently, seems to be leading against Jollibee in the cheap chicken sandwich wars)….

Not everyone knows this, but the Dutch were a mighty nation during the colonial period of the world. We are talking Spain, England, France kind of mighty. Heck, they even annexed Cape Town, some parts of Indonesia, and even the edge of the Americas. So you know they come from a proud race whose influence can probably still be felt until now by the presence of some of the largest…

It is great to be a Filipino these days. Something magical has happened ever since a new president has taken the helm (still highly debatable, but you can’t deny statistics). It feels like a long time coming, too. Filipinos are a proud race and are not afraid to show it, but it doesn’t seem as recognized as there just seems to be a perennial glass ceiling that cannot be broken…

Staycations. In this hot and humid Philippine weather, who doesn’t want to have a quick overnight weekend respite while staying within the modern conveniences of the urban landscape? And so one weekend after a little research on what Seda Fort Bonifacio is all about, one weekend night was booked.   Seda (The Filipino word for “Silk”) is a Philippine grown brand chain of hotels that aims to make it a…

It was all over the radio going to work and returning home for the past few weeks. The first impression was that it sounded like a musical that was going to be played at the Resorts World in Manila, and then just suddenly talks about a sweet-salty, sauce-less pizza, a premium product of prosciutto and boursin (pronounced borsan) cheese. Not sure what boursin cheese was, but since the wife was…

Some dream of fancy cars, diamond rings, and job promotions. Mine was a plane ticket wrapped in “bonjour, madame”, drizzled with “s’il vous plaît”, and signed with “je t’aime.” So now that we’ve gone and back, it begs the question, “How was Paris?”

Favorite Filipino dishes, we all have them.  These are usually what you feast on during Sunday get-togethers with family, cooked by your mom or lola no less. Chef Bruce Lim, of Chef’s Lab, admits he can never compete with someone’s mom’s home-cooking. Case in point, my mom’s sinigang will always be the best for me.  But what he can do is bring Filipino cuisine to a broader foreign market, the kind…

Wow. It’s been a long time since a fastfood item was ever discussed here. But guess what’s back coincidentally after Anthony Bourdain got a piece of some Filipino Fastfood culture in his newest show Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown? Jollibee’s Amazing Aloha Burger used to be part of the menu of the Jollibee in the Philippines, but was discontinued after some time. Strangely, this particular burger was the choice of fastfood…

Did you know that bathroom breaks were once a communal activity before Queen Elizabeth I popularized the idea of making it a private moment? So it is in that line that we present some things you may not see if kept private in these bathrooms. If ever you happen to visit these places, check them out! Oh, and apologies if the pictures don’t look as clear as the ones normally…

When you do a quick Google search on “German Restaurants in Manila”, no definite name seems to come out. There was one just half a decade ago called Mickey’s Delicatessen in Jupiter Street in Makati, with the sausage making now continued at the quaint Poco Deli in Kapitolyo and Ayala Triange Gardens. And for those in the know, the hidden Treffpunkt in EDSA got some more hams, sausages, and discounted…

Malka Vacanze is the perfect bed & breakfast to stay in when you’re in Rome. Come home to your own doll house that’s just a few minutes away from the train station and almost a stone’s throw away from the Vatican City.