Saturday, October 11, 2014

Ken Afford's Delicious Sisig Ala Domeng Deserves More of Your Attention


Anyone who passes by Ken Afford along the streets of Katipunan Avenue wouldn't think much of the place. It's a small restaurant, tucked away in a not-so-obvious corner near more popular establishments such as Bo's Coffee and Xocolat. The place itself does help to make the restaurant stand out. What keeps me coming back to Ken Afford is their delicious home-cooked food, particularly the Sisig Ala Domeng which is one of the best - if not the best sisig dishes - I have tried in Metro Manila. Yes, their sisig tastes better than that of Gerry's Grill, Sisig Hooray, Wooden Spoon, and Gilligans. 

Their bestsellers are the Kare-Kare, Lechon Kawali, and Sisig Ala Domeng. I don't eat the other dishes much, so this post will really just focus on their delicious sisig.

Friday, October 10, 2014

4 Important Tips to Save Money on Groceries

top 4 Important Tips to Save Money on Groceries

I was reading articles from the imoney.ph Learning Centre earlier today and a particular article that caught my eye. It was a piece on '7 Ways To Outsmart Your Supermarket'. I thought it was a pretty good article as it shows us tips on how we can stop the temptation of overspending when in the supermarket. The article has great suggestions, such as (1) stick to your grocery list, (2) never shop when hungry, and (3) more importantly look into substituting items for generic brands

I would like to build on this article. I think they failed to mention a couple of important tips on how to save money on groceries that I also find quite useful. Here are 4 important tips to save money on groceries.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Five Important Nutrients We Don't Get Enough Of

Harvard's Food Plate for proper nutrition

I have to admit, I honestly thought I was one of the healthier people around. I normally would get a small serving of vegetables at every meal, eat the occasional fruit, and never skip a meal. I would exercise at least 10-15 minutes a day and jog around 5km once a week. I also love to drink both coffee and tea, two drinks packed with antioxidants. 

Imagine my surprise when I started tracking my Daily Nutritient Details using My Fitness Pal. I was sadly mistaken. I drink a tablet of multivitams every day to protect myself against nutrient deficiencies, so I only lack around 3 of the 5 nutrients I mention below. However, I'm going to present results without factoring in multivitams because most of us don't drink a tablet each day. Here are my nutrient details over the past week: 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Average
Fiber 16% 18% 16% 6% 26% 40% 46% 22% 24%
Potassium 26% 26% 22% 15% 42% 32% 86% 89% 42%
Iron 16% 26% 43% 31% 40% 121% 32% 41% 44%
Vitamin A 26% 1% 31% 29% 16% 34% 136% 98% 46%
Calcium 6% 33% 4% 58% 40% 117% 95% 107% 58%
*for a 20-25 aged, lightly active male

Looking over the results, I failed to get enough Dietary Fiber and Potassium the most. Since I drink multivitamins daily, I was able to get enough Iron and Vitamin A if I factored it in and towards the latter end of the week I started drinking a lot of milk to achieve my daily Calcium requirements after adjusting to the initial results. 

What happens if we don't get enough of these nutrients?

Philippine Brown Coffee Review: The Best Instant Brown Coffee

Brown Coffee Brands in the Philippines Review

For a lot of us, coffee is an important part of our lives with over 2.25 billion cups consumed every day. Certainly, we rely on a cup of good coffee to help us get started in the morning or to give us a boost later in the day so that we can get through our 9 to 5 office jobs. With coffee comes increased focus, less drowsiness, and deliciousness in a single cup.

I personally prefer a cup of good brewed coffee to jump-start my morning, especially a cup of good Philippine Barako Coffee.  However, we don't always have the luxury of time to brew coffee every single day. Sometimes we just need something that's cheap and easy to prepare. This has led to the increasing popularity of instant 3-in-1 coffee in the Philippines. There are 4 types of instant (3-in-1) coffee to choose from; Regular Blend, Brown Coffee, White Coffee, and Chocolate Coffee.

I know that different flavors are made to cater to a different market segments. Some people would prefer the sweet taste of White Coffee more than the caramel taste of Brown Coffee or the bitterness of a Regular Blend. So it wouldn't really make sense to compare across different varieties. We can, however, is compare the different products of each brand. 

In this article, let's compare the different brown 3-in-1 coffee offered by different brands in the Philippines. Note that each cup was prepared exactly using the measurements recommended on each package as to not dilute the coffee, so that we can get an unbiased idea of the flavor that each manufacturer wanted to deliver. 


Friday, October 3, 2014

Chowking's Happy Pao: Piggy and Panda Pao Review

Chowking Happy Pao review

As the commercial goes, "It's time to try Chowking Happy Pao - Panda and Piggy!" So after craving for these cute 'little siopaos' for 2 weeks, I finally got a chance to eat them up! I dropped by Chowking while traveling home from work earlier today to get a taste of Piggy for dinner and Panda for dessert. Ok, that sounded a bit weird.

The Piggy and Panda Pao makes for a good and affordable snack. A Happy Pao with drink would cost you 49 PHP and a Happy Pao a la carte would cost you 39 PHP. Not bad!