The FOOD Topic.

[Shintetsu]

Meh. Now that I think of it, I (we?) won't like too much ice cream.

[Lord_Leperman]

Well, up to you guys. I can be informed at short notice anyway, since I just live near by. Easy way to go there includes taking the MRT to Guadalupe and take a jeep to Rockwell, and walk from there.

The other way is to go to Buendia and I can pick some people up and drop them to the Ice Cream bar, but yeah you'll go crazy with ice cream and pastries at the most, but no real food. Their ice cream is all good though, I've tried it an they have a good variety of ice cream. You'd prolly want to try more than one variety. They have things like ice cream with suman and things like that.

[maitreya]

Speaking of ice cream, I took this photo at Shakey's. Compare the height of the ice cream and chocolate container.

[Tadakatsu1Honda]

I just had a piece of bread, yuppo plain bread. Not much to say about preparation but:

1. Remove bread from package
2.re-seal package (unless you intend on eating the entire loaf then and there)
3.Bring bread up near face
4.open mouth
5.move mouth over bread and bring down teeth.
6.chew bread repeatedly
7.swallow
8.repeat as many time as needed

yup, thats the proper way to prepare and eat bread.

[Lord_Leperman]

So is the ice cream thing a go? Grim, Nix, Shin, Nerese, and Sforza? I'm going if any of you guys are.

Anyway, back to the topic. I've always taken special care about budgeting my food for a certain day at work, and I've been doing this since I first got my allowance because I am a very thrifty person when it comes to food for myself. My current limit is to always spend less than 100 pesos a day and get the most satisfaction out of it and I've been doing it since the start of college.

Here are my current under 100 peso meals and snack combinations based on where I work. Note the prices are based on the current date and are subject to changes based on inflation:

Option 1

Musashi Takoyaki's Okonomiyaki - 70 pesos
Nissin's Cup noodle Yakisoba (Local, spicy chicken flavor) - 13.50
Optional: C2 350ml - 14 pesos OR Instant Miso Soup mix - 16.50

Cheap faux Japanese snack/lunch. Beats the stuff they serve in Tokyo-Tokyo for exactly 100 pesos. Somehow I don't get tired of eating this, mostly because the Okonomiyaki tastes really good, while the noodles pair up well with the dish. I sometimes mix the instant yakisoba with the Okonomiyaki together.

Option 2

Jollibee's 39ers meals X2 - 78 pesos
Optional: Zesto Rootbeer 500ml - 20 pesos or Mister Dounut random donut - 11 - 20 pesos

I buy this lunch if I want to feel full. The rice-to-topping ratio is absurd and I usually end up eating just 1 and 1/2 serving of rice included and I'd still feel full at the end of the day. Definitely a personal option whenever I want to stuff myself.

I find these meals give the most value for money in Jollibee. They come in 2 different options, one has the burger steak patty, 2 Shanghai Rolls, and a big cup of rice. The other comes with 5 Shanghai Rolls and a big cup of rice. I usually go for the former though.

Option 3

Rap Beef Beef Shawarma Rice - 45
Jumbo Hotdog on stick - 25
Asado Siopao from Chinese Restaurant - 30

Provides all I need to survive a day at work. Shawarma rice has a little too much rice, so I go ahead and buy a hotdog to offset the difference. The Siopao becomes my snack afterward.

I have more options, but I'll list them down another time.

Honda, if you get 3 slices of bread, stack them together and you have a bread sandwich! Chew them a bit longer and they start to taste sweeter

[Grim]

POST

Jesus Christ I'm going to take down notes.

I'm still a maybe on the ice cream thing.

[NiX]

Baka hindi na rin ako dun sa ice cream. Alanganin ng Thursday eh. >_

Hahahah value-for-money master talaga si Rick.

[Lord_Leperman]

This actually helps me out because my office does not have a microwave nor a conventional oven, discouraging the option of bringing pack lunch for I will not enjoy a warm meal in the office. At least there’s hot water for instant noodles and coffee . This all started when my friends back in highschool made a game called the “Urban Survivor” based on the reality show. The point is to survive with the least amount of cash without having to resort to pack lunch, and the best option was KFC’s rice and gravy.

Option 4

Mc Donald’s Mc Chicken filet meal – 42.50
7/11’s jumbo hotdog – 26 pesos + 4 peso chili sauce X2= 34.
Add 10 pesos for the drink with the hotdog combo.
Optional: Combo meal with 7-11’s hotdog with a small cup of soda for an extra 10 pesos and add a doughnut from wherever 7-11 has a Mister Dounut which is around 11 pesos.

I tend to order the Mc Chicken Filet as an alternative to Jollibee’s 39ers when I get tired of the latter. I order drinks from 7-11 when I go to 7-11 to buy a hotdog and a chili sauce whenever it’s available (I usually buy 2). The trick I do is to pour the chili sauce on the rice to for a little spicy rice topping to complement the chicken filet, while enjoying the hotdog with the complementary Manhattan dressing and ketchup. Instead of just plain rice, you get chili rice! I also use that in conjunction with Jollibee’s 39ers as well if I want more rice, as Jollibee seems to put more rice on their 39ers compared to Mc D’s though.

Option 5

Greenwich Spaghetti and 1 slice of Overload pizza (all meat or otherwise) and a small drink- 70 pesos.
Jollibee hamburger – 28

OR

Mc D’s 50 peso savers Mc Spaghetti combo with drink – 50 pesos
Pizzahut’s buy 1 take 1 pizza stalls – 49 pesos

A faux American-Italian pasta, pizza, and sandwich dish, passable when it comes to taste. Greenwich’s overload pizza is comparable to Pizzahut’s large slice with less mozzarella cheese, but more toppings. The beauty of this combo is you can virtually buy it in the same shop as Jollibee owns Greenwich, meaning their shops are almost always adjacent to each other. The other option is o forgo the burger and have 2 pizzas, the thing here is you can ask the guy in pizzahut to have either the bacon and Hawaian pizza combo for some variety,

Option 6

Komoro Soba’s Katsudon – 78 pesos
Bottle of soda or C2 500ml – under 20 pesos

Big bowl of Katsudon that’s more than worth the 78 peso price tag. Lots of meat and rice, and if you’re lucky to spot the Japanese owner, your food will taste better. I’ve noticed this often, when the Japanese owner is in the kitchen doing the cooking the food tastes better, the meat becomes more tender, and the whole taste of the dish just balances out. Drinks in the place are a rip, so I buy my drinks from a nearby store instead. Option only available in SM Megamall AFAIK sadly.

Other things:

If there’s a Krispy Kreme near you, if there’s a red light on the “hot and fresh doughnuts available” sign, it means they’re giving away free doughnuts for every purchase of anything in the store.

Just a few reminders though, prices of fastfood establishments very from location to location. Higher end locations such as in Makati’s business district and high end malls like Powerplant will have higher priced value meals compared to other branches. This goes for Mc Donalds, Jollibee, and KFC. For example, the regularly priced KFC wow sulit burger meal is 2 pesos more expensive in their Greenbelt 1 branch and 5 pesos more expensive in their Powerplant mall branch compared to the one in Harison Plaza. The worst offender of this is probably Reyes Barbeque, where the price of their Grilled Burger Steak meal in Gloreta 4 is at 75 pesos, while their Greenbelt 1 branch, which is just a few minutes walk, jacks it up to around 93 pesos for the very same food item.

Also, convenience stores have significantly higher prices than supermarkets or mini-marts, but offer prepared foods on the side. Chances are if you’re living in a densely populated area, you’ll come across those stores in the immediate vicinity. If you can get the same item, chances are they’ll be much cheaper in a supermarket. An E-aji potato chips bag cost 25.50 in Shopwise while in the nearby Mini-Stop it costs 33 pesos.

[Shintetsu]

What, what? When?

[Lord_Leperman]

I don't think anyone's going anymore to that ice cream buffet sadly Everyone's just too busy or something.

Oh, and I checked some stores earlier and the prices increased D: My 100 peso per day budget is gonna be further stretched again D:

[Shintetsu]

D: D:

Has anyone checked out Wendy's Baconator burger yet?

[Grim]

D: D:

Has anyone checked out Wendy's Baconator burger yet?

No, but it's name certainly intrigues me.

[Shintetsu]

I fear that it might give the same experience as Burger Avenue gave me. =/

[Fox]

It's like a larger version of the Bacon Mushroom Melt but remove most of the cheese and the mushrooms and substitute more bacon for them. Tried it last saturday and was pretty good but at php230 (sandwich plus a regular drink), i'd take a couple of Quarterpounders over it any day of the week.

[Shintetsu]

McDo's quarterpounders are like giant cheeseburgers, 'mirite?