Mega Food Tour 2.0 at SM Megamall

Mega Food Tour 2.0 with Mercato Centrale and Our Awesome Planet by Foodamn Philippines

Food Review

Foodspotting

#MegaFoodTour2

Experience SM Megamall's 9 Finest Eats: Ippudo, Linguini Fini, Rosanjin, Cupcakes by Sonja, Tim Ho Wan, Eri Curry, Triple O's by White Spot, Kool Kids and Mochicream Cafe

September 18, 2014 MANILA, Philippines - Food tour in the country has always been pleasurably filling and gastronomically draining whew! (on my part since I only eat what I can chew!) Mid-part of the tour, we drenched to conclusion that food blogging is such a tough job and part of that job is to finished what we've started. Just imagine your little intestine trying to grind round robin 9 restaurants within 6 hours. The experience was full of fun we dare you hop in!

#MegaFoodTourV2.0 is a seasonal food tour organized by the Mercato Centrale Group and Our Awesome Planet in partnership with SM Megamall. The food tour showcases the latest additions to SM Megamall's roster of top dining destinations both in SM Fashion Hall and at the Atrium.

What to expect at Mega Food Tour 2

First stop the newly opened, talk of the town ramen restaurant Ippudo PH, is it worth the hype? Come in early to avoid lunch rush.

Nikumiso Tofu Salad (Php210) soooo perfect appetizer! Comes with Japanese tofu, avocado, cubed pineapple, cashews, cherry tomatoes, silantro, white leeks, fish sauce and sesame dressing. Literally melts into your mouth. 

Ramen comes in 3 flavors with Ippudo original tonkotsu broth:

Shiromaru Motoaji (Php375 white bowl) - Classic Hakata-style ramen. Served with ultra thin noodles, pork loin, bean sprouts, kikurage and spring onions.

Karaka-Men (Php390 red bowl) - Mild spicy ramen with miso paste, spicy minced meat, pork loin, kikurage and fragrant garlic oil.

Akamaru-Shinaji (P390 black bowl) - Refined (modern) style ramen. Hot and spicy ramen for those who like that extra kick.

Ippudo Executive chef recommends to season your ramen with freshly-minced garlic and sesame seed. It's the counterpart of toasted garlic garnish, calamansi or pepper to Chinese dimsum.

Oroshi Ponzu Gyoza - doubt as Hong Kong's bestseller
Ippudo's rice toppings - loaded with Jap rice, nori and marinated meat.


Linguini Fini

An Italian-American resto based in Hong Kong boast of using locally-made organic food sources and meat products while achieving the same result in taste and overall quality. Linguini Fini's Executive Chef Vinny Lauria shares the principles behind Papardelle "Nose-to-Tail Bolo" recipe that nothing is thrown away instead they created one of Linguini Fini's bestseller dish made from pork tesla, veal and oxtail ragu and Parmigiano Reggiano. Papardelle is not the typical al dente pasta, intended to be soft with the texture of nose-to-tail to counter the pasta over melted cheese. 

Porchetta (Php595) aslow roasted, fennel rubbed pork belly chopped with chili mostarda, fennel on top of homemade focaccia bread.

Papardelle (Php430)

 

Rosanjin
Third stop is another Japanese resto, from the same group the brought Sandaya and Tajima Yakiniku. In the PHL they say an authentic Japanese restaurant can be seen with Japanese diners. A healthy set was moderately priced (Php450) includes shrimp tempura, grilled salmon, maki wrapped in Chinese cabbage, chirasi and miso soup. Another top dish from Rosanjin was big serving of grilled burger.
 

Tim Ho Wan

You bet we didn't line up for the famed pork buns coz this Michelin-star Chinese dimsum served us freshly baked buns right were we stand. Those warm buns stand out with delight - all rolled with mildly salted, moderate sweetness, buttery and milky taste.

Tim Ho Wan's pork buns  (3-pieces for Php150)
 

Cupcakes by Sonja

Tutti fruti shop for those with sweet cravings. Owned by Sonja Ocampo who was trained and worked in Magnolia Bakery (New York) seen in Sex and the City series. The bestsellers are: Red Velvet Cupcakes and their birthday milkshake - vanilla cake with birthday cake frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

 

Triple O's by White Spot

Meet Canada's familiar burger joint, Triple O's by White Spot. Ms. Pinky Yee,  marketing director for Goldilocks Bakeshop and now whose family has brought Triple O's to Manila along with the rich history behind Triple O's. In 1928, Canada's very first drive-in restaurant (founded by Nat Bailey) popularly known as "carhops"  where customers park their cars while service attendants hop in to take orders. Triple O's came from shorthand language printed on the order slips - X' and O's to choose from mayonnaise, relish and its legendary (and highly secret) specialty sauce. Three O's on the slip meant plenty of everything or simple triple o sauce.

We tried two best selling burgers: Bacon Cheddar and Monty Mushroom burgers with their triple specialty dips --- Honey mustard, Triple O's special dipping sauce and Chipotle sauce. Triple O's claim to have the "sauciest, juiciest, tastiest, bestest burgers around" because of premium-grade 100% Canadian beef patties. Numerous gourmands agree that Canadian beef is a few notches superior to its American counterpart due to Canada's strict screening system on beef standards and food safety.

To cap off a terrific meal, a must for glass of hand-scooped Strawberry milkshake made with fresh strawberries, milk and water (no ice cubes!)

For health conscious, Triple O's uses Canola oil (originally referred as Canada oil) in their fries and onion rings.  Definitely worth a second visit! :)

 

Eri Curry
Our third Japanese food Eri Curry; by this time we were adjusting our belts :)

Curry is Japan's fave comfort food, contains a medley of spices and are considered beneficial to our diet. Diners can customize their dishes thru 4 simple steps:
1. Choose your preferred curry plate - katsu curry (bestseller), thin sliced beef, crunchy squid, shrimp, eggplant and mushroom curry. They also have omelette curry.
2. Choose your rice portion - choose Japanese rice portions by the grams from 200, 300 to 400 grams.
3. Choose your spice level - Just Right (a mild almost no hint of spice), Spicy (a sure kick of heat) and Fiery!
4. Add topppings - choose from protein or vegetable toppings like eggplant, asparagus or tomatoes.

Tempting curry dishes right, smacked in the middle of a food tour! By the way, they also have makis ---Sakana, Sugoi, Kani and Ebi Futo.
 

Kool Kids

8th stop meant for something to sweetened up and cool us down. What better way to invent ice cream in a lab-like kitchen with cool smokes from liquid nitrogen. They create ice cream ala waffle, something like ice cream pies.  I like the non-dairy flavor and the one with coco milk.

 

Mochicream Cafe

Our final destination, Mochicream Cafe. A place with loads of Japanese matcha, mochi, ice cream, pastries, baumkuchen, coffee and bread.

Said to be the lone store in the Philippines that sells authentic Japanese mochi cream (not ice cream) imported from Japan (whose supplier also provides for the Emperor.) All our products are flown straight from Japan, and are filled with a special cream, wrapped with specially flavored sticky mochi skin. The mochis are available in 24 flavors.

From among the samplers, Foodamn Philippines top 3 are: 
French Toast Baumkuchen with almonds, strawberries and cream
Almond Daqois
Ice Matcha Espresso
 

Be part of the Mega Food Tour 2.0 with Mercato Centrale Food Group and Our Awesome Planet on September 29 and 30.

Mechanics: Simply take your best foodie pic from any SM Megamall restaurant. Follow, tag @smmegamall, use the hashtag #MegaFoodTour2.0 and post on Instagram from September 19 to 27.

More photos from #MegaFoodTour2.0 by Foodamn Philippines (all photos are owned by Daryll Villena)



P.S.
With a hint of Filipino exotic food and truly Filipino foods made for your visual appetites. Originally created by Green Dei of Foodamn Philippines and Green Dei Media PH.

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post and Foodamn Philippines' blog received a non-monetary compensation for review and sharing this post. Regardless, all opinions are my own and sourced from #MegaFoodTour2.0; may or may not differ from yours. I only recommend, discuss or introduce my reader to products/services/businesses I would or do use myself.