MASAS- Greenbelt 2, Makati City

I am quite slow in posting now because i am busy... trying to think how to revamp my blog. Every year, i look @ changing the header particularly designing it on my own, to get those creative juices going.  So far, i have come up with *nil* ideas. While some ideas test my Photoshop skills ... the rest are purely not er .. creative i would say :P.  I seriously should have signed up for that Multimedia course - so now i won't be stuck in this issue .....

It's time to do a post on Manila food, otherwise people would think i don't eat here. I do eat just that it's so lazyfying to bring cameras to work and back and take photos of food. And some places are so fast joint like - i rather not take it in such ambience Just eat it. :P

When Manila Rains, it pours....... I mean pours and then looks gloomy.

Masas is a local joint serving typical Filipino food. In fact, if you are not into street food ( which i am not ), there are a few places you can go to try Filipino food in a comfortable environment. They are like Fely J, Sentro, Recipes, Abe and now Masas. I think Filipino food takes getting used to. While those who like pork will be happy, there are some hit and misses for me. Hits are : Chicken Inasal - the best thing next to .... Peri-Peri Chicken ^_^. Adobo is good when you can find pretty good shops . The Jury is out on: The Lechon can't beat our Siew Yoke imho. Misses: Noodles. I prefer the ones at home. Sometimes the food here can be really very oily or sweet. And the use of Buko ( coconut ) sometimes can be overpowering but good in desserts!

Since it was a rather cold day in Manila, with the pouring rain, we ordered the local coffee. It's called Barako. I am not sure if drank a good version but i found the coffee rather weak. And i detected a slight smell of cockroach. I am not sure this was the cup or the beans. Or could it be like my bandung experience when my cousins declared that Teh SoSro as the Elephant Poo drink. Spent the night not really touching the drink and kept to my water. I was sorta concerned already if the rest of the dishes were cockroachy.

The first dish we ordered was Gising Gising. In Tagalog, it means wake up! wake up!. It's suppose to wake you up when you eat it and rightly so because it's kinda spicy even while looking so pale and white :)  Gising Gising is made up of long beans chopped finely. You can add any meat to it, in this case, pork was used. I have eaten the fish version which was even nicer. The veggies are then cooked in a coconut broth and the "wake up call" is the bird's eye chilli which is cooked with it. The sweet and yet spicy taste can be a pick me upper on a very cold and wet day. I find this version of Gising Gising better than Recipes because that one was really stomach burning!(Gising - Gising berguling guling dalam perut saya )

Gising Gising

I did mention that noodles here in Manila, is not the style of the noodles back home right? While Pancit (noodles) comes in many varieties here. It still is not the style i like. I am noodle person as you can see from my previous post. So it's pretty disappointing to find noodles here, just not so great. I can't remember this was Pancit what... but i didn't like this dish. It's pretty, though, place in a coconut but it was oily and a bit tasteless. I will stick to eating noodles from Vietnamese shops in Manila. 

Pretty ... but not tasty.

Awesomesauce Roast pork

I think the bestest dish of the night was this awesome roast pork that Masas has to offer. I can't find it on the menu online but it tastes like Char Siew! And the sauce is of course Awesome Sauce! I could eat 2-3 pieces of just this. The meat was pretty tender and good thing about Manila - pork has no smell here, not like those in Oz land. And this dish brings back the credibility of this restaurant. I like the darker sauce compared to the pale sauce on top.

Price wise - since this is greenbelt, i think it was around 400 or 500 pesos per person, and that translates about RM28 per person.  Would i come back here? Probably for the pork and not the noodles and the coffee. ;)

Location:

G/F Greenbelt 2, Esperanza St., Ayala Center

Makati City, Metro Manila

Philippines