Yamazaki Grocery and Restaurant

Was at my favorite hole-in-the-wall value for money Japanese eatery at Little Tokyo -- Yamazaki.

I discovered it through a high school friend who lived in the area a few years ago. Its a great place for the happy tummy, happy wallet combo, with take home groceries too.

Tonight, service was even better than the last few times I was there. I had dinner with two friends who haven't eaten there before and the waitstaff were very patient in explaining all the dishes and inclusions. They usually give a menu and Japanese and just provide the menu with pictures when requested.

As usual, I ordered my favorite grilled salmon, which came with miso soup, rice, tofu, cabbage and pickled chicken and root vegetables. All of that for 195p. I also couldn't skip the gyoza (75p) and all three of us shared a cup of green tea ice cream (95p) from the grocery.

My friends are definitely coming back!

Ma Maison in Manila

Ever since I saw construction begin at Greenbelt 2, I've been looking forward to the opening of Ma Maison. It claims to be a western Japanese restaurant.

The entree usually featured in their posters is the Tonkatsu, which is a breaded pork cutlet. It is traditionally served with brown sauce and a cabbage salad with sesame dressing.

I've always liked Tonkatsu. As a child who treated Sanrio as a saint, my parents often took me to Tokyo, Tokyo, where I had my favorite triple T: Tonkatsu, tempura and tofu.

As I got older, I ate healthier and forgot about Tonkatsu until I ate at Saboten in Bangkok recently. Saboten specializes in cutlets but serve more than just pork. They had several pork cuts and even had salmon and beef if I remember correctly. If there's salmon, I forget everything.

What set Saboten different from Ma Maison is that the former had unlimited cabbage salad, miso soup, rice and tea together with the cutlet. At Ma Maison, there was no soup, they only had one kind of pork cutlet with a literal siding if cabbage and potato salad. Yes, the drink is separate too. All of that for less than 500p.

What's good about Ma Maison is the size of the cutlet. It's huge. Think serving size of italliani's or Krazy Garlik since they are all part of one company. Taste is fine. If you haven't tried Saboten, one will likely come back.

There are lots of other interesting dishes that do not seem French nor Japanese to me but are worth coming back for.

Travel 2011

Since last month, I've been itching to travel all because my birthday's coming up, my weekends are supposed to vanish, and my last trip was August 2011. But I don't have any companions, those who are free don't have money, and I was not free when those who had money were going to travel.

About a month on, no surprise trip coming along yet. About four days ago, a friend said we can meet up in Milan for a weekend, another just sent me a message today that I can spend a few days in Bratislava, and the following weekend in Prague with friends. But dear friend can't go to Milan anymore so there's no point going to Prague and Bratislava. All other destinations seem to be too expensive or I've been there already. I do not want to travel alone.

So to pacify my deprived soul, here are a few snapshots of the places I've been to outside Manila this year. For others, it may seem a lot, but for people like me, this list needs to be longer. Not to sound ungrateful but, who said it's wrong to make the most out of life?

Coco Beach, Mindoro

Nagsasa Cove, Zambales

Typhoon Bebeng-ed Out in Donsol, Sorsogon

Endless stopovers in Istanbul

Dubai, United Arab Emirates 

Baku, Azerbaijan

Prague, Czech Republic

Frankfurt, Germany

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Somewhere in Viet Nam, I forgot. I'm a bad traveller. :P

Mekong Delta, Viet Nam

Bangkok, Thailand

And that's all for now, as of August 2011. Rest of the year, surprise me with a trip, please? I've lowered my standards. A local trip would suffice. But please, not alone.