Hole in the Wall Top Picks: Bad Bird and Scout's Honor

A few months back, I got a chance to catch up with Din and Rochelle, who at that time were my soon to be mommy friends. I just realized, we didn't even take any photos of us. We were so busy figuring out what to eat and catching up as it's been quite a while since we saw each other. That was also, quite a long time back, because Din has already given birth, and I think Rochelle will be following soon.

Welcome 1 day old Baby Yana! So happy to finally meet you, cutie pie!

While I was not able to take any photos of us, I managed to take a few photos of what we ate. Hahaha. We had dinner at the Hole in The Wall, the posh version of a food court of Century City Mall (a fairly new mall along Kalayaan Avenue in Makati).

I'd say the most popular place there, if you were to judge purely based on the length of the line, was Bad Bird, selling Umami Fried Chicken.

With that much flavoring (umami), how can it not be good?

We ordered one of the sets with waffles.
Note: waffles not worth the calories.

and we also ordered one of the sets with fried rice and kimchi.

and additional coleslaw on the side

The fried chicken was a hit. We ordered the mild version because I was sharing with 2 pregnant mommies, but I would also want to try the spicy bad bird in the future.

For variety, we looked for other things to order and share. 

We tried Liberation Shawarma.

Do you want to take the True Test of Love?

I love shawarma, but this one I didn't like at all, and I didn't even put the
true test of love sauce in it. It just smelled too pungent, and tasted the same
way it smelled too. Hahaha.

Another thing we tried, which I read about was the Salted Egg Chicken Wings from Kwong's Provisions. I love everything Salted Egg, and I thought it would be similar to Singapore's Chicken with Salted Egg Sauce.

It turned out to be chicken wings fried with some salted egg paste,
served with plum sauce.

We were overflowing with all versions of Fried Chicken for dinner, but the Salted Egg Wings do grow on you. Goes well with the plum sauce too if you're into eating salty sweet things like me.

For dessert, we were all looking forward to trying the famous make your own cookie by Scout's Honor. Though they do have ready to eat stuff that look interesting as well.

We ordered 2 make your own cookies.

They have different cookie batters which you can choose from.

Then they have a lot of choices for toppings.
I think you can choose up to 3 kinds.

These were our cookies before and after baking.

I love the idea of freshly baked cookies upon order, but nothing still beats the chocolate chip cookies we make at home. I think the main difference is the Scout's Honor version is sweeter, made even more so by the toppings we chose since we wanted to maximize the 3 choices.

Scout's Honor also has different flavors of milk which you can pair
with their cookies.

Cookies and Milk for the win!

If I were in the area, I would gladly go back for a Bad Bird and Cookie and Milk fix at this Hole in the Wall. just saying.

Bad Bird

Liberation

Kwong's Provisions

Hole in the Wall

Fourth Floor, Century City Mall 

Kalayaan Avenue 

Poblacion, Makati City

Second hand clothes and accessories sold by weight at the Kilo Shop in the Marais

In the Philippines, second hand clothing shops are quite common, especially in Baguio (destination for UK UK or Ukay-Ukay, which I think is local slang for hukay or dig, as you literally need to dig through a mountain of second hand clothes in this type store). These shops used to be the place to go for "imported pre-loved items" as it was believed that the merchandise they sell are actually relief goods donated from other countries, though I am not really sure how they got them or how their sourcing strategy works.

In more advanced countries, second hand shops are normally run by a charity, like the Salvation Army, or in posher areas, they're referred to as Vintage Shops.

In Paris, there are a lot little Vintage shops in the Marais, selling Chanel and the like in their window, but from what I've seen, the price still tends to be on the high side. If you're not really looking for a particular item for your collection, I don't really get why people would buy from them.

One store (actually chain of stores) that caught my attention when we were walking around the Marais the last time I was in Paris was the Kilo Shop. 

You could say, it's the Parisian version of Ukay Ukay, with second hand clothes and accessories for sale by weight, no less!

In English

Same message in French.

The scheme is simple enough. Prices vary by color.

The store is well organized too. No need to dig for anything here.

They even have a sample of how much a piece of
clothing weights and costs on average.

To know the price, just press the correct color.

Even their scale is old school meets digital age.

I loved the look and feel of the store, and the sense it gives
me that I might just find a treasure, if I looked hard enough.

Their clothes come from every where.
It's displayed by theme too, so it's easy to find something.

I didn't really find anything to buy.

Out of curiosity, a banged up gold clutch costs around 9 Euros.

Since I never know when to quit, and since the Kilo Shops in the Marais are quite close to each other, I dragged Ady to check out the other stores, since you never know when you're going to find something. The next shop we entered was actually just 2 doors away from the first one.

In this Kilo shop that we visited, accessories had fixed prices!

I was tempted by this Vintage clutch, except I didn't
really like the small Gucci wanna be logo.

Still not willing to quit, I dragged Ady to another branch along Saint Germain since we were walking towards Saint Michel anyway.

This one was a big store!

They even had Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior bags, but at 750-990 Euros,
thanks but no thanks!

This is me and Ady after I quit trying to find something
to buy.

Well, maybe I'll be luckier next time. It's definitely something different you can do, if you're just walking around in Paris. just saying.

Kilo Shop Paris Le Marais

69-71 rue de la verrerie 

75004 Paris

Kilo Shop Paris Saint Germain

125 Bld St Germain 

75006 Paris

http://kilo-shop.fr/fr

Maginhawa Food Finds: Gerry's Jeep for Boodle and Breakfast and Pies for Pies

Yesterday was Independence Day, it turned out quite timely that we actually had lunch at Gerry's Jeepney, a place along Maginhawa St. on Teacher's Village that's now a new hub for hole in the wall restaurants along side the residential homes.

Gerry's Jeepney specializes in Filipino food, presented in Boodle Fight form, a military style of eating where the food is placed in the middle of a long table lined with banana leaves, and everyone just starts eating using their hands.   

When we got to Gerry's Jeepney, the crew of
Balitang K was also there to do a feature on them.

Inside the gate, it looks like a Jeepney terminal, where people can eat
inside the jeep, but it is probably better to sit here at night when it's less hot.

They have long tables.

They also have jeeps with several short tables.

The jeepneys have different themes, and our favorite is the Manananggal, a local folk lore popular when telling local ghost stories about a woman - whose body gets cut in half.

Can you spot the difference:

Day off si Ate.

Selfie (fail) with the Jeepneys

They also have a Sari Sari Store
(Neighborhood or Mom and Pop Store)

This is what a Boodle looks like. You can wash your hands
before and after eating if you opt to eat by hand, but cutlery is also provided.

The Boodle Set Menus range from Php680 (for 2-4 pax) up to
Php1680 (for 6-8 pax) and are named after popular Philippine Jeepney Routes.

They have a small air-conditioned sitting area, so we just walked around taking pictures while waiting for a free table.

The kids and Auntie Chipsy playing sungka while waiting.

and the game continues... even after we got seated.

Service was quite bad, so the wait was very long. Much longer than the 20 minutes they promised to prepare the food, so were quite happy to play sungka and dama for Balitang K's camera while waiting. If they don't cut us out, you can watch us when they air the show tomorrow. Hahaha.

The boodle is prepared in the kitchen, so it's actually delivered
ready to put on top of your table like this.

Uh oh, without knowing the serving sizes, it looked like we under-ordered,
but surprisingly, we even had leftovers. 

My sister and I are not really fond of seafood (and the sets all contain seafood) so we just ordered the Ayala Boodle Set for 2-4 people, and added Pork Liempo, Sisig, Gising Gising and Pancit Canton.

The food was good naman, Sisig (pictured here) included.
The order of Liempo was just more fat than meat, but it was perfectly charred.

It's Sofia's first Boodle Fight experience so she was asking
where we eat, and when I told her we all eat on the banana
 leaves in front of us, she said "I think this is weird."

Boodle Fight Na!

Tim gives Gerry's Jeepney a Thumbs Up!
Just go on a weekend or holiday, so you won't mind the wait. just saying.

Words of Wisdom you only get when you ride a Jeepney in the Philippines!

Next up on our Maginhawa Food Trip, was our search for a dessert place. Since it was a very humid day, we were looking for somewhere cold, that also served coffee to go with dessert.

We wanted to try Iscreamist, a place known for serving
Ice Cream prepared through molecular gastronomy.
But we were not willing to line up outside to try it.

Iscreamist is on Magiting Street, off Maginhawa. So we're saving that for next time.

We considered trying out the churros at Sancho's but we wanted something cold and coffee so we nixed that idea as well and we ended-up at good old Breakfast and Pies. The last time I ate there, I wasn't really happy with their food, which you can read about here. But since I love the Ricotta Ensaymada (now Php35!), which I was planning to order for take out anyway, I was willing to give their pies a try.

In fairness, the Key Lime Pie, Smores and Butterfinger Pies all hit the spot!

Just stay away from their Gruyere Apple Pie.

Vice said, it even looks better than it tastes, and she was being kind.
But seriously, try baking cardboard and apples with skin, then try eating it.

After our food trip, let's have a "who has bigger cheeks?"
contest!

The Food Trip crew is getting old. Hahaha. We quit after 2 stops this time.

We did much better with the 7 stops on our Marikina Food Trip which you can read about here.

Since we didn't get to try the molecular gastronomy Ice Cream of Iscreamist, my up and coming food blogger insisted on passing for Dippin Dots on the way home.

Dippin Dots, Now Available in pre-packed pouches
for Php100 only! Sofia loved the strawberry dots!

Over-all, quite a great way to spend Independence Day! More power to Filipino entrepreneurs who find new innovative ways to make our tummies happy. just saying.

Gerry's Jeepney

7 Maginhawa Street

Teacher's Village 

Quezon City

NO RESERVATIONS and NO CREDIT CARD

Iscreamist

Magiting Street

Teacher's Village

Quezon City

Breakfast and Pies

39 Malingap Street

Teacher's Village

Quezon City