Archives for Food

Kopi Roti BF Homes Pergola is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

Yay! They’re finally open! Sonny Young, Mike and Ven opened Kopi Roti this 08.08.08. I was not able to attend the store opening and blessing but I was able to grab a freebie yesterday (I was the hamster guinea pig for their very first batch of buns during their dry run). I dropped by today and the place was packed at around 10 AM. I ordered take out for myself and buns for Phoebe as well. Also got to see Nicky Mapa from my Southridge ‘98 batch.

I love Kopi Roti. Not only is the coffee, iced tea and food really good, they are also very affordable.

As of today, the store is still running on generator but the official opening hours will be from 7 AM to 1 AM and they will try to be open till 2 AM on weekends.

This is Sonny’s invitation letter:

Dear Family & Friends,

Finally, our Kopiroti branch in BF Homes, Sucat is opening! Months of planning and preparation have been poured into this project – and we really hope that you would drop by and patronize our store (and help spread the word!) in the coming days. We are soft-opening on 08.08.08 (for good fortune), and will be open daily from 9am to 9pm. We are still running on generator power for the next 3 weeks and aircon will not yet be available – but we promise on the great food/drinks!!!

We will hold a simple blessing on 08.08.08 at 9am. Please drop by and tell your friends!

Kopi Roti Pergola
Unit 104 A Ground Floor, The Pergola Lifestyle Mall Aguirre Ave,
BF Homes, Paranaque City
Store Hours 7AM to 1AM

Coffee Bean’s African Sunrise tea offering and the Wisdom of Crowds

Have you ever wondered how the “hive mind” works? Science fiction writers have brought forth the concept of a certain intelligence that exist within crowds into such forms as The Borg from Star Trek, The Zerg from Starcraft, and The Reavers from Mass Effect.

You’ve probably come across the concept of public opinion, viral marketing, or really, the jist of an “overall consensus.” There is a certain wisdom that’s inherent in large groups. Given that certain conditions of diversity are met (read here for those conditions) the crowd can be more intelligent than the few geniuses. In other words, Wikipedia can actually be more authoritative and efficient compared to the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

So when we take that concept of popular opinion (in Latin the phrase is Vox Populi, vox Dei - the Voice of the People is the Voice of God) and apply it on a micro level one example could be Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s African Sunrise and how the tribe has spoken, wanting this product to be retained as a permanent offering in CBTL’s menu. Members of the Internet community, mainstream media and friends of CBTL were offered African Sunrise tea several weeks ago and the feedback on its taste (”it’s sweet and creamy without cream and sugar”) is pushing their management to make this a permanent offering.

So a small informal event was launched for tea lovers to announce the coming of the African Sunrise, being pushed as a regular product offering due to the wisdom of a sampling of consumers.

And thus ends my pathetic attempt at linking media events with a social phenomenon. LOL.

Kopi Roti Pergola, BF Homes has a blog!

Editor’s Note: Kopi Roti BF Homes is now open! You can proceed here for more details and photos.

Many reasons why I’m plugging this:

1. Kopi Roti is an excellent brand. Anybody who knows good coffee (and BREAD!!) knows Kopi Roti! And now finally, us folks from the south need not go up north to savor Kopi Roti. Their complete address is:

Unit 104 A Ground Floor,
The Pergola Lifestyle Mall Aguirre Ave,
BF Homes, Paranaque City

This is in the new promenade mall across BPI, right beside Jollibee BF and the Ruins Night Market.

2. This particular franchise is operated by my high school batchmate from PAREF Southridge ‘98 (Sonny, pa-libre naman dyan!).

3. They have a blog. And this blog is rather specific to the franchise in the south. The anticipation is building as they plan to open this July. Sonny and Mike sure know how to market this thing. The anticipation begins with photos of the store under construction.

Finally construction of our Kopi Roti store started last June 26. We are estimating the construction to last only 20 days long. Our neighbor tenants in the Ground Floor Sarabia Optical, Simply Bread, Baker’s Depot, and Figaro are nearing completion in their construction and will open mid to late July. We will be opening shop before the month of July ends

Photo c/o www.kopirotisouth.blogspot.com

Vitwater: Magic potions for our daily lives! (LOL)

“Dude! Look what I have for you,” said Rey. “You’re the first to see this!”

I was with Rey and Ria yesterday afternoon ironing out a few things for BlogBank when Rey left and came back with a cold, cold plastic bag from 7-11.

“This just came out today and it’s available exclusively in 7-11 for the first few weeks for P15.00.”

Wow, Vitwater (not to be confused with the US Vitawater). This is a non-carbonated water drink with vitamins inside. I guess it is similar to dropping an Enervon C tablet into a cold glass of water, heh!

Well I wasn’t really a fan of the flavored water craze but I admit, this one actually tastes okay. Sorta like Gatorade but loads cheaper at P15.00. Well it’s new and has been out since yesterday. Check out 7-11 and try some. Each color supposedly has a different “effect” on you. One has fiber (tropical citrus), another supposedly helps you trim (red kiwi), while the other fortifies you with vitamins (orange). I don’t know what the blue one does - maybe it restores your mana to full, while the red one gives you more health, but with a cooldown of 30 seconds.

Well, whatever those effects are, it’s secondary to me. I think people go for the color and the taste first before the effects. Anyhoo, go check out 7-11. Vitwater is manufactured by RFM.

Pepper Lunch at Rockwell Kills the No Rice Diet :)

Met up with Fran, Didi, and Sophie for dinner. We had previously come from an event with Juned and AJ and made our way to Rockwell for dinner. The Pepper Lunch craze has really hit town (I even updated their Wikipedia entry to say they’re already in Manila). When we heard that Chuvaness was opening Pepper Lunch in Manila.

As of this writing, I’ve eaten at Pepper Lunch three times (it only opened last week!). I really try to stay away from rice whenever possible, and if I do eat, I only finish 1/4th to 1/2 cup of rice. But it’s really different. My no-rice diet is now a pseudo-rice diet courtesy of their Beef Pepper Rice. It costs about P140.00 for an extra cup of their special rice with crushed peppercorns and the secret butter they add to the middle.

I’m not much of a food reviewer so you can check out the entries of Phoebe, AJ, Sophie and Fran. I did take photos, but probably brought the wrong lens. I took the macro out to see if I could get the steak in detail but realized how hard it was to shoot with smoke coming from all directions. What’s the best way to shoot food that’s inevitably spewing smoke? Items from grills and hot plates are hard to shoot as is!

All I really have to say is that if you’ve had a really crappy day at work, Pepper Lunch at Rockwell can really save what’s left of it. Congratulations, Chuvaness

Dating a Food Blogger, (The Rudiments Of)

In this I assume that you dear reader are in like with a food blogger. More likely to be female than male, food bloggers are one of the more passionate niche writers whose taste for words are just as delicious as their taste for food.

Dating a food blogger can be a rewarding experience, not just because she can open up an appetizing palette of degustations to your oh so fast food world, but you will be blessed with some of the best conversations ever about life and living it. Some of the most engaging conversations I’ve had were with food bloggers - food is the doorway to all things enjoyable, but only bordering on sinful.

Chocolate Fondue, originally uploaded by iPoint, iShoot.

There is a preconceived notion that food bloggers, like beauty or fashion bloggers are a bit on the smug side. This is not true. There is also a preconceived notion that food bloggers will only hazard to the most expensive restaurants in the Metro and away. Also not true. Food bloggers appreciate the best as well as the simplest meals. The common denominator is that they are more sensitive to tastes in context and can compare the best of fast foods to the worsts of fine dining.

Read more »

Delifrance now serves alcohol … in their coffee

Bim from The Man Blog gets a caffeine rush, then gets wasted at Deli France. Bim gives us a thumbs up!

When asked by a Delifrance barista for the PASSWORD, say “Naughty with my coffee” and you get a cup of spiked coffee for free.

Get ready on March 3-7 from 5-7 PM. For dine in only.

In the same way the Greenwich is now selling coffee and dessert, the Jollibee group is now doing the same thing with Delifrance by refurbishing some key branches into coffee shops. The kicker is that they are now serving spiked coffee after 5 PM (Could Jollibee itself be next?).

What an excellent marketing strategy. We’ve got an excess of coffee shops in the metro, but coffee shops that spike their drinks? Nada. I’m sure that other shops will follow suit. The Spiked After 5 campaign aims to communicate this message to people who wish to unwind after a long day with coffee and alcohol in one. Delifrance is also one of the few restaurants that does not serve rice meals so it is another good way of attracting health buffs.

We have some photos of the event c/o Phoebe.

Disclaimer: Delifrance is an advertiser on this blog for the month of March 2008. Interested in getting local blog advertising on your site? Click here for details.

@ SM Science Discovery Center

That’s me and Yuga at the SM Science Discovery Center at the Mall of Asia. We were there as guests for Anton Diaz’s “triple threat” party to celebrate his eldest son’s birthday, his second son’s baptism as well as the anniversary of Our Awesome Planet, one of the most famous travel blogs in the country!

Goofing around, Yuga was able to load up some blogs on the LCD television without the use of a keyboard. The trick is to find sites with letters that match your blog’s URL, and then copy and paste each letter. MSN.com was in the browser history so that’s what helped us find our letters.

I’d write more about the birthday celebration of Aidan and Josh’s baptism but I’d prefer to leave it for another time, with more detail on the attractions. Photo courtesy of Phoebe.

“Introspection of Viral Marketing Using Lechon Kawali Pizza as Test Subject”

This morning, I shot the new lechon pizza of Greenwich, a new offering for the holidays among many other things that I was tasked to shoot. Client has already launched the product to the public so I am allowed to talk about it. But that’s not what I came to express in this blog post.

The pizza is deliciously and sinfully good. The base of the dough is drowned in lechon sauce and topped with cheese. On top of the cheese are several pieces of lechon kawali - pig meat and skin combined to give you that chewy and crunchy texture. The crust itself is baked with garlic. Red bell pepper strips to garnish.

I gobbled up three slices of this wonderful dish during the event. Twenty minutes later I wind up at a friend’s office across the street from Greenwich Ayala Avenue for a meeting. I tell him about the ever so sinful “lechon kawali” pizza and they order two boxes for the staff. The verdict? Winner. (yeah yeah I finished three more slices. I’m such a lechon.)

That night I drop by an event for Samsung at the Manila Peninsula. Over dinner with other members of media, I start a nonchalant conversation of “guess what I had for lunch a while ago?” The already famous lechon pizza conversation made its way through the 5 Star Buffet meal at the presidential suite. It was absurdly funny and incited curiosity.

Viral marketing works for products when the item in scrutiny has a tinge of peculiarity to it. Sometimes, peculiarity is bred by what is known as the invisible obvious, if I were to borrow the term from Andrian Lee. The lechon pizza is really nothing more than the FIlipino version of an all meat pizza. Pecuiar. But obvious.

Curious to try the lechon pizza? Dial 55555 for deliveries anywhere around the country.

For foreign readers, here is the definition of lechon:

Lechón (Tagalog: Litson and Cebuano: Inasal) is the Spanish word for suckling pig. In the Philippines, it connotes a whole roasted pig, lechón baboy. Chicken and beef, are also popular. The process of lechón involves the whole pig/piglet, chicken, or cattle/calf being slowly roasted over charcoal. [Wikipedia]

A Kape Isla Invitation

Props to the owners of Kape Isla, that little coffee shop at the entrance of Serendra, right across Market! Market! There’s more to the quaint coffee shop than meets the eye. In fact, some people may think that the establishment is a bit out of place compared to the other restaurants in the area. Truth be told, Kape Isla is a “coffee museum” that is supported by the Philippine Coffee Board. Yes, it is an NGO.

Kape Isla is the Philippine Coffee Board’s cooperative marketing program. The Board issues the Kape Isla name as a national umbrella label for coffee to signify that a coffee product uses Philippine-grown coffee beans. The label is used in tandem with existing brand names and blend trademarks as a complimenting label to signify its Philippine origin.

The marketing and events of the establishment is being handled by Rock Ed Philippines and Gang Badoy. I’m helping out as well promote the establishment as a truly Filipino coffee shop that’s geek friendly as well. The coffee is affordable, strong and can be accompanied with free wireless Internet (Serendra itself also has free WiFi but Kape Isla is a good alternative if you want to spend a few hours working on something on your laptop).

Blog and Soul will be doing a small event at Kape Isla sometime during the latter part of the month.

There’s a rumor that the Bayanihan Blog Network might be doing their official launch there very soon