Breakfast @ Apartment 1B

To kick-off the long weekend, Person A and I enjoyed leisurely brunch at Apartment 1B, about 2 in the afternoon. That's how lazy we are we roll on non-work days. Good times! I already shared with you how we love Apartment 1B. Food tastes great, ambiance is very relaxed and the restaurant serves comfort food. 

Since it was both our first meal of the day, I started with my favorite breakfast pastry: pancakes!

Pancakes (PhP 380)

3 medium-sized, soft, fluffy pancakes with fruit compote, in this case, strawberry. Define compote. Compote is a dessert originating from 17th century France made of whole or pieces of fruit in sugar syrup. What I like about the pancake is it's not sweet and very fluffy hence it goes well with a generous topping of butter and oozing swimming in syrup. Person A likes his with butter and compote.

Personally, I think this serving is a bit expensive considering the size. 

Egg Breakfast (PhP 390)

2 eggs (scrambled), smoked bacon, home fries and toast. In lieu of the bacon you can have a choice of Canadian ham, English bangers, corned beef.

I like the scrambled egg, it's fluffily and delicately done. Not salty. Bacon is bacon. You can rarely go wrong with bacon. The fries or potato cubes are heavenly. And I haven't tasted the toast. 

We washed down our breakfast with coffee. 

Vittoria coffee is an Australian manufacturer of coffee products. Founded in Sydney in 1947, it is the largest and most well known Australian coffee company. 

Latte (PhP 90)

The coffee is served warm (not piping hot) and has a very delicate, non-strong taste. I like how the barrista prepares the coffee meticulously. The cup has a curious steel handle.

Cappuccino (PhP 90) 

This is one of the better cappuccino. Similar to the latte, it has a delicate taste and it's good even if you don't put sugar in it. I also like that the froth/foam is rightly done.

And because we are still hungry, we had dessert!

Apple Pie (~PhP 200)

I wasn't able to get the price, so I am not sure. This is crumbly and tastes like it has oats. The pie itself is not sweet and heavy so goes well with the vanilla ice cream. It's not to die for but will do for an apple pie.

Tea (PhP 80)

And because dessert pairs well with tea, we washed it down with a pot of Twining's green tea.

And with that, I head off to an English Afternoon Tea Bridal Shower of a friend from SFC. 

Excellent food by Renee, dainty set-up and awesome pieces of advice for the bride-to-be. Good times!

In Summary

1. Apartment 1B's food quality is consistent whether you visit for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Food tastes great, fresh and serving is enough for one person.

2. Breakfast price is mid-range to expensive. 

3. Ambiance is great if you want a very relaxed place to start your day.

Aparatment 1B

Unit 1-B, 132 L.P. Leviste cor Sedeno St.

Salcedo Village, Makati

63.2.843.4075

Agahan

I know some people who like to have breakfast all day. The kind who wish to have tuyo for breakfast, spam for lunch and tapa for dinner. I don't belong to that category but from time to time, I want to have pancakes and bacon. I also crave for tapa from Rodic's and yes, I can have spam all day. If not for the salt and calorie factor, i will have it every day. You get it right, marami akong favorite food.

In those many instances that I browse whatever magazine that I can lay my hand on while waiting for my food, services or whatever, Southern Living featured an all-day breakfast place in Makati: Agahan.

The Place

The restaurant is located in small restaurant complex along Metropolitan Ave, San Antonio Village, Makati. It is a 50-seater place decorated in a perky mood: the way we should all wake up in the morning. The walls are painted blue, green, red and yellow and chairs in red. There's a yellow breakfast nook for solo diners. The whole theme is a well-executed modern take on the 50s diner vibe.

The Food

As can be expected, menu is breakfast fares: silogs, pancake sets and hot chocolate/coffee/orange juice.

Ligaya's Tapa (PhP 150)

Beef tapa, egg and rice with coffee or tea. You can have the egg sunny-side up or scrambled. The beef tastes like your regular carinderia beef. It tastes okay and a bit hard. Rice is also not of good quality. You can easily make this dish at home.

Tinapa (PhP 110)

Tinapa with garlic rice and salted egg. Same as the tapa above, it's your typical tinapa cooked at home. Nothing fancy. The tinapa is standard grocery/palengke kind, you can't get too creative with the salted egg and the rice is also not great.

Hot Chocolate (PhP 60)

Hot chocolate made from tablea - minimally processed cacao. It's thick but can get thicker considering that tablea is used. The good point is they've been generous with milk - or that's how it tastes like. Again, nothing special.

Cranberry Juice (PhP 50)

Powdered or some form of artificially cranberry juice. It's refreshing enough, not too sweet. It's okay, nothing spectacular.

In Summary

1. The vibe of the place is awesome. You can have meetings, quiet morning reading the paper or a casual breakfast date any time of the day. WiFi is also free. There's not much place in Makati which is marketed as an all-day breakfast place. 

2. In my personal opinion, the restaurant should improve on their food to stay long in the market. The food tastes something you can quickly whip up at home. I think that's okay if you want your place to be carinderia-type. However, if you want diners to shell out, you should have something special in each dish.

3. Price is ~PhP 150/ dish. Relatively cheap for Makati. If they will improve the taste of the food, then this price point can seal the deal.

Agahan

102 Metropolitan Ave

San Antonio Village, Makati

63.2.822.5057

63.928.504.7058

You're My Sunday

Inflating balloons and witnessing anything that flies in Clark consumed all the energy I stored up the entire week. The early morning spectacle of blowing up balloons and letting them fly made my heart flutter that we will definitely be coming back next year and hopefully get to experience more.

It's no surprise that once I reached home I just had a quick shower,  curled up in bed and clocked in 10 hours of sleep! Weekend luxury. Like most things this week, I had an off-routine Sunday which is usually "me-day" at home. Instead, I found myself googling for the best pancake in town at 7:30AM. According to an online site, Apartment 1B has one of the best pancakes and waffles but it was closed. 

Good thing UCC Glorietta 3 Park has its doors open for early campers. I started with brewed coffee. 

It's perfect even without sugar and milk. It is strong and has a sweet after taste without the acidic undertone of most blends. Why do Japanese do most things perfectly? Based on my research, Japanese coffee are  getting attention because of the slow-drip process that is employed while brewing, resulting to a unique cup. I say I'll be crossing the street to get mycoffee fix, I love this like I love Cake Club's Winner Caramel coffee! Try it!

Here's the bacon-waffle fix I rolled out of bed for. 

I imagined stacks of pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries but it was not in the menu and I am hungry, so I settled for the next best thing. It made me happy.

Here's the plate from across the table. Spanish omelette (with beef and some veggies) and fresh toast. It's also heavenly.

Yep, I got an early date Sunday morning! A great way to kick off St. Valentine's week. If you ask me, I say everyday has been Valentine's day for me the past 7 years. Yikee! 'Cos I am mushy like that.

With the leisurely breakfast, I leafed through 3 magazines. I always do that while waiting for my food.

We dropped off the grocery to get my detox stash: I ate too much red meat the entire week that I can only eat "dahon-dahon" (read: fruits and veggies) the rest of the day. Our interesting grocery find: grape tomato, jamaican pepper and sweet banana pepper. 

As of 2PM: I've consumed 2 bars of chocolates. Fail.

How did we end our sweet morning? We heard mass together. We were early so I decided to recite my Marian devotion... because Person A raised one of his eyebrows when I said I'll kill time playing Temple Run. Hahaha! 

Running in circles is addicting. That, I can tell you.

I can get used to this.