Balkan Yugoslavian Home Cooking

It’s sad that I haven’t had the time to blog about all the great food places that I’ve been to  (and movies that I’ve seen) since August 2012. Sheesh! I did not realize that it has been 6 months already! So now I’m going to try my best to make up for the 6 months that I missed out, starting with this food blog on Balkan.

Location: Perea Street, Legaspi Village, Makati

We were driving around Makati on a Wednesday night, looking for a good place to dine. We were supposedly going for Mom&Tina’s (also a very recommendable place) when we stumbled on this discreetly located resto nearby. Curiosity hits us, so we went for Yugoslavian that night. I even got more excited when I learned that Balkan is part of the 115 Manila Restaurants We Love book that features the must-try food places around Metro Manila.

So, what did we actually savor on?

For an inexperienced Yugoslavian eater (also goes for eating at any new place), it is wise to go for their best sellers before anything else. By doing such, you can have a hint whether a place is something you would go back to. Here’s what we got:

STUFFED PLJESKAVICA

Burger stuffed with mozarella, served with rice or fries – Php 320.00
Rating: 4.5 Stars

This is one of the featured dishes in 115 Manila Restaurants We Love and is highly recommended by their chef.

I personally liked this one because of the richness in taste of the burger and the mozarella cheese stuffed inside was undoubtedly of high quality (long stretch).

DZIGERICA

Pork liver steak, topped with garlic, served wih mashed potatoes or rice – Php 220
Rating: 4.0 Stars

I don’t eat liver, so obviously, it was’t my choice that night. When the dish came, I forgot that it was liver so I just indulged on it without thinking about it’s composition. My friend didn’t react because he knows I’ll stop eating it the moment I find out – and I did. Hahaha!

But if I hadn’t found out, I would have massacred all of it without leaving a piece. It was actually very good, not the ordinary liver tang that I know of. In addition, the mashed potato was also soooo good – even without gravy.

We also tried their Chicken Noodle Soup for starters.

Be careful when you try this out if you don’t want to burn your tongues like we did. It was secretly extra boiling hot. From the way it looks, you wouldn’t think of it that way. :p

Overall, the place, food, price are all good. I will surely go back here to try out their other food offerings.

Xoxo,

CHAMMY ♥

PS: Sorry for the photo quality. I unintentionally set my cam on low.

 

What I Missed: Sicilian Express

Sicilian Express

A Venue Mall, Makati Avenue

Apparently, the Sicilian Express branch, which we usually go to and is the most accessible to us, in Dapitan St., Sampaloc area closed several months ago so we have not eaten here for a long while already. Luckily, there are still branches left and we have happened to bump into one a while ago.

Because it has been long since we last ate here, I became unfamiliar with their menu or theirs was just different. Nevertheless, we still managed to get our way through their menu.

First on the list was the Sicilian Salad. Oh boy I missed this one! It’s composed of diced chicken breast, mangoes and grapes tossed in crisp romaine lettuce in creamy Sicilian dressing.

Solo: Php 150.00 / order
Double: Php 190.00 / order

Looks good right? Wait until you get a taste of it. It’s such a delight for starters. I practically consumed this salad without poise. I ate it directly on its service plate (well I thought it would be a waste of time transferring it to my own plate when I know I’ll slay it all :p). When you get to try out this place, ordering their Sicilian Salad is a must. Rating: 5 Stars

Next is the pasta. I’m not sure about the usual pasta that I order before. I just can’t seem to find a familiar one on the list so I went for the Seafood Marinara, which is a fresh seafood mix of fish fillet, shrimp and squid in Pomodoro sauce.

Solo: Php 155.00 / order
Double: Php 215.00 / order

Not the best there is but still good. I failed to taste the squid in it (or there was none in it) I just wish their fish fillets were a bit bigger and they put more seafood in it. Given they followed my proposition, their Seafood Marinara would be one of the best. Rating: 3.5 Stars

Lastly, the pizza. We ordered for ourselves a Shrimp & Salmon Pizza that is topped with creamy mozarella cheese.

Solo: Php 345.00 / order (10-inch, 6 slices)
Double: Php 495 / order (12-inch, 8 slices)

I couldn’t find the salmon though. :\  Also, the toppings are easily detached from the pizza. Nevertheless, it was very creamy and cheesy and I loved it still. I can still remember the feel of munching every bite of this dreamy selection. Rating: 4 Stars 

I hope the deterioration of their branches would come to a stop. I still hope to eat here in the near and even far future. I hope they work out their Marketing and try to innovate their menu a little more so they’ll have a better distinction for their bistro.

Xoxo,

CHAMMY ♥

 

COTTON ON Soon To Open at SM MegaMall!

Chic and fab fashion boutiques are starting to branch out here in the Philippines, especially in Metro Manila. After the arrival of Forever 21 and Uniqlo comes Cotton On- soon to open at SM Mega Mall in Ortigas, Pasig.

I was very pleased to see this when I passed by Mega Mall earlier because of two reasons: (1) It’s boutique will be fairly spacious, not as big as F21 though and; (2) It will be located just across my work place! ♥

Cotton On is one of the boutiques that I enjoyed shopping on when I went to Hong Kong before. They do have a lot of good selections which are very fashion forward. I remember buying a denim top, a scarf and a cropped denim shorts there long before it was even ‘in’ here in the Philippines. Now that they’ll be opening a store here in Manila, I’m pretty sure that we won’t come a step behind anymore when it comes to the latest in fashion. We won’t be hassling ourselves looking for the next big thing when it comes to dressing-up because it can soon be found just right under our noses.

Xoxo,

CHAMMY ♥

 

Review: Dark Floors

Rating:

The story was about a struggling young autistic girl and his father trying to find a way to make her better. The hospital facilities somehow got out of hand, one day, while the little girl was on the CT Scan. Because of that, the father decided to take her out of the hospital premises, take her somewhere else or most likely, home. They headed to the elevator with 4 other people- a business man, a dying man, a nurse and a security guy. The elevator malfunctioned and then after awhile, they found themselves all alone on the abandoned corridors of the hospital. Every floor gets worse, uglier and more dangerous- with all the monsters haunting them. They all fight for their lives, trying to find a way out of the abandoned, creepy and death defying hospital. Their lives are said to be reliant on the autistic child.

I’ll be straight forward about my thoughts about this movie. It was a big non-sense. When the movie ended, my reaction was THAT WAS IT?! WHAT’S THE SENSE?! WHY DID I EVEN SEE THIS MOVIE?!. Yes, it gave me the chills and it shocked me a couple of times, but there was no story, if there was, it was not profoundly inflicted in the screenplay. If you’ve seen the movie Ghost Ship, it was somehow like that. The movie just went round and round, without ending, without- I’ll repeat sense.

When I searched about the movie, I was surprised to see that it was released in 2008. I’m not quite sure if the 2012 version was a remake or what ’cause I DON’T CARE and I wouldn’t dare bother search further about it. If you do know, kindly do the honors of telling me so (yes it’s a favor. Teehee. :p)

If you’ll ask me whether you should see it or not, I’d have to advice you to spare your bucks for something that’s more worth watching. You wouldn’t want to get frightened by something that does not make any sense AT ALL, would you?

Xoxo,

CHAMMY ♥

 

Review: The Healing

Rating:

The Healing is starred by Gov. Vilma Santos for her 50th anniversary in show business and co-starred by Kim Chiu, Joel Torre, Janice de Belen, Pokwang, Martin del Rosario and many others. It was directed by Chito Roño.

The story circled with the aftereffects of bringing a dead person back into life by a faith healer. Ever since that incident, lives of all those cured by the healer has been put into danger. An appearance of a doppelganger is a sign that something bad is going to happen to a character. When a character meets his doppelganger, he will go insane, harming other people and then eventually killing himself. The only way to break the curse is to kill the person who was brought back to life.

Review:

Comparing to the previous horror movies posted, the screenplay of The Healing has greatly improved. Although there are still obvious computer generated effects, it was still worth watching. I couldn’t believe Vilma Santos, who is more inclined to doing drama-related movies, would be effective in this kind of movie. She, along with the effects, shocked me a couple of times, which was a good thing because that’s the main purpose of horror movies right?

The other stars also were able to give justice to their characters. Generally, all of them did great.

I must also note that there are two versions of the movie: R-13, which has cut parts to suit audiences aging 13 and above and R-18, the uncut version suited for audiences aging 18 and above. We saw the R-18 version and it was really great. I bet the R-13 version was made for those with the weak heart. If I saw this version, I might not be satisfied because they might probably be cutting the best parts of the movie.

It’s been a while since I last saw a good Filipino horror movie. I can’t even remember anymore the last time I truly enjoyed getting terrified by a local horror movie. This movie, even though wasn’t the best there is, has managed to give me chills and to make me squeal. I recommend this for those who have not seen a reputable local horror movie for quite some time already.

Xoxo,

CHAMMY ♥

 

Blog Teaser: Niscenssa

I feel guilty for not yet posting a blog about Niscenssa. I promise I’ll make a proper blog about it soon. =)

For now, here’s a blog video teaser for you readers. It’s a video on Niscenssa’s launching held especially for bloggers! It also happens to be the first bloggers’ event that I participated on, since I’m new in the blogging field.

♥

NISCENSSA’S ONLINE STORE LAUNCHING 

(CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO)

♥

I was surprised to see myself in some portions of this video. I didn’t notice that there were also videographers in the event. All I noticed were photographers. I really didn’t look posh in this video so I won’t tell which parts I appeared on. HAHAHA! :p

Watch out for my blog about them, soon.

Xoxo,

CHAMMY ♥

 

A Review That Will Make Batman Fans Boil!

Recently, I have seen Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. Now, I will make a review about it. Note that this perspective is not the usual comment that you might get from people. In an estimated ratio, I would have to say that only 3/100 would agree with me. If you are an avid fan of Batman who does not want even a clinch of negative vibes, I suggest don’t read this post anymore.

THE MOVIE WAS AGONIZING…

Yes, I had to emphasize that statement. A-GO-NI-ZING.

I did not enjoy it at all. I tried to, but I just ended up being miserable after the movie.

Months before this effing movie was released, my boyfriend has been very eager about it, asking me to watch it with him (we watch almost all movies together). I rejected him several times, telling him that the last time I watched Batman in cinemas, I fell asleep and when I tried to watch in on DVD, I still fell asleep. But, he was too persuasive about it, so he wins. As the showing date is approaching, he’s becoming more and more excited and I remained passive, totally not excited, about it.

The day has come. Tickets were bought. Popcorn’s popped. Seats reserved. Oh my, what am I doing here?

I really don’t like the Batman character to begin with. I don’t like him as a cartoon character figure and never will I like him in movies. I think he is the downgraded and uncool version of Iron Man. Basically, they are both rich, manly (Christian Bale isn’t even that hot), intelligent and girl-magnet but Batman is just so lame and corny. And and and, what’s with his voice? It’s very lame. Really. I could have appreciated the character for a bit if he just used his regular Bruce Wayne voice.

When I found out that Robin is taken out of the scene and Anne Hathaway’s character as Catwoman will be on the billing, my interest somehow went upstream. I somehow had a pinch of a reason to see this movie.

But then, I don’t know. It just wasn’t the movie for me. I sat there, trying to like the movie, for 2 and 1/2 freaking hours (well minus the wash room moments). You read it right, wash room moments. This is the first movie where taking my time inside the comfort room at the middle of the movie was greatly necessary. I went to the wash room not because I needed to pee (I actually didn’t pee) but because the movie was taking too long already! I needed a breather, fresh air (yes, pee scent was fresh enough HAHAHA!) from the movie. Tick-toc-tick-tok! Every minute that passes by that time was turning into a toxic substance taking on my sanity little by little.

A thought came into mind: Maybe I’m having a hard time appreciating it because I wasn’t able to see (properly) the previous movies. After that thought, my subconscious slapped me hard and said: “You didn’t appreciate it because it was just not your movie. You won’t be able to fall asleep in it’s previous postings if it were good enough to even keep you awake!”

Hey, don’t get me wrong, the fight scenes were good. The effects were good. Anne Hathaway was gorgeous and hot. The screenplay is gross-worthy. My heart even froze for a moment when Batman flew the atomic bomb on the sea. For a moment, I thought Batman was dead. For a moment, I was overjoyed because I thought they already killed Batman and there will be no more Batman movies to come, that the sequel will finally end. It was all a false hope that slammed into me when Bruce Wayne still appeared in the near end of the movie. Good feeling instantly went away.

I exited the movie house pissed and dissatisfied, not wanting to talk about it even for a second (except here because it’s a blog). My night was totally ruined after seeing the movie. I could have just watched my favorite teleserye at home. It could have made a big difference.

Maybe you’re thinking I’m overreacting about all this. Maybe I am but this is how I feel about the movie and I’ll never be sorry about it. Maybe I am not getting a good feedback while you are reading this, especially when you’re a hard headed fan still reading my post. But this is my blog, my opinion and my thought so might as well respect it. I don’t have bad impressions on those who drooled over it, I am actually happy that you enjoyed it and that the money you paid for was worth it, so let’s just all be happy and gay. After all, I don’t feel bad about it anymore.

Xoxo,

CHAMMY ♥