So far, this is the best Hainanese Chicken Rice in Manila

Posted by pat on Mar 19, 2010 in Food | 11 comments

*some photos courtesy of Carlos Palma and Maki Eduardo

Anyone whose been to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur will tell you that the food is one of the best things they love about those two places (I have yet to hear otherwise). I’ve been to both and I regularly find myself craving for their local fare. The smells, the flavours, the spices.. oh I miss it. Unfortunately, unlike Singapore or KL, we don’t have hawker centers or mamak stores (Malaysian carinderia) in the Philippines.

One of the dishes I miss the most? Hainanese Chicken Rice (or just Chicken Rice).

For some time now, I’ve been on the hunt for really good chicken rice here in Manila. I’ve come a across some restos and food establishments that serve Singaporean and/or Malaysian fare but they just don’t seem to hit that spot. At the end of the meals, I was often left wanting and only half satisfied.

One day, I came across a post by a popular food blogger praising a dish to high heavens. And I quote: “I’m trying to remember when I last ate something so good I cursed every bite.” She was talking about Stevie’s Hainanese Chicken Rice. Chicken rice that good in Manila? If it is so, I HAVE to try it.

So for our Friday treat, my colleagues and I decided to place our order. We called Stevie on a Thursday to place in our order to be sure its ready the next day. Orders must be made a day before so that they can prepare it fresh. Friday, went to pick it up at 11am so by the time we get back to the office, we’re just in time for lunch.

My colleagues – Carlos and Maki – and I were lucky enough to meet Stevie Villacin himself. When we got there, he was busy in the kitchen but was nice enough to come out to talk to us. We were greeted with a smile by this jovial fellow. He seemed like a really nice person – very warm and sunny. You know what they say about happy chefs… happy chef = happy food = happy eating!

I would’ve wanted to stay longer and find out more about Stevie but he had to go back into the Kitchen (busy day perhaps?). There’ll be a next time for sure. Besides, we were dying to eat.

When we got to the office, we rushed to pantry and took some pictures of the food. Carlos did some food styling while I couldn’t care less about composing my picture as the smell was just beckoning. I took a snap shot and dug in.

As I went to get my share, all poise flew out the window. Shovel chicken into plate. Scoop rice into plate. Dabble sauce on chicken and rice… rush to spoon food in and…oh..my…god. It was damn good. I’d say Stevie can make it better than the Singaporeans/Malaysians (I’m kidding)…if only the chilli was spicier. Stevie had to tone it down for the Filipino palette.

I just kept on going. I’m not quite sure how much I ate but if I’m not mistaken, I think I finished three servings. Yes, this petite little thing ate like a football player today.

Its been a while since just one dish satisfied me like this.

Finally, I found the best chicken rice in Manila (and probably the Philippines??). Now can anyone tell me where to find good Asam Laksa?

Some info:

An order consists of one chicken and on the other tray, the rice. With that comes four sauces – garlic ginger, sweet soy, chilli, and some of the sauce the chicken was cooked in. Its good for 3-5 people, depending on how much you can eat. Chin, the Malaysian partner of my boss was able to finish half an order.

Orders must be placed at least a day before and must be picked up at Stevie’s place. Deliveries are done only for large orders which is equivalent to 8 trays of chicken.

Price: Php 950 / order

Stevie Villacin’s number : 09065084155

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My First Official Run – Century Superbods 2010

Posted by pat on Feb 22, 2010 in Events, On a personal note... | 2 comments

For race results, please go to the Century Superbods Run website

It feels ecstatically great to finish my first race! And when I found out my run time, I thought, not bad at all.

I was up at 4:15am to be sure to arrive at Bonifacio Global City by 5am on a Sunday. It’s insanely early, even for a morning person. Plus, Sundays are for waking up slow. But there I was at BGC at about 5am on a Sunday – me, and 9000+ other people.

It’s quite amazing to see the number of people who came to be part of the Century Superbods run. I know that a lot of people have chosen to put on those running shoes and have started getting into the running lifestyle. But it’s quite a sight to see them – literally thousands of runners converging in one area in preparation of their chosen run distance. Whatever drowsiness I felt faded when I felt the energy radiating from everyone and everything that morning.

I met up with my friend Maki and we made our way to the stage and starting line. The closer we got to the stage, the more crowded it got. The starting line was literally jam packed with people. It was like a rock concert/rave party out there. The music was booming and a warm up was being conducted for us. The 21k runners were gearing up for gun start as they were first off into the race. Next up were those doing 10k (which Maki took) followed by the 5k runners and then lastly those like me doing 3k.

As the countdown began for 3k, people started cheering excitedly and shouting, “Let’s do this!” and started jogging in place. If that doesn’t pump you up, then I don’t know what will.

10…9…8…7…6  Jog in place. Earphones on? Check. Hi energy running music? Check.  Jog in place.

5…4…3…2…1 The buzzer goes off at 5:38. The crowd cheers again, moves forward, and I’m off to my first official run.

The air was cool, dawn was close to breaking and the streets of BGC are nice and wide. The terrain for 3k was relatively flat and easy to run as opposed to where I train – a lot of inclines.  We had some cars honking in encouragement (or was it irritation? I couldn’t tell). There were runners I over took while there were runners running like the wind, zooming past me like graceful gazelles with the long strides of their long legs. I kept my pace.

There were times when I wanted to stop and walk a bit. There always are. I promised myself I wouldn’t and I didn’t. It’s just 3k. I told myself – If I was able to do it before, then I could do it again. If can do this, then I can do 5k. So I pushed on until finally, the finish line was in sight. When I saw it, I sprinted and finally crossed the finish.

I felt totally awesome. I didn’t feel tired at all…in fact I think I could’ve run a little more.  I’m pretty confident I’ll be capable of running 5k soon enough.

The race wasn’t the end of the mornings events. The sponsors had a lot of freebies and little gimmiks for the finishers. But before being part of all that, Maki, Judd and I decided to go chill at Krispy Kreme where we met up with Maki’s photographer friend, Lawrence. Thanks Lawrence for being the man behind the lens when Maki and I decided to camwhore at the event area.

We ended the morning raiding the booths and taking pictures of ourselves.

………………………………..

Today, they released the Century Superbods Race results and I was happy with what I saw!

Time : 19 mins and 47 secs

Category : FF (I have no idea what that means)

Category Ranking : 4 (Woah!)

Ranking for the 3k womens division : 77 out of 1072 runners (not bad)

Overall Ranking : 229 (I’m not sure what this mean. Overall of all 3k runners?)

I think I’ll continue training and joining more races!

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