My (former) staff at our field office in the City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan has informed me earlier this week of a new eating place near the City Hall. They said it was an authentic Japanese eatery – their definition of authentic being, “the cook is Japanese” – and they were raving about the taste of the food. Naturally, I had to try it. Unfortunately, I’m only scheduled to report at the CSJDM office on Tuesdays and Thursdays and since it was a holiday last Tuesday, I only got to sample it today.

The name of the eatery is “Tokyo Tee“. It’s a simple hole-in-the-wall resto; no ambiance to speak of, and the only thing that told me that it’s authentic Japanese – aside from the Japanese cook who was making fresh noodles as we entered; yes, you read that right, FRESH noodles – were the food items and condiments lined up at the kitchen area. All of them, including the salt, mayonnaise and the beer (Asahi) were Japanese brands. I even saw a couple of bottles of sake. Oh wait, there’s a non-Japanese brand: Del Monte tomato ketchup. I was pleasantly surprised, because I never expected to see authentic Japanese cuisine in that city. Even if it’s close to Metro Manila, the city center itself isn’t very progressive. Most of the known restaurants and fast food places can be found in other areas of the city.

Since it’s my first time to try this place, I decided to sample the ones that my former staff recommended:

Chahan – not sure if it’s P40.00 or P45.00/order

The waitress said one order is good for only one, but it’s too much even for me who’s a heavy eater. My only comment on this is that it’s not as sticky as it should be, but taste-wise, it’s good. I love that all the food that I’ve tried on this eatery is neither bland nor salty; the balance of the flavor is just enough.

Tori Katsu – P60.00

One of my companions ordered this and let me sample it. Paired with cabbage slices that could rival that of a getting-popular Katsu place here in our country, the tori katsu is quite filling. However, I found it to be a tad bit overcooked because I like my fried chicken to be soft and juicy. This one’s crispy like chicharon (which is good, too, except that I did not order for chicharon). Side note: I love that they didn’t sacrifice quality over cost and used Japanese mayo as dressing which is like, double the price of regular mayonnaise.

Gyoza – P50.00/6 pcs.

This was one of the items that my staff were raving about. And thankfully, it did not disappoint. It’s so NOT like the usual gyoza that are served in most Japanese restaurants here, especially the ‘fast food’ variety. For one thing, Tokyo Tee’s gyoza is not as oily as the others. The accompanying sauce doesn’t have the “umay” after-taste that makes one feeling nauseated after eating. It’s a good thing that we had two orders, otherwise I’d be fighting with my companions over this.

Japanese Burger Steak – P70.00

This one’s the highly recommended item on the menu by my staff. At first, they warned me that I might find the sauce too sweet for my taste (they know that I hate sweet food unless it’s dessert), but they swore that it’s really good. Naturally, I ordered this one for myself. Well, what I can say: If you’re expecting something out of Jollibee, you’re at the wrong restaurant. THIS is burger steak. The patty is about as big as a regular hamburger patty from the friendly neighborhood burger joint, but so much thicker. However, it’s not beef; according to the Japanese cook (who’s also the owner, I think), beef would be too expensive so he uses lean pork instead. Honestly, even if I knew right away that it’s pork, I didn’t mind at all. The patty is hearty, juicy, and has very little to no fat at all. This paired with rice (I think plain rice is P10.00/order) will fill you up until dinnertime. I didn’t need to have an afternoon snack today.

Miso soup – free

I’m not sure, but I think the owner/cook saw me taking pics of the food and making spot reviews, so we were surprised when the waitress brought us two large bowls of miso soup. She said her boss is asking us to try it. This is the one that made me say that the food is authentic Japanese. All local Japanese restos that I’ve been to here in this country has always served me miso soup that is wayyyy too salty. However, I had the pleasure of sampling the real thing at a couple of Japanese households: the first was when my friend Atsushi from the bandstalker era invited us to his parents’ home. His mom served us miso soup along with a stew that has broth and we were like, “um, we already have soup (referring to the broth from the stew)” and she was like, “that’s not soup! This is soup.” Her miso soup is clear and not salty at all. The second one was at Hiroko’s house when she was still living in the Philippines. Her miso soup is the same as Atsushi’s mom’s version. This one from Tokyo Tee is along those lines, except that instead of kelp, he used half a crablet to have that seafood flavor. Maybe because crablet is cheaper than kelp.

All in all, I paid P285.00 for a meal for three persons, and we were all clutching our stomachs from eating too much. Not bad for Japanese food, right? We didn’t order drinks, though, because they serve ice-cold water, anyway. My slightly negative comment is that the service is a bit slow, but that’s because all orders are cooked on-the-spot, and the Japanese is the only one cooking. I’ll just make sure never to eat there when I’m pressed for time. I will definitely come back, and next time I will try their noodle dishes because I am enticed at the fact that the noodles are FRESHLY MADE.

That’s the Japanese owner/cook, who begged me not to show his face for the photo when I told him that I’ll be blogging about his restaurant.

The current food craze in the Philippines today – aside from that ice cream brand which I now hate just because practically every Pinoy on the internet claims to have been so addicted to it… at P60/piece? Really??? (yes, bitter ako sa maraming pambili ng mamahaling pinipig crunch) – is milk tea. Nope, not the plain milk tea from Hong Kong nor teh tarik from Malaysia, et al., but the “luxury milk tea” that’s being offered by stores like Serenitea, Gong Cha, ChaTime, etc etc. I say “luxury” because a cup of these milk teas cost the same as Starbucks coffee. But why spend a ton for milk tea when you can actually get your milk tea fix without costing you so much? Actually, you can just do it the way the Brits do it: get a tea bag, brew it in hot water, put some milk on it and voila! Milk tea!

However, those who are suckers for luxury milk tea are probably saying, “that kind of milk tea doesn’t have flavoring or pearls”, which actually are the ones that make it so expensive (aside from the brand).

Na-ah.

Last Saturday at the Voltes O-nite, Charity demonstrated to us how we can have our milk tea fix without spending more than a hundred bucks per cup. She even made it more special: she prepared wintermelon milk tea.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Get some sweetened wintermelon (aka. minatamis na kundol – lintek pa wintermelon-wintermelon pa, kundol lang yan noh) and place them on a blender. Charity said there’s sweetened wintermelon in blocks that are available in the market, but for this particular instance, we used my Mom’s own minatamis na kundol.

2. Brew about 4 bags of black tea. “Brewing” simply means boiling them in water for a few minutes. According to Mr. Google, the proportion is 1 cup of water per tea bag, brewed for 3-5 minutes.

Let it cool down a bit after brewing.

3. Pour some tea on the blender and blend it together with the wintermelon.

4. Once the wintermelon has been ground to a pulp, pour sweetened condensed milk to taste and some ice. Blend them together.

5. Strain the wintermelon pulp off, pour the concoction on a glass, and voila! Cheap wintermelon milk tea!

If you want it with pearls, you can always add sago which is also widely available in the market.

I’ve only tasted luxury wintermelon milk tea once prior to this but Lou is a regular of those tea shops. We both swear, those expensive ones and this one from ChaCha ( ) taste the same. Charity made the extra black tea into Assam milk tea (same procedure without the wintermelon), and it’s so good, too!

So there. Why spend so much when you can make milk tea at a cheaper price? Unless you’re lazy and/or have the money to burn… or does not have a blender…