Mitsuyado Sei-Men: Different, but not to my Liking

In an effort to keep up with my "try a new restaurant every month" goal, I'm always on the lookout for different and new places to try. Granted, I am on a diet, but I pretty much feel that if I don't cheat, I might give up altogether.

So, my sister (and cheating buddy) Tere recommended we try Mitsuyado Sei-Men along Jupiter. I was intrigued because it supposedly served really good tsukemen, which wasn't something I've tried before.

First, the good: I liked the ambiance, it's simple and different from the typical modern Japanese restos, with a "street food" feel to it and service was prompt and courteous.

Unfortunately, that's all I liked.



Again, it's not a ramen house, their specialty is tsukemen or dipping noodles. Basically, you dip noodles in a broth of your choice. I already read the reviews that their ramen was bad, so my sister and I opted to go for the specialties, the double cheese tsukemen and karash tsukemeni as well as their gyoza, which were all highly recommended. The double cheese, for me, tasted odd, and not Japanese at all. You can see in the picture that it was served with a topping of parmesan as well as two dips, a cheese sauce, not unlike the ones you eat with nachos, and a broth that was described as a tonkotsu broth with yuzu (citrus). The noodles, for their part were quite good and tasted fresh and of good quality, but I felt that the cheese sauce actually cheapened that flavor. The broth was a mix of sweet and sour which I really did not enjoy.

My sister's spicy Karashi was marginally better, but not by much, there was an overpowering flavor of (sesame?) oil, and it was a bit too spicy for me . Their gyoza was standard fare and nothing to rave about, I neither liked it nor hated it.

I'm not a fan and won't be coming back.

 

Cheat Score: Totally not worth it.

Where: 22 Jupiter St. Jupiter, Makati, Matro Manila.

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen - Rainy Day Comfort at SM Aura Premier

One rainy evening, I convinced my sister to try this newly opened ramen joint in SM Aura.

I ordered the Ajitama tonkotsu ramen and Tere ordered the black garlic tonkotsu. Both arrived promptly which was good because by that time (almost 9pm) I was ravenous.



The noodles were thinner than the normal noodles in other ramen joints. You also have a choice of normal or hard noodles, personally I prefer the hard (al dente) noodles. The ajitama was very flavorful, i loved it, but if you're not fond of eating eggs, stay away from this dish.

Tere's black garlic tonkotsu was a bit too oily for me, and the flavor tasty, but not to my liking. Tere preferred this over my Ajitama though, so I guess it's a matter of preference.

We also got gyoza and it was also very good, probably one of the best I've tried.

We ended the meal with a scoop of sea salt caramel and green tea ice cream, which were both so good and would be reason enough for me to come back.

And since I mentioned I'm on a diet in my last post, I'll be rating the cheat meals I post if they were worth it or not.

Cheat Score: Worth it!

Where: Level 2, SM Aura Premier, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City

Geekyobserver goes on a diet!

You read right, I'm finally serious about dieting.

I was never thin, but I do know that I was in better shape in the past. I mean that literally as well as figuratively.  This isn't going to be a long post about me feeling the pressure to be thin or to lose weight, or that I felt insecure about myself  or that I got a health scare that is forcing me to rethink my lifestyle. I just simply want to make it public that I am on a diet - I read that this would increase my accountability to the goal.

It's simple, I gained weight in the past because I love to eat and I'm too lazy to exercise and now I want to do something about it.

Two years ago, my older sister lost over 75 pounds in 6 months following the Cohen Lifestyle diet. I was definitely inspired, but wasn't inspired enough to actually follow it. That, plus there was a significant financial investment involved, but I think it was really because I wasn't prepared to go though with it. So, I waited, until I finally decided to start last July 1, 2013.

I still didn't go on Cohen, but I did reapply some of their "rules", nothing that you really can't find out on your own, so I might not have the "prescribed" amount of food that Cohen has, but generally I follow the basic rules of no sugar, no dairy, lean meat and veggies, drinking lots of water, no preserved foods and eating 5 hours apart (to digest the previous meal effectively).

I even break the rules on the no dairy rule but this time I choose non fat or low fat milk. :) This is really because in the Bon Appetit diet, and even in the nutrition seminar I attended, milk is considered as part of a healthy diet.

So, I guess I'm really just following a lower calorie diet, and I'm finding it quite manageable so far.

To date, I've lost 20 pounds since July 1, 2013. I'm targeting to lose another 10 by end of September, but I'm a bit off track on that goal - especially since I do tend to cheat a bit (weekends and holidays). :P

But hey, 20 pounds in 1 1/2 months? I deserve to reward myself a bit for that. :)

Oh, and I found this really good article on lifehack -> 10 Unconventional Diet Tips: How to lose 50 pounds in three months and I do agree with the tips he shared. Granted, I doubt I'll be losing 50 pounds in 3 months, but it's effective nonetheless.