Tokyo Bubble Tea's Milk Tea Tower

Marielle

The milk tea craze hit us hard this year, with various milk tea brands popping out of nowhere with flavors you never knew could go with tea! Tokyo Bubble Tea, however, has been around longer than most milk tea establishments. I frequent TBT for their yummy katsudon and Yakinuku Beef Rice, perfectly paired with any cold milk tea drink.

Last Month, my friends and I decided to try their Milk Tea Tower with three flavors to choose from - royal, pearl, and chocolate milk tea. The tower is PhP699 and is good for 6 – 8 persons. We chose Royal Milk Tea, a right level of sweetness that goes well with the salty and tangy taste of most of their jap dishes. They gave us glasses with ice, and served the pears separately. 

We didn’t think we could finish the whole thing, but we ended up savouring it up to the last drop! Perfect for barkadas catching up on a lazy afternoon. Cheers!

Therese in Taiwan: Cold Stone Creamery 酷聖石冰淇淋

The first time I had Cold Stone ice cream was with my cousin Richelle. We were walking around the mall that time, and the sweet scent of ice cream tempted us to pass by and order. At that time, I had also been wanting to try it for quite some time, so that was an opportune moment.

Different sizes

Left: Cookie Doughn't You Want Some 停不了口的餅乾, Right: Our Strawberry Blonde 草莓美莓

Cookie Doughn't You Want Some 停不了口的餅乾 is made of French Vanilla Ice Cream 香草冰淇淋, Chocolate Chips 黑巧克力葉, Cookie Dough 巧奇餅, Fudge 巧克力醬, and Caramel 焦糖醬.

Our Strawberry Blonde 草莓美莓 is made of Strawberry Ice Cream 草莓冰淇淋, Graham Cracker Pie Crust 派皮餅乾, Strawberries 草莓, Caramel 焦糖醬, and Whipped Topping 鮮奶油.

The second time was after dinner at Saizeriya with my classmates. We saw a Cold Stone Creamery stall nearby and although we were already full by then, we lived by the phrase, "there's always room for dessert," or as the Japanese would say, "betsubara!" The 6 of us shared a cup! Haha.

I can't really remember how much it costs, but a Gotta Have It cup is maybe around 140 NT, or depending on what you order.

Cookie Doughn't You Want Some 停不了口的餅乾

I don't know if this has been franchised in the Philippines (I remember there being a store before, but maybe it closed down) because according to their official website, they are still aggressively seeking Master Franchisees in the Philippines.

For the list of stores (and directions) in Taiwan, you can go to: http://www.coldstone.com.tw/store.asp

Royal Family: Mochi Series

Royal Family: Mochi Series

Taiwan brand Royal Family is now available in the Philippines (has been for a while now, actually). The brand features their bestselling mochi series.

When my friends and I found out that my friend's family is the one who are importing these from Taiwan, we ordered some to give away last Christmas season.

Since it was fairly new that time, my friend gave me a couple of boxes for free!

Mochi and green tea? YAY.

Green tea mochi

I'm also a big fan of sesame anything so I'm hoping to buy this next:

Royal Family Mochis are currently available at these locations:

1. Rustan's Supermarket MAKATI
2. Rustan's Supermarket ROCKWELL
3. Rustan's Supermarket GREENBELT
4. Rustan's Supermarket MAGALLANES
5. Rustan's Supermarket SAN ANTONIO
6. Rustan's Supermarket SHANGRILA
7. Rustan's Supermarket CORINTHIAN HILLS
8. Rustan's Supermarket KATIPUNAN
9. Rustan's Supermarket GATEWAY
10. Rustan's Supermarket TOMAS MORATO
11. Rustan's Supermarket FAIRVIEW
12. Shopwise LIBIS
13. Shopwise ALABANG
14. Landmark MAKATI
15. Landmark TRINOMA
16. Ken Gift Express Store at Market Market
For orders:
(+63)9167186956
royalfamilyph@gmail.com

Therese in Taiwan: Poffertjes 荷蘭小鬆餅

Two months ago, the Taipei World Design Expo 2011 happened, and my friends and I looked at the exhibitions. After walking around the halls, we decided to grab a bite. We weren't familiar with the area so we approached this group of locals and asked them whether they could point us in the right direction. They ended up accompanying us to this cafe (where the food costs more than we would have wanted to spend, so we decided not to eat there anymore) and we found out that they owned this food stall that's located at Gongguan night market (公館夜市 gong1 guan3 ye4 shi4).

The name of their stall is 荷蘭小鬆餅 (he2 lan2 xiao3 song1 bing3 - which translated is Holland's small pancakes). Below their sign is the word Poffertjes.

Since I wasn't familiar with Poffertjes, I had to rely on Wikipedia (yeah, oops) to know what they were. Apparently, they're a "traditional Dutch batter treat" that "resembles small, fluffy pancakes".

You could choose from either sweet or salty poffertjes. My friend and I (obviously) went for the sweet kind. They currently have 4 flavors - original (經典荷蘭 － 原味口味), banana (蹺蹺扳 － 香蕉口味), pumpkin (南瓜馬車 － 南瓜口味), and ice cream (總動員 － 冰淇淋口味). I went for the original and my friend tried the banana. The first 2 flavors cost 50 NTD (~ PhP 75), and the last 2 cost 55 NTD (~ PhP 83).

Banana (蹺蹺扳 － 香蕉口味) | 50 NTD (~ PhP 75)

Original (經典荷蘭 － 原味口味) | 50 NTD (~ PhP 75)

From the salty kind, you could choose from chicken (60 NTD ~ PhP 90, tomato (65 NTD ~ PhP 98), or beef (65 NTD ~ PhP 98). I got this picture from their Facebook page.

Chicken roll (雞肉卷卷)

In case you don't know how to read Chinese characters, I've written down their Chinese names so that you could just do character recognition! LOL. If you wanna know how to say/pronounce them, I could write down the PinYin for you guys! :)

Don't forget to join our ongoing giveaways:
1. Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range + Giveaway
2. The Bellevue Pastry Corner + Buffet Giveaway

Kracie: たのしいおすしやさん

Kracie: たのしいおすしやさん
Tiffy in Japan
Grocery shopping

I first saw this video when my sister, Therese, shared it on her facebook. I wanted it. I was talking to my boyfriend about it and he told me that you can buy it in the grocery. And I was like, why haven't I ever seen it!? So when Therese's Japanese classmate in Taiwan went back to Japan for a vacation, we asked him to buy some for us. But he couldn't find some. So then we all thought that maybe it would only be sold in Tokyo because that's where most foreigners go and they're probably the only ones interested in buying this.

But no! I went grocery shopping for dinner and saw... these:

Boo ya! I bought the sushi kit for 248 yen per box--around Php 124 a pop.

158 yen for the ハンバーガーやさん one on the left.

168 yen for the おえがきグミランド on the right.

I can't wait to play with these when Therese comes back from Taiwan during her winter break!