Mida Food Turns 20 + Dishes I Made with Pacific Bay Seafood

Last June, Mida Food Distributors celebrated its 20th year anniversary with a Feast of the Pacific at The Tent at Enderun. Mida Food Distributors is the leader in the Philippine seafood industry. Together with its sister company, Mida Trade Ventures, they offer the largest seafood selection in the Philippines! They also offer retail seafood specialty items under the brand, Pacific Bay Seafood, which I will tell you more about later and what I cooked.

Mida Food Distributors treated its guests with dishes specially made by our country's top chefs: Chef Miguel Vecin, Chef Roland Laudico, Chef Jonas Ng and Chef Margarita Fores.

 One of appetizers served was this baked oyster. I love oysters and this was good!

This was what Chef Margarita Fores prepared: Barramudi, Orange-fennel Confit, Black Olive Soil and Carabao Butter.

Chef Miguel Vecin made Pulpo A La Gallega which is composed of Pulpo with Potato Foam, 

Jamon Serrano Crumbs, Pimenton Powder.

This was my favorite. Chef Roland Laudico's Hamachi Kinilaw which has Hamachi, Coca-cola Espuma, Candied Ginger, Spicy Capsicum Puree

 Another favorite was Chef Jonas Ng's Prawn Pomelo And Crab Salad which has Prawn Crab, Pomelo, Peanut, Toasted Rice, Coconut Milk Cilantro Salad.

Love how everything was so fresh and hearing stories from the chefs prove that Mida Food Distributors is a trusted company by professionals! Congrats again on your 20th, Mida Food!

Pacific Bay Seafood sent over a bunch of frozen seafood to my house a day after the event. Pacific Bay offers freshly-packed seafood items like peeled & deveined shrimp, tuna belly, tuna steaks, scallop meat, salmon steaks, whole clams, crabstick, and cream dory fillet, as well as Atlantic cod portions, bacalao loins, Chilean seabass, softshell crab, Gindara steaks and halibut fillet and steaks.

I don't really cook with seafood (other than fish that I am familiar with, shrimps and tahong) that often because I'm afraid I'll ruin a dish or make palpak but I was up for the challenge! They sent shrimps, mussels, bacalao, scallops and soft shell crabs and here's what I whipped up. I did not cook this all in one night ha.

Baked Bacalao

This was my first time to cook with bacalao. It's a lightly salted fish. I've never baked a fish as well so I looked for a recipe on the internet and this was what I came up with it the available ingredients I have. I mixed lemon, olive oil, pepper, cayenne pepper and paprika then put it over the fish then popped it to the oven. I think I overcooked it but otherwise, it wasn't bad. Haha! Ate it with rice and stir-fried upo.

Gambas

This was my second time to cook gambas. The first time was maybe 9 years ago. Haha! Gambas is easy to cook. You just need lots and lots of garlic, paprika and lemon. I am really impressed at how plump the shrimps were considering they were frozen. It's peeled and deveined as well so it made my life so much easier!

 Green Mussels or Tahong

I cooked the mussels two way. Half of it I made it into soup and the other half I baked it. The soup came out just okay. I think the frozen is not meant for making it into soup.

While the Baked Cheesy Tahong was a winner! It was also my first time to bake mussels. I mostly make soup but I will definitely make this again. It was really good!

 Soft Shell Crab

Another first too! I just dredged it in egg and flour and deep fried it.

 Scallops

For the scallops, I bought steak to go with it. I just sauteed the scallops with lots of butter. It came out yummy and so perfect with the steak.

I probably winged 3 out of 6 dishes and I was so happy and impressed with what I made. A challenge to my cooking skills! I was always scared to buy frozen seafood because I'm not sure how it would taste vs fresh seafood but after cooking all the dishes above, now I know what brand to buy! Pacific Bay is available at any leading supermarket nationwide.

Facebook: Pacific Bay Seafood

Instagram: @pacificbayseafood

A&D Eats: Choobi Choobi Lingaw Lingaw Kaon, Panay Avenue, Quezon City

Would you believed I ate thrice in Choobi Choobi in a span of two weeks only? It's a first for me but that only means the food is good and prices are very pocket-friendly. The first two times I went were with Didi and Kaye and the last time I went was with my mommy friends from Y's school!

I wondered why the restaurant is called Choobi Choobi, I thought it's some Cebuano or Bisaya word. Choobi is derived from the Fukien word "to enjoy" pala! And lingaw also means "enjoy" in Bisaya! Now we know heehee!

They have a lot of specialties but Kaye said and it is obvious from their logo that shrimp is the way to go! I was able to try more dishes the last time I went because we were a big group but my favorite and must-order has to be their Butter Garlic Shrimp! Check out what I ate in all of the three times I've been to Choobi Choobi!

For starters, I ordered Krispy Kalamari (Php150) served with sweet chili dip.

Patrick Star's Baked Scallops (Php190), fresh scallop baked with butter, cheese, and garlic. Yummy but bitin! Heehee!

Make sure to order lots of rice to go with your bags of seafood and shrimps dahil mapapa-kanin ka talaga!

1 pound Salted Egg Shrimp in a Bag (Php 440), it's cooked Singaporean Style! The shrimps were fresh and cooked beautifully! Choobi Choobi grows their own shrimps that's why the freshest yet cheapest shrimps in town!

1 Pound Shrimp in a Bag in Butter Garlic (Php395). One bag can be shared by 3-4 persons. This is my favorite! Don't forget to pour the butter garlic sauce to your rice!

Chilean Mussels in a Bag (Php325) in Steamed Garlic. One of my mommy friends liked this one but for me it was just okay. I wish the mussels were fresh.

To balance all the seafood, we had the Cha Tao Miao (Php180) which are stir fried Snow Pea sprouts. It was my first to see and taste this kind of veggie and I loved it! I love vegetables and I think I can finish one whole plate. Choobi Choobi's Snow Pea sprouts are fresh and organic.

My kids don't like to eat shrimp (unless they are fried) so I am happy they have several dishes that are kid-friendly!

Shrimp Tempura with Mixed Vegetable Tempura (Php195). The dish was a winner for the kids!

Sotanghon Guisado (Php155)

Lola Pepang's Fried Manok (Php345). I ordered this for the kids but I was a bit disappointed with the chicken. It was dry and looked like fried twice. Sayang.

After those three meals in Choobi Choobi, I have to say it's one of the best shrimp in the bags in the city! Well, I've only tried another one but I wouldn't be back for more if I didn't love the food we had at Choobi Choobi! Their menu is very family-friendly but I do hope they'll have high chairs soon so little kids can have a seat of their own. :) I have yet to take BOS there!

Choobi Choobi Lingaw Lingaw Kaon

102 Panay Ave., Quezon City

Menu

Facebook: Choobi Choobi Panay

Instagram: @choobichoobi

A&D Eats: Akira, The Art of Sushi and Teppantaki

Few of the things I look for when dining out is nice ambiance, good food, and child-friendly. And Akira in Robinson's Magnolia is just all that and more!

Akira is a teppanyaki restaurant which is inspired by the fictional story of Akira, the legendary Teppanyaki Chef of Japan who trained and fought the fire god Kagutsuchi to save Sayuri, his beloved. I had a chance to try Akira in Shangri-la Mall about two months ago with my mom and aunt. I got to their bento box and of course ramen for the little girl. But this tie, me and the SoMoms got to try their specialty, which is teppanyaki!

I like the ambiance and interior in Akira in Robinson's Magnolia! It's smaller than the one in Shangri-la and it is more intimate here. Reminds me a bit of Banzai (because they're from the same restaurant group!)

Nice interiors noh? Perfect for date nights too!

And if you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that one of my current addictions are Japanese plates! So imagine my excitement too while dining at Akira!

Excited to eat!

While waiting for our food to be cooked by Chef Lucky, we were served with Akira Rolls.

Spicy soft shell crabs on top. This was so yummy! Dipped it in soy sauce with wasabi! I had two. Wished I had more heehee!

Akira offers premium items such as U.S. Wagyu Rib-Eye and Japanese Wagyu, Kobe, and U.S. Tenderloin. They also offer Teppanyaki Group Specials which what we had. 

We had Group Set C.

All group specials  are inclusive of miso soup, chicken, shrimp, and Japanese fried rice.

What was about to be cooked!! 

This is Chef Lucky sanitizing before cooking

Miso soup for starters

I ordered the Chasiu Ramen in Shoyu Soup Base for Y! She liked it.

Chef Lucky cooked everything in front of us. Oh what a treat! Everything was good! 

3 sauces: one for chicken, seafood and beef

Chicken was tender

It was my first time to try Wagyu and oh it was heaven! Grabe!

I love rice and this Japanese rice is a winner!

Shrimp and veggies!

The Teppanyaki Group Specials is good for 3-4 persons. Serving is just right. It was so filling that I didn't eat dinner anymore! We also had dessert which Y thoroughly enjoyed!

Tempura Ice Cream! 

Looking for a date place or for a family lunch place? I think Akira is just perfect! You can choose from the variety of the Group Specials and try their sushis!

And Akira is having Koto Music  for the month of August! Check the dates below!

For more information and updates, follow and like:

Facebook: Akira PH

Instagram: @akira_ph

Twitter: @Akira_PH