A Sunday Lunch at SM Pampanga Foodcourt

Here we go.... as any normal catholic citizen would, after the Sunday mass, people would go to the malls or drop by fastfood centers. We opted to go to SM Pampanga to buy school shoes for the kids, among other things. What a way to charge up.... have a good meal which so much choices! Well, we picked up the Foodcourt and I was craving for a Sizzling Plate.

Before we went to the 2nd floor, we bought some California Maki from Tokyo Tokyo.

We ordered: Sizzling Porkchop, a meal with chuckwagon steak (burger) and chicken (I forgot the name) and surprisingly "Sizzling Kangkong". I grinned at my wife when I saw what was on our table. Here's what it all tasted like....

With the Sizzling Porkchop, it was a no-brainer. It was an easy satisfaction that would rival the Porterhouse or T-bone Steak. I mean the taste was its grilled best. And the gravy used complemented the yellow rice (it that StarRice? LOL!) and the buttered veggies. Nice....


Now the burger thingy with the chicken... Hmmm.... Errr... Ummm.... the burger seemed salty and it's not the gravy. I tasted the gravy separately that's why I know. It's with the burger mix. The chicken was somewhat dried due to overcooking and the side veggies was, forgive me for being true to my tongue, not good. Period. It tasted like it was prepared early morning and smelled that way too. huhuhuhu


So I turned my attention to the Sizzling Kangkong, and to my surprise, it was darn GOOD. It saved my usually remorseful taste buds from condemning the place. Heck, it was just a simple dish, right? But there is some sense of sweetness to the dish and the garlic bits were just right if not perfect. I ended up eating the whole dish.


With the full meal done, I was feeling okay and ready to go jogging, I mean shopping. Wait, there's still the Maki at the table. My wife was just finishing her plate and was ready to grab one. I had the first crack at the Japanese dish and..... .... .... .... ....


What happened to the Maki? Worse, is this Maki?

Sad to say, the usual sophisticated taste and feel of the dish went down. First, the rice lost its usual stickiness. The grains seem long and hard. I just hope this is not NFA rice for crying out load. When we usually eat Maki the rice is somewhat round and soft. Then the fish was like half it's usual serving and it appeared that the mango filing was used as an extender or trade off of some sort. Another knockdown, the Wasabi included in the box was like 2 pea sizes. It was weird, and I just thought that if the reason behind the drop in quality was the price, there should have been a disclaimer at the counter. We were robbed, if I may say.

And then I looked at the Kangkong plate and found two stems left. My wife smiled and knew what was on my mind.... If I were to wash down my taste bud revolt, I need to satisfy them. Slurp! Hmmm... yum.... oookay.... let's get going!