Express Sincerity

I learned about Sincerity's chicken from my mom who is notorious for not being fond of chicken. A friend made her try it, and trust me, if there's a chicken dish out there that my mom likes, it really must be darn good. Fortunately, Sincerity recently opened a stall at the Robinsons Magnolia food court so I could finally try it without having to go to Binondo. The long line of people that you'll always find at their store is very reassuring that their chicken is truly worth-trying.

You can order either half or whole chicken, but we just had half since my Dad, sister and I just wanted to try it. We were actually pleasantly surprised by how generous the half order is -- easily good enough for three people. At first glance, their chicken doesn't look like your typical fried chicken. They don't just use the prime cuts such as the thigh, drumstick, and wings which are normally used because these dark meats have the most flavor. They use every single cut of the chicken which is really impressive because they manage to make even the parts that are usually discarded taste so delicious. I mean, it's difficult to make white meat flavorful but they can make it taste the same as the dark meat parts.

Speaking of flavor, whenever I eat fried chicken, I already have an expectation as to how it will taste like since they don't really differ much from each other. However, when I tasted Sincerity's chicken, I couldn't quite put a finger on what ingredients were used to flavor it. Whenever this happens, I get excited because I know I'm eating something unique (and most of the time, delicious). It definitely has an Asian flavor, and not your typical American friend chicken. It has a subtle sweetness, and I think there's a little bit of ginger as well (but I could be wrong). Anyway, however they flavored this, it's so good that they don't even serve it with a dipping sauce or gravy because it's that tasty on its own. The breading is crispy while the meat on the inside is tender and juicy. It's easily one of the best fried chicken dishes I've had.

Aside from their chicken, we also ordered their Kikiam. Unlike other kikiams that use ground pork, you can see that they use tender slices of pork. My favorite bits are the ends because the bean curd sheet there gets extra crispy while for the rest of the dish, the wrapper has a nice crispy, chewy consistency. It's served with a sweet-spicy gravy-like sauce that compliments the dish well. 

I love trying out new dishes all the time, but it's not everyday that I find something that is so delicious that it makes me excited to recommend it. Sincerity, however, is one of those places that makes me so happy to share this food discovery with everyone. 

Vlog: The Great Gatsby Debut Hosting and City of Dreams

One of the things I absolutely love about hosting is getting dolled up for the event. Things, however, get even more fun when the party has a specific theme, and you get to play dress up for a night. For my last hosting job with Martin, we hosted someone's 18th birthday and the theme was The Great Gatsby. Having read the book and watched the movie, you could just imagine how excited I got when I found out I could dress up just like a flapper girl, and be my own version of Daisy Buchanan. In true Roaring Twenties fashion, I wore pearls, a silver headband with feathers across my, and some gold and silver studded shoes to accessorize my flowy cocktail dress. I also rocked some black eyeshadow and dark red lips for my make up. We had such a fun time hosting, we felt like we were also just enjoying the festivities even though we were actually working.

It seemed like a pleasant coincidence that as Martin and I were hosting a Great Gatsby-themed party which is known for its decadence and excessiveness, the venue of the party is right beside the newly opened City of Dreams which is a lavish resort and casino in Manila (and is even endorsed by Jay Gatsby himself, Leonardo di Caprio). While we were in the area, we also got to explore City of Dreams for the first time. It's a nice place to go to if you're a high roller and you're feeling a bit lucky to play cards or slot machines. There are also restaurants to eat at, several high end boutiques to shop at, and Dreamplay which I'm not sure what it is exactly. All I know is that it has the Dreamworks cartoon characters and a whole lot of children lined up to go in it. 

If you want to see more of the place, and how our hosting went, make sure to check out our latest vlog!

May Favorites

I can't believe how fast the month of May flew by! Well, one reason could be because I spent about a week binge watching four seasons of the TV show Scandal. It's just one of the things I absolutely loved for the past month. If you want to know what other beauty, fashion, and random things I loved for the month of May, make sure to check out my May Favorites video!

Life Lately #1

Instagram: @deniseyalung

I was trying to come up with ideas on new things I can post here on the blog, and I thought of adding a little more personal touch in here. Aside from simply writing restaurant features and reviews, I also want to share snippets of what's going on in my life. To make things more interesting, I'm going to be doing this "Life Lately" series using my Instagram photos. For my first post, the color green seems to be a theme. 

1) The weather seems to get hotter by the day despite summer coming to a close here in the Philippines. On days when the heat just becomes unbearable, I turn to my friend, Starbucks, for some ice cold beverages to help me cool down. My favorite Starbucks drinks are their Iced Caramel Macchiato and their Iced Chai Tea Latte.

2) If you catch me in the kitchen, chances are you'll find me cooking pasta. If I had a specialty, it would be my pasta dishes because they're so fast and easy to cook (not to mention delicious). I recently cooked my all-time favorite pasta dish -- pesto with chicken and mushrooms, and my family and I wiped it out in an instant!

3) When I wake up, I usually go out to our garden to breathe in some fresh air and to bask in the morning sun. One time, as I was having my coffee, I realized that we had some makahiya plants in our garden which are plants that fold up when you touch them. It definitely brought back childhood memories of me playing with these plants, and I felt like kid all over again as I touched each one of them.

4) Speaking of plants, a lot of the tropical plants that we have in the Philippines are in full bloom during the summer, and I can't help but admire how pretty they are. Whenever my Dad and I would drive around, we would talk about the beautiful flowers and plants that we'd pass by. We recently saw this gorgeous Golden Shower plant and I just had to take a picture with it. I felt like it was one of our tropical versions of a cherry blossom.