an unfortunate oil spill at poco deli

 

we are sausage and cheese fans and so happily got this treat from poco deli in kapitolyo. for P550 for a double serving we got 3 kinds of sausage and 3 kinds of cheese. satisfying, really can’t go wrong with something like this.

the main reason we will be staying away from poco deli is their sliced steak on a bagel sandwich (P200). on paper, it sounds almost perfect, sliced US beef on a sandwich topped with mozarella cheese. and when it got to our table, it did look yummy

 

but after the second bite, it turned out to be deeply flawed. the problem in one word: GREASE. the meat was oily, greasy and way overseasoned. almost like it had a knorr bath or something. and then there was mayo and then the cheese. just too much. the bottom piece of bread was soaked through with grease. beef fat would have been ok, yummy even, but not oil and grease.

here’s how the plate looked sans sandwich. glistening.

 

now it may be us. this place is very popular and their products do look most interesting. maybe we just had a bad break with this one. but right now it isn’t worth the drive out. maybe if we find ourselves in the area and with a strong hankering for deli meat.

it’s been a while, but we have a good one for you: haru

Camille found this place first. and one of the things she loved about it was that “it smelled like sushi!” at first i wasn’t sure what she meant, but once i entered, i got it. the restaurant smells very fresh – no “fried” smells!

this post, we’ll start with sushi – seeing as this is the restaurant’s specialty. they had a soft opening menu, but when they were in full operations and released their final menu, it was the sushi section that was obviously beefed up.

first off, the popular tuna sashimi (P220)

 

we’ve had this many times over since and each time it makes me happy. they use a really good cut of tuna. no ligaments. very very fresh. and they’ve been very consistent with this – best tuna sashimi experience.

another favorite is salmon maki (P200). the photo doesn’t show the full order, by the way

 

also remarkable in its freshness. i’m generally not a huge fan of salmon sushi/sashimi but haru manages to retain the sweet of the fish without any of the fishiness.

and because this was a favorite of the makioka sisters, we tried tai sashimi. maya maya (P290)

 

in the novel, the sisters would look down on people from tokyo because they enjoyed eating tuna sashimi. we had an idea why they felt that way – tai is richer, creamier than tuna. but, i suppose since our palates are more used to tuna that will remain to be our staple sashimi.

haru is now in full operation and there is much more to explore in their menu. the restaurant has become our favorite japanese place because of the really nice interior, decent prices especially given what we feel to be great quality. two chopsticks up and then some.

we’ll be posting about the cooked dishes soon.