Saint's Alp Teahouse (Regis Center, Katipunan)

Beloved and I had breakfast at Saint's Alp Teahouse a couple of nights ago. Yes, you read that right—we woke up near dinnertime and had our first meal at Beloved's new favorite street. Found at the same building of BonChon Chicken and Moshi Moshi, this food place is the only one we've yet to try in Regis Center.

Being a Teahouse, you can expect this to be one of two things: a Chinese restaurant or a following-the-fad drink-specializing food place. This falls to the latter. Three-quarters of their menu is filled with soft drinks that isn't soda or juice. They have varieties of teas, coffees, milkshakes, yogurts, et cetera. They do have a small portion of rice meals, half of which are breakfast meals, and a bit larger selection of snacks. Adding these two, though, is still dwarfed by their selection of drinks.

Anyway, since it's their specialty, Beloved got their Matcha Aulait with Matcha Agar (140 Php) and I got their Strawberry Milkshake (125 Php). Because, as I've mentioned, this was our breakfast, I also ordered their Beef Tapa (195 Php) and Beloved got their Honey Glazed Coffee Spare Ribs (195 Php). Finally, we got their Chicken Skin Chips (90 Php) just because.

'wich kraft (Magiting Street, near Maginhawa Street)

If you see the picture below, you might get spoiled, and I assume you're already spoiled because you're most likely to look at the picture if you didn't after I mentioned that. So, no, I didn't go back to Twistix, but I did find another place that serves these deep-fried potato spirals on a stick. Anyway, while going home yesterday, I passed by Magiting Street at UP Teacher's Village on the way to Maginhawa. At a somewhat hidden corner beside I Love Froyo, I saw it—a poster of the said genius of a snack. 'wich kraft, which specializes in sliders and schubligs, apparently also serves this deep-fried potato spiral thingies.

Unlike Twistix, which I assume name their product the same as their... uh... name, 'wich kraft conveniently names their deep-fried potato spirals on a stick Potatwist. I thought it was a pretty playful name, and because it's pretty affordable—50 Php for their large, I decided to try it out.

As said, their largest is at 50 Php. They do have small and medium sizes at 30 and 40 Php respectively. Similar to Twistix, they also have some flavors to choose from—cheese, barbecue, sour cream. I decided to forgo the flavorings and just have salt with mine.

Twistix (UST)

So, to continue my affordable-foodstuffs-that-deserve-fame-or-notoriety promise, I present another sub-100 Php review. Although affordable, I'm not really certain it's worth it, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, I heard from a friend who lives in Cebu that a certain snack item exists here in Manila that he'd want to try out when he visits here. Ironically, I have never heard of said snack item, but when I saw its picture, I immediately asked all my friends if they know where to get it. A friend said that they are sold at Robinsons Galleria, but then Beloved finds out that UST also has these things. Because I had little reason to go to Galleria, I decided to try out the said snack item with Beloved at UST.

I'm not sure if this place has a monopoly of this, which I doubt, but it (the place) was called Twistix. It's a humble stall located deep within UST's carpark complex's ground floor. So what is this said snack item? I'm not sure what it's called, to be honest, but I called it "potato spiral thingy", due to the picture friend from Cebu showed me. For convenience, I'll call it Deep-Fried Potato Spiral on a Stick in this review.

Twistix serves this snack in three sizes. The smallest is 50 Php and the largest 70 Php, with another size in between. They boast that it's 100% natural potato, and you actually do get to witness it making. Because it's a long journey for me, me and Beloved ordered the large one to share with.

Great British Take-Out (SM North EDSA)

While waiting for beloved at SM North EDSA a couple of days ago, I happen to pass by this small store at the Sky Garden which piqued my curiosity. When beloved arrived, we went back here because I was pretty hungry as I haven't eaten yet that day. Great British Take-Out boasts that all their items are below 100 Php. Since it has "take out" in its name, has Austin Powers references in their poster, and we were catching up with our friends to go to a movie, I thought this was a perfect place to try out.

Their menu really did consist of stuff under 100, but it was a bit brow-cringing that their top items were 95 Php. The price was still pretty fair, despite that. Their specialty were finger foods with chips (fries). I ordered their Shaggy Fish and Chips, priced at 95 Php. You get to choose what kind of chips and dip to go with it. I got their randomly chose their hand-cut fries and honey mustard sauce.

Serenitea (Banawe)

A couple of days ago, beloved and I went to Serenitea. Beloved has been wanting to go here ever since she heard of it since she learned from a friend that they serve milk tea and she being an aficionado of the said drink. The store was located at one of the junction roads from the McDonald's side of Banawe Street. Anyway, the opportunity to pass by here came a couple of days ago. It was a hidden store amongst car maintenance services, but the green sign somewhat makes it stand out from the crowd.

Inside was a pleasant atmosphere (free Wifi, yay!) and half a wall filled with different choices of tea. They had the usual green, black, but most of their menu were uncommon stuff such as uncommon fruits, unknown Japanese additives, Chinese ingredients, and Yakult, mixed with these usuals. Being a big fan of Yakult, I decided to order their Yakult Green Tea (90 Php) out of curiosity. Their drinks came with a free topping of your choice: pearls and lime jelly among others; I added lime jelly to mine. In addition, you get to choose the amount of sugar mixed with your tea: from 100%, apparently the sweetest, to 0%, obviously the healthiest. I went 50%. Beloved, aside from being a huge tea fan, is also a huge wintermelon fan that she was hugely disappointed when Bubble Tea took it out of their menu. There were three choices for her wintermelon craving, and she decided to go for their Wintermelon Sweet (70 Php), my guess would probably be a 100% sugarized black tea mixed with wintermelon. They didn't have much choices from their foodstuffs, so we just went for a couple of orders of their Fish and Fries (95 Php) because we were hungry.

Roti Mum (SM Megamall)

Before passing by Komoro Soba, we saw this somewhat new stall at the corner of where Komoro Soba is located. It's called Roti Mum. Beloved and I love Kopiroti's kopi buns (coffee-flavored buns) so we decided to grab some as well.

Beloved got for herself the Choco Bun and I got their Kopi Bun, both priced at 55Php. It was a take-out store, so there's no tables whatsoever, but you can see their buns being prepared, raised, and baked from their counter.

Peanut Butter Company (SM North EDSA)

Yesterday, beloved and I went to Peanut Butter Company. From the name, you can assume that it specializes in peanut butter. Basically all their menu, save a couple, has peanut butter in it. This includes their sandwiches, pastas, and burgers. Sounds gross? I made an appalled face when I first saw it. Beloved tried it once before and loved it. Since she wanted me to try out their burger, I gave in.

As I've mentioned, I did see a couple of items in their menu without peanut butter in it. The first one is their coffee, which apparently has free refills, and their Box of Chips (65 Php). I ordered that one since I just had lunch somewhere else. Beloved ordered their Peanut Butter Burger (185 Php). It boasted that it had sesame peanut butter in it. I also ordered a Wasabi Mayo Dip (35 Php) for my chips since I just know I wouldn't like peanut butter with my potatoes.