Mama Lou's, Adventures Down South

Okay, so its too much to be referring to BF Homes as "down south", but it was the first time that I drove to that area alone. Was feeling rather down because of some person I slummed it out with (yes, Kat Pauso, I can hear you saying, "I told you so."). Decided I wanted to go out. Now, most of my friends weren't available, even Derek, the ex-best friend of my ex, had a thing that he had to attend to - so I made my way down south to meet up with a good friend of mine, the Engineer.

So he's a new character for A-List Manila. Of course, the Engineer isn't really an engineer - guess this is left to be a private joke between the two of us. But, the Engineer was there to the rescue to help me in my time of need, I was invited to a nice dinner.

I was actually quite surprised when I saw how many restaurants were in the area. Take out the need to travel along the expressway (people from my generation still call it that, and not SLEX), and the having to pretend to have a BF Homes sticker, the area was actually rather nice.

The Engineer was telling me that a couple of years back, prior to the water system being properly fixed, the area's real estate value was really low. But after water was brought to their faucets 24/7, property value started to appreciate.

And with a wonderful smorgasbord of restaurants that started to mushroom, really, if you lived in the area, who needs to traverse to BGC or Makati for good eats, right?

There were so many options, but I settled to try Mama Lou's that Friday evening.

I left my car parked in Shopwise, and we decided to take The Engineer's SUV. He was going in and out of the streets, until we found ourselves cruising along some dark residential street, having left the establishments behind already. Who would've thought, nestled in the darkness of this village, if it still is - it was too dark to tell, there was a gem of an Italian restaurant waiting to be discovered.

The Engineer is a regular in Mama Lou's, so much so that when the owner saw him, he offered his table to him.

Mama Lou's is actually located in a house in BF Homes. The smoking area is the porch area of the house, and for diner's who want to dine inside, the sala and dining room of the house is converted to accommodate non-smoking diners. The Engineer's favorite table is situated right at the main door of the house.

While waiting for the wine and food that was ordered, I strolled around the porch area and took a snapshot of the decor that they had. I was especially amused by the cabinet with the painted stuff on it.

Taking the lead, and being quite the gentleman, The Engineer took the liberty of ordering for us. He ordered a bottle of merlot and his favorite items on the menu.

I am unsure what pizza he ordered. I tried checking the menu of Mama Lou's online, but couldn't figure out, based on the list of ingredients, what the name of this dish is. It had mushrooms, bell pepper, olives, and either pepperoni or Italian sausage. The vegetables you order separately for PhP 40.00, which gave the pizza extra flavor. I was told by the Engineer that Yellow Cab's Dear Darla may have been patterned after Mama Lou's pizzas. He sometimes orders this with anchovies.

I'll be updating the blog with the names of the items he ordered. Hehehe, sent him a text message just now. Hope he doesn't find it trivial.

The pasta dish was divine. According to the Engineer, Mama Lou's used to make their own pasta, but now they just purchase the packaged ones. Nonetheless, the way the pasta was cooked was still perfect.
I love this Spaghetti Seafood Olio. It definitely will have me coming back for more! I love the way they  opted not to toast the garlic. It was so fresh to the bite.

The Italian Meatballs in Pomodoro Sauce were filled with cheese. It was great paired with the red wine that we ordered.

Now, if you want to pay Mama Lou's a visit, below are their details:

Mama Lou's Italian Kitchen
B1 L36 Tropical Avenue cor. Tropical Palace
BF International, Las Pinas
tel. no. 02.519.1977
mobile 0917.834.MAMA (6262)

Yomenya Goemon, Italian and Japanese Fusion

Now I have eaten in this restaurant about 5 times already, and I think it is only now that I will be writing about it. Why didn't I share this sooner?

Call me selfish, maybe I didn't want to report about it, because I wanted it all to myself. My favorite cuisines are Italian and Japanese, so the fusion of both only excites me. This is my comfort food at its best.

I keep on forgetting the name of the restaurant, and honestly it is a mouthful. I just remember it as the restaurant where Big Buddha used to be. And you know what, it might be owned by the same company. What do I know? Anyway, on to the food!

One of my favorites is the Mentaiko Shrimp and Japanese Herb. What I love the most about this pasta is the cod roe! This is how I spice up my ready-made Muji pasta sauces, I usually add botarga, left-over caviar, or the vegetarian caviar of Ikea. This is really good pasta! Just add a little salt to bring out the flavor of the sauce.

I also enjoy ordering their pasta dishes which entail breaking the yolk of an egg placed in the center, and then mixing it to bind the pasta and the sauce. One of our pasta orders last night was the Sausage, Bacon, and Salmon. The sauce is soy based with butter. Did I mention you had to break the egg yolk and mix it in? :)

What's an Italian dinner without pizza, right? Ditching the Japanese fusion, we ordered the Longganiza Pizza. Really appetizing. I just wish they added more variants of the local sausage, the mixture of flavors might be pretty exciting, who knows?

Interested in eating in Yomenya Goemon?

Yomenya Goemon
2/F Greenbelt 3, Esperanza StLegazpi Village, Makati(02) 729-0586