Welcome to Food Spots in Manila!

Hi! I am Sam. Welcome to Food Spots. In this blog, I will take you to my journeys throughout Metro Manila and share my food trip experience.

Here is a brief background of myself in order to better appreciate what I write here. I was born in the Manila and grew up eating traditional food at home such as tapa, lomi, taho, balot, tocino, sinangag na kanin, sinigang na baboy and my fave fried chicken. As I grew up, food from the nearby districts gave me a much wider pallete of culinary delights to choose from. Litson from the nearby La Loma district in Quezon City; Pansit, chopsuey, asado, kikiam and camaron rebosado from Binodo; Beef pares and siopao from Retiro Ave near Lourdes School Q.C. where I attended grade school (After class pares or mami/siopao is awesome).

Dietary restriction: None.

And since you are reading my blog, it is much better if you have an idea what my taste for food is like. To set expectations and you have been forewarned, I tend to veer away from the mainstream taste in food (for a good reason). I like to explore, I know what I want, and I do not have a "comfort zone" when it comes to food. If I travel to a far away place, I won't eat at McDonald's or Jollibee, that will be too stupid of me not to try out the local food and waste my opportunity to experience what people in other places eat. Here is a short sample of my "Hate and Like" list which is not necessarily in order.

Likes:
Shawarma Snack Center
Manukan sa Maynila
Chuck's Grub
Shou Zhou
Jonas
Happy Creme Puff

Hates:
Mang Inasal
Greenwich
Old Spagetti House
Chowking

Guys, I am fair when it comes to hating. I will actually eat and pay with my own money more than once before I consider including an establishment in my hate list. I'll gradually provide explanations why I put them there in my posts.

When you read this blog, you read what I personally feel about the food establishment. I won't be accepting any sort of discount or food voucher from owners of establishments when I set out to write a review. I value my integrity as an independent food blogger. I am immune to mass marketing from advertising companies because I do not watch T.V. or tune in to F.M. radio anymore and for someone who took advertising in college, I know how ad campaign works. My taste won't be swayed by glossy marketing campaigns and celebrity endorsers employed by food companies.

There are five people that influenced me in appreciating food. Mother, Lola (Grandmother), Tita Ging (Aunt Ging),Kuya (my older brother), and Stephen Yan of the 80's Canadian T.V. show Wok with Yan. More stories from them as I update this blog.


I will review and rate food establishments according to these criteria:

1. Service - You just don't serve customers by shoving food down their throats. Food is something that you ingest inside your body. Care and respect should be given by the one who serves you your food most specially if you are paying for it. Included in this criteria is how apt the actual environment of the food establishment is in relation to the product that they are serving.

2. Menu - Since it is impossible to sample all items in the menu, I will be looking out how they present and conceptualize their menu. This criteria also include the ordered food that I ate. Extra points if they have real vegetarian entries (not token entries). I make it a point to at least do some basic research in order to be knowledgeable about the food so I can better appreciate the cuisine. I won't order chicken kebab and say "I am disappointed because I was expecting it would taste sweet"... wow, haha.

3. Value - It is unfair to give a low rating for a 75 peso bowl of ramen because you compared it to a 450 peso glamorized version from a mall restaurant. In the food industry, you get what you pay for. So I make it a point to include value for money in my reviews since this is a blog about food establishments not exculsively how the food tastes like.

Rating system:

Not Recommended. I will not waste my time and money here again.

Neutral. I will not hesitate to eat here again but I'll watch what I order. And I do not feel strongly about it.

Recommended. I encourage my readers to try it out!!!

I guess the rating system is self explanatory. I avoid rating systems where I give "Excellent" or "Poor". Hahaha, who I am to judge these establishments.

Most entries here will be coming from "affordable" food joints most specially the obscure or "just below the mainstream radar" types. Those who do not have big marketing budget but definitely deserves our attention because of their awesome establishment. While I do splurge sometimes and eat at hotels or expensive restaurants, I'll make sure to document them in this blog.

My next entry will be a terminology and F.A.Q. page in case readers are confused or not familiar with the food I have mentioned. Also watch out for updates, I tend to find typos or errors after publishing posts haha.