My List of 3's at Burritos & Tacos Restaurant (B&T): A review

We were invited by B&T Mexican Kitchen Marketing Manager, Eric Tan, and Chef Philip Tan for a Blogger's event at Burritos & Tacos Mexican Kitchen or what the restaurant's patrons call B&T Mexican Kitchen to taste the restaurant's sumptuous and colorful menu. I don't usually review restaurants but I want to know if I will get value for my money in this restaurant and besides I love Mexican food (mostly nachos and dips). I also heard that the serving at B&T Mexican Kitchen is really big. So I wonder, "How big is big"?

To give you the highlights of the B&T Bloggers' event I have enumerated here 3 things I love about B&T Mexican Kitchen and 3 things I wish B&T Mexican Kitchen had.

The top 3 things I loved about B&T are as follows:

1. I like their 3-step DIY meals. Its not really DIY since you don't really go to their kitchen and serve yourself. Its more like you tell the staff what combination you like for your meal and that's what they prepare for you. Honestly, I did not try this but I heard from fellow bloggers that its a must-try especially if you are with your barkada, family or even a date. Hence, I really like the idea which is also one of the reasons why I want to bring my family at B&T Mexican Kitchen.

2. I like the coziness and ambiance of B&T Mexican Kitchen especially the music. I found an eclectic combination of customers during my two visits in this restaurant. There were couples enjoying a meal, office workers hanging out and barkadas. All of them are at B&T Mexican Kitchen to enjoy a good Mexican meal.

3. Finally, I really enjoyed the food. After trying out the burger and quesadillas, I was really full but not the kind of full that I couldn't breathe anymore. I was "satisfied full". And for the purpose of reviewing this Mexican restaurant regarding value for money, I give it a full score.

All in all, I really I enjoyed my Mexican dining experience at B&T Mexican Kitchen but there are some tiny little things which could have made it perfect!

1. I wish that B&T Mexican Kitchen was accessible to commuters. Currently, B&T is located at G/F 368 Sekai Center, Ortigas Corner Madison Street, Greenhills, San Juan. For those who live at North Greenhills or studying at Xavier or ICA, B&T Mexican Kitchen will be very accessible to you. If you're coming from Gilmore, just drive along Ortigas and it will be on your left side. The closest landmark will be the second gate of North Greenhills. However, for somebody like me who lives at Quezon City, to commute going to B&T will take about about 4 rides or about P200 in taxi fare.

2. I wish there is a B&T Mexican Kitchen barkada meal package. Since this Mexican restaurant is just walking distance from two big schools like Xavier and ICA, I was imagining it would be a great hang-out place. The price range for meals at B&T starts at P300 excluding drinks.

3. I wish there was overflowing salsa. Well this is a list about wishes so if I were to have my way and really enjoy my Mexican food I wish to have overflowing salsa I can readily get from and maybe experiment also. The reason for this wish is because I love to eat tomatoes and I'm kinda shy to constantly ask for a refill since the salsa container is kinda small and I'm thinking its just enough for one bite. If Mang Inasal's selling point is the free rice refills then my ideal Mexican restaurant will have refillable salsa (Yipee!). And yes the salsa at B&T Mexican Kitchen is yummy. Actually, I was not able to finish my order because the servings at B&T are really big (in my opinion).

Crunchy and chewy at the same time. B&T quesadillas are perfect for sharing.

If I have one fantasy while eating in a Mexican restaurant that will be
overflowing salsa while eating nachos.

I was told that one food blogger who is actually thinner than me can actually
gulf down my order in one sitting.

Two people can actually eat just one order of B&T burger but if you're really hungry
then you will really maximize B&T's serving.

My favorite Mexican food so far at B&T.

I really wish to share my experience in this Mexican restaurant and I am so glad that I have an opportunity to do that now. Currently, B&T has a promo in its Facebook page. According to their page "(B&T Mexican Kitchen) Will be raffling off 50 winners to get 50% DISCOUNT on personal food order when membership of B&T MEXICAN KITCHEN hits 200."

To contact B&T, you may call them at 975-1850. You can also like their page at Facebook to get a chance to win a 50% discount!

Till the next post... :)

----
My blog is about consumerism and I am not a food expert. My goal is only to tell about my experience as a consumer. The ideas, opinions, thoughts reflected in this blog is solely mine.

Show Off Your Shape Nestle Fitnesse 14-Day Program

I have been doing the Nestle Fitnesse 14-day Program for a week now। So far, I can say that I have replaced at least one meal with a Nestle Fitnesse Cereal and on good days I can have two meals with Nestle Fitnesse Cereals।

My family and I recent went to Los Banos, Laguna for my husband's talk in SEARCA about Ex-situ Marine conservation। I was afraid that I won't be able to follow the program since we are out and its not that easy to bring your own food while traveling. So far, for those two days we were out of town I was able to keep my breakfast as per the recommended meal of the Fitness Program.

So here are the dishes I have prepared for myself from February 21 to 26, 2011

Day 2 of the Nestle Fitnesse 14-Day Program

Day 3 of the Nestle Fitnesse 14-Day Program

Day 4 of the Nestle Fitnesse 14-Day Program

Day 5 of the Nestle Fitnesse 14-Day Program

Day 6 of the Nestle Fitnesse 14-Day Program

My observation while doing this 14-day Fitnesse Program is that I actually eat frequently than before but in small portions. Let's say for example, I ate breakfast at 8am then I have to eat like a slice of pineapple by 10:30 am and then eat a rice meal by lunch time. By 3 pm I'm hungry again so I eat mirienda. I bought Digestives from my trip to Cebu which is one way for me to get my chocolate fix and still eat healthy mirienda. By 6:30 pm I am usually eating my second Nestle Fitnesse Meal or if not I have a rice meal. This depends of course where I am at the moment.

One major benefit I can say is that I do not feel bloated by the end of the day and I can fit easily inside my pants. I can actually say that I can see the difference in my stomach. I am actually wearing my maong shorts which I had since college. I haven't worn this shorts for a long time since I cannot breathe inside it anymore. So for me to be writing this piece, perform my daily chores and actually go out later still wearing it that means that I am actually breathing inside this thing which means that's a good thing. After doing my piece for Nestle, next week I will make a feature of canned fruits and healthy in-between-food I ate while doing the program and for sure Digestives will be there.

So till my next blog...

See yah!

Dust if You Must - My Cebu Expedition

A house becomes a home when you can write " I love you" on the furniture."

Crown Regency Mactan

I can't tell you how many countless hours that I have spent CLEANING!

I used to spend at least 8 hours every weekend making sure things were just perfect - "in case someone came over".

Then I realized one day that no one came over;

They were all out living life and having fun!

Now, when people visit, I find no need to explain the "condition" of my home.

They are more interested in hearing about the things I've been doing while I was away living life and having fun!

If you haven't figured this out yet, please heed this advice.

Life is short. Enjoy it!

Cebu Carbon Market

Dust if you must...

but wouldn't it be better to paint a picture or write a letter,

bake cookies or a cake and lick the spoon or plant a seed,

ponder the difference between want and need?

Cebu Cathedral at the break of dawn

Dust if you must...

but there's not much time with beer to drink, rivers to swim and mountains to climb,

music to hear and books to read, friends to cherish and life to lead.

D' Pond Family Grill

Dust if you must...

but the world's out there with the sun in your eyes,

the wind in your hair, a flutter of snow, a shower of rain.

This day will not come around, again.

Happy Children at the Carbon Market

Dust if you must...

but bear in mind, old age will come and it's not kind

And when you go - and go you must - you, yourself will make more dust!

Zipline at the D' Pond

Note: The author of Dust If You Must is unknown. "Dust if You Must" was sent to me via e-mail by a good friend of mine. I think it is a good introduction for the chronicle I am preparing for my Cebu Trip as it explains why I chose to go to this trip.

Day 1 of Show Off Your Shape 14-Day Nestle Fitnesse Challenge

Today my husband and I went to Parco Supermarket to buy our groceries. The first thing we noticed are the pre-packaged promotions from Nestle products and an ongoing contest for laptops.

What's convenient about the Nestle pre-packaged promotions is that first, you can get freebies from these promos. For buying a large pack of Milo one can get a bag. The bag was timely because my child needed a bigger bag to store his beyblades. I also bought two more boxes of the Nestle Fitnesse Cereals to complete my 14-day Fitnesse Program. For every box of 330 grams of Nestle Fitnesse Cereals there is a free 250 ml Nestle Low Fat Milk to which I am enjoying right now in this very hot day. Finally for every two liters of Nestle Low Fat Milk there is a free can of Nescafe Mocha. To top it all Parco allows a minimum charge of P100 for credit card payments so we were able to have several receipts to join Nestle's Win A Laptop Promo. All in all we were able to get 6 receipts all with a minimum purchase of P100 Nestle products which un turn gives us 6 entries for the Nestle's Win A Laptop Promo.




After paying for our groceries, I noticed that Nestle's booth opened where there is a registered dietitian giving us information about Nestle's choosewellness program. Our dietitian today is named Mark Cyrill. He talked to us about MOVABA or MOderation VAriety and BAlance.


Anyway, according to our Nestle choosewellness dietitian my Body Mass Index and blood pressure is at range but placed me at medium risk because of my lifestyle which is attributed to not eating breakfast and sleeping less than 7 hours a day. Still I was in a pretty good shape. My goal for doing thsi 14-day Fitness program is to have a weight of 110 pounds. I am currently at 112 pounds.


So for today two of my meals is replaced by a Nestle Cereal meal which consisted of 1 bowl of Nestle Fitnesse Cereals, 1 sliced of Dole pineapple in syrup and 1 glass of Sun Tropics orange-mango juice. So far I have eaten 1 matchbox size chicken, undetermined amount of Grower's peanuts and 1 250 ml Nestle low-fat milk.
Watch out for Day 2 of Show Off Your Shape 14-Day Nestle Fitnesse Challenge...

Show off Your Shape, Nestle Fitnesse 14-Day Program: A Chronicle

Early this year, I received a box of Nestle's Fitnesse Cereals. The first thing that popped in my head was "Does this program actually work?". With all the binging and pig-out-moments I had since November 2010 until early quarter of 2011 this year (gosh the party just never ends) I wonder if this 14-day Program of Nestle can actually help me.

Honestly early last year, I received the same box. But I didn't really pay attention then because my metabolism was high and it felt like fats weren't just produced by my body. But now that I'm almost turning thirty, I recently hear comments like "tumataba ka ata" or "your gaining cheeks". Well I wish somebody would say "your becoming more voluptuous everyday" but alas these blasted fats only find their way in my arms, hips and cheeks. I honestly think my cheeks are getting rounder.


So when I received my second box of Nestle's Fitnesse Cereals which is made of whole grain cereals, I really thought to myself, "what if I give this program a try?" The 14-day Fitness program may actually work but then if I really don't follow it religiously or do not have the discipline to follow through, I guess no program will actually work for. Thus, this box of whole grain cereals on my doorstep started my decision to chronicle my experience on following this 14-day Nestle Fitnesse Program.

My resolution:

1. I promise to tell the truth. I will be totally honest on writing what I ate. If I can't be honest to myself then how can I expect to be honest to other people, right?

2. I will document my meals by taking photos and then posting a brief description in my blog post.

3. I will weigh myself before, in the middle and after the 14-day Fitness program.

4. Lastly, I will do my water therapy together with my 14-day Fitness program. I swear by this water therapy not just for curbing one's appetite but also as a cleansing diet.


In my quest to do this 14-day fitness program, I seek the help of my spouse, Nestle and oh dear God. From my spouse, he promised to give emotional support. From Nestle they sent me three more boxes of Nestle Fitnesse Cereals which extends my supply for 9 more days. And the rest is up to me and my dear oh great God!

Till the next blog post...

HTC Sense 2.0 and Sense.com Workshop Event: A Review Part 3 of 3

This is the last of the three-part review I am making for the HTC Sense 2.0 and Sense.com Workshop Event held last January 27, 2011 at Mandarin Hotel.

What I sensed from Sense.com (pun intended) is that it is a community site made by HTC that serves several purposes for its clients. Mr. Wayne Tang described it as a a portal service that is free of charge for HTC users specifically for their latest HTC cellphones released last year 2010 and this year 2011. By using Sense.com, an HTC user can link his HTC phone to the server, back-up all of his phonebook contacts, check his call history, send sms using the server, locate messages even those years ago by using a keyword search, manage his HTC phone remotely and ring his phone even when it is in silent mode. Using Sense.com, an HTC user can also forward his calls to another number in case that person forgot to bring his HTC cellphone with him.

Another cool function which I hope you don't have to use is if in case you lost your phone, an HTC user can lock his phone using Sense.com and instead of showing the usual phone screen, an HTC phone will display the owner's contact details for it (HTC phone) to be returned. In the likelihood (which is high nowadays) that the person who found your HTC phone was not able to return it to you, the phone's information is useless to him (unless he finds a person from the cellphone land called Greenhills) because using Sense 2.0, you can erase all the contents of an HTC phone including the information stored in your Micro SD. As for the end user, your information can be retrieved from Sense.com to lessen the inconvenience of building your network and phonebook from ground zero.

During the HTC Sense Workshop I only had one question in mind, "How safe is the information stored in the Sense 2.0 or Sense.com?" Mr. Wayne Tang answered "it (Sense.com) is hosted together with Google; it (information) will not be released using the latest international standard servers from Taiwan, Singapore and Australia". What I deduced from his brief answer was that HTC users don't need to worry about storing their information inside Sense.com because HTC is using the latest international means to protect its users' information from being stolen.

Let's not create an issue here but identity theft is something we have heard before and information such as bank data, personal information, e-mails, sms, and other private data will be out there in a website. Thus, if HTC has really the means to protect all of its users. I consider it to be one great feat.

Other concerns that came up were valid issues raised by HTC users themselves including the short battery life for the HTC Desire lines and the unavailability of Sense.com at certain times. Mr. Tang acknowledged the first issue and stated that HTC is still finding a way to address the battery life. As for the second issue, he explained that because Sense.com is still being developed and updated hence there will be times that it will be unavailable for maintenance. However, he sort of promised that much improvements are to be expected this year 2011 from HTC to address all these concerns.

Photos taken from HTC Sense Workshop album in Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=586455943#!/album.php?aid=33105&id=154076797971723

And that concludes my 3-part review of the HTC workshop. I am still waiting for that text message or any form of message Mr. Mark Sergio promised to give the attendees which is a P1000 discount for its HTC phones. However, its been two weeks now and I haven't heard any from the HTC team.

Did the workshop do its purpose of motivating its attendees from buying an HTC phone. I think, generally, it did. However, there are still a lot of gray areas for me. But its not easy being first to promise a free of charge service portal like Sense.com. It's not easy to claim an intuitive phone. But I do hope HTC delivers what it promised in its "quietly brilliant" way.

P.S. I am not paid in any manner by HTC to make this post. This post is purely based on this blogger's perspective on what she understood based from the HTC Sense 2.0 and Sense.com Workshop Event last January 27, 2010.

HTC Sense 2.0 and Sense.com Workshop Event: A Review Part 2 of 3

Just as I promised I will give the meat of my experience in the second part of my blog about the HTC Sense 2.0 and Sense.com Workshop Event.


The first statement that got me to pay attention to Mr. Wayne Tang, HTC Singapore product manager, was when he said that "HTC Sense is an experience". In my head, I did not expect a program to be defined in such a personal manner. So the next question that popped in my head was that what kind of experience can HTC provide its users that will be different from what the other smartphones in the market are already promising?

So I listened intently to what the Singaporean manager has to say about HTC Sense and here are the things that further caught my attention:
1. Sense 2.0 is not an overlay.

2. Sense 2.0 is not a user interface

3. There are about 300+++ features in the HTC Desire phones (I'm thinking this is enough to keep somebody busy to learn one feature a day)

4. HTC Desire phones want to give its users a holistic experience. Holistic according to the web definitions I googled means "Looking at the whole system rather than just concentrating on individual components. The overall sum can be greater than a simple totaling of the individual parts, because the "system" adds something in addition. Another term is "systems thinking"."

Systems thinking? does it mean AI?

So what makes HTC Desire phones and Sense 2.0 a holistic experience? Mr. Weng Tan gave concrete real-life experiences a modern busy person can encounter on a regular business day and how his HTC Desire phone can be of service.

1. When a phone is left in your bag it recognizes that it is inside your bag and hence rings louder. Once you touch the phone it detects the human presence and it rings softer.

2. In a business meeting and your phone rings, you do not have to scurry to turn it off or cancel the phone, you just have to flip the phone to silence it.

3. When you receive a phone call the latest Facebook status update and photo of your friend will appear.

4. The phone has a birthday counter which will allow you to remember important dates.

5. The HTC Desire phones when turned on requires only 10 seconds to open.

6. Using your HTC Desire phones can allow you t merge several e-mail accounts in one folder wherein each e-mail account can be identified by color.

7. You can choose e-mails by assigning then in your priority list and you can move from unread to priority list mails by just moving the screen left or right.

8. All you need to do to get the remaining data of your e-mail is to scroll up. Unlike other phones that will ask you if you want to continue to read on. HTC figured that this adjustments can save a person seconds of his time and make the experience of reading e-mails more pleasant.

9. I am not good in finding locations so when Mr. Wayne Tang discussed about HTC Map Solutions I became curious if this is the phone that can help me with my problem. Because of Sense 2.0 and the features of the new HTC phones, its users are provided with HTC Map Solutions wherein you can download the entire google map of country and store it on your phone. And unlike for other Android phone, this service is provided for free by HTC.

10. Speaking of navigation, Mr. Wayne Tang also discussed that with the HTC Desire lines the user can continue to navigate and accept calls at the same time. Making it possible for the user to mutitask or choose the task he wants to prioritize.

11. In your travels, you take photos and videos of your explorations. With HTC phones they claim that you can now wirelessly stream your photo and videos on your TV.

12. The HTC user can also upload photos and videos directly from his or her Desire phone to his social networking sites. There is no need to remove SD cards and transfer to the laptop. The process is now shortened and made more convenient for the end user.

According to Mr. Wayne Tang, these are the some of the integral features of the HTC Desire line.

Tomorrow I will be detailing the things I learned about HTC Sense.com. I could add the information on HTC Sense.com in this post but I want my readers to savor the wealth of information about HTC Desire phones here to avoid overwhelming your brain.


Till the next blog post...

P.S. I am not paid in any manner by HTC to make this post. This post is purely based on this blogger's perspective on what she understood based from the HTC Sense 2.0 and Sense.com Workshop Event last January 27, 2010.