beef stew – Jellybeans in the City

Out with friends or family?

How about treating yourself and your companions to a meal at GoGo Kitchen at Seascape Village in Pasay City?

GoGo Kitchen boasts of a modern black-white-green decor that still exudes a homey vibe. Here, small groups to entire families can enjoy its own versions of Chinese and Filipino dishes ala carte or have fresh seafood and other items purchased at Seascape Village’s wet market cooked by the resto’s chefs.

Together with fellow foodies from #WeLoveToEatPH and #SaanSaPH, I attended a food crawl organized by Seascape Village, the second stop of which was at this restaurant. Here, we tasted some of its signature dishes which included:

GoGo Fried Chicken (Php280 for small | Php380 for medium | Php480 for large). Tender and juicy chicken pieces coated with GoGo Kitchen’s housemade breading.

Fried Pampano in Black Bean Chili (Php350 for small | Php450 for medium | Php550 for large). The mildly flavored pampano fish is enhanced by the tausi chili sauce.

Grilled Liempo (Php320 for small | Php420 for medium | Php520 for large). Thick slabs of marinated pork belly, grilled for that wonderfully smokey taste and juicy texture.

Black Pepper Beef (Php450 for small | Php550 for medium | Php650 for large). Beef slices braised in a spicy black pepper sauce.

Salted Egg Shrimp (Php480 for small | Php580 for medium | Php680 for large). Succulent fresh shrimp cooked Singaporean-style in salted egg yolk, milk and spices.

Yang Chow Fried Rice (Php280 for small | Php380 for medium | Php480 for large). A staple in any Asian restaurant, this special kind of fried rice made of cooked rice, bits of pork and aromatics serve as a perfect complement to the dishes served.

Buchi. Known in China as jian dui and more commonly as sesame balls, this is a favorite dessert after a Chinese meal made of glutinous rice studded with sesame seeds and filled with a lotus paste.

My friends and I had our fill of yummy food and laughter which just goes to show: good food and good company make for a great time!

Thanks to Mica and the crew of GoGo Kitchen for the warm welcome and the fantastic eats, and to Jen and Louie of Seascape Village for inviting us!

Enjoy free dishes at GoGo Kitchen when you unlock your Zomato Gold privilege. Zomato Gold provides members with 1+1 (Buy 1 Get 1) deals on food or 2+2 (Buy 2 Get 2) deals on drinks. All you have to do is sign up for a Zomato Gold membership at here. Use my code JELLYB to get 10% off the membership fee.

Get up to 50% off the buffet rates when you book your table via Eatigo, restaurant reservation app that offers time-based discounts everyday in its 2,000 partner restaurants. Use this link when you register and get rewards points that you can redeem for gift vouchers and restaurant freebies.

GoGo Kitchen is located at Seascape Village, Atang dela Rama Street, CCP Complex, Pasay City (beside Sofitel Philippine Plaza), open daily from 11am to 10pm. For reservations and inquiries, call +63 915 5401181.

Disclosure: Together with fellow foodies, I attended a foodie meetup held at this restaurant. Food items mentioned here were served to allow us to sample the fare in exchange for an honest review and were not paid for by the attendees including myself.

Check out my reviews of other seafood restaurants:

Most Pinoys are fiercely loyal to their mom’s adobo. Not me, though. I can appreciate, even like, versions of adobo other than the one I grew up with.

My mom’s signature dish that remains unmatched in my opinion is her kare kare. Oh, yes! Here is where my loyalties unequivocally lie.

The irony is that when I was a kid, I didn’t even like kare kare. I found the idea of eating parts of animals other than the meat and skin unthinkable (and you should see the ingredients while they were still uncooked!). I also found the orange sauce weird, used as I was then to the brown hued sauces of adobo and mechado and the lightly-tinted broths of nilaga or tinola.

Then the time came, right around high school, when my palate began to mature and I started to develop a taste for the unusual, that I decided to give this dish a try.

Ooh, those bits of meat and cow innards so tender they melt in your mouth! That bright orange peanutty sauce that can already be considered a viand even if just accompanied by veggies (sarsa pa lang ulam na)! Put those together in a heaping spoon with steaming white rice and my mom’s home-made bagoong (shrimp paste) and I’m in heaven.

I recently made my mom give me this recipe (she had long ago given up trying to teach me to cook the more traditional or effort-laden dishes) by saying that her granddaughter, #ExhibitA, should start learning how to make it by now.

Ingredients:

1 kilo beef cheeks
1/2 kilo beef tripe and intestines
1/4 kilo ground peanuts (Note: you can substitute this with peanut butter but try to find one that’s sugarless)
2 tbsp flour
achuete (annato) seeds
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 small onions, chopped
1 small bunch of pechay (Chinese cabbage)
1 small bunch of sitao (string beans), cut into 2-inch slices
4 eggplants, sliced
1 small puso ng saging (banana flower bud), sliced
salt and pepper

Procedure:

Clean and boil the beef cheeks, tripe and intestines separately for 15 minutes in a pressure cooker. Chill overnight in the refrigerator and scoop out the fat that forms on top.
In a small pan, lightly toast the flour, then remove from heat.
In a casserole, saute garlic and onion, then add meat, tripe and intestines. Add a bit of the water used to boil the meat. Add the toasted flour and crushed nuts, then stir the mixture.
Add in the banana flower, string beans, and egg plant.
Soak the annato seeds in hot water. Strain and add to the stew.
Stir the mixture until thickened to your desired consistency.
Add the Chinese cabbage and season to taste.

Serve hot with freshly cooked white rice and bagoong.

This recipe serves 6 at 570 calories per serving. That’s quite a lot but you don’t get to eat this everyday anyway.

Want to learn more about Filipino cuisine? Check out these books on Amazon.com!

Want to try some recipes today? There’s no need to leave home to shop for ingredients. With Honestbee, just order your groceries online and you’ll get them delivered right at your doorstep at your preferred time. Use this referral link and get Php500 off for a minimum spend of Php2,500. You can download the Honestbee app on iTunes or Google Play.

If you’re in the US and an Amazon Prime member, sign up for a free trial of Amazon Fresh to get your groceries delivered to you.