Snackaroos 4: Jolleepies!!

Nope, the title is NOT a wrong spelling of a popular fastfood chain’s yummy Jolly Pies (I adore their pizza and tuna flavors which is often not in stock, why oh why??). Jolleepies by Goby is a Davao homegrown pastry product which we discovered just last week. Labsie and I were going out NCCC Mall’s main entrance when we caught a whiff of pizza. Our noses led us to an ongoing food expo in the mall’s atrium. And there it was, a free sampling of delicious looking savory mini-pies! I tasted one piece and whoa!! I fell in love immediately with the flavor – pizza underneath, creamy cheese and a hint of beef on top.

Labsie felt the same and decided on the spot to buy 1 box. He loves the pies, no doubt about it! I eagerly asked the salesgirl how much is 1 box and she said it was P42 for beef and chicken pies. It contains 6 pieces and I calculated, P6 for 1 mini-pie?? A pie that was just 1.5-2inches in diameter with about 1cm of delicious filling? Hmm.. Undecided, I popped another free piece and that sealed my decision. We bought 1 box of beef savory pies, still warm and smelling oh-so yummy! There it is, 6 pieces of mini-heaven in a bite!

The pies don’t look much but trust me when I say they are worth the price. With 2 pieces, you’d feel full but still wanting more. The crust is good but lacking the buttery taste that I have come to associate with excellent soft piecrusts. Yesterday, Labsie and I introduced Mama to the Jolleepies. She bought 2 boxes. What can I say? She loved it! My brother also loved the pies and demolished 1 box that Mama bought but, like me, he also balked at the P6 apiece tag. Let’s just say being a cheapskate runs in our blood. We’re Chinese after all, hehe!

As you can see, the pie boxes can also serve as gift boxes if you wish to give it to someone. The box has a To & From tag and is colored red, perfect for any occasions! In our country, red is a lucky color and we often wear red clothes during our birthdays and other important occasions. Anyway, Jolleepies also come in other flavors. For those who have sweet tooth, they have durian, buko, buko pandan, crema de fruta, choco cream, ube, ube macapuno and mango pies. Labsie and I didn’t try any of it, we don’t crave sweets unlike most Pinoys. Other savory flavors (aside from beef and chicken) include tuna, sisig, garden fresh beef (with vegetables), and garden fresh chicken pies. Yum!! Can’t wait to try all the savory flavors! =)

One last peek of the super-delicious Jolleepies! Mmm good! Buy now and spread the word guys! It’s still available in the NCCC Mall atrium but I don’t know for how long. You can also get it in the following places:
>Main: #11 Circumferential Road, Marfori Heights, Davao City (082-3031332, 0910-3858441)
>Matina Highway Branch (082-2971289)
>San Pedro College Branch
>San Pedro St. Branch (besides Lachmi)

Birthday Week Food Extravaganza!

Last July 18 I celebrated my 26th (wahhh) birthday but the celebration did not start and end on that day. In fact, the birthday foodfest started last July 14 in Kidapawan and ended last July 22 still in Kidapawan. But, there were foodfests in Davao in-between those days too, yeah! =) Of course these foodfests are NOT solely because of my birthday. The one in July 14 was my paternal grandfather’s birthday (July 13) celebration albeit he’s already dead for 3-4 years now. Yeah, weird huh? Just watch out for my full post on this and you’ll understand why my paternal Lola decided to have a typical Pinoy handaan for him. Here's Lola with my father beside her and the small feast. No lechon for the first time! LOL

The one in July 21 and 22 was my maternal grandmother’s 75th birthday celebration. Her birthday was July 19, just next to mine, and we typically combine our celebrations to save money on my parents’ part. But, often, my relatives forget it’s my birthday too, hehe! It’s ok though, my maternal Lola totally deserve all the adulation she receives during these times as she single-handedly raised her 10 children (!!!) when my maternal grandfather died. My Lola is a strong woman but you wouldn’t know it if you see her coz she’s very small, frail and looks meek as a mouse =) There she is (in red) with her sisters:

In between the Kidapawan foodfests were my and Labsie’s 93rd Monthsary celebration in a new European café called The Farm (July 17), my mini-birthday dinner at home (only two viands that’s why it’s called mini! hehe) on July 18, and my dinner-out birthday celebration in Zakoya Japanese Buffet (July 19). That’s three straight days of pigging out!!! But, hell, it’s my birthday! Time to let go of my strict diet. Hahaha! ;p Here are sneak peeks of my gastronomic adventures last week –-

Watch out next week for my 5-part Birthday Week posts. All of the things I mentioned above will have their own FULL posts with lots of pictures and some videos =) I’m really excited to do this coz it’s the first time I truly enjoyed my birthday without any worries that I’ll be late for school the next day, that I have to study for exams (coz often, its prelims week on my birthday, sigh), that I have to treat my classmates and friends, etc, etc. I’m very glad that I made the decision to NOT take the medical board exam this August. Coz if I will take it, I’m sure I would be buried in books during my birthday. I would worry endlessly of time “wasted” while pigging out and will not enjoy my birthday week at all. I would have missed Lola’s 75th birthday and hanging out with my not-so-little cousins. Most of them were in college already! Migod, time flew so fast! While I was busy in medical school and 24-hour duties, the kids I loved were growing up. I’m just so happy that I was able to reconnect with them. Thank you Lord! And thank you also for giving me parents who understood my need to rest and regroup before taking the medical board exam. Hehe! HAPPY ME! =)

TINOMOK ba kamo??

What the heck is tinomok?? Well, I also asked that question to our waiter in Gerry’s Grill (in Gaisano Mall) and he said it is one of their special dishes. In fact, in their menu it was proudly written that tinomok was reviewed by a prestigious food magazine and was given a thumbs-up sign. To quote the menu: "A bit like laing, only better.This is good. it was featured in a magazine." Nice! =)

Above (at left) is an UNappetizing picture of tinomok which does not do justice to its deliciousness! Looks like a mishmash of something green eh? Gakk! I’m really sorry but that’s what I get for forgetting the 5mp digicam and just using labsie’s fonecam. To top it off, the interiors in Gerry’s Grill are dim, very nice for dates but not good in taking pics, tsk! But as u can see at right, there's a GREAT photo of tinomok with the white gata sauce and silis clearly shown , yum! *drooling saliva*

It was our second time in Gerry’s Grill. The first time was with my family and we ordered most of the house specialties (grilled sizzling squid, crispy pata, beef casserole [beef, cheese, mashed potato & garlic, yum!] and sizzling sisig) pictured at left and they didn’t disappoint! All were heavenly and were gone in less than 30min, no thanks to the 4 guys with me and mama! =) Anyhow, labsie and I decided to order something different this time, something adventurous. Thus, we ordered tinomok which in their menu looked like green gabi leaves rolled into “balls” and drizzled with ginataan sauce. Mmm, I love gata! I thought it may be laing just served exotically. However the waiter refuted this and said that the gabi leaves were actually a covering for the meatball mixture inside. Ooh meat! (see the first pics above) That decided labsie to order it though I was still a bit apprehensive, what if we won’t like it?? There goes P150 down the drain, tsk! To be sure we still had viands if we won’t like tinomok, we ordered chopsuey (vegetables, yum!) and chicken kebabs. We also told the waiter to make our tinomok not so spicy coz I hate hot stuff. After 15-30min (we actually finished reading a local daily!) the food arrived. Here's the chopsuey (my dim pix at left and great pix at right, notice how similar they look!) --

I egged on labsie to take the first bite of tinomok and his face contorted! My heart sank, it’s not good but labsie suddenly laughed and spoonfed me a bite. Mmmmmm good! It was truly gabi + meat + unknown veggies with gata, kinda like laing but not hot. The tinomok was demolished in 15min! And even up to now, we still have dreams of going back to Gerry’s Grill and ordering it. The chopsuey was also delicious, the vegetables crispy and there were lots of seafood and meat mixed in. It was at par with Ahfat’s chopsuey =) The chicken kebabs, however, were just so-so. The chicken cubes were tender and succulent but for the price, it was not worth it. I could probably make a more savoury one at a cheaper price, tsk! It was interspersed with chunky onions, bell peppers and some button mushrooms. After the eye-opening dinner (or is it stomach-opening-to-tinomok dinner?), labsie and I were all big smiles. We were satiated and very happy to discover a new pinoy foodie find. Welcome to our hearts tinomok! =)