Bangers just gave me my Paris Hilton fix!

JM and I went to see Thor at Rockwell last week; it was awesome by the way. Since we only had half an hour to eat before the movie, we decide to try out Bangers and had our sandwiches to go.

Ever since we discovered the beauty of hanging out in Rockwell (and my fondness for sausages), we wanted to try out Bangers but never had the chance in the past.

The first thing I noticed is their logo and the menu board, which is cute and will give you a diner-type establishment feeling.

They serve sandwiches, side dishes and a little of pasta. You can get your sandwich ala carte or in a  combo (sandwich + side dish + soda).

I had the Paris Hilton combo. I don't know why they call it Paris Hilton but it consists of hotdog, onions, tomato, relish and bacon -- I'm after the bacon, never mind the relish:p. The sandwich is quite fulfilling and the hotdog is very juicy. 
JM had the hotdog with chili (oops I forgot the name). Same as mine, the hotdog is packed with meatiness and is very juicy. He liked it a lot since it also had slices of jalapeño, which gives the sandwich its worth deserved chili kick! 
The combo came with a potato salad which we think is just plain ordinary. Maybe a little more mayo and egg will do the trick :).

All in all Bangers gave us a wonderful sandwich dinner and we will gladly be back to try out the other entries on their menu.

Starbucks shakes up its breakfast menu...for better or worse?

The coffee chain giant Starbucks Coffee has recently revised and reshuffled its menu. Sadly one fact of life is inflation and it's had a hand in the revisions, so almost every coffee beverage on the menu sells PhP10 dearer like-for-like.

Also unfortunate is how some old favorites are taking a bow. 

I learned from Mabie that a number of ladies out there sing praises about the Fruit and Nut Toast. When I tried it, I found it quite good. One order of PhP50 gets you two generous slices, plus a pat of butter and a vial of fruit preserve. 

I normally dislike the more plebeian analogue, raisin bread, but fruit and nut toast is more to my liking. It has walnuts and what looks like cranberries buried in the dough, and the bread itself is pretty good without having that eating-a-dry-sock taste that whole wheat bread tends to have. It's another example of why multi-grain bread just tastes that much better.

Prior to the menu refresh, I also tried the Sausage Roll, selling for PhP75. Imagine a sausage wrapped in a turnover of flaky croissant dough and you'd be close to the mark. It's also quite good, although for the price it's nothing mind-blowing. I'm not sure if this survived the cut.

We found an intriguing item on Starbucks' new menu, however. We tried the Roasted Chicken Pesto and Shiitake Mushroom sandwich, served on what looks like grilled ciabatta bread, for PhP140. It's just as big and as pricey as Starbucks' other large sandwiches.

Now, I'm not the hugest fan of pesto, and it's notoriously easy to get it overdone and have the taste of basil making roadkill out of everything else. 

The moist cheese serves as a great vehicle for the pesto, not unlike the spinach and artichoke dip with gorgonzola cheese that other Italian restaurants serve as appetizer. I'd consider this trifecta of ingredients - pesto, chicken and shiitake - quite well-judged. 

As I mentioned, care must be taken to avoid the pesto overruling any other ingredients' tastes, and the biggest potential victim here is the chicken (because the peculiar taste of shiitake will always make itself known - and I eat a lot of it). 

Mabie and I enjoyed this new sandwich as our breakfast. What's interesting is that Starbucks seems to have kept its large sandwiches at the same price. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that I can continue to enjoy this new favorite once in a while without blowing unnecessarily large holes in my wallet.