Monday, February 2, 2015

An Afternoon of Fun at Cartimar, Pasay City



Living in Pasay has it's perks as well, though it's not as popular to city dwellers in the upper class unlike Makati or Pasig.  One lazy afternoon, as Bhogs and I were looking for a grooming place for our pet Lhasa Apso, Hazel Nutella, we thought of going to Cartimar.

Cartimar is famed for pet lovers, as it is a one stop venue for all our pets' needs.  Also, a famous place to buy a new pet, you can definitely go frantic in choosing your new pal, as quite a number of stores line up selling certified pups, birds, fish and other rare pets.

Whenever we need to buy bicycles, we also come here. In fact, all our kids' training wheels to bikes were bought here.  Bikers also have their nooks here where a couple of stores open up for gears, and stuff for biking or racing are up for grabs.

Not only that, we also buy our plants here.  From flowering, to herbs, and indoor plants, this is where we go to buy them.







A couple of years ago, we were also here and discovered that they now have a food hall at the center, which caters to every one's culinary cravings.  Stalls from typical franchises, some Japanese and Korean stalls and of course our native favorites are well served there, at a place where you can hang out after buying stuff.


But here is one great discovery!  I knew for a time that there are stores selling Korean products here and I remembered my daughter telling me that they'd come here to buy Bungeoppang, waffle ice cream sandwich with a fish shape.  But never did I knew that there are more Asian stores open to imported Asian items and kitchen staples.


There is even a Japanese grocery store and now a quaint Korean restaurant that's being frequented by diners, who probably know the place.  


Honestly, I didn't give much attention to its name, since it is written in Korean or Japaness.  Thanks to Zomato, I was able to get the name.  It's Arisoo.

This very unassuming place is simply, cozy and what I love is that when you come in the aroma from the food being cooked is wafted out from every corners of the room. 


It's nice that apart from having a handy menu, their offerings are posted on the walls, so it's easy to choose what to order.  

The challenge though is to see how fast they can process an order, how nice they would plate it and how it would fare with our taste buds.


We were surprised how it only took 15 minutes to prepare our dishes.  And guess what, we were each served with a bowl of miso soup.   Their Miso soup taste like a creamy soup with a great mild flavor has a slightly fermented flavor with a taste of onions, however, well since it's complimentary, there were only a few tofu and sea weed.


Bhog's bento, was comprised of Pork Bulgogi (P 120), sauteed veggies and bean sprout and a hefty serving of rice.  Though the rice is local, it's not the sticky Japanese rice we are accustomed to having in Japanese or Korean restos.  However, I find their bulgogi better that what is served in Tokyo, Tokyo.  Taste is authentic.


Bibimbap (P 150) is my kind of plate!  Look at how colorful it is!  Doesn't that plate spell fresh?  Encircling the rice topped with fried egg are a variety of vegetables, radish, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, bean sprouts and of course the sauteed pork bits.  I really love how they have seasoned the dish except the kimchi isn't that firey spicy, unlike what we had at Chef's Noodles and Maru.

That afternoon was just amazing, we had our dog groomed, made friends with some of the pups awaiting for their owners, went home with a couple of indoor plants and bought some Korean goods to fill the freezer and noshed these Korean dishes.  Oh, if only I had more money, I could also go home with some RTW's or shoes, coz Cartimar used to be famous with imported shoes.

Cartimar Shopping Center
Santa Clara, Pasay City

2 comments:

I would love to hear your thoughts on my post, care for a comment?