Dampalicious!

Hey, peeps! Here’s our first review for this blog. This falls under the restos category. As we’ve told you from the beginning, Joy and I are very fond of eating, so we try to discover new restos. Some rip us off of our hard-earned moolah, bwiset, hehehe, but most of them are pretty good naman. In fairness.

The resto we’ll be reviewing now is Sharmila. I’m pretty sure most of you are familiar with Dampa, the most famous is of course the original located in Las Pinas. But there are also other Dampa establishments such as the one in Macapagal, Libis, and Julia Vargas. Because it’s nearer us, well me actually hehe, we pretty much frequent the one in Julia Vargas known as Seaside.

The original Dampa actually is in Paranaque, near Air Force One. Hmmm… Ba’t di ba natin na-try yung Air Force One, Be? Alam ko may seafood din dun eh… Hehehe…

Ibang seafood yun no! Hmph! And besides we went there already, remember the launch of Maxim magazine? Kasalanan ko ba na hindi pagkain ang inatupag mo nung andun tayo?

Heheh… at least nag-window shopping lang ako, di ako nagpaluto! Hahaha! Heniwey…

This is the end of this blog.

Patay tayo diyan! Heheh… joke lang Be. Ang aga pa para magsign-off. Wala pa tayong narereview. Hehehe. So yung Seaside… hmmm… yung Seaside, okay ka lang ba Be? Wag mo ihampas sa akin yung laptop. Mahirap magtype. Anyway, Seaside. We frequent this joint kasi one-stop shop rin sya. Masarap yung seafood, fresh, in fairness, tapos may mga DVD stalls sa tabi! Rakenrol!

Like I was saying earlier, to those unfamiliar with the Dampa concept, there is a string of small restos within Dampa where you can have the food you bought in the market cooked. A variety of fresh fish, shrimps, crabs, oysters, and other seafood are available. There is also paihaw like liempo and inasal. Regardless of which Dampa we are at, we always go to Sharmila. In the case of this review, it is Sharmila of Seaside where we ate this afternoon.

Sumasakit pa nga yung joints ng kamay ko hanggang ngayon eh… Uric Acid tayo diyan! In Sharmila, we just order from the waitresses and they do the shopping for us, although you may opt to do it on your own, lalo na kung may particular na choices ka sa seafood. Kasi kami, hehe, hassle eh. Upo na lang kami, nood TV (Startalk, anyone?), tapos antay na lang ng lutong pagkain… ATTACK! Hehehe…

Wait, let’s put some order to this review. Since you already mentioned the TV, how about reviewing the place first before we go straight dun sa food?

Hokey, the place is not five star, but definitely, di naman tipong karinderya. Air conditioned naman, di mainit, pwera na lang syempre kung nasa labas ka… TOINK! Heheh… sorry Be. Hehehe… Yun… may TV…

Okayyyyy… Uhm, sige ganito. The place is fairly clean, that is if you don’t mind a few flies buzzing about whether indoors or out. You may choose to eat inside which is airconditioned and which Bob so fondly stresses, there is a colored TV. Or you can eat outdoors where at night an acoustic act usually performs. The servers are friendly enough and being regulars to the place, we get to enjoy a discount na hehehe. I think Bob is getting antsy, let’s go straight to the food na nga.

Ano yun? Nilalanggam? OO! Kasi sweet ako… NYERRK!

Nyerrk is correct Be.

Anyway, for discounts, look for Ivy. Heheheh… Pero you have to bring us with you. Nothing talks like face value in that place… Toink! Hehehe… I was talking about you, Be. Okay. The Food. We ordered 2 of the bestest best offerings they have in the place. As you can see in exhibit A: The Crab. Yummy.

I’m not really sure if we can call it the bestest best kasi ito lang naman talaga ang palagi nating ino-order. In fairness, masarap kasi talaga.

Kasi BOB knows BEST! Tsk. Wala nang iba sa Menu ang makaka-satisfy sa atin! Hehehe… onga, baka may ibang masarap, medyo mahal na kasi eh. Ehehehe. Pero yun, crab. In butter-garlic goodness. Sinasabaw pa ni Joy sa kanin. Ayun, tanggal yung Gall Bladder. Actually, celebration to of some sort. Ang pagbabalik loob ni Joy sa butter-garlic world. Hehehe…

And the aligue, omigod the aligue!

Gall Bladder RIP 1979-2007.

Naku no it was worth it! Especially with Haagen Dazs Macadamia Nut ice cream for dessert! But that’s a different review. I’m sorry, I digress. Ok, back to the butter-garlic crab. A little education for the uninitiated. There are three types (genders?) of crabs, there’s the female kind where the aligue is plentiful but it’s medyo matigas, yung dark orange yung color. Then there are male crabs with the least aligue of all. Then there’s our favorite, the BAKLA crab which has the right amount of aligue and is the tastiest and juiciest and creamiest of them all… hay naglalaway na naman ako…

Ako di na makatype. Letsugas na Uric Acid yan o. Anyway, sa crab talaga, yung mga nakatikwas ang sipit ang the best. Hehehe…Tama lang yung aligue (crab fat, para sa mga inglisaysing), texture-wise makinis. Di mahirap kainin… CHARING NA CHARING! Kasi dun naman sa Babaeng crab, malulunod ka nga sa aligue, tirik naman mata mo after maka dalawang takip ka. Sa lalaki naman, lugi! Halos, walang narating yung bayad mo. Sa Bakla, chot na chot! Hehehehe…

Si Bebi talaga, puro kalokohan. How are we gonna have any credibility niyan?

Bahala ka sa Mayaman, ako sa Jologs. Hehehe…

Hehehe… Anyway ingat lang sa mga mataas ang cholesterol and uric acid kasi eating this often will surely land you a visit to the hospital. But believe us when we tell you that this dish is something you really have to try. A kilo of crabs will amount to siguro mga 3 pieces, tapos they chop it and cook it in a mixture of butter, garlic, some soy sauce I think, probably a dash of calamansi, and other spices. Just look at the picture, diba itsura pa lang ang sarap na talaga?

Ika nga, picture pa lang, Ulam na… labo. Ulam naman talaga to eh. Hehe… Moving on to the shrimp! Galing Japan pa to! Hehe… Joke lang. Tempura yung trip namin kanina, and we’ve been patrons of this offering since we first tried it a few months ago. Actually, di naman namin sya talaga dapat susubukan, since we have all the Teriyaki Boys and Kimpuras for this, but we’re telling you, nung nasubukan namin (actually, nadala lang kami eh, daming umuorder) panalo rin pala. It can par up to the Teriyaki Boys out there. Panalo rin. Nga pala yan yung Exhibit B. Yum!

Ever since we started eating in Dampa, what we always ordered was sugpo na hinalabos sa Sprite…

Which is panalo rin in its own right…

That’s right, sobrang tasty. But then some time ago Bob and I gave in to our curiosity kasi nga like he said, we saw a lot of people ordering it. We were hesitant at first kasi feeling namin, sa Japanese resto ka na kumain ng tempura, at least alam nila yung pagluto talaga. But we decided to try it and ayun, mga converts na kami! We’ve been ordering it ever since kasi hindi lang kasing sarap (or maybe even better) ng mga ino-offer sa Japanese restos, you also get your money’s worth kasi if you compare the prices between Dampa and other Japanese restos, mas marami kang makakain na tempura shrimp sa Dampa.

Isa pa, one of our hesitations was if the batter was done right. Baka mamaya, arina at itlog lang, ano yun? Breaded shrimp? Manok lang ginaganun! Atsaka Porkchop… hmmm…

Are you hungry again Be? Hehehe...

Mej…

Hala, dibale may takeout pa tayong crab sa sasakyan hehehe… Anyway, speaking of the batter, our only criticism dun sa tempura shrimp ng Dampa is that, although the batter used to coat the shrimps is masarap talaga, medyo they have a tendency lang to put a lot of breading dun sa shrimps. Nakakauwa siya if you eat all of it, so what we would suggest you do should you try this dish is to remove some of the excess breading, after that, no more complaints! Okay na lahat!

Hehe, actually, kung marami kayo, pwede pang i-ulam yung excess na breading eh. Dami lang talaga. Pero, agree ako sa fact na na-point out kanina ni Joy. Sobrang value for money ang Tempura sa Dampa, well at least sa Sharmila. Sa price na yun, about P1200 lahat-lahat, di ka makakarami sa ibang restos diyan. Sobra pa yun, halos di na namin kaya nung bandang huli… Ubos ba yung pagkain? OO naman! Sayang yun kung iuuwi mo pa, baka masira sa transit. Excuses ba? Hehe… Oo na matakaw na ako! Hehe…

Now P1200 may sound like a lot for some of you but you have to take in consideration yung dami naming umorder ni Bob hehe. The breakdown is as follows: 1 kilo bakla crabs in butter-garlic sauce, ½ kilo sugpo tempura style, ¼ kilo inihaw na liempo, 1 bowl of rice, 3 cans of soda, and 1 bottled water. Kahiya man sabihin pero dalawa lang kami ni Bob na kumain kanina. So if you have smaller appetites, you will definitely, definitely, pay a smaller bill.

Truth be told, pang apat siguro, pwede tong inorder namin. O panlima pa raw. Depende kung kasama kami ni Joy. Hehe. So ayun, guys, you may want to check this joint out. Sharmila’s Ihaw Ihaw is the name of the place, inside Ortigas Home Depot compound along Julia Vargas, beside Metrowalk (although, if my memory serves me right, walang access from Metrowalk to this place.) You have to take J.Vargas talaga, if you’re going towards C-5, you have to make a U-turn at the first slot after Meralco Avenue intersection.

Thanks for giving the directions Be, you know how bad I am with that. Anyway, if you’re nearer the South area, there’s also a Sharmila in the Paranaque Dampa (where we also enjoy a discount hehe) as well as in the Macapagal branch. Hindi ako sure dun sa Libis kasi I think yun na lang yung Dampa na hindi pa namin nasusubukan ni Bob. We have this goal kasi of trying them all out hehehhe. Someday.

Til the next review. Happy Damping?! Huh?