Awesome Food, Drinks at Tokyo Bubble Tea

When I pass by a Tokyo Bubble Tea branch anywhere in the metro, I've always perceived it as a place that's just for afternoon drinks and desserts. Is it just me or is it how you think of it as well? That perception totally changed one afternoon when I finally got to try not just their new special drinks, but also their excellent food items.

I visited the largest branch yet in Katipunan and instantly felt the Sakura season in the air. Japanese cherries or sakura make up a tree with cherry blossoms, which is one of the most photographed scenery in Japan. Teaming up with the season, Tokyo Bubble Tea offers the newest variant of milk tea and milk shake to its fans - the Sakura Milk Tea and Sakura Milk Shake.

The Sakura Milk Shake (Php175) is light, tasty, and very refreshing. Its base is made of green tea combined with milk, vanilla essence and cherry flavor. It comes with bubbles (pearls in brown sugar syrup) by default, but can be customized by changing the sugar level (0%-100% in increments of 25%) and adding or selecting a different topping of taro cubes, mango bits, vanilla ice cream, coffee jelly, red beans or egg pudding for an additional Php25 per topping.

Tokyo Bubble Tea isn't all about milk teas and milk shakes. Whether you like appetizers, dessert or full meal, they have a wide variety of food items to choose from. It's a "restaurant" after all. Let me share them with you as you read on.

First up - Bulgogi Nachos (Php245) that can be shared by 2-3 people. A good order as snack or appetizer, this is a mixed of spicy mayo, onion, tomato, and carrot strips together with bulgogi (ground meat with Korean sauce) thrown on top of crunchy nachos. Really good!

Fan of maki? Try the Nippon Ebi Maki (Php285) composed of breaded prawns rolled in sushi rice, topped with mango, all laying on mentored mozzarella cheese base. 

Samurai Burger (Php248) is also a great snack or meal for the hungry. This is a far cry from the usual burgers available elsewhere. In between the sesame seed bun are lettuce and potato frits on top of a juicy pork patty, flavored by a mix of apple sauce and honey mustard. It is also served with crunchy fries, which Tokyo Bubble Tea makes locally in their commissary kitchen.

On to the entrees, I was able to try the Omurice with Steak Mushroom Sauce and Hamburg Steak (Php238), one of the crowd favorites. It's flavorful fried rice is covered with omelet and special mushroom steak sauce, served with a tenderly cooked beef hamburg on the side.

This next dish, the Korean Bibimbop (Php285) was specially requested by the resto's frequent visitors to be restored to the new menu when they tried to remove it. Well, it came with a reason. It's really, really delicious! What do I get with it? Rice mixed with ground beef, white onion, garlic, Korean sauce, zucchini, carrots, bean sprouts, spinach, mushroom, egg, and chili paste.

For the last entree, here comes my favorite - Grilled Porkchop on Roasted Tomato Sauce (Php248). I was like a kid thrilled to find a treasure of grilled pork cutlet marinated in special tomato sauce underneath a rice-covered melted mozzarella cheese mixed with caramelized onions. Yum!

All of those delectable food orders were capped off by Honey Bee Patisserie's Sakura Mango Roll (Php120/slice), a strawberry chiffon roll with mango in cream at the center. It's not overly sweet - just enough to balance the palette from the meal earlier.

My experience trying out Tokyo Bubble Tea's food and drinks was excellent! I will surely come back the next time I crave for a full meal, drink and dessert combo. I highly recommend their food!

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Tokyo Bubble Tea Milk Tea Place and Restaurant
Honey Bee Patisserie
209 Katipunan Avenue, Brgy. Milagrosa, Project 4, Quezon City
(02)961-8904

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Samsung Galaxy S5 Now Available in 125 Countries including the Philippines

From one powerful smartphone to another, Samsung has officially launched their newest flagship phone - the Samsung Galaxy S5 - here in the Philippines together with other 125 countries around the world. This proves that our country is considered to be a priority by the said smartphone manufacturer. In addition, they have also launched smart watches called Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Fit.

Samsung Galaxy S5

The Samsung Galaxy S5 has very similar dimensions as with its predecessor Galaxy S4, but is packed with more mention-worthy capabilities and features running on Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS:

• Selective focus taken from a 16-megapixel rear camera - one picture, multiple after-pic editing focused on different areas of the photo
• Faster shutter speed - taking pics of children and moving objects is now easier with a quicker shutter speed
• 2-megapixel front camera - taking selfie's is no problem!
• Dust and water resistant - accidental water splashes and dirt won't matter at all
• Finger scanner - check your heart rate with this feature
• Download Booster - combine the power of LTE and WiFi to accelerate your downloads
• Ultra power saving mode - just what we need to save up the juice
• Safety assistance - call for emergency when something bad happens

Display

The new Galaxy S5 has a 5.1-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, slightly larger compared to its predecessor that had a 5-inch display. The screen’s resolution is at 1920 x 1080 with a 432 ppi, which means more vivid colors on screen. It also has an intelligent Adaptive Display that allows the screen disply to auto adjust depending on your surrounding lighting conditions (e.g. indoors or outdoors) and an extra low dimming mode which can come in handy if you’re in a dark room.

Cameras

Galaxy S5 has a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with a larger image sensor, allowing the camera to capture more light. Meanwhile, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera is an improvement from before. Auto-focus speed has been increased to instantly capture moving moments which is three times (3x) faster than the auto-focus found on the Galaxy S4. In addition, DSLR camera-like features were also added: “selective focus” feature, allowing shooting of photos with different depth of field; HDR (Rich Tone) mode creating HDR-enhanced photos or videos.

Battery

In addition to the 2800 mAh removable battery, Samsung also added a new “ultra power saving” mode to help conserve the phone’s battery life by shutting down all unnecessary features to dramatically minimize battery consumption.

Design

A far difference from the Galaxy S4 is the leather-like cover of the Galaxy S5. It comes in four different color options: shimmery WHITE, charcoal BLACK, copper GOLD, and electric BLUE. The phone is also IP67-certified dust and water resistant, covering all ports for added protection.

The S Health app is also now integrated with a heart-rate monitor right under the camera sensor at the back of the phone.

The Galaxy S5’s download booster technology enables the pairing of WiFi with the LTE cellular connection simultaneously to maximize overall download speeds if necessary.

Security

There’s an integrated fingerprint reader above the home button. This allows a user to unlock the phone for more security and also pay for services through PayPal with the swipe of a finger.

Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo

This is the new Gear 2, an upgrade from the first Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch launched last year. It is now slimmer without the protruding camera. Its 2-megapixel camera is now built-in on to the watch as compared to before where it's on the strap.

The Gear 2 Neo, on the other hand, is the cheaper version compared to Gear 2. It has a plastic frame as compared to the Gear 2 with steel. It doesn't have a camera, but other than that works very similar as Gear 2.

Both the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo come with 1GHz dual-core processor, which is tad faster than last year's release. It features a 4GB internal storage and comes with a built-in heart rate sensor, pedometer, gyroscope and accelerometer for tracking of stats while walking, cycling, running, hiking, etc.

What's cool about the two watches is that their bands can be interchanged with any 22-mm strap in the market. By the default, the Gear 2 comes in either charcoal black, gold brown or wild orange. Meanwhile, the Gear 2 Neo ships in charcoal black, mocha grey, and wild orange.

Gear Fit

Sports-enthusiasts will have a new friend in Gear Fit. It's very useful in tracking sports-related activities like steps, heart-rate, etc. Unlike the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, though, storage of music files into the Gear Fit is not possible.

Viewing on the Gear Fit can be portrait or otherwise. It also has asks the user whether the watch is worn on the left or right wrist, so it can adjust automatically to fit the need. Brightness can also be adjusted as necessary.

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