The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf = My Alarm Clock

December 01, 2010 – The day started early for me. I woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning to prepare breakfast for my family since my mom burned her hand. Then I went to school together with my boyfriend at 7am and waited for him to finish his class ‘til 9 o’clock. I felt sleepy because I woke up too early. I wanted to have coffee to keep me awake for the day and so we went to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Eastwood. I ordered a small cup of hot brewed Hazelnut Coffee and my boyfriend ordered Ice Blended Pure Caramel. We also got a slice of Pistachio Sansrival to go with our drinks.

                           Pistachio Sansrival - Php135

I like sans rival even from way back before but since this one is made with Pistachio nuts instead of Cashew nuts, I liked it even better. Pistachio Sans rival is made of layers of buttercream and meringue and then sprinkled with lots of chopped toasted Pistachio Nuts. 

 The cake is appears scrumptious because the ingredients used are of high quality especially the buttercream (where you can easily notice if it is not made with premium butter). They used top quality butter that makes it creamy and provides the melt-in-the-mouth sensation. The meringue is well-made as well since it was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside but it would have been better if there are some bits of nuts mixed into the meringue before baking to add an extra crunch into it.

After finishing the cake and my coffee, I felt alive and awake at last!

My Rating:

     Pistachio Sansrival     8/10

Address:

     Eastwood City, beside A. Shop

The Sweet Kiss of Chocolates

November 30, 2010 – My sister, who is a freshman in UP, and I have been planning to try Chocolate Kiss Café which is found in “Bahay ng Alumni” that is very popular among students in UP. Since we both have long break time, my Boyfriend and I went to UP and met up with my sister. We then headed towards Chocolate Kiss and had our lunch there. I must say that their food tastes mediocre.

Devil’s Food Cake – Php70

After having our lunch, we ordered a slice of their specialty Devil’s Food Cake and a serving of Texas Square Sundae. My sister said that the Devil’s Food Cake is popular among most of her classmates, and my boyfriend claimed that it was his favourite when his Mom would take him to Chocolate Kiss. I got curious of what kind of cake is that Devil’s Food Cake but the moment I tasted it, I became a little disappointed since it was not able to keep up to my expectations. The cake was named as such because of the spikes formed by the icing. It is basically a chocolate cake with chocolate filling and an icing. Not only that there is nothing out-of-the-ordinary with this cake, it is also very dry and lacks the chocolate taste. To tell you the truth, I don’t really know why many people admire it.

                        Texas Square Sundae – Php115

Texas Square Sundae is composed of a generous slice of fudgy brownie, stick-o, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce. The fudgy brownie, as what it was described in the menu, that they used in the Texas Square Sundae was the same mixture with the one used in the Devil’s Food Cake. In short, it was also dry (not a hint of being fudgy) and was not chocolatey, although the ice cream and the chocolate sauce made it a little better.

Chocolate Kiss’ food offerings were not bad but not good as well. They were satisfying and the pricing is somewhat affordable.

 

My Rating:

     Devil’s Food Cake – 5/10

     Texas Square Sundae – 5/10

Address:

     2^nd Floor Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman, Quezon City

Stopping at Nothing when it comes to DESSERT!

November 29, 2010 – I went to Sweet Craft, a place where you can find anything you need for baking, to buy the chocolate that I need for making truffles (which will be given to my professor in Computer 1 as a souvenir for my presentation).

After buying all the ingredients I need, we stopped at Charlie’s to grab our lunch. I and my boyfriend both had Black Angus Burgers with Fries. They were very satisfying. We ordered a Turtle Pie for dessert but unfortunately, it was out of stock. But then we didn’t stop at that, we’ve got to have dessert! Beside Charlie’s stands Cab Café wherein we bought a slice of Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.

Strawberry Shortcake is made of 4 layers of shortcake (a sweet crumbly biscuit that is leavened by baking soda and/or baking powder), whipped cream, and strawberry jam. Cab café's version of strawberry shortcake does not taste like strawberry shortcake at all. It lacks the strawberry flavor since there is more whipped cream than strawberry jam.  In fact, Everything in the cake tastes dull. I also don't like the texture and the flavor of their whipped cream because it is made of commercialized cream that does not melt in room temperature.



Stawberry Shortcake - Php85 per slice



For me, the best desserts are made with the best ingredients. This cake was apparently made with average, if not bad, quality ingredients which makes the result also an average or even below average. I think they are trying to cut down on cost to be able to get more profit from their cakes but it wouldn't work because they cannot make a good dessert that people will want forever if they are using bad ingredients. If they want to gain money, they should work on pleasing their customer's palate first, not cutting back on them.

My Rating:

     Strawberry Shortcake - 2/10

Address:

     18 East Capitol Drive, Kapitolyo Pasig

     Tel. No. 634-0152

A Gourmet Dessert

November 28, 2010 – We went to Tagaytay to be able to break-in our two weeks-old car. When we got there, it was time for lunch and so we decided to eat at Säntis Delicatessen which is known for their premium steaks.

We ordered one serving of Caesar Salad, Arugula and Shrimp Salad, Pasta Arrabiatta, Minute Steak, and Rib-eye Steak with Mushroom Sauce. We wanted to make our lunch complete with dessert and so we ordered Praline Croquantine Timbale. Praline is a cooked mixture of sugar, nuts, and vanilla, often ground to a paste for use as a pastry. In this dessert, the hazelnut praline is mixed with the mousse mixture and then poured onto a timbale (a pastry mold in which something is baked or formed) to create a tower of hazelnut praline mousse.  

Praline Croquantine Timbale  – Php260

The plated dessert is composed of the timbale of dense mousse with lots of hazelnut bits in it and coated with croquantine (small pieces of wafers that resembles waffle cone texture and taste which is usually used in gourmet chocolates, truffles, or any desserts needing crunch) as the main element, whole jammed strawberry and slices of mangoes on the side, and strawberry sauce.

The mousse was served straight from the chiller, making it almost as cold as ice cream. The croquantine and the bits of nuts that made up the praline are the ones giving the crunch as well as the flavour into the mousse. This dessert is very refreshing especially with the fresh fruits eaten with it, but then the mango is a little too sour that it covers up the light flavour of the mousse. Next time, they should make sure that fruits are in good condition because they are also part of the dessert. If it’s just “pwede na”, then the dessert will completely be deemed as such.

The whole family loved it (except for the sour mango)!

My Rating:

     Praline Croquantine Timbale     8/10

Hot + Cold + Crunchy + Soft = Tempura Ice Cream

November 27, 2010 – It is a Saturday but still we have our class, *sigh*. Our first class ended early, that is why we decided to eat our lunch in Eastwood. We went to Ramen Bar because my boyfriend really loves their ramen and their Tempura Ice Cream, which is the one and only dessert that they offer.

We ordered one large bowl of ramen for us to share, one serving of Chahan (Japanese fried rice), together with Chasyu (Sliced Pork). And of course for our dessert, we ordered 2 servings of Tempura Ice Cream.

This dessert is very interesting since we all know that Tempura is a Japanese cooking style that requires the ingredient (whatever it is that you want to make tempura out of) to be dipped in a batter and then deep fried. How will you deep fry an ice cream? Quite thought-provoking and attention-grabbing, right? I was quite amazed myself because for an ice cream to have been fried, I was expecting a plate full of melted ice cream on it but I was a little impressed by its presentation. No drop of melted ice cream was on the plate and it does not melt as fast as you would expect it.

For further definition of the structure of Tempura Ice cream, it is created with: tempura batter, choux pastry (the same pastry that is used to make cream puffs and éclairs), scoops of vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce and stick-o as accompaniments.

Ramen Bar’s Tempura Ice Cream – Php120

To answer the question of how it is fried; first, they will have to preheat the oil so that the temperature will be reached right after they are done preparing what is to be fried. They cut the top of the baked choux pastry so much so that they can put a scoop of well-frozen ice cream in it. They cover it with the cut part as though they haven’t removed it and then dip it into the tempura batter. Right after dipping it into the batter, it goes straight to the hot oil, hot to the point that it will instantly cook the batter in one second, and then they will remove it instantly.

The reason why the ice cream is not melted is because the tempura ice cream was shocked into a hot oil in the least possible time, which makes it unable to penetrate the inside of the choux pastry. When you put something into very hot oil, the tendency is for it to cook from the outside to the inside, making the food crispy outside and soft inside. In this case, the only element of the dessert that needs to be cooked is the batter which is very fast to cook making it possible to be removed from the oil before the heat will even penetrate the choux pastry.

I love this dessert because it is very creatively done and because they were able to combine hot and cold, and soft and crispy into one dessert. But the taste is actually a mediocre since the vanilla ice cream, which is not homemade and can be bought in any supermarket, is the one that gives the dessert its flavour.

My Rating:

     Tempura Ice Cream     8/10

Address:

     Eastwood City (in the middle of Cookbook Kitchen and O’sonho), Libis, QC

From Worst to Mediocre...

November 26, 2010 – After being disappointed with what we had at Bake and Churn, we looked for something better to have as dessert after dinner. We saw a recently opened shop named Bean and Baker and bought a slice of Chocolate Blackout Cake. Their specialty is Blueberry Streusel Cheesecake but I didn’t want to have that because I myself can make it well.

  Chocolate Blackout Cake – Php110

The Chocolate Blackout Cake is composed of an approximately 2 by 2 slice of chocolate cake with rich chocolate icing on top, sprinkled with small bits of sliced brownies with some nuts on it, and finally drizzled with chocolate and caramel fudge.

The base of the cake lacks moisture but the sweetness is just right. The chocolate icing adds a little moisture into the cake and it put in additional chocolate flavour as well. The brownie pieces on top were unnoticeable once you pop the cake in your mouth, in short, it is just a decoration. The fudge topping adds sweetness into the cake and makes it somewhat gooey.

Overall, the Chocolate Blackout Cake was alright but it is just an average cake. There is no element in the cake that will make one go back to the store and buy another piece of it.

My Rating:

     Chocolate Blackout Cake - 4/10

Address:

     SM Supercenter Pasig, Frontera Verde, C5, Brgy. Ugong, Pasig City

The Worst Cake I Have Ever Tasted!!!

November 26, 2010 – I had an unexpected craving for food today! I really wanted to eat Putanesca. My Mom will not be able to cook our dinner since she’ll be accompanying my little brother to buy toys as a reward for being second honor in school, and for that reason I was tasked to cook something for dinner. Of course I chose to cook Putanesca.

After our class, my boyfriend escorted me to SM Supercenter Pasig to buy the ingredients that I’ll need for the Putanesca. After shopping, my boyfriend went to ACE Hardware to buy some materials for his project while I was just sitting somewhere in the food court. When he went out the store, he saw that stall named Bake and Churn and asked me if I want to try it. Well I said yes of course since it sounds kind of interesting to have a cake and an ice cream put together.



French Chocolate - Php60 per slice



We went to the stall and asked for their specialty and the storekeeper said that it is the French Chocolate. Therefore we ordered a slice of French Chocolate and ate it right away. Me and my boyfriend were both disappointed with the ice cream cake. Considering that it is their specialty, it should have been very good but it turned out to be the other way around. The cake was very dry since it has been frozen (the moisture was lost) and there is nothing French about the chocolate that they used. Even the ice cream does not taste well. For me, it is better to have a dirty ice cream that Manong Sorbetero sells on the street.

When I visit a store for the first time, I often ask what their specialty is and I usually order that because if they say that it is their specialty then it is the best that they have to offer... It is what they are good at doing. Having said that, I don’t think I’ll be going to that stall ever again because if their specialty tastes that bad, I don’t expect the others to be tasting better. 

My Rating:

     French Chocolate – 1/10 (merely for its existence)

Address:

     Food Court, SM Supercenter Pasig, Frontera Verde, C5, Brgy. Ugong, Pasig City