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Posts Tagged ‘Ice cream

Mar

TORBRECK VERTICAL WINE DINNER AT MACALISTER MANSION, PENANG

My entire experience that evening at the Macalister Mansion, Penang could be summarized into one word. Engaging. The evening was defined not only by epicurean indulgence and luxurious wines but casual and fun interactions with fascinating people who became an instant personal inspiration.

I was honored and pleased to be invited as the only blogger by the sophisticated and incredibly charming lifestyle destination in George Town, Penang, the Macalister Mansion. The event’s invitation came perfect to end a tiring week at work, as receiving it on a Friday afternoon surprisingly made me look forward to a Monday! How often do you wish for Monday to come soon? Despite the short notice, I gave it a nod with a bright green light; it was that irresistible! Anticipating for Monday had never been that thrilling!

The Torbreck Vertical Wine Dinner last 18th March 2013 was hosted by one of the finest exports from Australia, Torbreck Wines and Macalister Mansion, the newest boutique hotel in Pulau Pinang that’s intricately restored to maintain its rich heritage of being an English Mansion, fused with contemporary designs that transformed it into a stylish food & beverage outlets within an 8-room-hotel.

If you must know, back in the last month of 2012, my family and I initially fell in love with Macalister Mansion and chose it to be the venue where our family portraits were taken (blog posts here & here). Not long after, it felt so special just to experience this tasteful elegance again.

First priority when I arrived at Macalister Mansion that Monday night : to know where to go and who to go with. I was told the guests were having cocktails at the Bagan Bar.

Amidst sleek interiors and low lights, it didn’t take a minute for me to recognize few familiar faces -there’s a chef from Czech Republic whom my family and I met recently. I was so flattered while he was showing my blog via his iphone to his friends (what an introduction!), and of course, I was glad to see again the one who did our family portraits last year whom I considered as one of the most brilliant young Malaysian photographers in Penang, Sunny Tan! He generously shared one of his precious captures that night; Thank you, Sunny!

*With Director & Owners of Macalister Mansion, Dato’ Sean H’ng (far left) and his wife, Datin Karen H’ng. With us is Australian Export Director of Torbreck Wines, Andrew Tierney. Photo taken by by Sunny Tan.

After those Bagan Bar-moments, everyone was ushered to Macalister Mansion’s Dining Room.

Its immaculate and almost poetic interiors is an absolute visual treat! It’s stunningly beautiful!

It wasn’t my first time to see the Dining Room but it was difficult not to marvel in awe once more! Unbelievably, such quaint place exists in Penang!

*The fantastic dinner was opened by AsiaEuro Regional Sales Manager, William Chong and brief but interesting talk about Torbreck Wines and its history was done by Andrew Tierney; both sat on the same table I was assigned.

The 6 Torbreck wines. The 6 gourmet courses creatively prepared by Macalister Mansion’s very own, Chef Lance. The new friends I’ve met. The fun filled talks about wines, food, travels and whatnot in my table. Every minute, delightful!

*Amuse Bouche paired with Torbreck Woodcutter’s Semillon 2010.

What a crisp and refreshing start! I was in Nirvana in a heart beat!

*Bergamot Smoked Salmon, Beetroot Dye, Thai Cucumber Pickle, Avruga Caviar & Olive Soil paired with Torbreck Woodcutter’s Semillon 2010.

Given the fact that I’m a huge fanatic of anything-salmon, plus this appetizer was prepared smoked, and wrapped with thin strips of pickled cucumber; I almost forgot my name, baby! Then it was paired with the very fruity and subtle Torbreck Woodcutter’s Semillon 2010. A match made in heaven!

*Know more about Australia’s Torbreck Wines via www.torbreck.com.

Wine and food pairing was brought to a higher level when the next plate was served. Drum roll, please!

*Torchon of Foie Gras, Crumble, Gastrique Pearls paired with Torbreck Cuvee Juveniles 2011.

This plate of foie gras was too gorgeous to eat, it took me several minutes after staring aimlessly, to start savoring its rich flavor. Beautiful!

Perhaps, the only little disappointment on the menu according to my palates was THIS.

*Veloute of Spinach Soup, Hay Smoked Black Lip Mussel, Creme Fraiche, Pommes Brunoise and White Truffle Oil paired with Torbreck Cuvee Jeveniles 2011.

So much drama was put to the presentation of this seafood-spinach soup but unfortunately, fell flat on my tastebuds. I’m not that familiar with French cuisine and I truly appreciated Chef Lance’s efforts but I can only imagine if instead of spinach, a creamy and velvety pumpkin soup was poured on my bowl instead. Or probably, I’m just partial to my wishful thinking.

The time to cleanse the palate came.

*Sorbet. We’re guessing that night if it’s cranberry. One can tell easily.

Have I told you the service at the Macalister Mansion’s impeccable? The multicultural wait staff had a ready smile that night; everyone’s quick and efficient. Good job! After finishing my sorbet, I was asked by one of them of the main dish I prefer. It was choice between :

*Pan Seared Halibut, Savoy Cabbage, Gold Miso and Cauliflower Floret.

and

*Chargrilled Wagyu Oyster Blade, Creme Fraiche Polenta, Carrot Puree, Grilled Cauliflower and Perigueux Syrup.

I had the beef instead of the fish not because the former’s better than the latter; as a matter of fact, guests were raving for the fish plate! However, I had a nice salmon-appetizer already, so I thought it’s but logical to try the meat dish which, in my opinion complemented the Torbreck wines effortlessly! Tender, nicely grilled, flavorful Wagyu. I loved it!

Torbreck ‘The Struie’ 2010.

Torbreck Descendant 2008.

Torbreck Run Rig 2007.

I’m no wine connoisseur but I know my palates so well. Between Torbreck ‘The Struie’ 2010 and Torbreck Descendant 2008 which are Shiraz, I like the Descendant more. While Torbreck Run Rig, despite it’s only 6 years to date and a suggestion to the wine maker, Andrew was raised by my tablemates, that with 2 more years, Run Rig will be so much better tasting, it’s the most aromatic and dense among the wines served that night.

Great food, vivid wines, wonderful ambience, commendable service and most specially, fascinating people. Excellent combination.

*Torbreck Run Rig 2007.

Just when I thought I might be feel alienated by going to this event solo, serendipitously, I was assigned to sit beside this pleasant German lady, Evelyn.

“I’m sorry, Gelo but WHAT IS A BLOG?” Evelyn asked me. Then she burst into infectious laughter and from then on the great food, vivid wines, wonderful ambience, commendable service and most specially, fascinating people, those excellent combination was made livelier with my fun-filled chat with Evelyn.

Who would have thought that I’d meet a German woman who came with her equally friendly husband, Klaus, who’d tell me that they lived in my country, the Philippines for 8 years since 1963? Evelyn spoke how she and Klaus miss their lives in the Philippines. In between Torbreck wines and Chef Lance’s masterpiece plates, I’ve listened to Evelyn when she shared a bit of their interesting stories about Martial Law in my country duing those times, and on a lighter note, they professed how they miss Philippine mangoes and pineapples and how they enjoyed their home in San Lorenzo Village in Makati and their holidays in Cebu. Who would have thought that two souls from this awesome event could speak so much about the country where I am from? Amazing!

Must have desserts.
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the most uniquely delicious jam I’ve tasted. No, it’s not Durian!

*Brie, Jackfruit Jam and Sable Breton.

Don’t be fooled with the simplicity of the plate. The tug of war between the saltiness of the cheese with that sublime sweetness of Jackfruit jam was one of the many reasons why this event’s memorable!

While I enjoyed Brie, Jackfruit Jam and Sable Breton, the next dessert plate was even better!

*Salted Caramel Ice Cream, Bitter Chocolate Ganache and Praline paired with Torbreck ‘The Bothie’ 2011.

The sweet and chilled, bitter and salted and textured flavors simply overwhelmed my palates. I loved it!!!

*Petit Four.

Simple and sweet ending that brought me back to my senses. I wasn’t in heaven, yet. Not yet.

*Special thanks to Macalister Mansion for the invitation. I am eternally grateful.

>><<

Macalister Mansion

228 Macalister Road, 10400 Penang, Malaysia | website : www.macalistermansion.com

>><<

Sep

WHAT MELTS OUR WORRIES AWAY

By docgelo 6 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO, FOOD & MORE FOOD! and MALAYSIA
Tags: baskin robbins, doc gelo, docgelo, Ice cream, malaysia, penang

Keeping an indomitable spirit amidst uncertainties has been tougher than I imagined. The challenge to maintain high hopes together as a family has always been magnified to a greater extent that imposes requirement to keep the faith alive and burning.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.” ~ Isaiah 43:2

In our most trying times, uttering prayers and remembering happy memories are the best efforts to melt our worries away.

HAPPY THOUGHTS… HAPPY THOUGHTS… HAPPY THOUGHTS…

Would you not be in bliss despite troubles, when you recall that once upon a time, you enjoyed Baskin Robbins at 31% off with your family?

And when the most important people in your life become happier than usual, nothing else matters.

Beautiful and delicious memories numb me and maintain my sanity.

Once upon a time, we chanced upon Baskin Robbins 31% discount offered every 31st day of the month in Queensbay Mall, Penang and availed a quart and a pint that we savored for more or less an hour. It’s ice cream overload, I know. The indulgence and its memories make me smile ear to ear in the middle of a family crisis that’s beyond our control. Gabby and Tina chose a handpacked quart of Cotton Candy in pink and purple swirls and Cheesecake flavors while I was delighted with handpacked pint of Very Berry Strawberry and Mint Chocolate Chip flavors and washed everything down with just water.

Sweet memories!

Aug

BANGKOK 2012 SERIES : THAI FOOD PORN!

By docgelo 11 Comments

Experiencing local cuisine by seeing how a dish is prepared and appreciating its unique flavors and interesting ingredients are a few of the perks of traveling. In our second visit to Thailand’s capital, we planned to immerse our palates to gastronomic offerings available; even sought suggestions from fellows on where and what to eat. One of our great friends of almost 2 decades now, Rob of Sensory Replays highly recommended a modestly famous P Kitchen at Soy 18 for authentic and affordable Thai food which travelers and tourists in Bangkok are raving about. Of course, I already mentioned in my previous posts in this series that our itinerary for this trip was made by Dyan, another friend who’s more seasoned traveler; most of the places we went to were based on her list. However, because we were limited by time and the fact that we always have to prioritize our 7-year-old-son’s food preference, we were not able to sample more than we wished. Gabby’s a little picky now and favors the usual kiddie meals from fastfood joints. Ergo, we usually decide as a family every meal time and it must be agreeable to the 3 of us. Nonetheless, we’re happy and still lucky to savor few authentic Thai dishes without compromising Gabby’s choices.

While Bangkok has been known to many as one of the tourist spots and shopping capitals in Southeast Asia, we had more of food adventures rather than shopping. Undeniably, it’s an epicurean paradise! We tasted few of Thai dishes and indulged in those familiar to our palates. Here’s a rundown of what tickled our taste buds during our recent 4D3N trip in August in the city of Angels in the Land of Smiles… FEAST YOUR EYES, just don’t salivate and drool over your keyboard!

Flavorful, mouthwatering, fragrant and inexpensive dishes delighted us all on our very first meal in Bangkok. From an eatery in the heart of Chatuchak Weekend Market, we had Shrimp Fried Rice, Pad Thai, Pork Barbecue that we’re missing in Penang, and a few fried goodies for Gabby.

In Siam Paragon Mall, Gabby and I had takeaway favorites from Burger King and ate it in front of a huge fish tank in the middle of the mall’s food court while Tina opted for some bowl of Japanese. We also gave in to ice cream temptation from Swensen’s.

Tina and Gabby shared this sundae..

While I enjoyed and shared with them two of my most loved flavors : Coffee and Chocolate! Yum!

Our breakfast meals were included in the Superior Room package we availed from Mystic Place Rooms in Bangkok..

We ate dinner outside the hotel except for this one when we tried the menu at Mystic Cafe…

Tina had breakfast plate during dinner time while I loaded myself with more Thai flavors in this noodle dish and another serving of Pad Thai, this time it was vegetarian. It felt short for me having no shrimps. The Pad Thai we sampled in Chatuchak Weekend Market tasted way better.

Apparently, this Mac and Cheese classic was Gabby’s plate. But because we forgot to request it shouldn’t be spicy, it was served with pepper that Gabby’s young tongue didn’t like. Tina had to remove the seasoning and what saved the moment was a glass of hot chocolate.

Another mall-recommendation from Dyan was Central World which we all loved! If Siam Paragon Mall has a chic and slick atmosphere, Central World is more relaxed and non-intimidating. We went around the food court level and found a Japanese Pastry Shop called, Bake A Wish. All of the cake slices from Bake A Wish look charmingly delicious, making choices on what to order was the most difficult. Tina and I decided to try their specialty - Crispy Japanese Cream Puffs with various tasteful fillings; we had Chocolate and Strawberry while Gabby preferred froyo from the adjacent store, Buddhi Belly.

We didn’t spoil our huge appetite when we had those glucose-rich servings prior to our early dinner at 6PM in Central World’s 7th floor Taiwanese restaurant, Din Tai Fung. We had dinner with one of my former-post-graduate-review-center-student, Thomas who’s working in Bangkok as a lecturer too for a few years now. We enjoyed catching up over a scrumptious meal of Xiao Long Bao (pork soup in a dimsum), Prawn and Pork dimsum (also steamed with soup), Shrimp Fried Rice, Prawns over a blanched greens that the dish’s name slipped my memory (I can eat it everyday!), Mango Pudding for Gabby’s dessert. The only unsatisfactory to us was the noodle dish that Tina ordered; it wasn’t impressive compared to the other dishes we had.

On our last dinner in Bangkok, we had it at a wrong choice. No offense meant but honestly, we’re not satisfied with what we ordered in Pasta de Waraku, a Japanese fusion restaurant in Central World Mall. We were looking for something that fits in Gabby’s preferences and with attractive display of their menu ala-food-stalls in Tokyo with lots of pasta dishes to choose from, we were lured to enter and dine. The taste of almost everything we had didn’t please our palates. I’m sorry but my opinion imposes a challenge for Pasta de Waraku to improve on their menu. Despite the casual ambiance looks quaint and the service quick, it all boils down to the taste of their offerings. The Carbonara, Pesto with Prawns and Octopus, Okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza) had nothing to rave about. And when we saw there’s Pepper Lunch and Bon Chon and KFC in Central World, the more we felt disappointed passing on these sure-choices. So before we head back to Mo Chit Central bus station to depart Bangkok for Hat Yai, we played it safe by eating late lunch at KFC.

The sardonic smile of not-so-impressed diner. *kidding* It’s natural, ya know!

We love LARGE GRAVY!!! FYI, gravy in Thailand and in Malaysia are only used as toppings in mashed potatoes so I always get a peculiar look from fastfood crew when I request for extra gravy for our KFC. They prefer tomato ketchup or chili sauce to go with their chicken. We, Filipinos like those finger-lickin’ goodies to be dunked and submerged in buttery gravy. Sometimes, Gabby and I make it as topping to our rice ala-soup; do you do that too? hahaha!

For Gabby’s dessert, we found a cheap FRIED ICE CREAM in a food court outside KFC in Big C Supercenter in Bangkok. It’s an affordable alternative to the very toothsome Cold Rock Creamery Ice Cream. This fried ice cream only cost us 50 baht (5 ringgit or 70 Ph pesos).

*We had a dimsum lunch buffet at one of the restaurants inside the hotel where we had honeymoon 8 years ago. All of that and more of Bangkok on the succeeding posts. Stay tuned!

This Blog’s Bangkok 2012 Series includes :

Aug

A WEEKEND OF MOVIES, FOOD & A DENTIST

By docgelo 4 Comments

August 10-12, 2012. Our weekend officially kicked off at home last Friday night with a mug of coklat (pronounced as choklat, “chocolate” in Bahasa Melayu)-flavored ice cream. Look how Gabby spruced up his own mug.

The morning after, Tina, Gabby and I took 2 bus rides and trooped to Sunway Carnival Mall, one of the few malls in mainland Penang (the others are in the island). We were supposed to watch the movie, The Bourne Legacy. We first went to the cinema counter and found out that the said movie was rated R18; Gabby’s not allowed obviously. The next best thing was the Dark Knight Rises (which was rated PG13 but with violence too! Good thing that Gabby understands never to pick up bad elements from anything he watches and most importantly, he listens whenever advised); we purchased tickets and pyched up ourselves to be in Gotham City.

Before Batman movie, we needed to chow down. The decision was unamimous. Burger King topped the list.

Yes, those two large onion rings were my order! The kid-in-me longing for onion rings was satisfied happily! While I am a self-confessed onion-ring-monster, Gabby enjoyed his Grilled Chicken burger meal and Tina savored her Double Mushroom Melt burger combo. I also surrendered to Double Whopper large combo which I didn’t finish and had to take home or as they say here, takeaway!

We liked The Dark Knight Rises. We liked the twists and turns of the plot. Unpredictable! There was no scene that left us yawning. Bane was a very powerful and compelling villain! With Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, the movie’s more than enough to keep me awake. And with those last parts of the movie, we could only anticipate for a sequel. Despite we’re all entertained, I was still yearning to watch The Bourne Legacy and I know Tina wants it too.

We went to the grocery to shop our supplies for the coming weeks. Soon after, we’re hungry again. We kept it low and simpler this time by choosing the affordable restaurant, IloveYoo. We had the fried bread, yoo tiao that’s too perfect to be dipped in warm and fine bowl of congee, so we had dry scallop-flavored congee, some taho or what they call here, too foo far (did I spell it correctly?), chilled soya drink and a piece of lotus ball. Solb!

Last Sunday was even more memorable for the three of us, specially for Gabby. It was his very first dental check up. We know it should have been done at his younger age, but as they say, better late than never. It was Tina who made all the arrangements with the dentist whose clinic is located accessible to our place. The appointment was set at 10:30AM but since punctuality runs in our blood, we’re all there few minutes past 9AM. Excited lang perhaps!

Probably like children of his age, Gabby was a bit anxious to go to the dentist. Because it was his first time, he was not afraid nor hesitant but very curious with many queries! Tina and I brought him there for consult and we decided, if and when the dentist would find a tooth for extraction or filling, we would just bring Gabby back to her clinic. After a quick but thorough dental exam, the dentist cleared Gabby as he doesn’t need even dental cleaning; his set of teeth is clean and fine!

Gabby to us : “Mommy, Daddy, nagulat ba kayo, clean ang teeth ko?” (“Were you surprised to know my teeth are clean?”)

Tina and I were laughing our hearts out!

And because his teeth are in good condition, we celebrated our late breakfast at the hawker-restaurant several steps from the dental office.

It really looked like his teeth are in good condition, don’t you think so?

After that hearty meal of Koay Teow Soup and Pork (Sio)Pao, we all walked towards our apartment. Because Gabby can’t be admitted to The Bourned Legacy and Tina had to watch him over at home plus she had to do some chores and acquire much needed weekend rest, I got an approval from them for me to watch The Bourne Legacy alone in the island. Tina and Gabby bid me goodbye then I hopped on the bus and went my way to the cinema.

I am certainly not a movie critic but just like the food I eat, I know my taste so well.

As I posted on facebook and twitter, it’s incredibly amazing to watch Manila portrayed as Manila in a larger than life Hollywood film! It’s high time the Philippines gets the spotlight. Gone are the days when the Philippines is shown as Vietnam or Thailand on the big screen. I’m not sure if you remember that 1999 movie, Brokedown Palace which starred Claire Danes, Kate Beckinsale and Bill Pullman. It was also shot in Manila but depicted as Thailand. Although to some, it may be versatility, I found it weird and unacceptable to watch my country’s capital city back then, shown as other place. At least now, Manila is Manila in The Bourne Legacy. I agree with one of The Bourne Legacy’s bit players, John Arcilla, who’s a Filipino stage and character actor, when he commented on one of his interviews about the movie that ”it’s surreal!” According to him, it’s unbelievable to see himself as a part of a Hollywood movie with jeepneys and all, filmed in the streets of Manila.

I swear the movie almost made me lost my blinking reflex! From that airport scene where the characters of Rachel Weisz and Jeremy Renner had to enter NAIA’s Immigration counters, to those breathtaking motorcycle chase scenes shot in the cities of Pasay, Manila and a public market in Marikina, until the movie ended in one of the Philippines’ paradise islands, Palawan, I was absolutely stunned! It was an awesome movie that I will repeat over and over again. I hope Tina and I get a chance to watch The Bourne Legacy together next time!

Have you seen it already? What’s your take on the movie?

How’s your last weekend?

The next weekend will be more exciting as our family will engage on a much needed loooooong holiday! It’ll be Hari Raya here in Malaysia or the end of Ramadhan on 18th August and the vacation from work extends until August 26th! We’ll be crossing borders of two countries once more! We cannot be grateful enough. It’ll be another weekend of family, food and fun! ;)

Jul

DEFYING STRESS : YET ANOTHER FOOD PORN

By docgelo 18 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO, FOOD & MORE FOOD!, ILOVEPHOTOS and MALAYSIA
Tags: adele, autocity penang, buffet, docgelo, docgelo.com, Eat all you can, expat in malaysia, expatriate, family, filipino abroad, filipino expat, food, food blog, food blog review, food blogger, food in penang malaysia, food photography, foodie, fun, http://docgelo.com/, Ice cream, international blogger, japanese cuisine, japanese dishes, Japanese food, jimmy choo, love for food, malaysia, night life in penang malaysia, ocw, ofw, penang, penang malaysia, photography, photos, restaurant in penang malaysia, restaurants in penang malaysia, roast beef sandwich, sashimi, scallops, someone like you, Starbucks coffee, subway, subway melt, subway sandwiches, sushi, tao, tao authentic asian cuisine restaurant, tao japanese cuisine, tao japanese restaurant, tao restaurant, temaki, travel blogger, whitney houston

We defy stress from a weeklong work and some bizaare challenges that come with living in another country by spending quality time together, either simply being lazy at home or going out on weekends. It breaks the monotony of our seemingly routinary lives here in Penang on weekdays (home-school-home for Gabby and home-work-home for Tina and me). Needless to say, we enjoy our togetherness longer every Friday night, Saturday, Sunday and during holidays, thus, we usually have efforts to make the most out of it (In Tagalog, SULIT!).

And whenever my family finds extra time and budget to go out, gastronomic adventures have been integral part of the fun! Frankly speaking, savoring good food has been therapeutic and a delightful measure to combat all the hassles away. Of course, the choice of food places and menu should always be unanimous among us!

Subway never fails to unleash the sandwich and cookie monsters in us. My family and I always opt to make our Subway sandwiches into a meal so that we get a cup of drink plus 2 cookies per sandwich, which we favor over a bag of Lays potato chips. Tina and Gabby love Chocolate and Double Chocolate cookies. While I also like their choices, I frequently go for Macadamia cookies; it’s deliciously good! Admittedly, Subway has been a favorite of the family. At reasonable and affordable cost, we get to savor freshness in every bite!

Before the clock hits 7PM when we watched Upin & Ipin, Live! at a carnival in AutoCity, Juru, Penang one Saturday, our tummies were filled by early dinner-cum-late-afternoon snack at Subway. Gabby had Roast Chicken-no veggies, just mayonnaise (I know, he should eat greens and he usually does at home but not in Subway), Tina had Roast Beef while I chose Subway Melt and both of our sandwiches contained everything except Jalapeno and olives.

Dinner came at past 9PM. We had eat-all-you-want and this time we went Japanese! But because we only had reservation on the same day at around half hour past 5PM, the Japanese food place was already packed hence, we were assigned to a table at their open-air-area. It turned out to be a better option because Tina, Gabby and I got to watch a live band show plus Gabby experienced dining while his legs crossed.

Because we became preoccupied looking at the menu, we failed to note the name of the band. Toinks! However, Tina and I had a strong hint that the two lady lead singers are voices from the Philippines. We might be wrong of course, but the English accent that landed on our ears when they sang their repertoire almost confirmed it; we just failed and was too shy to ask. Nonetheless, they threw a remarkable performance of a variety of songs mostly from classic hits of Whitney Houston (Indaaaaaaay, will always love youuuuuuuhuhuuuuuu!) to the very now, Adele (Someone Like You) and so much more!

Tao Restaurant’s Japanese buffet specializes in ala-carte-eat-all-you-can. Simply put, food is only delivered on the table upon order. In a way, we liked it because it assures the freshness of the dishes compared to the ones found on a spread. We already experienced it once in Manila when we dined at Chef Laudico’s Bistro Filipino in Bonifacio Global City several years back.

These were the dishes from Tao that earned thumbs up from the 3 of us.

Temaki : Hand rolled Soft Shell Crab (2 orders), California and Smoked Salmon. They’re satisfyingly good, a visual treat too! This is why I love Japanese food -they’re both art and sustenance.

Ebi tempura : Gabby’s default choice. I didn’t sample it but by mere looking, the prawns had too much batter nonetheless, our son munched it happily!

Sushi Moriawase : Took me to heaven!

Sashimi Moriawase : Fresh cuts! …Salmon and tuna sashimi are happiness!

Fried Crabmeat with Cheese : The cheese lover in Gabby liked this.

Tina ordered Ika Spicy Age : A fried and crunchy-spicy squid dish. Just okay.

I think this is called Beef Bacon Skewer : We liked it too! :D

Salmon Teriyaki’s another just fine.

And if there’s one dish that’s worthy of visiting Tao again and again, it’s this Scallop thingy-I-forgot-its-name but never its taste! Toink-Toinks!

It’s creamy, sweet and spicy; what more can you ask for? WE LOVED IT! Tina and I consumed 3 plates!!! There you go!

And these were the ones that FAILED to stimulate our palates…

A bigger scallop-let-down-dish-so-unremarkable-i-didn’t-bother-to-note-its-name. Glass noodles and scallops fusion wasn’t good on this plate.

Pickled Papaya Salmon. #ayokonito.

Cheese-something. #anotherforgettable. Gabby, Tina and I are fond of cheese but this one didn’t hit the mark.

Beef Ribs that looked like pork chops had nothing to rave about. Sorry.

Ebi Fried Kani Mayo. I so love prawns, crabs and mayonnaise but the combination didn’t worked on this dish. #soggy #supersaturated

Tina ordered this Mushroom dish but I so believe my very own home cooked buttered garlic mushrooms is far better than this variety.

Lobster sandwich. I ordered this when I thought I was not struggling on satiation yet. The end point : I didn’t even taste it. #whatawaste!

My bad comments on several dishes from the menu of Tao impose a challenge for enhancement. I’ve to be honest and far from being biased on my review. On a positive note, we loved Tao’s bottomless drinks (we only had iced tea, but Tiger beer was also free-flowing), and dessert included in the rates. The cost of the buffet for the three of us was reasonable; in fact, was only equivalent to half of an adult-rate in a hotel buffet in Manila. Another plus point of Tao was the courtesy of the wait staff. Prompt and friendly service without being pushy makes every dining experience commendable.

The raspberry flavored ice cream was such a wonderful ending to this meal! Tina and I loved it but Gabby passed it up.

I had an arrangement with our usual taxi cab driver to pick us up at around 11:30PM so while waiting, we had to give in to Gabby’s request for him to have his share of dessert. We left Tao before 11PM and walked few steps towards Starbucks Coffee.

Since Tina and I were so full, it was only Gabby who enjoyed his Chocolate Chip Frappuccino and Chocolate Marble Cheesecake.

For few minutes while waiting for our cab to take us home, I chanced upon this magazine inside the coffee shop that featured one of Malaysia’s pride, Penang-born-world-renowned-luxury handmade shoemaker, Prof. Dato’ Jimmy Choo. I’d like to end this lengthy family-food-fun blog post on one of Jimmy Choo’s quotes from that featured article…

Until our next stress-busting-family bonding!

——————–

May

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH JAPANESE FOOD CONTINUES

By docgelo 14 Comments

I may be a-die-hard-ADOBO-at-heart (read : my palates love Filipino dishes, apparently) but I have been keeping my love affair with sushi, sashimi and sukiyaki for the longest time, even prior to 2005 when I set foot in TOKYO and have savored authentic Japanese dishes for 14 unforgettable days (read it all here –> http://docgelo.com/2010/04/05/letters-about-tokyo-11-eating-japanese/ and the rest is on my sidebar). That being said, I may not be a connoiseur but I know my palates so well. I may not have expert knowledge on the Japanese cuisine but my taste buds can clearly perceive what it likes from otherwise.

Actually, to state that I love Japanese food is an understatement. I immensely adore how Japanese meals serve both as art and sustenance. I appreciate the creative preparation to every dish. The unusual presentation of sushi and the exquisite skills exerted in slicing tuna and salmon and other fish for sashimi are impressively beautiful.

I conisder myself blessed because my current work place, Penang, boasts of unimaginable gastronomic diversity from its local community of Malay, Indian and Chinese, not to disregard the influences and fusion of Western cuisines and other Asian dishes like Japanese.

Last Sunday was one of my luckiest days! With my wife, Tina in tow, I attended an exclusive invitational Bloggers’ event at SAKAE SUSHI, First Avenue Mall, George Town, Penang. The event was hosted for food bloggers to sample the NEW MENU from Sakae Sushi.

The first couple of Beyond Toxicity were the very first to arrive at the event around 15 minutes before noon. Actually, we reached the mall early at few minutes past 10AM and had quick breakfast at our favorite coffee shop at the lobby; we really made sure not to be tardy for Sakae Sushi (read : we’re extremely excited, obviously). Then, we were friendly received by the staff and the Senior Marketing Manager herself, Ms. June. I have not been used to the fact that some people from Penang easily recognize my accent as someone from The Philippines (it always makes me wonder if my English sounds so weird with distinction…I digress) and Ms. June was not an exception. She candidly said with a smile, “I know, you’re from the Philippines!” She was warm enough to catch our attention as she casually explained Sakae Sushi and its creative and constant innovative approaches when it comes to uplifting lifestyle dining experiences. After Tina and I spent few minutes chatting with her, I took advantage of the moment with less diners yet inside the restaurant and took captures of what it has to offer. Not for long, Sakae Sushi was packed with hungry customers craving for Japanese food.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT SAKAE SUSHI

Freshness and a wide variety of ingredients per dish makes it authentic.
Open-Kitchen-Cooking : I like seeing how my food is prepared. It’s entertaining! Plus, santitation must be non-negotiable. Look at my captures on the chefs preparing sushi and other goodies; they all looked like they’re inside an Operating Theater! Amazing! (I want to learn how to do sushi!)
Wide selection at affordable cost. Majority of dishes on the menu are HEALTHY too!
Quick, friendly and attentive service.
Use of technology : iPad as an interactive menu (order with a flick of a finger!), that sushi conveyor belt is just so Japanese!
Availability of FREE flowing hot tea, chopsticks, wasabi and soy sauce, tissue paper (a rarity in some food places in Penang!) right on the table –diners need NOT to ask for them! That spells convenience and customer-friendliness.
FAMILY FRIENDLY. They got kiddie meals too!

WHAT I DON’T LIKE ABOUT SAKAE SUSHI

Limited space to walk around (I’ve been to 2 of its branches in Penang; both dining areas have small spaces or perhaps, I just think that with huge volume of patrons, Sakae Sushi definitely deserves a bigger area).
No “Irasshai mase!”-greetings. Although the Sakae Sushi staff are always ready with smiles to greet you, and as much as I know Sakae Sushi presents Japanese food as CONTEMPORARY and edgy, I still wish they would greet diners in authentic Japanese greetings. Konnichiwa and a bow would be so wonderful! *just my 2-cents-worth*
Uniforms of service crew are not authentic. I like to see wait staff wearing traditional Japanese wear -Kimonos and wooden slippers, FTW!
Ambience is too casual; it’s OK for me but a choice between something ordinary and an authentic one, I would choose the latter any day.
Addicting choices that one would want to get hold of all sushi from the conveyor belt, or press every page from their iPad menu to sample everything! hehehe!

WHAT I THINK OF SAKAE SUSHI’S NEW MENU THIS YEAR

Now, let’s get down to business.

KAISEN SALAD

Tantalisingly fresh servings of prawns, tuna flakes, snow crab leg and assorted vegetables serve with creamy goma dressing.

I like this salad because it has greens and generous servings of my favorite seafoods perfectly complemented with a tasteful dressing. I want to order this again on our next visit! It’s that good!

And of course Japanese meal isn’t complete without either sushi or sashimi. To me a good sushi is something that screams FRESHNESS! Needless to say, I do NOT want my sushi to smell or taste fishy. A good sushi is not soggy; neither the fish or seafood is too hot or too cold when served. And Sakae Sushi’s selection doesn’t disappoint!

Look at that beauty. Awesome plate, is it not?

SAKAE BLOSSOM

Intricately-designed roll of tempting grilled salmon, shrimp roe, and mayonnaise on a delightful maki.

With Sakae Blossom, I have only one word to describe all of its ingredients : FAVORITE! …Need I say more?

HOTATE MENTAIYAKI

Succulent half shell scallops grilled with cod fish roe.

I would chow down scallops any day rather than oysters. This Hotate Mentaiyaki could have been perfect for my taste if it’s more buttery and cheesy. It’s just me. ;)

EBI CREPE

Luscious roll consisting of whole cooked prawn with assorted vegetables and mayonnaise wrapped in a light crepe layer.

I like the light crepe as roll layer; it’s the next best thing to nori in my vocabulary. However, I prefer my prawn without shells and all.

SOFT SHELL CRAB MAKI

Mouth-watering maki creation of crispy soft shell crab, sweet beancurd, sushi rice and spicy mayonnaise.

Soft shell crab + mayonnaise = another winner maki for me!

TINARI AVOCADO EBI

Succulent whole prawn mixed with delicious vegetables and salad dressing, wrapped in sweet beancurd skin.

The avocado makes it delicous!

HANA MAKI

Beatifully crafted flower rolls with delicate raw salmon petals and sushi rice centre topped with mayonnaise and a luxurious sprinkle of shrimp roe.

Hands down to Hana Maki. This to me tops the list of the newest offerings from Sakae Sushi. Tina also agrees. This one’s such a gorgeous sushi! I can eat this Hana Maki everyday, any time, baby!

KAISEN PIRIKARA NABE

Appetising hotpot of prawns, cuttlefish, salmon, mushrooms, and assorted vegetables in flavorful kimchee soup.

To be honest, I developed the aversion to anything with Kimchi (or kimchee as Sakae Sushi spells it). Don’t get me wrong, I’m still dreaming of taking my family to South Korea one Spring day someday but I don’t think I will like kimchi or anything with it. This Kaisen Pirikara Nabe, in all fairness, has a subtle taste, you may want to try it for yourself.

CURRY UDON

Japanese curry wheat noodles with chicken.

I also find it difficult to love curry. Sorry. Maybe because curry in Malaysia is so different with The Philippines’, ours back home is a milder and my tongue is as alien as I am here. Nonetheless, Sakae Sushi’s udon or wheat noodles in this soupy dish is to die for! I love that udon!

At this moment, my wife and I were almost struggling in being satiated. And it’s a delicous feeling of fullness, mind you! However, we could have not forgiven ourselves had we not sampled Sakae Sushi’s luxurious ice cream set…

Black Sesame.

Green Tea.

Dragon Fruit.

Passion Fruit.

LUSCIOUS!

The flavors are all interesting particularly Black Sesame and Dragon Fruit as it’s our first time to taste such uniquely amazing ice cream and I have to cast my vote to that tangy and sweet Passion Fruit as my favorite among the flavors.

Thank you so much to SAKAE SUSHI @ First Avenue Mall branch, George Town, Penang!

We certainly enjoyed your new menu!

We’ll be back very soon.

Terima Kasih to Penangite bloggers, Vincent Yu and Willie Wah for the invite!

*If you’re in Penang, Malaysia, do drop by and try those yummies at Sakae Sushi, located at 4th level, First Avenue Mall. There are also other branches in Penang and other states in Malaysia. If you’re in other parts of Asia, you may savor Sakae Sushi in Singapore, Vietnam, China, Thailand, and the Philippines.

You may also check out Sakae Sushi’s website via http://www.sakaesushi.com.my and their facebook account for online contests and on going promotions via http://www.facebook.com/sakaesushi

Until this blog’s next episode of FAMILY.FOOD.and.FUN!

PS : You may be wondering about Gabby and her Mamita, for they’re not with us on this event. While Tina and I were devouring Sakae Sushi’s newest offerings, our 7-year-old son Gabby and his grandmother were glued watching Men In Black 3 in the same mall. We ate together before and after the event (yes, we do love to eat!), and did a little shopping for Gabby’s essentials.

Apr

BEYOND TOXICITY X OLD MANILA WALKS IN GEORGE TOWN, PENANG

By docgelo 11 Comments

What could be a perfect welcome to a revisiting tourist in George Town, Penang but a RAINBOW! Can you spot it?

My family and I wolf down plates of Restoran Kapitan's Chicken Cheese Kebab + Cheese Naan served with coleslaw, tamarind sauce infused with green mango+chili chutney. The fambam loved it! We usually order Chicken Tandoori and it's only my second time to savor this kebab dish and I personally liked the tenderness of the chicken specially when perfectly dipped in the tamarind sauce+spicy chutney; flavors just burst into mouth!

Roti Prata Telur or Egg Prata + Manggo Lassi.

Chicken Tandoori + Cheese Naan for Ivan

Beyond Toxicity X Old Manila Walks in the heart of George Town, Penang 04/17/2012

When I learned several weeks back that Manila’s tour-guide-extraordinaire, The Main Man from Old Manila Walks, IVAN MAN DY is revisiting George Town, Penang after he graciously informed me via facebook, Tina and I had to think where we should treat him even just over dinner.

Tina first thought of bringing Ivan to Nando’s that specializes in Portugese Peri-Peri Chicken in either Gurney Mall or Queensbay Mall however, both of these malls are located in the tail ends of the island-one in the north, the other southbound; it means travel-commuting would definitely kill our time. I considered something authentic to Penang –the hawkers of course! But we personally prefer hawkers outside Gurney Mall for a wide range of choices but then again, location doesn’t fit the schedule. Then we narrowed the list down to 3 other family favorites –Old Town Restaurant (Malaysian cuisine), Towne’s Steamboat (Chinese) and Restoran Kapitan (Indian). I told Tina that since Old Town Restaurant is a chain present in almost all parts of Malaysia, Ivan might have already tasted it in the airport or somewhere. While we also considered getting a table after 5PM would be close to impossible at the frequently-packed Towne’s Steamboat in Jalan Macalister, thus we agreed to take Ivan to our favorite Indian food place, Restoran Kapaitan in Little India. I think it was a good choice beacause it’s only a few meters away from the hotel where Ivan stayed.

Because his arrival fell on a weekday, we could only meet him after work hours. Too bad we failed to tour him around in some of the heritage sites in this side of Malaysia. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the limited time we spent with him. The moment was like we’re only talking, walking and commuting in the streets of Binondo, Manila, hahaha!

Ivan Man Dy of Old Manila Walks :

“Conceptualized, manufactured, bred and educated in the city of Manila, Ivan is the feet behind Old Manila Walks. Before he finally took to the streets, he was an active museum guide as well as a staunch heritage preservation activist. Now, he has found his calling being seasoned urbanite, a self-designated life-long citizen and ambassador of Manila. Since 2005, he has led the thousands of happy walking hordes down his city’s most historic quarters. Four years on and countless calluses later, he is still loving every step of the way.” -Sourced via OldManilaWalks.com

If you’re a Filipino-balikbayan or foreigner who would like to explore Manila in a nutshell, joining his walking tours back home is always informative, engaging, entertaining and educational. It’s history and gastronomic treats beyond books. We have joined 2 of his amazing walking tours around Manila -

Malacanang Palace, San Miguel Manila : Power, Palace and a Shot of Beer
Malacanang Palace – Legarda Mansion / La Cocina de Tita Moning
Big Binondo Food Wok
and my first few meetings with Ivan Man Dy were at Foodies’ Walk at BGC (Bonifacio Global City) and at where else but Binondo / Manila Chinatown

*For more of his walking tours and its details, check out their website at OldManilaWalks.com

After our simple dinner at Restoran Kapitan, we hopped on the bus to accompanied Ivan to one of the malls in George Town where he treated Gabby who didn’t say no, to a delightful scoop of Baskin n Robbins chocholate chip ice cream! Thanks, Ivan! And here’s wishing you enjoyed your days in Malaysia!

Nov

THE DAY WE HAD BIGGER APPETITES

By docgelo 16 Comments

A few months back, there was one weekend morning that Tina, Gabby and I woke up with a great drive for eating. You might be thinking that there’s nothing uncommon about it as my family and I truly have passion for dining (READ : Gluttony is far different from being self-declared food enthusiasts or foodies; spelling pa lang po magkaiba na!) but that day was totally exceptional. We oddly tried two Steamboat and BBQ buffet restaurants in a day.

The marbling of the meat says it all. Tender, moist and flavorful!

Lunch was at Asian BBQ located at Prangin Mall, George Town, Penang. It was less ordinary compared to Yakimix in SM Mall of Asia, Manila, more so with Don K! Yakiniku Buffet in Tokyo which absolutely earned a spot in my taste buds.

With its price less than 50 ringgit (PhP 700 or USD 15.63), Tina chose a package meal that allowed Gabby to practice his ”cooking expertise” (Consider this part of his chef-wannabe immersion).

This was our table. Clean and almost spotless however the grill isn’t smokeless.

But wait, I know we shouldn’t be complaining because grilling and barbecue are 2 different things. Agree? (READ : Muli, spelling pa lang po, magkaiba na!). To those who are still in the dark, allow me to enlighten you a bit (Violent reactions are welcome on the comment thread but you’re too much if you expect a reply…*biro lang!).

If you must know, I read somewhere that if and when there’s use of direct high heat, it’s grilling. And cooking meat, fish, or anything you fancy over a low heat slowly with a smoke is barbecuing. Ergo, what we had for this lunch was actually barbecue, not to forget the name of the restaurant’s Asian BBQ, hehe!

Res Ipsi Loquitor : The evidence speaks for itself.

Smokin' !!!

Despite we smelled like what we chow down, the fambam had fun!

After stuffing ourselves with that Asian BBQ package that came with cups of rice, we burned those calories by strolling inside the mall and another mall across the street and hopped on a bus to spend the rest of the afternoon at a public beach in Tajung Bungah, a coast line 12 km away from George Town.

Sunset signaled us to take dinner somewhere. And because it will take a while before we reach our home here in Penang, Tina gave her green light for us to pay Town’s Steamboat Buffet Restaurant a visit again.

A sight of a packed food place is always an indicator that we're in the right venue.

If you’re following this blog for some time now, you should be familiar with this food place in Jalan Macalister (Macalister Road) in George Town where (binge) eating is best just disregard the disturbing presence of those LPG gas tanks beside each table (If you’re suffering from paranoia, you’ll instantly entertain the thought that these tanks might explode while you munch and digest a feast–morbid!).

The fantastic and voluminous spread of this place makes up for its lack of proper ambiance. Food choices and value-for-money are the things that make us go back here once in a while.

Piping Hot Dimsum and Dumplings : Bottomless and Self-Service. YUM!

Tong tong tong tong pakitong kitong….

There are spreads of cooked and raw ingredients. You either barbecue or throw them down and simmer on a hot soup base. We always do both!

How sweet it is to end a day with sweets!

Not the perfect Portugese egg tarts but nonetheless can satisfy one's craving.

We never had dessert at lunch that day so I we downed cups of ice cream and ice drops for Gabby (not in photo).

The strawberry and chocolate flavors were mediocre however the coffee ice cream was excellent!

Food is and will always be a substantial part of our great appetite to engage in family bonding.

Until our next one!

Jun

DINING IN G CAFE, G HOTEL, PENANG

By docgelo 19 Comments

In the heart of one of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, where century-old structures fused harmoniously with modern and restored ones, a gorgeous hotel stands proud and celebrates its contemporary and stylish designs with non-intimidating ambience.

Saturday, 11 June 2011. When you’re living an expat life with your wife and kid and you both work 5 days a week with a daily routine that can be almost utterly boring (read : home-work-home-work routine), you strongly need to be creative in spicing up your weekends to break and prevent monotony.

Last Saturday, Tina, Gabby and I woke up at 5AM to go to an event that I will post next. After being sun-kissed, walked up and downhill and felt fatigued, we decided to reward ourselves by trying out the buffet lunch at G Cafe at the lobby of G Hotel located in Persiaran Gurney, Penang.

Tina, being modestly frugal as she is, reminded me to be conscious of our budget. So after we all went to the toilet to freshen up, I approached the counter at the entrance of the restaurant to inquire the rates of their buffet. We were keeping our options in mind in case the price is beyond our taste.

At around half hour before noon, a friendly and courteous banquet manager spoke to me and informed me that their International buffet lunch on a Saturday for adult costs RM 52++ (PhP 743++ or USD 17++) inclusive of free flow of fresh fruit beverages, coffee and tea, and kids of Gabby’s age eat for free. Well, that sounded like music to my ears! The price is definitely a steal and imagine, our little-big boy would eat for free! We gave it a nod and reserved a table for three at 12 noon.

The cool and edgy atmosphere at the lobby is spontaneous. Other than the use of various wonderful and comfortable seats, I like the air of having tall ceiling and the presence of glass walls to stimulate appreciation of huge trees and lush greens outside surrounding Gurney Mall. Yes, if you are familiar with Greenbelt Mall in Makati, Philippines, G Hotel in Gurney Drive Penang reminds me of home.

The interiors of G Cafe also boasts of simple lines, repeated circles and other geometric patterns which are also apparent in the use of modern yet ergonomic chairs and tables.

The use of those striking royal blue drop lights on the walls somewhat like echoes and matches with the drinking glasses of the same hue; isn’t it nice?

Who would not want a breather from the usual homecooked dishes, or worst, the repeated consumption of fastfood value meals? Luxury sometimes, comes reasonably affordable as we always keep in mind that our pocket dictates indulgence need not to be expensive.

Who would not want to dine under these lights?

Without idea of being rushed (as in quick bites every breakfast and that 1-hour lunch breaks at the office except on Fridays, 12-2:30PM) and most importantly, dining comfortably with your family with foods you love eating, the experience was truly divine!

And so Tina, Gabby and I took our taste buds to another gastronomic adventure at this sumptuous lunch buffet at G Cafe.

I started with their creamy corn soup; i like its light buttery taste with thick and textured consistency.

Salad comes next : My plate had prawn salad, cheese, mix salad (tossed with crab sticks) and one of my favorites, potato salad… everything was superb! the prawn salad’s flavor wasn’t overpowering; it wasn’t too spicy, neither too oily. Sarap! it was like a perfect prelude to this wonderful dining experience.

I tell you, I can eat this seafood plate everyday! hahaha!

Although there were no sushi and sashimi, which God knows I am biased with (Japanese foods are only offered every Thursday nights at G Cafe as of present), and notable absence of carving stations except for some Peking duck and smoked chicken, Tina and I concluded that when you enjoy every bite, everything seems to be complete.

At the spread, these burst of colors reminded me of my favorite season of the year, Christmas!

Defensively, we know buffet plates should not be stuffed with most from the spread to effortlessly look like you’re eating as if there’s no tomorrow, hahaha! but Tina had this plate because she wanted to share those dishes she preferred with me and Gabby, isn’t that sweet?

My wife recommends this Chinese prawn dish and comments,“It feels like eating in Ongpin (Manila’s Chinatown).” My palate dictates that it’s the sesame oil that makes most Chinese foods taste Chinese. I miss having some dimsum and dumplings, though.

You can never go wrong with Peking Duck and smoked chicken with honey syrup… Yum!

*unless you’re allergic to it*

Baked vegetables, spring rolls and calamares, anyone?

Delightful desserts!

Irresistible temptations!

Guinataan! Wow!

As I’ve always stated it, the world is so incomplete without ice cream, agree?

Fibers are essential, we know.

And coffee is a must to end our meals.

Above all, my family is happy. It was indeed, a happy weekend!

Tina and I were so impressed at their highly efficient wait staff. Our glasses were refilled with freshly squeezed fruit punch promptly, attended to our needs in a blink making their service almost impeccable!

I almost forgot to tell you that Amex credit card holders receive 15% discount on top of the reasonable cost of this lunch buffet.

We only paid RM102 (PhP 1,458 or USD 33.7) for two plates as Gabby ate for free, I know it’s the usual price of one buffet plate in some hotels when I left Manila last year, so it was truly a steal!

It won’t be our last time to dine at G Cafe in G Hotel, definitely.
I wish to bring back my family there to experience their room and amenities too someday.

After all, the view from their 300+ rooms include priceless sight of Penang bay and the tourist-famous Gurney boulevard. *wishful thinking*

——————————-

G Cafe, G Hotel

168A Persiaran Gurney 10250 Penang, Malaysia

Tel +604-2380000

website : G Hotel, Malaysia

Jan

GELATISSIMO

By docgelo 12 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO and FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: doc gelo, docgelo, family, food, food blog, foodie, gelatissimo, gelato, greenbelt, greenbelt 5, gurney drive, Ice cream, plaza gurney

Mocha Nut Crunch, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Macadamia = Instant happiness!

A world is lonely without ice cream, is it not? It’s one of my comfort foods. What about you?

During my recent week-long days off back home, Tina, Gabby and I managed to dropped by our favorite malls in Makati and sampled a few flavors of gelato from Gelatissimo in Greenbelt 5.

With Gabby at the counter, I asked the crew of their bestsellers and one of them told me to try tasting first before making a choice. Everything looked so delicious but we wanted to order 3 flavors only on their biggest cup; we eneded up enjoying various chocolate-flavored gelato. It was like heaven in every scoop!

Look at Gabby’s smile with that cup of Italian gourmet ice cream; papasa bang endorser? *paging Gelatissimo*

It was Tina and Gabby who already gave it a shot from their TriNoma Mall branch a few months ago and liked it from then on.

There’s Gelatissimo branch also here in Penang, located at Plaza Gurney in Gurney Drive but I refused the chance to sample it for I find it a bit costly and so does its Manila counterpart. I guess, indulgence always has a price.

Now, I’m craving for some ice cream. I wish I have vanilla on the fridge.

And you?

Have a great week ahead! God bless.

——————————————o

Jul

FRO-YA : FTW!

By docgelo 28 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO and FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: dessert, desserts, doc gelo, docgelo, family, family and living, family life, food, food blog, food blogger, foodie, fro ya, frozen yakult, Ice cream, parenthood, sebastian ice cream, sebastian's, sebastian's ice cream, sorbetes, sweets, trinoma, yakult

During most of our grocery shopping, Gabby would have his own smaller cart to push and usually gets his own stuffs from shelves once Tina and I give our mutual nods.

One of his favorite grocery items is :

Yakult (ヤクルト, Yakuruto^?) is a Japanese probiotic milk-like product made by fermenting a strain of skimmed milk with a special strain of bacterium, Lactobacillus casei Shirota. (Sourced via Wiki).

Now, imagine savoring Yakult as a creamy frozen ice cream.

Yakult + ice ceram = two of every child and kid at heart’s favorites.

Wonderful, isn’t it?

Sebastian\’s Premium Ice Cream has the edge over other cold delights; it has offered FRO-YA (Frozen Yakult) ! That cute little boy who happens to be my son, had enjoyed that tangy flavor of our old-time favorite drink on ice cream when we went to TriNoma mall in Quezon City this afternoon. He had it as dessert after our hearty dinner with my balikbayang-in-law.

Fro-Ya on the left for Gabby, and Sebastian’s Mango Sansrival on the right for me. Yum!

Yakult cannot be better than this!

An option to countless Fro-Yo (frozen yogurts) available in town.

———————–<@

Do you drink Yakult ? Have you tried Fro-ya?

Jun

LOVE IN A BOX

By docgelo 48 Comments

20 June 2010 –I left the house 20 minutes before 6 in the morning when my wife and kid were still curling up in bed. I can’t blame them; everyone deserves longer hours of sleep on a weekend. But I had to leave even with an empty stomach because I gave my nod to a commitment to do clinics from 6AM to 10AM for a pharmaceutical company somewhere near our place. So even if it’s Father’s Day 2010, I didn’t pass on the chance to work even on a beautiful and sunny Sunday morning; after all, providing for family regardless of the value is one of the reasons for the occasion.

After that short but productive stint, I went to TriNoma mall to buy food for our lunch. I bought ingredients for pasta for Tina to cook. I also bought a cake that Gabby and I have been meaning to try.

Because my almost 6-year-old son is still too young to give me presents except for his priceless hugs and kisses, I took the effort of bringing home what we would enjoy together…

We like Blizzard from Dairy Queen. Gabby likes Oreo, while both Tina and I like Chocolate Extreme served upside-down! Ice cream never fails to delight us and having it as a cake is a huge plus! We’re all excited when I came home yesterday with the box of DQ Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream Cake! Sarap!

“Not your traditional cake. Made with thick and creamy DQ soft serve ice cream and layered with fudge, cookie crunch & chocolate and vanilla ice cream.”

Each slice was heavenly! Our sweet craving was absolutely satisfied.

I rememeber during my wonder years, my parents used to bring us 4 boys to a famous ice cream house along Aurora Blvd Extension in Quezon City to savor their cold treats and take home a box of ice cream cake. Sadly, this place that I’m sure, became a part of many Filipino childhood memories closed several years ago and we never had ice cream cakes since then.

Before dunking our forks to that wonderful dessert, Tina cooked pasta with two sauces to choose from- pesto and carbonara.

So while most families celebrated Daddy’s Day by dining out, we’re at the comforts of our own table, enjoying home-cooked meals and an ice cream cake that’s to-die-for!

To my own Daddy and fathers-in-law and to all dads out there, Mabuhay po, tayong mga tatay!

It’s always a great pleasure to be appreciated for all of our efforts.

How did you spend this year’s Father’s Day?

Jun

LIMITED EDITION

By docgelo 31 Comments

Inspite of the intermittent drizzle that signals the start of the rainy season and the likes of arroz caldo, champorado + tuyo, coffee or hot chocolate warm the hungry tummies, there are moments that we still want to eat cold treats. Today wasn’t an exception. Gabby was craving for McDonald’s Oreo McFlurry this late afternoon so Tina and I allowed him to enjoy it with his favorite Chicken McDo. It spelled ‘kiddie happiness’.

Although I have been keeping a love affair with caramel sundae also from the same fastfood, I set it aside and deviated my craving to this delectable ice cream and bought a tub for my family. This one spelled ‘simple indulgence’.

Imagine the goodness of one of Baguio’s must-buy-treats, the Good Shepherd’s Ube Jam combined with another Pinoy favorite dessert, Leche Flan in an ice cream tub on your dining table.

….Irresistibly delicious!

It’s also available in limited edition, Ube-Keso.

It has nice packaging too!

Excuse me as we enjoy Baguio in every scoop.

Apr

MUCH ADO ABOUT SUMMER

By docgelo 20 Comments

I have a confession to make.

This may disappoint most of you but Tina and I are not fond of going to the beach during Summer. We prefer to soak under cold shower (together? that’s another story that does not deserve a blog post! LOL!) rather than bathe and immerse on water under the scorching heat of Philippine Sun.

Other than budget consideration during peak season, we enjoy sand, water and what beauty that nature has to offer when it’s not thickly populated. As you may know, my family’s recent beach adventure was last week of October 2009 when BORACAY was in its quiescence…

Tranquility echoed every morning during our days in the island…

Ah, Boracay! When do we get to enjoy your crystal turquoise water and powdery sand again ? It’s not only the beach that’s glorious in this island but digestive feasts too. Summer heat reminds me of spoonful cold treats we had from Boracay’s HALOWICH.

And since we’re not hitting the beach anytime soon, you may now have a clue of how we define SUMMER in our own way…

Yesterday, Tina, Gabby and I went to Iceberg in their Timog Ave. branch to have bowls of Halo-Halo.

What’s a Summer in Manila without it?

For only PhP 98, I enjoyed macapuno balls, slice of peach, sweet plantain, corn kernels, corn flakes, jackfruit strips, ube jam, gulaman on shaved ice topped with ube and strawberry-flavored ice cream!

While Tina and Gabby chose to savor Caramel Flan with Mangoes and Vanilla Ice Cream. Yum!

Summer for us, is a great excuse to devour on these cold gastronomic pleasures.

What’s your favorite food fit for Summer?

How are you spending your Summer? I bet most of you are busy treading on most shores of this archipelago.

Have fun!

Mar

COMMERCIAL MUNA FOR GELATONE

By docgelo 26 Comments

Categories: EVENTS and FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: ayala center restaurants, charity event, doc gelo, docgelo, food, gelati, gelato, gelatone, greenbelt 3, greenbelt restaurants, Ice cream, Makati City

Dear kind readers,

Here’s a word from Ms. Tess Songco, owner of Gelatone in Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Makati City…

It’s time to give back! Gelatone continues to celebrate it’s upcoming 3rd year anniversary this April by hosting a charity event this Saturday! Proceeds of every scoop of gelato sold from 12NN to 4PM will be shared with Top of Your Head to buy books for the AHON Foundation. How cool is that! A yummy scoop of gelato to promote reading for the young in public schools! That’s Saturday, March 13, 2010, 12NN to 4PM.

It’s for a worthy cause so I am all for it. I will appreciate if you can spread the word to your friends, families, colleagues and the entire universe. Thanks!

PS : Ms. Tess, Thanks for the e-mail. My flight to Tokyo is on Tuesday so we will try our best to drop by but in case I’ll be busy preparing for my trip, at least my blogger-friends can help you out with this charity event. Good luck and continue to spread God’s love with more activites like this and thanks for providing us one of the most delicious gelati in town!

Mar

SEBASTIAN’S

By docgelo 25 Comments

Categories: FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: amici, amici caramia, caramia, cold treats, desserts, doc gelo, docgelo, family, family and living, food, food blog, foodie, froyo, gelato, gelatone, Haagen-Dazs, Ice cream, ice cream flavors, sebastian's, sebastian's ice cream, selecta, summer, the white hat, yogurt, yoh gurt froz, yummy

My family and I have been keeping our love affair with gelato, yogurt and ice cream. Perhaps with different intensity but we love ’em all. Personally, they’re few of my comfort foods. I always say that the world is incomplete and unhappy, at least for me, without these cold treats.

We may have forgotten the brands but the tastes were so remarkable that even after 5 years had passed, my wife and I can still remember how rich and creamy ice creams in Auckland, NZ were.

Locally, we’ve only sampled a handful of delights. We like GELATONE, AMICI + CARAMIA for gelati. GOLDEN SPOON , RED MANGO , YOH-GURT-FROZ, THE WHITE HAT, FYI FROYO for yogurts. SELECTA GOLD SERIES, ARCE DAIRY (Have you tried their Atis / Sugar Apple flavor?), MAGNOLIA and of course, HAAGEN-DAZS which tops our favorites for ice cream.

Last Sunday, another would-be-favorite has been added to our list. We’ve finally tasted premium ice cream from SEBASTIAN’S…

Try hard not to drool blink and feast your eyes on the 3 flavors we enjoyed…

CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE

BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH

They all taste great! Tina, Gabby and I give Sebastian’s our two-thumbs up! And definitely we’ll come back soon for more flavors!

Can you match those 3 flavors to us as to who had what? Katuwaan lang.

Special thanks to one of my blog-buddies, Ingrid who suggested for us to try Sebastian’s.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Mar

TINA+GABBY IN GELATONE’S POSTER

By docgelo 21 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO, FOOD & MORE FOOD! and HEADLINES
Tags: docgelo, family, family and living, food, food blog, food blogger, foodie, gelati, gelatone, greenbelt, greenbelt 3, Ice cream, Makati

Dear Ms. Tess, (owner of Gelatone)

Thank you so much for graciously asking me if you could use my family’s photo in GELATONE’s Anniversary Promo Photo Contest posters and standees. It’s our pleasure!

Continue to make one of the most flavorful and delicious gelati in town!

More Power to GELATONE and Congratulations on its 3RD YEAR!

Dear Kind Readers,

Whenever you’re in 2F of Greenbelt 3 in Ayala Center, Makati, I suggest you beat the summer heat with GELATONE’s tasteful gelati. Don’t forget to bring your cam and capture those gelato moments to join their contest. Thanks!

Let’s troop to Gelatone and enjoy scoopfuls of these…

Photo via Gelatone’s facebook.

PS: my family’s photo taken in Gelatone was posted in this blog entry –> click THIS

Mar

TEAM GABBY WINS! (PART 2)

By docgelo 19 Comments

Last Saturday afternoon was one of our happiest! Gabby, at only 5 years old has been continuously reaping academic and extracurricular awards much to our pride as parents. Nakakawalang-pagod! To think that he’s not living a child’s life less ordinary as he’s not that geeky-grade-conscious preschooler and even preoccupied with his past times : Cartoon Network, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, we cannot wish for anything more than good health, a best future and more fun days with him.

Just before completing his Nursery last year, he placed 3rd out of 51 batchmates in their Declamation Contest. This year, he repeated his victory by finishing 4th out of 50 Kindergarten pupils. He also earned a medal for his Math Quiz Bee. Not to forget he’s Top 2 in their class’ 3rd grading period.

After four long hours of activity, we all deserved a nice meal from one of Gabby’s favorite food places.

He was so excited as Tina and I brought him from Ateneo (Hogan Conference Hall; their contest’s venue) to Amici+Caramia in Tomas Morato. He got to bite at his favorite Quattro Formaggi pizza again! Yum!

Here’s what we feasted for Gabby’s win…

PENNE AL SALMONE AFFUMICATO; A distinct pasta dish with a rich flavor of smoked salmon.

PANINI AL SALSICCE – Italian Sausage Panini; Amici’s homemade flavorful links with veggies.

AL QUATTRO FORMAGGI -Four Cheeses Pizza.

A visit to Amici isn’t complete without having Caramia’s gelato! Here are the drool-worthy gelati we enjoyed….

STRACIATELLA. Gabby’s choice (PhP 60/scoop) in a wafer bowl (PhP 10).

BLUEBERRY SUPREME. ‘Twas my delight that weekend.

CHOCOLATE TORTUFO. Tina’s choice (PhP 95+) out of the many GELATO CAKES from Caramia.

Amici + Caramia are included in the list of our family’s favorites. And if it’s a favorite, I don’t mind posting it over and over again (View previous posts HERE and HERE) . For one day, I know Gabby will read this and we shall savor again the experience and the tastes we had during his victorious day!

——————————–

For Amici + Caramia’s details and menu, click HERE.

Feb

BLUE TO WHITE

By docgelo 29 Comments

Categories: FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: buffet, dad's, doc gelo, docgelo, Eat all you can, Eat all you want, Filipino food, food, food during Holy week, food for Holy week, foodie, Glorietta, glorietta 3, holy week, Ice cream, Japanese food, Kamayan, lent, Pinoy, restaurants, Saisaki, sashimi, Season of Lent, sushi, tempura

In response to a colleague’s invitation for lunch, we headed to Glorietta 3 about a couple of weeks ago. I+Tina=Gabby were treated to one of our favorite pig-out places : Dad’s Ultimate Buffet (includes Saisaki + Kamayan).

We noticed they’ve changed their old blue plates for the crossover/ultimate buffet to immaculate white. I’m not sure if it’s only for that day or only for that branch. Nevertheless, the eat-all-you-want spread remains the same–satisfyingly good for affordable price than others.

These were digested several days before Ash Wednesday. *defensive*

If you’re Catholic like us, do you also observe little sacrifices like porkless days during Lent ? We usually avoid meat on Ash Wednesday, and all the Fridays that follows until Black Saturday. Our menu during Fridays of Lent typically consists of Ginisang Monggo, Paksiw na Bangus, Chopsuey, Fresh or Fried Lumpia, Tinapa, Ginisang Mais or Suam, Lugaw+egg and the like. Last year, Tina prepared Lumpiang Shanghai using Tilapia fillet instead of ground pork. We don’t skip meals or fast literally; we only lessen our intake. Then of course, we try to feast again on Easter! What about you? What do you eat during Holy Week ?

Jan

SEVENTH HEAVEN

By docgelo 9 Comments

Despite the mild U.R.T.I. (Upper Respiratory Tract Infection) and a ton of uncertainties I’m experiencing, God knows how grateful I am to Him and for all the love and support from my family and closest friends that Tina, Gabby and I are getting; it’s just overwhelming.

Allow me to keep my hopes high and let’s all start the new week with wonderful things.

On the last quarter of 2009, my family and I were invited to HAAGEN-DAZS BRANCH OPENING in ROBINSONS PLACE MANILA where we received GCs. We enjoyed and shared with you via this blog our first experience with HAAGEN-DAZS FONDUE. Then weeks after, it was followed by MORE VELVETY ICE CREAM MOMENTS. And this will be the third but definitely not the last of those heavenly pleasures.

Have you been to Seventh Heaven?

Well, we haven’t too, but not long ago, we’ve tasted it at least…

SEVENTH HEAVEN, PhP 680+. Seven scoops of Haagen-Dazs ice cream of your choice, fresh seasonal fruits adorned by sweet strawberries and rich chocolate sauce, served in a mist of indulgence.

Scooping those balls of ice cream with little spoons and looking at each other’s faces while enjoying the plate together spelled another family bonding moment for us.

The only difficulty lies on the selection of the flavors.

My wife, Tina, our son, Gabby and I chose our 7 :

Vanilla,

Dark Chocolate Orange,

Cookies and Cream,

Macadamia Nut,

Vanilla Caramel Brownie,

Choc-Choc Chip,

Cappuccino Truffle.

This ice cream creation was just too divine for words. I actually ran out of superlatives to describe the slow-melting-process and the delightful taste of each flavor, LOL

Sure, we like yogurt and gelato but cannot resist ice cream temptation, can you?

Worries are forgotten when moments are shared with the family especially with ice cream!

Have a great week everyone!

God bless us more!

————————————————

Haagen-Dazs SM Megamall Atrium, 2nd Level Mega Atrium, SM Megamall Complex, Ortigas Ctr.

Dec

MORE HAAGEN-DAZS MOMENTS

By docgelo 5 Comments

We only have a few more breaths before we welcome a NEW YEAR! And I thought of posting my backlogs something to delight your senses!

The love for ice cream runs in our blood! Few weeks ago, we trooped to Mega Atrium of SM Megamall and spent an afternoon of nothing but family fun (read : INDULGENCE!).

We’re still in awe and have been savoring our HAAGEN-DAZS FONDUE experience more than a month ago and thankfully, we’ve sampled few of their heavenly treats again. What’s best with these velvety-ice-cream moments isn’t only enjoying it with my lovely family but having all of them for FREE! No, we’re not HD afficionados but we’re only lucky to receive HD’s GCs from an event we attended.

We’ve tried their branches at Robinson’s Place, SM Mall of Asia and recently, Mega Atrium in SM Megamall. And there are 3 common things we like in these Haagen-Dazs stores :

1. They know how to value their clients. At least with our few dine-in experiences, we’re satisfied with their service. Staffs aren’t only friendly and nice but know their goodies so well!

2. Clients have the luxury of finding flavors that are truly inspiring! Indulging in HD ice cream is such a pleasurable way to end a very tiring day or to start a new week fresh!

3. And Dine-in customers have the freedom to MIX, MATCH, INVENT, COMBINE, CREATE & most especially ENJOY scoops and spoonfuls of Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

Now allow me, Tina and Gabby to give you the license to drool, *pun intended*

The B E S T BANANA SPLIT I’ve tasted to date…

BANANA SPLIT, PhP 380+. Haagen-Dazs classic Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry Ice Cream, fresh banana and crispy almond flakes topped with maraschino cherry. But as I’ve mentioned, in HD, there’s the liberty to MIX, MATCH, INVENT, COMBINE, CREATE and ENJOY; I chose variation of its original flavors…

For my BANANA SPLIT, I had :

1. CHOC CHOC CHIP : a velvety blend of milk chocolate ice cream with a generous handful of dark chocolate chips. FYI, I like dark chocolates!

2. STRAWBERRY : Sweet, summer strawberries are introduced to pure cream and natural ingredients.

3. VANILLA CARAMEL BROWNIE : The elegance and sophistication of vanilla mixed with bits of chewy tasteful brownies with caramel drizzle.

Gabby had his own share of a BRUFFIN, PhP 60+ and a scoop of COOKIES AND CREAM, PhP 150+.

While Tina also opted to have her own choice mix and match moment…

My wife had two scoops of ice cream :

1. DULCE DE LECHE : A delicious combination of caramel and sweet cream, swirled with ribbons of golden caramel.

2. STRAWBERRIES CHEESECAKE in what Haagen-Dazs called BELGIAN WAFFLE DREAM, PhP 350+.

She opted for that second flavor rather than Macadamia Nut Brittle which is also a bestseller; her plate was served with warm Belgian waffle and freshly whipped cream.

*Expect more Haagen-Dazs Moments from me and my family next year!

Do you also indulge in ice cream?

What’s your favorite flavor?

What do you eat with ice cream?

Nov

MERRY SPOONFULS

By docgelo 40 Comments

One of the perks of being a father that I enjoy the most is having kiddie moments with my own child. I’m such a kid-at-heart, so dealing with my preschooler son’s cravings isn’t a big deal especially if it concerns his appetite for ice cream….

Can you imagine a world without ice cream? :(

We may have different views about it but you will surely agree that this is too hard to resist…

HAAGEN-DAZS FONDUE, PhP 790+.

Share a luxurious Haagen-Dazs FONDUE created from molten DARK chocolate sauce combined with an assortment of mini scoops, fresh seasonal fruits and patisserie…

Pieces of chocolate chip cookies, wafer sticks, marshmallows or a heavenly soft pastry….

Selection of fresh tropical fruits : perfectly thin slices of bananas, apples and strawberries…

Every Haagen-Dazs Fondue comes with :
- four mini scoops of Macadamia nut,
- four mini scoops of Strawberry,
- three mini scoops of Cookies and Cream
- three mini scoops of Choc Choc chip

The extra regular scoop of Hazelnut Chocolate isn’t part of the Fondue but an extra order, PhP 150+.

My wife, Tina, our son, Gabby and I met up with my youngest brother, JC at SM-Mall of Asia last Sunday (after hearing mass and eating breakfast at Greenbelt, we mall-hopped to MOA!) afternoon and experienced this elegant taste bud-stimuli.

My wife’s guilty pleasure was also apparent on her serving plate…

I personally prefer dark chocolates over other variants and because this Fondue comes with dark chocolate sauce, it makes the experience more sinfully delicious!

Every dip dunk is like a piece of heaven!

Go ahead, feast your eyes… Haagen-Dazs is such an irresistible temptation. Each layer of velvety creamiest ice cream comes with layer of taste, sensation and pleasure…

Our son, Gabby can make himself a good endorser, don’t you think so?

Oh and I almost forgot to tell you that we enjoyed this finest ice cream creation without spending a cent…

I still believe in the saying, “The best things in life are FREE!” …

Forgive me, I am only sharing these GCs with my family; I know you also agree in the saying, “Family First Policy!”

Don’t worry, I’ll let you peek again at our next Haagen-Dazs intensely rich experience.

Haagen-Dazs is truly a pleasure in its purest form! Go ahead, inspire your senses…

If indulgence is a crime, then my family and I are guilty as charged!

PS : We got the GCs from here

And will you agree with me that HD Fondue in the Philippines is better than HD Hong Kong’s? view here

————————

HAAGEN-DAZS. 2/F 203-204A SM MALL OF ASIA, PASAY CITY / Tel No : (63-2) 556-1111

Nov

INSPIRE YOUR SENSES

By docgelo 32 Comments

Guess where my family and I spent our Thursday afternoon? haagen-dazs robinson's place

The world’s best ice cream + priceless family bonding moment = absolute bliss !

I got an invitation to attend Haagen-Dazs branch Opening at Robinson’s Place Manila. How can you resist such wonderful event ? How can you say no to such luxurious indulgence ?

Haagen-Dazs continues to allow Pinoys to enjoy the world’s creamiest ice cream by opening a new branch at the ground floor of the Midtown Wing of Robinson’s Place Manila. The set up of the new shop boasts not only of Italian designed furnitures, freezers and dipping cabinets but moreso of those remarkably delicious ice cream flavors. robinson's place manila branch

The well-organized occasion started with a simple yet satisfying cocktail party by TGI Fridays… tgif + haagen-dazs

I only had a plate; kept my cravings in control and left more gastric space for those dense velvety ice cream!

indulge!

They initially served Haagen-Dazs Dark Chocolate Orange cups. It’s a perfect sweet ending to a stimulating quick bites and a wonderful prelude to the program.

Unlike the other press launches, the event forego of the usual fashion show and whatnot; it was made more special by having short three-act show by 3 gorgeous models. The play was about 3 different women living in the same building with a common search for an inspiration.

A young, hip and edgy had been stuck with nothing to complete her lyrics for a song until she was totally inspired by a tub of Haagen-Dazs

HAAGEN-DAZS 1 HAAGEN-DAZS 2

Then there was a damsel who got troubled by her boyfriend over the phone who eventually found solace in a tall glass of that irresistible delight

HAAGEN-DAZS 3 lovely

Who would not agree that Haagen-Dazs is such a perfect partner to celebrate success of whatever magnitude? This was also depicted in the last scene wherein a yuppie got her promotion at work. She immediately called her friends to share her happiness expressed in cones and cups of Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

HAAGEN-DAZS 5 HAAGEN-DAZS 6

Any shop inauguration is never complete without that ceremonial ribbon-cutting. And I don’t think there’s anyone more appropriate to to do such act but United States Ambassador to the Philippines, Hon. Kristie Kenney.

FYI, I follow her blog; check my sidebar on the right -I even commented on some of her previous posts. You could just imagine how thrilled we were to have attended this event with her. She’s so wonderful up close. She smiled and smiled sincerely. She simply radiated and represented effortlessly not only her country but everybody who loves ice cream! We liked her most when she said that everyone she left at the embassy was so jealous of her attending Haagen-Dazs Opening .

Haagen-Dazs Robinson's Place Manila Branch Opening

Ambassador Kenney was graciously assisted by Haagen-Dazs-Philippines General Manager, Ms. Tess Panganiban and Robinsons Land Corporation Business Unit General Manager, Mr. Cornelio Mapa.

Hon. Kristie Kenney at Haagen-Dazs Robinson's Place Manila

They also had that ceremonial scoop wearing those HD head caps and enjoyed Macadamia and Chocolate flavored yummies.

Ambassador Kristie Kenney Haagen-Dazs + Hon. Kristie Kenney

When we were ushered back to the lobby, these great tempting treats were served generously…

my son gabby with Chocolate Temptation

Isn’t it apparent on Gabby’s smile that he’s so excited to try that plate?

CHOCOLATE TEMPTATION is one of Haagen-Dazs’ Christmas menu. It’ served with pretzel sticks on top of two butter cookies, layered with scoops of DARK CHOCOLATE ORANGE, MIDNIGHT COOKIES and CREAM, BELGIAN CHOCOLATE, CAPPUCCINO TRUFFLE and TIRAMISU, garnished with almond bits and cherries.

That’s sinfully delicious.

Chocolate Christmas Spire

CHOCOLATE CHRISTMAS SPIRE : consists of scoops of BELGIAN CHOCOLATE and DARK CHOCOLATE ORANGE ICE CREAM, served on top of a layer of COOKIES and CREAM ice cream and warm BROWNIE CAKE.

What a divine creation from Haagen-Dazs! Truly, impeccable…I, my wife and our kid just love it!

tina & gabby with haagen-dazs chocolate christmas spire

Indeed, it was another glorious fun-filled family activity for us! We’re definitely coming back for more!!!

gabby + haagen-dazs robinson's place manila gaaby + press kits

And did I already tell you that we went home with press kits + freebies too?

gabby and haagen-dazs

Haagen-Dazs is not only the world’s best ice cream; it’s such an experience!

So what Haagen-Dazs ice cream flavor/s is/are your favorite/s ?

Thank you so much to Haagen-Dazs Philippines, particularly Robinsons Place Manila branch!

Maraming Salamat to Ms. Nadal, one of the nicest PR and events manager we’ve ever met for the invites. I look forward for more to come, hehehe More Power to Haagen-Dazs! God bless

HAAGEN-DAZS Robinson’s Place Midtown Wing is open from 10AM to 9PM daily.

Other Haagen-Dazs branches are located at SM Mall of Asia (5561111), SM Megamall Atrium (6382971), Shangri La (634-8108), Glorietta (7527299), Greenhills (721-0111), Alabang Town Center (809-2016), Power Plant Mall (899-3274), Greenbelt (757-7570) and Eastwood City (687-1839).

Aug

AFFORDABLE INDULGENCE

By docgelo 9 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO and FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: ai quattro formaggi, amici, cakes, cara mia, chocolates, desserts, doc gelo, docgelo, food blog, food blogger, foodie, four cheese pizza, gelato, Ice cream, ice cream cakes, pasta, philippines restaurants, pinas, Pinoy, pizza, tomas morato, tomas morato restaurants

We needed to go back to our place before lunch time to freshen up after we enjoyed our son’s preschool activity a couple of days ago. Then, we found ourselves in one of familiar restaurants that we learned to like love because of its nonintimidating, family-friendly, canteen-ambiance with delicious and reasonably-priced- but not-so-authentic Italian menu. It’s none other than AMICI and CARA MIA ! PENNE AL SALMONE AFFUMICATO, PhP 230+

This pasta plate is definitely a winner for us. My wife Tina, our son Gabby and I like its flavorful taste of smoked salmon that perfectly jived in unison with its creamy tomato based sauce. Its serving is enough to be shared by two.

AI QUATTRO FORMAGGI, PhP 290+

It was only our second time to order this Amici’s FOUR CHEESES pizza but it has grown in our palate. It’s our son’s favorite pizza! Sans toppings and all, it stands out! I like its thin crust made really crunchy and quickly served because of brick-oven baking and the sumptuous taste of combined cheeses is just irresistable.

A visit to Amici and Cara Mia would not be complete without those heaping scoops of gelato! As I’ve stated in my former post about this wonderful food place, the only difficult thing is to decide what to try- because everything is worth the drool, lol…

Other than Cara Mia’s wide variety of gelato flavors, they also offer gelato cakes!

Don’t they look so divine ?

After few minutes of looking at those delectable treats, we’ve finally selected our choices that noon…

Gabby had Cookies and Cream Gelato cup and I tried Caramel Nougat cup, at PhP 50+ each.

As if we’re not hyperglycemic yet, we dared ourselves and ordered more Cara Mia yummies…

Tina’s choice : SPUMONI SURPRISE, PhP 80 per slice. She liked it. A blend of chocolate and pistacchio with vanilla creaminess of that gelato cake.

As for me, I finished a bowl of this gelato cake in a few minutes, lol…BANANA BLAST, slice PhP 80. Who says nothing can be enjoyed less than a hundred pesos? Presenting to you, the gelato cake that caught my discriminating gustatory sense. OK, I haven’t tasted them all, but for that moment, I think this one’s superb of its kind. If you like flavors and textures, this one’s perfect. With chilled strawberries and banana-based Italian ice cream mixed with another chocolatey flavored gelato -Banana blast is simply fantastic!

When we were just ready to go, the waiter asked Tina if she would gladly submit her palate to a free taste-test. Immediately after a nod, the waiter offered this…

PISTACCIOCCOLATO (Choco Pistachio cake). How can you resist such beauty? lol…

Her verdict based on APPEARANCE, SERVING SIZE, TASTE and TEXTURE/MOUTHFUL and my family’s smiles…

It has a canteen-ambiance because of combined wait-staff servings and self-service. I am not complaining. I look at it as Amici and Cara Mia’s positive appeal and edge from the others. Since one has to go to a corner with freezers of ice cubes and pitchers of water for you to bring to your table, after paying at the cashier counter upon order, I see no complexities but simplicity in dining. A similar experience we have in the comforts of our own homes.

AMICI PIZZA PASTA GELATO and CARA MIA GELATERIA, Bellagio Square, Tomas Morato corner Scout Fuentebella, Quezon City. Delivery (63-2) 818-4444.

Aug

YOGURT LOVE

By docgelo 13 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO and FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: amici, cara mia, doc gelo, docgelo, Filipino, food blog, foodie, frozen yogurt, FYI yogurt, gelato, gelatone, Ice cream, il terrazo, Philippines, pinas, Pinoy, red mango, red mango yogurt, restaurants, shangri-la mall, the white hat, tomas morato, white hat yogurt, yogurt

My family (referring to Tina & Gabby) and I have glucose levels going haywire lately.

Good thing we know how to control it (referring to our craving, lol).

We usually dwell on Starbucks with venti cups of white choco mocha frappuccinos and caramel macchiato beside a slice of heavenly cake or corned beef pandesal and we still long for more cups and dose of caffeine, but our sweet tooth also desires for more sublime desserts…

We’ve been enjoying both the regular and Italian ice cream called gelato…

–>click on photo and view post about it.

GELATONE's GELATO

AMICI / CARA MIA's gelato

Then, there was a day we began to look for great-tasting yogurt…

Golden Spoon : Yogurt that tastes like Ice Cream

Red Mango frozen yogurt

RED MANGO's green tea and original frozen yogurt

Yoh Gurt Froz

Tina likes fro yo of YOH GURT FROZ over others for their CHILLED/FROZEN toppings that don't melt the yogurt quickly.

Last weekend, we got to taste WHITE HAT FROZEN YOGURT from their branch at Shangri la mall.

Our four-year-old son ordered regular sized yogurt from White Hat with KITKAT chocolate wafer toppings..

I had blueberries, mandarin oranges and kiwi as toppings while our friend Rob, enjoyed heaping cup of cherry-topped White Hat yogurt.

The staff at the counter was sweeter than her yogurt when she handed me a discount promo card…

White Hat staff should be trained more on how to properly topped those yummy yogurt so it won’t spill and would still be appetizing once served. We also finished those cups and enjoyed till the last scoops, nonetheless.

Then this afternoon, we went to Il Terrazo in Tomas Morato for lunch (I’ll post it soon) and after that hearty Japanese pig-out, Gabby asked his mom and I to buy him what else but yogurt, this time from FYI…

Gabby had his favorite Kitkat-topped yogurt again! Note that FYI’s kitkat yogurt was crushed to bits as against to The White Hat’s kitkat cut into cubes-toppings. I don’t know with Gabby’s but Tina and I liked what we shared…

This is FYI’s yogurt topped with maltesers and almond chips, sarap!

Do you like yogurt too ?

HAVE A SWEET WEEKEND

Aug

PIZZA + GELATO

By docgelo 14 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO and FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: amici, caramia, caramia gelateria, doc gelo, docgelo, food, food blog, foodie, gelato, Ice cream, pasta, pizza, pizza place, tomas morato, tomas morato restaurants

My family and I have been enjoying frozen yogurt and gelato, other than the usual ice cream these days. We’ve tried some of them and the latest we tasted were few flavors of gelato from Cara Mia Gelateria which is also owned by people of Amici.

I’ve been wanting to bring Tina and Gabby to Amici and Cara Mia since I read good reviews of this Italian casual food places located under one roof from the blogs I follow; the most recent post was from a foodie-blog buddy, mrs. lavendula . Finally, we got to enjoy yummies from both of these two establishments 2 days ago.

Good thing we live 10-minute-away from Tomas Morato area where restaurants and fastfoods have grown like mushrooms.

Since my wife Tina was planning to prepare pasta for dinner last Friday, we just ordered pizza and gelato as our afternoon snack.

AI QUATTRO FORMAGGI, PhP 290. This is Amici’s four cheeses pizza. Our preschooler son, Gabby wanted no toppings in pizza so this one was easy to choose from the menu. Despite its simplicity, this pizza rocks! It’s so flavorful until the last bite of its crust. It’s so hard to resist that we finished its entirety in a flash and got no leftovers.

If you’ve been frequenting my blog, you’ve known that I am partial to anything with shrimps and riped mangoes. I never missed to try a slice of a cake called MANGO TANGO from Cara Mia; it was so affordable at PhP 55/slice that I’d wish even carinderia or little foodstalls at sidewalks would sell this reasonably priced delectable dessert, lol

And of course, we’ve tasted Cara Mia’s gelato. The only hard part was choosing the flavor from the wide variety.

The first photo on this post was my strawberry flavored gelato. It’s PhP 50 per order and additional PhP 10 if you want in waffle cone or waffle bowl. I never eaten an italian ice cream in a sugar waffle bowl yet in my 33 years of existence, lol, so the kid-at-heart in me kicked in again, lol.

According to the flyer we got from Amici and Cara Mia, Italian ice cream called gelato has more advantage than the ordinary ice cream. As to fat content, gelato is made with more milk, and lesser fat, resulting to a richer and creamier taste not to mention its health advantage. With regards to air content, gelato compared to the usual ice cream contains 10% air resulting to denser volume and velvety texture. We swear, gelato from Cara Mia took several minutes before it began to melt; a proof that it’s so dense compared to others. As to temperature, gelato is kept in a warmer temperature of -14′C (ice cream at -23′C), making it perfectly soft but firm so it can melt in your mouth and its full flavor is enjoyed. And with regards to quantity of production, ice cream is made in large batches and kept frozen for long periods of time while gelato is produce daily in small batches ensuring its freshness.

Tina and Gabby chose to have their gelato in cups, she had sansrival flavored; it was also delicious!

And Gabby had Cookies and Cream gelato

After that wonderful afternoon merienda, we have officially included Amici and Cara Mia in our family’s list of favorites

Amici Pizza Pasta Gelato / Cara Mia Gelateria – Bellagio Square, Tomas Morato corner Scout Fuentebella, Quezon City other branches : Don Bosco Compound, A. Arnaiz cor Chino Roces Ave., Makati City and Level 3 Mega Atrium, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City. Cara Mia Gelateria also has a branch in 101 Missouri Square cor Connecticut Streets, Greenhills, San Juan.

Aug

JAPANESE BREADS & MORE

By docgelo 9 Comments

Categories: FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: cafe, cakes, chocolates, coffee shop, desserts, dezaato pan, dezaato pan breads sweets cafe, doc gelo, docgelo, family fun, food, food blog, foodie, gelato, Ice cream, japanese bread, Japanese food, restaurants, sweets

This was my tray of Japanese baked goodies that I brought and paid at the counter of Dezaato Pan located at the corner of Tomas Morato and Roces Avenues in Quezon City. I had them to-go as pasalubong for my son & his mom.

Dezaato Pan provides free wi-fi access to dining clients. Breads are on display at a glass-topped wooden shelves that somehow prevents contamination of microscopic and air-borne pathogens.

This is their edge over Breadtalk that has their breads exposed to air. Another Dezaato Pan advantage is their price; the cost of each bread is a lot cheaper than Breadtalk’s. But we love Breadtalk. We like their bread called FLOSS especially that CHEESE FLOSS; it’s always a must-buy whenever we’re at Breadtalk. Nonetheless, Dezaato Pan’s goodies also tasted OK but some were not. I don’t know, probably because my wife Tina and I are too biased with Breadtalk so when we tasted Dezaato Pan’s, it suffered criticisms from my wife’s meticulous taste.

However, if there’s one reason for me to go back to Dezaato Pan, it would be this bread…. I honestly liked this soft bread topped with salty delicious KATSUBUSHI or tuna flakes. The marriage between the buttery bread and its toppings really worked for my palate. This bread is called RYOUSHI OISHI, PhP 42. Sarap!

Our son Gabby and I also liked ICHIGO DELIGHT. It’s like a danish bread topped with strawberry jam; reasonably delicious at PhP 39.

I don’t know about your taste, but for me, the next two breads were not that good. I failed to finish them, and my wife disliked them too. The one of the left is called KING NIKU PORK NORI SESAME, PhP 45 and on the right is KANI & CORN ROLL BREAD, PhP 39.

Other than breads, there were cakes too…

Tina, Gabby and I liked the cakes from Dezaato Pan.. I bought a slice of TRIPLE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE, PhP 95.

We also got to taste a slice of CARAMEL GREEN CREPE, PhP 80. It tasted and smelled like Jasmine flower; uniquely delicious.

It has layers of different textures; predominantly soft and melt-in-your-mouth consistency.

Surprisingly, Dezaato Pan also offers more than breads and cold & hot beverages. They also have gelato!!!

Those gelato are sold at PhP 70 per 100gms. Again, it’s cheaper than the other gelato but it will have to wait until my next visit for me taste it.

The service staffs were friendly, and the wifi-ready dining area was comfortable enough to while away time. There were lots of baked yummies that looked probably go well with coffee; i’ll try some more on my next visit.

DEZAATO PAN BREADS SWEETS CAFE, U-5 Thompson’s Square, Tomas Morato, Quezon City.

Jul

GELATONE’S GELATO

By docgelo 14 Comments

I don’t know about you but regardless of the weather, ice cream is always one of my comfort foods.

Half hour before we went to Greenbelt Cinema 3 to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday (scroll down below for the post), our son Gabby was begging us requesting for ice cream. My wife Tina and I, as usual, were too weak to resist, we immediately gave in to his want.

Our immediate choice was to try Cold Rock Ice Creamery (from Australia) located at level 3 of Greenbelt 3 and it could have been our first time there. But when Tina was about to enter, I saw a posting at its glass doors prohibiting cameras inside. Why Cold Rock? Don’t you want free advertisement without frills on my blog? Well, whatever your reason for such regulation I wouldn’t care less, and it wasn’t our lost but yours…:) One establishment’s loss is another’s gain…Cest la vie!

So we had to go a level down the escalator and settle for an incomparable ice cold treat BETTER THAN ORDINARY ICE CREAM - what else but gelato from GELATONE!

It wasn’t our first time to try Gelatone but it took us a while to go back. We already tasted some flavors of this Italian frozen dessert (called gelato) a couple of years back with our friends of more than 16 years who then were back in Manila for vacation. Gelatone since then, serves cold yummy treats but their small dining place is warm and perfect for small conversations between friends and families

Even though I didn’t notice any apparent change in its interiors, it remained simple and comfy all these years.

Fair service + best gelato = more than enough reason to keep coming back to Gelatone!

Customers have options in Gelatone - Order gelato outside on a cup or cone and off you go, or to have it as dine-in, just choose the flavor from the frozen glass stall outside and a wait-staff will bring it to your table. If the order is for dine-in, a choco-stick will be served with the scoops on cups, but if it’s a dine-in gelato on a cone, the cone is also served with the cup. Get it? Of course, LOL. BTW, they also serve pasta and some sandwiches.

The hardest part in Gelatone : selecting from the wide array of flavors of gelato! Looks like everything is a must-try!

Don’t get me wrong because I still LOVE regular ICE CREAM even YOGURT too. I can’t imagine a world without them For a kid-at-heart but a huge man-at-stomach like me, these desserts mean HAPPINESS! I am not bias with any of them however I’ve learned long before that gelato has less air than ordinary ice cream, making it more compact so what you’ll get is more of its delectable goodness compared with regular ice cream; it’s just all in the process of making this yummy dessert.

We tried these flavors for dine-in yesterday….

Gabby had his scoop of BUBBLE GUM….

Our son enjoyed this flavor he even licked drank its last drop! On the opposite table where we were seated inside Gelatone, a kid with his European-looking mom, was also savoring the same flavor. Does it really has that appeal on kids? It tasted like, well, Bazooka-bubble gum the way it should be. At least the bliss that it brings to our own kid is priceless.

I ordered a scoop of this gelato of HAZEL NUT with DARK CHOCOLATE called BACIO NERO. Pangalan pa lang ng flavor, ang sarap na! Excuse me, I’m drooling as I post this, I need to wipe my keyboard, LOL.

I like chocolates so much that I wouldn’t pass an opportunity to enjoy it. There was no regret in ordering this, it’s a superb palatal stimulus but I was happier to taste Tina’s choice…

FRUTTI di BOSCO or MIXED BERRIES SORBET was a winner among the 3 scoops we had. It can deliciously clean your palate. I love the berry-flavor that’s neither sour nor sweet; it was just heavenly, lol.

Each scoop of gelatone costs PhP 100 inclusive of VAT if ordered in cups and + 10% service charge for dine-in.

These are proofs of how my family happily spent our thirty minutes before we headed to Hogwarts yesterday

GELATONE, Level 2, Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Makati City.

Jun

FROZEN

By docgelo 18 Comments

Yogurt is such a hit nowadays here in Manila since most Pinoys are already conscious of healthy living. Well for me and my wife Tina, we just like to enjoy it so we’ve tried two of the many available brands here (RED MANGO and YOH-GURT-FROZ) and we can’t help but to compare it with ice cream.

Considering its nutritional value with lesser calories and fats and its taste ofcourse, usually served with fresh fruits and/or nuts, we certainly like yogurt. But I can’t imagine a world without ICE CREAM! It’s one of my comfort food. There’s always that kid-in-me who craves for ice cream every now and then. Who cares if it’s summer or rainy days? Ice cream for me is always in season. Although I already avoided eating dirty ice cream (sold by street vendors) after watching a TV documentary on how it’s prepared and done, I settled for the commercially available sorbetes.

I also like ice cream cakes. I grew up having few of my birthday cakes were ice cream cakes bought by my parents from Magnolia Ice Cream House in Aurora Blvd in Quezon City. Just a few months ago, we tried FIVE COWS in TriNoma that serves frozen desserts such as ice cream and ice cream cakes. We also liked it. View my previous post about it –>HERE

The last time we’re in Greenbelt 3 in Makati, we tried GELATONE, a small restaurant that serves GELATO, or Italian ice cream. Gelatone has so many flavors and variety of gelato dishes to choose from. I just failed to bring a cam that time. So what makes gelato different from ice cream? I heard it’s the lack of air - gelato has less air, or none at all, compared to ice cream.

Yogurt, gelato, or ice cream, I like them all and can’t have one over the other. All of them are delectable!

Yesterday, I and my son Gabby walked to the far end of our street where a convenience store is (what else but 711) to buy what else but ice cream. I was sure of what to buy.

Since we’ve tasted all of the 3 flavors already (Hazelnut Brownie, Chocolate Truffles and Berry Strawbery), we have singled out our favorite. All of those 3 Selecta Gold ice cream flavors are decadent, but we like Berry Strawberry so much. Perhaps we had so much of chocolates (we usually got tons lots of them sent by my in laws from the US and it takes us few months to consume them all unless we give some to our siblings, nieces and nephews which we do actually) that we deviated our preference to something fruity and creamier….

With generous amounts of strawberries and richness of its cream, I’d say it’s just perfect for my palate, for the lack of a better word to describe it. We finished the tub in two seating.

So what’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?

I have to stop blogging this, I’m craving for another scoop.

Now, please excuse me, I need to indulge….

For more info on ice cream and other frozen desserts, click this–> SOURCE

May

RED MANGO PART 2

By docgelo 8 Comments

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO and FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: desserts, docgelo, food, foodie, Ice cream, megamall, megamall restaurants, red mango, red mango yogurt, restaurants, sweet treats

I told you, it can be so addicting!

Left : Original frozen yogurt, medium (PhP 115) + 3 toppings (PhP 40) : Blueberry, Kiwi, Peaches.

Right : Swirl Yogurt of Original & Green tea, medium (PhP 120) + 3 toppings (PhP 40) : Mango, Kiwi, Peaches.

It was only 48 hours and one blog post when I first tried Red Mango yogurt in TriNoma mall. It’s a healthier alternative to ice cream and other sweet treats with less guilt on the caloric-sugar-fat-counters. I so like it that I brought my wife Tina and son Gabby to Megamall this afternoon to visit Red Mango’s branch there and for them to enjoy my present cravings. Expectedly, they love it too! Who can resist fresh fruit toppings of choice (or you can opt for nuts or choco chips) on an all natural-frozen yogurt ? It has reasonable price, friendly service, nice comfortable interiors – an option to coffee shops that we also frequent.

One of my blog visitors posted comments on my previous entry on Red Mango and suggested for me to try green tea yogurt on my next visit. And so I did have a swirl of original frozen yogurt and green tea! Not bad at all! Sarap pa din! LOL…

Here’s a photo of the variety of toppings one can choose from. Slices of fresh fruits or do you fancy nuts or chocolate and candy bits ? You can have it as one, two or three toppings! It’s cheaper when you have 3 toppings; plus it’s appetizing & visually appealing.

The staff was so pleasing and politely answered my querries. She told me that they have been operating for few months now (where was I during those days? I’m always late on what’s new! LOL). After their branches in TriNoma, Eastwood malls in Quezon City, and their branch in SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Red Mango will invade the malls in Makati soon! Yipee! We live in Quezon City but we like Glorietta and Greenbelt malls. They are my son’s stroll places.

Look how nice Red Mango’s serving bowl is! It has the store’s logo at its bottom- a little surprise for the kids and kids-at-heart. This was my bowl, emptied after 3 minutes!

RED MANGO MEGA MALL. Ground floor SM Mega A, SM Mega Mall, Mandaluyong City.

Mar

FIVE MOOS

By docgelo Leave a Comment

Categories: FAMILY : LOVE KO 'TO and FOOD & MORE FOOD!
Tags: chocolates, doc gelo, Five cows, food, foodie, Ice cream, mall, summer, sweets, trinoma

It was only last Monday (after the TGI Fridays Kiddie League Membership Kick Off Party) that we got a chance to try FIVE COWS in Trinoma. We heard about the ice cream cakes they offer which made me miss more the Magnolia Ice Cream House along Aurora Blvd Extension in Quezon City during my wonder years. Other than Magnolia Ice Cream cakes, I still remember my preference to banana split with barquillos, which until now is a hit combination specially during summer. I’m not so sure if the old Magnolia Ice Cream House is still on operations, but I guess not. Nonetheless, there are other stores now like FIVE COWS that offer similar treats to food enthusiasts like us.

hg1

We were already full after munching at TGIF but were too weak to resist the temptation of FIVE COWS so we just let go with the flow. As we sat in the middle of the resto, we saw Gabby’s eyes glued at the glass fridge where ice cream cakes were on display.
He immediately spotted a slice of ice cream cake called Rocky Almond Slice, PhP 160.

I asked Tina to make her order for us to try a variety of tasteful sweets…the menu alone is really a feast to sight.

Aside from Rocky Almond Ice Cream Cake, we also enjoyed a couple of ice cream flavors like Bubble Gum Blast, PhP110 and Mocha Mud Pie PhP135 in huge servings all gone in 10 minutes!

There’s a lot more in the menu to try on our next visit to Five Cows. Definitely we’ll try FLAMING ALASKA soon. You’ll know what it is when you visit the resto ice cream bar & what makes it intriguing & mouth-watering…

FIVE COWS
Trinoma Mall, 4th level
Space #4019
Tel# 901-3748 / 901-3948

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