One Night of Foodgasm

A few weeks ago, Ken and I were invited to be blogger judges at Foodgasm, a food tasting event and competition that was organized by UP Economics Society. Having been a supporter of up and coming food entrepreneurs, we were excited to see who’ll be there. We went home glad that all but two of the participants were completely new discoveries to us.

The event was held at Mercato Centrale, tent area. The venue was a little tight considering the number of foodies who were there to partake on what the food purveyors had to offer. I believe the a/c wasn’t on, so we were hot and sweaty by the end of the event, which I’m sure wasn’t part of the Foodgasm concept. 😉 We think that’s something they can improve on next time around. Still, it was a successful event. 🙂

Before we tell you our favorites, we’d like to congratulate Blue Toque for winning that night. Everyone, including us, loved The Ultimate, their mouth-watering multi-layer cake. Keep it up, Blue Toque! 🙂

Now, let’s get on with our top 5. This list was based on the collective mind of me, Ken and our 2 food trip buddies that night – Ken’s friend, who is also a budding chef, Marge and our nanay. There were a total of 17 participating food businesses and only 5 made it to our list. There were some that almost made it and we’ll share them with you later on this post. For now, rightfully so, the spotlight is on our TOP 5:

 

#5: The Pastry Cream Bakery

Imagine biting into this: chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, topped with chocolate buttercream, then sprinkled with grated white chocolate. I don’t know how else to describe their Quadruple Chocolate cupcake, but it was a bite-sized piece of heaven, especially for chocoholics like us. 🙂

• If you want to get in touch with The Pastry Cream Bakery, email owner Pearl Hortillas at thepastrycream (at) yahoo (dot) com OR text/call her: 0927-538-7119.
  They don’t have a Facebook page yet? 🙁

 

#4: Pastry Princess

If there was a special award for presentation and for the tease factor, without a doubt, it’ll go to Pastry Princess. Their section at the Foodgasm event was too pretty for words, even with the unflattering lighting setup (you, nitpicker you).

Pastry Princess offered each foodie a taste of 2 cupcake flavors: Red Velvet and Salted Caramel. They were both delightful, but the second was a teeny bit too sweet for us. If the icing was on a regular-sized cupcake, it’ll be just perfect. We still loved their cupcakes though!

What’s more impressive about the young girl behind Pastry Princess is she’s only 16 years old! She’s one of the lucky ones who realized what they wanted to do in life at such an early age.

I’m hoping we’d be able to drop by their store in Greenhills Towncenter, so we can taste their other cupcake variants. I love the wide variety of flavor choices. I’m thinking of trying the Lemon Blossom, Peppermint Mocha, Chocnut and Truffle. 🙂

• Pastry Princess on Facebook

 

#3: Mad Mark’s Creamery and Good Eats

When we were walking around to see what our tummies will be up for the whole night, I looked forward to finally reaching Mad Mark’s section. They were serving 3 flavors of their ice cream when we got to them – Half Baked Madagascar, Javan Hot Chocolate and Salted Sumatra.

All our expectations of each ice cream flavor were met with such creamy goodness. The Javan Hot Chocolate made me gush rather loudly about how luscious it was. The Half Baked Madagascar, with the cookie dough, also didn’t disappoint.

The coffee flavor of the Salted Sumatra was just beautifully done that it easily became a favorite. I would even go out on a limb and say it’s the best coffee flavored ice cream I’ve ever had. 🙂

We can’t wait to try their other ice cream flavors and to visit their restaurant in Kapitolyo, Pasig.

• Mad Mark’s Creamery on Facebook
• Mad Marks’ Restaurant on Facebook

 

#2: Blue Toque

We LOVE their multi-layer mousse cake, The Ultimate. When we had a taste, we almost blurted out in unison how good it was. The varying textures, the playful mix of chocolate, nuts, cream and crunch were almost orgasmic.

• The Blue Toque on Facebook

 

#1: Bistrology’s Arancini / Risotto Balls with Tinapa

Having a pastry chef in the family, we enjoy a lot of desserts at home, lovingly and passionately prepared by Ken. In our humble opinion, it’s way easier to please with desserts than with a savory dish (proof is we’ve got 4 out of 5 favorites that are all desserts). Why? Because we (meaning all of us, including you) have a more discerning taste when it comes to anything savory.

This is why, hands down, Bistrology‘s wonderful creation, the Risotto Ball with tinapa and sun-dried tomatoes, was our most favorite that night. In one bite, the saltiness of the smoked fish, the acidity and sweetness of the sun-dried tomatoes, and the delicateness of the melted mozzarella cheese, all of them came together in a perfect burst of flavors. Plus, they’re using a local ingredient – tinapa. Amazing! 🙂

These Risotto Balls are part of Bistrology’s Rice Ball Project. We cannot wait to try the other variants of their Arancini. It’s pure comfort food, really. 🙂

• Bistrology on Facebook

 

What Else Did We Like?

Here are other purveyors at the event that made a mark:

Tofud Sweets’ Tofu Blueberry Cheesecake

When we came to Tofud Sweets‘ section and asked what they’re serving, they said it’s blueberry cheesecake. Immediately, I can feel my left eyebrow raising, ready to compare it with Ken’s version of this classic dessert. I mean, if they were presenting a cheesecake at a foodie event like this, they better bring it. 😉

Before we can even comment, quietly amongst ourselves, that it’s missing the tanginess, they informed us that they were made of tofu. Right away, we were like, “Oh that’s why!!”. They should’ve said that upfront. Seriously. And I meant that in a good way ’cause it didn’t taste like there was any bit of tofu in there. 🙂

 

Crunchy Belly by Carlo’s Kitchen

We’ve had Carlo’s Kitchen’s Crunchy Belly – crispy pork belly – before this (over lunch at Mercato twice) and so we were surprised that the pieces we got were overwhelmingly salty.

Still, we loved them, but we could’ve used a good serving of rice that night to eat those pork belly strips with. Or probably bottles of beer. 😉

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Thank you UP EcoSoc for inviting us as blogger judges. And it was so nice to see other fellow food bloggers there too. 🙂

Overall, our Foodgasm experience was fun, especially because we had our nanay with us. We stayed a li’l longer after the event to try the Fried Oreos, which we’ll be blogging about in our Mercato Centrale food trip series.