Cucina Andare : First Food Truck Market in the Philippines!

From all my watching of American TV shows about food (Top Chef, No Reservations, Master Chef, etc), I learned the big part food trucks play in the food culture of Americans. It was something Ken and I believed would definitely suit us here in the Philippines considering we already love street food, food carts, and Jolly Jeeps 😉 . So, when we heard about Cucina Andare, the first food truck market in the Philippines, we got all excited!

Cucina Andare will finally be open tomorrow, December 14, 2012, and it’s located at the Glorietta Open Park (front of Glorietta 3, Landmark, Makati Shangri-La Hotel and 6750 Ayala Ave). It’ll be open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 4pm to 3am, which is just perfect for my erratic schedule. I can’t wait to go during our 1-week holiday vacation! 🙂

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Homemade Beef Kare Kare Recipe (PLUS Seafood Version)

If there’s one dish our nanay prepares that I would want to eat for my last meal, it would definitely be her delicious Beef Kare-kare. Looking back to my childhood days, I realize that my fondness for this dish can be traced back to the days when our nanay would prepare kare-kare as one of her sweet ways in rewarding us for doing well, may it be in school or just for simply behaving at home.

Since I started working almost a decade ago, we’ve had kare-kare more often because whenever I’m craving for it, all we need to do is provide for the ingredients and our nanay will lovingly cook it for us. She’s even made her own seafood kare-kare (after our lunch at Emohruo in Pagudpud) which I also love (see the seafood option below this article).

This is actually one reason I don’t order kare-kare at restaurants because I have high standards when it comes to the flavors of this dish. It’s certainly one of the many things I missed when I lived for a year in Cebu that I begged her for the recipe and had to have someone cook it for me exactly the way nanay instructed. It was close to how she prepares it, but nothing beats the original ’cause it’s made with pure love. 🙂

Many can attest to the tastiness of our nanay’s kare-kare. And after the long delay of sharing the recipe, we finally had the time to prepare the dish for this blog. We hope you enjoy it and please let us know how it went when you tried it. If you tweaked a couple of things, we’d love to hear about that too. 🙂

Creamy Beef Kare-kare Recipe

Kare-kare is a Philippine beef stew, usually made with oxtail or tripe, vegetables and ground peanuts. But, this recipe was made with regular beef cuts.

SERVINGS:

Good for 8-10 people, but itâ€™ll really depend on their appetites. The 4 of us can finish this off for lunch and dinner. 😀

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FREE Gelato at Gelatissimo : Join Club Gelato!

To celebrate Gelatissimo Philippines‘ fourth anniversary / birthday, they are offering ALL Club Gelato members FREE gelato on November 18, 2012, from 11am to 6pm. We’ve featured Gelatissimo here before – our first gelato experience. Now, they’re our favorite gelato go-to place, so we’re sure you’re going to enjoy their gelato too. 🙂

How can you get FREE gelato?

All you have to do is join Gelatissimo’s Club GelatoÂ (click to be directed to the site)Â and you should receive a voucher through email. Print that voucher and present it on November 18th at any of the Gelatissimo branches listed below, from 11am to 6pm, and get ONE FREE SINGLE CUP or CONE gelato.

Only one (1) voucher per person and this can’t be used with any other offers / promos. Also, make sure you bring an ID ’cause they might ask for it to verify your membership, probably. I’m pretty sure tons of people will troop to Gelatissimo for this, so just to be safe, prepare an ID. 🙂

Read our review of Gelatissimo in Trinoma.

Gelatissimo Branches:

Ayala Centre CebuÂ – Stall G-100, Garden Level â€˜The Terracesâ€™, Ayala Centre Cebu, Cebu Business Park, Archbishop Reyes Avenue, Cebu City 6000
Greenbelt 5Â – Space 2-045 Second Floor, Greenbelt 5 Ayala Center Makati, Metro Manilla 1200
Serendra PiazzaÂ – Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig 1630
SM City CebuÂ – Ctr 106, Upper Ground Level, SM City Cebu, North Reclamation Area, Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City 6000
SM NorthwingÂ – Upperground Level, SM City North Wing North Reclamation Area Cebu 6000 +63 922 8834 605
TriNomaÂ – Level 4, Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, cnr North Avenue Quezon City 1100 +63 2 915 9777

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Quench Your Thirst with J.CO Beverages + New Donuts to Love!

We gushed and told you how much we love J.CO donuts. It’s not just about how yummy their donuts are, but it’s more on the creativity behind each flavor they offer. So, it was not surprising that they’re maintaining this level of uniqueness with their beverage concoctions. J.CO Donuts and Coffee is here to prove that, truly, they’re not your usual donut place. 🙂

Excited to try their beverages and the other donut flavors I haven’t tasted yet, my nanay and I trooped to their nearest branch – Trinoma. There was a long line of people inside, which, quite frankly, discouraged me. There were about 15 people in front of me and it took about 45 minutes to an hour before I finally got my turn. Everyone was ordering like 2-3 dozens each! 😀

Sadly, many of the donut flavors and the beverages I wanted initially were no longer available when I got to the counter. So, I opted to order their Iced Thai Tea. Good thing I was able to convince my nanay to try the Cafe Avocado. I wanted the Cappuccino Avocado, but for some reason, it wasn’t available.

Anyway, if you think that the combination of avocado, coffee and chocolate is plain weird, you’d be surprised. It was delightful! Made me wish they were still serving Cappuccino Avocado when we were there ’cause I’m sure it’ll have a more intense kick of avocado. We’ll come back next time for that, probably on a weekday when there’s a shorter queue.

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Top Picks at 2nd Ultimate Taste Test in Rockwell

If there’s one day we allow ourselves to completely indulge on good food, it’s at the Ultimate Taste Test. This time is no different. Upon seeing the lineup of food purveyors that will be presenting their new products for the coming holidays, we couldn’t wait to be there.

Sadly, Ken couldn’t come because he had to work, so I invited a long-time friend of mine to join me. He’s a food lover too and we both genuinely enjoyed the experience together. Thanks, Alex! 🙂

Since I came from work, I wanted to take a few winks before I went to Rockwell. We finally started our UTT food trip at around 3pm and we finished past 6pm. Take note that we didn’t get to taste everything. Some of the purveyors there are already familiar, so we chose to head on over to the new ones that piqued our interest the most. Plus, the fact that we were already too full at 30+ food items tasted, we just had to skip some.

Just like before, it was hard to pick our (mine and my friend’s) top favorites since there were many standouts, but the decision on who makes it here was all on me. 😉 In no particular order, here are our top favorites from the 2nd Ultimate Taste Test in Rockwell:

Bayani Brew Iced Teas

Since there’s only one beverage at the event that we absolutely loved (except for the beer, of course), I’m putting Bayani Brew on top of our list. Dubbed as Filipino iced tea, their line of products are made of nutritious, local ingredients from Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm in Bulacan. Their section at the UTT was mostly crowded because they were very enthusiastic in telling people about their products. And it’s good to see that many were genuinely interested, including us. 🙂

We were given a taste of 2 of their iced tea flavors. The original variant was a combination of calamansi, lemongrass and pandan. It has this refreshing aroma, and as soon as I took a sip, the exciting combination wanted me to drink some more.

The other flavor was Purple Leaf, brewed from sweet potato, purple leaf tops and lemongrass. What made this iced tea pink was the talbos ng kamote extract. It changes color after brewing, as we were told, thus, staying true to Bayani Brew’s promise of no artificial colors or flavors. If you like your iced tea with an extra dash of sweetness, you’d definitely love this one.

Ron Dizon, the Social Enterprise Head of Bayani Brew, said that they haven’t officially launched Bayani Brew yet, but the price is Php 35 per bottle when they become more readily available here in Metro Manila.

There’s one thing that Ron said that resonated in me – the fact that foreigners are more aware about the hard work of our very own Filipino farmers and the abundance of quality local ingredients that we have available. The beautiful lady pictured above is French, and she was very eager to tell us about the product and what they do, which is just amazing. That’s why we appreciate events like the Ultimate Taste Test where those businesses who can’t go on full-blast marketing are given a chance to let us know that they exist or what they have to offer.

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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:

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Dimsum Break : Finally in SM North Edsa!

Update: Dimsum Break at SM North Edsa Annex is FINALLY open! Read our review here.

One thing most of you don’t know about me is that I lived in Cebu for about a year. Sure, there are many dishes and food places that anyone traveling there shouldn’t miss like Taboan (best place to buy pasalubong like danggit and dried squid) and Sutukil near the Mactan Shrine (Dampa-style restaurants). But, there’s one specific dish that I have been longing to have a taste of again and that’s Steamed Rice, Cebu style. So, I was frantic when I learned that Dimsum Break from Cebu is opening a branch here in Manila – at SM North Edsa! 😀

(Photo from Dimsum Break’s Facebook page)

When I moved back here, I have been longing for another taste of their Steamed Rice. In a desperate move, I beggedÂ Mai, one of the contributors in this food blog, a pure Cebuana, to come up and share a recipe for Cebu style Steamed Rice that she made here at home. The flavors are close to the actual dish from Cebu, but there’s something missing. Still, the recipe did satisfy our craving.

You might be wondering what the heck this Steamed Rice dish is. Don’t take it literally. It’s not just plain steamed rice. It’s a mix of many ingredients and with just one small bowl, it can fill you up because of the combination of the rice, the sauce, peas, the shrimp and pork (or beef). It’s so good that it’s one of the things I deeply miss about Cebu. 😀 If you’d like to try making at home, check out Mai’s Steamed Rice recipe.

Anyway, going back to Cebu. There are 2 popular restaurants there where you can order Steamed Rice. One is Harbour City Dimsum House, which is my favorite spot. Here’s a REALLY OLD and LOUSY photo of our lunch there one weekend (taken back in 2008, I think, and I didn’t know better 😀 ):

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KFC Streetwise Cheese Top Burger : Love or Hate?

KFC Streetwise Cheese Top Burger is maybe the most hated among the products that KFC Philippines has ever put out. And if you are among the haters, to tell you the truth, save your energy. Hear us out. 😉

First Impressions

When KFC announced that they have a new product, Ken and I, like most of you, chuckled at the sight of their ad. KFC Cheese Top Burger – a burger with cheese on top of the bun instead of in the middle. Sure, that looks weird and sounds funny right?

Still, Ken and I were curious about it. I read people on my network saying it’s a plain ol’ burger, nothing fancy. I mean, c’mon. For Php 50.00 WITH drinks, what do you expect? 😉

I had EXACTLY that thought in my head when KFC told us they’ll be delivering Cheese Top Burgers for me and Ken to try. This happened over a month ago, a few days after they released it, and memes about it were everywhere (I know, this is an overdue post). Before this, we were already planning on ordering it for takeout when we go grocery-shopping over the weekend. Good thing they did bring us samples ’cause the KFC branch here in Malabon no longer delivers to our area. The burgers were handed over to us still nice and warm.

First impressions were okay, it’s not messy at all to handle. The cheese is baked on top of the bun, so it’s not like it was just placed on top of it or spread like Cheez Whiz.

Now, the taste. Ken wasn’t impressed. But, when I asked if he liked it, he said it’s okay, nothing surprising. I guess he still had that thought in his head about how ridiculous this idea was. He finished it off while I took my time to inspect it.

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McDo Twister Fries are Back : Limited Time, Limited Serving (Extended!)

Yes, McDonald’s Twister Fries are back! But, for a VERY limited time only, that’s why they’re urging us to “Prioritize the Twister Fries”. It’ll be available until ~~August 25th only~~ September 16, 2012Â (EXTENDED!).

I LOVE McDo’s Twister Fries, so when I found out that they’re bringing them back, I couldn’t wait any longer. Last night, we had some delivered, along with their Big ‘N Tasty burger (which is now my favorite among McDonald’s burgers – will blog about this next).

The Twister Fries are priced at Php 59 when you order Ã la carte, Php 78 with regular Coke McFloat or Php 88 with a Monster Coke McFloat.

Before I ordered, I already saw the ads and people on my list sharing photos of their Twister Fries orders. I thought that for Php 59, I will get a large order or serving since it was the only option for Ã la carte. Well, I ordered 3 ’cause I thought our parents can just share – I don’t want them eating a heavy meal before bed. Here’s what we got:

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Indulge in Vermont Classic Frozen Custard by FIC

The weather might be gloomy and it might not be the best time to enjoy anything cold, but you can’t deny the fact that when you’re stuck at home with family or friends, nothing beats a movie or TV series marathon with your favorite comfort food. And Fruits in Ice Cream has something new and delightful for all of us: Vermont Classic Frozen Custard, their latest dessert creation.

Frozen Custard?

FIC is the first to introduce this frozen custard treat to the Philippines. You might be wondering how it’s different from ice cream. Frozen custard is actually the same as ice cream except it has a higher concentration of egg yolks and is churned more slowly, making this dessert richer and more indulgent. When you see French ice cream on a menu, that’s another name for frozen custard. (Oh, and Ken has a recipe that doesn’t require an ice cream maker) 🙂

When FIC sent over a cup each of their Vermont Classic Frozen Custard base flavors, we were pleasantly surprised to see everything else that came with the package. Aside from the 3 varieties – French Vanilla, Brownie Batter and Cheesecake – we got an assortment of toppings and a recipe card.

Ken and I tasted each of the flavors first before we combined the toppings based on the recipes, and we literally had a hard time figuring out which one’s our favorite ’cause they’re all darn yummy! Usually, I’d go for anything chocolicious, but the tanginess of the cheesecake flavor and the creamy goodness of the French vanilla was too irresistible. The Brownie Batter still ended up as my top favorite because it has this slight bitterness to it that I love about dark chocolate. 🙂

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