Cafe Via Mare - the desserts

If you're looking for a place where you can try the best Filipino desserts, try Cafe Via Mare. We had our desserts there last week and we had a grand time.

There are three kinds of cold desserts in Cafe Via Mare: the ginumis, the halo-halo and the mais con yelo. All three sounds good and looks soooo good in pictures so it is quite a good thing that Cafe Via Mare has the sampler which they call shooters.


They serve the three cold desserts in shot glasses which gives the customer a taste of each of the desserts.



Of the three desserts, the best for me would be the ginumis which is almost like a halo halo but with different ingredients. There are no beans but instead there's gelatine (gulaman). There's also lots of sago and pinipig. Instead of evaporated milk, they use coconut milk and instead of sugar for a sweetener, they used panucha.

The great thing about Cafe Via Mare's ginumis is the crunch of the pinipig vis-a-vis the soft gulaman. The coco milk is creamy too and the sweetness is just right.

The halo-halo is actually quite good as well. Although, there were a number of things that were missing (or was I just looking for a bigger serving?). What I liked about the portion of the halo-halo that I got was that the sweetness is just right. Just like the ginumis, the halo-halo was not too sweet.

The weakest of the three would be the mais con yelo. I think what is missing would be some more flavors of corn in the syrup. The mais con yelo was also a bit bland for me probably because you'd only know that what you're eating is a mais con yelo only when you've tasted the corn kernels. 

So after trying the three desserts, I concluded that ginumis of via mare is the best. The halo halo is ok too but the mais con yelo needs improvement.
 

Happy Lemon-Just close your eyes and give it a try

Last Saturday, after badminton, we had the opportunity to try out one of the most raved about drinks in the metro.

To be honest, I haven't really heard about it but having been documenting my experiences of different restaurants and talking about their food, I thought it would be good to document my experiences about trying new drinks as well.

My companion then swears by the goodness of the drinks in happy lemon so that also gave me a motivation to try it out. Looking at their menu, I was actually a bit shocked if not turned-off because of the unheard of combination of rock salt and cheese on coffee drinks. I was actually confused, was it supposed to be savory or a sweet drink?

When we got our drink, I was discouraged some more. My drink (green tea with rock salt and cheese) looked like it was something brewed in a witch's cauldron. There were bubbles and foam that are not really enticing.

Ia's drink was a bit more presentable. The cocoa powder as toppings was the saving grace because it was able to cover the foamy and bubbly substance on top of our glasses.

But I am grateful to Ia for encouraging me to give it a try. Because after the first sip, I was won over. Don't mind the presentation and don't mind the description of mixing rock salt with your drink. Just give it a try and you'd be won over too.

My drink won me over because it is very fragrant just like real honest-to-goodness green tea that I've tried in Japan. The saltiness was not very empowering but emphasized the sweetness of the drink making me like it some more.

Too bad there are too few branches. I would certainly recommend it to my friends to try.

Thank you!

I will pause from reviewing eating places and send this thank you message to all the people who made my birthday such a wonderful day yesterday!

Thank you to Lester for the surprise!

Thank you to the Saturday Badminton Group!

Thank you also to Ate Bullet of Dexter's in Katipunan for my birthday cake.

Thanks to all who came to the surprise lunch, D'friendz, IUJ kohai, classmates and senpais and Belfield friends.

Last night, over a pizza dinner (again!) Mommy said that this has been one of the longest birthday celebrations I've ever had spanning an entire week. Kuya mentioned that it was because I am leaving for Japan. He said had it not been for that, I wouldn't have celebrated my birthday. And I guess he is right... Between the two of us, I've never really celebrated my birthday with parties. A nice quiet dinner is good enough for me. But thanks to everyone who changed that and made this birthday more special. More than the usual birthday.

I see God's blessings through you all.

Yakimix - All you can eat for the decisive!

Had lunch with my closest friends as their despedida for me. We ate at YakiMix because I've heard so many stories (not only good ones but horror stories too) about this place. One of the things I've heard is how hordes of people would wait in line for their chance to eat in the restaurant.

So part of the strategy to be able to eat without the pressure and the hassle of having so many people in the venue, we decided to eat during a weekday lunch hour.





I am actually pleased with the food in the buffet. They have soup and sukiyaki. They have different kinds of meats and seafood that you can grill in the middle of the table. Of course, we grabbed a lot of the bacon, shrimps, pork slices, asparagus wrapped in bacon, bananas wrapped in bacon, duck meat, mushrooms, corn, yakitoris and even hot dog. I actually liked the experience of grilling the meats and vegetables.

If you're not into grilling meats and veggies, you may sink your teeth in those makis and sushis. There are actually two sections of maki where you can find the most common california maki to the not so common like crunchy crab maki or a really spicy one that I can't even remember.

And because these sushis and makis are bite size, you actually don't feel you're eating a lot. It's just like popping them in your mouth like savory M&M's. In fact, I've had about two and a half plates of these. I would have wanted to try all the variants but I don't think I'd have room for the other selections if I did.

If you're looking for something more filling than bite-size sushis, there are still other dishes in yakimix that you can try. To be honest though, I was so overwhelmed with the sushi and maki selection I was only able to give a limited time in trying the dishes that you can pair with the rice.

And of course, they have a lot of kinds of pastries, fruits and ice cream for dessert.

The ice cream can be sprinkled (or in this case, covered) with different kinds of toppings: from rice crispies, rainbow sprinkles, marshmallows, chocolate chips and so on. I think our ice cream ended up as toppings with ice cream rather than the other way around.

So all in all, how was my yakimix experience? I'd say it's such a good buffet. There's food for everyone. There's actually a wide range of selections which may in a way be too overwhelming for someone who is not decisive. If you're not sure of what you want to eat, you better be careful eating at Yakimix. You might gain 20 lbs if you don't control yourself here.

Italianni's -never fails to satisfy me but service needs to step up

Yesterday's lunch was at Italianni's (Greenbelt). Upon entering the restaurant, I was a bit disappointed because there was no front of the house. It took a while before someone asked us if we wanted a table and for how many.

And since I am picking on the service of Italianni's, I might as keep on going. I actually had to ask three servers for parmesan cheese but to no avail. We've nibbled on the bread and it is no longer warm but still parmesan has not arrived. Our salad has even arrived and yet the parmesan was still not served. Finally when the parmesan arrived, we've actually nibbled on all of the bread making me ask for more.

Still, I've got to remain calm and not spoil the mood of the lunch.



For our salad, we had the Mediterranean salad which has salad greens, tomatoes, onions, olives, shrimp, and topped with cubes of feta cheese. The dressing is a light mix of olive oil and lemon. I like the combination of the feta cheese and olives that has a salty flavor and the salad greens and tomatoes which are quite refreshing. The tomatoes are not sour (unlike cherry tomatoes which are popular in salads). While a lot of people would actually avoid onions in salads, I welcome them because of the texture and heat that they give whenever you bite into them. The onions in our salad are perfect complements to the flavors of the dish. And the shrimp, don't get me started on the shrimp... perfectly cooked shrimp which has a sweetness goes well with the feta cheese which as I mentioned has a tinge of saltiness. The salad is so perfect. I now have a different favorite salad in Italianni's.



Our salad was accompanied by these large wedges of potatoes which was Italianni's version of fries. And who wouldn't like fries? These gourmet fries are served with a mustard sauce that's quite light. What makes these fries so special is that it is not greasy at all. I think it was baked which explains the lack of grease.


We tried the new pizza which has anchovies, ham and arugula leaves. The arugula adds the perfect crunch and nutty and earthy flavor.


Accompanying our pizza was the sausage served with peppers and onions. The sausage was soft and tender but still quite juicy. The peppers were not really spicy.

We actually dipped some of the bread that were served earlier to the oils of the sausage to try out the flavor and wow! The grease of the sausages give a whole new meaning to the phrase "fat is flavor!" I actually had to control myself from keep on dipping.

We washed it all down with different types of juices and drinks. One of us ordered dalandan juice, I ordered grape shake and another one ordered a type of milk shake that was blueberry cheese cake flavored (YUM!) I didn't know if it was a dessert or a drink.



It was a great lunch with great friends. The conversation during lunch was also as great proving that Italian food is really such a great comfort food.

Just want to share this puzzle by Martin Gardner.

Printed above are the first three verses of Genesis in the Kind James Bible. Select any of the 10 words in the first verse: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Count the number of letters in the chosen word and call this number x. Then go to the word that is x words ahead. For example if you pick "in" go to "beginning." Now count the number of letters in this word---call it y---then jump ahead another y words. Continue in this manner until your chain of words enters the third verse. On what word does your count end?

Coincidence?

Taken from Scientific American, 1998.

Jollibee's Hashbrown burger

Half of yesterday's lunch consisted of this new product from Jollibee, the Hashbrown Burger which is composed of two baked hashbrowns with a hamburger patty and cheese in the middle.

To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about this breadless-burger that Jollibee is offering mainly because of bad experiences about other breadless burgers (ehem, you know... the one composed two chicken breasts). Anyway, back on the topic at hand, the The things that made me like the hashbrown burger are as follows:
 1. it is not that greasy  - probably because the hashbrowns were baked and not fried.
2. the crispiness of the hashbrowns - the hashbrowns maintained their crispiness despite not being eaten instantly as I had to walk from Jollibee to the office. Even the bottom hashbrown is not soggy.
3. the juiciness of the burger - the burger patty in the middle is not dry and still has some of the oils and juices (fat is flavor!)
4. it doesn't have mayo but it does have ketchup - hashbrowns are best with ketchup (enough said).
I guess Jollibee has hit the ball out of the park with this one. I'd recommend this to anyone who hasn't tried it.