Kubiertos

Did you know that carambola is a fruit native to Sri Lanka, India and parts of East Asia? I always assumed carambola was a term for something chaotic or something that had to do with lots of balls. LOL.  I also thought carambola was a word we learned from our Spanish rulers from way back. I confirmed that even in Spain, carambola pertains to the five star fruit we locally know as “balimbing”

I am sticking to what I know - carambola to me is chaos. Like a group of people suddenly going in different directions. Or a bunch of colored balls thrown together all at once. Carambola also makes me crave for Cafe Bola’s balls (whew! what a tongue twister)

The last time I visited Cafe Bola, I opted to order something other than the specialty bola’s on their menu. One commenter pointed this fact out to me which is why I went back to specifically order the Carambola pasta in cream sauce.

The Carambola that you can find in Cafe Bola is actually a dish made of pork, chicken, and seafood balls. You can have it either with rice or pasta and choose from a variety of sauces. You can choose from tomato, cream, mushroom and other sauces I cannot recall anymore.

The pork bola was predictable, the beef bola was very tasty and I felt that it mixed well with the cream sauce. However, I found delight with the seafood bola. This one is made from a mixture of what I can guess only to be shrimp, fish and other seafood. The reason this tugged at me was because it gave a contrasting taste to my ham and cream sauce. The taste of shrimp becomes so strong once you sink your teeth in the bola and the cream sauce was the perfect follow up to blanket your taste buds to keep the deliciousness in your mouth.

Uhhhmmm… now I feel like eating carambola pasta. Tsk tsk.

Looking at the images above, it is not hard to imagine why people like me keep coming back to this place for more good food.. for a good life.

Cafe Bola

Greenbelt 3
2nd Level
Ayala Center
Makati City
Tel. 757-2652
Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner

The past few days have been extremely hot. The heat has been unbearable like it was summer all over again. What is worse though, is that the heat comes with humidity. And boy has it been so wet and so humid that even standing still will make you sweat.

And heat will only make me think of one thing… ice cream!

I love ice cream and this can be attributed to my love for all things cold. Like an ice cold drink. I try not to drink any beverage that is not iced. So it would only be natural for me to love ice cream.

My favorite ice cream flavors are: Selecta’s Super Chocolate and Coffee Crumble, Haagen Dazs’ Strawberry and Triple Chocolate, Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey and Phish food and Dreyer’s Double Fudge Brownie. I’m salivating just thinking about them. I think I’m craving for some ice cream right now.

My least favorite brand of ice cream was the one previously known as Presto ice cream. It wasn’t about the taste. It just somehow tasted like some creamy dessert that wasn’t cold at all. But that’s just me.

I was pitifully looking at the ice cream freezer at the grocery the other day as it was another very humid afternoon. Looking for a sign that I was meant to buy ice cream, I perused the variety on sale.

A new gallon of ice cream jumped out at me. I was familiar with the brand but I never thought they sold them in gallons at the grocery. I have never tried their brand because I have never passed a stall in my trips to the mall. Now that’s a sign. It was begging to be bought. I couldn’t find a flavor that I wanted to try. They had cookies and cream, mango, vanilla, raspberry and macapuno. I looked at the list of flavors displayed on the glass cover of the freezer and read that there was tsokolate. I dug through gallons of ice cream before finding my destiny - the Fruits in Ice Cream tsokolate flavor.

Not expecting much but a very cold dessert, I was surprised with the taste of dark chocolate ice cream. Usually chocolate flavored ice cream would have a mild chocolate flavor that bordered on milky chocolate. FIC’s tsokolate had semi sweet aftertaste that lingers in your mouth making you crave for more. It is best served with slices of cavendish whose sweetness will complement the taste of the chocolate.

I am excited about finding this new flavor. Next time, I think I want to try the raspberry. If its half as good as the tsokolate, then I will forever be a fan.

I was walking around the mall when I smelled something good. It was past noon and my stomach was growling. Did it smell good because I had not eaten anything at all that day?

Then I chanced upon a bread store which was bright with orange lights and orange decor. I saw trays upon trays upon trays of large round dough. Hmm… I feel like having coffee all of a sudden.

I read the name of the store and I got all excited. Coffee buns. Roti Mum coffee buns. Such a warming thought.

I first tasted the coffee bun from a piece my officemate was eating a couple of weeks ago. It was bought from another store. Being a coffee lover, bread lover and basically a food lover, I was instantly attracted to the comforting feeling that the bun gave me.

I walked in the store and was filled with the scent of mocha. It filled my nostrils and exploded in my lungs. I wanted to just keep inhaling all the delicious odors.

I bought 4 buns to take home with me. Although I wanted to eat them right there and then, I had to restrain myself because I still had some errands to run.

Because it took some time for me to get home, I decided to heat the buns as directed in the paper bags that housed them.

My husband’s head turned when he noticed the smell emanating from the toasting bun. “Ang sarap naman nyan” (that smells good). He found it so good that he just had to eat the first one that came out of the toaster… Huhuhu….

It’s a good thing I bought four, otherwise none would be left for me.

The coffee bun is best hot. Not warm - hot. You see inside the bun is yellow creamy butter. Heating the bun will further melt the butter inside which will make it spread everywhere. The top is coated with what you would imagine meringue to be - sugar icing that is not too sweet. Although this one covers the bun thinly that it complemented the soft bread inside by being the crunchy coat that held everything together.

One bun is already very filling for one meal… although I had two (I was hungry!). But the taste will make you forget how many you have actually consumed. Its so delicious, you just keep eating and eating and eating.

One tip though - do not break it into bite size pieces. You just might eat more than one.

An excerpt from Roti Mum Singapore

Adopting a simple belief in providing customers with great tasting food at reasonable prices, and impeccable service, ROTI MUM ® have evolved to one of the fastest growing homegrown coffee bun bakery chains in Singapore.

Roti Mum
165 Upper Ground Floor Level
(Beside Powerbooks) SM Megamall A,
Corner Julia Vargas Ave and EDSA
Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila Philippines
TeleFax Number: 63 2 6384250
email: rotimum.smmegamall (at) rotimum.ph

I used to be very enthusiastic about TGI Friday’s Caesar Salad. In fact, I even named it as the best I have had in my list of good eats. I would never eat at Friday’s without ordering their salad. Most of the time, I take the added chicken with it.

A couple of months ago, my co-worker introduced me to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s Caesar salad. My eyes lit up when I first saw it. The salad was encased in a big clear plastic container. For its price, I should have half expected the size to be bigger than most coffee house salads, but it surprised me just the same.

I could see the salad topped with big slices of parmesan cheese, croutons, and hardboiled eggs. The dressing came in two small ketchup containers. You know those plastic things that are abundant in McDonalds and KFC establishments that are used for ketchup and gravy… Yeah that one.

The dressing was thick and chunky that I first thought there was too little for the amount of greens that there were. But as I tried to mix the salad greens as much as I can with the dressing, I found that it was actually more than enough for the serving provided.

I took a bite. Hmmmmm. Yumm!

I totally forgot my previous favorite salad. I fell in love. I cannot tell you what exactly is in their caesar’s dressing but it was chunky brought on by the grated parmesan in it. It perfectly complemented the taste (or lack thereof) of the romaine lettuce.

Many would probably make faces and wonder why I love salad so much. I just do… Caesar’s in particular. I have tried and tasted many but only these Friday’s and Coffee Bean’s have really made an impact on my taste buds.

Many times our family cooks spaghetti for either lunch or dinner. And even while we try to make sure that we cook just enough for one, there always seem to be some left over. So to prevent having these leftovers spoil and at the same time not to have spaghetti for dinner again, we thought of a way to make use of the leftover sauce. Let me share with you a 10 minute recipe for instant pizza.

Ingredients:
Leftover spaghetti sauce
1 pack tortilla bread
quickmelt cheese

Directions:
Cut the tortilla in half for easy handling. Spread spaghetti sauce over each tortilla. Make sure to leave the edges sauce-free. Grate melted cheese over the spaghetti sauce. Put in a toaster and cook for 3 minutes or until it browns as you want it to be. And viola instant pizza! Delicioso!

Continue reading “Instant pizza” »