The Dining Room at Gourmet Farms

Ate lunch at The Dining Room of Gourmet Farms located along the Gen. E. Aguinaldo Highway of Silang, Cavite.

Food was fine but somewhat pricey. I didn't like the cheesecake because it tasted like refrigerated sort with gelatin, not baked. Salad was forgettable---I'd expected it to be magnificent since the farm was just outside. I liked the pot roast best (luckily, since that was my order).

Starting top left, clockwise: Beef kebabs P380, White chocolate cheesecake P220, Pot roast P380, Fattoush salad, P250, Baked salmon P380, Four cheese pizza P400. Forgot to take a photo of the osso bucco which cost P450.


Considering the distance, I'd only eat there again if I happen to be in the area. Although I'd probably rather go with Manos' Greek Taverna or some other resto with more affordable choices.

Review: Sweet Valley Mango Choco

I've previously tried R&M's Choco Mangga, which is an expensive chocolate dipped dried mango. Here's an image from fortyweeksandthensome.blogspot.com

I liked the contrast between the sweet-sour mango and the chocolate coating that did NOT taste horribly artificial (or as they call it "chocolate flavored") instead of real chocolate.

So when I saw another variety of chocolate with mango, I bit, despite the high price. I can't quite remember but I think this small box of 6 cost more than Php90.

(Another rotated photo--very strange. Why is Blogger rotating my photos when they're already right side up? Anyone know how to can correct this?)

There was a much bigger chocolate to mango ratio in this form factor. The mango inside was not really dried mango but more like thick, chewy mango jam. See the photo below:

(This one isn't rotated. What gives? Is it because the earlier ones are extra large?)

This one had the bad chocolate. But I shouldn't wonder since the first chocolate ingredient is "cocoa substitute". I wonder what that is. Carob? But it's probably a "chocolate substitute" instead. The usual cocoa with vegetable oil and no cocoa butter.

(This one is extra large but it isn't rotated. Sheesh)

So this is very sweet and with no real chocolate taste.

Verdict: not buying this again.

I guess I don't like the mango chocolate taste combination enough otherwise it would be pretty simple to buy dried mangoes, melt some chocolate, and dip them.

Dark Chocolate Obsession

Some of the chocolates I bought to try at one point:
Clockwise from top left: Lindt Swiss Classic - Dark Chocolate, Theo & Philo - Milk Chocolate with Barako Coffee, Van Houten - Semi Sweet Dark Chocolate, Malagos 65% Dark Chocolate, Theo & Philo - Dark Chocolate with Calamansi, Whittaker Dark Chocolate.

Lotus biscuit and spread - Speculoos mania!

Love these! So I got into the speculoos bandwagon rather late but I must say, these biscuits and the biscuit spread are yum!

I've tried other brands and I've even tried making the spread myself (but from cheap cookies since I like the cookies too much to experiment with them) but this is among the top. I wonder if it really is the original? I'll update this post to include brands I like and don't like.

Cookie Butter Spread list:

Good

Lotus (pictured above)

Trader Joe's (photo from their website)

Meh

Goya

St. Nicholas (photo from Flickr)

Review: Feeling Cheated at IHOP

I'd been wanting to try IHOP since I first saw it since I love breakfast food. So one day when we were feeling a bit flush we decided to try it out. I wanted to maximize my P500 budget and since I'm no big eater I decided to get a kid's meal of "Crispy Chicken Strips" consisting of two all white meat crispy chicken strips served with seasonal mixed fruit for P225 and the "Specialty Sampler" with one egg, one strip of crispy bacon, one pork sausage link, one piece of ham, hash browns and one buttermilk pancake (perfect for "I want to taste a little of everything" me) for 275.00.

I was pretty happy at all I got to try for P500. Unfortunately, I did not much like any of the food I ate. The chicken was probably the best but for the price, I could've had three pieces of Chickenjoy. At least the mixed fruit wasn't canned fruit cocktail. The bacon was NOT crisp, the sausage was meh (I've made better myself), the hash brown wasn't that crisp either and the pancake was dense. Turns out I like 'em light and fluffy. You had to drench it in butter and syrup to like it.

My friend got the "Classic Cheeseburger" and it was pretty ordinary for P395. Eight cuts has a much better burger. Fries were not crisp again. Coffee was ok.

Overall the experience left us wanting more particularly for the price and this is one resto I'm not going back to ever again. I guess we prefer the "Filipinized" Pancake House.

Durian Jam

A friend from Davao kindly gave me a bottle of Durian World jam. It's not as intensely durian-y as I would like. Perhaps it's made from hybrid durian instead of the native sort? I like the bitter notes and intense durian taste of the native variety as opposed to the Thai imports or hybrid varieties.

Aside from spooning the jam directly into my mouth and using it as a spread for bread, I like to use it to flavor a cup of brewed coffee. Add some non-dairy creamer and you have the cheap man's version of Blu-Gre's durian coffee!

I tried mixing it in to flavor plain yogurt but I don't care much for the effect. Durian jam and yogurt don't seem to go as well as yogurt with bananas or mangoes or even strawberry preserves from Baguio.

I'll try this one of these days

The Coffee Beanery presents:

The Orange Place Hotel-Kamias, (26 Kamias Road, West Kamias, Quezon City) 425-1398
Monday to Sunday 10am-9pm

The Orange Place Hotel-Santolan, (312 Santolan Road, cor. J.Abad Santos, San Juan, Metro Manila) 726-6712
Monday to Sunday 10am-9pm

West Avenue Branch (158 JL Fortune Promenade Bldg.,West Avenue, Quezon City) 4070308
Saturday 11am-12mn
Sunday and weekdays 11am-11pm

Today the available cakes are Devil's food cake, Chocolate caramel and Swiss Alps* at Kamias. And at West Avenue instead of the last, it's Double chocolate cake.

Does anyone know if the coffee and/or cake is good? With so much chocolate cake you're gonna have to take your coffee black.

Will report back if I ever do get to eat here.

* Have you been wondering what sort of cake Swiss Alps is? It's been bugging me so after a long, tedious search, I see this archived paragraph from BusinessWorld in 2001:
"Cravings Sweet temptations for August include Swiss Alps, a light sponge cake covered with white chocolate in alternate layers of black and white chocolate peaks. Available at Cravings branches in Katipunan Ave., Wilson St., Greenhills, Edsa Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Robinsons Place Ermita, Robinsons Galleria and Greenbelt Mall."

Crepe for cake

Last night I wanted privacy to read a long document. I went to a food strip intending to try Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's pistachio sans rival which I had been curious about for so long. Unfortunately, it wasn't available and neither was My Little Oscar at Figaro. Starbucks didn't have any cakes I wanted so I decided to have a dessert crepe at Cafe Breton instead. I'd only tried one of their savoury crepes the one time I'd eaten there.

I was planning to try the butter and sugar crepe that I had once read about (it costs only P84+) so it would have been a lot cheaper than the cake I wanted. Then I saw the black cherry preserve and thought it would be a better option.  Desert crepes cost P40 for the crepe plus whatever the sweet stuff cost (I think apples were the cheapest option). However, what I got was a smear of preserves on top and not a filling


The black cherry preserve didn't taste as good as the cherry pie filling used in danishes at French Baker so I was disappointed. Also. they probably use the same batter for sweet and savoury crepes and my crepe tasted faintly of white pepper so it was a bit strange.

I guess I should have splurged on the Chicago cheesecake at CBTL instead. With the 5.5% service charge at Cafe Breton, my cheaper option only saved me around P16 anyway.