Goya Speculoos Spread

For those of you wondering if this is a good local substitute (even if it's made in Germany, the company is long time local one that is now owned by a Singaporean company) to that famous Belgian spread, the answer is NO.

But if you like sweet bread spread, this will do. It's not as awful as Cheez Whiz Milky Delight.

Chocolate/Cocoa Drink Concoction

I made a chocolatey drink earlier with these ingredients:

1 tablespoon Milo
1 teaspoon cocoa mix powder (cocoa, sugar, full cream milk powder, non-dairy creamer)
1 shot cold brew coffee concentrate
3/4 teaspoon white sugar
2 packets single-serve Coffeemate
few dribbles of skim milk left in the box

It's barely sweet, and no single flavor dominates so I quite like it. But it would have more character if it maybe had a bit of tablea or an ounce of quality dark chocolate melted in or maybe even a dash of cayenne pepper.

Next time.

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.

Review: J.Co Donuts

I finally get to see what the fuss is all about. Feeding only myself and being on a tight budget, I couldn't stomach paying P42 for a donut so I determined I would only buy JCO when I found others to split a 2 dozen set with.

JCO dough is light, light, light. And unglazed (except probably for the Glazzy which doesn't look too inviting)---good thing if you don't want something too sweet.

I ate some of them before I took the photo, sorry.

Liked:
Why Nut - small amount of peanut butter cream inside. Like this.
Alcapone - almond slivers!
Coco Loco - sweetest of them all but fudge filling is too liquid so oozes out, frosting also too liquid and messy. this one I might prefer after it's been refrigerated for a bit
Heaven Berry - lots and lots of slightly strawberry flavored whipped cream inside
Choco Caviar Chocolate - like the crunchy "caviar" chocolate balls on top. Choco Caviar Strawberry might be even better
Oreology - ok

So-so
Tiramisu - too subtle. must be in the mood to like this
Cheese Me Up - my first ever savory donut! Good when you're in the mood but I prefer Cello's cheese donut with parmesan
Avocado Dicaprio - hmmm, s'okay I guess but I won't be in a hurry. cream-filled. I like the chocolate at the edge
Mr. Green Tea - almond slivers!

Meh:
Miss Green T - I don't care for the green tea frosting
Green Tease - again, not so hot for green tea flavored donuts. Kitkat nalang.
Meisisipi - I don't get the inspiration for this name. Chocolate candy sprinkles not my thing.

I still want to try:
Donna Italiano
Berry Spears
Forest Glam
Hazel Dazzle
Choconuttzy
Crunchy Crunchy
Funilla Glaze
Black Jack - tho I suspect this is just Coco Loco without the filling

The verdict? I prefer sweeter donuts. And JCO deteriorates much more in taste when it's not fresh compared to a re-warmed Krispy Kreme, particularly the cream filled ones (understandably so but being pressured to consume all those donuts in a day, ugh).

Sun Soya Milk Tea

Sun Soya is a Malaysian brand. They have several types of instant milk tea and I've tried the classic and chocolate ones. I like them equally.

They're pretty good if you don't mind lots of processed ingredients or don't have the time to make the real thing. I've also seen "coffee milk tea" but that's such a strange concept to me, I won't try it unless it's free.