Mom and Tina's

Mom and Tina's is a lovely cafe specializing in home-baked goodies.Their first outlet is at Pasig City, right across the SM Hypermart.

It has been featured a lot in t.v. shows, magazines, and blogs. And I was really excited to see that they have now set up shop here in Makati. They have a lovely corner cafe at Perea Street corner de La Rosa St. in Makati. The place is always full. the reason? Perfect location, lovely ambiance... and super yummy food. I have yet to try their main dishes... but their cupcakes are DIVINE.

I first tried their cupcakes when my sweet husband, brought home a couple of muffins in flavors- Pecan Chocolate, and Cranberry Orange . I liked the former better.

One Sunday, we decided to give the place a try. Mark ordered the Brazo de Mercedes and I tried out the Carrot cupcake (P35).

All I can say is- "I finally found the cupcakes I've been dreaming of!" Hehe. Their cupcakes are devoid of all the frou-frou that all the fad cupcakes have now. Their flavors are really more classic. But they have a lovely color, perfect taste and moistness that left me dreaming while eating them. The generous frosting is the classic meringue frosting of old, that I've been hankering for the longest time. I am not a buttercream frosting fan, so that also explains my partiality to their frosting.

As for the Brazo de Mercedes, it was so good- I likened it to my favorite Goldilocks Brazo de Mercedes. There was no eggy taste or smell, just good ol' custard that's been sweetened to perfection.

Brazo de Mercedes

Light and fluffy

To the last bit...

Carrot Cupcake

It's pretty

Very dense

Walnut-ty

Moist

And I ate it all!:)


The service was good, the servers are friendly and polite... I wish they stay this way always!

Dampa sa Libis

This is the one place where, whenever my husband wants to indulge on some crabs, we go to eat fresh seafood. I forgot how much we spent on the food... but I think ... it's more expensive than we expected it to be..

We got our catch from the wet market, which is located just behind the restaurant. The wet market was chockful of shrimps, prawns, oysters, fishes and crabs! We buy per weight, and then there's a fee for the cooking. I wasn't able to take pics for fear I'd drop the camera on the wet floor. Hehe. Ang arte.

After paying for the crabs and the fish, we waited in the restaurant area- a large, brightly lit, airconditioned seating area, and very colorful accents. Beware though during rush hours, like 11 to 12 noon, so many people go there to eat, and waiting can seem like forever!

Chili Crab

I love the garlicky, sweetish sauce

Grilled Pampano

I wish I had it cooked some other way.

There are advertisements outside of the restaurant area suggesting different dishes. I suggest you have your food cooked the same way as the ads... I think it's their specialty. ;)

Enjoy the crabs!

Thanks Ang Peregrino!

Ang Peregrino, a highly informative and very cool website about Life, has posted a very lovely, and very generous blog post under the segment Ang Peregrino Recommends.

I am deeply touched, Ang Peregrino! To more Food Trips!:)


shalum ;)

Coffee at the Bag of Beans

After a lot of picture-taking at Sonya's Garden, we hied off to the just-as-popular Bag of Beans. Catchy name for a place, huh? I've also heard so much about their coffee and pies. This place is also located at the Buck Estate, and just along the highway. It is so much more accessible.

The bakeshop is just along the highway and features a lot of breads, cinnamon rolls, and a quaintly named Dundee Cake, which really looks more like a fruitcake. I settled for the Steak & Mushroom Pie (P105) for take-out.

The Coffee Shop is located a few feet below the highway ...meaning, we had to climb down a paved stairway. It rained that afternoon, so we didn't get to experience having the coffee in the garden. There were bird cages all around, and a Parrot that squawks every time someone enters the dining area.

The dining area also had an all-white theme, with some old Filipino wood trimmings. I liked it , although the place lackked soothing music. The deafening silence was broken by a few humming of next-table conversations. Going back to the decor, this place was much more masculine looking than Sonya's and was devoid of a lot of frilly stuff. Three pieces of fresh, yellow Chrysanthemums adorned our white linen topped table.

Mark ordered the House Blend Coffee (P95), Eric and Jessica both had cups of White Mocha ( P85), while I had my English Breakfast Tea (P60). For our sweet tooth, we shared a slice of their Blueberry Topped Cheesecake at (P125).

The Cheesecake was sweet, and complemented the coffee well. It was a bit sugary and soft for me, but it was a yummy cake still, with two layers of crust and cream cheese. The blueberry toppings were seemingly homemade :)

House Blend

My English Breakfast Tea coming to be...

White Mocha

Blueberry Topped Cheesecake

"All is fair in love and war..."... Hehe


And this, is not going to be our last! Until next time, highlands!

A Double Date at Sonya's Garden

It was a double date up to Tagaytay together with Eric and his girlfriend, Jessica. It was Mark and I's first time to go to Sonya's Garden, and we were so excited. I had read so much about this mysterious woman's heavenly garden and last Saturday, I finally got to see it for myself.

It was almost a two hour ride to her place. It was a weekend, but it seemed that a lot of people decided to go up to the mountains too! Save for the traffic and some repairs at the SLEX, it was a a smooth ride.

Oh, but as soon as we stepped in.. we were in love! The dining area had an ethereal feel all over, with white, embroidered linens covering the tables, white draperies all over the ceiling, fresh flowers and greens all over the place! There was a garden on one side of the dining area, and a "rain" wall. Everything was meticulously crafted to produce the whole ethereal effect!

It was a good thing that Eric had reserved a table for us because, the place was packed! At P610 per head, we had the following yummies ( please forgive the pictures)...

I love the embroideries, and the heavenly dalandan juice!

Greens and the mix-ins- melons, pineapples,
board nuts, mangoes, eggs, parmesan cheese

oh, and turnips too!

Pineapple

Chopped Eggs

The really fresh lettuce, with edible rose petals

I love their Sesame Bread!

The spreads: Pesto, Liver Spread, Tuna and Kesong Puti ( I think),
Feta Cheese and Sundried Tomatoes

The bread was good in itself, but with the spreads, it became extra special. I love the Pesto and Feta Cheese spreads :)

The Pasta, Two Kinds of Sauces, and your choice of mix-ins

White Sauce, Red Sauce

Mushrooms

Ratatouille

Deep Fried Salmon

It was a very heavy meal, the greens were lovely, but the pasta was really heavy! The pasta sauces were not that impressive. I love their mushroom and ratatouille though. :)

And for that, we were so thankful for the tarragon tea which was served after the pasta meal. It was a cup of hot water, infused with the tarragon leave's essence.

Tarragon Tea

For dessert, they served us the following:

Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake

Banana rolls with Nangka ( or the local Turon)

Sweetened Camotes

The chocolate cake was not sweet at all! It was dense but not cloyingly sweet. The sweet part burst into the native desserts. I love their turon, and the candied sweet potatoes (sweetened camotes). I was so full, but I simply had to get a second serving of the turon! I must say... the native desserts overshadowed the chocolate cake!:)

There were a lot of food served. And guess what, everything was eat-all-you can! In fact, we can always have a round two, of any part of the meal, if anybody wanted to...so cool!

But more than that.. the experience of Sonya's Garden is not to be missed. It was a lovely, romantic interlude to the busy metro life!

The Blueberries

This is the first time I've eaten fresh blueberries. The ones I've tasted before were the cooked ones. I got them at a Binondo sidewalk vendor.

Blueberries are best with fresh cream... but with vanilla ice cream, I think they're much yummier! Remembering a Martha Stewart recipe on Bluberry Peach Cobbler, I added a Peach slice for color.. and I must say, it tasted better- My Vanilla Ice Cream with Blueberries and A Peach.

A Twist on the Classic Filipino Taste

C2 Classic Cuisine is conveniently located right in the heart of the new Pedro Gil Wing of Robinson's Place Manila. They serve mainly Filipino dishes with a modern twist, and a few other Asian fusion cuisine.

My Papa likes the Arroz Caldo ( P120) a hefty serving of this garlic heavy, chicken and rice porridge. It's super comfort food!

Arroz Caldo

Arroz Caldo

Feeling a little adventurous... I tried the Veggie Tempeh Wrap (P140 ). It was spicy! I liked it but it was a little too spicy for me.

Veggie Tempeh Wrap

Milk dip

Veggie Tempeh Wrap-heavy with onions and,
ginger and vermicelli

Mark ordered the Crispy Pata (P475 ). It was well made. Tasty and crispy! I think though it should have been ordered by at least four people (there were only three of us at that time).



For dessert, we ordered The Bibingka Souffle (P145 ). I was highly intrigued by it. It was yummy at first bite... but it was too creamy for me. This one's heavy on the quezo de bola cheese, eggs and milk.

Bibingka Souffle

Bibingka Souffle

After breaking it..

Service was okay. We really like it here!

Chocolate at the Coffee Bean

In the mood for some chocolate cake, we looked for some at the MOA (Mall of Asia) one balmy afternoon. After walking for hours, we finally settled into Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Their MOA branch is one of those facing the bay, so I think it's a good place to hang out.

We ordered a slice of the Blackout Chocolate Cake (P105.00). It was so dark and chocolatey, yet light and feathery. Yummy. The requisite caramel filling is so thin and light, and did not overpower the cake like it does with other chocolate fudge cakes. Lovely cake.

We also got a regular frozen Green Tea with whipped cream (P155.00) for me and a Mudslide (P175.00) for Mark. I like his Mudslide better.







I enjoyed the quiet, coffee shop date with the hubby. I hope we do this again. Hehe.