July 2019 – Page 5 – Jellybeans in the City

Amici launches a Taste of Italy in its new resto at One Bonifacio High Street, BGC

Amici has long been the home of great-tasting Italian food, ever since the restaurant got its start as a canteen of Don Bosco’s printing press ran by Salesian Italian missionary Father Gianluigi Colombo.

Today, the chain of restaurants that carry its name is recognized as the premier foodie destinations for authentic Italian dining experiences.

It’s therefore hardly surprising that the opening of Amici’s latest branch at One Bonifacio High Street in Bonifacio Global City was met with much excitement. This new outlet boasts of a spacious seating area inside the mall, and soon, a veranda where diners can eat their meal with an awesome view of the buildings surrounding the mall.

Add the introduction of new menu items crafted by Amici’s very own Chef Paolo during the event and you can bet foodies all over the metro will be wanting a taste.

This delightful repast consisted of:

Truffle Mushroom Dip (Php385). A medley of four types of mushrooms (truffle, porcini, shiitake and button) mixed together with caramelized onions in a rich creamy sauce. Served together with crisp pieces of pizza crust, the dip had us reaching for it again and again.

Chef’s Chicken Ceasar Salad (Php295 regular | Php560 grande). Here, Chef Paolo does his own twist on the classic Ceasar Salad by adding parmesan cheese crisps to the chicken, mixed greens and croutons tossed in Amici’s own-recipe Ceasar Salad dressing.

Shrimp Pesto & Pomodoro (Php365). Plump shrimp sauteed in garlic and tomato sauce with linguine and Amici’s house-recipe pesto sauce tossed in.

Salmon & Zucchini Pizza (Php525). Zucchini, flakes of smoked salmon, bacon bits and mozarella top an Alfredo sauce base on this crunchy oven-baked pizza.

Striploin Steak Salpicao (Php625). Tender strips of striploin steak simmered with garlic and mushrooms in Amici’s house salpicao sauce and served with rice pilaf.

Mango Magnifico (Php120/slice). Light chiffon cake in between layers of whipped cream studded with mango bits and cashew brittles, this is one of Amici’s classic desserts which served as a fitting end to our delightful meal.

With this tantalizing taste of Italy, I will definitely come back for more!

Thanks to Jen of SandUnderMyFeet.com for extending the invitation and to the wonderful people of Amici for the warm welcome and the delicious meal!

This Amici branch is located at Level 3, One Bonifacio High Street Mall, 28th Street corner 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, open daily from 11am to 10pm.

Other branches are located at;

Ground Floor, The Block, SM North EDSA, Bago Bantay, Quezon City
Bellagio Square, Tomas Morato Avenue, Laging Handa, Quezon City
Ground Floor, UP Ayala Technohub, Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City
Ground Floor, 101 Missouri Square, Missouri corner Connecticut Street, Greenhills, San Juan City
Third Floor, Mega Atrium, SM Megamall, Ortigas, Mandaluyong City
Ayala Triangle Gardens, Salcedo Village, Makati City
Don Bosco School, A. Arnaiz Avenue, San Lorenzo, Makati City
Second Floor, Alabang Town Center, Alabang, Muntinlupa City

Disclosure: Together with other foodies, I attended a foodie meetup held here wherein food and drink items were served to allow us to sample the fare. These were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Have your drink your way at Make Your Own Cafe, Maginhawa

With the proliferation of milk tea places all around the metro, how does a new player stand out from the pack?

By hingeing its bets on its sinkers – those little add-ons that you put into your milk tea.

Make Your Own Cafe’s unique selling proposition is its unlimited sinkers (at Php20 each) which include homemade boba pearls (in original, honey and espresso flavors), egg pudding, nata de coco and jellies (in grass, coffee, brown sugar varieties), Oreo crumbs and more.

Add these decision points on top of the drink options on the menu – which include milk teas, fruit teas, fizzy pops, blended ice, cheese + tea, coffee and hot drinks – and you’ll soon find yourself overwhelmed with all the choices before you.

During a recent foodie meetup at the cafe’s newly opened branch in Quezon City’s famous Maginhawa Street, my foodie friends from #SaanSaPH and I were faced with the same quandary: which drink to choose from such an extensive plethora of choices.

My advice for your first time at Make Your Own Cafe? Be adventurous and go for a flavor you’ve never tried before. That way, your MYO experience is as unique and memorable as the cafe itself.

My chosen drink was the Spring Jasmine Cheese (Php120 regular | Php130 large). The light, floral and fruity tea was given an added richness by a thick, creamy and decadent layer of cheese foam. Its taste reminds me of the freshness of spring, while the cheese foam provides a slightly salty contrast to the tea.

My friends and I enjoyed our chosen drinks while sharing the snacks provided by the cafe which included:

Wings (Php176 for 6 pieces; in garlic parmesan, buffalo, sweet and spicy, barbecue and sriracha honey flavors)

Cheese Quesadilla (Php105)

Cheese Nachos (Php105)

Backyard Barbecue Burger (Php180)

Bacon Cheeseburger (Php210)

Pastas (Php180 each, which include Aligue, Truffle and Longganisa Aglio Olio)

Dessert Cakes: Sans Rival and Blueberry Cheesecake

At Make Your Own Cafe, you get to choose from a wide selection of drinks and truly make it your own, plus you can enjoy it with such tasty dishes.

(Photo Credit: Bebe Co)

Thanks to Kian of Kianventures for extending the invite and the awesome people behind Make Your Own Cafe for the warm welcome and the yummy food!

This Make Your Own Cafe branch is located at Ground Floor, Maginhawa Street, Sikatuna Village, Quezon City, open daily from 6am to 12 midnight. For food and franchise inquiries, call +63 2 9689696 or +63 917 6779696.

Disclosure: Together with other food bloggers of #SaanSaPH, I was invited to attend a foodie meetup held here wherein in food drink items were served to allow us to sample the fare. These were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my reviews of other milk tea joints:

Rediscovering tea at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, BGC

With the onset of the rainy season, don’t you sometimes feel the need to just snuggle up somewhere with a nice, hot cup of tea?

Well, why not?

For centuries, tea has long been known to give comfort to its drinkers, with stimulating mental alertness, increasing resistance to disease, cleansing and reinvigorating skin, assisting in proper digestion and easing joint and muscle discomfort.

But did you know that there is a proper way to enjoy your cup of tea?

Together with my friends from #WeLoveToEatPH, I discovered that there’s more to tea than meets the eye at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s recent #DiscoverTea event held at the 26th Street Bistro in Bonifacio Global City.

One of these discoveries is the process of tea cupping, which involves using multiple senses to appreciate and evaluate tea.

Here’s how:

With your sense of sight, visually examine the dry and unfurled tea leaves. Whole leaves with good color indicate tea of good quality.

With your sense of smell, take in the aroma of tea and try to distinguish the unique smell of each variant from the others.

With your sense of taste and touch, take in the flavor and mouthfeel of the brew as you slurp it using a stainless steel spoon.

Many things enter into the equation when it comes to enjoying a perfect cup of tea. Those that are stored in airtight containers and placed in a cool, dry and dark place will be able to keep their potency of flavor much longer. Those made of full and loose tea leaves would provide the finest taste, especially when steeped in freshly boiled water, and in the right proportion (8oz of hot water per 1 tsp of tea: or 12-16oz of hot water per tea bag).

Steeping time also plays an important role in producing your perfect cup. Steep it too briefly and you won’t maximize the tea’s flavor; steep it for too long and you scald the leaves, giving the tea a bitter taste.

Green teas require the shortest steeping time at 3 minutes, while black and oolong teas require a bit longer steeping time at 5 minutes. Herbal and fruit infusion teas require the longest at 7 minutes.

Also, be sure to pour the hot water over the tea, instead of dropping the tea bad into the hot water.

The #DiscoverTea event also served as the launch of CBTL’s new tea flavors which we enjoyed with some of the cafe’s pastry offerings.

Food-and-tea pairing is designed to enhance the flavor of the tea and the pastry by finding similar or complementary elements in both, as in the case of:

African Sunrise x Banana Chocolate Muffin. CBTL’s hand-crafted honeybush with a mild and sweet taste, and aromatic vanilla flavoring brought out the light sweetness of the cafe’s chocolate chip-laden classic banana muffin.

Genmaicha x Spicy Tuna Pandesal. The roasted flavor of from the Sencha tea and rice blend complemented the spicy tuna inside the hot pan de sal.

Apricot Ceylon x Blueberry Cheesecake. Definitely my favorite pairing, the light and fruity Ceylon tea is a great foil to the rich blueberry-topped cheesecake.

Pomegranate Blueberry x White Chocolate Berry Cheesecake. The bright and fresh yet exotic tea brought out the richness of the decadent blueberry-filled white chocolate cheesecake.

After our tea pairing experience, our team went on a new foodie adventure: blending our own tea! We mixed Black Ceylon tea leaves with dried mango bits, pieces of orange peel and rose petals. After steeping in hot water, the resulting drink is fragrant and light, with a slight citrusy flavor. Who knew we could be tea masters for a day, eh?

The #DiscoverTea event showed us that there are a million ways to enjoy a classic.

Thanks to Harvard of AlwaysHungry.ph for extending the invitation and to the folks of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for the awesome tea rediscovery experience!

This Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf branch (26th Street Bistro) is located at Net Lima Building, 26th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Other CBTL branches in Taguig may be found at:

Ground Floor, Venice Piazza, McKinley Hill, Taguig
B8 Bonifacio High Street, BGC
32nd Street corner 11th Avenue, Park Triangle, BGC
Third Floor, BHS Central Square, BGC
Third Floor, Uptown Place Mall, BGC
Every Nation Building, 32nd Avenue corner University Parkway, BGC
Ground Floor, BGC Stopover Pavilion, BGC
Burgos Circle, BGC
Fifth Floor, SM Aura Premier, BGC
Shell Logcom, CP Garcia Avenue, Greater Taguig
Ground Floor, Vista Mall, Greater Taguig

Disclosure: Together with fellow foodies, I attended a tea tasting and pairing event held at 26th Street Bistro. Food and drink mentioned here we served as part of the program and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my other posts on The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf:

Aqua S now serves up Australia’s premium soft-serve ice cream at SM North EDSA

Summer’s over so one would think that our predilection for ice cream would wane, right?

Wrong!

Not when Aqua S, Australia’s premium soft-serve ice cream, has arrived at our shores and opened its first Philippine store at SM North EDSA.

What makes this ice cream so special? Well, as my fellow foodies from #WeLoveToEatPH and #SaanSaPH and I found out, aside from the sweet-salty tastiness of Aqua S’ Signature Sea Salt flavor, it has also developed serving up its soft serve as an artform.

Here’s how:

First, you choose how you want to enjoy your ice cream.

You can go for one with a black waffle cone (Php160) or one in an Aqua S cup (Php130 for 5oz | Php160 for 8oz).

Second, pick your flavor.

Of course, you’ve got to try the Signature Sea Salt variant! You would know it by its bright, ethereal aqua color, reminiscent of the calm, tropical sea, and its sea salt flavor, a delicate balance between sweet and salty that tickles your tongue and has you reaching for more.

Every fifteen days, Aqua S launches new exciting flavors. Available from July 1 to 15 are the fruity Strawberry Milkshake and earthy-yet-sweet Matcha Frappe. You can enjoy these variants by themselves or twisted with the Signature Sea Salt (which I highly recommend!).

Finally, make your artwork.

Choose from a variety of toppings and add-ons at Php30 each that will not only make your ice cream a treat for your tastebuds, but a feast for your ice as well. For example:

Fairy Floss is a bed of delicate cotton candy that will make your ice cream seem to float on a cloud.
Sweet Popcorn adds more of that salty-sweet dynamic to your dessert.

Popping Candy adds some color and zing to your ice cream.
Grilled Marshmallow on a Peppero stick adds more of that gooey sweetness to an already indulgent dessert.

So if you’re looking for a new kind of sweetness, drop by Aqua S and check out its yummy and pretty ice cream variants. In fact, come back at least every two weeks to taste its new flavors.