ube – Jellybeans in the City

Sumptuous snacking at Silverspoon, Tomas Morato

Did you welcome the loosening of quarantine restrictions and the prospect of being able to dine out?

I know I did!

Aside from the assurance that the pandemic is steadily easing its hold on the metro, the added freedom to wander about has allowed me and my friends to meet up for a sumptuous snack at one of my new favorite haunts: Silverspoon.

A cozy and hidden spot in a busy food haven

This little cafe tucked away in a quiet side street near the busy food hotspot Tomas Morato Avenue is the brainchild of young entrepreneur Decie Montefrio, who transitioned her thriving food delivery business during the pandemic into a lovely brick-and-mortar restaurant that serves a combination of Filipino and intercontinental dishes.

I just love its minimalist aesthetic and comfy furnishings, it offers you a bright yet cozy setting for a satisfying meal or a light repast, whether you’re going solo or with friends.

Plus, the place also offers WiFi access so you can enjoy a change of scenery as you study or do some remote work here.

Expanded menu to include snackables

Recently, Decie and her team expanded Silverspoon’s menu to also include lighter dishes, perfect for a quick lunch or snack in between meals.

These include tasty sandwiches accompanied by a side of fries and housemade sauce, as well as mouth-watering appetizers and a kid-friendly pasta dish which can be paired with Silverspoon’s signature handcrafted drinks. Check them out!

Tapa Burger (Php265). Tender slivers of savory cured beef on cucumber and tomato, topped with julienned greens.

Mushroom Burger (Php265). Silverspoon’s vegetarian sandwich option with thin mushroom slivers sauteed in garlic on cucumber and tomato topped with crispy-fried veggies.

Crispy Chicken Sandwich (Php275). Crispy Southern-fried chicken breast fillet on cucumber and tomato topped with crispy onion rings and julienned greens.

Fish Fillet Sandwich (Php290). Crispy fried fillet of fish on cucumber and tomato topped with crispy onion rings and julienned greens

Grilled Sausage Sandwich (Php310). Cheese-filled Hungarian sausage on cucumber and tomatoes topped with crispy-fried veggies.

SS Clubhouse (Php380). Generous layers of bacon, ham and egg with cucumber and tomatoes in between slices of lightly toasted bread served with a side of crunchy potato chips.

Buffalo Chicken Wings (Php250). Juicy fried chicken wing pieces covered in Buffalo glaze (your choice among 3 levels of spiciness) and served with housemade aioli.

Filipino-Style Meatball Spaghetti (Php285). A delight for kids who love sweet-style spaghetti, especially with the giant cheese-filled meatball at the center.

Ube Macapuno Cheesecake (Php245). Two Pinoy dessert flavors – ube and macapuno – combined in one decadent cheesecake.

Brewed Coffee (Php115). Freshly brewed from Arabica beans with Sagada, Kalinga, Barako, Hazelnut and Macadamia variants, available hot or iced.

Chocolate (Php120). Silverspoon’s Signature classic thick and comforting chocolate, available hot or iced.

With such delicious inclusions to Silverspoon’s menu, it’s definitely all-set to be my all-day foodie haunt.

So the next time you crave for some snackables and want to hang out somewhere comforting and cozy, grab a friend or two and drop by Silverspoon to get that spoonful of happiness.

Silverspoon Kitchenette is located at 81 Scout Gandia Street, Barangay Laging Handa, Quezon City, open daily for dine-in, takeout or delivery from 11am to 10pm. For inquiries, reservations or delivery orders, call +63 917 1603327. It also delivers via GrabFood and FoodPanda.

For updates on its latest offers, follow Silverspoon on Facebook or Instagram.

Disclosure: I attended a food-tasting event held at this restaurant. Food items mentioned here were served to facilitate an honest review and were not paid for by the attendees.

Check out my previous posts about Silverspoon:

Silver Spoon PH — ‘Tis the start of the season for fam celebrations with Silverspoon

Silverspoon Kitchenette — 3 reasons to treat your Valentine to a meal at Silverspoon, Tomas Morato

Flavored breads from Tita She’s Bakery

How do you like to start your day, foodies?

Before I begin my workday, either back when I was in the office, or these days working from home, I like to take a quick coffee break and munch on some yummy baked goods.

My go-to orders from the panaderia near the office are cheese pan de sal and Spanish bread.

Pan de sal, the most common bread roll in the Philippines, is made with flour, yeast, sugar, eggs and water, a staple many breakfast tables.

Its softer, longer and more buttery and sugary version, on the other hand, is called Spanish bread.

These classic breads and my morning coffee have sustained me through many tedious reports, near-interminable meetings and more.

Now that I’m working from home (and I can’t go out to buy breads on a whim), jumpstarting my workday the way I like it has gotten a bit harder.

Thankfully, there’s a way for me to get my morning breads before I start my day working from home. Plus, they come with a colorful and flavorful twist, thanks to Tita She’s Bakery.

This new online store came about when twenty-four-year-old Kim Nunez was faced with slowed down projects as an events photographer and wanted a new source of income.

Chancing upon an article on Facebook about an online seller making Php7,000 a day from making and selling ube cheese pan de sal, Kim decided to try her hand at it as well.

With her mom’s help, she started baking the trending food item and started selling two days later.

She didn’t stop there.

Integrating her love for cakes and recognizing that Pinoys would love a new twist to their faves, she also came out with breads with popular cake flavors.

Pan de Sal flavors include ube, cheese, ube cheese, ube choco, choco cheese, choco hazelnut, banana cake, banana hazelnut and carrot cake.

These pan de sal are priced at Php5 to Php10 per piece for regular (65g) and Php7 to Php12 per piece for overloaded (90g with twice the filling as regular).

Spanish bread variants, on the other hand, include classic, ube, cheese, ube cheese, choco and choco hazelnut.

These Spanish breads are priced at Php8 to Php12 per piece for regular (65g) and Php12 to Php16 per piece for overloaded (90g with twice the filling as regular).

To get these yummy and freshly baked breads delivered to your doorstep, call +63 932 6032354 or +63 967 7613909 (cashless payments via BDO, BPI and GCash accepted) have them picked up at Lores, Antipolo City via Lalamove (pin “Tita She’s Bakery”). You can also check out Tita She’s Bakery on Facebook and Instagram.

Don’t worry about ordering a lot of these breads. Just store the leftover breads in the ref and reheat by microwave or oven toaster (two minutes at 150 deg C). They are still fluffy and soft after reheating, even if they’ve been in the ref for three days!

So, foodies, get ready to have a wonderful start to your workday with these flavored breads!

Disclosure: Product samples were provided to facilitate an honest review.

Check out my blog posts on other small enterprises and startups in the food business:

The Jelly List: Father’s Day gift ideas for your foodie dad

They say a dad is a son’s first hero and a daughter’s first love.

There’s no doubt that our fathers play a very important role in our lives. With Father’s Day coming in a few days, it’s time to think about what to give our dads as little tokens of our love and appreciation for all they have done and continue to do for us.

This task is even easier if our dads have a great love and regard for good food. Luckily, we have an abundance of great food choices that can be delivered straight to Dad’s doorstep to delight him come Father’s Day.

Let me share with you my top picks:

Pampanga’s Famous Cheesebread from LBS Bakeshop

If Daddy ever tasted Pampanga’s famous cheese bread, I’ll bet that he will be craving for more. As luck would have it, this delicacy is now easily available in the metro. At just Php299 for a box of thirty pieces of cheese bread, he can eat his fill of this yummy pastry from Pampanga’s LBS Bakeshop.

To order, just send a message through Facebook or Viber +63 999 8233340.

New ube flavors from What’s Your Flan?

Just when you thought you couldn’t possibly find a new way to enjoy ube, here comes What’s Your Flan? with two ube flavors to tickle your palate.

Ube, or purple yam, has been a trending food item since early last year, expanding its use from the halayang ube and ube ice cream we grew up with, to new confections and concoctions including ube cakes, ube pandesal, ube donuts and even ube frappes.

Today, I was able to taste two new custard-based desserts flavored by this versatile veggie from What’s Your Flan?

The brainchild of former OFW Princess Rosario, What’s Your Flan started out in 2009 as a home-based business centered on creating leche flan “with a twist.” Today, the company can boast of a myriad flavors of leche flan – including green tea matcha, strawberry with cashew, and more – as well as an expanded lineup of products including ice cream cakes and cheesecakes. (Recently, I was able to check out its Avocado Dalgona Gelato. More on that here.)

This time, What’s Your Flan? took the classic ube and applied it to two delectable flans desserts.

Ube Pandan (Php380). One of the company’s Premium Flantasy Cakes, it combines the flavor of ube and the appetizing aroma of pandan. Surprisingly, Hubby, though not a dessert-lover like me, excitedly dug into this flan as soon as I finished taking pictures. Apparently, it reminded him of the ube bars he enjoyed so much as a kid. (Creating a mental note for Father’s Day, hmm…)

Ube Peruvian Inspired Flan (Php450). Similar to us Pinoys, the people of Peru also have a love affair with sweets which start with their version of the leche flan: the Crema Volteada. This Latin dessert is given some twists through a special process that gives it a smooth and creamy mouthfeel as well as the subtle addition of the ube flavor to its rich milky taste. My daughter #ExhibitA, who is not an avid ube fan, loved how the ube in this dessert is not overpowering.

These flans are best enjoyed chilled, and consumed within five to seven days. (Well, they didn’t last a day in our household.)

With these ube-flavored flan creations, it sure looks like our collective obsession with ube won’t be going away anytime soon!

To get your hands on these ube flan confections and more, send a message to What’s Your Flan on Facebook or Instagram or call +63 916 497 8876.

Interested in starting your own business? What’s Your Flan is accepting applications for resellers and franchisees.

Disclosure: Product samples were provided to facilitate an honest review.

Check out my blog posts on other small enterprises and startups in the food business:

A home of gastronomic delights at Tahanan Bistro, Antipolo

As a foodie, I live for those food adventures that just take my breath away.

And my visit to Tahanan Bistro did just that.

Having earned the distinction of being one of Zomato’s Top Foodies Choice in Antipolo in 2019, Tahanan Bistro hosted a food tasting event attended by East-based foodies.

Tahanan Bistro opened in July 2016, the brainchild of Keesha Reyes and husband Kevin Tuason. They turned part of her family’s ancestral home made entirely from reclaimed wood from old houses and bridges into a casual fine dining 45-seat bistro.

The restaurant showcases creative takes on local ingredients, the masterpieces of her father, sculptor Benji Reyes, and a stunning view of Laguna de Bay beyond the surrounding verdant forest to provide diners with a relaxing and inviting haven away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

This place, though impressive in style, is still a home. In fact, guests are asked to remove their shoes upon entering, partly as a form of respect to the homeowners, and partly to help preserve the beautiful wood floors.

The kitchen is helmed by Kevin who brings his considerable culinary training gained during his stay in Melbourne, Australia. Tahanan Bistro offers set meals at Php1,350 (+10% service charge) per person. Named after famous mountains in the Philippines (Halcon in Mindoro, Iraya in Batanes and Mayon in Albay), each set consists of five courses with dishes hinged on the produce and flavors found in country, some of which my fellow foodies and I were able to sample.

Gising Gising (included in the Iraya set). An appetizer of prawns and winged bean dumplings, leeks, coconut cream, herb oil, chili oil and house-made crispy pork floss.

Danggit (included in all three sets). A light and refreshing salad made with quinoa, cherry tomatoes, mixed greens and roasted zucchini in lime vinaigrette.

Pininyahang Manok (included in the Halcon set). Smoked pan-seared chicken thighs, grilled pineapple, coconut, hasselback potatoes, carrot puree and capsicum.

Bistek Tagalog (included in the Iraya set). Braised beef shank, adlai, onion puree, charred white onions, parsley oil and fried enoki.

Binagoongan (included in the Mayon set). Crispy pork belly in a sauce made with tomato and shrimp paste puree, Greek yoghurt and Baba Ghanoush in a house-made flat bread.

Fruit Salad (included in the Iraya set). A dessert made chia pudding, bits of seasonal fruits in a campange sabayon topped with a cashew biscuit.

Ube (included in the Halcon set). Purple yam and white chocolate lava cake with cheese ice cream topped with an Edam crisp.

The dishes served combine the familiar and the new: the ingredients are home-grown but made novel with the addition of a few elements and foreign influences. They are also well-complemented by a refreshing glass of Lemongrass Iced Tea (Php95).

Given that access to this awesome place (and these delectable dishes) are possible only during weekends, and only by reservation, there is a definitely an air of exclusivity and specialness in the dining experience.

If you’re planning an cozy dinner for two or an intimate gathering for close family and friends where you can enjoy a well-curated and crafted menu as well as breathtaking views, Tahanan Bistro is your best bet.

Tahanan Bistro also offers ready-made products you can bring home to enjoy with your family such as ground coffee beans and butter spreads, among others.

Many thanks to Kim and the staff of Tahanan Bistro for the warm welcome and the delicious meal, and to Trisha and Donna of Zomato for extending the invitation!

Tahanan Bistro is located at 22 Loresville Drive, Lores Farm Subdivision, San Roque, Upper Antipolo, Rizal, open Saturdays to Sundays from 11am to 4pm and 6pm to 10pm. For inquiries and reservations, call +63 925 8801487. Walk-ins are not entertained.

Disclosure: Together with other food bloggers, I was invited to attend a food tasting held in this restaurant. Food items mentioned here were served to allow us to sample the fare and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my posts on other places for your romantic date in the metro:

Frozen treats at Fiorgelato, Sta Lucia East

Just when we Easterners thought gelato treats are way above our budget or inaccessible to us, a Fiorgelato scooping station sets up shop right in our turf.

Gelato is a type of frozen dessert that originated in Italy. Made with a base of milk, gelato uses a lot less cream than ice cream, resulting in a denser and creamier dessert.

Fiorgelato produces several gelato flavors that make use of the finest ingredients such as chocolates, fresh fruits and imported Italian flavorings.

Together with my fellow foodies from #WeLoveToEatPH and #SaanSaPH, I visited the newly opened Fiorgelato scooping station at Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall.

The store stocks gelato variants that include: pistachio, pragola (strawberry), salted caramel, choco nut fudge, biscotti (cookies ‘n cream), ube (yam), menta (mint) and fior de panna (vanilla).

These flavors are mixed and matched, topped with goodies and made into yummy gelato-based treats, which, thanks to an ongoing rainy season promo, are currently available at discounted rates.

Check them out:

Regular Cup (Php60 from Php70).

Banana Split (Php110 from Php120).

Ice Cream Blend (Php110 from Php140).

And the soon-to-be-launched Revel Bar ala Mode (no price yet).

Just imagine what other gelato treats await us! Personally, I would really love it if Fiorgelato adds chocolate chips and chopped nuts among its toppings.

Many thanks to Oliver and the staff of Fiorgelato Sta. Lucia for having us!

This Fiorgelato kiosk is located at Second Floor, Building 3 (in front of the department store), Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall, Felix Avenue corner Marcos Highway, San Isidro, Cainta.

Other kiosks are located at:

Medical City, Ugong, Pasig
Rustan’s Makati, Glorietta Complex, Makati
Ayala Malls Circuit, Olympia, Makati
Salcedo Village, Makati
Sampaloc, Manila
Fairview, Quezon City
Robinsons Place Manila, Ermita, Manila
Fisher Mall Malabon, Longos, Malabon City

Disclosure: Together with my fellow foodies, I attended a foodie meetup held here. Food items mentioned here were served to allow us to sample the fare and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my reviews of other dessert shops in the metro: