YUMMY EATS 2013 COUNTDOWN: 2 days to go!

Just 2 more days before Yummy Eats! Who's excited? I am! 

This is the biggest Yummy Eats to date! With 56 concessionaires, a good mix of sweet, savory and local favorites, this is one event you definitely should not miss. 

If you are a foodie, you just have to be here. If you are on the look out for new flavors and tastes, you should be checking this link now (<--yes, click the word "link") for the list of concessionaires. If you have nothing to do, then you have no excuse to miss this event!

YUMMY EATS 2013 COUNTDOWN: 19 days to go!

It’s the time of the year again when we get to discover great dishes and meet amazing food entrepreneurs with crazily creative ideas on how to turn simple dishes extraordinary. Yes, it’s Yummy Eats time again!

We were lucky to get first hand dibs on the products the concessionaires will sample. With over 50 concessionaires, we had a hard time focusing on which products to try first. But here’s a teaser of what to expect on the 18^th of May at the NBC Tent.

Pio’s Paella offers classic and black paella. The clams and shrimps used were undeniably fresh. Every spoonful is oozing with flavors.

Baby Pat Breads and Pastries offers usual ensaymadas and your not so usual ones. With the craze of Speculoos, they now have Speculoos ensaymada! You must taste that!

 

Love cheesecakes? Food Lab will be selling their rich cheesecakes and will sample it too! Try it with their cookies for added crunch!

Or how about bacon? Mad Meats Bacon will be serving its bacon slabs while The Kitchen Slave will have its Smocked Bacon Caramels available. 

A First: Countdown to Tuesday

I can’t wait for Tuesday! And I also can’t believe that I’m saying this on a Friday!

I used to hate Tuesday as this is our coding day and most of my PE classes fall on Tuesdays and Fridays. I don’t hate PE itself, in fact I like it as it helps me be fit! But what I don’t like about it is that no matter how hard I try, I just can’t manage to excel in any ! (Competitive kid here.)

Anyway, yesterday, a cool reason arrived in our office and that’s the reason why I just can’t wait for Tuesday. Perhaps now you’re wondering what I’m babbling about. Let me give you a little peek.

Fine, fine. Just teasing. :P 

The Countdown is over: Yummy Eats happens... NOW!

Finally, the day has arrived! Let's all have a feast today at The Rockwell Tent!

With 50 concessionaires to choose from, Yummy Eats is the place to be for foodies! Aside from great food finds, there will be a series of cooking demos to help us aspiring (and frustrated) cooks to whip up delectable dishes!

I am personally excited to see my favorites Mochiko, The Fruit Garden, Pinkerton, and Pepita's Lechon.

YUMMY EATS COUNTDOWN: 19 days to go!

In just 19 days, one yummy event is about to happen at The Rockwell Tent. I’m now preparing my tummy for one day of chewing, gulping, and drooling.

I’m excited. After meeting most of the concessionaires for Yummy Eats 2012, I can’t help but dream of riding a time machine and fast forward to MAY 26, 2012.

 

I discovered new food favorites already while chatting with some of them while sampling their products. 

Pantry Surprise: Mochiko Cookie Dough

I just love pantry surprises! Oh wait, let me define “pantry surprises”. It is when you get a call that there’s a delicious treat waiting for you at the office pantry. This time, the treat that was chillin’(okay, that was not funny) was Mochiko’s newest flavor… Cookie Dough!!!

I love cookie dough and my lovely relationship with it all started last year.

I first got a taste of cookie dough in 2010. It was the Pizza Cookie Dough of Joey Pepperoni—literally a cookie shaped like a pizza (it’s been a long time and I wasn’t able to take a photo of it). I still remember that the dough itself was a bit hard and we had to exert a lot of effort to take a bite. But we did not mind it at all for the chocolatey taste compensates the effort. Oh, did I mention that it was also topped with a generous serving of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup? 

My second encounter was even sweeter. It was with Carmen’s Best cookie dough ice cream. I just love how creamy and smooth the ice cream was with a bit of crunch (from the cookie bits). It was really flavorful yet not extremely sweet kind that make you hate it after a few spoonfuls. I must remember to place an order soon (and also some of its rich milk).

I also had some cookie dough chocolates from Chocolate Fire and it was quite weird because the texture reminded me of shaved coconuts. Maybe the one handed to me by the server was wrong. Nonetheless, I will still claim it as cookie dough.

I got a taste of Mochiko’s latest flavor when I went to the Ultimate Taste Test and it was one of my top 5 concessionaires but I remember telling Nowie of Mochiko that I still prefer Azuki… then.

Well, after round two with this sweet goodie, I take it back. 

I just hate it that I had to wait for it to thaw. It was plain torture that you couldn’t take a bite right after getting it from the fridge. A colleague of mine attacked his mochi right away though; and he’s a-ok! He must be using a certain branded toothpaste (blind item?).

Cute packaging. :)

Anyway, I waited for my mochi to become softer… 1 minute… 1 minute and 30 seconds… 2 minutes… oh whatever.

The first bite was a bit bland for it was all mochi. As for the second bite… it was a different story.

I got a bite of the cookie itself with chocolate chips with creamy vanilla ice cream (which I assume is FIC). It was quite sweet but it was somehow addicting. The crunch from the cookie and the soft mochi was a very interesting combination. I had to stop myself from getting another one as the box of mochi was for the team.

I just hope that there’s a smaller mochi (Mochiko Jr.?) so that it will be easier to eat. 

Thanks Nowie and the Yummy editorial team for sharing it with us! :)

My Ultimate Food Finds from the Ultimate Taste Test 6.0

Okay, that was a mouthful for a title.

I was pretty excited to attend the Ultimate Taste Test (UTT) as I have never attended the first 5. This time around, the UTT was held from 11am to 9pm (whereas it was usually held at night before) at the Rockwell Tent.  

Tickets were priced at PHP585 each and I’d say that it was worth it since you could stay as long as you want. You can have your breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. Some concessionaires were stingy with their samples though. They only give out a very small amount and you are only allowed to get one. Well, I completely understand as they are trying to feed 1000 hungry foodies.

I started with the concessionaires on the left side (facing the stage). I first had a taste of My Pink Wasabi’s cute dessert shaped like a mini maki—Amarula Milk Chocolate. It was such a surprise for me because I was not expecting it to be a moist and soft dessert. I thought that it will be crunchy. It was pretty good. However, I find it a bit expensive. It is priced at PHP475 for a box of 16 makis.

Off to the next booth, Mang Pedro’s. It offers one of my favorite snacks ever… taho. They brought with them 4 of their bestsellers—chocolate, ube, almond, and capuchino (yes, that was how they spelled it). I decided to try ube out of the four and I’d say that I was a bit disappointed. It tasted like any other taho. The ube flavor was not that strong at all. Maybe I should have tried almond as what the owner suggested.

Next stop was a familiar stall… Farm N’ Deli. I love their longaniza and tinapa. It really taste so good. I didn’t find it special though as I’ve tried their products before. My goal at the event was to discover new food finds.

The next stall The Cereal Bar was also familiar as I’ve seen it before in Mercato Centrale. I love love love their monkey bar but as soon as I tasted the choco-dipped barmuncher, I had a change of heart. I bought a canister for PHP280. Quite expensive but it is worth it.



Things started to be a bit blurry here now as I began to realize that there were just so many food stalls around and I was panicking on which one to try first as “pacing” is very important. I will be sharing now the top 5 food stalls that really impressed me.

#5 GOURMET KESO

I liked the Chevre with cashew and truffle oil. It has the tangy taste of cheese that will make you squint a bit and a hint of saltiness. It was love. Plus, you get to help the residents of Gawad Kalinga. Happy soul and happy tummy!



#4 THE SWEET LIFE BY ANGE

From the friendly owners to the oh-so-cute trays to the scrumptious pastries, this booth surely got a high score from me. The products they sampled out were their red velvet cake called Angelina and Sweet Surrender (similar to Brazo de Mercedes only it has graham cracker crust and vanilla ice cream). What they were highlighting though was their cassava chips.  

I loved Angelina and Sweet Surrender. Angelina had this tangy taste of cheesecake. It was also moist and smooth. The Sweet Surrender on the other hand was super good. It was not the typical full of air Brazo de Mercedes. Since they used ice cream and graham crackers, it was more filling… flavorful.

#3 MOCHIKO

I love Mochiko and its Azuki mochi. This time Mochiko came up with a new flavor… COOKIE DOUGH. It was a bit crunchier compared to Azuki. It had chocolate chips and crust. Very interesting. And I still like their booth best with the polaroids.

#2 5 LOAVES AND 2 FISH

The name has a strong recall. Lifted from the Bible, the owner said “Jesus fed 5,000. I will take care of the 1,000”. I find it really funny.



This food stall served veggie chips and dips. Non-veggie eaters do not have to fear the word “veggie” as it did not taste like vegetables at all. The chips were very thin, crispy, and complemented the dips (chicken liver mousse with salsa and sweet basil pesto-queso blanco melt with coco sugar). They also had tablea chips and dark chocolate dip. Well, it had me with the word “dark”. I got burnt by the dip though (but it was completely my fault).

#1 BAKED BY ANITA

I just love food with a twist… something that will make me go “woah, I didn’t expect this!” and it was Baked by Anita that made me utter those words.

The Bacon and Maple Mini Cupcake intrigued me. I had bacon ice cream before but I never tried a bacon cupcake so it was the first one that I tried. The bacon taste was not very strong but you could sense it with its crunch and saltiness. It went well together with maple. Sweet and salty… Yum!

However, it was the Roasted Strawberry Mini Cupcake that surprised me most. I took a small bite to taste it and the girl manning the booth asked me how it was. I told her that I still could not taste it so I ate the whole cupcake. After chewing it some more, I was surprised that the cupcake was quite sour. It was like I was eating a strawberry-flavored yoghurt. My friend told me that they also added balsamic vinegar in the cupcake. That made me remember one episode of DC Cupcakes where one of the sisters sabotaged the mix of the other by pouring vinegar on it yet it made the mix even more special and delicious. Two thumbs up to Baked by Anita!

Other food finds that made me happy:

LUIGI’S

Chicken Cordon Bleu with a choice of aligue mayo, cream cheese or wasabi sauce and Phillychanga

SYMPHONY OF FLAVORS

Leche Flan Cheesecake

YOH-GEE

Frozen Kefir

I went home full and happy. I can't wait to visit my new favorites soon. :)