Wednesday, April 25, 2007

My love affair with...



σοκολάτα. chokolade. sjokolade. 巧克力. chocolat. chocolade. suklaa. cioccolato. шоколад. chocolate. schokolade. choklad. czekolada. çikolata....

I knew that food ranked high on my priority list on my recent trip to Manila, but never in my "wildest dreams" did I imagine that it would be one of the defining themes ;D It started at Bizu (Greenbelt 3 shopping mall) at Makati on my first evening - which I'd read about on tsogb and yet forgot all about it until my eyes feasted on Bizu's bizarre purple and yellow wallpaper!



Bizu is not only a patisserie but also serves a comprehensive Western menu. We were there pretty late on a Tuesday evening and yet the place was still buzzing with chi-chi ladies gossiping over tea/coffee/cake and the accidental tourist... (or not) like us ;D Besides a tempting range of petit cakes, Bizu is also famous for their multi-coloured macaroons!



After feeling like Alices in Wonderland (check out the miniature air-balloon on the right hand corner of the 1st pic!), we finally settled on a strawberry chiboust (similar to cheesecake), a rose and lemon flavoured macaroon. The pricing is of course cheaper to what we'd pay at Bakerzin or Canele but unfortunately, the macaroons did not taste fresh :(



I went for Bizu's famous Valrhona oven baked chocolate dessert served with ahhh... dark chocolate sauce ;D It was another crushing disappointment though as the top of the cake was over-baked and the vanilla ice cream had a watery taste to it. Sigh!



Filipinos love their chocolate and they've even got their unique brand of chocolate called tsokolate (a mixture of chocolate and nuts - trust them to put my favourite combination together!). A well loved chocolate treat is Churros con Chocolate by Dulcinea, an established Spanish pasteleria in Manila. Imagine dipping crisp churros into warm chocolate sauce ... and drinking up the last drops of chocolate as the lazy afternoon fades away...

To quote Wikipedia, "In the Spanish of the time, Dulcinea means something akin to an overly elegant "sweetness". In this way, Dulcinea is an entirely fictional person for whom Quixote relentlessly fights. To this day, a reference to someone as your "Dulcinea" implies hopeless devotion and love for her." A hopeless affair with chocolate then? ;D



These have got to be the craziest chocolate souffles I've ever eaten! Cafe Ysabel (more in later posts) states that their chocolate souffle is good for two, and I'd assumed that my dinner companions would share in the "joy" with me... but as you, dear reader can imagine, they refused to deprive me of my chocolate fix :D These souffles, made of egg white beaten with chocolate and served with custard sauce, were thankfully light but I was forced to raise the white flag (napkin) halfway through! "No more chocolate for the next 2 weeks!"



Making good on my "no chocolate diet", I still managed to end my trip on a sweet note at the Sanctuario Spa in Malate. Billed as "an oasis of serenity in the city", Sanctuario is a charming old house with the usual spa facilities and an organic cafe. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon as a few of us accompanied the birthday girl (Pats) on one of her favourite activities :D My mind was made up the instant I read "Tsokolate... AAHH!" under the "Island flavours" section:

Get slathered in a generous helping of native dark chocolate which is rich in flavanoids, a natural antioxidant. The cacao is fertile in Vitamin E which softens the skin. Studies have also shown that chocolates release the happy chemical serotonin in the brain. Rumored to be an aphrodisiac. Treatment includes: Choco Soap Wash , Extra Virgin Coconut Oil Prep, Native Dark Chocolate Scrub, Carabao Milk Bath, Full-body massage with Cocoa Butter. At an unbelievable price of S$75! Prepped and happy with the scent of chocolate on my (softened) skin, it was indeed an affair to remember...

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stormiii at 12:29 am

1cups of tea

Monday, April 23, 2007

In transit



Strangely enough, airports have the ability to put me through all sorts of moods. The sight of jumbo-sized airplanes taking into the sky (and as a kid, I remember playing games where we tried to identify the airlines!), the excitement as I await the arrival of a loved one, the feeling of "coming home" and the bittersweet taste of leaving even as I anticipate yet another adventure in a foreign land...

stormiii at 3:03 am

0cups of tea