Bye-bye Yum-Yum
Whenever my sister and I did the groceries at Rustan’s in Ayala Center, we would drop by the Yum-Yum Tree coffee shop by the entrance. Our favorite was the pinakbet. It was by no means traditional or authentic—more like bagnet with sauteéd vegetables—but it was comforting and familiar.
The other day Chus and I went to Yum-Yum Tree after seeing 10,000 BC (It’s idiotic, but quite fun. It’s. . .it’s. . .Rapa Nui!). Yum-Yum Tree was gone. In its place was something called Le Gourmet. Wine, cheese, cold cuts, not really the sort of place you duck into while lugging four bags of groceries. The waiter noted our distress and said some of the dishes in the old Yum-Yum Tree menu are now available at Bon Appetit. So we ate upstairs, and the food tasted the same, but I miss my childhood.
The other supermarket coffee shop of my childhood was the one in the old Makati Supermart. They served the famous sweet spaghetti, staple of children’s parties (Mention it to Italians and they get apoplexy). The old Makati Supermarket is gone, but the sweet spaghetti is still served in the coffee shop of Unimart in Greenhills. Unimart is caught in a time-warp: It looks exactly the way it did in the 70s, minus the comic books.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
March 9th, 2008 at 19:49
apoplexy
March 10th, 2008 at 10:46
A lot of has been said about the movie 10,000 BC. The 2-minute trailer seems to have enticed me into watching this movie. I guess, they are trying to be this year’s “300”. Most of my friends watched this movie. I asked them how the movie was. They slept almost 2/3 of it. I might as well ditch 10,000 BC.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:41
A lot of websites refer to the sweet spaghetti as the Filipino Spaghetti. I wonder how it started. Is it really true that it became sweet after the UFC banana ketchup came out?
March 10th, 2008 at 16:40
i lvoe yum-yum tree rin.
there was one in SM harrison. first foray into “malling” back in the 80s.
March 11th, 2008 at 00:39
Unimart was the place of my childhood. I still remember that coffee shop had tables with pictures of the solar system and the best tasting pancit for me and all my three older sisters. We’d get our soft vanilla ice cream from the vending machine by the entrance. It was heavenly, all soft and white and very creamy. The cone tastes like barquillos. The ice cream somehow tastes like today’s plain sundae in Jollibee, that’s why its my favorite. For cheeseburgers, father usually took us to the old Tropical Hut at the corner of Ortigas and EDSA. Oh, how sweet were those days.
March 13th, 2008 at 23:46
Has a South-residing person alerted this to you yet? Makati Supermart does still exist… in Alabang Town Center.
They still have the signature Spaghetti, and their signature something else I don’t remember anymore. (Was it meatloaf?)
Why a supermarket called Makati exist in Muntinlupa? My best theory is that it’s named in honor of its former home… and not refer to its current location. Shrug…
March 16th, 2008 at 20:22
Makati Supermart is alive and well over here in the South, except that it’s “Makati Supermart Alabang”. Details’s theory is actually plausible, reminds me of the way SM names most of its stores (SM Bicutan, Lucena, Baguio, etc.).
I took a good look at their sauce once and noticed their spaghetti has bits of pickles, which might’ve contributed to the sweetness of the dish. Also, I believe their other signature “dishes” are the clubhouse sandwich and hamburger steak.
Last time I checked, there’s still a Yum Yum Tree in SM Harrison.
March 19th, 2008 at 13:39
Ooh, I remember the Yum Yum Tree in Rustan’s Harrison Plaza and their sinfully sweet spaghetti. My mom and dad would take me and my brother there after grocery shopping. Good coffee, fun times.