Green mango with bagoong ice cream and peanut butter kare-kare
We know exactly three places at Maul of Asia: the IMAX theatre, Uniqlo, and Sebastian’s. Last Saturday we were at MOA for a movie premiere and we took a detour through the ice cream parlor. Our favorite flavor is Once In A Blue Moon: blue cheese ice cream served with honey and walnuts (Php140). Yeah, we love our kesong may amag (Mmmm stinky cheese, corpse cheese, stuff that smells like something dead). This blue cheese ice cream is sharp, but not blue enough to scare off non-fans. You have to try it.
Our friend had the Mangga’t Suman ice cream, which tastes exactly like…mangga at suman! We haven’t had the Manggang Hilaw with Bagoong ice cream, but we love the concept.
After the movie we crossed the ocean of traffic to get to Teresita’s of San Fernando on Tomas Morato corner Scout de Guia in Quezon City. Yes, we live in Makati, went to MOA for the movie, and then went all the way to QC for a very late dinner. And it was worth it! The taxi fare cost us more than dinner.
Teresita’s is descended from the famous Razon’s Halo-Halo of San Fernando. We had the embutido (Php105 with rice), which is excellent, and the kare-kare (Php105 with rice), which is heavenly. The kare-kare is thick and gooey—it’s like drinking peanut butter. You have to eat lots of rice with it to soak up the viscosity from the roof of your mouth. As Noel puts it, Best 105 pesos we’ve ever spent on food. In fact we’re just about ready to crown it Best Kare-Kare, unless you have other nominees.
After the main course we drank hot tea and took a 15-minute recess from eating. Then we had dessert: the famous halo-halo with langka (Php95). It’s the finely-shaved ice that makes the difference. Best Halo-Halo.
So for Php200, you can have a full meal that is exponentially more delicious than fast food cardboard. Our memory of Teresita’s kare-kare was so intense, we hardly ate anything the next day—we could still taste that peanut buttery goodness.
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The Quattro Formaggi Story
A diner ordered a four-cheese pizza at a restaurant, and when it arrived she freaked out. She berated the waiters, shouted at the kitchen, demanded to speak to the owner. The owner arrived and asked the diner what her problem was. “I ordered the quattro formaggi pizza!” the diner yelled, “And they served this!” She indicated the pizza on the table. It looked exactly like…a quattro formaggi pizza.
“May I ask what’s wrong with it?” the owner said.
“Can’t you see?” the dinner shrieked. “Look at that! May amag ang cheese ninyo! (Your cheese is moldy.)”
It was Gorgonzola. Of course it was blue.
“My child was going to eat that!” the dinner went on, horrified. “I’m not paying for that!”
The owner told the furious diner that the meal was on the house so she would go away.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 2nd, 2012 at 09:27
masarap naman amag ah.
i have heart-burn i shudnt eat cheese
pero amag is worth it.
October 2nd, 2012 at 12:31
spell formaggi.
kraft na lang.
October 2nd, 2012 at 18:58
My sister told me about that ice cream parlor. She loves the suman ice cream. She was less than enamored with the bagoong at mangga flavor.
Speaking of bagoong, doesn’t a kare-kare also depend heavily on the quality of bagoong served with it? I am a recent convert, actually. I wouldn’t touch the stuff when I was younger, but it turns out you need a really good bagoong to go with it.
October 4th, 2012 at 05:02
Try Lola Idang’s Kare-kare. To die for.