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Illy Espressamente, your coffee is great, but is the tiramisu supposed to rise from the plate in a single solid mass when you stick a fork in it?

Is the mascarpone supposed to have the chewy consistency of bubble gum, or has it merely coagulated from sitting inside a vitrine for several days?

Is your tiramisu an hommage to the chewy Pinoy candy called tira-tira? Or does tira-tira in this case mean “unsold baked goods”?

The waiter said we had to pour the shot of espresso over the tiramisu in order to enjoy it fully. Oh, thank you. As we were sharing the cake with a pregnant woman who was already over-caffeinated, we poured the espresso over our half of the tiramisu. We thought the espresso was supposed to soak into the sponge cake and ladyfingers and give it an intense coffee flavor. Is the espresso really meant to run off the hard surface of the tiramisu and spill onto the plate?

How old is this tiramisu?

How old are the pastries in the vitrine? Is their firm, attractive appearance the result of fossilization?

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

The first couple of times we went to Wildflour we weren’t impressed: we found the prices too high, the acoustics terrible, and the food fairly ordinary. But our friends kept wanting to meet at Wildflour, and after several visits we have grown to like it. They do have the best bread in the city.

At their branch in Podium they offer a pastry board: you can choose any four pastries for Php400. We picked (from bottom to top) the dulce de leche—a pastry filled with same and topped with chocolate, the old reliable sticky bun, the Nutella and banana danish, and the vanilla cronut.

Yes, the cronut, invented (and trademarked, oops) by Dominique Ansel in New York.

This mutant pastry, half-croissant and half-doughnut, is deep-fried, rolled in sugar, filled with cream, and glazed. Do not eat it by yourself! It is pure evil. Bring two friends and spread the guilt. And then skip dinner.

Rasta Barista: James Dennis grows what is purportedly the best coffee on earth. Photo from the National Geographic.

Scientists recently discovered that caffeine consumption can be tied to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. They knew that it was suppressing the rise of amyloid plaques in the brain, but why coffee consumption did the trick remained a mystery. But now, researchers from the University of Illinois believe they have found the answer, and it has to do with caffeine’s ability to block inflammation in the brain — a discovery that could lead to new drugs which can prevent — or even reverse — mild cognitive impairment.

Read We now know why coffee helps to stave off Alzheimer’s disease in io9.

Caffeine! The stimulant in your coffee. This is an electron micrograph of a 40-micron (40/1,000,000 meter) caffeine crystral group, one of the winners of the Wellcome Image Awards 2012.

Nescafe Dolce Gusto hosted a lunch at Beso in Central High Street to introduce their new coffee machine. The chef prepared a degustacion—small portions of Mediterranean dishes, each course paired with one of the Dolce Gusto coffees.

If you place a good cup of coffee in front of us we will drink it. So during the starters we were quite chatty.

Dinna mentioned cosmetics. We brought up a factoid we’d heard somewhere that Joel Cruz sold a billion pesos worth of scent last year. Yes, one billion pesos. We are clearly in the wrong line of work. Liza noted that Bench’s bestseller is scent, hence all the movie stars/celebrities launching their own perfume brands.

During the main course hilarity ensued.

We noted that Hayden Kho had his own perfume, and Dinna said it had been sold to Ever Bilena. We said how odd it was that the billboard for his perfume showed him fully-dressed when he is best remembered in a state of undress. That perfume should’ve been called Careless Whisper. (But would he have to pay licensing fees to George Michael?) Or Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am, Pia added.

By dessert we felt like walking all the way home, a bad idea as it was the height of summer.

Jiggy showed us how to use the Dolce Gusto machine. First you choose a capsule (Caffe Lungo, Espresso, Capuccino, Latte Macchiato, Mocha, Chococino or Peach tea). Then three easy steps: pop the capsule in the thingy, lock the compartment, and drop the latch. Voila, good coffee in a minute. (It is not a sushal na 3-in-1, it is a sushal na coffeemaker.)

Nescafe Dolce Gusto is available in supermarkets for Php4,999. A box of 8 capsules costs Php402.

It’s easier to score a good cup of coffee in Ansan and Seoul than anywhere I’ve ever been, and that includes Italy.

Down the street from the hotel is Paris Baguette, which serves French pastry, croquettes, and coffee. (Kind of like Bread Talk but not as fluffy.)

The tables are upstairs. The wi-fi comes and goes, though.
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