My Birthday Treat - Mousse Royale Fraise

From my last post, you guys already know that I celebrated my birthday in France away from family and friends. Although I was by myself, I had to treat myself to a birthday cake. I mean, it's not a proper birthday without a cake, yes? The day before, I headed to the nearest patisserie and got me a couple slices of the most sinful looking cake on display. This-

Birthday cake (slices)! Mousse Royale Fraise (€3.20 or Php196 for 2 slices)

It's called Mousse Royale Fraise, or in english, Royal Strawberry Mousse and I bought two small slices of it. The base was a paper thin layer of cake, then a layer of cream, and then a small layer of foamy cake, followed by an inch thick  layer of strawberry laced cream glazed on top with thin layer of gelatin and topped with a thin slice of chocolate with an image of a strawberry.

On the day of my birthday, I blew my pretend candles and savored this sinful sweet treat. The first bite of this delicate cake was a delightful feast for the tastebuds. The mousse was smooth, creamy, and rich. Perfect as a birthday treat (but not as daily fare).

Lachis Classic Sans Rival - Delightful Davao (Part 5)

It seemed fitting to end the Delightful Davao series by recounting our afternoon at Lachi's, the place that EVERYONE recommended. This bakery-cum-restaurant seems to have gained a huge following and has won the favor of even the most critical Manileños.

Lachi's Classic Sans Rival (p50+/-)

As soon as friends found out about the trip to Davao, a lot of them told us not to leave without trying the bakeshop's famous sans rival. We asked our tourguide Kuya K about it and he gladly obliged (our want to fatten ourselves up some more). So one rainy afternoon in Davao, we drove over to Ruby street and shortly found ourselves settled inside the small cafe. Nomming, of course.

Actually, the cafe was full to bursting when we arrived (surprising because it was raining like kitties and puppies) and there weren't enough tables and chairs to fit our semi-large group. So we checked out the pretty cakes on display while waiting (salivating the entire time). Cake slices were fairly priced at a range of 50-100 pesos and we were excited to stuff our faces with the sweet stuff.

Cream Custard Cake (p48) and Cashew Mocha Torte (p52)

We had to try the sans rival of course, everyone seems to be all agog over it. They have a durian variant that was sadly not available (Bim was happy) so the first orders were a couple slices of the very famous Lachi's Classic Sans Rival. What I liked about it is that the wafery cake was sweet but not sickeningly so and the layers were crunchy but soft (is that weird?).

 Regal Chocolate Torte (p60) and Carrot Walnut Cake (p48)

Being in Lachi's where all the cakes were on display, we couldn't just try one cake. We had to order a few more (diabetes, here we come). 

My favorite would have to be the Cream Custard Cake which was a chiffon cake with light cream in the middle and sweet custard on top. The Cashew Mocha Torte and Regal Chocolate Torte were both delicious (similar to chocolate mousse) while  the Carrot Walnut Cake is a classic that's a steal for its price.

Click for a larger image

They're more than just a cake shop and have a full menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner nomz. Since we didn't get to try them, I thought to post the menu, just in case you wanted to see what's available. When you're in Davao, you have to go and visit Lachi's, it's definitely worth it.

(Click here to read the rest of the Delightful Davao posts.)

Lachi's Sans Rival, Atbp.
Location: Ruby Street, Marfori Heights, Davao City
Contact info: 6382-2245552; 0916-9841183
Other info: Lachi's Facebook Page
Map:

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Jillians Chocolate Chip Cookie Surprise!

One fine morning, I woke up to a text message from a friend of mine saying she sent over some cookies. Of course, after reading the word "cookies", I shook the sleep off me and headed straight for the dining room and demanded asked where the goodies were.

They were on the table in a big brown paper bag with the note that said "For warm cookies: Heat in  microwave for 5-8 seconds." I took out the cookies from the bag into a platter, snapped a few photos for posterity and hurriedly popped a couple cookies into the oven. 

You see, the creator of these cookies is my friend Jillian Nuñez. For as long as I can remember, Jillian has always been a kitchen whiz who has been known to whip out heaven in various forms of baked sweet treats. This the reason why even before the ding of the microwave signaled that my cookies were ready, I was already drooling in anticipation.

Earlier during the week, Jill showed me a photo of a cookie that she wanted to try to make, for the heck of it. Being the glutton sugar addict that I am, I asked if I could write about it on BaconTunaMelt because I already knew that they were going to be legen -wait for it- dary.

And as expected, they were.

These cookies that I have dubbed "Jillian's Chocolate Chip Cookie Surprise" may look like your typical chocolate chip cookies to you (albeit larger) but they are anything but typical. As soon as you sink your teeth into the warm treat, you'd know it's more than your average cookie. 

The surprise is in the form of an Oreo cookie hidden inside the chocolate chip cookie coating. It's a cookie inside a cookie! The chewy and moist chocolate chip cookie coating is a perfect front act to the also chewy and chocolatey Oreo cookie inside. It's a match made in sugar and chocolate heaven. Perfectly paired with a tall glass of milk and the blues.

Yogi Berry is the Cheapest Froyo in Town!

If frozen yogurt was the hottest dessert in town a year ago, today froyo shops don't get as much hype anymore, and are sometimes even ignored. The market has become saturated, with frozen yogurt available in just about any corner of most malls in the city. Froyo shops now seek to differentiate themselves from the crowd. 

In my opinion, a big factor in the decline of the frozen yogurt consumers is the price. Most shops sell their yogurt at 20-25 pesos per ounce, which can get expensive once you heap on the extras on top of the yogurt. A 6 ounce cup (just about average) would cost 150 pesos at 25 pesos/ounce. That's a bit too much for dessert for the regular diner on a day-to-day basis.

Most affordable froyo in town

And here comes Yogi Berry, a new froyo shop that recently opened in Greenbelt 1 mall in Ayala, we froyo lovers don't have to spend as much for the good stuff. Yogi Berry offers their frozen yogurt at only 15 pesos per ounce. That's the cheapest I've seen so far!

Singapore Street Treat - Selecta Ice Cream Sandwich

Even before the inception of this blog, I was already taking occasional snaps of nomz I've tried or wanted to try. It's a good thing that I kept some of them, now I can share my past food discoveries with my readers (all three of them). Some shots were from few months ago, when I was in the lovely country of Singapore for a summer trip (primarily to check out the newly opened Universal Studios ^^,). 

While walking along the famous Orchard Road, a pushcart not unlike those you can find in the streets of Manila caught my attention. My curiosity was piqued but I chose to ignore it the first time. A short distance away, there was another one. The length of Orchard road was peppered with these red trolleys! All of them bore the familiar heart logo of Selecta ice cream. I figure it was the perfect way to deal with a hot summer day (any excuse for ice cream), so I made my way to one of the carts to see what they got.

Yummy Selecta Ice Cream Sandwich (SGD1)

On the cardboard menu filled with pictures of ice cream sandwiches in different flavors, along with the typical ice cream flavors of chocolate, vanilla, and cookies & cream were a number of unusual flavors such as honeydew, durian, and jackfruit. Being my weird self, I bought a durian ice cream sandwich. The nice old man who was manning the booth took out a huge chunk of ice cream (he was wearing plastic gloves), sliced it in half, plunked the solid ice cream block in between two square wafers, and handed it to me.

The White Hat Remains to be my Favorite Yogurt Ice Cream Shop

Since late last year and until the first half of 2010, many different yogurt ice cream shops have sprouted in every other corner of the metro. It's the flavor of the season, so to speak. Personally, I like yogurt ice cream better than normal ice cream or any other dessert because it's a healther choice.
 

The White Hat's 98% fat-free yogurt ice cream

Yogurt ice cream shops are aplenty and they all have a different extras to offer besides the obvious, of course. From when the fad started up until today, my favorite has always been The White Hat's plain yogurt ice cream. Unlike other shops, they don't have other flavors and the toppings are few. But before you count The White Hat out, their yogurt ice cream tastes the BEST compared to all the other ones out there. Theirs is not as sour as the others and the consistency is always good. Best of all, their yogurt ice cream is 98% fat free! This is the perfect guiltless dessert.

My mom, enjoying The White Hat's yogurt ice cream

My most frequented branch is the one at Greenbelt 5 and it's also my favorite one. Why? They have books and magazines for the young and old as well as board games and toys to pass the time while having yummy yogurt ice cream. It's also right next to Marta's Cakes and if you get a cookie to design with colored icing from Marta's, you can also design your yogurt ice cream as you please!

Frozen Dipped Banana sells Frozen Dipped Bananas

The loud and very sixties logo-banner displayed on the stall front draws your attention from the get go. The Frozen Dipped Banana stall looked like a happy stop to me. So of course, we checked it out.

Their very retro stall design

Their main selling point is their chilled bananas on popsicle sticks that can be dipped in either chocolate, strawberry, ube or cheese and topped with rice crispies, candy sprinkles, or chocolate sprinkles. They also have chocolate banana shakes and this order that they call Ice Cream Banana. But I first wanted to try the classic banana on stick.

  Menu and prices

I got the banana dipped in chocolate with no other additional toppings and it-was-delicious! The fruit was chilled but not frozen, it was ripe and  not mushy (I hate mushy bananas) and the chocolate coating was surprisingly good. For the price, I was expecting it to taste like cheap, grainy chocolate that has more sugar than cocoa and I'm glad that it didn't. 

L: Chocolate-dipped banana with rice crispies (p25); R: Good ole chocolate dipped banana (p20)

Frozen Dipped Banana is a welcome addition to the very many snack food choices that can be found in  malls. I loved it!  I actually wanted to get a second one right after dinner. It's cheap, delicious, and (semi) healthy. My only gripe about them is that they could've come up with a more interesting name than the too straightforward Frozen Dipped Banana on Stick.

 ~

Now normally, I refrain from posting people pictures in this blog, but my banana buddy turns 27 tomorrow. And this entry will double as a birthday greeting for the cutest boy in town. With that, I would like to share with you and the rest of the world this picture of him enjoying his banana! 

Bim and his banana

Wait. That didn't sound right. Anyway, happy happy birthday gorgeous! Have a good one. b(^_^)