I love Cena

   Our lava cakes today were not good. Not only did they fail to ooze chocolate syrup they were also burnt at the sides. Dondee’s cake even looked like splattered ala art attack. We are sure the chefs noticed our dismay in seeing our cakes.

   The reunion with is barely a month old. Another break up or cool off is too soon. We voiced our concerns to the staff. Is it the baker’s day off? Did he resign? It’s just some problems with the oven. Will it be fixed next week?

   They probably know how to spot a Cena loyalist. We got oreo cheesecake on the house.

Getting to know Sucrée

   Most people will grade food by the number of spoons and dessert by the slices of cake or number of cupcakes. I don’t. Desserts hold a special place in my heart… and tastebuds I often say I have a love affair with them. So I grade food and desserts by the level of relationship. Relationships grow, go on to the next level, take a new turn, or simply die. Take my love affair with Bizu. It’s on a cool-off basis now. And I am reunited with Cena’s lava cake.

   I have a new friend and it’s called Sucrée.  It is located at the second level of the new  midtown wing of Robinsons Place Manila. The following are the cakes my friends and I tried at our newfound friend:

    Sucreé torte. Imagine a double layer of chocolate almond sponge filled with chocolate ganache followed by a silky layer of creme brulee and amaretto flavored chocolate mousse, enrobe in a shiny chocolate coating. A torte that truly deserves our name. I don’t agree that the creme brulee is silky. It is a little firm you can even separate it from the other layers. Like cheese on a burger. 

    Fertility. Ultimately rich chocolate fudge cake filled with peanut butter cream and generously coated ganache and peanuts. The waiter was quick to inform us that the peanut butter cream and peanuts are replaced with belgian chocolate. Where’s the fun in that? They should either change Fertility’s description on the menu to "your basic chocolate fudge cake filled with layers of belgian chocolate" or rename the cake to simple "chocolate cake". I envy those who have tasted Fertility in its natural form. It must be heavenly with that peanut butter cream and the texture of peanuts. I can dream, can I?

    Sex bombe. Dome shaped layers of hazelnut chocolate cake mousse, chocolate sponge, and cream cheese filling with walnuts, spiked covered with creme parisienne. This is the best so far. The cream cheese filling with walnuts clinched it. I just don’t find myself gushing with every forkfull. It is like playing safe. It doesn’t bring me to the edge. 

    I don’t drink coffee so it’s always hot chocolate for me. In the background are cafe americano and brewed coffee. That is Sucrée hot chocolate in front. So rich but not too sweet. It is cheaper than most hot chocos considering its big cup. I like the cup too. I daresay it is now the number 1 hot chocolate in my list.

   Will my newfound friendship with Sucrée blossom take the next level? Maybe not. It will just be not-too-close-of-a-friendship. 

Paseo de Bahamas

   Located at the ground floor of the new Midtown wing of Robinsons Place, Paseo de Bahamas is a great place to hang out with friends and enjoy good food.

   Spanakopitta. Spinach and feta cheese in filo pastry. Filo pastry is paper-thin translucent sheets of pastry commonly used in Greek, Eastern European and Middle Eastern cuisines. It is delicious by itself but I’m not really fond of eating dry things. A dip should probably make it more enjoyable. I suggest salsa, my favorite.

   Sole fillet parmigiana. Parmesan crusted sole fillet with fetuccine pomodoro. I now know that soles are flatfishes of various families. That’s what I call educational eating. I could not and would not believe that the crust is parmesan. It tastes like simple batter. The parmigiana could do better without it because it only made the fish makunat. I could not decipher what the yellow sauce was. 

   Pasta marinara. Instead of the usual mussels, squid rings and shrimps on marinara pasta, we found bits of salmon, shrimps, and squid. Bits. Only your tastebuds can recognize them. Pleasant surprise though. You can skip the bread. They are soggy anyway. The serving size is not meant for sharing unless you eat like a bird. 

   Iced tea that is wanting in flavor. My guyabano juice that captures the flavor of real guyabano. 

   The staff are friendly and the ambience is good. A bit of advice though. Do not go to this place starving or all hell will break loose. Only four tables were occupied including ours but service is painfully slow.  

   The food are reasonably priced so recommending the place is easy.  It also has free WiFi. 

Bataan has fallen

Radio Broadcast by Lt. Norman Reyes over Voice of Freedom at  Malinta Tunnel, Corregidor - 9 April 1942.

Good evening everyone everywhere. This is the Voice of Freedom broadcasting from somewhere in the Philippines.

Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy.

The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more than three months. Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear.

For what sustained them through all these months of incessant battle was a force that was more than merely physical. It was the force of an unconquerable faith–something in the heart and soul that physical hardship and adversity could not destroy! It was the thought of native land and all that it holds most dear, the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in these most priceless of all our human prerogatives.

The adversary, in the pride of his power and triumph, will credit our troops with nothing less than the courage and fortitude that his own troops have shown in battle. Our men have fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the most superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last in the face of overwhelming odds. But the decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of unshakable faith are made of something more than flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come. Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand–a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world–cannot fall!

   I had to hold my tears back the first time I heard this piece (recited by Mr. Pablito Martinez, a tour guide in Corregidor). This made me re-appreciate Philippine history .

Reunited with Lava cake

   Having declared a cool off with Bizu we went to Cena, still at Greenbelt 2, for desserts. Like Bizu, we have a long standing love affair with Cena and we hope to keep it that way.

    Mango Cream Pie. The only dessert on the menu that we haven’t had before. It wasn’t on the list the last time we were there. You can eat this guilt free because the sweetness is just right. Balanced fusion of the taste of mango and cream.

    Blueberry cheesecake. Look at that masterpiece. It tastes even better than it looks.

    This is Lava cake. A chocolate cake filled with chocolate syrup that oozes out when you fork a piece into your mouth. Truly a chocoholic’s dream.  

   We discovered this cake, and thus Cena, about five years ago. It was ring-shaped then,  the vanilla ice cream served in the middle of the cake and on the side was a queue of strawberry, blueberry and mango jams. We would always ask for extra serving of jams and the waiters would happily oblige. One night we were attended by a probably new waiter. When the six of us ordered one lava cake each he politely told us that the lava cake is good for sharing. What came next was a barrage of…..

   "I don’t believe you!", "Hindi totoo yan!",  and the classic "I don’t want to share!"

   We ate lava cake like it was going out of style. Maybe twice a week. 

   Until the lava hardened. No more chocolate syrup oozing out when you fork a piece. It became just like a simple brownie ala mode. We parted ways with Cena’s lava cake. The search for replacement led us to a fleeting affair with a restaurant in Podium. Then Plato Platina at Jupiter street. It was good but our hearts, er, tastebuds longed for the original. We found that the lava cake at Plato Platina at Blue Wave was closer to Cena’s original so a love affair began. It was a high maintenance affair because Plato Platina’s lava cake is so pricey and Blue Wave is  far from where we work. 

   Then came last Friday. We ordered Lava cake at Cena and hoped for the best. Oh, what a sweet reunion it was. Our lava cake is back. It may look differently but it is the same lava cake that we fell madly in love with five years ago.