Pinoy Life At Large » orbit gum food tour

Orbit Food Tour Part 3: the goodness of Galileo Enoteca

Arpee — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:40:23 +0000

The last leg of our wonderful food tour brings us to Galileo Enoteca and Deli. In Italian, Enotica means wine cellar and that is exactly what this place is all about. Various wines from France and Italy line the walls of this charming little wine and deli place. Galileo Enoteca has two branches, one in Mandaluyong City and the other along Pasong Tamo, Makati, which is where these pictures are taken.

Another lucky food tour winner gets a lomo camera! At each leg of the tour, Tonypet hosts a mini-raffle to give away a lomo camera. This makes each encounter truly exciting as we all hold our breath for the next winner.

Prior to serving the wine, deli and cheeses, Galileo’s knowledgeable sommeliers gave us some pointers on how to better appreciate the wines, such as what food to pair which wine with, etc. I must say, they really know their wines!

Everyone listened intently, even taking pictures. Then we all looked around the place before taking our first sip of red and white wines along with delicious provolone cheese (which I really loved) and cold cuts (which I loved even more)!

So what did they serve us? Lo and behold.

That’s tomato and basil.

Prosciutto ham, my second favorite on a bed of Mortadella, my top favorite!

This is mushroom. Sorry couldn’t remember the name of this mushroom. Really, really good though.

What’s not to love?

Thank you very much to Tonypet, Jenny of Proximity and Peter of Wrigley Philippines for this wonderful food tour experience, one that I will remember each time I pop an Orbit gum after a full meal.

Orbit Gum’s Food Tour Part 2: Elbert’s Steak Room

Arpee — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:42:59 +0000

The second leg of Orbit Gum’s food tour led us to Elbert’s Steak Room at the 3rd floor of the Sagittarius Building, along Dela Costa St, Salcedo Village, Makati City. Indeed, this place is one of Manila’s Best Kept Secret Restaurants. A delightful surprise while our party was going into the restaurant was seeing famous food writer Lori Balthazar stepping out. She greeted me and said she was a regular of the Steak Room. Wow! So I told myself if Lori comes here often then that really puts Elbert’s Steak Room at the top of my list!

Checking out their menu, you will see that the food is not cheap. However, I’d say it is reasonable enough considering the quality of the meats and the impeccable service they provide. The interior is cozy and relaxed. Truly a great place for small, intimate dinners, while located strategically in the center of the business district, possibly just a few steps away from your office.

Tonypet has done a great job in making everyone comfortable and at ease. Though in the company of strangers, the food tour winners became instant friends, laughing and sharing smiles, mostly courtesy of Tonypet’s jokes and interesting talks.

Some tried their hand at carving the meat.

And oh what fun they all had!

Chef Adrian Cuenca gave a few words about the US Prime Rib that was to be served. He did encourage us to try eating the steak medium rare because this is the point where the steak is at its most flavorful. I was a little hesitant because I don’t eat meat that is too rare, or still has blood oozing out, but I took Chef Adrian’s word for it and tried it as it was served. He was right! I closed my eyes during the first bite and true enough, the flavors swirled in my mouth bringing about the most exquisite tastes ever to emanate from a piece of steak. Thus my new principle in dining, TRUST THE CHEF’S RECOMMENDATIONS.

Upon settling, they served their own baked bread. Served warm and fresh, it was not a bad start.

Then came the greens. The vinaigrette had sesame oil and lemon juice, which I loved.

Then, the French onion soup.

I just love onions.

Then the “main event”, the steak.

According to one of their waiters, the steam keeps the meat warm while it is uncovered.

See the herbs and spices that they used to flavor the meat.

On my plate, this is how it looked like.

Don’t be fazed with the redness. The texture is soft and the taste is heavenly. A closer look here.

Because Noemi does not eat meat, they brought out their seafood fare, which they specially prepared for customers who are not meat eaters.

Five large prawns smothered in saffron garlic tomato cream sauce. Amazing!

Noemi enjoyed it. It did look yummy. I’d try it if only I weren’t allergic to seafood.

Of course, at the end of every meal, we freshened our breaths with Orbit!

Big thanks to the guys at Elbert’s Steak Room for treating us like royalty. I will see you on my birthday.

See the last leg of this tour in my next post!

Orbit Gum’s Food Tour: Cuillere’s famous milkshakes

Arpee — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:02:33 +0000

Orbit Gum with Xylitol presents the winners of their food tour contest. After sorting through 900 entries (a lot were duplicate entries, but all were tallied), the 10 lucky winners were finally announced. Each winner was allowed to bring one person along. I met the winners and they all made fantastic dinner companions.

The first stop was Cuillere, a traditional French brasserie. No, not the female undergarment (I made the same mistake but the undergarment is spelled “brassiere”), rather a casual French restaurant usually serving comfort food.

The restaurant is owned and operated by a daughter of the Arce family, that same family behind the wonderful flavors of the old Selecta ice cream and now Arce Dairy Ice Cream. This would explain why Cuillere serves all flavors of Arce Dairy Ice Cream, which happens to be my favorite of favorites!

Cuillere is a bit intimidating on the outside. However, if you fight your fear of the unknown, a wonderful reward awaits. Inside Cuillere, you will find the best carabao milkshake there is, bar none. According to one of their very knowledgeable waiters, their bestseller is the Cheese Carabao Milkshake. Unfortunately, I ran out of that and had to settle for the Dark Caramel Carabao Milkshake, which completely won me over. To hell with my lactose intolerance, nothing was coming between me and my milkshake. finally got my fix. and what a fix indeed! Surprisingly, my stomach was ok and there was absolutely no need to rush to the toilet. For P195.00 (US$3.90), it was a great buy. I will definitely return to Cuillere at the Serendra, Global City, Taguig.

We were served the following:

I loved the Croque Madames the most. Really good!

Then came the tenderloins tips with blue cheese sauce.

Then came the mini croquettes filled with dried codfish or ham and cheese.

After all the degustation, our breaths needed some freshening up too. So we had some…

Congratulations again to the winners of the Orbit Food Tour contest! Thank you very to Tonypet Gaba for being such a fun and engaging host.

In my next post you will see how much fun we all had at Elbert’s Steak Room.