That’s Chef Laudico speaking to a small group of food enthusiasts. Thanks to Orbit Gum, I was able to have a sample of the great food at Bistro Filipino. I did ask the good chef if I could dine at his restaurant if I only had P500 (US$10) to which he answered with an emphatic “yes!”

The first of the three appetizers. Seen here is the Spicy Sisig Basket in Mini Crispy Rice Baskets with Quail’s Egg and Crispy Pork Rind. Wow, quite a mouthful. It’s sisig like you’ve never had before. A must!

This is the Crunchy Smoked Milk Fish Balls Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella. This one melts in your mouth and I almost couldn’t believe it was Bangus they put in with the cheese. Heavenly!

This one’s the Crispy Lumpia Cone filled with Chorizo, Prawns and Heart of Palm Topped with Spicy Sinamak Sorbet. Sinamak is a kind of spiced vinegar native to the province of Iloilo, Philippines. It is much better than ordinary vinegar, way better.

Next came the soups. We were served a sampler that contained three kinds of soups. On the left is Adobo Shiitake Mushroom Puree Topped with Creamy Garlic Foam Drizzled with White Truffle Oil. The second is Oven Roasted Pumpkin and Eggplant Puree garnished with Crispy Okra and a Dollop of Shrimp Paste Cream. Lastly, the one on the right is Beef Consomme Garnished with Fresh Corn, Carrots and Potato Croquette Stuffed with Beef and Cabbage. I love the beef consomme and the adobo shiitake mushroom puree!

This salad was quite a delightful surprise. It is Mesclun Salad Tossed in Dijon Shrimp Paste Vinaigrette topped with Dried, Green & Ripe Mangoes, Tomatoes and Cashew Crusted Kesong Puti.

Yes, you read it right. Cashew-crusted kesong puti. The minute I out it in my mouth, the kesong puti melted exploded with all the goodness of cheese.

The seafood course came first. Seen here is the Lapu-lapu and Prawns in Coco-Lambanog Sauce Coriander, Asparagus and Fennel Cherry Tomato Sofrito Brown Rice with sun-Dried Mangoes.

The fish was very soft and the prawn was fresh. The sauce had a tangy taste and was a real delight to the palate.

The meat dish had no less than Wagyu beef! It was Crusted Wagyu Beef Fillet Cashew-Humba Sauce with Vegetable Barbecue and Sweet Potato Mash.

I think it was a perfect balance of sweet and salty. A runaway hit, no doubt.

A cheese course was served to prepare the palate for the dessert. This one is called Kesong Puti with Guava Confit and Galletas. Kesong Puti or white cheese is a Filipino cottage cheese made from unskimmed carabao’s milk, salt and rennet. The Galletas, on the other hand, are like thin crackers that are very creamy when masticated. These Galletas were flown in from Iloilo City’s famous Panaderia De Molo.

The dessert came as Pili Sansrival and Mango Canonigo.

Loved the sansrival!

That’s Chef Jill Sandico on the far left and Chef Myrna Seguismundo to the right. Two brilliant chefs who collaborated with Chef Laudico to showcase Bistro Filipino’s best.

Again, a million thanks to Orbit for another wonderful food adventure!

Bistro Filipino, Net One Building, The Fort
Taguig City, Metro Manila
(02) 856-0634

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 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.