V-Day: A Culinary Perspective

This year’s Valentine’s Day had some interesting food for me, which is a pretty universal thing I think… something you’d care about regardless of, say, “status.” So, yeah. On with the food!

-Breakfast: Grilled Chicken, Fried Egg, and Brown Rice
This is actually the norm for me. When I’m in Parañaque pretty much every meal I have cooked is some form of chicken and rice. Brown rice now, since I’ve sworn off white rice for the time being. Usually with tomatoes or mixed vegetables. My sisters tend to make fun of me for just having the same damn thing all the time, but I like it well enough, plus it’s about as healthy I can go on a day-to-day basis. Good meal before having to go to work.

-Lunch: Same thing, minus the egg
Like I said, pretty much every meal…

-Lunch (dessert): Tarts from Rowena’s
My sister brought two boxes of these from Tagaytay, one of which contained the chocolate mousse tart. I’d never had that particular flavor before; once I had, I felt robbed.

Not because it wasn’t good, mind, but because I’d obviously been eating other, clearly inferior tarts my whole life.

I suppose that’s quite a strong statement; truthfully, Rowena’s makes damn good tarts, period. But their chocolate mousse tart… it’s insanely good. The whole thing (crust, filling, and topping) is chocolate, but it’s not at all overwhelming–neither too sweet nor too rich. The topping, which reminded me of chocolate pudding, is very smooth and decadent.

It’s the sort of thing that’s worth going to Tagaytay for all on its own.

No Tagaytay trip is complete without a stop at Rowena's

I’d joke that they were paying me to say the above, but honestly, I can’t imagine any of their customers not raving about their stuff.

-Pre-Dinner (at home): Chocolate
My dad had been eating some chocolate bar that was a mix of white and milk, so I had a little bit. It was alright, though I didn’t know where it came from. It was packaged in rather nondescript red foil with no names or anything. And it was sugar free, apparently? Pretty good for a sugar free chocolate bar, actually. Dad tore off a couple of rows for me to take, which was nice.

-Pre-Dinner (at PDI): “Sakanami” squid flavor, Original Nagaraya
I brought Liz the remaining tarts from Rowena’s… all two of them. No chocolate mousse tarts left, unfortunately. Those went by in a heartbeat. Instead I brought her one buko and one apple tart; she had the apple, and gave the buko to her boss. The tarts were great, of course (I had a bit of the apple tart).

Since I’d skipped dinner at home I had a few snacks from Liz’s desk. There were these fish snack things which I’ll just call Sakanami because that’s what I remember from when I was a kid. It was like eating squid-flavored foam, actually, but it was the sort of thing that had more sentimental value than anything else. Also quite healthy, apparently, though not the most filling thing on earth. I also had a couple of packs of Nagaraya (the small packs). Good ol’ Nagaraya, eh? It never gets old.

-Dinner: Mushroom Soup, Steak and Eggs
After much deliberation over the course of the day, we decided to have dinner at Mom and Tina’s along C-5. This turned out to be a smart choice, as there weren’t a lot of people going to, or at, the restaurant. We got a table pretty much right away and lined up our orders.

Liz and I split a bowl of mushroom soup, which was served with a couple of their trademark rolls. A good starter, I think. I ordered the Steak and Eggs, medium well as per usual.

Quick segue: I don’t know about you, but I love places that serve all-day breakfast

Mmm... Steak 'n' Eggs

Anyway, Steak and Eggs. I had it with mashed potatoes (again, cutting the white rice). I have to say that was a first for me; I don’t recall another time in my life where I’ve had meat and potatoes and eggs at the same time. Well, save perhaps for breakfast buffets, but I think in terms of tallying combinations of food buffets shouldn’t really count. That said, it was quite good. Not the best steak I’ve ever had at that price range, but quite effective as solid comfort food (which is really the point of MnT’s food). Egg yolks mixed with mash and gravy and a couple of other sauces, all of which complemented the steak nicely.

-Dinner (dessert): Baked Oreo Cheesecake, White Toblerone Walnut Torte
It was our first time ordering the baked oreo cheesecake, and like the chocolate mousse tarts, this one was an eye opener. The main difference from a standard cheesecake is the texture, I think. Baked cheesecake has a more cake-like consistency, closer to a muffin than regular cheesecake. The flavors were spot on, so it was really enjoyable. I only had a bit of that, though. My order was the white Toblerone walnut torte.

I know white chocolate gets a lot of flak for not really tasting like chocolate should, but it’s always been a favorite for me. As a kid I actually wasn’t a fan of milk chocolate, but I absolutely adored white chocolate. Eating the torte really brought back those memories of the first few times I got to try white chocolate–I believe it was Nestle’s now defunct “Alpine White.”

To sum, dinner was packed with nostalgic comfort food. How could you go wrong?

-Post-dinner: Red Wine
Specifically Novellino’s Sweet Lively Red. It’s not a proper red wine, as it’s sweet and somewhat fizzy. Maybe “wine cooler” is the better term? Not that I mind, really. I don’t think I’m at that age yet where I get to be finicky about what I drink. And I mean, hey, having once downed a bottle of Kung Fu with my bros, I’m really in no position to judge.

I swear Kung Fu is a real local liquor brand, which tastes like Efficascent Oil mixed with roast chicken drippings. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any pictures of it. I guess even Google won’t touch that stuff? But that’s me and my bros for you–we craaazy.

At any rate, Liz and I split the bottle of Novellino, which got us just drunk enough. Great nightcap for a great V-Day