Chocolate Pandemonium

Okay, so one person’s guilty here! Chocolate has been in the mainstream for so many years and I bet many people (not only me) thank God for this one of the bountiful gifts we have in earth. Chocolates were raw products that came from Cacao. It’s been documented that around 1100 BC, Cacao is cultivated in the lands of Mexico and South America. Cacao’s seeds is kissed and dried by the sun then it will be roasted. Collected and grounded to perfection and the rest is history. It can now be processed in so many ways.

 

Types of Chocolate:

• Unsweetened chocolate – the bitter one. It is also known as cooking and baking chocolate. Can be tasted in brownies, cookies, cakes and also in some selected viands incorporating chocolate.
• Dark chocolate – produced by adding fat and sugar. It is same with semisweet and extra dark with bittersweet.
• Milk chocolate – made with milk powder and or condensed milk. The perfect example here is the Hershey’s.
• White chocolate – is consists of confection based on cocoa butter, sugar and milk and without the cocoa solids.
• Cocoa powder – also used for baking and for drinks added with milk and sugar.
• Compound chocolate – it is a combined cocoa and vegetable fats used for candy bar coatings.
• Raw chocolate – is the purest of them all. It is not been processed or mixed with other ingredients. Tablea is the perfect example here. I can eat this one time a day although its bitter. It’s healthy.

How to Cook Tablea (Hot Chocolate Drink)

 

 http://bit.ly/9IUiYw

You need:

• Batirol / Batidor
• 2 cups of water
• 4 Tablea
• Condensed, evaporated or powdered milk (depends on your preference)
• Sugar (optional)

Instructions:

1. Put water into batirol and bring into boil.
2. Put tablea into boiling water.
3. Gently whisk batidor using your palm to meet tablea’s creamy texture.
4. Pour into cup and put milk and sugar.
5. Serve while it’s hot.

     My grandfather always prepares this when we were in Bohol way back 15 years ago. It is the first time I tasted one. Here in Cavite, there’s a café nested along the roads of Tagaytay going Alfonso. Named “Bag of Beans”, they serve tablea there and bottomless “kapeng barako”. I think that Alfonso, Cavite is now one of the cacao industries here in the Philippines that is very promising. Super Like! 

More Facts about Chocolate!

• Chocolate is high in protein, calcium and iron making our body healthy.
• Chocolate is not high in caffeine.
• Chocolate is low in sodium and cholesterol.
• Three billion pounds of chocolate is consumed by its lovers each year.
• It is reported that 9 out 10 people like chocolates and the tenth person is much likely lied!

Lemon Pancake Stack by Pancake House

My son and I agreed to visit The Mall of Asia and check out The Planetarium. Unfortunately, it was fully booked. I decided to have a break at Pancake House. Finding Pancake House in the 4th largest mall in the whole world gets you mauled minute by minute without even noticing it. Finally, barely half - breathing! We found one! As we entered the place while catching our breaths, the pretty young waitress handed us the menu and we started to browse the dessert section. I ordered tower pancakes and banana split and oh please! Water, make it a pitcher of water please! We’ve waited for about half an hour. I don’t know what the commotion is going on inside their kitchen for waiting that pancakes so long. At least we had a restful chat before that. Alas! The young lady served the desserts! As I gasp the fork pointing it to the pancake….it is like everything is in slow motion….Maybe the excitement and tiredness mixed with my emotions and thank God!, the tower pancakes were really yummy. It is even yummier than the photo down there I bet! So why not drop by? At the nearest Pancake House in your location. It definitely twisted my mood. Sarap!

 Yummmy!

Cinnamon Lover

I first tasted the cinnamon when I was at 6th grade. I thought cinnamon taste bitter but then my Aunt Auring insist me to taste one from a cinnamon covered pastry from Goldilocks. It wasn’t bad after all! Poor me! I’ve eaten one pastry that time because it was the only one left. Did you had an experience eating cinnamon blended pastry and expecting one to be that taste yet it is bitter? Well, I had one though. It was bad, I don’t know what happened though…..

 

The Cinnamon Swirl by Starbucks

 Dulce displayed inside Starbucks

Until me and my bro had to meet somewhere in Ortigas and have a coffee break at Starbucks. I spotted a cinnamon swirl?! Yep, it has a melted sugar at the top and I really liked it. That’s a sweet pastry lover should be, appreciating everything when my sweet tooth was tickled enough. The cinnamon swirl is an original stuff by Starbucks. Sometime soon I may come back again and dig cinnamon swirl. By the way, beside its sweetness, it’s enticingly affordable. Sweet!

Date with Malen

It’s my hubby’s birthday and we’re heading Malen’s for food. Malen’s is a local restaurant in Noveleta, Cavite. The place is good. It has an ambience of the revolutional era of the first Cavite. There's a lot of old pictures hanging on the wall describing the god old Cavite and its cool people on the move, the Caviteños. While staring at the wall, pictures tell stories while your stomach is growling and waiting for the foods you ordered. At least they will tell you that it would be done for 20 minutes.

The foods were named astonishingly related to Filipino names (I guess). I’m not a legitimate caviteña but through the years of staying in here, those names sounded familiar to me. Like where in the world will you hear “Menudo Ricarte, Kare - Kare sa Katagalugan or Kaldereta ni Sakay”. At least it tastes good as well as its name.

Then here’s my favorite, the sweets that Malen has to offer. By the way, I always buy my birthday cake here. The price ranges from 450-900 Philippine peso. I had my blueberry cheesecake and a slice of scrumptious chocolate cake. I don’t remember how it cost but probably the blueberry cheesecake is around 180 Php. Hmmm…please correct me if I’m wrong….

 Malen's dulce piles

Carrot Cheese Cake Reward

We're strolling along the aisles of SM Megamall waiting for my sibling to come over. Lately, I’m starved enough to eat a whole cow (I forgot to take my breakfast) we crashed a fancy fast food corner digging chicken with rice, burger and fries plus liters of soda. I felt relief I mean, we felt relief. Beau invited us to have a walk at Serendra, somewhere in Taguig. He bought a book.

He noticed this café and I noticed sweet pastries. The three of us went inside and waited for the waiter to assist us. After minutes of waiting, finally we are opted for the menus they serve and I want to try the carrot cheese cake with sugar glazed wall nut. So another couple of minutes to wait more, we started to chit – chat of anything, aside from imagining that dessert. At last, it finally arrives….the carrot cheese cake from Chelsea Market and Café. What you see is what you get. Notice it’s moist, plump and carrot filled pastry (I like) drizzled with sugar glaze that make it looks yummy. That is so sweet! I ate it like there was no tomorrow, who cares anyway? This carrot - oozing cheese cake costs 250 per slice in Philippine peso. I’m gonna be honest with you, it is quite costly for just a piece of cake.

Anyway that has been an experience. After eating a nice dessert, now we’re heading Cainta and occasionally we’re stucked in hours of traffic before arriving at my Dad’s place. Wheww!

The Sweet Kulasa Project

Pretty blog post title for a middle aged lady always gasping for sweets. I used to dig strawberry jams (with chunks of fruit in it) during working hours. Until I rarely notice that I’ve got to buy another jar for my weekday long consumption. Strange and I know it is alarming. During the stage of building friends and continuous locomotion development, as what they say, being innocent in short, Mommy always tell me not to eat sweets. Probably, 15 years after that finally got a job and the manifestations where lurking out inside of me. I can’t believe that I’ve been consuming liters of coffee everyday and generally the main star of this blog – dulce.

Okay, sweets literally refer to confectionery items like candies, chocolates, taffies and ice creams. You know that because of the word “upgrade”, the market has a lot of description about it especially in terms of sales. Ice cream cakes had been flourished around the metro. Taffy and cookie crumble per order in a small kiosk in malls. Chocolate fudge inside the glorious “black forest” cakes, I mean sweets are everywhere.

I’m not insisting that you would do the same thing. It’s just a matter of letting yourself free just when the right time arrives. You should know the consequences of indulging sweets. Everything must be in moderation. Anything that’s much is not good and you know that. I began the sense of control when I gained weight. Yet, Kulasa is still alive and kicking! Just giving up myself a tasty treat whenever I’m on the mood. You should too!