Sans Rival in Dumaguete

Every time I'd visit Dumaguete, I always make sure that I buy cakes and pastries from Sansrival. It was in 2010 when I first visited the place with my hubby and since then, other branches have already opened up:

• Main branch: located at #1 San Jose St. (from 9:00 am - 7:30 pm Mon-Sun); 035-225-4440 
• Bistro: along Rizal Blvd. cor. San Jose St. (10:00 am - 11:00 pm Sun-Thurs); 10:00 pm - 12:00 mn (Fri-Sat)
• Robinson's Place: Dumaguete Business Park and IT Plaza, Ground Flr (from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm (Mon-Fri); 10:00 am to 9:00 pm (Sat-Sun); 035-226-3506
  (035)226-3506

Caramia Decadent Chocolate Cake

For our 10th wedding anniversary, aside from having dinner at Barcino during our anniversary weekend, Peter bought me this decadent chocolate cake from Caramia. This has got to be one of the best-tasting chocolate cakes I've ever had!  

Cake Planet Chocolate Macadamia Sansrival

I try not to eat too much sweets since I know it's bad for my health. But there are times when I couldn't help myself. I'm only human after all. Like this one evening when I was watching Suburgatory on DVD. The main characters were having cake. So I texted my hubby, Peter, that I want some too. When he got home, he brought me this: Chocolate Macadamia Sansrival from Cake Planet. 

Ms. Polly's Specialty Cakes and Desserts

When Peter and I would be on our way home from somewhere in the North, we'd usually drop by the Shell gasoline station right before we enter the SLEX, not just to get gas but to buy some food supplies as well. One time, while we were inside that particular Shell Select convenience store, I saw these boxes of cakes displayed on the shelf. They're Ms. Polly's Specialty Cakes and Desserts.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Everything on Top

I was craving for ice cream... any ice cream, before I slept this morning. Peter promised to buy me some. But then I fell asleep while reading Emily Griffin's Something Borrowed and dreamed of some delectable bowl of cold treat. When I woke up, my dream came true! Peter handed me a bowl of vanilla ice cream with Nips, Chocnut and Choco Mallows. Yum yum yum!!!! My baboo is the best!!!

Parvati Store at Trinoma

Parvati, taken after the name of the most beautiful Hindu Goddess, is a new concept store located inside Trinoma Mall in Quezon City. It has been operational for six months now and they have plans of expanding some more in the greater Manila area (Please open one in Alabang, pretty please?).

Last Sunday, we were lucky to be invited to taste the many heavenly desserts they offer. Parvati is nothing like we've seen before. It's a dessert store that caters to home bakers as it consigns various home-baked goodies so dessert lovers won't have to go somewhere else. All the best ones, from frozen delights, to chilled cakes and pastries, to regular sweets and cakes are all housed here, 51 of them to be exact.

When you walk inside the Parvati store, you will notice that the wall on the right side is filled with print ads of what they offer. This wall is actually divided into three sections (frozen, chilled, room temp.), and further divided into drawers, containing the dessert of your choice! It's like magic! Hehehe.

The Making of HalfMoon BibingCrepe

HalfMoon Cafe is the coffee and food place affiliated with Mines View Park Hotel in Baguio. During our visit there the other day, we bloggers were taught how to make this fantastic bibingcrepe, an exclusive culinary offering of HalfMoon Cafe. Let me summarize the steps:

heat the pan grill

pour the batter and let it bubble

lather a bit of butter and sprinkle with a bit of sugar after bubble appears

take it out of the pan

put your desired toppings (choco sprinkles, mallows, cheese, condense milk)

cut it in half and lay one half on top of the other

slice it into bite size pieces
I super loved it! You can make it as sweet, fluffy, and cheesy as you like!

Bon appetit!

Lunch #1 at Zenz Restaurant at Mines View Park Hotel

I am very picky when it comes to eating out. This is probably because I mostly like very flavorful dishes and detest those Western bland ones which I normally found to be served in restaurants I've visited before. This is why I resort to my own cooking 90% of the time. And so I was really surprised and happy to have enjoyed the dishes that were served during my stay at Mines View Park Hotel in Baguio from Sept. 23-24. We were always served with buffet but I was assured that their regular servings are always hefty and worth the price you pay for.

Let me show you the dishes I had together with my fellow bloggers who got invited to visit the place and experience it all for ourselves. Here's the lunch we had:

fresh leaves and carrots

Because we were in the land of not just strawberries but fresh vegetable produce, it's only normal to expect really, really fresh vegetables. And they did serve us with those!

lettuce with bread crumbs and cheese

I liked the way the textured bread crumbs, twist of cheese and a bit of vinaigrette blended with everything.

beef caldereta and rice

I seldom eat caldereta for fear of chewing a gummy beef portion, but the one they served us was tender and delicious!

chicken in sesame and barbecue sauce

I will never get tired of this chicken dish.

breaded fish chips

I like fish but rarely eat fish chips coz they mostly taste like bread rather than fish! But this one exceeded my expectation. The fish inside was flavorful so I didn't mind eating the breaded part.

mango gelatin... sweet, mangoey and yummy. ^_^

I'd love to come back there again, but this time, I want to enjoy it with my hubby. There are still so many Continental and Asian dishes I'd love to try next time.

Fried Chicken Liver in Butter and Honey + Tuna Adobo with Veggies

After a looong break, I'm back!


Should you wish to find out what have I been doing lately, just head over to SEXYNOMAD, my main personal blog.

Anyway, vacation is over, I'm back to doing 2-3 jobs at a time, which I love by the way, but I still want to make sure that I can find a window in my busy schedule to practice cooking (and food photography too!). For this week, I was able to cook twice --- first was yesterday when I just prepared an old potato dish I already blogged about. Then the second one was earlier this evening. I was craving for some Tuna Adobo and Chicken Liver and I thank the universe that I still have the ingredients inside my fridge. I need to do some groceries soon though so I can start experimenting with other recipes. Hopefully, I can prepare something from one of my cook books rather than just going by my gut feel just like what I said in my personal projects site, TheJenAdamsProject. ^_^



Anyway, here's what I cooked a while ago. Please take note that when I did this, I didn't measure my ingredients. I just went with my gut feel. Hihihi.



Fried Chicken Liver in Butter and Honey

I dried my chicken liver parts a bit using tissue paper. Then I dashed them with pepper and salt to taste. I set them aside for a moment.



I put my old sauce pan on the stove and turned up the heat. I placed a thin slice of butter and some honey on the pan. As they were melting, I put my chicken liver. I fried them until they were a bit burnt by the simmering butter and honey. I like it that way.

Once it was fried the way I liked it, I set it aside.

Delectable Cakes of Cake2Go

Just this Saturday, my hubby and I splurged a bit on cakes. We passed by a branch of Cake2Go which according to one of my friends, has the best cakes she has ever tasted. I remembered what she said and got curious. So we parked the car and went inside the cake store. I fell in love with six flavors right on first sight so we ordered a slice of each just to see which one/ones I would like best later on. Here are what we ordered from the one I least liked to the one I liked best:

Chocoholic Fudge Cake

I was a bit disappointed with this one that's why it's the least one I liked. Though it tasted chocolatey enough, the cake itself lacked moisture, it felt like bread on my mouth.

Nestle's Crunch Cake

Nestle Crunch has got to be my most favorite chocolate ever. I will never get tired of eating bars after bars of of it. So I had high expectations for the cake. The frosting tasted good enough and the cake itself was a bit moist. Unfortunately, due to my high expectations, I'd rather have the chocolate than the cake.