Modern Classics

Me and my grandmother went to RP one Sunday noon and decided to take our lunch at the mall too. I took her to C2 since I have already decided even before we left the house that we will eat there. Actually, I was already practically drooling over the thought that I can now actually try their food. Yeah, I have always wanted to eat at C2 but just cannot find time to do so. My food trip buddy is not a Filipino food fan that is why I cannot drag her to C2 each time we're out on another food trip mission.

While reading the menu outside the restaurant, I was a little bit skeptic. I mean, seriously, crispy sinigang? Well, my curiosity beat the skeptical side of mine and we went ahead inside. I must admit, I love the interior of C2-RP branch. It is a small place, but is very cozy. The smooth and glossy wood tables and soft couches are perfect addition to the cozy ambiance. They have soft lights all over but the place is neither too dark nor too bright. For me, the lighting and fixtures created the perfect dining ambiance. Plus the attendants were all very friendly and attentive to their customers' needs. The food is quite pricey but I think it is all worth it.

Let's start with the food that we ordered that day. Since it was only the two of us, and my grandmother has a small appetite, we ordered quite simply. We had Satay Bagnet and Aligue Rice for our entree because I think these are enough for the two of us.


The Satay Bagnet was served with fried wanton wrappers around the Bagnet and a little bit of shredded pickled vegetables. And since it is Satay, it was served with Peanut Sauce on the side. The serving was already good for two persons considering it is fried, so you will not want to eat more than you should. Although, you might have to hold back since it is quite tempting to eat this Bagnet bite after bite. The liempo is very crispy outside but very tender inside. Another good thing is that it is quite lean and only has very small part of fat in it. So even though it is fried, it is not too oily. When dipped into the Peanut Sauce, it gives you a jambalaya of flavors. Plus the Peanut Sauce is not too watery nor too thick but just the right consistency for this dish. So first you will taste the salty-sweet taste of the Peanut Sauce clinging on the pork, then you sink your teeth to the crispy outer covering of the liempo only to hear the cracking sound inside your mouth. Then you feel the tenderness of the pork and taste the nutty accent of the Peanut Sauce blending inside your mouth. Ahhh! Heavenly, yet very sinful! The wanton wrappers are also very crispy but quite oily and the pickled vegetables are very fresh. What I do is to slice the liempo in half-bite sizes then get a little of the pickled vegetables and assemble everything together with the wanton wrapper and the Peanut Sauce then put everything into my mouth. I find it good and refreshing with the vegetables thus lessening the oiliness of the combined Bagnet and wanton wrappers.
Then there's the Aligue Rice. That is the first time that I will eat Aligue Rice (yeah, pity me). I have never eaten Aligue Rice yet and I was very excited to try it. It looks so delicious on the menu picture but looks so "deadly" because I know that it is full of cholesterol. But the hell with cholesterols, I want to try it and no one can stop me. Anyway, the rice was so good. It is so flavorful and the rice is cooked perfectly. Although, it is also quite oily but you can totally forget about it because it is really good. I know that the Bagnet Aligue Rice combination is a bad idea because these are fatty foods but it is really delicious. One very small thing though, I would rather like it better if they will add a little bit more of the pickled vegetables to ward off the oiliness when you had a little bit too much of the Bagnet and Aligue Rice. Because for me the pickled vegetables balances the oiliness with its tartness.

And now that the serious part is over, let me share to you the most amazing, and for me, the star of my lunch. The Dessert. I have read about this delicious dessert from a food blog some time ago. I then lust to taste it because the blogger gave it so much credit that the entry made me swear to myself that I cannot miss trying it when I have the chance to. So as not to keep you waiting anymore..

Ladies and Gentlemen.. Please put your hands together for the star of the meal..

Bibingka Souffle!!!Yeah, damn it. IT's that good. When they served the Bibingka Souffle to our table, it shone among the rest. And I mean, it is the only thing that I see. All of the spotlights are focused on her. I think you will regret it if you go to C2 and not order this. And I'm serious. Its as if the Bibingka Souffle is the specialty of C2. Or, on the second thought, maybe it is the specialty of C2 when it comes to the dessert department. Anyway, I think I have held your breath enough so let us now go to the details of the infamous Bibingka Souffle. According Wikipedia, Souffle came from a French verb which means to "puff up" or to "blow up". True enough, when you look at the Bibingka Souffle, its as if you were served a volcano that has erupted, minus the lava. It really is a huge one, and as if it will explode any minute. The Bibingka Souffle has all the glorious toppings of an authentic bibingka that fills the Christmas air during December. It has queso de bola and salted egg that give the Bibingka Souffle the sweet and salty taste. What I love most about it is that it is very light and fluffy. It is so light that it melts in your mouth literally. It is so fluffy that I was almost afraid of digging inside because I think it is very delicate to be dig into. But of course, I couldn't just let it sit there right, so I dug quite softly on the souffle. Careful as not to destroy the perfect dome it has become to. The Bibingka Souffle was served with a coconut cream sauce on the side. What I did was create an opening on the top of the souffle dome and then pour more than half of the coconut cream sauce and then mix it a little then pop a dessert-spoonful of souffle on my eager mouth. I hesitated to pour the whole coconut cream sauce because I thought it would be too sweet. Turned out, I was right. Had I pour the whole coconut cream on it, it will turn out to be too sweet. Since, my instinct told me the right instruction, I ended up with a heavenly, amazingly delicious, sweet and salty Bibingka Souffle. Sound like an advertisement, isn't it? Well I can invest on the souffle just to prove that it is really that good.

The last thing that I entertained to my stomach is the chocolate drink which they amusingly called Tsokolate Eh. Yeah, when I read it from the menu, there's only one thing that came to my mind.. Batangas. I do not know for sure if the chocolate drink really came from Batangas but one thing for sure, it is excellent. It is very chocolatey, and by that I mean it is not watery so it really has the perfect chocolate taste. In short, it does not taste like thickened Hot Milo. It is also smooth and has no residue of whatsoever. But, I found some rice-like pulp, and the consistency made it sticky to look at, like champorado. It is also not too sweet also thus prompting me to give it the title of the "Perfect Chocolate Drink".

The C2 experience is perfect and my grandmother thought so too. There's only one thing that she does not approve of, the price of the food. I admit it is quite pricey for a Filipino dish but I think it is all worth it. I mean, it is not everywhere that you find that one-of-a-kind Bibingka Souffle, do you? And I give it to them when it comes to the creative department. Yeah, I'm still not yet over the crispy sinigang. Next time, when I happen to go to RP, I will make sure to order that crispy sinigang. And of course, the Bibingka Souffle again.

Okay! I will stop rambling about the Bibingka Souffle now!

Cool Iceberg's

Yesterday was another day for my friend and I to explore the outside world, and to enjoy ourselves without office routines. We went to Robinson's Place Manila and dined and watched "The Back-up Plan" and I cried a hell lot of tears. Yeah, the movie is supposed to be a rom-com but it turned out to be quite a tear-jerker too. But I didn't mind especially with J.Lo on it. God, she's definitely a good actress. And after all these years, the body.. especially the booty still hasn't changed.

After the movie, we went for a snack. I originally planned to have some of those coffee buns and a cup of hot coffee but changed my mind and went to Iceberg's instead. I have already dined there a couple of times over the years and I can really attest to the mouth-watering pictures that they have on their menu. Not to mention those giant banana splits, parfaits, and sandwiches painted on their walls too. The last time I went there, I had some cold concoction and their version of Philly's Cheesesteak sandwich. I was overwhelmed when they served it to me. I mean, the ice creams and all those cool, refreshing treats are out of the question since they "specialize" in them but the sandwich... real great. That Cheesesteak that I had was to die for. It has lots of cheese on it, and generous amount of beef that are very juicy and not tough at all. The sandwich is huge. Well, at least for me. I am a big girl and I really find it big, so I guess it really is a non-ordinary sized sandwich.

Anyway, yesterday, as I was looking at their menu, I was overwhelmed again as I always do. They really have such a huge selection of food for people of different ages and preferences. The cold treats are really tempting but I tried to divert my eyes because I have cough and cold so I cannot indulge myself to those yummy looking, pastel-colored parfaits (poor me). I was trying to find something that will fill my tummy and at the same time is light on the pocket. I was torn between pasta and sandwich. At first, I wanted a Chili dog sandwich since it has already been a long time since I last tasted a chili dog sandwich. Then, when I compared the prices of the sandwiches against the pastas', I thought, what the heck, some of them got the same price tag and some pastas are only a few bucks more expensive. So I tried to find myself something off the pasta selections. It is quite hard to decide because every item on that menu of theirs looks real good. I know, I should not be fooled by these pictures and I have learned that in a not-so-good way, but it really is hard not to give in. So what I did was I chose one from each group, although I was leaning more to pastas, and asked the waitress to recommend something from each group also.

The waitress gave me their bestseller items and I finally settled for their Hungarian Sausage and Mushroom Carbonara. My friend meanwhile settled for their Chicken sandwich. As for the drinks, I gave in to the temptation and asked for a Rootbeer Float, while my friend tried their Peach Mango Shake. When the drinks arrived, I was satisfied. I mean, the Peach Mango Shake looked like it was blended fresh fruit because of the color. I think it was unlike the other restaurants' offer of chemical blended and food coloring induced shakes. My Rootbeer Float on the other hand was great. Floats are not extraordinary anymore here, because of a fastfood chain's offer of Coke float and flavored Sprite float. But the real big difference between these two is that Iceberg's Rootbeer Float does not have any ice on it. They serve an ice cold rootbeer and dropped a scoop of Vanilla ice cream on it. Sure, the ice cream caused bubbles to form and in effect, spill some of the rootbeer but the spills are just about, one teaspoon max. They give it to you plainly which I like. They put in chocolate syrup but not too much that it makes it too sweet. As for the Peach Mango Shake, my friend told me that she only tasted the the Mango part and seems to not taste the Peach part. But at least, it is sweet unlike the one from where we dined for lunch, which is very sour that she has to add in sugar.


Then the pasta and sandwich arrived. The sandwich looked dry to me. Maybe because it was slightly heated although not toasted. It was served with potato chips on the side and a garlic dip with brown powder on top which later on we guessed as barbecue powder according to its taste. My pasta on the other hand looks almost like the one on the picture. Actually, it looked better on my plate than in the picture. It looks creamy, meaning Iceberg's did not scrimp on the pasta sauce. I can see pieces of thinly sliced Hungarian Sausage, and mushrooms. And of course on top, there sprinkled Parmesan cheese and parsley that are not too much nor too less. The garlic bread also looked good beside the heap of pasta. It was gleaming golden yellow, with bright green bits sprinkled on top. For those who are quite confused, I was referring to the butter spread on the garlic bread and chopped parsley sprinkled on top of it.

I bit my first out of the bread and for me it is really good. The bread is soft, and you can taste the butter. I am not sure if I have tasted garlic but I cannot really say that I didn't because I have a little taste deficiency due to my colds. Maybe there's a garlic taste but is subtle that I didn't realized that the bread has garlic flavor in it. One thing that I have observed is that although the bread is gleaming with butter, it is not oily at all. I don't have oil on my fingers that I usually experience whenever I eat garlic bread, which is good. The pasta on the other hand was cooked al dente. It is not soggy at all nor does the strands stick to each other inspite of the generous serving of the cream sauce. The thinly sliced Hungarian Sausage is a bit spicy but not too much that it burns your tongue. It does not overwhelm the whole dish, instead, it gives life to the dish itself. The thin slice made it just a part of the pasta instead of stealing the light away and making itself the main attraction. And one thing that I also appreciate is that I cannot count how many slices of Hungarian Sausage they put on the dish, unlike in some restaurants that the ratio of the toppings against the pasta is 2:10 in favor of the pasta. The mushroom, on the other hand, is also thinly sliced, thus preventing it to be too chewy. The sauce is also good. It is not too much that it makes your pasta too heavy when twirling with your fork. It also has no "umay" factor and is seasoned well. It really bound together all the ingredients there are on the dish.

All in all, the Iceberg's experience was a winner. I cannot remember when I have ever regret eating there. I plan on going back a couple more times to sample their other dishes as well. Their menu simply looks so amazing that it makes my mouth water more and leave me craving for their food.