Puto manapla from Iloilo

I arrived at the office one morning to find our staff excited by the rice cakes given to them by one of our faculty members. One of our lecturers regularly commute between Iloilo and Quezon City and brought with him puto as pasalubong to the staff. These were not the regular puto manapla that you can now also buy at markets here but flavored variants - cheese and ube.

Ube and cheese flavored puto manapla

I was fortunate to have a share of the puto as the staff offered some to me. I consider this as comfort food among the many that bring back happy memories.  

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Bren Raphael's Ube halaya from Antipolo

Last week, we had dinner at the nearby mall and went around a bazaar selling local products. This was a regular thing at the mall where Antipolo and Rizal made products were sold. Most were food products and handicrafts but there were also clothing and cosmetic products. Among the new products we saw there was ube halaya made by a company in Antipolo City.

Ube halaya translates to Purple Yam Pudding. They have two variants - the smooth variant and this one with tidbits.

The ingredients and other details on the product are at the back of the package. They also make ube jam but we didn't purchase some to try.

The ube halaya comes out from the package sealed in a vacuum pack. It is on a plastic container with a lid. We thought this was really good packaging that would preserve the product especially for those wanting to buy these as pasalubong from Antipolo.

 

Price list for their ube halaya and ube jam

Their ube halaya is really good. It is better than many of the ube halaya we've bought before. It is on the pricier side of these products though. A tub of typical ube halaya costs a third of this. And we used to buy high quality ube halaya in the church bazaar at the Taktak church where we used to hear Mass on Sundays (we now hear Mass at our village chapel).

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Chocolate review: La Belgique Gourmande Noir 85% Cacao

We conclude the short month of February with a chocolate review. A colleague gave this to chocolate bar as a pasalubong from a trip to Europe earlier this year.

This chocolate was a 'pasalubong' from one of our faculty who traveled to Europe last year to participate in an academic conference.

Details about the chocolate at the back of the pack. You can see that this is local and artisanal.

The ingredients indicate the cacao content (pure chocolate) to be at 85%.

This is a Fair trade chocolate. The best before date is also indicated. This is something that many now interpret as contrary to the expiration date. That means the chocolate is still good to eat after the BB date but is not as good as before the date. Expiration dates suggest that the chocolate (or any other product) can no longer be eaten after the date, often resulting in unnecessary waste.

The chocolate is wrapped and sealed in foil. This helps preserve the chocolate.

I thought this was one of the better chocolates we've enjoyed eating. It was smooth for an 85% chocolate.  I was expecting this to be on the bitter side as far as dark chocolates are concerned but the bitterness is lighter and perhaps more like 60% chocolates. I'm not sure this is available here but I definitely will purchase a bar or two if I see this in a shop.

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