Starting the new year with pizza, pasta and Lara

Dinner today was special for it was a (mini and on the spot) get together with some of my high school and college classmates. Afrique's restaurant in Smallville provided not only appetizing pizza and sumptuous pasta but also a great ambiance and setting for us to reminisce the past, discuss the present and delve into the future of ourselves (and others - lol).

Just a "light" dinner with three pizzas and three pastas (plus 2 pitchers of cucumber cooler) for the eight of us yet it was filling in some way for we punctuated every bite and every slice with stories of our student days and our present lives.

Afrique's Special pizza is among it's best sellers. It has a special sweet sauce complementing an assortment of toppings. Among the many times I had this pizza, tonight's Afrique's Special was the best. The crust was now thin and crisp, the toppings were plenty and was cooked & prepared perfectly - truly deserves to be called as such.

Pink salmon pizza is among their top of the line pizzas. With pink salmon flakes over cabbage leaves and an unlikely "pizza sauce" which I think made up of mayonnaise, mustard, honey?, etc or much likely a Caesar salad dressing. This gives the pizza a refreshing taste, look and aroma as opposed to expected "fishiness" of the pizza. This is now my favorite pizza from Afrique's.

Queen Isabelle? pizza is among their curiously named items that's why we ordered basing on it. It has anchovies, onions and olives as toppings over a buttery cheesy sauce. Compared to the other two pizzas, it never got to shine because of it's simplicity.

I have to search for the name of this pasta, something like "Atriciatta". Looks like a very simple combination of penne, tomato sauce and cheese but it was the fresh tomato halves that made me like this pasta though it was served in an unappetizing way.

Penne sausage pasta in cream sauce is another of their white sauce pasta. Very simple that it tasted bland for me. The sauce was watery and lacked "body" that I got to taste the pasta more than the sauce itself.

The last one to be served was their carbonara. The first thing I noticed is it's inconsistency. It always looked and was served very differently from the other branches I went to. I was surprised they used spagehetti instead of the usual linguine and the white sauce was again watery. But this one tasted much better than the penne above.

I was surprised that Afrique's also serve cucumber cooler - a mix of lemonade, cubed cucumber and mint leaves. I had my first taste of this drink at Esca's Garden Restaurant, sister restaurant of Afrique's and instantly loved it. They had singkamas that time at Esca's

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Despite some of my negativity - lol, everything was well worth it - from the food, the ambiance, the company. And I'm this won't be my last visit to Afrique's Smallville or any other branch. I have set my eyes on Osso Buco, Ox Tongue in Cream sauce and their Baby Backribs - lol.

Arrivederci!

P.S. Lara is not a new dish served at Afrique's but a classmate of mine since the 5th grade until college. She's on vacation right now and will be going back to Sweden in the next few days so we arranged a hurried meeting today. She was our guest of horror ... honour - lol.

Ultimate Ilonggo Favorite: KBL Kadyos, Baboy, Langka

K.B.L. or Kadyos, Baboy, Langka is the ultimate favorite dish of most Ilonggos. It is also one of the most missed native dishes as kadyos and the souring ingredient, batwan , are hard to find when outside of the Ilonggo region. Basically, it is boiled/stewed pork dish owing its "deliciousness" to the combination of the soft and tender pork, the tamed sourness of batwan and the malinamnam na sabaw . One of the "secrets" of the malinamnamn na sabaw , is the fact that the pork, whether just the plain meat or pata (hocks) are first grilled or broiled. This gives the broth a rather smoky taste that makes it more appetizing.. Learn how to make the Ilonggo dish KBL (Kadyos, Baboy, at Langka) with the recipe below. Ingredients 1 kilo Pata (pork hocks) or pork cubes, GRILLED and sliced into bite size pieces 1 unripe Jack fruit, cubed 2 cups pigeon pea (kadyos) 6-8 pieces batwan fruit (or tamarind powder) 1 piece pork broth cube (

Takway

The gabi (taro) is just one of those plants which is edible from "roots to tops". The most popular of which is the tuber part which is used in a variety of dishes and mostly in combination with coconut milk. Its leaves, of course, is the main ingredient of a Bicol specialty, laing . It is dried then chopped and sauteed with other ingredients including, again, coconut milk. Then there is takway . The local term for its tendrils/runner, that part which is torn between being a stem or a root for it neither grows upwards nor downwards - it grows sideways . Scraped off of its outer skin, takway is often a key ingredient in vegetable dishes like laswa and the gabi tuber with coconut milk and local snails know as bago-ngon . It is also popular when cooked adobo style with guinamos , the local bago-ong . It is very popular in the region that even big supermarkets sell takway in style - cleaned and plastic wrapped in styro with some additions to make it easier to prepare.

Easy Century Tuna Recipes

If you're looking for simple, easy and delicious Century Tuna recipes online, congratulations, you've found it right here! How about spicy tuna sisig or tuna sinigang ? Maybe stir fried tuna with pickles or just yang chow fried rice . I love Century Tuna from its flakes in oil variety, the spicier the better, but when I discovered the versatility of its solid variant, it became an obsession. At first I was just into the usual tested recipes; pasta and sandwich filling, but then it got simpler – I just eat it straight from the can! Usually with a piece of bread or an apple. I just add a few drops of vinegar to spice it up a bit. Then came the experiments. Yup I got tired of that habit that one day, I decided to test my skills in the kitchen. Serendipity, you might call it yet most of them turned into good recipes that I have shared now and then. Satisfying my Palabok cravings had me experiment on this recipe on the spot. With Century Tuna in lieu of the usu

An Ilonggo favorite - Valenciana

Found in almost all occasions like fiesta, birthdays, reunions and others, Ilonggos really love valenciana because most if not all have grown accustomed of having it in special gatherings at home. A complete " go, grow and glow " dish because it has the carbohydrates, protein and vitamins and minerals in just one spoonful, Valenciana is really an " occasional dish ". Here's the recipe for Valenciana

An Ilonggo favorite - Suman Latik

Suman Latik is one of my favorite native delicacies - plain suman/ibos topped with sweetened coconut strips or bukayo . Most of the time those sold in the markets have this two (suman and bukayo) already in one wrap and all you have to to is devour it. But most of the time, the bukayo portion is bitin that I wish there's more. So why not make our own suman latik so you can have all the suman we want with all the bukayo toppings we desire! Here's a simple recipe for Suman Latik

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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