The Ultimate Macaron Taste-off, Pt. 2

And so here we are, part 2 of my taste-off, where I find the best vanilla and chocolate macarons in Paris.

Like I said in part 1, I think these flavors can make or break a patisserie. If you don’t get vanilla or chocolate right, then what hope is there for other, more complicated flavors? But I’m not here to find out who among La Grande Épicerie, Ladurée, La Maison du Chocolat and Pierre Hermé got theirs right, it’s a given that their macarons would be good. I’m here to find out who among them made theirs better than everyone else’s.

Vanilla: from top to bottom: La Maison du Chocolat, Ladurée

Ok, so I feel like I’m cheating here a little bit. I only have two contenders here, and La Maison du Chocolat’s vanilla macaron, as you can see above, is actually vanilla and chocolate. So why the too-short list? Well, La Grande Épicerie doesn’t really have a vanilla-only macaron. When I was there, the only macaron with vanilla that they had was the Kalamansi and Tahitian Vanilla one, and that obviously can’t compete in this category. On the other hand, Pierre Hermé’s Macaron a l’Huile d’ Olive et Vanille, with an actual olive in the middle of it, is not something I’m willing to go through again… and so I’m left with the two above. And if I’m being totally objective, I’d be down to one contender, because La Maison du Chocolat’s is actually, in essence, a chocolate macaron, not a vanilla one. So, by default, the best vanilla macaron in Paris can be found in Ladurée. But that’s not to say Ladurée doesn’t deserve it. Their vanille macaron is delicious, not too sweet or overpowering but still distinctly vanilla, and not some vague, sweet, creamy flavor. So who’s to say that there’s a better vanilla macaron out there?

Chocolate: from left to right: Pierre Hermé and Ladureé (note: I didn’t include La Maison du Chocolat and La Grande Épicerie anymore because I knew they couldn’t stand up to these two anyway)

This was tough. Really. I had to take multiple bites of the macarons because I really couldn’t decide which was better, and no, that’s not just an excuse to eat even more macarons. Like I need an excuse. In my opinion, these two are very similar. They even look the same, apart from the sprinkling of cocoa on the Pierre Hermé one. Both have fillings based on dark chocolate, not milk chocolate, so they’re less sweet, more chocolate-y. But one has a slight edge over the other, in that its flavor is slightly more intense, slightly richer and slightly more bitter. The differences are, in my opinion, very slight, but when you’re looking for the best of the best, the smallest differences matter. So who won this round by the slightest of margins? Pierre Hermé.

And so, the grand dame and the bad boy of the Parisian patisserie scene each win one round in this battle. As it stands, it’s Pierre Hermé-2,  Ladureé-2, La Grande Épicerie-1 and La Maison du Chocolat-0.

But it’s not over yet. In the final part of this series, I saved the best flavor for last: Caramel and Salted Butter. Yuuuummmm.

The Ultimate Macaron Taste-off, Pt. 1

And, finally, I’ve been able to do it. After battling with a cold (and an impaired sense of taste) during the first few days and getting in some preliminary taste tests (it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it), it’s done. I’ve found the best macarons in Paris.

Well, ok. I need to qualify this a little bit. As much as I would’ve loved to try every single macaron in the city and compare them all with each other, that’s obviously impossible. Every single patisserie worth mentioning, even your friendly neighborhood one, even McCafe for crying out loud, offers macarons. I’d have to spend a year in Paris, hundreds of Euros and thousands on dental care if I wanted to do that. So I’ve narrowed the sources down to four places: Ladurée, Pierre Hermé, La Grande Épicerie and La Maison du Chocolat. The last one wasn’t supposed to be in my original plan, but after sampling their macarons earlier this week, I realized it would be a travesty to not to give its caramel one a chance, hence the inclusion.

Also, I didn’t buy and try every single flavor each place offered. To be able to compare them to one another, of course I had to pick the same flavors across the stores, so my choices skewed towards the staples: Pistachio, chocolate, etc. I also have ruled out certain flavors I didn’t like (PH’s Vanilla and Olive Oil) or knew didn’t stand a chance (La Maison’s chocolate) or wasn’t adventurous enough to try (anything flower-based, licorice, etc.).

I bought them all the same day, all within about an hour of each other, so no one had a freshness advantage over the other. As you can see, I took all this very seriously. As I should, because we’re talking about roll-your-eyes-to-the-back-of-your-head-delicious here, people.

And so, here goes. Part one of my search for the best macarons in Paris, where I tackle the flavors Pistachio, Lemon and Coffee.

Pistachio: from L-R: Pierre Hermé, Ladurée, La Grande Épicerie

Right off the bat, I found Pierre Hermé’s too sweet. Too much vanilla, I think. If I tasted it with my eyes closed, not knowing what it was, I probably wouldn’t guess pistachio right away.

So just like that, it’s down to Ladurée and LGE (that name is just too long). Ladurée’s macaron filling was light and fluffy and had the most aromatic, essence-of-Pistachio (sorry, I can’t find a better way of describing it) flavor among the three. LGE’s, on the other hand, has a milder flavor, but is still very much Pistachio. Its filling is a little on the oily side though, which is never a good thing. Overall, though, I found the aftertaste of Ladurée’s a tiny bit too… pistacho-ey. I know that that’s probably the wrong thing to complain about, but it was just a smidgen too much for me. And so the winner of the Pistachio round is La Grande Épicerie.

Lemon: from L-R: Pierre Hermé, Ladurée, La Grande Épicerie (although their macaron is officially Kalamansi and Tahitian Vanilla)

Knowing Pierre Hermé’s penchant for strong, bold flavors, his Citron macaron comes as a disappointment. It’s relatively weak, compared to the hard-core lemony-ness of Ladurée and LGE’s. I honestly expected more from Mr. Hermé. But enough about the disappointing ones, let’s get on to the two remaining contenders, shall we? LGE’s combination of our very own Kalamansi (actually, I didn’t ask if it was the same kind, but I’m assuming it is) and vanilla was surprisingly good. The vanilla doesn’t overwhelm the citrus flavor at all, the Kalamansi is still center stage with this one. I guess the vanilla was added in there to balance out the bitterness that Kalamansi can have sometimes. But for sheer concentration of tart, lemon-y goodness, I’d have to give it to Ladurée. Their lemon macaron is just that. Lemon. No frills, just pure and straightforward (almost over-the-top, even) LEMOOOON. And you can’t really ask for more than that in a lemon macaron.

Coffee: from top to bottom: La Grande Épicerie, Ladurée, Pierre Hermé

I’m a wuss when it comes to the flavor of actual coffee for drinking, but when it comes to coffee- flavored food (ice cream, cake, candy, etc.) the stronger, the better. And that is why this particular flavor was an easy one to decide on for me. I just had to pick what was the strongest-tasting of them all: Pierre Hermé. The other two, particularly Ladurée, might as well have been made from instant coffee compared to PH’s.

And so at the end of part one of my taste-off, La Grande Épicerie, Ladurée and Pierre Hermé all win one flavor each. But lemon, pistachio and coffee are not the macaron flavors that will make or break a patisserie. In my opinion, the measure of how good a macaron-maker a bakery is are its vanilla, chocolate and caramel macarons, all of which I’ll tackle in part two of my taste-off.

In the meantime, whose other macarons should I have included in my very scientific and serious study? Let me know in the comments!

Camedda 1970

I’m taking a short break from my Paris posts with a quick one about a wonderful restaurant (food, again, I know!) we stumbled upon in Rome.

My mom and I took a quick trip to Rome last week, as she wanted to take the chance we were in Europe to see the Vatican. As luck would have it, our flight en route was delayed by about an hour, so it was 2pm by the time we got ourselves settled into our hotel. Needless to say, we were famished.

Luckily, there were a few restaurants to choose from in the area where we were staying. Even luckier, we struck gold with the first restaurant we came across.

We chose to eat at Camedda 1970, because of the yummy-looking food the customers seated outside were eating and of the display case of meats, breads and cheeses that we could peek at from the door. Technically a bakery, dry goods store and wine bar, it was manned by two very charming old men (they were soooo cute, but I was to shy to ask for a photo). One spoke very little English, while the other, none at all. But with the help of a customer who translated, the tried-and-tested Filipino trick of turo-turo (i.e. pointing) and the super helpful grandpas, we were able to order food.

Their display case featured huge, round, white mounds of mozzarella di bufala, which they also proudly advertised outside the shop. The customers outside were also eating a salad that had it, so I figured, it must be good. And so my pointing and my attempts at Italian (one word: mozzarella) got me this:

Yes, that’s TWO “knots” of mozzarella you see.

Correction. I know two Italian words. Tonno = tuna. So we also got this:

So where did all my pathetic attempts at Italian get us?

To my favorite meal in Rome.

I don’t know if it was just because we were famished, but everything was brilliant. The tuna salad was extremely simple: pasta, olive oil, tomatoes, mozzarella, olives, tuna and herbs (parsley and basil, I think) but that’s the genius of it. All the flavors worked so well together. It was refreshing and light, not usually words you would associate with a pasta salad, or pasta, period.

And what of the salad of greens and mozzarella di bufala? I was initially wary because it was literally just that: cheese and leaves. And a little olive oil. Not very promising, right? But I underestimated the powers of really good, authentic mozarella cheese. The milky and creamy cheese was the perfect complement for the slightly bitter greens and olive oil, proof again to the claim that cheese does make everything better.

And when it’s mozzarella that fresh (as in it was soaking in bowls at the display counter), and velvety and gooey, how can it not? I’ve never had anything like it before, all firm, stringy, and perfect and white… this is the stuff cheese dreams are made of.

We were so lucky the we found Camedda two minutes from where we were staying. Although, not lucky enough to have it around the corner back home.

Camedda 1970: 46 Via Fornaci, Rome (it’s less than a five minute walk from St. Peter’s Square. If you’re facing the cathedral, it would be on your left side).

An attempted tribute to La Maison Du Chocolat’s Rigoletto

What’s a trip to Paris without sampling a truckload of few sweets? And while macarons and croissants are high on everyone’s lists (including mine) of things to eat while in the City of Light, one would be remiss not to try some chocolates from any of the world famous chocolatiers in Paris.

And so, dutiful tourist that I am, I was happy to oblige and try some chocolate. But where to start? In a city of world class pastry chefs and chocolatiers, how do I choose what to try, which chocolatier to buy from? There’s Jean-Paul Hévin, Fouquet, Patrick Roger and more names that I can’t pronounce, all of them with a cult following, all of them world-class. I’d love to try them all, but not only would that cost me my life’s savings and health, it would also take me forever. Well, that’s where David Lebovitz, a blogger, chef and cookbook author living in Paris, came in. I came across a post of his entitled “10 Insanely Delicious Things You Shouldn’t Miss in Paris” (how can you ignore a title like that?), and that list included La Maison du Chocolat’s Rigoletto Noir.

A chocolate filled with a caramel mousse? SOLD!

So when I came across the La Maison Du Chocolat store on Rue Francois 1er, I made a beeline for it, even if I just wolfed down some Ladurée macarons less than half an hour prior (more on that soon). My purchases? Rigoletto in both milk and dark chocolate and, because I couldn’t resist, more macarons.

I got the chocolate (2 kinds), coffee-chocolate and the caramel-chocolate. Both chocolate macarons were delicious, but I would choose Ladurée’s dark chocolate over them any day. The coffee-chocolate was good, too, but I prefer my coffee full-on, so I’ll pass on this next time.

But the caramel-chocolate. Oh, the caramel-chocolate. How do I even begin to describe it? It’s a salted caramel, with just the tiniest hint of chocolate ganache mixed in. It was bitter, salty, caramel-sweet and chocolate-sweet at the same time. I know the term “perfect balance” tends to be overused when describing contrasting flavors, but it really does accurately describe the filling of this macaron. Oh, Rigoletto macaron (its official name), we shall meet again. Soon. Like, tomorrow.

But the Rigoletto macaron was just a side-show (a wonderful, mouthwatering, beautiful… ok, I’ll stop now) to the main event, which was the Rigoletto chocolate. And so here we are, and please excuse my workman-like hands:

The verdict?

afgkljrbnvjkbnpytonaldasldbgfperuigbdfnbvahsdbvuiybaiuhwiufbalq!!!

There are no words, really. But as this is a blog post, I will try and verbalize how amazing these chocolates are… Remember what I said about the caramel macaron? Well, you can multiply that by… 74. I know I used numbers there rather than words, but I’m in finance and when words fail me, I let the numbers do the talking. But I’ll give it another go… The contrast of flavors, the silkiness of the caramel mousse, the perfect counterpoint of the salt or the bitter chocolate against all the sweetness, the creaminess of the chocolate… every single aspect of these one-inch wonders deserve a high praise, some sort of tribute to them.

But since my mastery of the English language is letting me down completely, I will pay tribute to La Maison du Chocolat’s Rigoletto (macarons AND chocolate) in the next best way I know how… by high-tailing it back to the store tomorrow to buy more.

Sunday Lunch at Rue Cler

I know I promised to post something yesterday, but a full day of walking and a slight headache got the better of me again last night. I was going to write about one of the Paris landmarks I visited last Friday, but I’m putting that on hold again because my elders always said that you should never keep food waiting. So here goes my first Paris food post.

Research food and eating in Paris and you’re bound to come across Rue Cler, an open-air street market in the 7th arrondissement, one of the most popular in Paris. It’s less than a 10 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, so if you’re hungry after the walk up and down the tower, then it’s a good place to head to. If you’re not hungry, it’s the walk up and down this food market that will do the trick:

Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and cherries

A cheeselover’s heaven that you can smell from a mile away:

The selection at Davoli:

Carbs galore: two kinds of potatoes (the one on the left has Lardo! I’m coming back for that!) and a risotto

And then protein-galore inside: hams and sausages from Italy and France

I swear I wasn’t hungry at all prior to setting foot on Rue Cler. We got there at around 11am and I had breakfast, so it was too early to be hankering for lunch. But by the time we’ve walked the entire length of the street (which took about 10 minutes) my stomach was rumbling. And so this is what we had for lunch:

The chicken from Darius was delicious and tender, but if you prefer your food on the saltier side, you might want to stay away from the white meat. I love white meat, so I was happy with the breast. Anyway, the chicken is served with the juices from the roasting, so any blandness of the meat is easily remedied by a quick dipping in the oily goodness of the drippings. The skin, while not crispy all throughout, was where most of the flavor (and calories) is. I was a very happy camper as my mother doesn’t eat chicken skin, so all of it was mine.

The risotto was delicious as well, creamy and velvety and Davoli was very generous with the white truffle oil with this dish. My mom is already asking me when we’ll be going back for the risotto. The potatoes were good, too, but it was an easy sell for me, as I love anything with garlic and rosemary together.

We didn’t finish everything, as I ordered too much chicken so we had that and some risotto leftover. Typical Filipinos that we are, we couldn’t bear leaving the chicken which was only half finished. So we picked off the meat and put it in the container the potatoes came in which still had the garlic and rosemary-infused oil, with predictably delicious results. And so it was that we were able to bring Rue Cler to our dinner table and extend our early lunch into a very yummy and satisfying dinner.

If only we could bring Rue Cler all the way back to our diner table back home… *sigh*

Rue Cler is (generally) open all day Tuesdays to Fridays and mornings on Saturday and Sundays (although some shops are closed on entirely on Sundays). Most shops are closed on Mondays. The nearest Metro stop is École Militaire.

Bonjour from Paris!

Or bonsoir, if that would be applicable at the time you’re reading this.

So I’ve made it to Paris after a seven-hour flight delay. I promise to blog more often than I usually do during this trip. But for now, this short note (and my picture of a flashing Eiffel Tower) is all I have. As you can imagine, a mixture of jet lag, headache, un-normalized ear pressure and a cold is not conducive to writing.

I promise to post something tomorrow, so check back.

For now, au revoir!

What I’ve learned from traveling, pt. 2

In my last post, I talked about the stuff I’ve learned to do before leaving for a sightseeing trip abroad. This time, I’ll talk about what to do once you actually get to your destination.

Majority of the times I’ve traveled, I was alone, and as a girl, I knew I had to be a little more careful than if I were with a group or if I were a guy. So what I’ll be sharing below will be a little skewed towards safety and making sure that you don’t end up like Liam Neeson’s daughter in Taken. Of course, some of them will still be applicable if you were a guy (I’m not really sure how many guys read my blog) or if you were traveling with a group.

• Know your area: I guess you could do some of this before your trip as well (again, Google Maps street views is a god-send for this), but of course nothing beats actually standing on the street you’ll be living on for however long your trip is. Know the area where your hotel/bed and breakfast/apartment/hostel is located. And I don’t mean just the address, you should get to know the surrounding streets; where the closest train/tube stations, bus stops, taxi stands are; etc. This is so that you have several options on how to get back to your temporary home away from home, essential when you’ve missed the last train or bus.
• Stock up on those hotel address cards: This is especially important if you’re in a country where you don’t speak the language and/or they use an entirely different alphabet. Take a couple of them and spread them around, maybe one in your jacket pocket, one in your wallet and one in your handbag. If your accommodations don’t have those cards, then write down the address a couple of times in several pieces of paper and/or maybe on your guidebook as well. If they use a different alphabet, then have the concierge or reception right it down for you. This will help in case you’re asking for directions and are totally butchering the pronunciation of your street because you can’t get the correct Chinese intonation or because you’re drunkenly slurring.
• Sometimes, it’s safer to be rude: I don’t mean not saying “sorry” when you’ve bumped into someone. What I mean is that if you’re a girl traveling alone and someone approaches you to talk to you for no apparent reason then it’s better to politely smile but walk away. Walking to the Trevi Fountain in Rome, this man came up to me, asked me if I was going to the Trevi. I said yes, and to my surprise, he proceeded to walk with me all the way there. He started asking me questions about where I was from, my name, why was I in Rome, all of which I answered without elaborating. I figured it would be safe if he knew I was in Rome for work. But when he asked me if I was traveling alone, I started to feel uncomfortable and lied and said I was meeting up with my friends there. At that point, I decided to ditch him, if I could. I started to walk faster and stopped answering his questions. He started asking me why I suddenly stopped talking, why I didn’t want to talk to him. In my head, I was picturing scenarios where he had an accomplice waiting for or following us to maybe mug me or worse. My mind was in overdrive, thinking of a way to lose him without having to resort to running away. Then the guy just seemed to lose interest and give up. In all probability, he was probably just an over-friendly man, but it was his question if I was traveling on my own that was a red flag for me. So I followed my gut and attempted to ditch the guy. Again, he could’ve been a nice guy who was just striking up a conversation, but I’d rather be rude and safe than be friendly and mugged. Or worse.
• If you’re planning to stay out late, know the transport schedule: Metro/tube lines close at certain times, and most major cities have a separate bus route system in the evenings (London, for example). So if you’re going to be out late, take note of these times, routes, and the new bus numbers. I once had a mini panic attack when I missed the last Northern line train from Waterloo because the Federer-Verdasco match at the O2 arena ran long. It was a good thing the organizers of the tournament foresaw this, and they had people ready at Waterloo to help direct the otherwise stranded tennis fans to the right night bus routes that will get them where they needed to go. You can bet that the next night I watched a match, I made sure I knew the time of the last train so I wouldn’t miss it.

The girl in purple had her hand in my bag! I took this picture and showed it to security.

• Your bag MUST have a zipper. Use it. – Leave the Neverfulls at home, ladies. Totes and other open-top bags have no place whatsoever in a vacation in a touristy city, unless you’re feeling really generous and don’t mind if a pickpocket does away with your wallet. Your handbag must have a zipper (or a flap over the opening, as with a satchel), and of course, you should use it. And the zipper pull should be within your peripheral vision at all times. Learn from my mistake. Sure, my bag had a zipper. Did I close it completely? No. Did I have the zipper pull in front of me? No. So while I was in line to enter Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, with the zipper of my wide (east-west) bag slightly open AND behind me, I almost got pickpocketed. I felt my bag get a little heavier, and when I turned, I saw a girl with her hand INSIDE my bag. Luckily, I caught her early, and I didn’t lose anything. But who knows how close she was to my wallet or mobile? Needless to say, from that moment on, I always made sure my bag zipper was closed all the way and was in front of me.
• Watch Taken- If you haven’t yet, please do. You’ll understand why after.

Hopefully, I didn’t turn anyone into a paranoid, neurotic tourist with my tips above. But a lady traveling on her lonesome needs to be a little more careful than the average traveler. Nothing can ruin a trip like getting sold into sex slavery (again, watch Taken). But seriously speaking, getting lost or stolen from will take precious time away from you exploring a new city, so better minimize the chances of that happening to you from the get go.

Feel free to share your own tips in the comments! I’d love to learn from your (hopefully not entirely unfortunate) experiences.

What I’ve learned from traveling, pt. 1

I’m going on a trip in less than two weeks time and, needless to say, I am excited. However, I am also a little stressed out. I’ve traveled a lot until up to a year ago, mostly on my own and I’ve learned a lot from those trips. And a big chunk of what I’ve learned is about planning a trip (and I don’t mean the plane tickets and hotel reservations), hence the pre-trip stress.

So here’s the list of things I’m doing right now in preparation for my vacation, based on the things I’ve done right (and VERY wrong) in my previous trips abroad.

• Plan, plan, plan – I know it’s a no-brainer, but it really is essential to a successful trip. Every minute doesn’t have to be mapped out, but you should at least have an idea of what you want to do or visit every single day. It will save you the disappointment you’ll feel when you find out that the Table Mountain cableway is closed for maintenance the entire time you’ll be in Cape Town. Which brings me to…
• Research, research, research – Once you’ve figured out what you wanted to do and see, research. This is especially true if you want to visit certain places in Europe over the weekend. Some attractions are either closed or operate with limited hours during Saturday and Sunday. Find out if there are special discounts, special exhibits or different rates.
• Do as much as you can online – The internet is at your disposal, use it and abuse it. The most popular attractions such as Chateau Versailles sell tickets online and have special queues for people who bought their tickets through the internet. I find that some people are wary of online transactions and using their credit cards to pay online, but the hassle of all that is worth it. I definitely regretted not doing it while waiting 2 hours in line to buy tickets to the Vatican Museum. Another reason to do it online is that some attractions have a quota on the number of walk-in tickets they sell. As far as I remember, this is the case for the Uffizi in Florence, and I barely made the daily cutoff. So to avoid the disappointment, not to mention a lot of time wasted, buy your tickets online.

I didn't have to wait two hours to see this.

• Google this: Name of the city you’re visiting + tourist scams – I don’t mean to scare you but it’s a reality that tourists are an easy target for pickpockets, scammers and all sorts of petty criminals so it’s better to be aware. For example, if I only Googled “Rome tourist scams” I wouldn’t have lost €40 to the taxi driver who switched my €50 bill for a €10 one while I wasn’t looking (I was gathering my bags). He showed me the bills so I thought I mistakenly gave him the €10 instead of handing him two fifties. I had a bad feeling about it but I was in a hurry and couldn’t possibly argue in Italian, so I paid what was lacking. It was only when I checked my wallet when I realized my instincts were right and I was scammed.
• Google maps is your friend – I’ve never bought a city guide book, as I’m cheap I think it’s not worth the purchase if you’re going to be in a city only for 2-3 days. The next best thing for me would be Google Maps. During my first and second visits to Paris, I was armed with pages of printed out (on recycled paper, of course) Google Maps, with fluorescent circles drawn around Metro stations, Pierre Hermé branches and wine cellars open on a Sunday (a rarity in Paris). Google even has street views of most major cities, so you can get an actual visual representation of not just the place you’re looking for but of what’s beside, across and, sometimes, even what’s behind it. Not really a feature Frommer’s offers.

I hope this helps anyone who’s planning any sort of trip to a new place. I’ll post part 2 on what to do when you’re actually in the place soon.

Let me know in the comments if you have any trip-planning trips of your own!

The Mañana Habit

There were a few things I was looking forward to on my trip to Boracay. Obviously, I was looking forward to lounging around on the beach and taking a dip in the water. But I was also looking forward to the food. And by food, I don’t mean the longgaburger. I mean Mañana, the Mexican restaurant.

I love Mexican food and, unfortunately, it’s not really that easy to find in Manila (Taco Bell doesn’t count and there are only a few branches anyway). The most popular Mexican chain in the metro doesn’t really satisfy my palate and is expensive to boot. I’ve heard good things about Ristra’s and TJ’s (and I plan to try both soon), but neither are easily accessible to me. So, with only a short walk from my hotel to the restaurant, the reasonable prices, the spectacular views from the dining area and of course, the great food, Mañana is Mexican food heaven for me.

It looks like a happy place to eat, doesn't it?

And it looks pretty good, too. From the outside, the façade is bright and eye-catching but not tacky. And inside, they stuck to the Mexican theme. The table cloth and upholstery on the chairs are made of the striped fabric you associate with Mexican ponchos. You’d think that that would clash with the wooden furniture and the main wall that’s painted Pepto-Bismol pink with orange accents. But surprisingly, it works. It’s fun and vibrant, never garish. Even the waitresses’ off-shouldered, ruffled uniforms-slash-costumes are cute.

But enough about pink walls and ruffled dresses. Let’s get to the food, yes?

Just staring at these is making me hungry

These aren’t your run-of-the-mill nachos. Mañana’s Nachos with Beef and Cheese may not look like much compared to the usual fare with salsa, bland beef and orange Cheez Wiz, but they pack a lot of flavor. The star of the show is the beef: salty, smoky and just really, really yummy. This, with a little (or a lot) of their pico de gallo and Mañana’s very own hot sauce (not from a bottle!) gets me clapping my hands in delight.

In fact, Mañana’s pico de gallo and the various other dips (I was so busy eating I couldn’t be bothered to ask what they were) are so good, that they take even with their plain nachos or totopos to the next level. And rather than go on and on about how yummy the dips make the nachos, I’ll just tell you this: for a single order of plain nachos, my cousins and I ordered THREE refills of the dips.

We didn’t fill up with the nachos, of course, as there were other Mexican treats to be had. We had the chicken fajitas, and as with the beef of the nachos, the chicken was really flavorful and perfectly spiced. We had tacos as well and they were really yummy, too. 

Sizzling Chicken Fajitas

But the best thing on the menu for me would be the burritos. We had both the chicken and the beef combination platter and both were absolutely delicious. They’re a little pricey at ₱360 for two burritos (but you can order per piece) but they’re really heavy and filling and that’s still cheaper than Mexicali in Manila.  Plus, unlike Mexicali, there was no rice or refried beans filler in the burrito (I don’t like rice in my burrito).

The best thing on a menu filled with really, really delicious dishes

As with the nachos, the fajitas and the tacos, the meat (both the chicken and the beef) make the meal. I know that I’ve used the word “flavorful” a lot in this post, but I really can’t find a better way to describe the meat that Mañana uses in their dishes. Both the beef and the chicken in the burritos have a bit of heat and have a smoky quality to them and a lot of spices my palate is not sophisticated enough to identify. Add that to the cheese, lettuce, the onions and the juice from the meat in the burrito and I’m practically drooling.

No fillers. Just the really, really good stuff

I love this restaurant so much I actually ate there twice over a four day period. And so Mañana gives me one more reason to want to go back to Boracay ASAP, as if I didn’t have enough reasons already.

Mañana is located at Station 1, Boracay, beside Starbucks and at the main road behind the hotels, beside the basketball court (but why go there when you can eat beachside?). Budget for ₱250-350 per person, more if you want margaritas or any other alcoholic beverage.

And I’m back

From paradise.

I’m not sure if anyone’s noticed (fishing… Hahaha), but I’ve been away from my blog for about a week. That’s because I went on a little trip to Boracay with my cousins. And I enjoyed EVERY. MINUTE. OF. IT.

I already want to go back

I’ve often hear/read complaints about Boracay nowadays, about how it’s too commercialized already, how it’s become a tourist trap, that it’s dirty, blah-blah-blah-blah. But personally, all I ever remember about Boracay is that breathtaking, jaw-dropping shoreline.

While it’s true that the men offering island-hopping or helmet diving every 10 feet is a bit much, that tourists do get charged more than the locals and that there really is no need for vendors hawking fake Ray-Ban sunglasses, none of these things are enough to stop me from going back to Boracay. I mean, look at the place:

There are no words, really...

As long as it stays this beautiful (and I’ve noticed an improvement on the cleanliness of the shore), how can I not want to go back? Like, tomorrow, if I could.

PS: More Boracay-related posts (including a food post!) coming soon. I just need to deal with the pileup of work first. Uggggh.