Friuli Trattoria -- for the nth time

Summary: Affordable Italian comfort food. Bring your friends or a non-maarte date.

If there's a restaurant I'd never tire of visiting, it's Friuli. If you're special in my life, chances are, I've eaten with Friuli with you (if I haven't, let's set a date soon).

Friuli is located in the humble street of Maginhawa, QC -- the popular home of many other culinary delights perfect for UP Diliman's stereotypical artsy-hippie-laidback counterculture.  Friuli serves funky and affordable Italian food. Funky because I love the sound of funky, never mind that it doesn't seem to say anything.  And affordable, because it's affordable compared to the there-goes-my-budget-this-week prices of other Italian restaurants you'd find in the posher areas of Manila. It's the perfect place to hang out with friends or to go on a casual date -- you know that type of date where you don't have to care about impressing each other.  Let the food impress you.

Pizza Margherita 

"Simply a combination of garlic and herbs, smothered with two layers of of mozzarella topped with fresh tomatoes."

A favorite. So much so that I don't seem to crave ordering any other pizza flavor. Crust is thin and crispy, and I love the healthy combination of tomatoes, herbs, and garlic.

Pizza Margherita - P180

Angel Hair Puttanesca

Olives -- check. Italian sauce with fresh tomatoes (not sweet Pinoy style) -- check. This pasta dish is simple yet tasty. I think you can request for normal spaghetti noodles for this recipe, but I personally love the texture of the thinner Angel Hair pasta.

 Puttanesca - P130

After Eight Gelato Cake

If you love dark chocolate and mint, don't miss out on this. Melts pretty fast, but you'd want to eat it pretty fast, anyway. See, the cake in my picture is melting already!

After Eight - P85

Nero Tartufo 

Since I love dark chocolate, the Nero Tartufo has to be part of the mainstay desserts. The Nero is a ball of thick dark chocolate dusted with cocoa powder. You'll either be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised with the cherry center. This dessert is still worth ordering even if you don't like cherries (I don't).  You can easily weed out the small cherry and give it to your friend. If you're not a fan of dark chocolate, you can get it's white version, the Bianco Tartufo.

Nero Tartufo - P100

Aside from pasta, pizza, and gelato; Friuli also serves tea, soup, and appetizers. I suggest getting a reservation beforehand since the place tends to get full, especially on weekend nights.  Also, don't expect clean tablecloths and a quiet ambiance all the time. If you want a quiet meal and a sure parking space, I suggest going here for lunch or for an early afternoon snack. Or you can always have your meal to-go and eat your pizza and pasta in the comforts of your own home.

I've visited Friuli many times. But since it's my friend's Leo's birthday today, and all my Friuli pictures are from Leo, and eating is all about relationships; here are some of my eating-at-Friuli-with-a-friend-named-Leo pictures:

Friuli Trattoria is located at 79-A Maginhawa St., UP Village, Quezon City. It's open from 10am to 2am daily. For reservations, call (02) 434 1416.

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Provençal Cuisine at Café Provençal

If you need a casual-classy restaurant that's not cloistering, try  Café Provençal  at Shangri-la Plaza Mall.  It's warm ambiance, filling food, and attentive service are great for an intimate mall lunch or dinner with friends or business colleagues.  

Staying true to its name,  Café Provençal's food has the taste of Provence. This means, expect a lot of garlic, aromatic herbs, and olive oil in their dishes. Olive oil is such an essential element in Provençal cuisine that an important book on Provençal food, La véritable cuisine provencal et niçoise (The Wonderful Food of Florence) by Jean-Noël Escudier states that the king of Provence is actually the olive tree. 

My friends and I were hungry and didn't go wrong with these dishes:

For appetizers, we had the Picasso Painter Palette which would gladly feed 3-5 people.  We also ordered two pasta dishes, but the Porto Fino was the one that stuck to memory.  It seemed like such a simple dish, but it drew in mildly surprised comments of "masarap" (yum!).

Picasso Painter Palette
calamares, parma ham, feta-tomatoes, smoked sausages, Caesar sampler and garlic mushrooms

Porto Fino
black olives, sundried tomatoes, virgin olive oil, anchovies, and parmesan cheese over our choice of penne

Pasta is of course, best complemented by pizza.  Here's the self-titled Cafe Provencale pizza.

Cafe Provencale pizza
shrimps, pepperoni, ham, mushroom, capers, olives, anchovies, garlic, tomatoes, mozzarella cooked on Italian pizza stone

How do you make a good old brownie more interesting?  Top it with creamy vanilla, choco fudge, whipped cream, and while you're at it, add a butterfly to complete the mouthwatering picture.  Our dessert was so lovely, it drew in a chorus of wows.  

beautifully done brownie

the caramel butterfly looked too elegant to eat

You can bet that we soon got over this brownie's loveliness.

Chris takes the first huge bite

My equally lovely friends and I are satisfied.

friends since high school

men with babies are love!
Chris, daddy Sonny, and baby Claire

Café Provençal is located at 2nd Lvl. Shangri-la Plaza Mall, EDSA corner Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong, Metro Manila.  It's open from 10 AM- 9 PM everyday.  For delivery (minimum of P500), catering, and reservations, call 02-6318046. 

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Sweet Christmas Gelato Cakes at Cara Mia Gelateria - Di Lusso and Mango Felicity

I was excited to stuff myself with dessert while out on a date with Tiffany, one of my very best friends.  After a filling dinner, we checked out the delectable-looking treats at Cara Mia Gelateria. There were so many gorgeous gelato cakes to choose from!

abbygabyfoodie does not know what to eat

Gelato is an ambiguous italian term for frozen sweet treats like ice cream and sorbet. However, it has come to mean something different from your usual ice cream. Gelato is made with less butterfat, has more milk, and has less air than ice cream. You can also zest it up with with fruits, nuts, spices and liquor flavors.

I wanted something chocolate and something strawberry, and finally settled on Di Lusso (lusso is italian for luxurious or rich). The description sounded lavish enough -- a combination of pistachio, chocolate and strawberry gelato enrobed in chocolate ganache and resting on a bed of crushed graham.

Di Lusso, photo from Cara Mia Facebook page

Tiffany placed her sweet bet on Mango Felicity, fresh mango chunks on a soft sponge-y bed.

Mango Felicity, photo from Cara Mia Facebook page

Both cakes were beautifully presented.  I couldn't wait to dig in!

I liked the rich ganache which went perfectly with the more subdued sweetness of the strawberry, chocolate,  and pistachio center.  You can't go wrong with this combination of flavors; they just melted, blended, settled, and just like that, they were gone.  So you just have to take another tongue-cooling bite.

What I didn't like were the chocolate flowers on top.  They looked so pretty and yummy, but eating them was like putting a spoonful of butter in my mouth.

The Mango Felicity was even less sweeter.  As Tiffany said, without the graham crust, this cake would lack taste. The mangoes were also not as "succulent" as advertised.  In fact, I could barely distinguish the mangoes from the gelatin they were embedded in.

I don't think I could be blamed for expecting a rich gelato treat. Since gelato has less air, it's known to be denser and to have more intense flavors. However, these cakes were very light and in the case of the Mango Felicity, the flavors were a bit imperceptible.

Still, I had fun with my bestie. Cara Mia's atmosphere was good for girl bonding.

gift-giving...

taking crazy pictures...

...and of course...

eating!

Cara Mia Gelateria is located at SM Megamall Atrium, 3rd Level EDSA corner Julia Vargas Ave., Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines.  For inquiries, call 02-6361341.

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Family Feast at Trio

Italian-style dining for friends and family

published in Appetite Magazine, August 2011 issue.

When I think Italy, I think food.  To go to Italy without getting a taste of Italian cuisine is tantamount to culinary blasphemy.  Italy’s food bible The Silver Spoon actually calls eating “a serious matter in Italy.”    Just like us Filipinos who can’t resist a family feast, Italians also thrive on good company, good wine and good food.

I didn’t have to go far to get a taste of Italy.  It took just one ride to the Fort to discover the spirit of a hearty Italian meal in the ristorante Trio.  Classy yet comfortable, Trio is what it markets itself to be – the perfect place for gatherings Italian (or you could say, Filipino) style.  In fact, the whole place which seats 140 can be reserved for parties or company functions.

Managing Director Ian Palabyab says that other restaurants claiming to be Italian would also be pricey.  Trio meals, to my delight, served huge portions at reasonable prices.  Aside from the single serving, the recently upgraded menu captures the essence of an authentic Italian meal – that is, family-sized helpings of yummy no-nonsense Italian food which could serve three or four people.

Given the eight-year track record of Trio, I was surprised to learn that the kitchen was under the direction of a young chef.  Don’t let his youth fool you though.  26-year old Corporate Chef Benny Liboro trained under the strict supervision of several chefs, aside from being schooled in an Australian culinary school.  His resume is a tour on world flavors as he has worked in Greek, French and Japanese restaurants.  This includes one of Perth’s famous eateries, Etro Bistro, where he was supervised by French Chef Patrick Panier. 

Talking to Chef Benny would already give you a foretaste to a Trio dish. Confident and vigorous in his speech, Chef Benny exemplified the robustness of a simple yet filling meal.  He tells us that Italian food is actually simple. Authentic Italian food uses light ingredients which can fill you up, without making you feel heavy.  Although I was excited to try the main courses, I couldn’t pass up on the Trio Salad (P275, P595) which was a generous serving of fresh mesclun greens topped with dried cranberries, candied walnuts, gorgonzola and raspberry vinaigrette.  

Chef Benny’s love for food began with his love for eating.  He remembers his dad feeding him Dominoes pizza when he was young. Now, his dad doesn’t need to deliver the pizzas to him anymore. Benny makes them!   I especially like the fire-baked Capriciossa thin crust pizza (P255) which had toppings of salami, smoked ham, mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms and eggs. 

Some of the dishes which are said to be single serving could arguably feed two people.  Take the Bistro Steak (P445, P995) for example. This juicy chunk of US Angus Beef is thick, tender, and served with a huge helping of garlicky home-made mashed potatoes and vegetables. 

Of course, we cannot talk about Italian food without thinking about pasta. If you want the perfect light pasta dish to complement the heavier meat dishes, I would also recommend the Vongole (P295,P695).  This is simple linguine drizzled with the white wine oil and topped with fresh clams, diced tomatoes and parsley.

My favorite dish would be the Al Forno Shrimps (P495, P895) which translates to four big mouth-watering shrimps covered with melted parmesan. Now this dish, you would want to finish on your own. The shrimps are oven-baked thermidor style and served with the staple side dishes of mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.  The family-sized serving would include around 12-14 shrimps.

 I remember Ian saying that they don’t want people to come to Trio for the promos; they want people to come because of the dining experience.   Trio’s happy hour, every hour – buy 1 take 2 cocktails – may be added motivations to get your appetite for Italian food going. But the Al Forno shrimps and other surprises from Chef Benny are definitely the reasons for me to come back. Next time, they can expect the whole family to dine with me, Filipino style.

Trio is located at 2nd Level, Fort Pointe Bldg., Fort Bonifacio Global City Taguig, Metro Manila. For information and reservations phone (2)8841601.

You might still be able to grab back issues of Appetite August 2011 in selected newsstands 

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