I heard about Perfect Italiano’s Mystery Dinners (aka guerilla dinners) from fellow bloggers and I was hoping my brother Ken and I would get to join next time around. So, when I found out on Perfect Italiano’s Facebook page that the signups for the second Mystery Dinner was open, I immediately informed him and my blogger friends to try their luck, too.

Fortunately, Ken and I were picked to join their upcoming Mystery Dinner. And on May 13th, we were both excited about it, especially after we received the invite a day or two before. The only clues we received were to wear something artsy or with loud prints. Plus, this:

We were told to be at Starbucks Magallanes and we’ll be "whisked away" to the mystery location for the dinner. After we met a few more people who got invited, including Richard from Tales from the Tummy, we headed off to the house of the mystery host somewhere around the area of Magallanes.

Aside from the lovely people from Perfect Italiano, we also met Chef JJ Yulo of Pinoy Eats World, chefs who organize mystery or guerilla dinners and food tours in and around the Metro. Here he is, telling us briefly about the host.

Inside, we were greeted by the lovely Aleth Ocampo-Mapa. She’s an artist and loves to cook and bake, too. We were also introduced to Chef Namee who is a part of Pinoy Eats World. She and Chef JJ prepared all 8 courses for our dinner that night.

(Photo from Perfect Italiano’s FB page)

Wait, did you read that part when I said we had an 8-course meal that night?! YES! If we only knew we’d  be eating that amount of food, we wouldn’t have had anything before dinner!

Our fellow diners at the table, smiling for the camera while waiting on our first course.
(Photo from Perfect Italiano’s FB page)

We were all seated at a long table. In front of us were the menu and info about the different cheeses of Perfect Italiano.

Can you believe how hot it’s been this summer?! I can’t stay anywhere without an electric fan or the AC cooling me down. And even when we have a water dispenser that provides us cold water everytime, I always have to add ice to it. I just can’t take the heat!

That’s why a few weeks ago when Kenneth and I were at Glorietta in Makati, we both had this craving for Dairy Queen’s Blizzard. He’s a li’l addicted to to their Caramel Cashew flavor.

The Dairy Queen store at Glorietta 4 is just across the cinemas, beside Timezone.

Of course, my bro ordered the usual. He urged me to try their new flavor, Dairy Queen’s Mango Cheesecake Blizzard.

They have a ton of other Blizzard flavors including Banana Split, Double Dutch, Brownie Temptation (ooohh, too sinful!), Chocolate Truffle and Strawberry Cheesecake.

You can also add extra toppings to your Blizzard, Just add Php 29 and you can choose from caramel fudge, Butterfinger, Kitkat, etc.

Ohh, I gotta try their waffle sandwiches next time, too. Reminds me of Tivoli Funwich that I got so addicted to back when I was a kid. ^_^

There are 4 sizes of Blizzard serving cups to choose from. Since we were really craving for something sweet and cold, we thought, the heck with it, and just ordered 16-oz… EACH!

Last week, April 19th, I was invited to join Kenny Rogers Roasters’ Bloggers Night at their Katipunan branch. They were launching their new products and introducing us to their brand ambassadors.

I’ve been an avid Kenny Rogers Roasters diner for years. In fact, one of our homemade recipes here on our food blog is our own version of their Cheese and Garlic Potato side dish which I love, love, love! I also super enjoy the flavors of their roasted chicken and recently, their Burger Steak, which I still have to blog about.

Since my bro and I are starting to eat healthier, it was just the right timing for us to be invited to this event. The slogan of Kenny Rogers Roasters campaign to healthier eating is so timely. I agree with them. If you want to live a healthy life, it’s all about healthy CHOICES.

They also want to change the perception that if you want to be healthy, you need to sacrifice a lot when it comes to food. Kenny Rogers Roasters wants us to know that there are healthy options that are delicious, too.

In line with this campaign, we were introduced that night to their latest offering, Hainanese Chicken. It’s a very popular dish in Singapore where the chicken is poached, paired with Hainanese rice and complemented with 3 different sauces. Kenny Rogers changed it up a bit with their own twist, adding some Pinoy flavor to it by topping the rice with garlic chips, which I know a lot of us Filipinos love.

That’s my plate of Hainanese Chicken. For  Php 185.00, you get a quarter (1/4) chicken, Hainanese rice, chicken broth/soup, and the 3 sauces. I enjoyed this dish, especially with the combination of the chili and sweet soy sauces mixed with the very tender chicken.

Last week, we were invited to Magnolia’s Summer Bloggers Party for the launching of their new ice cream products, their Frozen Delights. I came with fellow foodies and bloggers who participated in their Facebook promo. It was definitely a night to remember. I’ll post more of my coverage of the event on my personal blog Just Another Pixel so stay tuned for that.

Going back to the launching of Magnolia’s Frozen Delights, I was genuinely glad that they were re-launching or re-introducing Magnolia as an ice cream brand. Most of us may be a little more familiar with the flavors of other popular ice cream brands, but from all the ice cream I’ve tasted during the bloggers party, you sure would love to get a taste of these delicious new ice cream from Magnolia.

There are a total of 5 Magnolia’s Frozen Delights that were featured at the launch, one of them were introduced for the very first time so I was pretty excited to try it. It’s Magnolia’s Spinner, their very own ice cream cone. It comes in two flavors: Vanilla and Chocolate (Php 20 only).

I only got to try the Vanilla flavor. There was an ice cream-eating contest that my bro Ken and I joined and I got to try the Chocolate flavor. I loved them both, though I got brain freeze during the contest so I didn’t completely get to enjoy it.

I also got to try one of Magnolia’s Fun Bar Surprise ice cream, the Cool Bubblegum flavor. I didn’t know my lips turned blue ‘til my blogger friends started laughing at me. Hahaha.

Ever since my bro Ken came back from Singapore, he’s been craving for different kinds of food. That includes his ultimate favorite Mekeni’s Tocino. But, since it was already summertime, he started craving for this:

He loves Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And so, when he saw this Selecta Ice Cream with Hershey’s chocolate and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He saw it while he was at Victory Mall in Monumento, where you’d find Samsung TVs LCD , refrigerators and other appliances at very affordable prices.

He didn’t buy it ‘cause it was a li’l expensive for a 1.5L of ice cream. The other day, he finally convinced me to split the costs with him. This ice cream tub costs Php 240. I was pretty excited to get a taste of it, too, since I love chocolate ice cream.

I wanted to take a photo of the ice cream BEFORE they get a chance to scoop out anything. But, as you can see, I was too late.

We were actually a bit disappointed. No, not because it wasn’t good. It’s just that we expected more Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups pieces mixed in the ice cream. Ken commented that you have to let the chocolate ice cream (Hershey’s) completely melt in your mouth before you can finally taste the peanut butter cups. I guess it’s better to eat Reese’s peanut butter cups separately than having it mixed with anything. The chocolate flavor was too strong, which made me very happy.

I still enjoyed it a lot ‘cause I loved the Hershey’s milk chocolate flavor of the ice cream. I was on sugar high after my serving of it, pictured above. I’ll stick with their plain chocolate ice cream next time though.

For the Love of Ice Cream…

Our entry this week for:

A few hours after my brother Kien flew back from Singapore, we didn’t waste any time and went out. I was picking up my new baby (camera – which I’ll blog about at The Geek Side) that day in Manila. Since we’re a few blocks away from SM San Lazaro, we decided to head out and look for a place to hang out or to pass the time and test drive my camera.

I was craving for gelato that day, but we weren’t sure if there’s a store that sells it in SM San Lazaro. So, we were glad we found Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt as soon as we turned a corner by the entrance. We opted to try their froyo instead.

I’ve already tried frozen yogurt from 3 places – The White Hat, Red Mango and Yogiberry. So far, I enjoyed all of their own versions of froyo, Yogiberry topping the list, followed by Red Mango at close second. So, I was really curious how Tutti Frutti’s froyo will compare with them three.

First off, I think I was an (frustrated) interior designer in my past life ‘cause I enjoy taking photos of interiors of food places I visit. This is the table where me and my bro hung out to enjoy our froyo. I love the fun colors they used inside their store and the dotted design of the chairs.

Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt has the same concept as Yogiberry – self-service. They have numerous dispensers with different flavors of frozen yogurt. You can mix flavors if you prefer.

Kien loves vanilla flavored anything so he chose that. I chose coffee ‘cause, well, I love coffee. Plus, he also wanted to try it.

According to what I’ve read about Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt store, they have 50 different yogurt flavors. Every week, they change flavors of the froyo they have available at the stores. A fun experience for frozen yogurt lovers indeed.

The other flavors they had available when we were there were Death by Chocolate, Original Tart, Very Berry Raspberry, Lychee, Taro-bly Delicious and Strawberry Banana.