When I think of Philippines, I think of tropical fruits and the more unique delicacies like dried tamarinds , dried mangoes or for the more adventurous… balut, which is a developing bird embryo. I never expected Philippines to have a good number of producers who make halal food and even organic food products!
I’ve collaborated once with Cris, when she sent me Pili nuts to review. This time, I’ve been introduced to yet another array of goodies that have been imported from Philippines. These food products have also passed food certifications such as Halal, ISO, USDA Organic and Japanese Agricultural Standard. There was even tuna and organic rice in the package that she sent to me!
There were some that I didn’t really like, such as the coconut chocolate. It would have been tastier if it was filled with actual coconut cream, instead of coconut cream powder.
Of those I have tried, here are some of my favourites:
1) Dried Chocolate-coated Mango Strips
Philippines is known for their mangoes, there was no doubt why this tasted so good! Chocolate and mangoes… you can’t really go wrong with these two!
2) Banana chips
I was sent the banana chips to try, and they were good. I’m a fan of fruit chips, and these didn’t disappoint. I’ve tried jackfruit chips, durian chips… but banana chips are always a safe choice.
3) Malagos Chocolate
I don’t really like chocolate because I get a sore throat really easily. But Malagos Chocolate does a good dark chocolate. I had the 65% dark chocolate bar and it was a good balance of bitter with a tiny hint of sweet. It’s definitely a healthier choice, and you can taste that it’s different from the commercial brands like Cadbury and Hersheys. A good kind of different.
I was impressed with the selection and the quality of the products, since I usually expect food products from the United States and Canada to be of a better quality. But Philippines… I must say, they are a upcoming player in the food industry! I think Singapore is making a smart decision to import from nearby countries since it not only supports this growing industry within Southeast Asia, and it also reduces the carbon pollution of importing such large quantities of food products!
Two thumbs up to Philippines Trade Industry for being so creative in developing these products, without compromising on quality.
I would definitely support your products, especially Malagos Chocolate hehe 😛
Rather than just being limited to food reviews and recipes, I’m refocusing my blog on an area that I’m increasingly passionate about: Food Culture! I’ll be writing a post to formally introduce She Roams the World soon, so I’ll see you there 🙂
Thank you for your loyal followership all this time, and I hope to continue to share my adventures with you 😀
Ecostore is a New Zealand-based brand that manufactures plant and mineral-based home, body and baby care products sans all those harmful chemicals. In layman terms, their products are healthier and safer for both you and the planet.
I’ll be leaving Singapore soon, so I haven’t had a chance to try out these products, but in line with their approach, I would like to do my part by raising awareness and to move people into action — which could be as simple as choosing eco-friendly products over normal products.
Just like my title, Bunny&Pony has absolutely nothing to do with the ice cream store itself. Or at least, I failed to see any link to a bunny or a pony, let alone both.
I rarely go all the way to Changi since it’s on the other end of Singapore. But on this fine day, (twas National Day) I made a trip all the way down, and stumbled upon this little gem of an ice cream cafe. There were about 3 other ice cream cafes along the same stretch, and we finally decided on this cafe cause they had more interesting flavours and nice furniture.
More importantly, we chose this cafe because we could smell the buttery goodness from the waffles. When in doubt, follow your nose!
They had some pretty funky names for their waffle combos, which like it’s name, didn’t serve a purpose in helping me understand the combination any better. I would have been satisfied with Waffle with Single Scoop Ice Cream and cereal toppings or something like that.
At least, that’s what I’ll remember my order as!
So I had a single scoop of Mango Ice Cream on a freshly-made waffle.
It was topped with chocolate sauce, strawberries, sliced bananas and sprinklings of cereal that was similar to Kellogg’s Blueberry Morning. All finished off with a snowy dust of icing sugar. The toppings were nothing to shout about, I mean it wasn’t like they gave me freshly made granola instead of a commercial cereal right? Fruits will be fruits… and the chocolate sauce was the usual commercial kind too.
BUT the waffle was good. Really good, perhaps on par with Assembly Coffee and The Daily Scoop. The ice cream was lovely too, very smooth and light, especially with the slight tanginess from the mango. I would have been happy with just the icecream and the waffle, sans all the toppings.
My foodie in crime had another waffle combination…
It came like this at first, cause the cotton candy fell off. Yes, that’s right. COTTON CANDY. Not just a few flimsy bits of fluff, but an entire ball of cotton candy on a stick. Haha, it was too bulky for the waffle to support.
In terms of presentation, it was just WOW. A platter of waffles, ice cream, popcorn and cotton candy? Sugar rush!!
Waffles were amazing as well. The nutella ice cream (I think) was good too, my foodie friend was clearly in chocolate bliss. This was definitely instagram-worthy, for the few seconds the cotton candy would stay in place. It was still good stuff though, and I would recommend this over my earlier order.
That said, the prices were steep. Ranging from $12-15 for the waffles (compared to the super affordable and equally yummy offerings at The Daily Scoop), I probably wouldn’t be a regular here. I could get the equivalent of two waffles with ice cream at The Daily Scoop. Yumz.
Considering that the toppings were all commercially made, I wasn’t impressed at the price tag. I do give them two thumbs up for presentation though. So if you’re willing to pay for an instagram-worthy photo, then sure go ahead. You’ll be assured of good ice cream and waffles, at a hefty price tag that is.
I’m back with another round of myth busters 😀 If you haven’t already seen the previous post on the time myth, do check it out!
I’m sure you’ve been told not to drink whole milk, because ‘whole milk makes you fat’. Well, we’ll see about that!
If you think about it, in its natural form, milk has naturally-occuring fat. Remove that, and you’ll be modifying something from it’s original form as nature had intended, and replacing it with.. chemicals. Mmm tasty.
How delicious does some aspartame sound?
Of course, any discerning reader wouldn’t take my word for it, so here are some studies that show why whole milk is better than skim milk.
The Physicians for Responsible Medicine (PFRM) report that a recent study published in Archives of Disease in Childhood found that low-fat milk did not lower obesity rates among small children. In fact, kids that drank one percent or skim milk were more likely to be overweight or obese than kids that drank whole milk.
An earlier study, published in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, came up with similar results. Tracking 12 adolescents for four years, the researchers found that drinking skim milk and one percent milk was associated with weight gain but milk fat was not.
If that isn’t enough to stop you from drinking chemical-laden skim/fat-free milk, do consider the effects of removing fat from milk. Milk fat is good because it helps you to absorb fat-soluble vitamins and nutrients. Strip away the fat so that you can reduce calories, and you’d be better off drinking water since your body won’t be able to absorb the nutrients.
You may be cutting calories, but you’ll also be losing out on a great deal of nutrients! And honestly, nutrients > calories any day.
Don’t believe me?
Let’s hear from another source:
Real milk really does do a body good. It has many valuable nutrients in it. In addition to vital minerals like calcium, milk provides vitamins D, A, E, and K.
Well, skim milk actually has no vitamin K because it’s concentrated in the butterfat of the milk. And as for the others? They are fat-soluble vitamins. So even if you were to get a little bit of them in from drinking your fat-free milk, you won’t actually be able to absorb and assimilate them into your body. Unless, maybe, you paired your glass of skim with a nice heaping spread of butter over toast or something!
As for the rest of the nutrition in skim milk from factory farms? Well, it does provide a bit of denatured (and therefore, potentially quite harmful) protein, thanks to high-heat pasteurization. But no beneficial enzymes and probiotic microflora — those are all killed off in the pasteurization process — which aid in digestion.
Finally to end off with some proof of the matter, here are results from a study that tested dairy fat intake and the development of obesity in individuals.
197 men (15%) developed central obesity during follow-up. A low intake of dairy fat at baseline (no butter and low fat milk and seldom/never whipping cream) was associated with a higher risk of developing central obesity (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.05-2.24) and a high intake of dairy fat (butter as spread and high fat milk and whipping cream) was associated with a lower risk of central obesity (OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.33-0.83) as compared with medium intake (all other combinations of spread, milk, and cream) after adjustment for intake of fruit and vegetables, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, age, education, and profession. The associations between dairy fat intake and central obesity were consistent across body mass index categories at baseline.
CONCLUSION:
A high intake of dairy fat was associated with a lower risk of central obesity and a low dairy fat intake was associated with a higher risk of central obesity.
I think the importance of this myth busting series, is that the claims are substantiated by studies, so that we know the reality of the matter. But as always, you can always trust me to put the truth to the test.
Since these studies cover the long-term benefits of whole milk, and the detriments of skim milk, I’ll just focus on something more short term, something tangible — The taste.
I drank a glass of skim milk,and a glass of whole milk, to compare the tastes.
Well, the skim milk definitely tasted lighter and ‘cleaner’ since the fat was removed, but it had a strange aftertaste to it. After I finished the glass, my face was kind of like this:
Not sure what this is… but it ain’t natural.
On the other hand, (literally, the glass was in my other hand haha) the whole milk had a creamier texture, and a fuller flavour, leaving me feeling very satisfied.
And honestly, don’t you think it’s kind of weird that someone tampered with the breast milk that you drank from your mother’s bosom? It’s not natural! Mothers don’t have a ‘skim milk’ option, so I don’t see why we should drink what the food industry has created as a ‘healthier substitute’
So I think the choice is clear, and yet another myth has been debunked! Stay natural, choose WHOLE milk!
The babies know what they are doing… they haven’t had a chance to be brain-washed by the food industry and mass media 😀
I’ve been nominated as one of the ten finalists for the Best Cooking Blog for Singapore Blog Awards 2014! I’m extremely honoured to be nominated, and I would like to give a shoutout to all of my family, friends and readers for supporting me on this journey!
This blog post is coming a little late, since I was in the United Kingdom when the results were announced so I had to resort to a very inconvenient and uninteresting way of sharing my nomination details with you all.
Now that I’m finally back in Singapore, here’s a post dedicated to you all, to make voting a much smoother process, and of course, as a little thank you note to you.
Voting Process: It is quite a hassle when you first vote, but after the first time, all you need to do is click a button and your vote for that day is done!
1) On your first time, you’ll be required to fill up a form with your personal particulars. After this, everything will be a very smooth process, so do bear with the slight inconvenience at the start!
2) When you click on this link here, you will be redirected to this page on Facebook:
2) Scroll down a little, and click ‘VOTE BEST COOKING BLOGS’ to enter
3) You’ll see a page with all the screenshots of bloggers as shown below
4) Scroll down and vote for ANTOLIYA (Foogo!) by clicking on the ‘Vote’ Button.
5) REPEAT DAILY (And share with your friends and family!)
I have to be rather thick-skinned to ask you to vote for me, but I suppose it’s all in a days work 😛 I mean, I’m sure you want to see more recipes churning out from my humble kitchen eh? Honestly, it’s so simple after the first time you vote and fill in your particulars. And, since you are allowed to vote daily, why not just show me your support with a simple click a day? It would really mean so much to me. Especially since I’m up against quite a few established and talented bloggers. I hope I get to meet them though!
6) That’s All! It’s pretty easy 🙂 And do stay tuned to this blog throughout the process cause I’ll be posting loads more recipes in the coming weeks. Yes, that’s how I share my love with you all… through food.
Once again, thank you for your support all these years, and I hope you continue to get joy out of reading my posts!
I’ve passed this simple, sleek cafe nestled in the corner of 5th/6th avenue countless times, but never stopped by to try it. On the last day of my A levels, I headed down with my classmate to celebrate! After much deliberation, we finally settle on a Raw Lemon Tart and a Raw Chocolate Tart.
Raw Lemon Tart ($8.50)
The lemon tart was actually pretty yummy. The tart base was rather chewy, possibly due to the use of dates. There was coconut, pistachios and cranberries added to it as well, all of which added a nice variety of textures. Not much crunch, but a whole lot of chewiness. The lemon curd itself was smooth and tart.
They sprinkled the top of the tart with more cranberries and pistachios too, probably just to add colour since the pistachios were rather soggy, and the cranberries became hard after being exposed for too long. All in all, this was not bad for a raw dessert!
Raw Chocolate Tart ($8.50)
This didn’t fare very well, compared to the Raw Lemon Tart. The base was very crumbly, and could barely hold itself together…it resembled sawdust! I think it was made of shredded coconut. As for the filling, it was very rich, and intense. However, it was let down by the grittiness and overpowering sweetness which made us sick of it after a few bites. Skip this dessert, and go for the Lemon Tart instead.
I must have had rather high expectations of this eatery, since I felt rather let down by the tarts that I tried. I always imagined it to be really yummy, given the rave reviews by the healthy foodies around. Maybe their tastebuds have been accustomed to the sweetness of stevia or the usage of dates, coconut and cacao in their desserts.
Nonetheless, it was interesting trying out raw desserts, although they are rather pricey. I reckon you pay for the extra time and effort that goes into making and purchasing quality ingredients for these raw desserts. I’m not a raw food convert though… and I wouldn’t be back again for their tarts. With their lovely clean eatery, chill ambience and helpful staff, I’ll probably return to try their savouries. These raw treats aren’t the same as indulging in a proper slice of cake. Yes, that means eggs, sugar, butter, flour… the works. If you’re going to indulge, might as well go all out and satisfy your craving eh?
It’s time for… *drumroll please*… What-I-Ate-Wednesday!! Even though it’s actually Thursday in Singapore.
It has been ages since my last WIAW post. This is only my third WIAW post actually, so I’m still pretty new to this whole game. My fellow Singaporean bloggers have yet to hop on the bandwagon. Hopefully, my fellow healthy foodies like Grace and Sheryl will give WIAW a go sometime?
My eats may seem pretty foreign to those of you who don’t live in Singapore, but take it as a mini food tour of sorts of things we have on offer here!
Breakfast:
Instagram is quite big these days, so I decided to buy freshly made yam cream swiss rolls from Qianhan who sells her bakes on instagram (@qianhanny). They were sold in sets of two rolls, so cake ended up on my breakfast table. I mean, I’ve got to eat it while its fresh right?
They were filled with a lovely yam cream, not too sweet thankfully, which had some chunks of yam. The swissroll was topped with dessicated coconut and chocolate shavings too. Mmm, I love dessicated coconut.
Of course, cake isn’t enough for breakfast, so I gobbled down 3 apricots for dessert after dessert. As if I’m not already sweet enough. These apricots were so sweet and juicy.
I’m not sure if apricots look like this overseas, but these were pretty small, about half the size of a nectarine in fact! Nonetheless, I really enjoyed them.
Lunch: I tried to get some greens in at lunch. A commendable effort I must say! I ordered the Grilled Vegetables and Brie Sandwich on Soft Country Bread from Gastronomia da Paolo at Cluny Court. I’ve reviewed them here recently.
Mickey D’s were pretty nearby so I decided to give in to my super sweet tooth today. I had a vanilla cone. Don’t you just love swirly vanilla cones? They are my favorite type of ice cream. I would choose swirly vanilla cones over high end gelato any day. It must have been my lucky day cause those swirls are lookin’ good.
Dinner: I’m Chinese, and I’m proud of it. Even though my verbal proficiency, and literacy skills for Chinese isn’t great, I’m Asian, and I’ll always go back to my roots. So… on the table for dinner is NOODLES!
I went to a local eatery, aptly named EAT. I ordered the Fishball Tang Hoon Noodles in Soup (right) while my friend had Laksa. If I were to translate it to something foreigners would understand, I would say that I ordered ‘Balls of Fishpaste with Glass noodles in Clear Soup’… something along those lines.
The dish on the left is Laksa, which is a spicy coconut-milk gravy poured over thick rice noodles.
I also ordered a side dish of fried beancurd/firm tofu to share. It was good, although the fact that it was fried probably ruined the virtuous aspect of beancurd.
Well, there you have it! These are my eats for today… Ah yes, I always forget to take a photo of my snacks though, but you can use your imagination and throw in an apple, an orange and a banana since those are pretty much what I snack on all day.
Here are some questions because questions are fun for everyone:
What’s your favorite Chinese dish?
How do you cook your tofu?
Would you prefer cheap (but oh-so-good) swirly vanilla cones or quality gelato?
No post about food today, but here’s a photo I took of the beautiful sunset to remind you that there still is beauty in this world! Be thankful for all your family and friends, and enjoy the time you have with them each and every day. Let’s praise God for all our blessings today 🙂
Here’s a more lighthearted ending to this super short post…
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ANTOLIYA 😀 Yes… I dressed up as Rudolph for the photo. Hehehe.
Thank you all for following my blog, and I look forward to taking you all on more adventures in the coming years ahead.
![WIAWbutton](http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f210/klutzycutie16/WIAWbutton.jpg" /></a></center>)
Foogo! 