Wooden Spoon

Last Sunday, I visited another restaurant with my two favorite eating buddies: my mother and my brother. This restaurant is named Wooden Spoon, a Filipino restaurant near the university. It is run by a chef who owned a similar restaurant while living in Paris. After his restaurant in the City of Lights shut down, the chef left Paris and decided to open a restaurant here.

Crab pancit (noodles)

I was eager to eat in Wooden Spoon after hearing many wonderful things about it from my friends in the university. The first thing my mother, brother, and I ordered was the Crab Pancit. In Filipino cuisine, the word pancit refers to noodles and/or noodle dishes. This dish was made up of a rich, creamy concoction of crab and egg which topped a mound of friend noodles. Despite its pale coloring, this dish was quite tasty. The only problem I had with this dish was that it was too oily. 

Wooden Spoon Fried Chicken

While perusing the menu, my mother suggested that we order the Wooden Spoon fried chicken, saying that the chef must be proud of this dish if he named after the restaurant itself. The dish, however, was disappointing. The marinade's flavor was weak and the taste did not permeate to the chicken itself. Rather, it stayed on the breading.

Stuffed pechay (Chinese cabbage)

Next, we ordered pechay (Chinese cabbage) stuffed with smoked fish and ground pork and covered with a mildly spicy sauce made of coconut milk. Flavorful and savory, this was a surprising dish, though I did find the stuffing and the sauce too salty. 

Pan grilled tuna belly with soy sauce,  bagoong (shrimp paste), and an eggplant salad

My brother, being a lover of anything that has tuna fish in it, ordered the pan grilled tuna belly. This order came with, soy sauce (for the fish), bagoong (Filipino shrimp paste), and a salad made up off chopped tomatoes, red onions, green mango, salted egg, and eggplant. The salad itself was tasty and fresh, but I ate it without the shrimp paste. The tuna belly was a bit dry and definitely needed to be eaten with the soy sauce. 

Reyna Blanca

As usual, the three of us decided to order dessert in two parts. The first was Reyna Blanca (which, when translated literally, means "White Queen"), a dish of coconut custard topped with rice puffs. The custard was refreshing, mild, and creamy while the rice puffs gave it a little crunch. This was a real treat. 

Sago cake with covered in palm sugar syrup and rice puffs

The second dessert was sago cake, which was made off sago pearls and sweetened with palm sugar syrup while being topped with rice puffs. The cake itself was nice and sticky while syrup gave it the right amount of sweetness. Like with the Reyna Blanca, the rice puffs added variety to the texture of the soft and sticky cake by giving it an added crunch.

Overall, I found Wooden Spoon to be disappointing. I had expected more out of the restaurant since many people were raving about it. With the exception of the desserts, which were my favorite parts of the meal, the food was neither terrible nor special. In other words, the food was just edible. I highly doubt a return trip to that restaurant any time soon.

Until always,

Lemonjuicesodapop

Food Trip Day Part 1: Cafe Ysabel

Because of the three very interesting meals which I had in three different locations on the same day, yesterday was what I call "Food Trip Day".

The first meal was, of course, breakfast, which I shared with my mother. The two of us went to Cafe Ysabel,  an old, colonial house-turned restaurant.  After poring over the menu, we decided to order and share the tinapa rice and a truffle cream omelette souffle.

Tinapa rice with scrambled eggs and tomatoes.
Sorry about the photo quality. The lighting in the restaurant is
to take pictures (even with flash).

The word tinapa is a Filipino term for "smoked fish" (usually milk fish), so tinapa rice is simply smoked fish fried rice. Scrambled eggs with chopped tomatoes top the mound of rice in the center of the plate. The fried rice itself was very tasty, though I felt that there could have been more fish flakes mixed in. The eggs were moist but in need of a little salt.

The truffle cream omelette souffle.
The waiter swears that this is made of only two eggs.
Two extremely-well beaten eggs.

The truffle cream omelette souffle is a LARGE mound of omelette souffle covered in a white truffle cream sauce. The omelette souffle (or souffle omelette, whatever you wish to call it) was very fluffy and tasty. If it were smaller, I would have been able to call it "light", but even when split, the dish gets a wee bit heavy. The cream sauce was flavorful and rich. This dish is definitely something to order again, but not when you're alone.

Cafe Ysabel's decor and ambiance is something of note as well. Located in an old colonial house, the restaurant is decorated with antique sculptures of cherubs, tiles, stained glass, and wooden columns. There is an old-styled bar in the restaurant where the drinks are made. The light fixtures are made up of antique lamps which hang from the ceiling. As beautiful as the lamps are, they give off little light, making the restaurant a bit dim and a bit sleepy looking. 

Based on the food itself, I have no qualms about eating again in Cafe Ysabel, though it would neither be my first nor last choice.