The sweet side of thanks
I hate it when people ask me if I eat dessert and, after getting my definitive “yes,” exclaim, “But you’re so skinny!”, as they couldn’t really see what they were looking at and as if “skinny” people had absolutely no right to eat chocolate and should be denied all these sweet pleasures. (For the record, I am not skinny, just good at camouflaging.) It’s bad enough that I possess the inane talent of popping three chocolate truffles in my mouth in all of five seconds and now I have to live with people’s expectation that I couldn’t be a dessert fanatic just because I weigh considerably less than Rosie O’Donnell. I mean, give me a break: I already gave up meat; don’t expect me to part with my chocolates any time soon.
So when given the chance to do a tour of some of the pastry and dessert haunts in Podium, I took it, no questions asked. I may not be able to show off my jiggly chocolate-molded thighs but I could definitely put my sweet tooth on full display.
Cinnabon: Sugar and spice...
It’s pretty impressive how a pastry shop can fly with just one single ingredient. Cinnabon, which relies on the unassuming red powdered spice to serve up delicious rolls of bread, is amazing when you think about it. Cinnabon’s cinnamon rolls have been a crowd favorite for as long as I can remember, especially among coffee drinkers — people really love how the warm, soft, mildly-spiced rolls just balance out the taste of the bitter brew. Taken by itself, these Cinnabons are nothing to scoff at either, especially when topped with loads of cream cheese.
These rolls aren’t that sweet so if you’re angling for a sugar rush, the Pecanbons and Chocobons might be more your thing. Top with chocolate sauce just to make sure you don’t miss out on your sweet fix.
For takeaway goodies, Cinnabon’s cinnamon sticks come neatly packaged in an open cardboard container (their version of french fries). Their raisin bread is also a great take-home item. Just make sure to carefully follow all reheating and storing instructions for the best cinnamon experience.
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Cinnabon is located at the 2/L of Podium with telephone number 687-3642. Sebastian’s: Just the way ice cream should be I’m not to trying to sugarcoat anything, so I’ll just go right ahead and say it: I love Sebastian’s. It’s probably my favorite gourmet ice cream right now. And the fact that it’s a local ice cream brand (the creator, Ian Carandang, is a fine arts graduate from UP Diliman) makes every lick even sweeter. It’s rich, chunky and packed with so much flavor, just the way ice cream should be.
The Sebastian’s booth at the Podium offers only 12 flavors, although each flavor represents a particular brand of sweet. There’s the best-selling chocolate chip cookie dough, one of my personal favorites just because every bite deals a different experience, considering it’s loaded with so many sweet elements: creamy vanilla ice cream, unbaked chocolate chip cookie dough and walnuts. The Mango Sans Rival is quite inventive: buttercream-cashew ice cream packed with wafer pieces, cashews and a streak of mango ribbon. For those who with simpler tastes, Macadamia White (white chocolate ice cream mixed with macadamia nuts) and Butter Pecan (butter ice cream loaded with crunchy butter-roasted pecans) give more than enough of a sweet fix.
Recently, they also introduced a sugar-free option with a chunky mint flavor. A great love or mint chocolate ice cream, I gravitated towards this like a bee to a blooming bud and wasn’t disappointed.
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Sebastian’s is located at the 4/L of Podium.
Sugarnot: Say yes to sugar-free goodies
Sugar-free. Low carb. Low fat. Painted on the glass windows of Sugarnot in Podium, these words shouldn’t be taken as anything less than a welcome. After all, this pastry shop proves that sugar-free is by no means tasteless. Scrimping on sugar and the fatty stuff but not on other ingredients, Sugarnot’s rich cakes and mousses, perfect for diabetics and the weight-conscious, are as rich and scrumptious as their sugared counterparts. Their Ultimate Temptation, a Belgian chocolate cake with truffle filing, drizzled with caramel and white chocolate frosting, is so delicious that even Jesus Christ wouldn’t have stood a chance against it. Neither would I against another enticing Belgian choco indulgence, this time called the Last Temptation. If chocolate does nothing for you but clog up your throat, try Sugarnot’s Berrylicious, a strawberry-flavored mousse or Sunburst, a light orange-flavored chiffon cake.
The secret to Sugarnot’s independency from the evil white powder is isomalt, a natural, unsweetened substance derived from beet sugar. This stands in to give our taste buds a taste of the sweet. When I asked if they use other non-sugar ingredients to sweeten up their cakes, mentioning a popular commercial brand, the girl behind the counter vigorously shook her head and gave me a look that was meant to put me and my sugar-fattened thighs into place. I was meant to understood that artificial sweeteners had no place in Sugarnot.
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Sugarnot is located at the 5/L of Podium with telephone number 636-1714.
Cheesecake, Etc: Say it in purple and yellow
The colors of the purple and yellow cake seem to mark it as a holiday treat, although it is not just for the colors of pre-holiday Advent that Cheesecake, Etc’s new Christmas offering was created. (That would be overreaching.) Purple and yellow for the main ingredients that make up the new Ube and Yema Cheesecake is instead a sugary nod to local delicacies that are sure to be passed around a lot this season. Ingeniously integrated into light, velvety cheesecake, ube and yema make for a knockout combination. Surprisingly, the mix of both Filipino desserts with cheesecake doesn’t come out too sweet. “We really intended that so it will go well with coffee,” explains Cheesecake, Etc’s Agnes Roa-Degamo.
The same can be said for all of their desserts. The return of the Christmas Dome cake, a pretty three-layer creation with white chocolate mousse, almond sponge cake and a berry cheesecake, as well as the rich, ultra-moist Choco True Classic aren’t as sticky-sugary as you thought they’d be. “It keeps people coming back for more,” adds Degamo. Considering I finished up two slices of the Ube and Yema Cheesecake and the one of the Christmas Dome, I wasn’t one to argue.
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Cheesecake, Etc is located at the G/F of Podium with telephone number 687-3646.
Fuzion: Cool treats and hot meals
Imagine a blueberry cheesecake that’s been dumped into a blender and then liquefied (not in the Photoshop sense, but in a food processing sense). That’s exactly the premise behind Fuzion’s liquid cheesecakes, one of the café’s sinful smoothies that has found favor among many Pinoys. This Fuzion original is joined by another equally calorific triple chocolate shake, a chunky shake that mixes chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, and chocolate ice cream.
Fuzion (a franchise from Singapore) may have started out serving natural fruit smoothies and sandwiches, but it has since taken into account the Filipino tendency toward extreme sweetness and included more desserts and sweet shakes in its menu. Aside from these sinful shakes, Fuzion also has crepes, one of them the Mango Tango, unashamedly topped with vanilla ice cream, golf ball-sized dollop of whip cream and chocolate drizzle. You can almost hear your thighs shrieking in protest but these are effectively doused as soon as you take the first sinful sip or bite.
While desserts come cold off the menu, Fuzion also has a wide variety of hot meals that make a visit to Fusion a one-stop trip. Their menu includes South Beach-friendly meals such as Cajun smoked chicken, thoughtfully served with brown rice, and the not-inclined-to-any-beach garlic chicken alfredo pasta dish.
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Fuzion is located at the 5/F of Podium with telephone number 914-1097 .
Jugo Juice: No sugar, just fruit
“No sugar, no fillers, no emulsifiers” was the prompt reply of Jugo Juice’s Noemi Espinosa, when I asked if they add some kind of sugary syrup to their fruit shakes and smoothies. No, just fruit. Well, most of it anyway. Jugo Juice, one of the newest smoothie stands on the market and a franchise from Canada, serves over 15 different kinds of real fruit smoothies, each one with over one-third a pound of fruit (“The only thing fresher grows on a tree,” says their paraphernalia) and lots of natural, unprocessed nutrients that are extremely good for you and your diet.
Just from one sip, you know they weren’t kidding about the fruit content and the sugar non-content. The thick consistency precedes that fresh, natural, just-blended taste of baby food, only colder and more appetizing. It’s not just flavored water, that’s for sure. Plus Jugo Juice attaches a sticker to each cup that lists down not only the ingredients but the calorie, fiber, carbohydrate, protein and vitamin content of each concoction.
The Blushing Mango, for one, its color as refreshing as its taste (with mangoes, raspberries and tropical nectar) has 350 calories, 0.8 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of fiber and “280 percent of the recommended daily vitamin C intake.” Another brightly colored drink, the Summer Strawberry (with strawberries, peaches, apple juice and cranberry juice) has 277 calories, 0.5 grams of fat and 3.6 grams of fiber. Both sets of values can be gained from a single 24-ounce serving.
Considering how heavy smoothies are to the stomach and how each cup is already packed with nutrients, a single Jugo Juice smoothie is already a meal in itself. Given its natural sweetness, you won’t even have to go for dessert.
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Jugo Juice is located at the G/F of Podium with telephone number 638-3751-21.. Leonidas:
Chocolate heaven
When I hear the name Leonidas, I immediately think of the doomed, muscle-packed character Gerald Butler played in the hit movie 300. Yeah, the thought just inspires unconscious lip-licking action. If you explore second thoughts, however, realize that there’s another Leonidas that’s just as tempting and equally yummy. Leonidas Famous Belgian Pralines may have been named for its founder Leonidas Kestekides but the brand logo was inspired and bears the image of the Greek king who valiantly led his soldiers in the Battle of Thermopylae. This Leonidas, however, doesn’t head into battle; rather into a certain kind of pleasure that involves first-rate chocolate and nut concoctions that are as unforgettable as Gerard Butler’s abs. And the experience? Just as orgasmic.
You can start off the indulgence with their milk and dark pralines, heart-shaped and individually wrapped chocolates that promise simple, straight-up chocolate heaven. To get more from these little bites, try their liqeuer pure pralines, dark chocolate havens filled with Armagnac, Grand Marnier, Contreau or Mandarin Napoleon. Their white and dark Louise pralines, filled with hazelnut cream, are also wonderful.
Leonidas probably has about 30 different kinds of pralines and truffles available. For the best of all worlds, treat yourself to their mood box, filled with 16 different kinds of Leonidas’ Famous Belgian Pralines, each one promising a different taste of pleasure.
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Leonidas’ Famous Belgian Pralines is located at the G/F of Podium with telephone number 631-7991.
Delifrance: Deli-cious holiday goodies
There are less than six weeks left before Christmas and it won’t be long until you get swept up in the flurry of gift-giving and endless gift-wrapping. Save yourself the trouble and give holiday sets, those practical saviors that make Christmas so much more bearable each year.
Moving well ahead of everybody else, Delifrance has already brought out their Christmas gift sets for the year, offering holiday goodies nicely ensconced in simple beribboned red boxes. What would predictably sell are the fruitcake gift sets, although Delifrance gives its own twist on the liqueur-soaked holiday staple with their mocha crunch fruitcake, a seemingly delicious indulgence liberally topped with pecans and chocolate truffles. Give an entire cake by itself or give in a collection of three along with the original premium English fruitcake and their chewy food for the gods.
If you’re not one to encourage a sweet tooth, Delifrance also offers coffee sets, complete with the requisite mug, as well French wine box sets. Cellophaned biscotti and sugar cookies are also up for grabs.
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Delifrance is located at the G/F of Podium with telephone number 687-1608.
UCC Coffee: Sweet fixes
There’s more to UCC’s dessert offerings than just the chocolate-frosted temptations they have sitting in their chilled glass display in their restaurants. A whole lot more, in fact. Starting from their breakfast fare down to drinks, UCC serves up sweet fixes that completely obliterate the thought of South Beach from your mind.
Mango seems to be a particular favorite with two popular desserts giving their own take of the tropical fruit. UCC’s mango crepe pokes fun at the à la mode dessert by wrapping the ice cream (mango-flavored, if you have to ask) in the crepe and laying out the mangoes for everyone to see and pick at. The Mango Pannacotta is more blissful at taste than on sight: The light, silky dessert successfully combines tropical flavor with Italian tradition.
Another must-try is the chocolate French toast, fried bread cubes artfully arranged around whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. If you want something cool, take your pick between the coffee (vanilla and mocca ice cream mixed with coffee jelly) and the fruit parfait (fruit cocktail and vanilla ice cream). Don’t let the gobs of whipped cream scare you off. The more you dig in, the more guilty pleasures you’ll find.
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UCC is located at the G/F of the Podium with telephone numbers 687-3107 and 687-3118.
