Sweet Tooth

I recently got to try a few new sweets from different places. First is the Decadent Chocolate Cake from Big AL's Cookie Jar (IG: https://www.instagram.com/bigalscookiejar).

This was voted as the #1 best chocolate cake in Manila in 2019 so I had been wanting to try it for about a year already. However, I felt the ordering process provided on their Instagram account was a bit too tedious so I never got around to trying it. That it, until a friend of mine told me that they have stores in Sikatuna Village QC, Makati, and Antipolo and these all accept walk-in customers. I was able to pass by one of their stores recently and I bought their Birthday-size Decadent Chocolate Cake (9"x12") which costs P1,100. It's really good and my family and I really enjoyed it but I'm not quite sure I'd rank it as the best chocolate cake in Metro Manila. 

Still on cakes: I tried the Ube Cake of Your Personal Baker (IG: https://www.instagram.com/yourpersonalbaker.ph/, facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourpersonalbaker.ph/), which is owned by a friend of mine. I think she went into the baking business because her previous business was significantly affected by the quarantine. She started out by selling Lemon Tortes which I do plan to try but when my nephew said he wanted an ube cake for his birthday, I immediately remembered that Your Personal Baker also sells Ube Cakes. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to hit two birds with one stone - I could get the cake my nephew wanted and I could give my friend some business. I'm pretty happy I did because their Ube Cake is really good! It's moist, light, not too sweet, and with really good ube flavor. My grandmother even said it was like she was eating ice cream.

To optimize the Lalamove delivery fee, I decided to also order a box of Chocolate Chip Cookies from Your Personal Baker along with the ube cake. The box contains 16 cookies and while they are large diameter-wise, they aren't too thick, making them easy to eat. Which is a problem because I ended up eating 4 cookies in one sitting. Yikes! 😆 Obviously, I wouldn't have eaten that many in one sitting if they weren't good. At only P320 per box, this is really great value for your money.

Still on cookies: I also got to try Homura Bake (IG: https://www.instagram.com/homurabake/) A friend of mine featured Homura Bake in his story and their cookies kinda intrigued me. Their Liege Gooey Classic contains Belgian Chocolates and cashews, something you don't often find in cookies. I decided to buy a box of these...

...as well as a box of their Salted Caramel Walnut cookies. While I think I may have like their Salted Caramel Walnut just a tad better, I actually enjoyed both cookies.

Finally, I got to try best boat tarts from My Lola's Cookies which to me are the best boat tarts I've ever had, bar none. My friend who is related to the owner sent me a couple of boxes because she purchased a lot of them to help her relatives. Their website describes these tarts as having "3 different component: a flaky crust, gooey caramel, and crisp meringue, all baked at different times". I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these. When I got them, I said I would just eat one and I ended up eating 3 and had to force myself to stop. 😂 One box is P340 but I gotta say, it's really worth it.

The challenge now is that I've been eating a lot of sugar and I haven't been exercising. I failed to work-out this last week because I was rushing several deadlines. Not good. Thankfully, it's a holiday tomorrow so I need to really will myself to exercise again.

Quarantine Stories Part 5

 Some bad news: I stopped exercising for about a month or so. It started when I badly strained my left shoulder. I'm not sure how it happened; I think maybe I had the wrong form in doing some push-ups during my high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout. I thought it was just minor so I still exercised the next couple of days and I realized I was making it worse. I decided to stop doing HIIT and focus on yoga instead but even the yoga exercises involved moves that resulted in more shoulder pain. I decided to stop all my exercises until my shoulder pain disappeared.

It took about two weeks for the pain to be reduced to a point where I felt I could exercise again. I was about ready to work out again when I suddenly got hit with really, really bad stomach problems. I had to take a couple of sick days and even then, my stomach was still acting up. It took 6 days for my stomach to get back to normal. But by then, I had so much work to catch up on that I couldn't find the energy nor the focus to exercise. Towards the end of this week, my shoulder strain has almost fully disappeared (there is still some niggling pain but I think it should still be okay to exercise), my stomach is back to normal, and I've almost caught up on work. My target is to start exercising again tomorrow. Wish me luck! 

Sadly, I've gained weight and inches around my waist because of my lack of physical activity and because I haven't been eating healthy. I did get a free Oreo cheesecake that I won from a Cafe Perene weekend raffle and I did get to eat a few slices of their other cakes. I also tried some other high sugar treats that I will write about in my next post. I also purchased Irvin's Salteg Egg Potato Chips at the supermarket. I was actually surprised to see it there because normally, you can only buy it from Irvin's stalls in Megamall or in BGC. I guess because of the pandemic, they needed to make their products available in supermarkets to move their inventory.

Speaking of trips to the supermarket, I made a couple of changes in my standard shopping list. First, since the Spam with less sodium continued to be out of stock, I decided to try Tulip Jamonilla with 25% less Sodium. Thankfully, I did because it tastes like Spam but it's cheaper. I plan on buying Tulip Jamonilla from now on.

I also recently switched to Sari Roti sliced bread. I actually prefer the taste of Gardenia and it's also cheaper but the problem is that before I get to fully consume even the Gardenia half loaf, mold would start to grow. I'd often have to toss out a lot of bread which is very wasteful so I decided to try Sari Roti. So far, I've noticed that molds would form a lot less slowly on Sari Roti (it's only happened once and it was on a loaf that was 4 days beyond the best before date). I also tried the Sari Roti double soft bread which is a lot better but also a lot more expensive so I'm sticking to the normal variant.

Oh and one more thing: the supermarket I go to now requires people to fill out an information card before entering. I assume this card is for contact tracing. With new Covid cases still piling in daily, new protocols are being put in place to try and keep people safe. It's tough but we don't have a choice except to adjust and find a way to manage in these very trying times.

Cafe Perene

I have a new place to order really good cakes from: Cafe Perene, which is the sister cafe of Forget Me Not Marikina. A friend of mine highly recommended this place to me and because they do delivery, I actually got to try a few of their cakes during GCQ (and one more during the second MECQ). The first cake I tried was their Nutella Cheesecake which is one of their bestsellers. Thankfully, it lived up to the hype. The cheesecake is silky smooth and there seems to be a layer of mousse on top of it (made of Nutella perhaps). The Nutella frosting adds depth of flavor to each bite. It's really good!

I got this cake right after Metro Manila went on GCQ and I took it to my family for them to enjoy. Since it was my first time seeing my family in months, I decided to also get the Belgian Chocolate Cheesecake (but just the mini size) as an extra treat. This picture is not that great because I took shortly after the cake was taken out of the freezer. I personally prefer the Nutella cheesecake but this one is really good too!

For my brother's birthday, I got the Flourless Chocolate Cake. My friend who recommended Cafe Perene said that this was her favorite chocolate cake and I can understand why. It's not too rich nor sweet but it still has all the chocolate goodness that anyone could want from a cake. (Unfortunately, my photo is not very focused...)

Finally, I had the good fortune to win an Oreo Cheesecake during a weekend raffle. When I placed the order for my brother's cake, the person taking my order said that if I ordered any of their food trays, I would qualify for the raffle. I decided to get a tray of croquettes because I love croquettes. A couple of days later, I got a text saying that I won! Hooray! Unfortunately, they delivered the cake to me during MECQ so there was no way for me to be able to share it with my family. As a result, I eat just a small slice of it each day. I've only eaten half of it as of this writing.

Cafe Perene is a really good find. Apart from cakes, they also offer food trays and bread items. I got to try the three loaves on their menu - blueberry, kiwi, and banana almond - and all of them are good (but I do think the blueberry loaf is my favorite). I'm pretty sure I will order from them again. Check out their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cafeperene.ph/.