Resto Bites - Kuppa

Since my office moved to Bonifacio Global City, I've been on the hunt for quality but reasonably-priced restaurants. There are a lot of good restaurants there, but the price range is more suited for an executive. That's why my team and I rarely eat out (but that's also because we have a kick-ass cafeteria/food court in our building hehe).

During one of our team lunch-outs, we passed by Kuppa, a coffee place that catches your attention because of the handwritten menu on their windows. It reminded me of the movie Amelie. That day, some of my teammates and I decided to have our dessert there. We tried two cakes, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombe and lemon cake (I forgot the actual name).

There is so much more to their menu than cakes and coffee, so I decided to come back with Jay to eat there during one of our date nights. Just to set your expectations, I am not a coffee drinker, so although Kuppa is also known for its coffee, there's none of that in this post.

Kuppa has nice interiors, a mix of concrete, brick and wood set against black and white walls. The space has high ceilings with exposed beams and plumbing. There are huge picture windows but the handwritten menu acts like a thin curtain for diners inside. There's a second floor with more seats, and a smoking area as well.

Yummy pastries, chalkboard menu, and nice interiors. I'm sold!

Here's what we ordered:

Water was complimentary, but the bottle is nice so I included it in the photo. :)

I had iced tea and Jay had lemonade. They serve their iced tea with syrup as sweetener, which reminded me of the one served at Chocolate Kiss (in UP Diliman).

I'd like to think I'm more adventurous than Jay when it comes to food. His philosophy is that when he's hungry, he'd like to be sure he's eating good food. We were nearly starving at this point so he opted for the basic bolognese. And I'm glad he did. This is one of the more flavorful spaghetti I've had in a while. The serving is good to share if you're also ordering other entrees.

While we were waiting for our pizza, Jay wanted to order the kebab but the server said it would take a while so we'll just reserve it for our return. There are other interesting entrees too, like the Osso Bucco and Lamb Caldereta. They also have a variety of sandwiches as well as a breakfast menu.

For our pizza, our server recommended the Prosciutto Cotto e Funghi as one of their bestsellers so we tried that. As you can see from the photo, some edges of the crust were burnt, but the rest of the pie was amazing. They didn't scrimp on the mozarella, cooked ham, and mushrooms. When I'm with my more adventurous foodie friends, I'd like to try their signature pizza called Cristina, which has an interesting mix of toppings: mozarella, balsamic, gorgonzola, fig and grapes.

Now, I've mentioned before that I am not a chocolate fan. But I'm more likely to eat chocolate when it's incorporated in another dessert, like a cake. This Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombe has my approval. It's rich, with the right amount of sweetness. A layer of peanut butter is sandwiched between white chocolate mousse and chocolate cake, then encased in chocolate ganache. You'll be licking your dessert forks with this one.

Just like Bob's, Kuppa is a cafe that originated from Bacolod. I wasn't able to pay a visit while I was there, but I'm happy they now have a branch in Manila. It's definitely worth coming back to!

Let me end my post with a shot of this decadence:

Kuppa Roastery & Cafe
31st and 4th
Bonifacio Global City
+632-552-1057

Ariane, the gift that keeps on giving.

I feel so giddy right now. :) After approving a couple of comments for my last blog entry, I checked my blog's stats and saw that I had views with glamour.com as an entry point. I wondered how that came to be so I checked the specifics of my stats. That's when I found out that the US fashion magazine's portal picked up one of my blog posts and linked back to my site!

Several months ago, I wrote about it simply out of curiosity. My friend and I kept seeing this girl everywhere and I just had to find out who she was. What do you know, that post turned out to be the most read entry on my site. Other people were curious about her too.

But I didn't realize my curiosity would land me (or my blog) on an international magazine's website! And to think my entry was haphazardly written. If I knew this would happen, I would've made it sound more serious. Hehe!

But if I learned anything from this, it's that I should keep doing what I am passionate about. And that's my little piece of advice for you too, dear reader. Whether it be about the serious or the mundane, just keep going. You never know where your creation will land. :)

Life Bits - Martha Stewart Dreams

It's one of the rare times I was able to get out of the office early. I hitched a ride with my officemate and got home at around eight in the evening. I wanted to do something productive so I baked a batch of banana bread. It's now cooking in the oven. I've washed the dishes and I'm waiting for my download to finish so I decided to kill time by writing this post. It's been a while. I have tons of resto bites I should be writing, but that takes so much out of me. I actually missed making an entry, just talking about my day and my many musings.

Ever since I got into my new job, I've learned a lot of new things, especially about marketing. Most of them are confidential, of course, but let's just say it opened my eyes to the way things are offered and sold to consumers. And yeah, it's hard to look at bloggers the same way again. Right now, that's all I'll say about that, maybe one day I'll expand on it, but best not to make enemies today.

What I really want to talk about is how I am such a homebody. When people find out that I live alone, they often ask me if I get lonely. I don't. I've learned the art of solitude and actually look forward to coming home to no one. I don't have to take care of anybody else, or care what I wear inside my own house, whether I leave a mess in the kitchen and take care of it in the morning. I'm perfectly fine with my books, my TV series, and decent food. Going out to clubs or drinking all night has never really been my thing. I'd rather talk to friends over good food.

But sometimes I also love having people over. It's hard because my place is small, so when I invite people it's usually at the swimming pool where I create a mini-spread. Those are the things that make me happy. I even bought my own plastic table cloth with a nice pattern, and one time I picked up a small bouquet at the supermarket and placed it on the table. Yes, I'm a Martha Stewart/Nigella Lawson/Giada Di Laurentiis/Lemon Breeland wanna-be. One day I'm gonna have a nice house with a decent lawn (maybe even a pool), where I can hold intimate dinners with my friends and their families. I'll also have a kick-ass kitchen with a long wooden, rustic dining table and a shiny island counter for my baking and cooking stuff.

Some people thrive in the corporate setting. They get a kick out of acing presentations and pitching campaigns. But me? I'm perfectly fine with being at home. Right now I have to carve my little niche in the corporate world, but I can't wait to put that pink apron on years from now. I'll have a little home office for my writing projects and little business, but my real arena will be the kitchen. Yeah, that sounds good to me. :)


Did this post really make sense? Haha. Daydreaming over, my timer just went off. Hope my officemates enjoy what I bring to the office tomorrow!