Food Tasting: Cravings' Sweets and Australia's Di Bella Coffee

Every morning, I start the day by having a cup of coffee. The same goes for most members of my family. We need that fresh cup of goodness to motivate us to bring ourselves out of bed. We usually drink the 3-in-1 coffee mixes though because we either don’t have much time for brewing or we’ve already ran out of ground coffee beans to brew. 

Di Bella Coffee

So it was a privilege to be able to try Di Bella Coffee during its launch at Epicurious in Shangri-La Mall the other day. When I first entered the venue, I was immediately enticed by the wide variety of desserts prepared by the Cravings Group displayed on buffet tables. The fragrance of those sweets along with the aroma of fresh brewed coffee were enough to make my stomach growl. 

But before the food and coffee pairing began, Di Bella founder Philip Di Bella shared his company’s story and his journey on finding the perfect cup of delicious coffee. Philip is a coffee entrepreneur who is passionate in his work. Known as Australia’s “Coffee King”, he inspires others by sharing his own experiences and finding ways to help coffee farmers and Australia’s coffee industry. 

Philip Di Bella

When it was time to give the food, desserts, and coffee a go, I found it hard to start because there were so many to to choose from! 

what to choose?!

Philip instructed us to drink coffee without the sugar, suggesting to drink it along with our desserts. I tried this technique and I was surprised that the blend of sugarless coffee and dessert was really good! 

with my mom and dad

It was exquisite to taste the bitterness of the coffee while the dessert maintained its sweetness at the same time. I was glad to have learned such an impressive style from an entrepreneur of coffee himself. It was a really fun experience to have tried a new combination in drinking coffee and sweets.

My Oishi O'Wow Experience

It was a funtastic day at the Oishi O’Wow event yesterday at W Tower's Skye Lounge in Bonifacio Global City. Not only did I meet celebrities, received free Oishi products, and played exciting games; my team also won the Oishi O’Wow competition with the help of our very enthusiastic team leader, Phil Younghusband!

We were eating delicious food from the buffet while enjoying the open-air at the rooftop venue when suddenly Phil and James Younghusband arrived and sat across us at at our table. My mom asked the two football players if I could have a picture taken with them and they said yes. They are very nice and accommodating. 

After several minutes, more celebrities arrived wearing colored Oishi shirts like Ramon Bautista who wore Green, Slater Young who wore Yellow, and Elmo Magalona who wore Red. Together, they form the Oishi O’Wow team. Their newest member arrived last and it was no other than Daniel Padilla.

After lunch, event hosts RJ Ledesma and DJ Suzy came up on stage and showed us the famous “Kaleidescope World” music video by Mr. Francis Magalona that has been edited to include his son Elmo. We also watched several cool videos of Team O that showed them surprising and delighting people. 

For instance, Kuya Ramon went to a school with Oishi products stuck on his clothes. Then there was that video of Team O riding a jeepney and hiding their faces at first from their fellow passengers. When they revealed who they are, each ride ended up with happy screaming passengers.

After the video presentations, the competition started where each team has to go through several Oishi booths. Everyone needed to complete the whole course and had to finish each obstacle with a team picture in order to win. 

We were the yellow team and we were fortunate to have a strong and energetic team captain. Once the hosts gave the go signal, Phil was off and running, helping us with all the tasks needed. We finished obstacle by obstacle really fast and took pictures as a team in each one. 

When we reached the last challenge, we had to spell the old Oishi brand name using giant Scrabble tiles. Luckily, the answer, which was "Liwayway", was in our Oishi passport.

When all teams were able to complete the whole course, the hosts started announcing the winners for each category. After they have been announcing several teams already, we became worried why our team wasn't being called and thought we lost. But just when we thought it was over, RJ then announced the grand prize winners which was no other than Team Yellow! 

Of course we all shouted with joy because we couldn't believe we were really the fastest team! Too bad Phil was no longer around (they have a game that afternoon) when we received our prizes on stage from Daniel Padilla. But we sure were thankful for his presence and for being such a great team leader. 

Aside from enjoying all the activities, my mom, dad, and I, got to take home a lot of Oishi products. It was truly an Oishi O’Wow day being with my family and team!

If you want to have a chance to also meet some of the members of Team O, join Oishi's contest! Just think of an O'Wow moment you want Oishi to surprise people with and you'll get to see for yourself when they execute that! 

Have an O'Wow day everyone!

*To see more photos taken during the event, please click here and here.

  

A Day Trip to Seafood Island Harbor Point and Zoobic Safari

I was invited to go to Subic to be part of the grand opening of Blackbeard's Seafood Island at Harbor Point Square. It took us around an hour and a half to reach the place from Quezon City. 

When we reached the venue, we were greeted with loud and energetic music played on tribal drums. It really boosted the fiesta-like theme and ambience of the restaurant.

The first food items I ate were appetizers. There was this kind of like a cross breed of a salad and nachos. Well, for me, it tasted like a salad with a crunchy twist. Anyways, it was delicious! 

The waiter also served us some fried squid rings. They were a little crispy and were the best fried squid snacks I've ever tasted.

Then I was introduced to the Boodle. I found out that this is a dish presentation where a lot of items are arranged artfully on a big container. This time, it's a nice boat that Chef Chang Magdaluyo filled with various foods.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the boat was filled with a lot of popular seafood like crabs, shrimps, and fish. It was really well decorated and the presentation was awesome. I couldn't wait to try that out and when I did, I was not disappointed.

Aside from eating food items I'm already familiar with, I discovered that seaweeds taste delicious! I'd never expected them to taste like that. I thought they would be bitter. The clams have a very unique flavor too. I was really full by the time we finished eating and there were quite a lot of leftovers from our table. I think they served us way too much food than we could handle.

After that sumptuous lunch, we were also invited to drop by Zoobic Safari since it's quite near. I've already been there during a school field trip a few years ago so this was my second time to visit. 

The place was exactly the same as I remembered it although the three o'clock show has some really fascinating animals to show during the parade. I really enjoyed our time there. It was better than the first time because I got to see other areas I've never been able to visit before. 

There were a lot of people visiting Zoobic Safari despite its distance from the city. It's really something one should see when they go to Subic. Drop by there soon!