Eats @ Cafe Balooga

It is a joy to find local hidden treasures each time. The "unique" characteristic is subjective to who is speaking. What a city girl may find "rare" can just be "ordinary" for a town girl. So when I go out of town, my best bet is always to try the "local" and "hidden" small restaurants before opting for the usual fast food restaurants.

For this Sundate, we marched to Subic, Olongapo City once again. Thanks to SCTX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway) for making it a convenient travel to and from. I've heard about this restaurant 5 years ago and we always miss to visit since it's first branch was located outside the Subic area so it's out of our usual route. So when a friend from there told me that there is a second branch in Harbor Point Mall, we planned the date for it at once.

Cafe Balooga is categorized as a coffee-bake shop in some yellow pages, but they also serve main meals for lunch and dinner. It has been around since year 2001. "Balooga" is a term related to the Filipino word, "Baluga" which is a colloquial word that means, of black descent or an adjective to describe someone who has dark-skin. It is not used to please or flatter someone you want to describe as "tan," if you know what I mean. 

 As you enter the restaurant, it gives you an old-familiar feel with dark wood all over and dim-lights. It is somewhat in between "boho and shabby-chic." But I like it. They even have vintage memorabilia from their homes and childhood perhaps. It's basically a diplay of sorts. For our food, we ordered three viands since we were just three; actually, two and a half, since our other friend is on a diet. The menu has a lovely lay-out. The server suggested pasta and meat dishes as their specialty. So we opted for the meat with rice and sides and skipped the pasta.

We ordered the Baby-back Ribs, served with mixed vegetables. I must say that the baby back was a winner. It is tender, juicy and well-grilled outside. The b-b-q sauce was tasty but we also asked for steak sauces as we're accustomed to. One miss though, they could have done better with the side dish. It didn't looked equally appetizing visually.

This one's Salpicao. It looked different from the other verisons but it came as a surprise. The beef dish looked simple and uninviting. But the infused flavor is "umami-balanced." It is tasty but not too salty nor sweet. A comforting dish with rice.  

Third is the Grilled Stuffed Squid. We understood that it's past dinner time when we came in so we assumed, the early diners got the best of our supposed squid. It was too small to share for three persons actually. The stuffing has bell pepper, cheese, and ground pork. It blended well with the sauce and the squid. Just that, the squid itself was a tad overcooked. So the texture is more gooey than tender. Once you mess up with the texture, all its goodness is lost. (Sayang!)

We just came from Starbucks so we opted not to order any desserts, or what's left of it. Overall, the price is affordable, the servers are friendly and accommodating and the totality of the ordered food tasted better than otherwise. We'll  surely come back here, only earlier than 9pm. Maybe then, we'll get a better-sized squid. lol

Financial Damage: P300+ per person.

Address: 1/F Harbor Point, Rizal Highway, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo, Zambales

For inquiries, call them 

at: +6326252000 

Store hours: 10:00am to 9:00pm daily 

*But we left at 10:00pm and they did not kick us out.

Note: I apologize for the poorly-lighted pictures since it was dim inside the premise and I only took these using my iPhone.

Let me know your experience too. :)

Cheers!

M.

Eats @ Sorbetes Ice Cream

When it comes to my LONG LIST of comfort food, nothing beats The simple yet savory ICE CREAM. It is an ULTIMATE upper on a bad day. Being in a tropical country meant having only two seasons-- DRY or RAINY. As they say, this is somewhere the sun shines the brightest most of the time. Being near the equator supplements this fact too. And so, ice cream or SORBETES in our local Filipino lingo is a mass favorite.

The traditional means of transport in selling ice cream Filipino style is by foot. The ice cream cart is carried all around a premise by the seller, who is usually a man, called as SORBETERO. These days, for less walking and more sales, ice cream is served by peddling a bicycle-hawker style.

These carts are operated by different owners. Thus, different ice cream recipes, flavors and of course, TASTE. They can be found in busy or populated areas like schools, markets, parks, churches, etc. The prices range from 5.00Php to 25.00Php. 

The one above costs 15.00Php - not bad for three flavors and sugar cone.

Flavors vary, the common ones are ube (purple yam), cheese, chocolate, mango or vanilla (milk). Special flavors include: avocado, strawberry, cookies and cream, etc. While in-season fruits also dictate the available fruit flavors, cheese and ube on the other hand are readily available most times.

The picture above showcase the flavors: cheese, cookies and cream and avocado (L-R). My most favorite flavor is avocado. Yum!

I had one in cone and another one in an all-avocado cup. Remember I mentioned that since these sorbetes are owned and operated by different companies, they may differ from one another. This one by Bayan - Homemade Ice Cream is one of the best I've tried. The texture is really smooth, the flavor is more natural-tasting than artificial, the milk is balanced and the "Sorbetero" is more generous. We really enjoyed the ice cream. Talk about simple joys!

Some days when I am really craving for natural ice cream and has the time and energy to whip up something, I make my own ice cream. Will share the recipe next time.

Bayan Homemade Ice Cream

Duty Free Shopping Center Parking area

Subic Freeport Exchange

Sampson Road, 

Subic, Olongapo City.

(Usually in front of Meat Plus Cafe)

Cheers.

M.