I’m no food critic but I think I discovered two culinary treasure coves during my rather busy week.

First one was the quaint bakeshop in Makati called Becky’s Kitchen.

The structure’s an old fashioned bahay-na-bato style of house painted white and probably restored to its more or less original grandeur. I thought at first that it was a restaurant where you could eat in but to my delighted surprise, it turned out to be a small but very busy bakeshop. Tried a slice of blueberry cheesecake, rhum cake, ensaymada, and brownies. All were soft delectable concoctions that simply melt in the mouth. I especially liked the blueberry cheesecake for they liberally put a generous amount of blueberry all over the cheesecake’s top unlike the one I normally buy at Red Ribbon’s. The price is more or less the same as Red Ribbon’s. Add a few pesos on some items.

Everything’s for take out. They don’t have tables where you could eat for the place open to the public was too small, but it was well worth the wait in line – you’d be handed a number by the security guard that the sales ladies at the counter would call out to let you know that it’s your turn to order.

So to all of you staying in or near Makati, hope you already know about this place. If not, just tell me and I’ll hound my cousin about the exact address so I could give it to you so could find the place and try out their really yummy products, ne?

The second one is the halo-halo at Razon’s along the road to Guagua, Pampanga.

It doesn’t look much at first, having none of those various colored gulamans and sagos we normally find in halo-halos, but once you try it you’d truly be hooked and want to come back for more or at least order another serving.

The ingredients are minimal, as I said, it certainly wasn’t colorful in the least. Only the ever present shaved ice, sweetened macapuno and saging na saba, milk, and creamy leche flan on top. No sugar to add to taste needed. The milk they used is not the usual evaporated canned milk we put in our halo-halos. It tasted somewhat like fresh carabao’s milk or something like a cross between fresh carabao’s milk and full cream milk. I really couldn’t pinpoint what kind of milk it was but I found myself drinking up the last dregs of my glass. The ice was so perfectly shaven that your spoon sinks right to the bottom when you start to mix the halo-halo, and wonder of wonders, it doesn’t melt that fast as well that even when you’ve been eating your glass full of halo-halo goodness for several minutes, even when you’re already almost done with your serving, crystals of shaved ice are still visible. All in all, it’s a perfect merienda for the summer and I truly can’t wait till I get the chance to come back to Razon’s and eat their halo-halo again.

Funny thing was, on the wall were some articles from the newspaper written by my former non-fiction creative writing professor, the late Doreen Fernandez. She knew about Razon’s since they were just a small stall inside a remote subdivision in Guagua. Should’ve asked that dear old woman, when I had the chance, all about the great places to eat here in my home province since she apparently knew all of them!

Minna, next time you visit me in Pampanga, remind me to take you to Razon’s and try out the halo-halo, ne?

Heheh, so much for dieting… Obvious bang may sweet tooth ako? ^_~