I was lucky to be included at the first wave of BGC Eats this year. The first food tour highlights the science behind food featuring Artha Ting, biologist and Mind Mover from the Mind Museum. Artha along Chef JJ Yulo headed the food tour along with a group of people from the media.
Here’s my first hand experience on a food tour:
Gustare Kitchen
Our first stop was at Gustare Kitchen. Gustare Kitchen is one of the hidden private kitchen gems in BGC. Tucked in the North Bonifacio, Gustare is situated near The Gooste Station. Gustare Kitchen had prepared a selection of desserts based on egg whites as the main ingredient. Artha excitedly explains to use the use of egg whites in common dishes.
I had mixed feelings with the canonigo. It has hat fluffy texture just like my favorite braso de mercedes, except that it has that caramelized bittersweet sugar that adds a bit of flavor to it. I poured over some custard over it to complete that delicious flavor.
The sansrival was citrusy tangy and was perfect. Some may find it too tangy because of the calamansi flavor, but then if they have tasted the famous calamansi muffins from Boracay, they would understand that this citrusy flavor gives an interesting taste to pastries.
Though I’m not fond of meringue for I find them sweet, These meringue kisses did not have any hint of sweetness. So to add a bit of flavor, I dipped the kisses to the custard cream from the canonigo. Yum!
Like Gustare Kitchen’s Facebook Page to know what delicious dishes they have to offer. Their place is perfect for intimate functions and meetings.
Prost Braumeister
Our second stop for the day was at Prost. Prost Braumeister is a German Bar situated beside The Early Bird Breakfast Club at The Fort Strip. Prost boasts of their selection of German beers and sausages. We were fortunate to taste different sausages Prost has to offer.
Goulash Soup is made of Corned Beef, Hungarian Sausage, Potatoes and Stewed Tomatoes. It kind of resembled to Kaldereta but with a slightly different taste, maybe because of the sausages.
Rothkol is the Greman’s version of hash potatoes. The Rothkol in Prost was made even yummier and appealing with a sunny side egg on top, though my pictures doesn’t justify how good this dish is.
This dish was my least favorite among all the items that were served. I find the flavor lacking. Though most of the food bloggers loved the spatzle because of its cheesy flavor, I found the dish a bit dull and bland.
These have been the longest pork sausage I’ve ever seen. It is made of pork, salt and mixed spices with purified water. I’m not sure what the purified water contributed to the taste as compared to plain tap water, but I liked the taste of the Nurnberger Sausage.
The platter consists of Bratswurst, Hungarian and Kielbasa. Among the three, I liked Kielbasa the most because of the mix of spices in it that gives a bit texture in taste. The least among them would be the Hungarian. I prefer the Nurnberger sausage instead of the Hungarian even though they are both made of pork.
Like Prost Braumeister’s Facebook page to get updates on their promos, especially of those beers and yummy sausages.
The Mind Museum
The last stop for BGC Eats 2014 is at the Mind Museaum. We were welcomed by the Mind Rover Team to the Future Fest. Future Feast is the culminating event for The Apocalypse Project: Imagined Futures, an exhibition about our environmental futures under climate change.
They have invited chefs to rethink and design what humans will eat, 50 years from now, when most of our main source of food are gone. They collaborated and put up a Convenient Store of the Future, to showcase the plausible food sources we can find 50 years from now. It may not be a pleasant idea for now, but when food becomes scarce, I think anything will do as long as we survive.
Here are some of the indigenous ideas the brilliant chefs had placed together:
Don’t be fooled for these yummy looking banana bread for its secret ingredients are Earthworms. Yes, those sloppy and dirty looking Earthworms. We may have seen cultivated and farmed ones being used in the TV Show Fear Factor, but I never imagined myself eating it at this enticing state. I love banana bread, and the thought of earthworms as its ingredients got me conflicted. But I went ahead and stuffed it inside my mouth. It did taste like your normal banana bread.
Nut Milk had penetrated the market of food and beverage when Almond Milk was discovered. With the drive of people to eat healthy and organic, Almond Milk had been the popular go-to alternative to dairy milk. Known for their Artisanal Ice Cream, Sebastian’s Ice Cream had came up with Cashew Milk. It was way better than Almond Milk and definitely light. It has that same texture as skimmed milk, but with a nutty flavor. Sebastian’s Ice Cream gave out popsicles made of nut milk, banana and egg yolk. Despite the rainy and cold weather inside the mind museum, I didn’t mind this cold treat. Yum!
These Seaweed Tempura may not be the most innovative among all items in the Future Feast, but it was one of the few items I enjoyed there. Some people may enjoy munching on those crispy nori sheets, but not me. The Nori was coated with cassava flour and fried to crisp. The cassava flour had subtley toned down the taste of the Nori strip which made the snack more enjoyable. It’s a great alternative to potato chips. With this, I can live off on those MSG and Sodium Laden chips.
The Croquek was presented in an interesting manner that the dish was stored inside a unique capsule. Despite that nice packaging, the dish was a bit bland and lacking.
Chef Sau del Rosario had come up with what I think was a pudding/pana cotta made of soy, moringa and acai berries. I may not be a fan of moringa due to it’s bold leafy flavor, but who doesn’t want a dose of vitamins and minerals in a leafy vegetable, I surely didn’t mind. I wish we have an local acai berry farm. It’s not a bad idea since our weather is quite similar with those in South Africa, those nice Acai Berries will surely thrive.
The food tour was a lot of fun! Both our mind and tummy were fully satiated from those places we went to. Thank you to these people for making BGC Eats 2014 possible.
Don’t forget to drop by the Mind Museum for some brain foreplay with their cool and interesting sections. Your brain will probably thank you for it. Also, Don’t miss the last 2 leg of the food tour this August 9 which focuses on beverage pairings and on August 16 which emphasizes on Healthy Eats. I love to join the Healthy Eats tour, if only my work schedule permits.
Do you want to join the last 2 leg of BGC Eats?
Get more information here.