I have an affinity for those small restaurants where, if I drop in at an off-hour, I’m pretty much assured of having the place to myself. Salcedo Village has a wealth of these hangouts, and one that I enjoy is Alexa’s Deli. It has that cool, stainless steel feel that practically urges me to order a glass of wine (a rarity), or at the very least, stay for a cup of coffee. A glass counter showcases a (rather limited) selection of cheese, wines, and desserts. This deli/café/wine shop -- one of those “hyphenate” places --welcomes diners to choose and consume whatever they see in the shop. Sandwiches are a great strength of this place where one can customize according to meat, bread, dressing, and filling. There are salads to satisfy the more “green-minded,” as well as pastas (all P175), of which I recommend the Pesto or the Smoked Salmon with Basil Cream (both seen above). I like the fact that I can order a Cheese Platter (P180, cover photo) here, but I frown at the idea of not being able to choose the two kinds of ...

Note: All photos are from the book reviewed. I couldn’t wait to get a copy of Kapihan: A Celebration of Coffee in the Philippines (ArtPostAsia Publishing, 2007), authored by Paris-based food writer Noel Sy-Quia and photographed by Neal Oshima. My recent and ever-burgeoning love for coffee propels me to know all I can about the subject and a book about our local coffee is doubly exciting. Published by the creative minds-on-fire at ArtPostAsia Pte Ltd. who are also responsible for Foodlore and Flavors – Inside the Southeast Asian Kitchen, I know that Kapihan will be another visual treat. I must say that my excitement sours somewhat when I discover that the book is sponsored by Nescafé in celebration of its 70th anniversary in the Philippines (a page-long introduction by Nestlé Philippines’ Chairman and CEO greets me right off the bat). I have nothing against the country’s largest coffee producer and marketer – after all, Nescafé was the only coffee I knew for a long time– but I feared that the book would be just one extended promotional campaign for the brand with the words “Nescafé” and its mother company ...

My youngest sister married her high school sweetheart in Baguio last Saturday. The week leading up to it saw a flurry of her visitors jetting in from Vancouver, California, Shanghai, and Paris. Anyone who’s planned a wedding knows that a local wedding is already hectic, but when that wedding is transported out of town -- (destination weddings are so de rigueur these days) – the wedding preps become doubly hectic. Everyone in the family took on a multitude of roles from driver to tour guide to host for the various guests that needed to be housed. Once up in Baguio, I took some of my sister’s visitors to the market (two of whom had never been to Asia before). With wide-eyed enthusiasm, we sailed through the stores selling silver jewelry, blankets, woodcrafts, and had a good giggle over the Baguio “barrel man,” he of the stick figure with an … ahem … appendage hidden by a barrel. In between stops at the ukay-ukay, we passed a man selling caramelized sweet potatoes and plaintains skewered ...

Okay, so the name is a little difficult to pronounce – Cuillère (KU-yer) – but it’s what’s scribbled on the outdoor blackboard that makes me hold my breath and dash in: carabao milkshakes. As a catering venue that has come into its own as a restaurant, proprietor Arlene Arce and chef Katrina Arce Kuhn have made Cuillère a brasserie bowing to all things French. I see evidence of this in the wall mural – a soothing scene of a street in France – as well as Belle Epoque posters and banquettes. I eat here a few times, the dishes a nod to homey French dishes that are familiar and far from intimidating: Niçoise salad, escargots Bourguignonne, French onion soup, roast chicken, etc. I’ll save my feature on those for a future post. Though I have something different every time I’m at Cuillère, it’s those milkshakes that I always come back to. Obviously, a restaurant run by the Arces of the well-known ice cream brand, they're bound to have a few tricks up their sleeves, most definitely of the sweet and cool kind. ...

There are a few food items that I try very hard not to have at home: Sebastian’s Ice Cream (any flavor), Lay’s Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips in Barbeque Flavor, Cheetos Twisted, Hershey’s Chocolate Milk, Kitkat Crunchy, and bars of milk chocolate, especially Lindt and Ritter Sport. I also used to avoid having jars of peanut butter (PB) in the house, but since my Bin started mountain biking regularly, he demands that we have PB in the house for quick energy boosts. The above are snacks that never fail to tempt and tease me, and I can’t trust myself with them. I know myself well enough to know that if they’re in my house, I’ll eat every last bit. And no, moderation doesn’t work for me. It’s all or nothing. The one food that I’d call my Achilles’ heel, the one that inevitably leads to my diet downfall is Nutella. I grew up on this ridiculously addicting chocolate hazelnut spread, slathering it over pillow-soft bread topped with sliced bananas, my first bite oozing chocolate onto my fingers; and in times of dire chocolate cravings, I could polish off half a small jar with just a teaspoon. Man, I ...

Dessert Comes First (DCF) began out of my desire to write about food – what I eat, where I eat, and the stories of the incredible people behind all this food. I’m also a great fan of home bakers, thus the great deal of space devoted to them. I’m convinced that they fulfill countless sweet-toothed yearnings, not to mention their offerings ratchet up the quality and variety of desserts available locally. The website is a chronicle of my food adventures – always has been, always will be. Each post is a product of lots of hard work: from the conception to the writing, and of course, the photos. Depending on what I’m writing about, it can take me three (consecutive) hours and up to three days to produce (writing/shooting) a post. There is no post on this site that’s hammered out in minutes and slapped with lousy, ill-lighted photos just for the sake of updating. I will give up dessert for good before that happens on this website. Simply put, if I have nothing to say, then nothing gets posted. I understand that maintaining a website requires some deal of regularity, a frequency of posting, if you will. With the exception ...