Tailor-made milk tea

The last time we tried out milk tea at Jatujak in SM Mall of Asia, Mabie wasn't particularly impressed. That hasn't stopped us from having another go at it though, which is what we did with Tea.ology in Bonifacio Global City's Mercato Centrale.

Unlike Jatujak's more, um, "purist" version of milk tea (which I imagine is what it would've been like, had we actually been to Thailand), Tea.ology's brews are flavored. I think someone saw the appeal for Pinoys hiding in this cold concoction and simply decided to tailor its taste to our palates. Some of the more outlandish flavors include Blueberry Green Tea and the non-alcoholic Mojitea. Hmmm. I'm a fan of mojitos myself. Maybe I should try that next time.

Sticking to the safe side for now, we got their Dark Chocolate blend, coming in a regular 12oz size for about PhP75. The nice bit with Tea.ology is that they allow you to further tweak your tea, notably with the sweetness level and add-ons. The range of sweetness levels is from 25-100%, in 25% intervals, and add-ons include the ubiquitous pearls. 

For the Dark Chocolate brew we ordered, we had it at 75% and with pearls. The ladies preparing our drink mixed it in a cocktail shaker; I guess that's where the control of the sweetness comes in.

So how did it taste? Well...for something that was purportedly dark chocolate, it didn't taste very dark at all. It reminded me of the chocolate soy milk that Fruit Magic sells in bottles, only a tiny bit stronger. In pure cocoa content, then, it was a disappointment, but everything else was pretty good. It was not too sweet (hurrah!), the consistency of the ice was quite fine, and those like Mabie who aren't fond of the strong, leafy "this is authentic tea" taste will find that it's sufficiently toned down to be enjoyable. We finished off the cup as we walked away from Mercato Centrale and back to Bonifacio High Street in the heat of the 10am sun.

That said, I wonder how much better the "dark chocolate" would have tasted had we ordered it at 50% sweetness. Or maybe I should just have had the Mojitea? Tea.ology has a myriad flavors to choose from and numerous tweaks for each.

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Tea.ology

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teaology/148711248481135

http://www.mercatocentrale.ph/tea-ology/

0933-9428691

Of Pad Thai, Sate and Thai Drinks

JM and I rarely go to SM Mall of Asia, maybe because it is too crowded for us. Though, last Saturday we made an exception because we wanted to watch the 2011 Pyromusical Fireworks display. After braving the traffic along Buendia and the unexpected re-routing of traffic near the World Trade Center, we finally reached our destination. After invading some of the racks in the boutiques with my sister tagging along we decided to have a mid-afternoon dinner. Since we are near the activity area, we saw Jatujak. We have seen this restaurant quiet a number of times but it was always that time that we have eaten already. So it was the best time to try it.

Jatujak (pronounced as Chatuchak) is the name of the largest weekend market in Bangkok, Thailand. I’m not a big fan of Thai food but it’s worth a try sometimes. The interior of the restaurant is far from the looks of a weekend market since it looks more modern and I liked it. It is small and cozy. Once you set foot inside, you’ll be welcomed by the smell of tanglad leaves (lemon grass).

For appetizer, we had the Vegetable Spring Rolls (P125 for 5pcs). I like the crispiness of the spring rolls. The sweet chili sauce was not even spicy at all and was more on the sweet side which I liked.

 

They even have different spices!

 We also had Pad Thai Chicken (P175), it looks small inside the plate but we managed to split it for 3 persons. It was my first time to try pad thai and I’m glad that I was not disappointed at all. I like how the nuts add crispiness to the noodles with every bite. Actually the chicken bits are just an added bonus for me because I’ll like the pad thai even without it.

Since we already had veggies and chicken, we decided to get some Pork Sate (P180 for 6 pcs). Sate (or Satay) actually originated in Indonesia and was even considered as their national dish. It was later made popular to other neighboring South East Asian countries. In simpler terms, it is popular in our country as Pork Barbeque (Surprised?).

Since it was burning hot outside, we decided to try the Thai Iced Coffee (Php75) and the Thai Iced Tea (Php85).

From the menu, the Thai Iced Tea looks really yummy. It looks more of a samalamig (Iced sweet drink). Thai Iced Tea is usually made by mixing Thai tea leaves, water, sugar and evaporated milk. Though, after taking my first sip the horror creeps in – it tasted like a leaf! Yep I know it is supposed to taste like that since it is made from TEA leaves and I should not be surprised but since I’m not fond of the taste of leaves I had to give it up. Could you blame me if I thought that the added milk looks yum?

So I had to exchange my Thai Iced Tea with the Thai Iced Coffee of JM. From what I’ve researched Thai coffee is made by mixing strong black coffee with sugar, heavy cream and cardamom. The coffee tasted better but I’m still not satisfied – maybe because it has a leaf in it and I can really taste it.

That was our little Thai food experience. Maybe we could visit Bangkok in the near future to taste some authentic cuisine. How about you, do you like any Thai food?