Cafe France: Couture Tray

I frequent Cafe France ( formerly named DeliFrance ) not to dine-in but to buy1/take1 pastry products nearing closing store hours.  My girls and I love their breads. Me especially if they are 50% off, haha. While in q to pay, I would see their food display with delicious looking salad, pasta, meat dishes and desserts. I would always make a mental note to try dining in the cafe but would find myself always coming back for the buy1/take1 and always rushing, haha.

Last weekend, we were at MOA as usual with jampacked restos when it was time to eat. Exiting F21, we saw Cafe France looking minimal in terms of nos. of table occupied. Us_ as you know hate heavily crowded dining place, found Cafe France just the place to eat this time. Funny that after 158 years we had to try it first in MOA, when a nearest branch to our home is just 5 minutes drive.

Anyway, I got to try the Pierre Tray Couture. Sounds like a high fashion brand huh? Ok I'll make it easy_ it's actually a set meal. A french gourmet tray of pasta & sandwich combi with soup, dessert, and a drink. Other trays couture named as Adelle, Marguerite, and Philippe.

 Pierre Tray Couture is a seafood set meal with seafood marinara pasta and seafood deluxe clubhouse sandwich as main dishes. I hadn't paid so much attention to the soup served in a shot glass and just had a bit of it using it as a dip for the bread sticks included in the meal.

I loved the seafood marinara so much so I finished it in a bit. I liked its marinara sauce with generous amount of shrimps. I thought the pasta serving was small thu'. But the sandwich I didn't finish. I still have to find suitable crab sandwich for myself and this is not the one.

While my rice meal baby ( older daughter ) had ordered a rice meal of course. She had a plate of Chicken French in Bechamel Sauce ( ala carte ). It was breaded chicken fillet in white sauce with white rice.



She didn't like it and just shared my set meal. She had it taken home for her sister. At home, younger daughter surprisingly had  liked it or was it only because she was so damn hungry already when we arrived home?

So there_ our 1st at Cafe France. I think we're going to come back to try their other tray couture, preferably at the nearest branch. And yes I would continue to be a loyal patron of their buy1take1, haha.

Metro Gourmet

Next to a beach, a grocery store is my favorite place to go to.. and linger I won't mind. I could go around from aisle to aisle with same interest I pay to every page of a book I read. It's my happy place.

It doesn't matter if my reason for going is to buy just a bottle of canola oil and then end-up with a few more add-ons, cos for me it's a guilt- free trip cos I know it would benefit/ feed my family somehow. It's not like buying myself a pair of shoes or purse or garments? Right moms? defensive me, haha

I also love the idea of taking snack within the grocery. I particularly frequent The Metro in ATC (Alabang) which has a deli shop with a gourmet cafe.

And since I patronize their deli products...

I thought it won't hurt if I would sample them straight from their own kitchen.

So this particular day last week, with my constant grocery buddy (photo), before heading to the cashier, we made a  snack stop at the Metro Gourmet.

We had the deli's clubhouse sandwiches to share. Why not, already most of their deli products are present in a clubhouse sandwich ( ham, bacon, chicken salad, etc.).

The clubhouse sandwich didn't disappoint. Just right. My friend like it too. 

Another one we had was a plate of pesto pasta. We had spiral as choice of pasta. Pesto sauce  was delicious. Just enough creaminess, a hint of garlic spice, and some bites of nuts ( I'd like to guess as pine nuts). 

I had liked it so much then that when I went back at the same grocery the other day with my girls, I bought a take-out of it. In the middle of traffic on the way home, while the pasta dish was still hot, I started to eat and went to share it with my girls. To my big dismay, it didn't taste the same at all. My take out was oily and I didn't like it. My girls agreed with me. I didn't know what went wrong. Could it be the pasta? Cos this time I chose fettuccine for pasta. Whatever, I still didn't like the sauce this time. My girls were also disappointed to the farmer's sandwich they bought from this deli and didn't finish it too.

Oh well. first impression rarely lasts these days. =)

Boon Tong Kee @ MOA

I stumbled upon Boon Tong Kee at Mall of Asia last Friday while looking for a place to eat after a tiring rounds at Phil. Travel Expo (SMX). It was relatively still a Valentine's Day, a Friday dinner and payday (15th)  at that_meant full houses restos around MOA. When I saw this resto with only 2-3 tables occupied, I knew we didn't have to look further.




The place used to be the one occupied by Red Mango, so it's not that spacious. Gladly, it has an open kitchen which is for me suggestive of fresh hygiene.



my v date, one of my best girlfriends

At the door, I easily had placed that Boon Tong Kee's origin is Singapore. Not that I had it already in Singapore, this was the first time I came to know about it,  but they had some menu teaser poster at the door with chicken rice. No brainer, I know right.

We didn't bother to stress ourselves with the menu. We were too hungry for that. We ordered their season (CNY & Valentine) set meal of chicken rice. Comprised of  hainanese chicken and rice, sambal kangkong and a soup. The chicken was just sufficiently tasty. Nothing to rave about. I'd say I already had  better version of  hainanese chicken in Sg & Malaysia.

Plus we ordered another set meal with the same side dishes but with pork which tasted like our local tocino.
  The sambal kangkong was allright.




The soup was actually surprisingly good. In a set meal, I never expected a soup not to be bland. But this one kindah tasty. It was like adapted to our pinoy palate cos it's nearly tasted like our local tinola soup.
For some reasons I always find Sg dishes very filling. My friend thought the same. We only had those two set meals, yet we didn't finish everything. We finished just half of everything.
Value for money was good. The set meal was heavy in the tummy but light in the wallet. I don't know about regular menu thu'.




We had dessert outside,  in a coffee shop.

Belated Happy Valentine's Day!!!