Trip Ko Lang

We were invited to attend a coffee event entitled Latte Love; A Latte Art Workshop. It was held last October 22, 2011 in SM Megamall’s Prestige Lounge at 2pm to 5pm; sponsored by Krups and SM Homeworld.

Upon entrance, there were booths from Krups, Meadow Fresh Milk, TimTam, Folgers which offered free coffee, free milk, free chocolate and waffle. The free coffee was made from one of Krups espresso machines and used Folgers coffee beans which smelled and tasted really superb!  Loved it!

A Latte Art Workshop at SM Megamall Prestige Lounge

Mike Canlas, one of the Barista training instructors of Philippine Barista & Coffee Academy was the  main  speaker and talked about Coffees, how to make a Latte using the Krups Espresso machine, and together with 2 other Baristas showed how to do Latte Art…

KRUPS Espresso Machine

Here’s a quick step by step on how to do Latte Art and based on my understanding…

First, you have to froth milk in this type of container and can easily do it by using the Espresso machine; there’s a standard and desired consistency to have a perfect frothed milk.

Frothing Milk

When done, you can now pour your milk on your espresso coffee; with proper stroke or hand movement as you start creating your latte art… while watching it really looked easy but I doubt if I can come up with any figure if I’ll be doing it…Haha!

Pouring the Milk

Then, if needed you can also do some etching or any additional design for your Latte Art using the proper tool just like this…

Etching; designing your art

Here’s a sample of Latte Art – a perfect leaf for your espresso…

Finished product - Latte Art

Thanks to these wonderful Baristas who made Lattes more interesting and demonstrated effectively how to do Latte Art.  Philippine Barista & Coffee Academy offers offers short courses on Latte Art and other coffee trainings. You can check out their website to know more.

Baristas from Philippine Barista & Coffee Academy, Inc.

A Latte Art Contest was also conducted with some audience as participants. It was a fun activity, they made their own espresso and created their own Latte Art… Best Latte Art made was acknowledged and given a prize.

Latte Art Contest

Also, the famous coffee painter, Ms. Sunshine Plata was another speaker that afternoon. She talked about how she started coffee painting, shared some of her works and her great success in this form of art. You can check out her website to see her works.

This Latte Art workshop was a very interesting and fun event; I learned more about coffee and art; also inspired me that I can be a Barista at home and create my own Latte Arts… which I hope to do during my free time…

I’m already a coffee lover and this event made me appreciate coffee more! Love it!

Here’s another unexpected food discovery we recently had, Orchard Road… another Singaporean food stop next to our Makansutra in Manila Ocean Park. Orchard Road had its soft opening sometime on the last week of February 2010, so they still have these signs topped on their tables.

Orchard Road soft opening

Orchard Road and Makansutra have similarities like with their food, prices and interior shop design. But I can definitely say that Orchard Road is a lot better than Makansutra because (1) they have their own order style, (2) food tastes better, (3) they offer new dishes not available in Makansutra, (3) prices are more reasonable, (4) located in Mega Mall, very much accessible to anyone, (5) quick service, (6) friendly crew, and most important (7) taking pictures is allowed.

Here are some shots of Orchard Road’s entrance, open kitchen and pay counter.

Orchard Road in 2/f Bridgeway Mega Mall

Orchard Road Open Kitchen

Orchard Road Counter

Once you arrived, you will be given this order slip, you just have to select your desired foods and drinks then give it to the cashier when done. You will be given a number and have to wait for your order to be served. Waiting time was just fine; I can say that they are really effective even if they are still under training. Keep up the quick service, guys!

Orchard Road Menu and Order Form

So here we go again, seeing the menu with different types of food, we can’t easily decide on what to order and just ordered what we feel and think would be great for us… We were just 2 and our order was really too much for us and so we even had some take homes. Hehe.

Black Pepper Chicken Rice @ 145php

Black Pepper Chicken Rice, one of their most ordered dishes coming from the Mini Wok or Kuali set. It tasted really delicious and with good amount of serving.

Malaysian Nasi Goreng @ 135php

Here’s another dish, Malaysian Nasi Goreng, Malay fried rice topped with fried egg. There were a lot of ingredients included and chicken chunks were enough to complete the meal and make you really full. Rice can be good for 2 if you are like me…sometimes on a diet…Hehe.

Char Kway Teow @ 150php

We also had Char Kway Teow, my favorite stir-fry noodles, very tasty and we loved it!

Satay Chicken 4 sticks @ 110php

Another favorite food, Satay Chicken, Singapore’s barbecued style dish with peanut sauce. Flavor tasted strong and rich. Peanut sauce was a bit spicy.

Shrimp Dumplings 3 pcs @ 99php

We can’t eat without dimsum and so we ordered for their Shrimp Dumplings; tasted just the usual… Good!

Bandung @ 60php

As for our drinks, we had Bandung and Iced Teh Tarik. Bandung is a popular drink in Malaysia and Singapore made with milk and rose cordial, it’s like our own malamig drink, Gulaman. Teh Tarik is tea with condensed milk, you can have it hot or iced. Both drinks tasted good and reasonably priced.

Teh Tarik (Iced) @ 50php

Orchard Road is now my favorite food stop whenever I crave for Singaporean dishes. Everything is good – food, service, price and location. I hope they can maintain this positive look, good quality and service and not because they are just new in business.

Thanks Orchard Road for coming near us! By the way, Orchard Road is one popular road in Singapore that is known for the best shopping destination with all the popular malls and branded boutiques. While here in Manila, Orchard Road is a Singaporean food stop located inside Mega Mall and soon to have its next branch in Mall of Asia. Visit it now!