I would like to share a ‘cheesy‘ experience last month. Literally, there was an overload of cheese at the California Butter and Cheese Training Seminar with Chef Robert Jorin (CMB) from the Culinary Institute of America‘s Baking & Pastry Arts Certificate Program.

Monterey Jack and Jalapeno Jack

In line of promoting California Milk Advisory Board‘s marks “Real California Cheese” and “Real Califonia Milk,” we had a crash-course in butter and cheese appreciation at the Edsa Shangri-la Hotel in Makati together with other lifestyle and food-related media personnel.

Chef Robert Jorin (CMB) of Culinary Institute of America

Explained one by one, we had mozzarella, Monterey Jack, Jalapeno Jack, sour cream, mascarpone, ricotta cheese, and unsalted butter, among others.

Following the ingredients in their bare form are its by-products sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, buttermilk, manufacturing cream, homogenized milk and the sinfully-sweet milk caramel dulce leche. I realized that I never knew how Dulce de leche are made, until that day, and how simple but delicately complicated it can be. 🙂

Unsalted Butter

Participating California brands include Mozzarella Fresca, Crystal unsalted butter, California Farms, Berkeley Farms, and California Sunshine. All “Real California Milk” certified.

Of course, we had to try out some creations by Chef Robert Jorin whom he himself prepared. These include Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Raspberry mirror glaze, Pepper Jack & Olive Rolls, Cream Scones with Cheddar Cheese & Green Onions, Mascarpone Chocolate Swirl Cheese cake and Cheese cake with sour cream topping and strawberry on top.

California Butter and Cheese Training Seminar

I had to refrain from eating any food or dish with any form of cheese for two days after this event. (lol)! It was a great and educational experience nonetheless.

Cheesecake with Sour Cream Topping and Mascarpone Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Tiramisu on Glass w/ cream on top

Hats-off to the California Milk Advisory Board and cheese & milk expert Chef Robert Jorin of the Culinary Institute of America. Check their recipes at http://www.realcaliforniamilk.com/. For more information, you may contact Ms. Reji Retugal-Onal at 534-8534 or email rronal@synergyasia.biz.

I was recently invited by a friend to try out Angel’s Pizza Pasta in their Ortigas-Pasig branch at CityGolf Plaza , Julia Vargas Ortigas Center corner meralco Avenue beside Ortigas Home Depot.

It was a simple and homey pizza store with enough space for about 20 dine-in customers. My friend also mentioned that Angel’s Pizza * Pasta * Combo‘s owners were previous franchisers of the Domino’s Pizza we were familiar with a few years back.

They offer 11 variants of original hand-tossed pizza in Medium, Family and Big Family sizes with price range from P249 to P555.

We tried out a number of pizza from their menu including Tuna Pesto and the flagship Extra Feast; but two variants caught my attention well.

Angel's Double

First was the Angel’s Double Cheesy Melt. Angel’s Double are double-decker thin crust pizzas with literally two kinds of pizza on top of the other for a standard Big Family size (P599 ).

Tthe Angel’s Double Cheesy Melt consists of Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese on top and a spread of pepperoni between the 2 thin crusts. This reminded me of what I sometimes do with my pizza – having two slices and making a sandwich out of them; although this time with two different flavors 🙂

Angel's Double Cheesy Melt

As far as I know, this is the only pizza chain which offers this style of pizza preparation. The other two Angel’s Doubles flavors are BBQ and Cheesy Burger.  You could also order three extra sauces namely: sour cream, cheddar and tangy tomato.

Second to surprise me was the Angel’s Style hand-tossed pizza. It has the usual pizza toppings such as Mozzarella cheese and onion (mushroom too) but what sets it apart are the chicken chunks in barbecue sauce! Yummy! To put it plainly and direct to the point, NomNom recommends this for the pizza lovers with discriminating palates. 🙂 I so love it!

Angel's Style

The Angel’s Style pizza is available in size choices of 14“, 12 Slices(₱555), 12“, 8 Slices(₱435), 9“, 6 Slices(₱315).

My imagination wishes for an Angel’s Doubles of Angel’s Style – that would be a truly doubly amazing combination!

Angel's Style with Chicken Barbecue and Angel's Double

As of this writing, my fingers are itching to call their delivery hotline  922-22-22, but I know there’s none near me; yet. However, they have  branches in Makati, Kalayaan QC, Pasig, Sucat Paranaque, Fairview, Recto, Malate, UN Avenue, and Dagupan.

Most of their stores are for take-out only with a few dine-in stores  like the branch where I had my pizza in Ortigas (I also hope they can fix the air conditioning system immediately).

Angel's Pizza * Pasta * Combo

Angel’s Pizza Corp Stores PROMOS
Buy 1 Take 1 Promo
(DI – dine in;  TO– take out; DE – delivery)

Makati Store
10am-1pm DI TO DE
12mid to 3am DI TO only

Kalayaan Store
10am to 1pm DI TO DE

Fairview Store
All day dine-in/take-out only —Buy BF free BF
10am to 1pm DI TO DE

Pasig Store
10am-1pm DI TO DE
10pm-12mid DI TO DE

Sucat
10am-1pm DI TO DE
10pm-12mid DI TO DE

Recto
10am to 1pm DI TO DE

Malate
All day B1T1-DI TO DE

SM Advantage Card, Prestige, BDO Rewards cardholders & Boardwalk members get 20% discount on every pizza purchase or get free Medium Pizza for every purchase of Big Family Pizza in Angel’s Pizza Pasta Combo.

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When I discovered Ravioli early last week, I knew I found my first feature-to-be for my new and yet to be created food blog – Nomnom Club. Similarly, Ravioli is new having just started mid of this year.

Ravioli

It prides itself in serving fresh pasta even with the fast-food serve set-up amidst Robinson’s Galleria foodcourt. And indeed, serving freshly made pasta matters in the taste and the resulting firmer texture (al dente).

This was particularly true for the Chorizo and Tomato Ravioli that I had. It was a chorizo-stuffed square-shaped ravioli in tomato sauce. It’s their best-seller and I knew why. 🙂

A bite on the first piece of ravioli reveals the juicy spanish chorizo and the subtly soft pasta. The tomato sauce was good as well.

At P130, it certainly was worth it.

Chorizo and Tomato Ravioli

A trivia about the Chorizo and Tomato Ravioli– the number of pieces is counted as standard for consistency in serving. 🙂 The non-ravioli  pasta are weighed. This includes the spicy Shrimp Diablo (P95) and Bacon Carbonara (78) which I also was able to try.

Ravioli's Shrimp Diablo

Ravioli in the Making

One would also notice  top of the line cooking equipments in their open kitchen. My friend said that this is so because one of the owners is actually a chef who would settle for no less than quality equipments.

Bacon Carbonara

With the minimal and humble space, they churn up the freshest of pastas around.

The order is served fast but their food is prepared fresh and only cooked as ordered.

The tasteful experience was just far from foodcourt standards.Surely, I’ll be back to try the other interesting menu items.

The Mushroom & Mozzarella Ravioli on the menu board looks good. 🙂

Mushroom and Mozzarella Ravioli

Lastly, good news for people from the south where Robinson’s Galleria is just too far, Ravioli is opening a bistro in SM Mall of Asia come December 2009!

They’re even expanding their menu to include Pizza de Pugon. Nomnomnom! 🙂

Goodness of Fresh Pasta

Jeff, Ravioli's Pasta Maker

Business looks good and growing for Ravioli. Hopefully, same bids for Nomnom Club. 🙂 Woot! for my first feature post! 🙂