Although summer is on its tail end in the Philippines, the same is not true in Pinkberry Philippines as lot of new products to cool us against the summer heat is now being introduced!

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Arabian Coffee Maker @Lugang Cafe

16 restaurants, 4 hours, 1 stomach. That in a summary, is how you would describe in numbers the SM Megamall “Mega Food Tour” held the other night at the new wing called Mega Fashion Hall. It almost broke my 18-restaurant- food-tour record back in 2009. 🙂

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Pinkberry Greenbelt 5

What’s better than a chocolate yogurt? A chocolate hazelnut yogurt, that is! It’s Pinkberry Philippines‘ newest frozen yogurt replacing the former for this season, or at least until enough of you want them to.

It’s been out as one of the five Pinkberry yogurt flavors in the menu for quite a while, actually. Made with Nutella, Chocolate Hazelnut promises to be both sweet and decadent balancing the two flavors while maintaining a light and refreshing taste. I think it’s going to replace my favorite ‘original yogurt‘ flavor. I just need a little more push. 🙂

Pinkberry Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt Combinations sampling

Chocolate Hazelnut with Toppings

Pinkberry Philipines has also revealed variants of Chocolate Hazelnut with toppings for your ready choices; but you could always craft your own according to your liking.

One of which is the Chocolate Hazelnut Classic which includes roasted hazelnuts and chocolate sauce topped by wafer rolls.

The other four are the following:

• Chocolate Hazelnut Decadence (dark chocolate crisps and mixed nuts)
• Chocolate Hazelnut Trio (Nutella, strawberry and banana)
• Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch (honey almond granola, banana and almonds)
• Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle (milk chocolate crunch and strawberry)

I was able to recently try a sampling of these and my favorite turned out to be the Chocolate Hazelnut Decadence mainly due to the rich taste of the dark chocolate crisps. I thought it was kiddie-like since the dark chocs were small pelletes. But the taste turned out to be rich. It complemented well with the sweet-tangy choco-hazelnut yogurt.

In customizing my own, I added my favorite dark chocolate crisps, toasted almonds for texture and the colorful fruity pebbles simply because I want too. 🙂

Customizing my Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt

Pinkberry 12 Swirls of Christmas

In time with the gift-giving and card-stamping collection season such as that of the 2013 Starbucks Planner, Pinkberry has one somewhat similar called the ‘12 Swirls of Christmas.’

Simply fill up the 12 stamps and viola – you get a Pinkberry Shirt! It should consist of the 5 Chocolate Hazelnut combinations and 7 Pinkberry flavors of your choice.

Pinkberry ’12 Swirls of Christmas’

Pinkberry Waffle Cookie Sandwich

Pinkberry Waffle Cookie Sandwich

More good news! Pinkberry also came out with a new product range – the Waffle Cookie Sandwich! I’m forced to reminisce on the ice cream sandwiches we had in Singapore. I always make an effort to try one whenever I’m there.

The Pinkberry Waffle Cookie Sandwich is basically a chunk of flavored yogurt spread with a topping and sandwiched in between two wafer cookies.

The three variants are Chocolate Hazelnut (Chocolate Hazelnut yogurt topped with Milk Chocolate Crunch), Coconut Lemon (Original Pinkberry with Lemon Cookie Crunch and shaved coconut) , and the Pomegranate Chocolate.

My favorite is the latter which is composed of the tangy Pomegranate yogurt topped with Milk Chocolate Crunch. I love their combination – the waffle is softly sweet in contrast to the yogurt while the topping provide the playful crunchy texture.

Chocolate Hazelnut (Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt w/ Milk Chocolate Crunch), Coconut Lemon (Original Pinkberry w/ Lemon Cookie Crunch & shaved coconut) , and Pomegranate Chocolate (Pomegranate Yogurt w/ Milk Chocolate Crunch),

Made fresh in store every day, the Waffle Cookie Sandwiches are my new favorites pushing back the yogurt and the smoothies. 😛 But I’ll definitely be back for the new Pinkberry Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt!

Although our editor-in-chief has been to previous UTT, Clasrissa and I were first-timers and excited to be “food critics” for a day in the recent Rockwell’s Ultimate Taste Test 2.

The Fruit Garden

Knowing that there would be 40 different food stalls to try at the Rockwell Tent, we had to craft a plan so we can try everything just like how our EIC made it in last year’s Ultimate Taste Test. I couldn’t imagine how to go through each and every booth so I told Clariss that we should start with main dishes such as pork, chicken, and other meat down to the desserts and beverages.

Frisch Liquor Ice Cream

We were given a set of food tray, a pen, and a map with a grading sheet with the names of the participating vendors. It’s actually our passport to every food stall. We don’t have to finish all the stalls but it would be an awesome experience if we do!

The Scoring System:

• 1 – Thanks, but it could be better
• 2 – It’s Okay
• 3 – We had a good time!
• 4 – I love it!
• 5 – Awesome! I would recommend!

Bayani Brew

The UTT management has made it very comfortable for the “food critics”, there’s enough space, drinking water dispenser and disposable plastic cups.

On my list, I actually had 12 different food stalls with a grade of 5, but will shorten it the Top 10. Let me share our great food finds with a grade of 5 at UTT2.

1. Hillside Ranch
o This is one of the most scrumptious meat entrée in UTT2. To be honest, I’m a little picky when it comes to meat. I always want it juicy, moist, flavorful but definitely not salty, and most of all tender! Available in two variants, the corned beef brisket an my favorite  slow roast beef belly. Unfortunately, they are not available in major supermarkets but you can buy them at Trellis in QC and Essel Supermarket in San Fernando, Pampanga (the province where they came from – a place famous for good food).

Hillside Ranch

2. Carlo’s Kitchen
o The crispy, crunchy goodness of Carlos Kitchen pork belly goes very well with a bottle of San Miguel Beer! I got to try it when I visited Mercato Centrale about few months ago. The flavour, which is not too salty, and the crispiness remain the same. Crunchy belly is good for “pulutan” (finger food or appetizer). I almost forgot my favourite Bulacan chicharon!

Carlo’s Kitchen

3. Baked by Anita
o Known for their delicious cupcakes, Baked by Anita surprised us with their newest offering – a flavourful savory pie called the “Wild Mushroom Gruyere & Truffle Oil”. The truffle oil made it more appealing to the palate.

Baked by Anita

UTT would not be complete without dessert such as creamy and irresistible ice cream, cakes, pastries and smoothies. Here’s my take on their dessert & beverage section.

4. Blue Togue
o When it comes to desserts, I highly recommend Blue Togue! Initially, I was hesitant to try the cakes and pastries since I had some cheesecake overload the past few days. As of this writing I still have two boxes of Conti’s cakes in my fridge. Nonetheless, their Nutella Mouse Cake looks so divine I can’t resist! And yes, I was bewitched with its moist and creamy chiffon. I highly recommend Blue Togue!

Blue Togue’s Nutella Mouse Cake

5. Matasami Flavoured Shave Ice
o This one is definitely different from other flavoured shave ice I tried in the past. I never thought it would be so smooth, so luscious, so creamy and so delicious! I tried two flavors – the Swiss Cheese and Langka, in favor of the former. The owner was very generous offering us to try other variants but I had to refuse. Perhaps on my next visit, I will try the Hawaiian Shave Ice and their liquor syrups.

o Matasami can be found in: SM Mall of Asia, Robinsons Galleria, Glorietta 4 Cinema Level and soon at Robinsons Magnolia.

Matasami

6. Villa Del Conte
o I’m already familiar with Villa del Conte as boyfie once gave me a box of these luscious, rich, premium chocolates.

Villa Del Conte

7. Saint Alps
o They served us their refreshing Blueberry Double Chocolate which was outstanding!

Saint Alps

8. Bayani Brew
o Bayani brew offers interesting and healthy beverages. I tried their Lemongrass Pandan Iced tea and Purple leaf tea Iced tea. Guess what is a purple leaf tea? It’s actually “talbos ng kamote” (kamote tops)! Interestingly, it doesn’t taste like kamote tops. However, the lemongrass pandan is just like a regular brewed iced tea but I liked it nonetheless! Each bottle costs P35.

Bayani Brew

9. Pinkberry – They served us Coconut Pinkberry and made us choose 3 toppings. It had a good balance of tanginess and sweetness to crave for.  Check out my separate post on Pinkberry.

10. Mochi Sweets

o A soft and not-too-sweet mocha dessert goes well with a cup of hot tea. Since we’re already full, I paired it with Nescafe Dolce Gusto Cappuccino.

Mochi Sweets

With a wide variety of food, I never thought I would be spending almost four hours at UTT2.

Other interesting food items are the Hokey Pokey Ice Cream from New Zealand Natural, Frisch Liquor Ice Cream, Maria’s Ilocos Empanada, Chef Anton, Lulu Belle, & the Plaza.

Bake Buddy

The Plaza

Nutella Rocks

On the other hand, there were two food stalls that I had to visit twice because they run out of food – Chief Wings and Chow Fun. The latter offered us their interesting chocolate butchi.

* Story and photos by Marjorie Pineda of www.livingmarjorney.com

New Zealand Natural

Maria’s Ilocos Empanada

Nescafe Dolce Gusto

Those are my Top 10 food items from Rockwell’s Ultimate Taste Test 2! I was so full I had to skip dinner that night.