Contadina Set To Conquer Philippine Kitchens

It looks like the lives of the Filipinos will become so easy this year as one of the world's most recognized food brands finally lands in the Philippines. I'm sure you've seen Nigella Lawson in several blogs and TV programs and she was here for the same reason. Have you heard of Contandina?

It's a brand that's pretty well known in the US because that's where it started in World War 1. Three immigrant families found themselves in a situation where there was a shortage of tomatoes in America. That's when they found the soil in California apt for growing an even better harvest of these lovely fruits. They started making these products and thought of home. Now they have different sauces, canned tomatoes, rich olive oil and pasta, and a woman in the fields is representing them on the packaging. That's exactly what it means in Italian.

Trying Contadina for the first time had me thinking, why hasn't this been released in the Philippines when we're one of the most pasta loving people in the world? Even if we have our own sweet version, we have tons of people in the country who prefer the more conventional, herby and classic sauces right? Like me for example, I love Arrabbiata. The Contadina Arrabbiata Sauce is a little on the sour spicy side as it's got tomatoes, garlic and chili as it's main ingredients. It's lovely on Penne pasta and only needs a little heat when making as it's ready to serve on these handy dandy bottles which Contadina comes in. Aside from that, they also have Napoleatana which is made from vegetables mixed in with the usual ingredients like the Trinity in Italian cooking (onions, carrots, celery). The Aglio Arrostito on the other hand is made from tomatoes and the wonderful roasted garlic. I can already imagine having a hot bowl of it looking at my bed side window while the rain pours. Perfect comfort food.

I love antipastis and these olive oils would really make it special. They have Pure Olivr Oil which you can use to cook and the Extra Virgin Olive Oil for just dipping with bread or your salads, or just on top of slices of parma ham and prosciutto. I can go on and on and we'd still be hungry haha! I'm imagining things already! 

For those hearty stews, Contandina also have these canned tomatoes that'll be perfect for that. Imagine baking chicken topped with cheese and spending a few minutes on the stove, but we don't really have to wait for hours and waste precious time stewing because the sauce is already good to go.

The Linguine and Penne pasta stayed firm and al dente as we cooked it at home. I overcooked the penne a bit actually but it didn't become mushy at all. The convenience, the flavors, all come easy in a bottle or a can, plus a very competitive price range if you compare it to the existing local ones. It's hearty, homey and definitely reminds you of the Italy and how it's made by the Italians.

Are you excited about Contadina?

For more information about their products:

Official GMA Artist Center

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Visit their official website

https://www.facebook.com/contadinaphilippines/

Louise Delos Reyes Celebrates Birthday With Loving Fans

The lovely actress from GMA's stable just celebrated her nth birthday. Louise Delos Reyes, star of afternoon soap Magkaibang Mundo (Different Worlds) and lovely new ambassador of GTW by SM (congrats!) wanted this year to be a little different and chose to celebrate it with her closest fans. She's been so blessed this year and her previous shows rated quite well for pinoy audiences so they did it in a local coffee shop that pretty much followed Louise's aesthetics.

 

If you look at her Instagram account, she's done some real good work curating every post so it would look clean, effervescent and what she feels is her mood. She's also fond of music, we've seen her go to music festivals, she's got love for everything pretty like clothes and shoes. She also puts a lot of work on her personal blog www.loudelosreyes.com but also mentions she might not be updating as much because she's got a lot of work right now. She doesn't want it to be half hearted entries, which is totally understandable. 

Here's our short interview with Louise before we started the program.

Louise will be working on future projects but they are still in the pipeline. You can also expect more travels from her because she's really excited to do it every time she's not doing anything or between projects. She schedules it with her handler and it's a good thing, she's spending a lot of time with the people she loves, and loves her back.

Happy birthday Louise! Thank you for being so nice and down to earth as always!

For more information about their artists:

Official GMA Artist Center

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Visit their official website

http://gmanetwork.com/artistcenter

PABLO Opens First Store in the Philippines at Robinsons Place Manila

I've been hearing raves about PABLO since last year when the name kept on being mentioned by bloggers from the Asian region. I've discovered to eat cheese tarts from a different brand last year and found it absolutely unbelievable. For cheese lovers like me, the mix of sweet, salty and the crunchy crust was just an ingenious way of enjoying lovely food in different forms. It was heavenly, like you want to close your eyes and let those small bites permeate on your tongue a little much longer as you internally try and smell it from the inside. PABLO is Cheese Tart Specialty store from Japan. Founded in 2011, it started as a section of an open concept kitchen from Patisserie Brothers (2008) that grew quickly with the help of their creativity plus their premier product the cheese tart.

Masamitsu Sakimoto, Founder and CEO of PABLO

Founder and CEO Masamitsu Sakimoto flew all the way from Japan for the momentous event. This is as he says; a chance for Filipinos to experience their new store concept to let them see freshly baked products whilst the process is happening right before their eyes.

Obviously PABLO came from the name of Pablo Picasso. They did this to coincide with their goal of making sure their audience (YOU) would feel the element of surprise and excitement through these lovely cheese tarts. This is the authentic PABLO experience and they want to make sure that what they're having in Japan would be the same thing you'll love in Manila or any place in the world. I gladly had my first taste of the mini versions of the famous cheese tarts. They call these the PABLO Mini Chocolate, the PABLO Mini Plain and the PABLO Mini Matcha.

The PABLO Mini Chocolate was good. Now I'm a huge fan of chocolates but this was more of a cheese cake rather than chocolate cake. The crust on all of them are perfectly baked. It's crunchy all throughout and it kinda crumbles in all the right moments when you bite into it. The actual cheese and chocolate mixture in the center was like Lava Cake which was cooked on the outside but gooey on the inside. It's not too sweet and you would still smell that hint of cheese still in it. That part was amazing.

The PABLO Mini Plain was just not so plain. It's the epitome of cheese, the thing that's salty and sweet, you could smell it from outside the store. This ladies and gentlemen is a piece of heaven. It's got a thin baked cheese crust on the outside, then the gooey cheese mixture in the center is just going to haunt you for days on end if you don't get a second serving. Don't believe the detractors who think lining up for these lovely cheese tarts isn't worth it because chances are, they're probably no cheese lovers to begin with. This is worth the trip to Manila and if you're asking why people are lining up for it, it's because IT IS GOOD.

For Matcha lovers, don't say I didn't tell you. This is the PABLO Mini Matcha. The Matcha flavor is not too overpowering. Again, this is more of a cheese cake rather than a blob of matcha on top of a crust. It's like that plain one on top with a hint of matcha on it. The specific thing I liked about it is that you could still distinguish that it is a cheese tart. You could smell both, even though it is topped with matcha powder, it won't spoil the whole experience. This came a close second.

The Freshly Baked Cheese Tart is the reason why they have been able to achieve success. If you don't go home with it, it's like watching an orchestra play without strings, it's like racing without wheels on, it's like going to a concert without performers. It's going to be pointless. If you would like to buy one of these, I think they've managed to limit the number of purchases per person. It's that good.

 

Aside from these awesome goodies, they've got Mille-Feuille (a variety of them), Sabrel (cookies), plus really good coffee inside the store. I'd still suggest you take em home instead of staying in the cheesecake looking store as it gets pretty packed from noon til night.

Don't take my word for it. Visit the store today or if you are willing to wait, they're planning to open some MORE stores in a couple of months. PABLO in the Philippines is managed and brought here by Suyen Corporation, the same people who owns Bench, other brands and specialty restaurants in the country. You'll love em cheesecakes here for sure!

For more information about their products:

Pablo Cheesetart Philippines

Like them on Facebook


Visit their official website

https://www.facebook.com/PabloCheesetartPhilippines

Data Management Made Easy with MySmart App

I'm enjoying buying stuff and playing games online lately and I haven't been looking at my data use recently because I've always used unlimited data plan from SMART. Now that I'm getting a new phone via their Smart iPhone plans (yes I'm up for retention) I have been eyeing the iPhoneSE or the #SmartiPhone7. Changing the plan would entail thay I'd be getting still a substantial amount of data allowance but I've got to keep watch because I might be going over it and I'm afraid to actually go over my monthly budget (we all do aside from the rich people LOL). Aside from that, I binge on iFlix a lot and that takes the bulk of my free data which I have no idea how to measure aside from looking at my phone's details. Heck I won't stop watching Emmy award winning Mr. Robot and hit show UNREAL (which I love because we single men love reality dating shows haha!). Aside from that, we all LOVE Pokemon Go right?!

I just installled the #MySmart app today and it looks like I won't have a problem managing my Smart number and the internet connection that comes with it. I already installed the My Smart Life App (the other lifestyle app they have that's FREE) a couple of months ago and it detected my number already. This app though has lots of great features which I can use for my postpaid and prepaid accounts. I can also pay bills online, view my cureent statements (I always over pay!), change my billing address (not that I'm leaving QC), change my credit limit (oh yeah those roaming services must not be abused), auto debit your payments (if you don't want to do this on a monthly basis),  and even PUK code retrieval for those who want to secure their sim cards. The app also lets you buy stuff like ePins for your games and prepaid stuff so you don't have to go to the store at the end of your street.

You can also just press a button and subscribe to the latest call, text and data packages if you need to without going through all that mumbo jumbo texting or ride to the Smart Store (although it's easy in Megamall the place there is futuristic!).

You see, you can't really buy convenience and now that you've got this app, you can manage your accounts right at the comfort of your own home. I mean if you can do it with a couple of steps, you don't have to go to the physical store or call their call centers anymore because YOU control everything at a flick of a finger. It puts YOU in control of your accounts anytime and anywhere!

Now how about installing that on your phone today?!

KUMAGCOW

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