Friday, June 13, 2008 Flora Café: A Fusion of East and West Culinary Experience By Rimaliza Opiña
CRAVING for New Zealand mussels, Greek Salad, US Blade steak or even the all-time Filipino favorite adobo and fried ice cream for dessert, but can't find them in your usual restaurant?
Now you can eat your fave European, Filipino, Asian and Mediterranean cuisine in one setting. Impossible? Not at Flora Café, which recently introduced its menu that infuses among others a combination of Mediterranean, European, Asian and Flipino cuisine in their dishes.
Raring for seafoods, which is commonly eaten with broth? Try Flora Café's appetizers. The traditional tempura dipped in flour batter and eggs gets a new tangy twist with a special Greek coating and a cucumber dip.
Baked mussels from New Zealand and partially cooked calamari get a sprinkling of Benguet herbs and lemon.
Appetizers also include the classic crispy shrimps, buffalo wings marinated in mild hot sauce, garlic mushrooms sautéed in garlic and olive oil, onion rings with mayo-garlic dip and mozzarella cheese sticks served with marinara sauce or basil-tomato dip.
If Flora Café's appetizers make you salivate try their soups and salads, made of freshly harvested vegetables from the gardens of Benguet and Mountain Province.
Love herbs? Try the Green Herb Soup or the Cream of Carrot Soup and the creamy cream of mushroom soup.
Salads are a must at the Flora Café. Cheeses are a feature in their salad. The Greek salad for instance has crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes, olives, cucumber and feta cheese. Your favorite Caesar Salad has a rich anchovy dressing, crispy bacon and croutons and parmesan cheese.
Want something sweet for your salad? Try Apple Salad. It has a blend of the sweetest apples, lettuce, smoked chicken, honey-mustard dressing topped with grated gorgonzola cheese.
For an added twist, try also the Mediterranean Asparagus and Tomato Salad, with white beans and pesto vinaigrette and the cabbage, mint and peanut salad -- a blend of shredded cabbage, carrots and nuts in a sweet-chili dressing.
Main dishes consist of a variety of seafood and red meat meals. For seafood lovers or even for those who are not, shrimps, squid, salmon and mussels in fresh tomato herb and cream, fish fillet served with garlic and spinach and mountain rice, charcoal-grilled salmon, tilapia fillet and salmon steak are for you.
Meat would love Flora Café's tender and juicy baby back ribs in cherry apple sauce, layered steak, black Angus beef with Texas sauce, strips of chicken breast flavored with tamarind, lengua con setas or ox tongue simmered in wine and mushroom sauce.
Kebabs are also available. Skewered beef and scallion stalks with corn on the cob are on top of their list, it being a favorite of their clients. Prawns, squid, fillet of fish, duck breast and chicken kebabs.
Want a light but a filling meal? Try Flora Café's salads, pasta and sandwiches. Chili con carne, fettuccine with crab legs and shrimps, scampi pasta, steak sandwich, clubhouse sandwich and tuna melt.
Favorite Filipino dishes available at the café include nilasing na tanguigue, sinigang na hipon sa mangga, tinola, pork adobo, beef caldereta, seafood kare-kare, kare-kare, pinakbet, pancit canton and pancit bihon and kanin sa bagoong.
For your sweet tooth, the most in-demand is their fried ice cream. Also, try their fruit salad with yoghurt dressing, orange and strawberries with yoghurt and nuts, caramel custard and fruit platter.
Reasonably priced, Hotel Elizabeth's Flora Café puts premium on freshness, quality and service.
For inquiries, call 619-0367 or visit Hotel Elizabeth at Julian Felipe Street, Gibraltar, Baguio City.
