By Stella A. Estremera
Goin Places
THE place was featured two days after we dropped in to try it. And so, I had to shelve this binge... at least for two weeks.
The story, however, has to be told because for the first time in years, my present crop of food-bingers gathered in one eating place. Yup, all of them – Carlos, Trisha, Deng, Imee, and Charmaine. A rare gathering indeed. (Picture, picture!)
The host to this gathering was Mae’s Kitchen along Mabini Street (very near Badminton World), in what used to be the Little Kitchen (beside Paparazzi Pizza).
Callos and lengua were highly recommended by Carlos, and so we ordered those.
I also ordered what was described as Portuguese paella and an omelette.
Since Deng and Trish weren't there yet, Imee wondered what else they might want to try.
I assured her that Deng will enjoy the night since she'd most likely order spaghetti and there is spaghetti in the menu.
Deng, when she arrived, tried not to be predictable in her choice of food and asked for Tuscan Sausage... Haha! That's as far as she went... tried. Tuscan Sausage was out of stock.
She ended up ordering, as I expected, spaghetti. Spaghetti Napoletana to be exact, because it sounded different.
She was in for another disappointment, a state of mind Imee noticed as soon as her spaghetti was placed in front of her. Napoletana wasn’t in tomato sauce and comfort food for Deng means spaghetti in tomato sauce. Poor, poor. Still… Deng’s fetish for tomato sauce aside, the spaghetti was good and had all the necessary taste – the freshness, the aldente noodles, and yes, the fresh herbs.
The food was okay. The lengua was good. The callos, however, would have been better appreciated had there been more solid stuff in there. That's my way of saying, there was, in our opinion, too much sauce. The omelette was made of whipped eggs; very soft and very fluffy… but, too fancy for me. I want my scrambled egg scrambled.
Beyond dinner, Mae’s Kitchen is a must-visit for those with sweet tooth.
Mae’s scoops are guaranteed to bring all those with sweet tooth to sweet tooth heaven.
The foodies with me, however, were still not satisfied with the sugar rush from the scoops and still ordered brownie ala mode for dessert.
The consensus: dessert and scoops are good.
It was another night of good food made better with very good company.