5 Weird Chocolate Dishes Found In Manila Restaurants That Aren’t Desserts 2
BY EJ DELA VEGA
“A french chef once told me that dessert is never complete without a little bit of chocolate.”
-A Chopped competitor on the Food Network
It’s true. Even the mention of the word chocolate conjures up images of chocolate lava cakes, chocolate truffles, chocolate sundaes, chocolate milkshakes, chocolate rainbows and cocoa butterflies… but I digress.
When we think of chocolate, it’s almost always within the context of dessert. We’re used to chocolate being a meal-ender, seldom as being part of the meal itself. Chocolate’s intrinsic sweetness has charmed many Filipinos into thinking it doesn’t belong in a main course or as appetizers. Many Filipinos, but not all.
A few establishments in Manila have taken the road less traveled by offering more creative interpretations of cocoa, and we hunted them down for you.
“Once You Go Black, You Never Go Back” – Gayuma ni Maria
Photo from yummydatenight.tumblr.com
Considering that a chocolate entrée is already quite foreign to most, this one’s actually one of Gayuma ni Maria’s bestsellers. It’s a chocolate-crusted cream dory with chocolate sauce. “You’ll never want to eat fish any other way” they say.
Their choice of fish actually makes pretty good sense. Dory’s often used as a “blank canvas” of sorts, which means it’d make a good base for the chocolate flavor. Reviews are hit or miss on this one, and it looks like it’s all about the cook on the fish. When ordering, you might want to remind them not to overcook it!
Rogue Chocolate Stout – Craft Pub & Grill
Photo from ttahko.net
Technically, it’s not a dish, but a drink. Yep, chocolate beer. Who says chocolate drinks are just for kids, anyway?
Definitely give this one a try… if you can catch it in stock. The chocolate ale scored an impressive score of 93 on beeradvocate.com (with 3,435 ratings) and a whopping 99 on ratebeer.com (with 2,276 ratings!) for taste and style. Just imagine the kind of bittersweet buzz a few bottles of this ought to give you!
Chocolate Chicharon – Gino’s Brick Oven Pizza
If there was ever an oddball combination of flavors that we never thought we’d see, it’s this. As if chicharon (pork rinds) wasn’t deadly enough, Gino’s takes the guilty pleasure to a whole new level by dipping them in chocolate. We’ve seen sweet and salty before (look at how popular salted caramel is these days!), but not like this.
Does it work? Maybe! Is it worth a try (and the corresponding caloric intake) just to say that you have? Definitely.
At one point (subject to availability), they also served chocolate-covered bacon and “salami.” Sometimes we forget this is a pizza place!
Chocolate Chicken Wings – Borough
Photo from lakwatsyera.blogspot.com
Borough’s chocolate chicken wings are baked, not fried. Ha! As if they’d make the diet-conscious feel better about eating chicken wings and chocolate. I see what you did there, Borough!
These ain’t your typical buffalo-style wings, that’s for sure. They’re coated in cocoa and cinnamon, served with cilantro sour cream, and a little bit of weird on the side. Some people love it, some don’t, and some are just left scratching their heads.
Xocolat Chicken Pasta – Xocolat
Red sauce, white sauce, and green sauce we’ve seen, but chocolate brown??
Chocolate is clearly not something we see mixed with pasta very often, but Xocolat seems to have pulled it off pretty well. Aside from having the chicken rubbed in cacao before cooking, the entire dish is topped with a generous amount of chocolate shavings.
Source:
www.looloo.com
