UTT 9.0: Up Close and Personal

As promised, here are some of the food that we feasted on at the Ultimate Taste Test 9.0 held in Soderno @ Molito last August 29, 2012--

Merry Moo

chili bacon tablea ice cream, strawberry shortcake ice cream

Bread Winner 

salmon burger, pulled pork sandwich

Carlo's Kitchen
crunchy pork belly

Frisch Liquor Ice Cream- Russian Winter,
Zhivago Coffee (top and bottom left);
SJB Liberica enterprise- Goofy Goat latte (top right);
Organikka Foods and Drinks- vegetable juice
(bottom right)

TonTon Chaya

ramen, Japanese Pizza (okonomiyaki)

Royal Brands Corporation
fish sauce

Mocktails Republic
Lemon Drop

Mommy Corrie's VIP Chicharon
premium chicharon

Balamban Liempo
roasted balamban liempo

Polland
fresh lumpia

Leon Philippe

goat's milk pastillas, goat's milk

Neneng's
tablea cupcake

I must confess, I am no good as a food critic but I could not help but swoon over some of the items there that I really liked. I enjoyed having Merry Moo's strawberry shortcake ice cream, for example. The vanilla ice cream base is very smooth and creamy, staying true to what made Merry Moo popular in the first place. Swirled into this is luscious strawberry and rounded out with lumps of delightful cake.

From top: Piper's Pan
Ensaymada; Baked Bites
by ABC Nutella Rocks;
Little Bites Cupcakery
Red Velvet Crinkles

Another winner is the salmon burger by Bread Winner. It is a refreshingly healthy twist to the burger, which is infamous for being a calorie bomb. For my streetfood fix, I have to hand it to the chicken isaw by Nina's Grill. It is flavorful and so crunchy, I can imagine myself snacking on it again and again. Ooh, and there is ensaymada. I love a good ensaymada, and Piper's Pan's ensaymada is one of the better ones. It is light and fluffy with a good ratio of bread to cheese. It is also moist but not overly so.

I was happy with the jazzed up fried chicken shots of Happy Panda, too. Happy Panda offers boneless chicken pieces that are battered, fried and tossed in special sauces, kind of like buffalo wings but without the bones.  The containers that the fried chicken shots were served in were super cute (tiny little paper cups with a Happy Panda logo stuck in front) and each sample came with rice, which I appreciated.

Happy Panda
Panda's Chicken, Buffalo Chicken,
Panda's Satay-Gravy Chicken

Maybe it's because I have a soft spot for buffalo wings, or pandas, but this is one of the more memorable eats I had during the event and I would like to have more of this chicken again soon. And speaking of more, the top 5 food suppliers of UTT 9.0 who meet the average rating of 3.5 and above from the "food critics for the day" gets to come back to Soderno to sell their products there rent-free for a month. I am certainly looking forward to seeing the winners back in Soderno very soon. Just as much as I am looking forward to the next ultimate taste test.