Fake versus authentic Carigara pastillas

On the night after the papal events in Palo while passing through the town of Carigara, we stopped by Danny 's, a store selling two delicacies the town is known for: pastillas de leche, a sweet paste made usually from carabao milk, and roscas, a biscuit made with anise. These delicacies are powerful reminders of my youth while I was studying in the seminary. In those years, which would be the 60's, overland trip from Ormoc to Tacloban was an arduous trip through a jungle area and unpaved roads. At the halfway mark, we would always make a lunch stop at Carigara and inevitably buy bags of these delicacies. Carigara was and is still known for these products as well as the manufacture of long bolos. Anyway, when  I ate the roscas back home, i discovered that they were stale and no longer crunchy. As for the pastillas , I could immediately tell that were made with condensed or powdered milk and not from carabao milk as the seller claimed. It was a disappointment. So buyers beware! If going through Carigara, don't buy anything from Danny's. Ask around because there are still a few Carigaran-ons who care about their products' reputation. A friend pointed out later that he buys his pastillas from Lumen's, so I guess that is as good a recommendation as you can get.

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Sometime later, I was told by my house help Veny that my nephew Butch ate the lot and found it to be (seemingly) real pastillas. To my taste though, they were fake, even if they seemed kind of a toasty color, like the authentic ones. So I puzzled over it because it had a very fine milky taste with none of the richness of carabao milk. When I tasted one batch, it seemed to have a definite starchy taste, like cornstarch. So are pastillas made with cornstarch? You bet. This is also why it had a toasty color. It was the cornstarch, which acts as a binder to the milk, that was responsible for the toasty appearance. These pastillas were not authentic carabao milk pastillas. To find out what goes into the making of authentic carabao milk Carigara pastillas, you can read this blog entry which I discovered on the internet.

http://definitelypinoy.blogspot.com/2013/09/pastillas-de-leche-of-carigara-leyte.html

Cafe Lorenzo and the Gambas That Failed

Today, in a fit of gastronomical ennui, I went to Cafe Lorenzo by the seaside to see if they had something interesting to snack on. I've been a fan of their capuccinos and cheeseckes, which I found to be at par with any coffee I've had in Manila or Italy . They have also a bistro menu with entrees like "tonkatsu", tacos and US-style ribs. I always thought they were kind of overly ambitious with this menu, which was quite expensively priced. I would have expected them to follow the safe American model, which is to simply offer pannini and pastries. However, Cafe Lorenzo decided to open full restaurant fare, the kind whose names you only encounter in international  bistros. I know of no other restaurant in Ormoc that offers US style ribs (very expensive at 750 pesos). I decided to order the "gambas" (around 140 pesos without rice).  As far as I know, when you say you're offering  gambas or "garlic shrimp", that means you're going to give me reasonably sized shrimps in olive oil and minced garlic. I say this with much back experience. I used to play the piano in La Tasca, a Spanish restaurant in Greenbelt, Makati back during the Marcos era. Their specialty was, you guessed it, gambas and very specially, a kind of fall-off-the-bone oxtail stew called "rabo estofado".  I'm not sure if they are still there, but if they are, check them out. They were just a few steps away from Via Mare. Greenbelt Makati has changed so much though since the 70's, so they're probably gone. I've had tapas in Spain, of which gambas are  a usual feature. Plus, really, I've cooked them myself, usually with an infusion of white wine.  To return to  Cafe Lorenzo:  after a short period enjoying my cappuccino, the waiter came over to bring me a dish of ...horrors.  What I got instead was a very much dumbed- down concoction of very tiny shrimps, the sort that seem to be like those dried ones called "ebi"  that they sell at the Chinese store as condiments for noodles. There were some peppers, some garlic, the whole of which was smothered in an unexpected gooey blanket of ketchup that hid the wee shrimps from sight. I was debating whether to return it or eat it. I decided not to make a scene, and  I ate it, vowing never to order it ever again from this cafe. Again I find this conundrum in Ormoc: potentially good bistros with promising offerings are done in by greed. In their need to economize, they skimp on the ingredients, thus making money out of charging a lot for not a lot.  Is Cafe Lorenzo becoming, or has become, a tourist trap? Yes. I later mentioned  my experience with  somebody who replied: " That's the way they make their gambas" as if excusing their failure. This is usually how Ormocanons reply when somebody complains about bad service or bad food in this city: it's  the way things are, no need to make a fuss about it. No my dear: these below (from Google) are real "gambas al ajillo", and nothing can ever change that.