Food Tasting # 8: Ma Del's Cuisine Part 2

Mox and I were supposed to go church hunting last Tuesday, but it seemed like luck was not on our side because all of our ocular visits were all in vain. Our first stop was at Santuario de San Jose in Greenhills, but a wedding was taking place when we arrived so we weren't able to take pictures of the interior of the church. Not only that, the parish office was closed so we couldn't ask them when their 2014 calendar will open. Ang malas lang diba? Our next target was North Greenhills Clubhouse, but because it was a holiday, the office was also closed. We were so frustrated that we decided to cancel our last visit, which was supposed to be Mary the Queen Parish, and just go home.

One good thing did happen though: Mox was able to accompany me to another food tasting with Ma Del's Cuisine! My parents and brother were the ones who were with me during my first food tasting, so I scheduled another one to let Mox taste their food. The food served today were the same as the ones served before, except for the chicken and fish entrees. Forgive me though because I forgot again to take pictures of our plates. Masyado ulit kaming naexcite kumain eh.

We again had the Fettuccine Italiana for our pasta. Surprisingly, I appreciated the dish this time around because it was more flavorful than the last time. I don't like my pasta sour, which is why I am not a fan of tomato-based pasta, but the Fettuccine Italiana was packed with meat, which made it a bit salty—just the way I like it. Mox thought it was so delicious that he literally gobbled it down. Patay-gutom lang ang peg. Haha!

Another repeater was the Roast Beef with Mushroom Gravy. Last time, I said that my roast beef was tough to chew. Now I believe that it was bad luck at that time because now my roast beef is very soft and tender. The mushroom gravy again has that sweet-salty taste that I love. Think the gravy used in Jollibee's burger steak, but even better! Basta ang sarap niya. It’s just too bad that the famed Spanish Beef Caldereta was not served during our food tasting so I couldn't compare both beef entrees.

We then had the Chicken Flambe next. Flambe means to ignite food that have liquor or liqueur added, so I  thought the chicken has some alcohol in it. But the Chicken Flambe looked nothing like what I'd expected; instead it looked just like the Chicken Cordon Bleu because the fillet was fried, filled with ham and cheese, and had some gravy on top. I couldn't taste a single drop of alcohol in it. However, I'm not complaining because the chicken was very juicy and the gravy balanced the cheesiness of the dish. Plus, I'm not really a fan of alcohol-soaked food, except for my mom's nilasing na hipon (but of course, the shrimps were soaked in Sprite rather than alcohol so that's not counted). Mox loved this dish so much that he even ate the rest of my share. Haha!

Our fish dish was Fish Fillet with Tartar Sauce. What I liked about this is that Ma Del's is very generous with their fillet. You can practically taste all of the fish in one bite, unlike other fish fillets where there are mostly bread crumbs. The tartar sauce is also the perfect dip for the fried seafood. Yummy! This dish is similar to Quido's Fish Fillet with Mayo Garlic Sauce but I'm more impressed with Ma Del's version.

For our pork entrée, we again had the Korean Pork. It tasted as delicious as before, but compared to the other dishes that we’ve tasted, I thought it was too salty and overpowering now. Yes, too much flavor can be a bad thing. Plus, it looked too boring next to the other entrees because it was the only dish without any sauce or dip.

And for our dessert, we had the Buco Pandan Salad. Honestly, I don’t know if it was really the Buco Pandan Salad that we ate or the Buco Pandan Jello. They looked exactly alike, from the shot glass to the whipped cream on top. The only difference was there was more coconut meat in the Buco Pandan Salad. Maybe it was really Buco Pandan Jello and Anj just made a typo on our menu for the day? I don't know; I should just stop confusing myself now. Bottomline is, the dessert was really delicious!

Since Anj already explained the inclusions of their packages during our previous food tasting, she just showed us some samples of her beach-themed setups, including the beach-themed wedding cakes made by her cake supplier. Since we will have around 150 guests, we are entitled to pick two freebies and one of those freebies could be our wedding cake.

Ma Del's offers both icing and fondant wedding cakes. There are template designs for the cakes, but Ma Del's also allows customized designs for an additional fee. I think the icing cakes would cost around P3,500 to P4,500 while a fondant cake would cost around P8,000. Here are some samples of an icing cake and a fondant cake from Ma Del's for a beach-themed wedding. I think the icing cake below is based on a template design while the fondant cake is customized to suit the theme.

Satellite Cake

Fondant Cake

I know I said before that a customized cake would be the least of our priorities, but I'm now ready to eat my words. Just look at it! It's so pretty! And while I still don't think we could afford a customized wedding cake, I am willing to look for other affordable suppliers for this, if there are any.

VERDICT: Mox just loved Anj and Ma Del's. He would probably book them on the spot if their 2014 calendar was already opened. He was quite participative during our meeting, asking Anj questions regarding their setups and other services. He even asked Anj to compute how much would it cost us if we would get their most expensive package with tiffany chairs. Bibong-bibo talaga si kuya! Haha! This was a surprise because he would rarely talk during the few times that he'd accompany me to a supplier meeting. I guess he felt the this-is-it moment with Ma Del's. :) Of course we still need to attend a few more food tastings before we make a decision, but Ma Del's is now a frontrunner in our search for our caterer.