A happy place made with love by Sophie's Mom - An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour

The Sophie's Mom bakery cafe in Tuscany at McKinley Hill (Taguig City)

Finally, we have the last stop of this awesome foodie tour in Tuscany at McKinley Hill, BGC.  It was one of a kind - a marathon of dining gourmet foods from eight among the great and fine restaurants of Tuscany food strip.  

I thought at first the cupcakes were offering to the gods.

We were told to go upstairs in the mezzanine of Sophie's Mom Bakery cafe and picked what we liked of the displayed cupcakes on the table adorned with fresh flowers. Considering the ambiance, I thought at first the cupcakes were an offering to the gods. Exactly, the pastries are heavenly in taste. Now we have our final after meal dessert at Sophie's Mom.  

Ladies and girls would love the pastries and how they are presented.
  

Even a serving of cold iced tea are prettily wrapped,  a work of feminine art. 

Why Sophie's Mom? You may ask. That is so, because this dainty cupcake and pastries store in Tuscany really started its business with Mom Sophie actually catering to her daughter's friends in high schools years back then with those scrumptious cupcakes and other delicious and beautifully designed pastries, drinks, and that later on she would include nice party dining wares and other feminine party designs

Signature pastries at Sophie's Mom include the red velvet with cream cheese frosting, Spanish bread, cronuts, lasagna, oreo cheesecake cookies, flourless chocolate cupcakes, and several customized cupcakes and other pastries.

You can buy in retail these Harney & Sons high-quality loose teas and tisanes that are organic and certified kosher.

Also available are coffee pods of Malongo gourmet coffee sold in retail which is hugely popular among espresso coffee connoisseurs.  Each pod is vacuum packed in natural filter paper ready for brewing with your coffee pod machine.

Other pastries, your choice of packaging for your bakeshop goodies, and novelty table wares. You can scribble a special note to someone and post it on the board behind a fancy girlie payphone.

Sophie's Mom can be contacted at (02) 738-6625 and (02) 856-4849. You can also send a message to sophiesmom75@yahoo.com.

 

• See the other restaurants we raided in An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour 

• Planet Grapes

• Tratorria Poggio Antico

• B&T Mexican Kitchen

• L.E.S. (Lower East Side) Bagels

• Sauceria

• Marciano’s

• Main Street

Marciano's authentic, flavorful Italian foods are magnificó - An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour

 

After about three times of passing by through and through the alley of our sixth destination in the tour, at last we finally made a stop and entered the door of Marciano's in Tuscany, McKinley Hill (Taguig). This time, most of us were either already tired of eating nice stuffs in the first five restaurants or too tired to walk in our tour along the food strips of Tuscany. It's no wonder why one would easily tire walking on less than a hundred meter long walkway. Blame it on our replete bellies. 

Some of my fellow Secret Foodie Tour bloggers managed to quickly metabolize and use the energy from their huge calorie intake.  But still, few gave up and sat around lazily and it's just matter of who would budge to go home ahead and these guys will surely follow.

Cheesy four season Italian pizza. A 12 inches round pizza partitioned into pepperoni, mushroom, seafood, and four-cheese flavors

 

But still many of us could not resist to take one or two bites of the big cheesy four season Italian pizza offered by the friendly and very accommodating attendants of Marciano's.  The taste was really great and flavorful. 

Woody Allen Linguine pasta

Then later came a plate of Woody Allen Linguine pasta with a bottle of chilled red iced tea.  

Dow Jones steak of authentic U.S. T Bones with Hungarian sausages

 

Then followed a serving platter of medium rare Dow Jones steak, with sausages, mashed potatoes, grilled fresh white onions, zucchini, and bell peppers on the side. I was among those rearing to finish the marathon of dining gourmet foods in Tuscany.

 

Marciano's sealed the awesome dining experience with shot glasses of creme brulee as after-meal  dessert

Creme brulee in shot glasses

So as to continue the joy of eating awesome food, some fellow bloggers packed their share of pizzas in to go boxes and brought their loot home.

• See the other restaurants we raided in An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour 

• Planet Grapes

• Tratorria Poggio Antico

• B&T Mexican Kitchen

• L.E.S. (Lower East Side) Bagels

• Sauceria

• Main Street

• Sophie’s Mom Bakery Cafe

 

It's delicious, healthy, naturally sourced, and cooked the Sauceria way - An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour

 This time, we started complaining of full tummies. 

Mr. Earl Palma of Sauceria is always eager to share us how he sourced out his ingredients and the way he prepared the good stuffs in his resto.

But when the owner of Sauceria started explaining us how they sourced their ingredients and researched their own menu and cooked them in artisan way, and defining what they call as their own discovery of deliciousness and their own way of capturing the interplaying taste of flavors and of naturally sourced ingredients, I started to crave what this restaurant can offer us. 



Suaceria's Catalan flatbread pizza, also known in Catalan language as the feta cilantro tomato cocas, a Spanish-style pizza.

First, we were offered with a distinctively designed and flavored Catalan flatbread pizza which they called feta tomatocilantro coca. It was laid on a board of flattened Japanese bamboo board served with a glass of freshly brewed drink, which actually was a concoction of various herbs and different kinds of lemon and orange extracts.

A plate of Sauceria's baby sauce burger

In another serving plate is the artisinal baby sauce burger. It was a Furikaki bun sandwiching a blue cheese anchovy spread and served with few pieces of baked potato wedges and a dipping sauce of what looks like a tomato catsup.

A serving tray of Sauceria's tuna tataki zaru soba

Before we left for the next restaurant, Sauceria put on our table a serving tray of tuna tataki zaru soba. This Japanese inspired dish is a serving of quickly seared fresh red tuna meat rolled in toasted sesame seeds, sliced thinly into sashimi and then laid on a mound of Zaru soba noodles garnished with thin strips of nori sheet. It is served with home made sour cream and wasabi dip and chopped fresh spring onion.

Fellow foodie bloggers feasting the Sauceria's specialties of the day.  Believe me, despite that our tummies were too wary already digesting the other foods we had from previous restaurants, we find the flatbread pizza appeasing to our taste buds and aromatic to our nosy nostrils. A must try. Me, I'm looking to have it again. 

Sauceria believes that quality food starts from the freshest ingredients that are locally farmed, have low carbon footprint, and has minimal pesticide content.  The best flavors come mostly from natural sources. The sauces are concocted from scratch using homegrown herbs. The artisinal breads are baked to perfection, which can be assured that in your every bite you will get a healthy and satisfying fill.

A set of Sauceria's first offering of baby sauce burger, Catalan flatbread pizza, and a glass of freshly brewed lemon grass with assortment of fresh lemon extracts

Everything from Sauceria is always made fresh everyday from whatever ingredients are readily available. Their preparation and cooking do not depend on commercially produced stuffs.  The diners are always served with hundreds of choices. The menu has a list of well researched recipes from the best culinary secrets from all over the world.  

The  moment we raid the fifth restaurant in our listed destination in that An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour in Tuscany, Mckinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig

The Sauceria style is distinctively synonymous to healthy and delicious foods.



Click the manifesto to enlarge and read what Sauceria is committed to manifest to their dining customers



• See the other restaurants we raided in An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour 

• Planet Grapes

• Tratorria Poggio Antico

• B&T Mexican Kitchen

• L.E.S. (Lower East Side) Bagels

• Marciano’s

• Main Street

• Sophie’s Mom Bakery Cafe

Finding authentic gourmet bagels and more pastries in L.E.S. (Lower East Side) - An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour

When we found the place of L.E.S (Lower East Side) Bagels, we thought it was our last stop of the tour as we are now going to have lots of sweet pastries aside from the gourmet bagels. 

To moderate your lust on tasty pastries, just remember that this is not your last stop of the tour

Cubes of irresistible brownies. A must try. Don't loss counting by keeping all the used toothpicks aside. 

Espresso hazelnut brownie and raspberry cheesecake brownie

I supposed, it was a mistake that we came in here early that part of the tour and munched cubes of brownies. The brownies were so irresistible, much more when you realized that in each cube there's big chunk of chocolate mass. It served us good as an after-meal dessert. 

Freshly baked bagels stuffed with authentic New York cheese creams

Various blends of tasty cheese creams from plain, salmon, berries, to herbaceous greens

The freshly baked bagels slathered with authentic New Yorker's deli spread had expanded in my tummy that I could sense it was getting almost full. Of course, we were not whining. How could you with all those blessings just waiting your fingers to pick them up and stuff them in your mouth.  What really was in my mind is to have more of this until it was late for me to realize that we were just halfway in that awesome dining tour.  I almost forgot to reserve some space in my tummy for the next resto in this awesome secret foodies tour.    

A fellow foodie blogger, Ms. Cheryl Golangco of When in Manila listens closely to the chef while having her piece of great tasting bagel.

Click to enlarge and read what Chef Cuit says about his favorite bagels

  
By the way, L.E.S. Bagel's slection of gourmet bagels and cream cheese concoctions are fresh off the mill and oven. Because of what we experienced in this one-night-stand food tour, we can vouch that the combinations are really mouth watering and irresistible!  L.E.S. Bagel has the basic blueberry, sesame, chocolate, and wheat bagels slathered with tasty cheese blends from salmon, berries, to herbaceous greens.  

Home made dough nuts

They also served coffee, other delicious pastries, home-made cookies, and various blend of cheese creams.   
  

• See the other restaurants we raided in An Awesome Secret Foodies Tour 

• Planet Grapes

• Tratorria Poggio Antico

• B&T Mexican Kitchen

• Sauceria

• Marciano’s

• Main Street

• Sophie’s Mom Bakery Cafe