I was once invited to a fancy birthday party and I had no idea what gift I should buy to the…read moreelegant and sophisticated birthday girl. The only thing I knew is that it should be something that I could buy there at Greenbelt. A friend of mine then suggested me ROYCE' Chocolate, a kiosk located in Greenbelt 5. "A box of good chocolates always works" - she said. I trusted her and bought a box of Au Lait Nama Chocolate, their classic one. Of course I've tried lots of different flavours before making my choice. It was a hard decision, come on! It's fine chocolate! :P Oh my God, I ended up buying a box for me also. However, since it's kinda pricey, I've promised to myself that the glorious box should last for a month at least. Of course I broke my promise. Of course I ate all the box. But I was pregnant, craving for good chocolate. So I'm forgiven.

One Christmas, my brother was so excited to give his gift to papa. He then warned me that his gift…read morefor papa was only for him and it wasn't to be shared with other people. He gave papa the gift and it was opened in front of everyone. It was chocolates from Royce. Of course, the little brat in me went ahead and got chocolates without asking and forgetting the fact that I am allergic to chocolate. Oh my. It was heaven in my mouth. A few days after Christmas, I went to the kiosk and ended up buying their Baton Cookies, potato chips and a box of their classic chocolate. Silly me couldn't resist and I gobbled everything up before New Year came. I was sick with asthma. But who cares?! I was eating a piece of heaven.

For chocolate lovers like me, this place is heaven. Almost all items in the menu are chocolate or…read morehave chocolate in them. There are different chocolate cakes, almost all of which I've tried, and all are winners. There are savory dishes with chocolate like pasta, which unfortunately I haven't tried yet, since my friends and I always come here for dessert and the drinks - yes, they have cocktails. And, the cocktails - oh, the cocktails! Nothing could be more perfect. It's the classic and comforting sweetness of chocolate laced with different kinds of liquor. A favorite among our group is the Inferno, which has just the right mix of chocolate-y sweetness, the bitterness of alcohol, and the kick of chili. I like how they put the alcohol level on the menu for cocktails - you can anticipate just how strong the alcohol is. Personally, I prefer mine not too strong so that the chocolate flavor and the alcohol are more balanced. I don't think I will stop coming here, even if I finally get to try all the items in the menu that I find interesting. There are always favorites that I will keep coming back for.

Maitre Chocolatier Boutique Cafe is chocolate lovers' Disneyland. Most specifically Lindt chocolate…read morelovers. I don't know but they have a hella lot of it in there, more than a year worth's of chocolate. There must have been so many inside that they decided, hey, since we are on it, why not make a pasta with chocolate. Truth be told, I'm not quite fearless yet to taste it but I'll try it in the future. Its so weird and exciting. Their menu's quite extensive. Aside from the aforementioned, there are also cocktails with chocolates, chocolate drinks, fried chocolate, chicken with chocolate, beef medallion with chocolate sauce.. you name it. Chocolate on everything. Are you getting diabetes already? :) And good news, they have fondue! While the fruits keep slipping out of their sticks, the experience turned out to be fun. Because the good thing about it is its for sharing.. and sharing is for friends. And with chocolate, chitchat and fondue, you can never be wrong.

Metro Manila has a lot of stores that prey on a Filipino's need to munch on something foreign. A…read morelot of them sell their products cause it was made from one of the G7 nations like The US or France or something. It gives the food some sense of sophistication and what not. I'm apprehensive of these things since usually most people can't really tell if its really good since what usually happens is that they say its good for the simple reason that its something from abroad. Such is not the case here with Ville Del Conte. These are basically truffle and chocolates made in Italy. More often than not I hate talking about stuff like this since again, I'm aversive to foreign food, or at least those shipped from foreign lands. To put it simply, they're good. They're wrapped in these simple aluminum wrappers so presentation is a little bit plain. But who cares when their stuff is just really this good? They have different flavors, but my favorite and vote has to go with coffee. Usually I don't go for that flavor since I can simply drink coffee, but this one is good cause it has the right blend of sweetness and coffee to it. Unlike most coffee flavored whatevers, the coffee flavor isn't strong enough to make you forget that you're actually eating something that's only flavored coffee.

Have you ever tasted watermelon flavored chocolates!! Yes you heard me right!! No I am not talking…read moreabout candies. If you want to experience the taste, head straight to Villa Del Conte. The other day I was window shopping at Greenbelt and I saw this place that was offering free samples of chocolates. It was free ;) so I tried one and then went on to have couple more. I ended up buying a piccolo (small in Italian) of watermelon chocolates. If that's not enough, they have orange and strawberry flavored chocolates as well. However, this place specializes in Italian chocolates, and there is wide range of chocolates to choose from. They have dark and white chocolates with hazelnut cream, macadamia filling to name a few. Their chocolates come in Piccolo (small), Medio (Medium), Grande (large) box. Their packing is comes in colorful cute boxes (I reused them as a storage box for my stationeries:D).

My father has several cacao trees in our backyard and I grew up drinking tsokolate from homemade…read moretablea. We had a batirol and my mom used to make really thick and rich chocolate drink a la espresso. But now, I don't go back home to our province very often because of work. So whenever I miss the taste of homemade tsokolate, I visit Tsoko.Nut Batirol. Although they serve Tsokolate Ah or aguada, meaning the chocolate is mixed with water so it's not too thick, I still cherish each sip because I think of home and my parents. Even the ambiance of the place reminds me of my childhood. Aside from chocolate drinks, this shop also serves great tasting meals. Rellenong bangus and dinuguan are my favorites. If I just want something light with my chocolate, I order ensaymada with cheese. I'm not fond of desserts but I think they have an interesting line up of cakes and pastries.

During our most recent visit to Manila, we have dined at three different locations (actually if we…read morecount another one last year, it will be four for me). Every single location delivered the same top-notch service and excellent food. It seemed that there was always a waiting list. But what they did that was so smart was give us the menu and and an order form and that gave us the time to peruse the menu, decide what we want and place our orders. By the time we sat down, it didn't take long before our orders were delivered. The first time we dined, there were only two of us, so we ordere the small plates. Another smart idea to have the choice of small, medium and large orders depending on the number of people. We've always dined family style so we were able to taste different foods. We've ordered the essential Filipino foods i.e., different kinds of sisig, salpicao, sinigang, adobo, pancit palabok, buko pie, puto bumbong, halo halo. And every single dish was phenomenally tasty, especially for us who are all residing in the US. Manam will always be our first choice whenever we are in Manila.

At least my second or third visit to this location over the years. Each time we didn't make…read morereservations ahead of time so we ended eating on the outside tables. No AC, sometimes lots of foot traffic passing by or we caught wind of the exhaust from the cars backed up at the drop off area for the building. Besides that, Manam had a large menu of Filipino specialties and twists (their take on a traditional regional dish). They offered S, M and L plates to feed an individual or group. We usually ordered family style. We stuck with our favorites and the consistency in food taste and quality was good: Beef short rib and watermelon sinagang Sisig Fresh Lumpiang Ubod (though some of the ground nuts had an off taste) Crispy Pancit Palabok With it being so busy, service was a bit inconsistent. We wanted a medium chicken inasal skewers but were told the kitchen had only 1 left. In the end they still charged us for a medium which we caught and got corrected. Always double check your tab before paying.