Cafe Seolhwa: A Bowl of Snow

Last Wednesday, I have finally met with Mica, a friend whom I haven’t seen in a long time. We’re both Korean cuisine enthusiasts so we decided to try Café Seolhwa, a Korean desserts place located in Bonifacio Global City Forum that opened just last summer, yet grabbed the top spot in this looloo list of Top 10 New Restaurants in Manila for the First Half of 2015.

I was welcomed with a warm greeting the moment I entered. The walls were mostly in white and gray tones. One of them was covered with a huge mirror while a couple of them was designed with cute wallpapers showing a polar bear with a bowl of bingsu and a penguin with a frappe. The wooden chairs and tables gave a warm ambiance. 

I ordered their Bulgogi Croissant for lunch. I didn’t have other options in mind. I was determined to try it because it was my first time to hear such fusion: the Korean signature beef viand, bulgogi, and the popular French bread, Croissant. It’s one of those East-meets-West dishes combined in one plate. Bulgogi is normally eaten with rice while Croissant is usually eaten with lettuce, tomatoes, and ham or tuna. I wondered how their combination would taste like. After a few bites and chews, my tongue recognized that it was a blend of sweet, salty, and sour. The bulgogi strips exuded the sweet and salty taste while the sourness came from the tomato slice. I must admit, it was quite a weird combination. Lesson learned: bulgogi and tomato don’t go well together. But looking at the quality of each of the ingredients, it was a satisfying meal. The bulgogi was savory and juicy while the lettuce, cucumber, and tomatoes tasted fresh. 

Dessert time came, and honestly, I was pretty indecisive in choosing what kind of sweets to get. Cafe Seolhwa has a wide range of desserts. They have flavored toasts like Honey Butter and Cheese Garlic and mini pancake sandwiches à la petit four made of glutinous rice cake called hodduk, which comes in several flavors like Cream Cheese, Honey Nuts, Red Bean, Berries, and Grilled Banana. They also have the famous Red Velvet cake. But in the end, I chose to have Korea’s signature dessert, bingsu, which is the Korean counterpart of our halo-halo. What sets them apart though is that bingsu comes in a variety of flavors. I picked choco bingsu out of the 12 flavors they offer, some of which are: berry cheese, strawberry, mango, and green tea. The presentation and quantity were excellent: it was a tall serving of chocolate shaved ice, Koko Krunch, chopped Oreos, brownie chunks, and whipped cream with a sprinkle of chocolate powder. The chocolate shaved ice—or chocolate snow as Café Seolhwa prefers to call it—looked like miniature sparkling shards of glass. Gorgeous. Anyone would be able to tell that the ice was shaved delicately. The dessert was around six inches of chocolate goodness, perfect for anyone who wants to satisfy their chocolate craving.

I wasn’t even done with my bingsu yet when this cute Korean server placed a bowl of bingsu on our table. Mica and I looked at each other with wonder as neither of us ordered it. Then the guy said that it was a free taste test of coffee bingsu, their latest flavor addition. It consisted of milk snow with diced cheesecake on the sides, toffee toppings, and sliced almonds. At first, we were quite puzzled about how it was coffee-flavored as it didn’t taste or look like it in any way, but after getting a few spoons, we discovered that it had coffee jelly inside it, being embraced by the milk snow. Just like how Mica felt about her mango bingsu and how I felt about my choco bingsu, we both loved it. Everyone in the café got their own free bowl of coffee bingsu and I think that it’s a good way to form a relationship with your customers, regular and newcomers alike.

I consider the dessert part as the highlight of my first visit to Café Seolhwa. They lived up to their name, which means “snow” or “snowflakes” in Korean. Mica and I spent the hours well, catching up with each other and enjoying the food. We selected our next food destination: the Singaporean restaurant, Toast Box. I’m stoked. As they always say, good food + good company = good time.

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Prices:

PHP 180 – Bingsu (single)
PHP 240 – Bulgogi Croissant with Potato Salad side

  

Kimchi Fried Rice with Chicken Pieces

Kimchi fried rice is one of my favorite comfort foods. It's flavorful and really easy to make since it just simply involves combining ingredients. And it's highly personalized as well because you can throw any ingredients you want while making it! As for me, I usually add egg, any meat of my choice, or tuna. I sometimes add Hoisin sauce too if I'm in the mood for something sweet and spicy. But for this afternoon, I decided to include more vegetables.

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 1/2 cup cooked rice

1/2 cup minced carrots

1/2 cup green peas

1/3 cup onion, minced

1 cup kimchi (I'll be honest and say that I don't know how to make this yet, my mom is the one who provides it)

1 cup cooked chicken, chopped

1. Put oil on a hot pan.

2. Sauté kimchi and chicken pieces for 5 minutes on high heat.

NOTE: Kimchi undergoes fermentation and eventually gets refrigerated, so it's recommended to place it on the pan before the other ingredients to make sure that it's cooked very thoroughly.

3. Add the vegetables all at once. Let them stay for 10 minutes on low heat.

4. Add cooked rice. Let everything stay for another 5 minutes on low heat.

5. Done! 

As I mentioned before, Kimchi fried rice is a flexible meal. You can add literally any ingredient you want, as long as the Kimchi and rice are there! 

Bulgogi Brothers for Sunday Lunch Date with Mommy!

My mom and I are avid Korean cuisine enthusiasts and so we decided to have our Sunday Lunch Date at Bulgogi Brothers, a Korean restaurant. It was our first time there and we are sure to go back again and again!

The appetizers were quickly served and consisted of mostly vegetables: kimchi, anchovies, fermented radish, lettuce and carrots with some sweet & spicy sauce, corn, and sweet potatoes. Everything was really delicious but the ones I really loved were the kimchi and the sweet & spicy lettuce. They also have Tea of the Day. We were offered a whole thermos of Barley Tea which is good for digestion! 

After the appetizers, we were served the Bulgogi Bibimbap that I ordered. It was really good!! Every ingredient in it was served in huge amounts. There were various vegetables, lots of beef strips, and the spicy sauce was unforgettable. 

A short while after, our Beef Belly Barbecue arrived! We ordered it with lettuce instead of rice because we wanted to wrap the beef slices in greens. Our very nice server volunteered to cook the meat for us. But before that, she grilled the sweet potatoes and onions first. Korean barbecue restaurants usually serve their meat unseasoned. They give their customers the option to season their ordered meat and in Bulgogi Brothers, they gave us 3 types of flavoring for the beef: their original/signature spicy sauce, Ssamjang sauce which was my extreme favorite because it tasted sweet, spicy, and garlic-y, and salt. 

Our overall first dining experience in Buglogi Brothers gave us a really good impression of the restaurant. The service was excellent (server was attentive and nice, dishes were served very quickly) and the food was A+ in taste, variety, and quantity. The prices were reasonable and affordable too! I now have an addition to my list of favorite restaurants and we will definitely go back!

*Pardon for a lack of photos because my camera died halfway our stay in the restaurant :(