Category: Food

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Filipino Food Tampa Bay

Amazing ube ice cream sandwiches at Mata’s Philippine Cuisine

Ube ice cream sandwich — purple ice cream between two “rice krispies squares” dyed purple.
Tap to view the purple deliciousness at full size.

If you’re looking for a different kind of dessert, check out the ube ice cream sandwiches at Mata’s Philippine Cuisine in Tampa (on West Waters, a quick drive west of Dale Mabry)!

Ube (pronounced “OOO-beh”) is a sweet purple yam from the Philippines. It has a flavor that I describe as a mild mix of vanilla, white chocolate, and hazelnuts. It’s been a Filipino sweets staple for centuries, but only in the past decade has it become popular in North America. That’s a shame, because you’ve been missing out on some amazing, colorful dishes as a result!

They put the ice cream between “krispy treats” made out of sticky puffed rice (which often gets called pinipig in the Philippines, but that isn’t accurate). Just think of it as ube ice cream between Filipino rice krispies treats and enjoy the flavor.

Joey deVilla smiles with his ube ice cream sandwich.

It was great, and I’m coming back for more!

We also left with dinuguan, chicken adobo, pinakbet, and ginataang bilo-bilo.

Mata’s Philippine Cuisine’s storefront.

Mata’s Philippine Cuisine is in Tampa at 4350 West Waters Avenue — east of the Veterans Expressway, west of Dale Mabry.

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Food

If Western food was covered the way Western writers cover Asian food

You can find the original tweet here.

These tweets may be from a couple of years back, but they’re new to me, and they might be new to you as well. They take the way “western” (a.k.a. round-eye) writers dismissively write about Asian food, but turn the tables by using the same colonialist style on Karen cuisine. Enjoy!

In response to the tweet above, Amirul Ruslan decided that it needed to be turned into something that looked as if it came straight from the New York Times:

And the tweet also generated a lot of hilarious funny/sad responses:

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Food

Big John’s Pickled Sausage + Arby’s Vodka = The Filthy Martini!

I saw a whole rack of the above product at the grocery yesterday. I have vague memories of having some at a bar, but they’re from a while back. They’re also from that point when you’ve drunk enough that eating the pickled things in large old jars at the back of the bar seems like a good idea.

I think that Big John’s Pickled Sausage could be a key ingredient in a drink that I would call the Filthy Martini — a next-level Dirty Martini.

It would start with Arby’s french fry-flavored Vodka (which I wrote about in an earlier post)…

…and then you’d add one of Big John’s Pickled Sausages and some of that sausage-infused pickle juice to really filthy it up.

It would be a variation of Nick Bumstead’s “Joe Beef Martini,” pictured below:

Who wants to try this with me?

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Food

Arby’s Vodka

Yup, this is real. Tap to visit the Arby’s Vodka site.

That’s right: Arby’s Vodka. 

It’s being made by Tattersall, a Minneapolis-based distillery that makes some decent stuff, including a fernet that I rather like.

And it’s supposed to come in two flavors that you’d find at Arby’s:

  • Crinkle Fry
  • Curly Fry

I’m not a regular consumer of franchise fast food, and my opinion of Arby’s is perfectly summed up in this Simpsons quote…

…but hey, I’m up for trying a bottle of french-fry flavored vodka, perhaps in the form of a shot topped with ketchup or garlic mayo.

Want to find out more? The details are at ArbysVodka.com.

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Food

It’s the international day for box wine, or as I like to call it, “Cardboardeaux”

It’s September 9th: International Box Wine Day!

You may think of box wine — or as I like to call it, Cardboardeaux — as cheap, terrible and something you had at parties in your university years to feel more grown-up, but:

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Food It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Great Moroccan food at Le Casa Bistro

Frites, chicken tagine, bread, and lamb tagine.
Our meal at Le Casa Bistro, minus the appetizer. Tap to view at full size.

Last Friday, before going to the Tampa Theatre to see the film about Anthony Bourdain, Roadrunner, Anitra and I decided to do what Bourdain encouraged: We went to a newly-opened restaurant to try some food that we normally don’t get to eat. We went to Le Casa Bistro, located half a block away from the theatre at the corner of Franklin and Polk streets.

Chicken tagine
Chicken tagine. Tap to view at full size.

Le Casa’s specialty is Moroccan cuisine, and they have a very nice selection of tagines (pronounced “ta-ZHEEN”), which are slow-cooked stews that get their name from the traditional ceramic or clay dish in which they’re cooked. You typically serve them from the tagine they’re cooked in.

We started with zalouk, a cooked eggplant and tomato salad served with points of pita, which was an excellent appetizer. For our mains, we shared the chicken tagine, which is garnished with preserved lemons and olives, and the lamb tagine, whose garnish was hard-boiled eggs and prunes. These are rich, saucy dishes, and we scooped up the sauce with the frites and bread that they provided along with our dishes.

Lamb tagine
Lamb tagine. Tap to view at full size.

The service was incredibly friendly and helpful — one of the owners even came out to chat with us. We’re definitely coming back then next time we catch a film at the Tampa Theatre, a show at the Straz, or an event at one of the nearby museums.

We need to check it out on a Thursday, when they’ve got a live DJ and belly dancing, which should be pretty interesting.

Le Casa Bistro is located in the Element Tampa building at 802 N. Franklin St., at the corner of Franklin and Polk. Go check it out before everyone else “discovers” it!

In case you’re wondering: The folks at Le Casa Bistro have no idea who I am and most certainly didn’t pay for an endorsement. I’m just a fan who wants to see them stick around.

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Food funny

Normal blood cells vs. Filipino blood cells

It’s also true for Hawai’ians.