After weeks of steering clear of the lure of exciting dining places, I finally gave in. With the passing of the long-overdue CamSur trip, I could let my hair down again and indulge all my gastronomic hankering for what’s left of the summer. Last week Soms and I thought of checking out the newest star on the glimmering Greenbelt dining promenade. Since the theme of the resto was good breakfast meals all day long (as in the tradition of old-fashioned pancake houses in the States but with a fancy schmancy twist), I had earlier thought of making it an early morning rendezvous. But then I realized that it would just cramp my style, me being a nightcrawler and all.
So then we went after working hours, well past dinnertime actually, and tried our hardest not to bite off more than we could chew. I decided on the Double Blueberry pancakes since they had such a pretty picture printed on the menu. Meanwhile, Soms was torn between the Beef Salpicao and some other dish that had a side serving of pancakes. Good thing he saw the light and realized that too many pancakes at 10pm was indeed too many pancakes.
The service was quite impeccable for the low-key kind of place that it was; the dining couch was cushy enough to make small talk over the rumbling of our tummies more manageable (dinnertime was long overdue, after all); and the best thing--we didn’t have to wait too long for our food. It came and went, but not without major effort from our part to try to not to inhale the whole table all in one big huff. The Double Blueberry, we were informed, was the house’s best-selling pancake. It was named so because apart from the generous dollop of blueberry sauce sloshed on top, you could see a smattering of blueberry chunks inside when you slice through the heap. Good thing we had the pancakes while they were still warm. I wouldn't say it was anything like in the cartooney M&M ads, but for sure it was a melt-in-your-mouth experience. The folks over at the other pancake house parked along G4 had better watch out; this newcomer’s got instant converts in the house!
From one “eggs-traordinary” dish to another (yeah, I know it's a terrible pun), we were equally enraptured by the house’s take on the Spanish-sounding local dish Salpicao. Nestled on the side with rice and scrambled eggs, I thought it looked like something that might have been served to the food-loving friars during the Spanish era, simply because it looked so good. Although when the guys at FlapJacks brought out this handsome-looking plate, it wasn’t the looks that got our motor running. Rather it was the heady aroma of eau d’huile de boeuf (yes, I just came up with that), that telling thing that results in one’s mental salivating mechanism to go on overdrive. Just now I realize we had too much animal protein that night, and I thought the eggs were a bit average for my liking, but the bovine was divine. The tastiness of the beef offset the characteristic blandness of the eggs, leading the overall flavor to converge at the point of contact with the meat. In the end, all’s well that converges well.
Soms was so impressed with the meal that he declared the place to be the new Heaven ‘n Eggs (in fact, for a certain favor, he actually said that I owe him FlapJacks flapjacks!). I would, on the other hand, say it’s a tough one to call. Maybe after we sample the Triple Chocolate Chip Pancake (yummm!) plus something else to keep us on our toes, then I’ll be able to say that it indeed is the premier pancake place to be. Right now.
FlapJacks
Ground Level, Greenbelt 2
Ayala Center, Makati City
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