Food, Kiosks and Stalls

A Week of Sebastian’s Sampling - Yum!

I love adventurous, food-seeking visiting Northerners. You know how it is when you’re in a foreign country and you find it a matter of principle that you try the local food instead of heading off for the nearest McDonald’s? They’re like that when they come visit the South: always ready to try something new, something that only exists in our neck of the woods. In fact, sometimes they’ll go so far as to turn down some suggestions because, as they put it, “Meron naman nyan sa amin, e.”

I was with two such intrepid souls the other day: famished after a full day’s worth of work sans lunch, my good friend Chris and her officemate Vinny gladly accepted an offer of burgers and ice cream in BF (they actually declined a huge meal at A Veneto precisely because they could have that “in the North”). We ended up wolfing down burgers at Charbroiled, and I finally had the chance to try out some Sebastian’s ice cream myself, something I’d long been wanting to do.

There’s a Sebastian’s Ice Cream Studio in Town Center, and another in the Shepherd’s Staff at Mall of Asia (not sure where else they have branches, but as far as we knew, it was unique enough for a bunch of visiting foodies); we had our ice cream fix at the small, occasionally untended food stall in front of First Empire. This is one place I appreciate a lot: aside from the Sebastian’s, they also sell bottled Starbucks Frappuccinos inside (you can also find these in Makati Supermarket and sometimes in Shopwise, just so you know). When we went over to get some ice cream, we were hoping to get scoops to eat leisurely while sitting out in front, but they only had pints and those small wooden paddle-like scoops (that wouldn’t have reached halfway into the container), so we ended up buying a pint for all three of us to share and taking it back to Charbroiled, where we took up our just-vacated seats and picked up where we left off, only this time with dessert bought from somewhere else (to their credit, the ladies at Charbroiled graciously lent us spoons and gave us water to drink with our dessert—such service!).

Anyway, we had the Up All Night, a spectacularly good mixture of coffee ice cream and chocolate chunks. We were all very impressed with the thick and, well, creamy ice cream, the rich blend of coffee and chocolate flavors, and the generous portion of chocolate chunks (not chips, mind you, chunks. Real big ones). We unanimously agreed: 250 bucks for a pint was well worth it.

Apparently it was to be a Sebastian’s week for me, as I discovered when I visited my sister’s house and found a pint of ice cream—Dublin Fudge this time—in her freezer. Bailey’s ice cream with fudge swirl, this flavor actually felt cold in your mouth and felt warm in your chest going down—the exact sensation of having some Irish cream liquer.

Eventually I found myself at Town ordering a scoop of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (purportedly to take pictures for this post, but mostly just because I wanted more ice cream). I had my ice cream in a cone, and my sister had her Berry White (white chocolate ice cream with strawberry-studded swirl) in a cup (P85 either way), and we enjoyed our snack at one of the tables ringing the open air courtyard where they have the pony rides. (If the photos are bad, chalk it up to bad lighting and the difficulty of holding a dripping cone of ice cream still.)

Even with my four flavors over a single week, I’m still raring to try the rest: the Banana Bonanza is next on my list, as is the Nutella Fudge, and—rather redundantly—the Bananutella. I figure the best way to try them all without being too gluttonous is to buy a couple of pints and have a few spoonfuls every so often. Turns out this is a rather convenient idea, since you can order at least four pints and have them delivered. So far my favorite is the Up All Night, but hey, I will so enjoy sampling the contenders.

Sebastian’s Ice Cream Studio
Alabang Town Center (near cinemas)
First Empire
Aguirre Avenue, Phase 1, BF Homes Paranaque (near Sinagtala)
For deliveries call 413-8359

Tags: first empire, food stalls, food suppliers, ice cream, sebastian's

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