Scent and Aftertaste

Far be it from me
to post what I ate
but such food, really,
I'm sure is top-rate.

This is a post I have been putting off for more than a month now. During the course of my job-hunting days, I have been traveling to different places in the Metro. Among others, I have also been coming in and out of the Ortigas area. Its proximity to one of the leading malls nationwide almost always meant that any dealing in the area, such as exams, company talks, interviews or job offers, inexplicably and unerringly lead my feet to above average, non-fastfood dining establishments.

In an earlier post, I have already described to you a Happy Potion I have discovered. Today, allow me to share with you my thoughts on some of the dishes of Spaghetti Factory.

Like their name says, they do specialize in spaghetti, pasta to be accurate. Their meals, however, come in prices much more suited to spend-crazy yuppies than penniless job-hunters like me. Truth be told, even if I was a yuppie, I'd still probably be penniless 'coz we don't use pennies in our country.

Still, I do have some stash hidden specifically for this purpose; suffice to say that I have paid a visit to their Megamall branch a couple of times.

It being the Spaghetti Factory, I might as well begin by describing their spaghetti. It's long and thin, most probably made of wheat, yellowish-white in color and looks a lot like spaghetti. Seriously though, I have tasted two sauces that came with their spaghetti: Bolognese and Pesto. The Bolognese sauce was fine, almost a bit too average and has no feature too special. Their pesto sauce, on the other hand, is something quite positively indescribable. One can really taste the herbs, smell the roasted cashew and get drunk in the scent of some unknown something. It is quite unlike the pesto-pestuhan sauce I encountered in the college cafeteria.

To describe it as delicious is not quite enough; it tasted really good that the complimentary after-meal breath mints seemed like an insult to the dish. It leaves a roasty, woody after-taste and after-scent that could very well be compared to an orgasm's afterglow. No, really, I told you it was indescribable; I fear I am doing much injustice by attempting to describe it.

More than just pasta, they also offered fried chicken. I was never easily wowed by fried chicken so I supposed it'd taste as starchy as the chicken prepared by two of the leading non-KFC fastfood chains in the country. It was, then, a pleasant surprise to bite into Spaghetti Factory's chicken. Like their pesto sauce, it also seemed to specialize in scent and after-taste. To be sure, it still tastes like chicken and the breading is not anything too amazing but it radiated a sweet warm scent, which, to me, smelled a lot like hot butter.

For dessert, I once ordered a mango crepe but I am quite disappointed to remark that it looked like something I could easily make myself. At 89 bucks, it seemed hardly worth it.

This afternoon, I also ordered an appetizer: mussels with spinach, Parmesan cheese and Bechamel sauce. The menu said (or probably warned) that it was a new item; I should have known by then. Anyway, the sauce tasted too much of sour tomatoes that the flavor of the mussels was nearly drowned. I'd also like to comment that their mussels needed more cheese. I'm saying this simply because I have tasted better baked mussels elsewhere.

It's kinda sad for me to end this post on a depressing note but when it came to beverages... Suffice to say that Spaghetti Factory makes excellent pasta. And chicken. Period.