When my nephew Jake was little, he would scream, “ice kwim” as he asked for his favorite ice cream. His round eyes would roll as he gulped the bowl of ice cream served him. He loved Magnolia Creamy Halo-Halo, Selecta Strawberry and Cookies and Cream. Everytime he woke up from his afternoon nap, Jake would rush to the refrigerator to find out if his favorite ice cream was there.
In the province during my youth, ice cream was for special occasions like birthdays and fiestas. Nanay also promised ice cream after a tooth extraction. It was a palliative to my outrageous fear of dentists that I finally conquered last year with the charm, brilliance and compassion of the country’s top dentist/implantologist Dr. Steve Mark Gan.
Sometimes, too, my niece Lani would bring Jake to her friends’ house and they would be served ice cream. They knew it was the boy’s favorite dessert. And when there was no ice cream around, Lani and Jake would wait for their favorite “dirty ice cream” vendor to pass by.
Ice cream as a dessert has come a long way. Places that served ice cream used to be called “soda fountain,” “refreshment place” or plain “ice cream parlor.” Now names come in different sizes, shapes and colors. One such favorite place is Five Cows, a dairy products haven in Trinoma that serves a beefy line-up of hot and cold gastronomic treats.
But the question is: Is Five Cows a restaurant or a dessert place? One look on its refreshingly designed menu and you’ll find the answer. It may have a comprehensive list of cold treats such as ice cream concoctions, ice cream cakes, milkshakes, and more, but it also has a complete line-up of hot meals.
Five Cows lets you savor hot meals and enjoy cold treats afterwards (this may also go the other way) without hopping from one restaurant to another. It also boasts of a menu so extensive, it caters to everyone’s whim.
The people behind the resto, dessert mistress Michelle Chang-Co, hot meals expert Eugene Raymundo, finance whiz Emerson Lim, resto specialist Art Latinazo, and creative guy Joel Tuquid, have traveled the world and brought the best of their dining experiences to this charming place. The result is a sampling of the best foods in the world modified for the Filipino tongue.
Hot on my list are the Osso Buco, tender beef shanks cooked in home-style tomato sauce served with buttered vegetables and rice, and the Baked Fish Fillet with Spinach, fish fillet topped with a creamy spinach sauce served with buttered vegetables and rice. Five Cows also serves Cheese Fondue, Country Style Pork Belly, Half-Pounder Cheeseburger, Monster Rib Eye Steak and Red Wine Chicken Adobo.
Five Cows offers sinful sweet treats. For those who want it simple, try its classic favorites such as the divine Old Fashioned Banana Split, some delectable parfaits like the Apple-Caramel Crunch Parfait, and its extremely creamy milkshakes.
The line-up of ice cream cakes includes the classic favorite Black Forest, the heavenly Blueberry Cheesecake, and the elegant Red Passion Cake, a rich and moist “red brick” cake filled with cheesecake cream, chopped praline and mascarpone layers topped with Chantilly cream and scarlet crystal sugars.
Five Cows also offers ice cream by the scoop, served in Belgian Chocolate waffle cones that are baked fresh daily. If you want to make your own ice cream, you can go for the Marble Slab Concoctions, and up the fun by ordering mixin’s, fillings and syrups or sauces to suit your taste. Another house specialty, The Flaming Alaska, a sponge cake filled with vanilla, strawberry and chocolate ice cream, chocolate cookies and nuts, completely smothered in meringue, and spiked with rhum. And when you order this fiery cold treat, lights dim, the cake is set aflame, the authentic cowbell straight from Switzerland rings, and the staff joyfully shouts “Hoo-ha!”
Kids will surely enjoy the colorful and sweet treats that Five Cows offers. Among these are the U.F.O., an out-of-this-world kiddie treat of luscious doughnut, the colorful Bubble Gum Blast, and the enchanting Sugar Tooth Fairy.
Five Cows is getting to be the favorite place of celebrity families. Spotted in the last few weeks were stars from both the giant networks. Five Cows is located at 4/F Trinoma, North Avenue cor. EDSA, Quezon City. For inquiries, call (632) 910-3748 or (632) 910-3948.