'ASINfully' delicious: Try tsokolate with asin-tibuok at Bohol's Chocolate Chamber
BOHOL, Philippines — Ahead of World Chocolate Day on July 7, in a recent trip to Bohol, we had our fill of tsokolate — the delicious beverage from pure cacao beans — as well as dishes utilizing chocolate as an ingredient.
After a trip to Lasang Farm in Maribojoc town, we sat down for dinner at the Chocolate Chamber branch in Moadto Strip in Panglao.
Founded by "Tablea Queen," Raquel Ochoa, the restaurant serves dishes that all contain chocolate. So, if you're a chocolate lover, this place is really for you!
For starters, we partook of Sikwate, the unsweetened hot chocolate made from premium tablea. It was imperative that we start with this bitter beverage so we can, later, appreciate the dishes when flavors were added.
"You need to savor it with the 5 S: You first swirl the contents of your cup before smelling it. Then sip it and swish - let it linger a little while in your palate - then swallow! Enzymes in the saliva breaks down the flavors within the pure chocolate drink, aiding in digestion. Actual cocoa butter melts in body temperature," shared dietician Hannah Ochoa, fifth sibling of Raquel Ochoa's brood of eight. Raquel has earned the epithet, "Tablea Queen," for elevating the cacao into a sought-after commodity.
We continued our meal with Tablea Mushroom Soup, a creamy and chocklatey soup grated with Cacao de Bola and asin-tibuok (whole rock salt), paired with tablea pan de sal and tablea chocolate peanut butter. And when you stir your soup, you'll find a chocolate truffle nestled therein. It's a tasty melange of salty and sweet.
This was followed by the Grilled Sausage & Margherita Chocolate Pizza, a chocolate-infused dough, spread with mole - a Mexican paste with a dozen distinct ingredients with chocolate as its key element; topped with Sausage or tomato and mozzarella, and sprinkled with cacao nibs, and grated with Cacao de Bola. The paste also uses three types of pepper: labuyo, espada, and bell peppers. The pizza is baked with cocoa oil.
Our pasta dish, Spaghetti Mole, was filled with grilled Sausage and tossed with mole, a Mexican paste with a dozen distinct ingredients and drizzled with cacao-infused oil.
For sweet endings, we were proffered with Puto Sikwate, that's glutinous rice streamed in coconut milk, added with a hint of ginger and topped with mango jam; with muscovado sugar siding to sweeten then paired with unsweetened sikwate made from premium tablea.
We closed our sumptuous meal with Chilled Salted Caramel, a sweetened tablea cacao powder flavored with salted caramel and grated with asin-tibuok.
"La Factoria is our chocolate factory that makes our chocolate products. The Chocolate Chamber has branches in Cebu, Bohol, and soon in Singapore. We prepare our dishes with the ingredients we find where our outlets are, so our menus are different in every location," shared Hannah, at the close of our intimate dinner at their branch in Panglao Island.
