Lucky Finds: Ox & Palm Corned Beef, Landana Cheese

I love going to the grocery. I always say it's kind of therapeutic, but it's more than that. I really enjoy going and seeing all the colorful and interesting things in it. There's something bountifully optimistic about them. That said, if I don't have money it's deeply depressing stepping into one. But when me and Ilyn have a bit of extra cash, we indulge in one of our very few guilty pleasures, and that is food.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Rustan's in Makati to see what new and interesting things we can take home. I love going to Rustan's because it has so much more than what your regular grocery usually offers.

For one, they have an absolutely awesome deli with incredible selections of cheeses and meat. In the old days we would buy things like Roquefort and Brie because they're the famous ones. Roquefort is notorious, being a blue cheese, for it's dark greenish mold all over it. Sounds disgusting? It smells weird and tastes weird, but strangely awesome. Check out this video of me eating Roquefort. To me Brie smells even weirder. Ilyn likes it. I like it too but not often. Because these cheeses are so er... unique and well, rather intense to eat, we don't get to eat it often so it just sits in the ref until it expires. And it's just too bad.

So anyway, when we went to Rustan's we decided to check out other cheeses. There were so many to choose from. Randomly I chose two: Gruyere and Landana Gouda Olives and Tomatoes. I don't know why I chose them, I just did.

That's not the actual cheese package I bought (that's just some random photo I saw online). The one in the deli was a big block and I asked to get just 200 grams, sliced thinly. The gruyere we got as a block because it's a hard cheese and it's usually grated.

Wow, did we luck into these cheeses! We love them both! First the gruyere. It's actually a melting cheese that's put in pasta and soups and can be eaten as a snack. I love eating it as is because it tastes really mild and not overwhelmingly salty. It also works really really well with pasta. It melted right on the pasta without any additional heating and added a really nice taste.  But the Gouda. Oh my God. It smells very slightly weird, but you forget about it as soon as you put it in your mouth. It's mild, and the olives and tomato are just in the perfect proportion to give a slight herby taste. We couldn't get enough of it. We finished all 200 grams in just a few days.

I also did a grilled cheese sandwich combining both gruyere and gouda and Ilyn really enjoyed it!

We loved it so much that when we went to a different Rustan's the past weekend (Marketplace at BGC), we got another 300 grams! At around P170 per 100 grams, I think it's very worth it!

Earlier in this blog I wrote about my favorite Corned Beef. My favorites included brands like Delimondo and Purefoods, both local Philippine brands. I really, REALLY hate to say it, but I found a new favorite in Ox & Palm. I only heard about this brand from a few, well, older people on Facebook, asking if we of the younger generation even heard of this brand. I do vaguely remember it, but I haven't been seeing it on the shelves at all lately.

So when I saw it at Rustan's I knew I had to get one. It was actually kind of expensive at P145 for a 200g can. I think that's twice as expensive as Purefoods. Would it be worth it? You see I love to try different canned corned beef brands. And more often than not I come away disappointed. I don't like brands like Libby's or Target because the meat is shredded a little too fine. I like my corned beef to have some body and heft and still looks like it did come from beef.

When the first spoon of Ox & Palm entered my mouth it was like holy crap this is awesome. It has a slightly intense smoky beefy flavor that was seasoned perfectly right. The beef still had some body to it like the beef had just fallen apart (and not mechanically shredded).  It was amazing. At P145 it's absolutely worth it. Sorry Purefoods and Delimondo! I still love you guys (and will still hang out with you once in a while), but for now Ox & Palm is my beef buddy!

EXTRA!  I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting sodas, or different iterations of common brands. So when I saw this Coca-Cola Life, I just had to try it. They say Coke tastes better when cane sugar is used. I actually couldn't tell the difference taste wise, but drinking this, which is sweetened by both cane sugar and stevia (the new hipster sweetener), it felt softer in the mouth, a bit more subtle.

Anyway, that's it for now. If ever we visit the not so usual grocery again like Rustan's or Makati Supermarket (which is curiously in Alabang), or South Super Market (in Los Baños), I'll make sure to post some of the unique and interesting things we might find.