I was in a foul mood on Friday and into Saturday, and had I been a character in a comic strip, I would have been walking along with a dark cloud over my head grumbling… And my solution to that state of mind isn’t an aspirin or a stiff drink, it usually involves a trip to a food source or food store. So early Saturday morning I headed to the FTI market, and the mood lightened. Even better, I decided to drop by Bacchus Epicerie at Rockwell and see what new stuff had arrived for the holidays. I ran into one of the owners of Bacchus on a recent trip, and he mentioned some pre-portioned foie gras that sounded very interesting, so I thought I would check it out. Bacchus has always been a favorite food/wine source of mine, and I did posts on them early in the life of the blog, here and here, and most recently when they opened Bacchus Epicerie last year.

The store is chock-full of goodies for foodies. If you have holes in your Christmas list, there is LOTS to choose from. I went around the store and started assembling a “dream basket” of goodies which included a whole Prosciutto di Parma that had just arrived arrived from Italy. They sliced open a leg and I tried a couple of slices that were silky, delicious and better than aspirin… :) At PHP25,000 for a whole leg, it’s pricey, but you only really need a few grams to make you happy. We have had a leg of prosciutto (a present) for months and it keeps going and going and going… Bacchus are now the official distributors of Citterio salamis and other products, so you don’t need to order them in from HK or have friends handcarry them from the U.S. or Italy. Their salamis large and small are SUPERB. In the basket is a large Ungarische (spelling?) salami that has always been a personal favorite and now it is stocked locally… yahoo! I also got a closer look at the cleaned and pre-portioned foie gras that would be fantastic for a fancy home dinner because all you need to do is heat up a pan and take the foie out of the freezer and plop them in to sear them and serve. They come out to roughly PHP300 per serving, not bad when you consider what a restaurant might charge for such… There were also newly arrived confit de canard, mustards, macadamia nuts (more on that in next post), as well as great olive oils…

If you are feeling flush, they carry some pretty good caviar as well.

They have a freezer full of prime and “super-prime” (whatever that means) meat. And while I like Bacchus meat, I find they sometimes slice them too thinly. A roast would be a better way to enjoy the beef, I think. For a carnivore, what better present could you think of for the holidays than a bunch of prime steaks??? :)

Don’t eat things with legs? How about some wild smoked salmon instead. A darker color than farmed, the muscular wild salmon have more flavor, and of course, are a bit pricier…

And to round off your gourmet meal? How about some Valrhona chocolates, or if you peer to the left of the chocolates, they have cans of Italian butter that I am told is to die for. Bacchus Epicerie is on the ground floor of Rockwell Mall in Makati. Happy shopping and eating.

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