Amare La Cucina: Love the Kitchen, Love the Food

I’m so ecstatic to see the number of Baguio food questers growing. It’s fun to find out too, that there are many more people getting into the business of providing the City of Pines with good stuff to eat.

As I’ve indicated before, Jo has become one of my bona fide Baguio food exploration companions.  She’s keeping a look out for newly opened places and it probably works so much better that way since she gets out a lot. (Exercise sightseeing, gooooo, Jo! *me with pompoms)

The residence turned Amare La Cucina

Last week, Jo sent me a text giving me a heads up for a new pizza place in town.  She said it was in Loakan and so I started planning for a joy ride/recon ride with Race back to Loakan. (Who knows, we might find Crazy Chef when we do a second sweep of the vicinity.)  It, being a busy week/month (thank the gods for work =D), our reconnaissance trip was put off again and again.  Jo asked me later if I found it, saying her coworkers and friends really wanted me to try this new place. (Thank you so much everyone at IHG who’s cheering me on! You guys rock! (“,) Feels a little, too, like Man v. Food minus the gluttonously large proportions of food in one sitting. *harhar)

Inside the Cucina

A few days ago, Beth asked me if I heard about a pizzeria at Engineers Hill.  One of her coworkers said, he thought the name of the establishment was Amira.  It suddenly got me thinking, the only Amirah I know about used to be Amirah. A followup text came saying, it’s a pizzeria that bakes their pizza in a brick oven.  I then wondered if it was the same place that the IHG-ians were talking about.  I really, REALLY had to get out and see now.  Before the recon day came however, one of my blogger friends sent me a Facebook link. Lo and behold, it’s a pizzeria with a brick oven. \m/ Thank you so much, Sam! You saved Race gas money. Join us in a food adventure – on us. (“,)

The sheet menu *click to enlarge photo No worries about the sheet menu (and that there’s no dessert), that just means there might be additions and revisions to their offering. Hold your horses guys, the Kitchen is just a month old. Ohh, anticipating more stuff to eats-plore. *clap clap

On with our Amare experience!

Race and I still did a little checking, the few minutes before we actually met with Beth.  It was pretty easy to find Amare La Cucina because the wood fire brick oven pizza (and more) establishment did a really good job of setting up signs to their place. We got there a little before 11:00 a.m. where the owner told us, they’d be open in a few minutes. It was good time to go and meet Beth who’s been craving for pizza.

Mint iced tea … see the greenish tinge at the bottom of the glasses? That’s the minty flavor. Give your beverage a little stir.

Back as P2+1, we got one dish from the salads, the pasta, the ribs (the one and only), and of course, the pizza.  We also inquired about the size of the pizza and our lady attendant said charmingly, it was something from 12 to 14 inches.  =) Remember guys, it’s brick oven baking.  We then waited for our food taking little sips of mint iced tea from our glasses.

Okay, I couldn’t sit still. I wanted to see the wondrous wood fire-d brick oven … from the oven door’s side.  Good thing, it’s just behind the counter. (You can see the oven and its exhaust from the outside of the pizzeria – first photo in this blog.)

Little details around Amare La Cucina … and the star of the kitchen, the brick oven! (I love the clock on the post too. What an artful little piece! Oh and the chili oil dispenser. It was amusing to watch the excess oil dripping back from the spout into the bottle, so hour glass-y)

Our salad was then brought to our table. (Big serving platters are in.)

It was a delicious plate of greens.  I did want a little bit more of the special sauce but that didn’t really matter once I got to the arugula and the caramelized walnuts.  Yum, I thought in getting that nutty flavor in my mouth. Hooray for dried tomatoes, too.

Marianne’s special =D

Fresh from the oven, our pizza came.

Ooh, how the aroma filled the air.  Salivating for the fragrant pizza, I finished the salad on my plate quickly.  In getting a slice, I found it to be both thin (middle part) and thick (ends) crust pizza which is a good enough combination.  The bite I took out of it was mildly flavored.  But it’s better mild than extreme, nothing a dash of chili oil (which is Amare’s hot sauce seasoning) and a little sprinkling of salt can’t fix.  Hhhm, maybe more bacon saltiness? *nomnomnom, chewy dough.

White pizza ^^,

The plate of ribs and veggies was mainly for Race.  He fancies himself a rib man now. *snickers

He did give us a piece of the meat and some vegetables.  With what I got, I thought the meat was tender enough.  Don’t expect it to be fall of the bone because this was cooked in the brick oven too.  For a little flavor, dip or pour on the garlic sauce.  As for the veggies, it reminded me of the stuffing in empanada. Good, right? Yiiis.

Wood fired ribs with veggies =)

Now, for the pasta.

One of the most excellently cooked pastas I’ve ever had.  To think, the noodles were fettuccine. \m/ The sauce: pure tomato with just enough prawns for Beth, Race and me.  Dash of salt for Ms. Salty here … me.

Ala gamberi … beautiful plate of pasta as well (“,)

My, that was a filling lunch … and all for P1318.50.  (They’ve got a 10% off opening promo that lasts until July 27, 2013. )

X marks Amare for good food in Baguio. It’s all about the love of Amare’s kitchen and food … love their kitchen, love their food.  Visit them soon!

P2+1: Lovers of the kitchen and its food. Sadly, we (this P2+1) can’t do much in the kitchen. *hihi MIA: The one who knows her way around it. Wish you were here, Karla! ^^, Get well soon! Biiiig hugs!

Food:  and a special rating of  for the al dente pasta.  Hopefully, I can get a taste of the foie gras pizza soon (didn’t see that one in our visit). We’ll be back for some tomato-sauce-y pizzas, too.  ***MSG free food! (food offerings are free of monosodium glutamate – as per menu/restaurant staff member.  Please ALWAYS CONFIRM with your attendant/server/waiter to be on the safe side. ^^,)

Service:  I’m still smiling at the thought of our charming lady attendant. (“,) Thanks to you for taking our photo. Nice shot, you handled the camera really well po. \m/

Ambiance:  The pizzeria is a little small and with everyone wanting a taste of a brick oven pizza, it can get crowded pretty quickly.

Price: 

The way to Amare. Follow the signs please. DPS Compound Brgy. (After Mario’s before the road going into South Drive), down the road turn left. UPDATE 12/28/2013: Amare La Cucina is moving to Egi Albergo Di Ferroca Hotel. They’ll be (re)opening their doors and firing up their wood brick oven in January.

Amare La Cucina

#6 DPS Compound

Baguio City, Philippines

0917 790 0294

facebook.com/pages/Amare-la-cucina/118060425030844

UPDATE 12/28/2013: Amare La Cucina is moving to Egi Albergo Di Ferroca Hotel, where Gustaeu‘s is. They’ll be (re)opening their doors and firing up their wood brick oven in January.