Baked Macaroni (Pastarrific Pasta Meal, 7-11)

7-Eleven (http://www.7-eleven.com/), a popular retail store, sells packed meals mostly under Php 60.00. These meals range from corned beef with rice to baked macaroni. And in line with 7-Eleven corporate mission, these packed meals are handy, convenient, practical and best of all, very reasonable. In other words, it's a gold piece worth under sixty pesos.

I tasted the baked macaroni. It's cheesy, creamy and can give popular fast food baked macaroni products a run for its money.

The baked mac is neatly boxed in the standard 7-Eleven package. A photo of the baked mac is smacked right in the middle of the box. It (package) contains instructions on how to heat properly the macaroni. It's simple and stark yet direct to the point. It comes, separately, with a set of plastic fork and spoon with paper table napkin wrapped in plastic.

The 'meal' set includes two slices of triangular white bread on the side. The baked mac itself, as I've said earlier, is tasty. After putting it inside the microwave oven for 90 seconds, the "cheese melt" covered the macaroni. It looked more appetizing. The macaroni shell was not al dente. It soft without being soggy nor overcooked. The taste of the meat (ham) blended well.

The only downside is that, after heating, the white bread became hard. I could hear crunchy sound when I was chewing the bread. It was supposed to be buttered but apparently the taste was no longer there.

The baked macaroni is only Php 49.00 and it's all worth it.

French Baker

The French Baker

2/F The Landmark Bridgemark, Makati City

June 6, 2009

OVERALL GRADE: 2.12 / 5

FOOD: 1/5

Chicken Pesto Spaghetti and Banana Walnut Struessel

According to the website menu of The French Baker, the (chicken pesto) spaghetti is tossed with basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan cheese, and extra virgin olive oil, topped with strips of grilled chicken breast and served with your choice of grilled foccacia or garlic toast.

I was shocked to find out that, of the enumerated ingredients of this pasta dish, only the strips of chicken breast, parmesan cheese and foccacia bread are present. The rest is non-existent.

The cashier informed me that they ran out of spaghetti. They suggested fettuccine spinach pasta instead, in lieu of the spaghetti. I said yes since I wasn't so fussy about my food that day. When it was served, I quizzically looked at my food and was 'bothered' by the presence of creamy white sauce all over my pasta. I was expecting something green since I ordered for pesto. I was shortchanged of my order.

The food was served lukewarm, in fact, room temperature. It was not hot. The chicken strips were cold. The whole food presentation was alright. Lumped in the middle of my white plate is the pasta with cream all over, topped with four strips of chicken breast. The foccacia bread was placed on the topmost portion of the plate smothered by cream. The foccacia bread is not supposed to be smothered by cream because, as expected, it would be soggy. The essence of eating grilled foccacia does not serve its purpose when the taste is altered due to the cream and the bread texture becomes spongy. Foccacia should be brittle on the outside (because it was supposed to be grilled) and buttery in taste. My experience with my foccacia was far from this.

The fettuccine spinach pasta tasted rubbery. It was sticky as it is. To make it worse, the cream made it more sticky. I was after the taste of pesto but there was none at all. There was no virgin olive oil too.

The chicken was the worst. It was cold. I would understand it, even though this is certainly not an excuse, if The French Baker is in the league of outdated Tropical Hut or the defunct Cindy's where dining means "eat at your own risk." But this pasta dish is horrible. The French Baker claims to serve fresh food as their slogan boasts, "your freshness baker." They should re-think this slogan seriously when they continue to serve food that way.

The banana walnut struessel tasted very good. It was soft, moist and naturally sweet.The crust underneath was soft too. The struessel literally crumbled in my mouth.

This is, by far, the worst food that I've eaten for the following reasons:

1. I ordered for pesto and the dish served to me was not pesto. I was served a pasta with white cream.
2. The foccacia was dripping in cream sauce and eating it was not a pleasurable experience.
   
3. The fettuccine spinach pasta was served lukewarm.
4. The chicken strips were cold.
   

AMBIANCE: 3/5

This branch of The French Baker is located along the bridgeway connecting a mall and department store. There were people walking on both ends. The noise of footsteps, conversation of walking people and the sound of the PA system constantly bombard the whole area. It's this chaotic situation that makes The French Baker an ideal place to eat. A respite from the busy shopping life.

Despite the set-up, the French Baker did a decent job with their eating area. It was clean. The tables were immaculately white. The menu folder was provided on each table.The temperature was just right. Considering the volume of people walking along the bridgeway, the whole area was neither cold nor hot.

SERVICE: 2.5/5

The food was served 6 minutes and 28 seconds after getting my receipt from the cashier. I didn't mind the waiting time because I wasn't in a hurry that day.

When they served my dish, everything was quickly laid out on top of my table, the standard table paper napkin, knife and fork. I just don't get the logic why the food server included spoon. I didn't order soup. There was no use for the spoon in a pasta dish.

VALUE FOR MONEY: 2/5

My money went to waste considering that I did not get what I ordered for.

The saving grace is the banana walnut struessel which is not too pricey but the taste is excellent.

STRONG POINTS

• Location and accessibility
• Wide array of food items
  
• Service is good
• Bakery items (particularly the banana walnut struessel) are top of the line

WEAK POINTS

• While the service of the food attendant is good, their communication skills need to be improved. Perhaps they could have explained it to me why the sudden change of my order. The only correct information that I got was from the cashier regarding the replacement of my pasta (from spaghetti to fettuccine spinach) but there was no explanation why my pesto was replaced by a creamy sauce.
• The food attendants do not bother to take care of their grooming.
• No rapport to customers.