Financial stability is tough these days, and the shift of support to small-time businesses is obvious. They are, without a doubt, the next big thing.
We’ve seen the demand for online services and contactless products rise the longer our quarantine period got dragged out. Filipinos chose to spend their money on home-based brands that are starting to grow as household favorites.
I opened my purse to a lot of small businesses last July—choosing to sugar-load my already-unhealthy quarantine diet whenever the weekend came. To be honest, having a food delivery arrive at my doorstep on Friday afternoons became the highlight of my week.
If you’ve placed an order online for any food trends as of late (that includes banana bread, baked sushi, Korean-inspired cakes and chocolate chip cookies), then there’s a high chance that your ad algorithm has caught on and is now conditioned to show your upcoming craving. Ads of new food offerings and new online stores are sure to cut through your daily scrolls.
As more days pass, more online businesses are cropping up—adding to an already endless list of homemade goods to try. If you’re like me who has gotten the hang of GCash transfers and Lalamove pickups, then chances are, you’re ordering from these small businesses with some sense of advocacy too.
Every order is a win-win situation. Every order you make is either helping a parent have a side income for their child’s online class requirements, is supporting a friend to survive another day as an under-slash-unemployed, or a portion of a bestseller’s profits go to underprivileged communities.
Personally, I chose to buy baked goods and savory snacks mostly from people I know and places I’m familiar with. Suddenly my friends and friends of friends have perfected their recipes for us to have something to rave about. Although, I did cap my spending to only P1,000 per order. I was also strict about this habitual spending being a once-a-week treat.
My friend, Karlo Cadang, did his fair share of small biz orders too. Being the food photographer that he is, he documented his eats in the most drooling ways possible. Together, we compiled a list of all the small businesses we’ve supported in July, all of which have gained a reorder status of confidence.
Oven Sisters
Each cookie baked by Oven Sisters is delightfully buttery with crisp edges and a chewy center. It’s also dotted with a generous amount of chunky dark chocolate morsels. There’s a fair amount of chocolate in every bite so it heavily requires milk on the side. Their classic Chocolate Chip Cookie can pass as the homemade twin of the well-loved, palm-sized Mo’ Cookies—each piece is basically an oversized dose of endorphins you can bite into.
My order also had half a dozen of Chocolate Walnut Cookies. It’s thicker, fluffier, and a whole lot denser. It’s a lot less sweeter and buttery, but equally as good—this one has more of a bite to it, with an extra crunch from the walnuts. These two flavors are now officially available as nibble-sized cookies too!
Milkii
Most iced coffee and milk tea orders now go up for P150 to P190 a pop. That’s why when Milkii first introduced their fruity line of yogurt-based drinks, they surprised everyone with crave-worthy guzzlers that are offered in such reasonable, affordable prices. Clearly, the next time you want a sip of something sweet, their 400-ml drinks are the best choice to satisfy your tastebuds.
The perfect way to describe the Milkii experience is like drinking a smoothie bowl. In each bottle, you’ll enjoy a thick and creamy consistency, with gobs of fresh fruit and tapioca sinkers adding some chewy and chunky textures to the yogurt drink. They don’t scrimp on its layers of fruit either—it’s a mix of sweet, tarty and milky flavors in one gulp.
Besides its cute, minimalist branding, Milkii supports the fruit vendors in their local communities. Their drinks don’t just taste good, you feel good after purchasing them too.
Gang Gang Chicken
When F&B influencers post their feast of the day, I welcome the cravings they send my way with a huge side order of skepticism. With the boom of small food businesses, most of the posts we see on social media seem too much like a flex more than it is a proper review. There’s more mention of thank yous than there are of tasting notes.
I discovered Gang Gang Chicken on their PR day, aka the delivery day when said influencers are due to post their version of flat-lays and unboxings. Did their strategy work? I’m glad it did. I ordered about a kilo of boneless Korean fried chicken immediately, and I enjoyed nothing but yangneom-glazed perfection that entire weekend without ever getting tired of it.
Each boneless bite was massive, crispy, and generously coated with flavor. Their quarter serving can feed at least three people, or it can last you a few episodes during your K-drama binge. It’s best enjoyed with beer!
Pan De Nice
This is an upgrade to your local bakery’s take on doughnuts. Each sugar-dusted treat is filled with a hefty amount of rich and silky flavored cream. Made with overnight fermented dough, it’s puffy, moist, and with a subtle tartness that perfectly balances its sweet center.
I enjoy them two ways. I like them fresh and warm, eaten right after it’s delivered. I also go to town on them after they’re chilled overnight, when its creamy center transforms into a mousse-like filling, giving you a more complex mix of textures for a more interesting bite.
I recommend that you try these flavors, ranked from highly recommended to variants you can order less of: Vanilla Custard, Dark Chocolate, and Matcha. Expect these Pan De Nice doughnuts to be a major hit! You can ask its loyal customers, they can tell you for a fact that these doughnuts don’t last very long.
I even got a dozen on my second doughnut delivery because I knew better. Sadly, the fillings weren’t as generous as they once were. While its dough and filling are more well-proportioned now, it was that excessively messy, extra creamy goodness that made these doughnuts worth it.
Nini’s Oven
Their Sushi Bake is perfect to binge on during your cheat days—creamy, meaty, and loaded with flavors. Just a word of caution: You’ll never stop craving for it once you’ve tasted it.
Nini’s Oven has the perfect sweets to balance off their savory offerings. Their brownies have the best texture with its crackly, flaky exterior and chewy and delightfully bittersweet center. They also bake Caramel Bars that taste a lot like the bestsellers of Max’s Bakery—chewy, fudgey, and melt-in-your-mouth.
Best part? Everything’s affordable you can probably order every week!
The Linden Bakery
Their Burnt Cheesecake is perfectly creamy and light from its center to its crust. I’m not gonna lie—I skipped meals so I can enjoy slices of this in a single day. The Linden Bakery’s 7-inch serving is a mouthful. It’s got a light velvety cream cheese base that’s packed with complementing flavors.
Although it doesn’t have that molten, gooey center, you’ll still enjoy the balance of flavors it serves on the table. It marries the subtle sweetness of a caramelized top with the striking smokiness of scorched exteriors—a swirl of flavors that you’ll get to taste in every bite.
The price is also not as heavy as the quality it promises. It’s only P950 an order, and you can tell just how many pounds of cheese went into this cake the second you taste it.
Kuya Fred’s stand is my where my dad gets his favorite post-jogging treats whenever he burns some soles around the UP campus. The famous food cart located at Ylanan Street is now available online and they sell our favorite street food by the kilo. Fish balls, squid balls, kwek-kwek—these are all part of their frozen goods menu. It comes with the sweet dipping sauce and crowd-favorite vinegar concoction to fool-proof the street food experience at home.
I eat off the pan whenever I’m in charge of cooking. We all know it tastes best when its puffy and piping hot. I like searing one side (so I can have that toasted flavor and crispiness), while leaving the other half pale (for that chewy texture and distinct floury taste).
The Grey Stuff
The go-to dessert place of UP Los Baños students from the past, present and future. Everything The Grey Stuff comes out with is surely a bang-for-the-buck deal. A dozen of cookies with a P160 price tag? With a recipe using one of the best local chocolates out there? I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, but I can’t believe you get the unequaled taste of Auro chocolates for cheap with every order of baked goodies from Grey’s.
You probably heard this before: The chocolate makes all the difference. One bite of their cookies and I embrace this as the ultimate truth. Their cookies are normal-sized (about two inches in diameter), but it always feels like you’re eating a palm-sized chocolate monstrosity. A shard of chocolate comes with every bite. Every cookie has a rich and creamy experience waiting in every round.
Their Double Chocolate Cookies and Molten Lava Brownies age so well too. Its top and edges develop this crispy and gritty texture over time. It does become a bit crumbly but the taste of the dark chocolate becomes more pronounced and complex. While the Classic Chocolate Chip maintains its moist and dense cake-like texture even a week after.
Other things you should try from this Laguna-based baker: The Strawberry Shortcake, Leche Flan Cake, and Vanilla Cream Puffs.
✺ Photos by Karlo Cadang and Vinz Lamorena
No comments