B, b and CCME!

It's B's birthday today!!!



As tradition dictates, B brought food for his officemates today. Since I was busy this week, I was not able to order from my favorite caterers (Amber, Tita Len's, or Conti's.) So, yesterday, I crammed and surfed for caterers that can whip up meals for 20 people in a day's notice. And I found one!

I got the name CCME Homemade Foodstuff from an old thread at Newlyweds@Work. It was just mentioned once so I searched the net for reviews. While I did find a couple of blogs saying that CCME prepared yummy food, there were no details given. I then visited CCME's website, and while it was not aesthetically beautiful, I loved it for its contents! Everything was there - their menu, prices, location and contact details. Even better, they have a form for ordering online! Their prices are so reasonable and they deliver for free. I ordered food and fervently prayed that they send us edible meals.

I do not regret ordering from CCME. In fact, I told B that if we need to entertain a large number of people at home, we'll just order from CCME.

They delivered our lunch promptly. And the food was very good, specially if you consider the price!

We ordered 2 kilos each of kalderetang baka, lechon kawali, steamed prawns, laing, pancit sotanghon and 2 gallons of rice. It was more than enough for 20 people and we only paid a little over P3,000! They even gave us free puto.

The kalderetang baka was my favorite. The beef was tender, the potatoes were soft but not overly so, and the sauce was perfectly seasoned. It was the best kalderetang baka I've ever tasted.

The laing was not far behind. I don't usually eat this dish but one of the blogs that I read said that CCME's laing was really good so I ordered one. It was heavenly - it had the right amount of coconut milk and it didn't taste like I was eating a plant! It was only moderately spicy upon my request (B's officemates didn't like spicy food) but they sent siling labuyo that you can mix in with the dish if you want to spice it up. Next time I want to eat laing, I'll order one from CCME.

The steamed prawns were fresh. I didn't get any allergies from them and the prawns were cooked with the perfect combination of butter and garlic.

The lechon kawali and sotanghon were not exceptionally good but for the price we paid, they were definitely worth the price.

[For dessert, we brought a tub of Vanilla Blue Bunny Ice Cream. As expected, every one loved it!]

We placed a separate order for our afternoon snacks - we ordered more sotanghon and pancit bam-i for the department that B used to work with. For his current department, we ordered arroz caldo at P20 per serving. The delivery wasn't as prompt as our lunch, but the arroz caldo more than made up for the 5-minute wait. It was delicious! They placed different condiments (whole boiled eggs, calamansi, crunchy garlic, onion leaves and fish sauce) in different containers. The arroz caldo which had large pieces of chicken in it was placed in 2 giant containers of mayo. I loved them even better for recycling those containers! We enjoyed mixing everything together. The chicken was tender, the arroz caldo was still hot when it was delivered and it just makes for a perfect comfort food. It really tastes homemade, it made me remember the arroz caldo that Nanay Lilia used to cook for me when I was little. The consistency was perfect - hindi malapot, hindi malabnaw.

CCME is truly a good find. And for the price we paid, I really feel like I've found a gem!

[For dinner, Mama brought home food from Spring Deer resto. It was another delicious meal. Hopefully, it will be the subject of another post.]