I'm glad the Metro Angeles Food Tour 2014 (#MAFT2014) took the road less traveled by choosing Cottage Kitchen Cafe to try their authentic Cajun and Creole cuisine.


Even in Manila, establishments offering these southern American cuisine are quite few.  I've only tried Gumbo and Cajun Red Rock (I only tried their burger and that was ages ago).  So I'm quite ecstatic to venture more on these cuisines.

I even had to research what the difference between Cajun and Creole cuisine is.  I learned that Cajun cuisine is rich in spices (onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, paprika, thyme, file, parsley and green onions) and makes use of every part of a slaughtered animal.  Being rich in spices however, does not imply that all are spicy. On the hand, Creole cuisine is more extravagant.  It makes use of tomatoes, cream, butter, seafood and exotic herbs.  While Cajun is classified as country-style cooking, Creole is categorized as city-style cooking.
The place was dimly lit with candles on each table.  There's a bar area, a casual dining area with a good view of the stage and a more private area with curtains on the side.  The ceiling had a glass portion where you can see the clouds or dark skies with stars at night.  Diners are a mix of foreigners and locals.

Food

Appetizers & Starters

♥ Zing Wings (235 php)

If you love spicy dishes, I highly recommend the Zing Wings.  It got a pleasant spicy kick with a hint of rich herbs and spices.  The chicken skin is fun-tastically crispy and the meat was tender and juicy.

Deep Fried Potato Wedges (180 php)

For some finger food, there's the Deep Fried Potato Wedges served with thousand island dressing.

CKC's Corn Bread (100 php)

The CKC's Corn Bread is delicious!  This block is quite dense and heavy.  It is served with herbed butter.


Soups & Salad

Creole Onion Soup (180 php)

The Creole Onion Soup is a creamy heavvily spiced onion soup with cheese and crouton.  As you can see, it is very peppery.  From this point, I've acknowledged that creole and cajun cuisine seems like an acquired taste as some of my companions was overwhelmed and wary of the spiced flavors. 

Chef's Salad (250 php)

The Chef's Salad has greens, egg, ham, tomatoes and carrots with thousand island dressing.  

♥ Cajun Shrimp Salad (270 php)

We all loved the Cajun Shrimp Salad with wasabi dressing.  Every element was harmonically aligned to please the palate.

Southern Specialty Cajun and Creole Dishes

♥ Shrimp Jambalaya (450 php)

The Shrimp Jambalaya made it irresistible for me to lessen my carb intake.  Aside from delivering a really wholesome herbed and spiced flavor, it was topped with shrimps, mildly spiced sausage chunks and chopped green bell peppers.  It is served with dinner bread.

Cajun Fried Chicken and Dirty Rice 2 pcs. (300 php)

The Cajun Fried Chicken was pretty good.  It was more on the peppery side.  But, I prefer the Zing Wings over this.  I loved the Dirty Rice.  I hope they offer that separately.


Blackened Cajun Dishes

Blackened Chicken (385 php)

The Blackened Chicken is a spice and herb crusted chicken breast fillet.  As you can see it was succulent.

♥ Blackened Catfish (400 php)

Between the Blackened Catfish and the Blackened Chicken, I prefer the former.

CKC's House Special BBQ (All barbecue entries comes with coleslaw, baked beans, bread and choice of either: mashed potatoes, potato salad, fried, corn on a cob or steamed rice.)

♥ Original Baby Back Pork (575 php)

The Original Baby Back Pork is really good!  It had a sweet and savory BBQ sauce and smokey lean, tender and meaty pork meat.  This is a must try!

♥ Barbecue Beef Slab Full (800 php)

The Barbecue Beef is just a bigger and chunkier option.  Basically, it has the same barbecue sauce.


Desserts

♥ Peach Cobbler (180 php)

The Peach Cobbler was finished in a flash!  It is a pie filled with sweetened peach with hints of cinnamon.

♥ Apple Pie (180 php)

I liked the Apple Pie more than the Peach Cobbler.  But, they are equally good.  It's just a matter of preference.

Pecan Pie (180 php)

The Pecan Pie is very sweet with its rich and gooey consistency.  It had a generous amount of pecan.

♥ Specialty Cake of the Week: Peach Cheesecake (180 php)

The Peach Cheesecake served chilled was so heavenly!  This is my favorite among all the desserts we tried.


Drinks

Iced Tea

Other Metro Angeles Food Tour (#MAFT2014) Posts
Abe's Farm
Angeles Fried Chicken 
Binulo Restaurant
Historic Camalig Restaurant
La Rose Noire (factory visit) 
Mother's Cake House
Prism Lounge
Sab Bistro
Salt Restaurant (Breakfast Buffet)
Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
Cottage Kitchen Cafe delivers authentic Cajun and Creole cuisine like no other.  In addition to its great dishes, the ambiance is superb and the staffs are nice.  Bring some company as dishes are in sharing portions.

After our Ramen dinner at Yushoken, the family went to Le Petite Cheri just a few stores away and also located in Molito Alabang to buy some pastries for the next day's breakfast.

It has a beautiful Parisian inspired ambiance.   They had a dining area with well-cushioned wooden seats that matched its wooden tables. 

They had a chiller of luscious cakes and pastries.   This enticed us to have an after-dinner coffee and cake session.  After all, we did travel all the way to Alabang just to eat so we might us way go all out.


It has a bakery area where we thought we could buy some bread.  But unfortunately, they were sold out of bread and these are just for display.


More cakes are displayed in the bakery area but not as much as in the dining area.

Since it was Christmas, they have a tall Christmas Tree by their staircase too. 

The second floor has a library where you can read their wide collection of books.

And, there is an even more private room with more books and a nice view of the Molito's parking area. 

While waiting for our orders, I got some book too.

Even their place mat and utensil holder is cute.

Desserts

Mousse au Chocolat (115 php)

The Mousse au Chocolat is an irresistible treat with layers of dark and white chocolate mousses, all set on a chocolate cookie crust and topped with velvety chocolate ganache and chocolate shavings.

♥ Mousse au Chocolat (115 php)

This Mousse au Chocolat is so heavenly!  Chocoholics like me will definitely fall in love with it.  This is probably one of the best chocolate mousse I've ever had.

Tarte Aux Pommes (115 php)

The Tarte Aux Pommes is a classic french take on apple pie fresh apple slices set on a bed of Frangpane (sweet almond pastry cream).  If you like apple pie, then you'll like this because it's very similar.  You can request an ala mode version with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  I forgot to note if we were charged extra for that. 

Drinks

♥ Toffee Coffee (120 php)

I ordered the Toffee Coffee and requested it to be lightly sweetened.  It was still sweet but the strong nutty coffee was able to balance with it well. 

Coffee Selection

Cafe Au Lait (85 php)

The Cafe Au Lait impressed my coffee affecionado brother as well.  It comes with a free cookie. 

Cappucino Decaf (105 php)

My little sister found their Cappucino Decaf too light for her preference. 

Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
Le Petite Cheri is a nice place to take your time and relax over a good meal.  They also serve wine.  I love their concept in terms of food and ambiance.  The Mousse au Chocolat is definitely worth coming back for.  Too bad we didn't get to try their main entrees.  My aunt advised us that they are superb as well.  The service is also excellent.