Classic Pasta Carbonara at MOMO

What is a classic carbonara?  This dish has a lot of variations now that most people associate a pasta dish with cream sauce as carbonara.  But the  classic carbonara is simply made with bacon, and eggs and cheese.  Cream was later on added as the recipe evolved.  

My daughter loves pasta with white sauce.  One of the easiest sauce to make is the Alfredo sauce – butter, cream, and parmesan cheese (for  days when there’s no parmesan cheese,  a simple chez wiz will do, and she still loves it).  And  when dining out, she usually orders  pasta carbonara. And she’ll be very honest whether the carbonara  has passed her taste buds or not. 

 

I make mine with bacon, butter (or olive oil), cream, parmesan cheese and eggs.  I’ll post a recipe on another entry soon.

Last Friday, we went to Eastwood Mall to eat.  We were supposed to go to Bar Dolci in BGC, but the rains and horrendous traffic in Ortigas Center made us change our plans.  She wanted to eat pasta.  Our restaurant of choice – MOMO Cafe.

I rarely go to Eastwood mall and it’s my first time to try their food.  I ate some Bon Chon chicken prior to our early dinner that’s why I decided to share this pasta dish with Pipay.  She can’t finish the whole dish anyway.  She ordered watermelon shake, another favorite  and for dessert, I chose the choc nut sans rival.

 The Carbonara arrived with lots of bacon and cream.  A raw eggyolk sits on top the noodles.  After mixing the eggyolks with the cream and noodles, I asked the waiter to have it warmed a little more to cook the egg a bit more. I am queasy when it comes to eating some raw animal products (except for sashimi and other fresh seafood), especially eggs.  At home, I would mix the raw eggs with the noodles while it’s still warm.  That would cook the eggs to a silky texture, not curdled. 

So far, Pipay liked Momo’s classic carbonara.  I liked it too.  The saltiness of the cheese and  bacon was balanced by the smooth cream.  

Sans rival is another favorite of Pipay.  The Choc nut sans rival was okay.  Although Pipay said, it doesn’t look like sans rival as she was expecting the multiple layers of meringue wafers.  It was not too sweet. And you can taste the flavor of the choc nut. 

But what made my daughter very happy that day was her loot of angry birds key chains and pen.  

Good food and a hug from my daughter -  two of life’s simple joys.