UP Town Center Archives - The Philippine Beat

In spite of the fact that Katipunan is densely populated with residential houses and condominiums and home to at least three major schools and a few smaller ones in the periphery, as well as numerous eating places, I always wondered why it sorely lacked one thing for decades — a decent, modern diagnostics and healthcare facility.

Not anymore though!

With the opening of the UP Town Center and its mall facilities, the QualiMed Health Network, a network of clinics, surgery centers, and hospitals, owned by Mercado General Hospital, Inc. in partnership with Ayala Land, Inc., has put up a Qualimed clinic in its mall area to service the area.

Continue reading “Qualimed opens in UP Town Center” →

Who says NO to pizza? Ah, ah, NOT ME! And not when I am invited to try out Steveston Pizza which originated from Canada!

First let me tell you that I had no idea what Steveston Pizza was offering (but the thought of eating pizza appealed a lot to me!). Second, I was eager to check out UP Town Center because I heard of the place from my son but did not know exactly where it was.

Suffice it to say, I was pleasantly surprised upon arriving at the place. Apparently, UP Town Center is now the newest watering hole and the converging place for the students of UP Diliman, Ateneo and Miriam College.

I was early so I did some work at J.Co nearby. Noemi joined me shortly and we got to put in some productive time before moving over to Steveston Pizza close to lunch.

From the outside

Karen Go, who is part-owner of Steveston Pizza, joined us and recounted its history. Nader Hatami is its solo founder. A trained chef, he concocted all the pizza creations you can find at Steveston Pizza, which is located in Richmond, B.C. I actually googled them and found out that Steveston Pizza is known for creating the first commercially available and world’s most expensive pizza. Believe it or not, that pizza (C6) costs $450 and is made of thermidor of lobster and black Alaskan cod, side of Russion osetra caviar, and needs to be ordered a day ahead. Whew! And there’s more. Steveston Pizza singlehandedly won Best Pizza by the Richmond Review from 2008-2011. Straight!

It’s actually amazing that while they are this popular in Canada, they chose the Philippines to open up a presence. Nader Hatami is a part owner in the Philippine branches so you can be sure the quality will stay as good as it is in Canada. Karen also emphasized that they only use the freshest ingredients. She said that for pineapples, they never used the canned ones but always put fresh pineapples on their pizzas.

If you check their menu, you’ll notice something that sets them apart from other pizza places. Their pizzas only come in 1 size – 12 inches! I asked Karen why and she said it was so that they could better control its quality. And look, so many choices — 28 in all!

For some who are used to ordering the 18-inch pizzas available elsewhere, you may think 12 inches is too small for your appetites, right? Wrong! The Steveston pizzas are loaded, piled high and densely packed in those 12 inches. Their pizza pictures are not just for show. You actually get them as they look on those photos!

Here’s what we pigged out on. First, the salads.

Classic Caesar, PhP 175

Flying Caesar, PhP 195
(with paprika and lemon scented chicken)

Both are great but if you’re not into very spicy food, take note that the Flying Caesar’s chicken is very spicy.

Then on to the pizzas!

Classic Cheese, PhP 399

They have 2 other flavors for the same price as the Classic Cheese: Margarite (tomato sauce, basil chiffonade, cheese) and Pepperoni.

One of 2 very gourmet pizzas — C2, PhP 1,299

I’m not kidding. If you have to break your budget over a gourmet pizza, you must try the C2 (prosociutto ham, brie, semi-dried roma tomatoes, and a dollop of roasted garlic mousse). Each ingredient is its worth in gourmet goodness. Nothing was spared to make this premium pizza. Just see all that prosciutto heaped on top of the pizza, practically one for every slice! That alone is a full meal and more!

Karen wanted us to try as many different flavors as our tummies could hold so she suggested 2 flavors in one pizza – half and half. (Take note ha, doing 2 flavors in one pizza is not a regular thing with them. But if you really want to try, ask them. Maybe on a not-too-busy day, they’ll give in.)

The first one brought out was the Black-Blue pizza combo from the Colours category (so named because as you’ll see, they are all named after the colors.

Black, PhP 699
(honey-glazed chicken breast, fig gorgonzola and mascarpone mousse, walnuts, arugula julienne)

Blue, PhP 699
(rosemary-smoked bacon, caramelized onions, mushrooms, baby spinach, stilton blue cheese mousse)

I loved the walnuts of Black but my favorite was Blue. Know why? It was liberally coated with blue cheese — my favorite! The combination of everything else just made this my choice. I was tempted to go for a second slice but held off knowing more was coming.

Next was Green-Pink combo.

Green, PhP 699
(herb pesto butter, shrimp, brie, scallions)

Just look at that picture above again. With some other pizzas that say they have shrimp, you often find a few tiny shrimps here and there but not much. But Steveston Pizza’s Green pizza is LOADED! Just check how densely packed the shrimps are on this one. And see, they are huge, fat and juicy looking! No scrimping here!

The PINK pizza is smoked salmon, asparagus, bocconcini, and onion with pesto drizzle. Now WHY don’t I have a picture of that other side? Too busy eating, maybe. But it’s up there — in the menu pics.

So that was our pig-out lunch. But that’s not all. I noted a few more things about Steveston Pizza that I really liked so I’m pointing them out. You’ll observe that when you go check them out.

* Their pizzas are NOT GREASY! No kidding! I held all my pizza slices with my bare hands the whole time and believe it or not, my hands were not dripping with oil, unlike most other pizzas which are quite greasy to the touch.

* Their plates and utensils are biodegradable (that is a +1 in my environment-friendly score card!). And as they are use-once types, I know that it will be a lot more hygienic and healthy than reusable ceramic plates.

Thank you so much to Karen and to Steveston Pizza. I enjoyed that chance to meet up with my SoMoms friends again PLUS be treated to this sumptuous pizza experience like no other I’ve tried. The best pizza of Canada is indeed here in town now.