3 years agoA Dozen New Experiences: My 2021 Journey of Ordering Thru Instagram Stores
Image by hoffmann-tipsntrips from Pixabay
With the new year here and the different levels of regulations still being imposed on us during this pandemic, it's no wonder that some businesses-- especially the food industry-- have taken a more digital approach in catering to their clients. I've also jumped on the bandwagon of ordering food that's now just a click away and I'm more than pleased to discover some new stores that have very interesting packages. So if you're open to checking out these stores, here's a 2021 year in review of mine from trying out ordering thru the online shops on Instagram:
The first time in a long while since we decided to prepare alongside the Lunar New Year last February, I thought of a theme closer to our roots. So aside from preparing the usual sticky rice cake (tikoy), I bought my favorite brand of local sticky rice (suman) and for the main course, a classic serving of street foods!
Screenshot from their Instagram Story Highlights
The thing I loved about the products Avenida.ph has to offer is that it brings back nostalgic memories of when we would usually get our fill of streetfoods after school, here I got their Merienda Package and it was real fulfilling!
Food experience: 5 ⭐
Customer Service: 5 ⭐
A certain craving of mine started after seeing a vid online about some famous strawberry donuts from a store called "The Donut Man", and it got me thinking if we had any local equivalent to this visually sweet treat, so lo and behold, this was the first shop I encountered selling what looked similar at best, the VeryBerry Donuts:
I guess at this point, it's a matter of "Did it taste good?", well it was ok. Not too sweet as I expected it to be, not exactly something I'd come back for more though, but that's just my expectation and I'm sure there's a lot more of their products that they have to offer, from pastries, cakes and pastas.
Food experience: 3 ⭐
Customer Service: 5 ⭐ (responsive seller, no problem here)
This was something my mom discovered and wanted to try, so as a treat for her anniversary in the Hive community, she ordered this Baby Sweesecake!
Not to be confused with a cheesecake (because this obviously looks like a piece of swiss), this has a more cheezy aftertaste to it that is more dessert than cold cuts. Pretty unique, love the fun cake concept, but it was more of a visual aesthetic to me than it was my tastebuds' adventure. Also kinda expected the layered interior for the cake, but I guess that only comes with the big size??
Screenshot from their Instagram Feed
Food experience: 4 ⭐ (i'll hand it to them for being cleverly creative with this concept)
Customer Service: 5 ⭐ (if my none-too-patient mother can book an order thru an IG seller, than so can other Gen Xs)
A personal request from my mother for her birthday cake, I got the Ultimate Cheesecake Carousel ('cuz she just loves 'em cheesecakes)
Originally known for their Avocado cake, Lia's has grown to offer a variety of flavors with this sampler of theirs, though some slices may be something that you'll have to grow to love, the experience of comparing each slice's unique flavor is already fun to begin with!
Screenshot from their Instagram Feed with list of slices as per their website:
1 slice Avocado Cheesecake - their specialty! and even though i'm not particularly fond of avocado, this one was really good!
1 slice Mango Cheesecake - like mango float! only in cake form-- which is also good!
1 slice Ube Cheesecake - personally think ube is best suited in chiffon style desserts, this was too "melts-in-your-mouth" to me
1 slice ChocoBanana Cheesecake - like banoffee pie, only smoother and less crunchier-- still going for the pie version, but this was a good take!
1 slice Strawberry Cheesecake - if a strawberry smoothie had a baby with a cheesecake, this is it! this was just pure heaven in my mouth!
1 slice Blueberry Cheesecake - not as heavenly as the strawberry or mango, i've had better blueberry cheesecakes than this slice, so it's a pass for me.
1 slice Langka Cheesecake - honestly was at a lost as to which flavor this one was 'cuz i was curious of it's uniquely good taste, it's somewhat sweet with a 'twang'!
1 slice Calamansi Cheesecake - refreshing taste but wasn't as sweet as i preferred it to be, but definitely thought of this as "the cheesecake best for summers"!
Overall Food experience: 4 ⭐
Customer Service: 5 ⭐
The month after that, it was my birthday, and even though I only requested this special cake I saw on their feed, my mom surprised me by ordering other stuff from their store!
Firstly, let's start with their Baked Salmon Sushi, which I haven't featured in my past Quarantine Cuisines trend-- This was hella good! Though the one from J&J Flavors of Home is still my Top #1, this is coming a close second!
The others were the Leche Flan Doughnuts (too sweet for my taste but I liked that it was soft to the bite) and Ube Crinkles (tasted to much of the ube that I didn't think it was sweet enought to be called a crinkle..)
And of course my birthday cake! Let me tell you, it was as magnificent as it looked from the pics in their IG feed BUT I really have to suggest the 1 Layer cakes instead of the 2 Layered Ube Leche Flan Cake that I insisted on, 'cuz it was just too terribly, cavity-inducing SWEET!!!
Overall, it was a good few sweet desserts served for a birthday so I'd give it a--
Food experience: 4 ⭐
Customer Service: 3 ⭐ ('cuz mom kept getting anxious of the delivery time being pushed for a lot later at the last minute, which I noticed, so birthday surprise ruined.)
Of course a birthday party shouldn't be filled with just sweet things, so I decided to order from this store with their temptingly yummy Special Cha Misua!
Screenshot from their website
I also couldn't help but order their Dimsum Platter Set C, where you can mix 3 different kinds of dimsums in one order-- I LOVED their hakaw! (it's a personal favorite!) Both their pork w/ shrimp mushroom siomai and shark's fin dumpling are a tie 'cuz their dimsums just taste great!
Food experience: 5 ⭐ (truly a tasty discovery here on IG, will order again soon!!)
Customer Service: 5 ⭐
This feature is more for the fur-parents who want to plan a celebration for their furbabies, and since our cat Bon just turned 1 last August, we decided to order a pet-friendly cake for him!
Pics as sent by seller before delivery
We decided on The Meow Package and just added from the KIT-ty Cat Cupcakes:
Menu as sent by seller upon inquiry
Bon just couldn't stay still for a proper pic of him with his cake and he was too much of a picky eater to even try the cake tho...
Food experience: 4 ⭐ (Bon's cat friends loved the cake AND the cupcakes so no lost here, just Bon mostly not liking it 'cuz of its somewhat fishy smell even though I already paid extra for the 'sauteed chicken chunks in gravy sauce' option)
Customer Service: 5 ⭐
Saw a sponsored ad of this while scrolling thru IG during a time when I didn't feel like having pizza anytime soon, but something about how their pizza was laid out got me curious, making me check out their page then-- WHAM! I was already planning a "Pizza Weekend" after that!
Also kinda good marketing on their part as I ordered during a promo period of 'Buy 3, Have 1 Margherita Pizza Free' deal, so it was truly pizza galore!
Image from their website
Didn't expect the tomato-y sourness of the sauce but it went well when combined with their Spinach & Bacon Pizza, which kinda tasted more of the latter while the spinach was somehow just there in the background.
Image from their website
Ordered the White Cheese Pizza just to compare it to the one Sbarro has, and even though I felt like it fell short of my expectations, it did even out the overwhelming taste the Carbonara Pizza had.
Image from their website
Though overall, their Carbonara Pizza takes the top spot in my books in this batch I ordered, but I'm guessing that has a lot to do with my inclination towards white sauce pastas, with this being the perfect tasting sauce even on pizza!
Image from their website
Food experience: 5 ⭐
Customer Service: 5 ⭐
Saw these pints of ice cream as sponsored ads while scrolling thru IG and was kinda amused by their quirky labels, but what really piqued my interest was when I read the fine lines of what these pints actually contained-- booze!! All sorts of liquor that may make the least adventurous shy away ('cuz maybe they're just into classic vanilla) but this was exactly the sign that I needed to order from them, 'cuz really their alcohol infused ice creams really stood out among the other ice cream shops I scrolled pass in IG!
A separate blog post on each flavor I bought is underway so stay tuned for that!
Food experience: 5 ⭐
Customer Service: 4 ⭐ (don't expect much from their IG when it comes to customer interaction, ordered straight thru their website)
Personally have a habit of buying locally made wine whenever we would travel to distant provinces pre-pandemic, and they honestly tasted better than the store-bought ones we usually see displayed on grocery shelves! Always loved the rich first taste of those locally crafted beverages so when I saw Nectar Wine on my sponsored ads, I couldn't help but be excited to buy a bottle or two!
Actually ended up buying two indeed for the holidays!
Locally-sourced and bottled in the Philippines, it definitely reminded me of the good 'ole days of coming home from past travels and just being excited to try the souvenir wines we bought for ourselves. For those who buckle and might think maybe the nectar might be too sweet to be considered alcoholic, they'd be surprised with their first glass of this-- personally think this is how the ambrosia in Greek myths would taste like.
Food experience: 5 ⭐
Customer Service: 5 ⭐ (very accomodating! they usually have their customers book for the delivery but since I notified them that I couldn't pin their location thru Grab or Lalamove, they assisted me in booking it from their end. Thank you!)
I'm quite picky with my cookies honestly-- I prefer them chunky, yet soft enough to melt in the mouth-- so when I buy from a store or two, I really only order from them. So what really had me ordering from this store I've never encountered before was their Christmas Special, and it wasn't their cookies actually, but their postcards!
Screenshot from their Instagram Feed
My mom is actually the one who collects them and sends some out too, I just find satisfaction in adding to her collection. And so aside from the postcards, I did actually try their Christmas Special cookies:
Starting from my least favorite of the three, Red Grinch was tru to its name as it stole my Christmas tastebuds by being too hella sweet, despite having any "sea salt" at all!
Screenshot from their Instagram Feed
But of course Christmas is still saved with Santa's Caramel Crunch, 'cuz despite its main ingredient, it wasn't overbearingly tooth-aching and I loved how gooey the caramel came out depite the crunchy-mostly chewy texture of the cookie!
Screenshot from their Instagram Feed
And the overall winner for being a classic favorite during this holiday season, is the chilly freshness that comes with Midnight Mint! I liked that it mixed well with the chocolate and didn't come out as 'toothpasty', making it a perfect companion to a hot mug of peppermint mocha!
Screenshot from their Instagram Feed
Food experience: 4 ⭐
Customer Service: 3 ⭐ (not responsive thru their IG account actually and had to email their customer service, which I found thru their site, because I had to inform them of the missing postcards they failed to include in their first deliver. Safe to say, they managed to deliver within the day, but if not for my urgent complaint, I doubt they'd make up for it. Note: They only also deliver during MWFS days.)
A very merry conclusion to something I don't regret making a last minute inclusion for the holiday menu is their 'Ultimate Trio'!
I've been craving some mango sago (tapioca) a couple of weeks before this and actually miss this dessert being served in a local Chinese resto, so I went about and searched thru IG if there were any local shops who sold something similar and success!
It was everything and more than I expected with its real mango bits, and since they sell it in jars, it should be enough to satisfy a long awaited craving-- although just thinking about it now makes me want to order from them again!
Since I wanted to taste the full experience of their desserts, I also ordered their Melon Medley which was reminiscent of childhood summers when we would make melon juice! This creamy variation of what I'm usually used to is a welcome delight and the corn flakes that come along with it too is a surprisingly perfect crunchy combination!
More like the fruit salads we usually have during family celebrations, this was actually better than any homemade I've had before because of its somewhat "cheezy" surprise! Though I personally wasn't delighted about this ingredient at first, after finishing a bowl of this, you'd be asking yourself why you're coming back for more!
Food experience: 5 ⭐
Customer Service: 4 ⭐ (don't expect an exact time once you've decided on a delivery date, but they surely deliver and it was definitely worth the wait!)
Comments
You can login with your Hive account using secure Hivesigner and interact with this blog. You would be able to comment and vote on this article and other comments.
No comments