TASTED: CERVEZA NEGRA CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM

I've always believed that one should  NEVER eat ice cream after drinking beer as it would only result in a terrible stomachache and embarrassing trips to the ladies room. That was until I got a chance to taste the Cerveza Negra Chocolate ice cream at the Vatel Restaurant Manila located at the rooftop of the Angelo King International Center in the heart of Manila.

Image courtesy of Vatel Manila Restaurant Facebook page

Part of the set lunch was an ice cream that combined two unlikely flavors: dark beer and chocolate. Despite years of the "no beer+ dairy rule," I just had to taste this quirky ice cream flavor topped with chopped pistachios.

For those too young to imbibe anything alcoholic,  Cerveza Negra is a  bitter-sweet dark lager with creamy caramel tones. It was introduced by Asia's first beer brewery in the 1890's.

Image courtesy of www.sanmiguelbrewery.com.ph

You read it right. It's been around for more than 100 years. And here's a quick trivia: at the turn of the century, nursing mothers were encouraged to drink beer to produce more breast milk. Barley, the main ingredient in beer contains polysaccharide which was then believed to stimulate the production of prolactin, the protein lets your mama's mammary glands make more milk.  Modern science has since refuted this belief and nursing moms nursing a cold bottle of beer are now frowned upon.

Let's toast to that!

But enough of breasts and beer. Let's get back to the ice cream.

The common ground of the two main ingredients is the bitter sweet flavor. The chocolate dominates the palate with an added hint of caramel from the lager. The pistachios add a nutty crunch to each spoonful of ice cream.  Though the combination seems unlikely, this is a quirky pleasant surprise.

So, the next time someone tells you not to have beer and ice cream, tell them these five magic words: Cerveza Negra Chocolate ice cream.

Vatel Restaurant Manila

Angelo King International Center

Arellano Ave. cor. Estrada St., 

Malate, Manila, Metro Manila

Telephone: 230-5100 local 2602