Unique dessert

SAMPAGUITA-FLAVORED ice cream.

ACCORDING to Beatrice Pimentel, general manager of Ilustrado restaurant in Intramuros, it was a Danish chef who concocted the sampaguita ice cream during a food promotion involving flowers at LÓrangerie, which her company used to run in Makati in the ’80s.

Bea recalls, “We tried other flavors, like ylang-ylang, dama de noche, rosal and santan, but none of them was as successful as the sampaguita ice cream.”

Operations

Her father, Bonifacio Pimentel, oversees the operations of Ilustrado and its three branches at SM Makati, Alabang Town Center and Metropolitan Museum.

The flowers are grown mostly in Lubao, Pampanga. The special ice cream is a natural breath freshener that also aids digestion. The yummy confection is a mixture of sampaguita and vanilla beans. (We came across this information while working on “Sampaguita Beloved,” a book on our national flower.)

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Join our CDO/Bukidnon Photo Safari on Oct. 12-15, the Gen San/Lake Sebu Photo Safari on Nov. 9-12, or the Batanes Photo Safari on Sept. 1-8. Visit mandy-navasero.blogspot.com, or call 896-3208.