The COVID-19 pandemic has turned a lot of people into home cooks and home bakers.
Maybe it is to kill boredom or to distract oneself from the crisis happening around us, but people started unearthing years-old family recipes and concocting them in their own kitchen.
This story is somewhat like that though with a dash of kilig.
Morning’s Kitchen is a pandemic baby of Aliana and her boyfriend, Ced.
The name “Morning’s Kitchen” came from Aliana’s first pet dog named, well, Morning. Apparently, there is a strong link between Morning, Aliana, and Ced.
When Aliana was younger, her family had to give up Morning for adoption due to some internal problems. Since they can’t take care of her anymore, they had to let her go. It was quite fortunate that her childhood best friend, who turned to be her boyfriend now, took Morning in.
Unfortunately, Morning passed away four years ago.
Still, her memory lives on as the couple “channeled their inner Gordon Ramsay,” Aliana quipped.
During the lockdown, the pair began exchanging food that they made since they can’t go out on dates. As this went on, they realized that they can share their delicious creations with the rest of the metro (and earn a little money from it too). Hence, Morning’s Kitchen came to life.
“Morning’s Kitchen doesn’t focus on just one cuisine, every month we make sure that we offer something new, new additions to our menu that our customers can look forward to,” Aliana told wheninmanila.com. “Also, the food that we offer is our personal recipe, especially my boyfriend’s family’s very own pizza recipe that was very famous in Macabebe, Pampanga, way back 1996.”
Of course, most of the food available on their menu are their personal favorites.
“The food included on our menu, most of it was food I wanted to make so badly for my boyfriend, especially the Quesadilla & Spam musubi cause he’s a sucker for Spam,” Aliana explained. “The rest is our choice because they’re our favorites.”
Aside from making delicious comfort food and giving the city a chance to taste their labors of love, they also provide assistance to bikers and riders who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
“For our España, Manila branch, we partnered with riders & bikers (we call them TSM — Taga Sampaloc Manila bikers/riders) who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic,” she said. “We pay them a minimum of P30-40 per order if the delivery is just within Sampaloc, Manila, and a minimum of P50-60 for nearby cities.”
“It’s our little way to help, so I hope we just give them that and not demand free delivery without a minimum order requirement.”
Here are some of the bestsellers from Morning’s Kitchen.
Spam Musubi
This is a popular snack, which can also be lunch food, that is made with a thick slab of grilled Spam sandwiched either in between or on top of a block of rice. The ensemble is wrapped together with nori in the tradition of Japanese omusubi.
Quesadillas
This soft taco is filled with a generous amount of melted cheese. Best served after popping from the oven, it is simple yet satisfying.
Chicken Wings
A true comfort food, their chicken wings can be eaten either paired with an ice-cold beer or with rice.
Sushi Bake
Riding on the food trend, Morning’s Kitchen offers its own selection of sushi bakes. The tuna sushi bake is a tasty painting you can put on a black canvas of nori. The avocado on top of the sushi bake and sandwiched somewhere in the middle of the rice just works!
Hawaiian Pizza
Their pizza recipe isn’t popular in Pampanga for nothing.
Wash down all the delicious food with their selection of milk teas! Try their Matcha and Okinawa milk teas!
Morning’s Kitchen
They deliver around Metro Manila and select areas in Pampanga.
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