Ah, pasta. The mere mention of the word triggers a thousand cravings.
This should come with little surprise, with pasta being one of the most popular types of food in the world, thanks to its versatility and variety.
Filipinos have also given in to the many charms of pasta. We love it so much it has become a fixture not only during special occasions but as a dish that can be eaten anytime a craving is triggered. We have made it our own, from high-end restaurants creating fusion pasta dishes to the humblest eateries cooking up their own versions of Pinoy-style bolognese or carbonara.
Further fueling our affection for this beloved Italian invention is one local venture that pushes pasta-making to its limits, providing its growing clientele the freshest pasta you can find in food crazy Metro Manila.
Noodle love at Noodle Lab
Noodle Lab was born at the height of the pandemic in 2020, the brainchild of the husband-and-wife tandem of Nico and Ally Gonzales’ shared love for food. Since then, it has churned out raw/ready-to-cook fresh pasta every day.
It currently has five main categories: Hand-Cut Laminated Egg Pasta (tagliatelle, pappardelle, squid ink spaghetti), Bronze Extruded Pasta (campanelle, bucatine, mafaldine, fusilli), Filled Pasta (ravioli, tortelloni, egg yolk raviolo), Gnocchi (potato, ricotta, and stuffed gnocchi). Very recently, it also launched its Asian Noodles line starting with udon and ramen noodles.
In an interview with The Post, Ally shared that Noodle Lab started out as a commissary/ecommerce retail business which she considers her comfort zone. After almost four years since its founding, Noodle Lab has not only expanded its offerings but has also become, quite literally, a lab, a venue where Ally and her team of pasta aficionados push their creativity to the limits.
Another way through which Ally and Team Noodle Lab explore more pasta possibilities is through collaborations, the most recent of which was the comeback of their successful collab with Ugly Duck Poblacion and Supernatural Wine.
As November ended, the collab, dubbed Super Ugly Noods 2, delighted pasta lovers with creative dishes and natural wines. Despite the name, it was not an ugly experience—far from it. Instead, it was one beautiful—or more specifically, delicious—memory.
Ally shared that it all started with something mundane: Noodle Lab and Ugly Duck being neighbors. “We are both on General Luna Street in Poblacion. I hang out a lot at Ugly Duck after work as the music, the vibes, and the drinks are great.”
Meanwhile, Ugly Duck already carries Supernatural’s wines as part of its beverage program. Supernatural is an esteemed local natural wine distributor led by Kai Yulo and Rashid Delgado.
With the Yuletide season in full swing, they decided to put a festive twist to Super Ugly Noods 2 by incorporating more Christmassy ingredients like pumpkin and chestnuts.
“I approached their marketing team with the idea to collab, she pitched it to the Ugly Duck owners, we all had coffee together one afternoon, had great chemistry, cool ideas, and then from there many, many sessions of R&D (research and development) ensued to plan for our supper club pop-up,” Ally recounted.
Ally said they wanted to keep the menu quite similar to the collab’s first run in August since there were many who were not able to get a slot back then. She happily shared how they got “really good feedback” for Super Ugly Noods 1. “A lot of people thought, ‘How can you make five different dishes all made of pasta without us getting bored or without it becoming redundant?’ But they were surprised at how different all the dishes were, how many different kinds and formats of fresh pasta there were, and that there were so many different ways of cooking it aside from your usual spaghetti and bolognese,” she shared.
With the Yuletide season in full swing, they decided to put a festive twist to Super Ugly Noods 2 by incorporating more Christmassy ingredients like pumpkin and chestnuts.
“We brainstormed together—me, chef Matt, head chef of White Rabbit/Ugly Duck, and chef Luis, who is the food consultant for Supernatural. We threw in all our crazy ideas for the pasta shapes, fillings, sauces, proteins, garnishes, etc. and then we brought our crazy ideas into the Ugly Duck kitchen,” she recalled.
Ally was in charge of the pasta noodles, Matt and Luis took care of the sauces among other things. Talking about the nitty-gritty of the whole process, she shared: “We cooked everything together in the Ugly Duck kitchen maybe six times and gave each other feedback on all the elements. We had the teams from Ugly Duck, Supernatural, and Noodle Lab taste everything and give feedback. It was truly a collaboration; we also ate a lot of pasta during this time!”
She could only be too excited about these collabs because it is what they’ve always wanted to do at Noodle Lab, to educate consumers about the versatility of fresh pasta. To this, Ally added, “We wanted to do really creative executions and go crazy with our ideas, present dishes you wouldn’t see elsewhere. Some people even asked if there was a way to order a party sized tray of the Squid-Ink Bucatini. We had some ask if we could re-do the tasting menu for a private event.”
As a non-formally trained chef who did not go to culinary school, Ally said she learned a lot from working with chefs Luis and Matt. “Doing a full five-course lunch and dinner service with 40 pax per seating taught me so many things about what it is like to run a restaurant: from seating arrangement, front-of-house, expediting orders, prep work before service, etc. Also, working with fellow culinary creative minds really helps to make you even more creative, not just with ingredients and pairings, but even with things like plating.”
A five-course feast for pasta lovers
The five-course feast and wine pairing was held at Ugly Duck Poblacion, which is located on the rooftop of a building named White Rabbit. As a 40-year-old tita who is a first timer in Poblacion—or is it Pob, Pobs, Pobla?—I didn’t quite know what to expect from a building named as such. As it turned out, the edifice was nondescript, save for the huge signage in front that lists the establishments it houses.
It’s once you step inside the building where things get interesting; I felt like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland getting sucked into an actual rabbit hole. I came at lunch time, when all the other establishments were closed but the energy was still palpable as I went up the stairs, passing by artsy-looking doors and interiors along the way. I could only imagine the whole place pulsating with life at night.
Entering Ugly Duck—which specializes in Asian-inspired tapas and pintxos, and of course, booze—made me smile. The space oozes chic and charm, no wonder it’s popular among the Gen Z! Ally clarified, though, that the place sheds off its dainty daytime exterior and lets down its proverbial hair at night.
Starting off the feast was Stuffed Gnocchi Mozzarella which was stuffed pumpkin gnocchi with loose mornay sauce, microgreens, parsley and basil oil, togarashi, and chili oil. This was a great starter dish, with the kalabasa gnocchi so deliciously crispy and chewy at the same time. Things, however, got even better from here.
Paired with this dish was Nieva York (2020) by Microbio Wines, Spain, which has stone fruit and white floral notes. Gnocchi can be cloying for some, but the fruity and floral flavors of the wine tempered the cheesiness.
Next on the menu was Squink Bucatini which, according to Ally, was the crowd favorite during the first iteration of Super Ugly Noods—and one spoonful of it was all the explanation I needed as to why.
This dish combined a sensational squid-ink bucatini, roasted seaweed beurre blanc, tobiko, lato, nori, and fried capers. Squid-ink based dishes can come off as too strong or fishy if not cooked properly, this one however, has a luscious taste and feel, with the squid ink blending perfectly well with the seaweed beurre blanc.
Complementing this sensational creation was a glass of Fork & Knives White (2019) by Milan Nestarec, Czech Republic. This natural wine is effervescent with citrusy notes that cuts through the richness of the beurre blanc, while the minerality accentuates the ingredients from the sea.
Up next was the Lasagna Roll-Ups which was as sumptuous as it was lovely to look at. It was fresh beet pasta sheets rolled and filled with mixed mushroom duxelle, mozzarella, XO fonduta, 24-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano DOP, miso pomodoro, tuyo pangrattato, and garlic confit. Every bite took me to umami heaven.
A glass of Fork & Knives Red (2019) by Milan Nestarec, Czech Republic completed this dish. This red wine, though light and tangy, has a distinct funky taste which goes well with the earthy notes of the mushrooms and miso pomodoro.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get better with the gnocchi, squid-ink bucatini, and lasagna roll-ups, Mushroom and Carbonara, the penultimate dish, blew me away. The last savory course was a giant carbonara raviolo with guanciale (cured pork jowl), Pecorino Romano DOP, cracked black pepper, and runny egg yolk with braised king mushroom, duck flakes, duck jus, cilantro, and basil on the side.
Paired with this glorious raviolo was Beck Ink (2019) by La Mazel, France. This red wine goes down smoothly and comes with a burst of berry notes. The raviolo’s filling was quite rich, especially the runny egg yolk, but this wine dialed down the richness to a more satisfying level.
Pasta for dessert? Yep, I had the same question. And the answer came in the form of the impressive Pasta Fritto which was fried pasta, crême of chocolates using Auro Chocolate tablea, cacao powder and white chocolate, berries, chestnuts, and mascarpone—the perfect end to a perfect five-course pasta lunch and wine pairing.
Ally shared that, for the team, this dish was the toughest one to crack. “We probably had eight different iterations and we were only really truly happy with it the week before the first run of Super Ugly Noods last August,” she admitted. “It was a challenge because dessert is the last part of the meal and if your dessert sucks, it taints the whole experience. We didn’t want to just make a pasta dessert and say we had one, we wanted to execute it really well.”
The result was nothing short of perfection. The Pasta Fritto’s crispiness was unbelievable and cracking it open to reveal the filling made me feel like a little girl opening a present. It was a joy to eat.
Complementing the dish was a Charbonnieres (2018) by La Mazel, France, a bright and refreshing chardonnay meant to cleanse the palate in between bites. I couldn’t think of a better ending to the five-course meal and wine pairing than this.
Only the best ingredients
Asked about the ingredients, the building blocks of such a fabulous feast, Ally explained that the flours (Italian 00 and semolina), cheeses, and cold cuts (like the guanciale) were all imported. The fresh produce, meats, and microgreens, however, were all local.
“For Noodle Lab, we really believe that the best fresh ingredients are those that are closest to you. For example, the kalabasa we used for the roasted pumpkin gnocchi and the spinach for the gnocchi, the beets for the lasagna roll-ups, we sourced all of these directly from farmers. No middleman,” she explained.
For ingredients like these, she said, they try their best to do “farm to pasta,” because aside from fresher and better quality, it helps local farmers make higher margins, too.
She added that the squid ink they used was also locally sourced, fresh and with no extenders, emphasizing that they do not use the bottled ones that contain preservatives.
With the success of Super Ugly Noods 2 and the increasing popularity of Noodle Lab, the future could only be bright for this “pandemic baby.” “We will be opening a three-month Noodle Lab pop-up spot at The Grid in Rockwell in 2024. We are excited to serve both classic and creative pasta dishes there. We also have other exciting pop ups—think ramen and sake—and other business ventures coming up in 2024, all in Metro Manila,” Ally said.
And when asked if there will be a Super Ugly Noods 3, she had this to say: “We are absolutely collaborating again in the future. We plan to do it quite often!”
