After going without food overnight, you naturally wake up in the morning craving for a good, substantial breakfast. And if you are not a rice person in the morning, your natural go-to breakfast must be a hefty sandwich, such as the ones that they have at 717 Deli, which is located along Connecticut Street in Greenhills, San Juan.

Quietly tucked in on the third floor of the building, 717 Deli has gained quite a following for its freshly made gourmet deli sandwiches, particularly its Halibut Fish Sandwich, Roast Beef Sandwich, Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich and the non-sandwich Halibut Fish and Chips.

Just recently, the deli introduced a new sandwich, Prosciutto, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich, better known as PLT Sandwich. It is the deli’s take on the classic Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato or BLT Sandwich but with an Italian twist. It makes use of an Italian produce, Prosciutto di Parma, Straciatella Cheese and balsamic glaze with fresh rocket arugula for the lettuce and salad tomatoes on house-made focaccia bread.

It comes at the heels of the Caprese Sandwich (whole burrata with fresh salad tomatoes and arugula served in house-made focaccia and pesto dressing with a side of balsamic glaze), which has become a favorite among vegetarians and non-vegetarians who simply want to partake of a light and healthy sandwich.

A hearty, generously-filled sandwich that also serves as a satisfying meal for lunch or dinner, the PLT and other sandwiches and the famous Fish and Chips are now available.

Over at Sebastian’s Ice Cream’s scooping station at The Podium, five new ice cream bars are also new on the menu. Ian Carandang, the brains behind the brand, recently introduced this new batch of ice cream bars to revamp the old Dive Bar product line which, he felt, had become creatively stagnant. It took two years of development before the Sebastian’s team finally zeroed in on the inspiration of candy bars for it, paying special attention to the ones composed of fillings such as nougat, caramel and nuts enrobed in a layer of chocolate.

“The key to a good candy bar was figuring out the layers and proportions to deliver the perfect bite all through the bar,” said Ian, who decided that all the new ice cream bars are going to have chocolate as their star ingredient.

Since the brand champions the use of Filipino flavors, the ice cream bars make use of Risa, a local artisanal chocolate brand that uses single origin cacao from South Cotabato, for the Milk and 70 percent Dark Chocolate bars, while Callebaut, a renowned chocolate brand from Belgium with over 100 years of experience, was chosen for the ice cream bars dipped in white and gold (caramelized white) chocolate bars.

These five new flavors are Cookie Dough (vanilla ice cream bar layered with an unbaked chocolate chip cookie dough and dipped in Risa Chocolate); Dark Chocolate Asin Tibuok (dark chocolate ice cream bar hand-dipped in Risa 70 percent Dark Chocolate and finished with Asin Tibuok, which is the “dinosaur egg” artisanal sea salt from Bohol); Hazelnut Heaven (hazelnut ice cream bar layered with Gianduja fudge and rolled in roasted hazelnuts and hand-dipped in Risa Milk Chocolate, all for P195 per bar; Polvoron (toasted pinipig ice cream bar layered with buttery polvoron shortbread and hand-dipped in Callebaut white chocolate and finished with pinipig crumble), priced at P185; and Butter Pecan (brown butter ice cream bar rolled in roasted pecans and hand-dipped in Callebaut Gold chocolate), premium at P210 per bar.

These new ice cream bars are available at Sebastian’s flagship store at The Podium and its online store for delivery and pick-up.