Yoji and the Foodies

While others are finding ways to shrink the size of food, our friendly neighborhood bakery has this to offer:

And here I thought they have already achieved economies of scale and wouldn’t mess with the portions/sizes of their bread products. It appears that the bakery is finding ways to save and earn more profit  (less bread to make due to size; higher profit per unit, etc.).

Friend: Aww, shut up and eat.

The Godfather is my all time favorite movie. I was not yet born when the movie was shown in theaters, but I’ve read the book when I was in high school. I watched the movie in VHS, which my father rented in one of the now obsolete rental shops in the neighborhood. Apart from the violence and the enviable lifestyle of the mafia, the movie showed the eating habits of the Italians in general, and the mafia in particular. A mafiosi dipping bread in olive oil  struck me as odd yet fascinating. Back then, it was enough to make me cringe a little, an automatic reaction upon seeing something “strange”. I had the same reaction when I saw a commercial wherein the lady ate a spoonful of mayonnaise. That deserved a loud “Yuck!”

Of course, that was just my ignorance getting the better of me. I am now more  informed about the eating preferences of certain groups of people. In fact, 10 years after watching the movie, I find myself eating the very same thing – bread in olive oil. It was in Itallianni’s. A basket of bread was served while waiting for the main course. The waiter then mixed olive oil with balsamic vinegar. Shoppinjer then told me to dip the bread into the mixture then eat it. I had my reservations but it would be a sin not to do as told. When  I took a bite of the bread, I finally understood why Italians love dipping their bread in olive oil. It’s a perfect combination, pretty much like “dinuguan at puto”.

So, when Shoppinjer brought home a bottle of balsamic vinegar, I opened the special extra virgin olive oil I had stashed in the cupboard. Luckily, we have leftover herbed breadsticks.

Fantastico!!!

It is unthinkible for a Filipino household not to have cooked rice for lunch or dinner (breakfast is an exemption). However, I have noticed that we have been consuming more bread than rice in the past 6 months or so. There have been ocassions where our rice cooker would refuse to cook or just decide to blow up. During those times, we find solace in sliced breads from the bakery, or  a 2-day old Gardenia bread in the fridge.  We just never seem to run out of bread. This is a good thing, because I get hungry easily (and get full fast) so a slice of bread would be more than enough to calm the hunger pangs. The thing is, there is some disagreement on the type of bread to buy. I’d go for the foccacia and wheat bread and french bread. The point of having those fancy breads at home is to turn them into something else entirely in case we have visitors or we just want to eat something different. Suffice to say, not everyone shares my love for those breads so we need to have sliced bread, monay, pandesal, and other classic favorites. Now you see why we end up with so many types of bread each week.

The next thing that we are getting more of each week are these tiny bread sealers.

Only 6 on the photo, but that’s just for the week. I’ve thrown away some of them but I still have quite a number of them lying on the dining table. I’ve been thinking about what else they are good for after they have served their duty. I tried some possibilities, but the only thing that worked well is this…

The back of my old business cards are now used as “notepads” when I need to write down recipes and weird ideas. The bread sealer seems to hold them together pretty well. I will try to put a hole on top so they can be posted on the cork board.

Any other ideas?

I’ve been reading about the Salcedo Village Market since last year but never really had the chance to check out the place — until today.  Food blogs have warned of the difficulty in finding parking space near the market and anyone who intends to come for a visit should heed this warning. At around 8am, cars lined up Leviste St. and the only parking spaces available were along Valero St., which is one block away. Needless to say, I ended up walking an extra block just to get to the market. A little exercise doesn’t hurt;  knowing that I would soon be purchasing (and eventually stuffing myself) with food items.

About 50 meters to the destination, there was smoke. As they say, when there’s smoke, there’s Barbecue! It’s not something that I’d eat at 8 in the morning, so I entered the park-turned-market to meet my friend Nokie, who arrived much earlier and already had her organic loot (read: veggies).  As expected, the market is brimming with food items, most of which can only be found in far away lands and kingdoms. This explains why the prices are quite steep. It is a given that if you cannot afford it (or refuse to pay at that price level) you are not their target market.

It was difficult to take pictures carrying 5 separate flimsy plastic bags, so I decided to just do a shoddy photo shoot at home. Here are my Salcedo Market loot:

1. Tamales. This is the Pampanga-style Tamales and not the hot tamale of Mexican origin. This is by far the best tasting tamales I’ve had.

2. Baklava – Turkish Pastry. I bought the assorted pack with 2 of each flavor – Hazelnut, Walnut, Pistachio, Spinach. These are best eaten after you purchase them. Reheating doesn’t bring back the crunchiness of the filo pastry.

3. Gng. Bukid’s Best Maja Blanca. This is indeed one of the best maja blancas around. Not too sweet and not too soft.

4. Butter Bread (Vargas). Recommended by Nokie and I understand why. It’s moist and rich.

5. Piaya. This is my favorite among the food items I bought simply because it was made in front of me. Prior to this, I’ve only eaten mass-produced piayas and god knows how long they’ve been sitting on the shelves before somebody decides to make them a pasalubong to me. If you get the chance, pls. buy this. I forgot the stall’s name…it’s that good!

6.  Cebu Lechon. I was on my way back to the parking lot when I saw a lechon being transported from a truck to the market. I made a 180 degree turn and followed the manong transporting the roasted pig and  I ended up waiting in line in front of the Cebu Lechon stall. I paid 150 pesos for 1/4 kilo. I am pretty sure they’d taste great in Cebu but since the pig had jetlag, the quality has suffered a bit. The flavor was not consistent. Each bite size portion  would have different taste — salty, very bland, gingery… the meat that was clinging to the skin was the best part.

I will definitely come back to try out the Wagyu Burger, Authentic French Crepe (with Frenchmen to boot!), Roasted Calf, BBQs…and maybe next time there will be celebrities to stalk….