Yoji and the Foodies

So, I was looking forward to eating a McMuffin Big Breakfast so I can slather strawberry jam and butter on two pieces of English muffins, which I will eat independently of the sausage and scrambled eggs (i.e. not as a sandwich). To my horror, I was given this:

Err, you can see the garlic rice, yeah?

No offense to the folks who eat rice with  everything. I just don’t think this is a good match. Not at all. I could have asked them to replace it, but it was too late. Where to put the strawberry jam now? Sheesh.

My co-Gemini friend Mami invited me for a sleepover to celebrate our birthdays, quietly. This means a dinner and brunch to food places she thought I’d like knowing how much I like to eat. For the years that I have known Mami, I knew how picky she is when it comes to food. So picky that she ends up with plain everything — plain burger, plain chicken, plain fish…you get the idea. The only intricate dish that I know she eats is the Paella. By some miracle or perhaps an intervention (divine or otherwise), she seemed to have ditched “plain food” and became a little adventurous (without gaining weight!).

The highlight of our birthday bash for two (haha!) was  the dinner at Chocolate Fire (more on that in the next entry), but the brunch at the Canteen @ Trilogy Boutique proved to be a very interesting experience.  Trilogy is sort of “hidden” along the stretch of Rada St. in Legaspi Village. It is primarily a fashion merchandise haven for the hip and the trendy but their in-store cafe, Canteen, was the main event (for me at least).

I have been living under a suburban rock for so long that this concept  is already an assault to my senses; but in a very good way. I am not hip nor trendy, but I appreciate  and love looking at the “pop cultur-ish” merchandise available in the store. Another plus factor is that they sell Toms Shoes, albeit in limited stock and design.

When it was time to order food, it was difficult to choose from the list written in chalkboards. The moment I read SPAM, I knew what I wanted. Sinfully salty spam sandwich neutralized by the greens and the sweet potatoes.

Mami, the plain eater opted for this:

Generous serving, yes. Plain, not really

Happy birthday, Mami! Till the next Makati food adventure!

Living south of Metro Manila means having little to no access to the latest food craze or restaurants. Let’s face it, restaurateurs would rather take their chances in the posh Makati and Ortigas areas rather than set up shop in suburban south.  Although the Las Pinas-Paranaque-Muntinlupa areas are trailing behind Makati-Pasig-Quezon City triumvirate in terms of number of food establishments, it doesn’t mean that there are no efforts to catch up. It’s just that many have closed shop for lack of patronage. However, the Westgate Alabang area looks very promising and I consider it the best place for foodies to hangout; perhaps even better than Alabang Town Center.

What needs to be realised here is that, not everyone can be bothered to travel to Alabang area for just a quick lunch. Hence, residents of Las Pinas end up eating in SM Southmall or SM Center, which has more fast food establishments than restaurants. So, it’s a welcome surprise to see a Taiwanese restaurant just a block away from the Las Pinas City Hall.

I am not really into Chinese food but I’d gladly try a new restaurant especially if it’s only 15 mins away from where I live. The name of the restaurant is Lotte Seafood. If not for the “Taiwanese cuisine” tagline, I would have assumed it’s a Korean place (just because it’s called Lotte — says so much of what I know *lol*).

The place was empty and the lights were off when we got in at 5.30pm. Part of me wants to back out and just eat at McDonald’s, but that would mean going back 2 flights of stairs. Not really something I wanted to do. So, yes, we entered, we were seated, and we were served by an overly friendly waitress, who started to describe every item on the menu like a cheerleader rooting for her team. Goooo Lotte!  In the end, she recommended the bestselling group meal, which is a combination of 3 meals of your choice. We had:

Yang Chow Fried Rice

Crispy Fish Mango

Beef Taiwan Pechay

All for 299 Pesos

We also ordered Fried Seafood Noodles – 150 pesos

In all honesty, I could not distinguish Chinese food cooked in different regions. There are probably subtle differences in the ingredients used or cooking techniques applied. But what I can do is to distinguish them from 2 well-known Chinese restaurants we frequent — Hap Chan and North Park.

• The Yang Chow fried frice tasted as expected. No clear deviation from what we usually eat at other Chinese Restaurants.
• Crispy Fish Mango is basically a sweet and sour fish with mango cubes. It’s a rather odd combination of sweet-sour-sweet. It’s strange but the fish was crispy outside and tender inside. The meal could shine without the mango.
• Beef Taiwan Pechay is my favorite. Beef was tender and the sauce has a buttery taste. From what I’ve been taught in cooking school, butter is rarely (or never) used in Chinese cuisine. It tasted like a French-Spanish-Chinese cuisine fusion, which I enjoyed very much. I just wish they take it easy on the oil next time.
• The Fried Seafood Noodle tastes like chopsuey. I like it because they were generous with shrimps and squid tentacles. For 150 pesos, it’s good for 2 people.

The owner of the place gave us a complimentary fruit desset of cantaloupe, which was so sweet. We loved it.

The ultimate  question that we ask after we eat: “Will you come back?”

My answer: Yes, but I will go with a big group or very hungry friends (because of the huge serving)

Godfather’s answer: <long pause>

I’ve been playing Cafe World in Facebook for some time now. The recipes in the game are quite interesting that some of the dishes I’ve cooked in the past three months or so are based on the game’s recipe. One dish that caught my eye was the Kung Pao Stir Fry. Chinese cuisine is pretty safe when it comes to taste;90% of the time, Chinese dishes are a treat to the palate. It’s hard not to like them.

It turns out Kung Pao (chicken) is a traditional dish in the Sichuan province.  Chili peppers and peppercorn are flash fried in the seasoned wok and then the  marinated chicken is stir fried with vegetables and peanuts. Westernized version is available and even fast food joints like KFC have attempted to win over a new market segment by introducing Kung Pao Pasta Bowl.

It looks yummy, isn’t it? I was expecting something edible, at the very least. It turns out, the dish is too sweet. The chicken seems to be leftovers from the earlier batches and the spaghetti noodles, overcooked. I ended up eating just the peanuts. It’s not even Growers or Planters.

Just stick to KFC original recipe chicken. Peanuts, you can buy at the grocery.

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 love french fries – all shapes and sizes. Soggy, crunchy, burnt, crispy, frozen, baked…you name it! My favorite among all these lovely and blessed fries are the Twister fries. The only time I get to enjoy them is during their seasonal run at McDonald’s. They only offer it a couple of months a year. Other than that, I would be happy with the regular fries served in fastfood joints.  The thing is, they have become rather expensive. One large fries can sometimes be equal to one full rice meal. Given that equivalence, I limit my fries consumption to say twice a month, or much less if the Twister fries are not in season.

A friend of mine, who is also a french fries junkie, gave me a tip, saying that there’s a french fries heaven in all branches of SM supermarket and hypermarket. It didn’t take too long for me to see this french fries nirvana. Lo and behold…

Thank you french fries gods for sending these lovely fries our way. Spudtacular!

I like cookies, but I prefer the soft and chewy variant. That’s not to say I won’t eat the rock-hard kind (you can dunk it in coffee or tea anyway). After stuffing ourselves with “two-thumbs-up-worthy” meals at Tokyo Cafe Mall of Asia, we decided to treat ourselves to something sweet. It was Eve’s radar that zeroed in on the target, which happens to be The Russian Cookie House. The name is a bit intimidating as it is reminiscent of The Kremlin and the Russian seat of power and accompanying atrocities during the early 20th century. However, the cookies on display changed all that mental picture. From the looks alone, it is obvious that the cookies are not soft and chewy, but that’s fine because they are the traditional cookies made a little fancier. The price ranges from 90 to 280 pesos depending on quantity. They offer a trial box that has 6 cookies in 3 different flavors for only 90 pesos. If that’s still expensive for you, you can have a free taste; they really encourage it.

So after having a sampler, I bought the trial version.

The first cookie is obviously a chocolate covered cookie with choco sprinkles, but that is just the first layer. The next is what I’d like to call the polvoron layer. When you bite into it, it tends to crumble and reveal a piece of almond. The next cookie is the reverse of the first one in that the cookie is exposed with the chocolate and pistachio nuts on top. The third one is a simple cookie with almond inside.

The effort to provide an exquisite traditional European cookie is definitely there and those who fancy old-fashioned cookies will appreciate The Russian Cookie House. It’s just too bad I go for the chewy ones. But if you send me a couple of boxes of Russian cookies,  I would gladly take them. After all, my cup of tea is getting a little lonely.

I had this urge to make fish and chips after watching Bobby Flay in Youtube.  It was an old episode of Throwdown where Bobby lost to the fish and chips god in New York. Bobby doesn’t win all the time which makes the show very interesting. I like seeing famous (and overrated) chefs get a beating.

It was quite late to go to the fish market to I decided to go to the supermarket. Sometimes, fresh fish can be found in the supermarket, if you know the schedule. Unfortunately, the only fish in the supermarket are not fish and chips material. To cut the story short, I bought chicken breast fillet. I reckoned since I only wanted to create a fish and chips batter, the chicken would be a good substitute.

I’ve always wanted to make a light, fluffy, and crunchy coating for chicken (or fish or pork) but I always fail miserably. The problem was in the batter. I throw in so many things in the batter that the final coating becomes heavy. I tried the tempura batter but it was not crispy. I watched Gordon Ramsay, I watched Jamie Oliver, I watched Bobby Flay, and I watched chefs and ordinary people make the fish and chips batter. Believe it or not, each of them prepare the batter differently.With so many variations, I decided to stick to the basics: — Flour, Cold Water, Salt, Pepper, and BEER.

Beer has been used in cooking so it shouldn’t really be a surprise, but it was the key ingredient that makes the coating light and fluffy and crunchy. It’s perfect for fish, but it works great with chicken as well. You don’t really need to be fancy with the seasoning  but you can go crazy with the dip. I made a mayo-honey-mustard dip because they’re the only ingredients I have on the fridge. It turned out to be a perfect match for the chicken.

Here’s the final product:

My next project will be real FISH and CHIPS…NOT a chicken disguised as a fish….

No, I have not started my Barista training and I doubt if it will happen this year. All my culinary-related endeavors have come to a screeching halt. There was an opportunity that was tossed my way and I just couldn’t pass it up. It’s like Don Vito Corleone made me an offer I can’t refuse. With that said, I had to say goodbye temporarily to kitchen duty. If it’s any consolation, my dad seemed very pleased that something got me off my preoccupation with being a barista. He knew it was just momentary insanity.

Anyway, my new job has a crazy schedule so I need something to perk me up during ungodly hours. I actually found this a month ago and little did I know that it will figure prominently in my “job of the moment”:

S&W 100% Arabica French Roast

This has got to be the best tasting expensive ground gourmet coffee I have ever tasted. If you want your coffee dark and flavorful, this is your best bet.

**Little Turtle on top of container is sold separately.

When I told my dad I want to train as a barista, he probably thought I have gone bonkers. It was also not a good idea to break the news over dinner, when the chance of choking is pretty high. He tried to sound supportive, but I think he was crying inside over the wasted investment sending me to college haha. I am not completely turning my back on my career. But come to think of it, there was never really a solid career to speak of. Changing jobs 4 times in 10 years is hardly considered a career. While that’s not going to convince my dad, I believe in doing the things I want to do before I’m too old to do it. Besides, what the hell is wrong with being a barista? I think they are awesome, but not as awesome as chefs :p

I just don’t understand people who look at jobs in the F&B industry as something so beneath their stature. If you ask me, I’d rather cook than sit in front of a computer from hours on end. Training to become a barista is just one of the many things I’d like to do before I hit 40 (I have about 9 years to make this happen lol). Back when I was in my 20s, I said I’d be a millionaire by 30. Of course, that didn’t happen but it’s not the end of the world. I reckon there are still ways to enjoy life even without a lot of money.  That’s what credit cards are for! Hehe.

The training is scheduled before the year ends. It will take some preparation because I’m torn between having it here or in another country. So, before the training, I will be going on coffee shop-hopping tour with my friends. This is not just going to be a fun experience, it will also be blog-worthy material. Let’s just say this is my tribute to the one thing that keeps me awake during deadline  – the coffee!