Food Experiments

Spinach artichoke dip



Pochero, complete with ham bones



Seafood cake with Pumpkin Pine Nut Risotto. Lacks a green garnish.

What I'm Loving in HK

Pineapple buns and other "panaderia" goodies



Fluffy omelet and crunchy buttered roll for breakfast from a very local place



Colors of the market: the oranges, pinks, greys of various fish, the depth of green of leafy vegetables, the rainbow colors of fruits in season, the reds, browns and yellows of roasting meat and fowl hanging from hooks



Stinky tofu



Dried seafood



More dried seafood, with dried kumquat (the roundish green thing) that people use in soups for its medicinal properties



Starfish! Wonder what they use this for...



Streetfood: skewered everything



Cuttlefish! Deep-fried and sprinkled with pepper salt. I prefer mine plain and swimming in vinegar.



Deep-fried vegetables, some with fish paste (made of dace)



Fresh fruit shakes/juice. No sugar or ice added! This is one of the nicer-looking fruit stands, by the way. I usually get my fruit fix from a hidden sidewalk vendor who uses maybe 2 blenders and 1 juicer of dubious hygiene for many different types of fruits.



Waffle. Who doesn't love the egg-y smell of this childhood favorite?

More to come...

Phuket Trip

Headache-inducing sunshine greeted us upon arrival in Phuket 1st week of April. Blasted heat and sticky armpits aside, we enjoyed our stay at the Sheraton Laguna, although I must say the very famous Ruen Thai restaurant at the Dusit was only average for me, while the meal we had at Sheraton's Chao Lay Thai Restaurant was superb. And the best eating places? In Patong Beach, where everything was cheap! in-your-face (or should I say in-your-mouth) fresh! delicious!



Who can go wrong with ordering mango with sticky rice for dessert?

Yep, we had Western food. And the burger and seafood pasta were surprisingly good. Little boy ignored his kid's menu bolognese and went for the more expensive, chock-full of seafood pasta dish of the adults. Notice the modern, zen-ish plates? Phuket has lots of handmade stainless steel stores, and I got myself a whole flatware set woohoo!



At a famous seafood restaurant in Patong, we ordered pad thai (a bit too dry but when I added more lime juice it sprang to life), sauteed morning glory which hubby LOVESLOVESLOVES, I suspect the oyster sauce they use is different and the chilies are charred), grilled red snapper fillet (oh my what a revelation, fork-tender, very very tasty without being salty, sensual in its simplicity).



The shrimp in red curry was spicy and went so well with steamed rice. Boy that was a satisfying dinner. And the day before at this hole-in-the-wall in Patong we had the spiciest tom yum ever (it made me cough so often, and I am a chili lover), the spiciest chicken in green curry and again, sauteed morning glory. I was even afraid to venture in at first because they served Western food too and I hate places that try to serve anything and everything, but I had to swallow my trepidation and admit that these eateries around Patong have to serve Western food for the non-adventurous, but their Thai cuisine is still as genuine as ever.



In Patong I saw all sorts of hawkers selling noodles in soup, grilled chicken or fish with the charcoal grill hanging from the vendor's neck, in the street facing a wet market were tables with "add-all-you-can" beansprouts, Thai basil, fresh chili and fish sauce for hungry locals, and of course the fresh fruit stands were everywhere!



Mango shake at one of the many Thai restos we went to.



Phuket has so many Italian and Indian restaurants it was unbelievable! At the Sheraton's Puccini, where we ate twice, I had this gigantic salad the first time, and was so happy with the generosity of the serving. Loved the asparagus, sun-dried tomato, artichokes, wispy flakes of Parmesan, feta cheese, kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and fresh greens served on a huge, lopsided white bowl. Hubby had the 4-cheese pizza. The crust was crunchy and light at the same time, the interior full of airy goodness. Our next try we had the prosciutto pizza and seafood risotto, both a joy to eat.



At Puccini they try not to starve you so they serve assorted bread in this conical implement along with various dips like pesto, tomato and basil, beetroot, sundried tomato pesto and butter.



I could finish off a whole warm ciabatta loaf, diet be damned!



Little boy was so hungry he took first dibs at the crunchy flatbread!



We ordered this catfish dish at Ruen Thai and immediately regretted it. It was so sweet and caramelized it tasted like dessert! The yellow balls are salted egg yolks. We also ordered beef massaman curry with peanuts and the beef was so tender and the sauce so rich and tasty we decided to forgive the cloying sweetness of the fish. We expected more from this restaurant boasting "Royal Thai Cuisine" though. After this experience we would always ask whether a main dish was sweet or spicy. One should learn from one's mistakes.



This is a famous soup, next to tom yum. It's chicken with coconut milk and galangal. It was very refreshing.




Fried morning glory salad made up our appetizer for the evening. It was average.




At Ruen Thai, the place settings are quite elegant and the accordion-like menu not very extensive.



The omelet for breakfast at the hotel was more scrambled egg whose sides were cooked and shaped into this submarine-like thing. I slathered catsup all over. Not the way I would cook my omelet, which I like fluffy and filled with all manner of vegetables and meat and gooey cheese, but with some toasted rye bread it made for a filling meal.

Other memorable meals with no pictures:
For Little Boy's birthday dinner at Chao Lay we had a lime-based shrimp broth, roasted duck curry with grapes, lychee, eggplants and fresh green peppercorns (the best dish I had in Thailand), sauteed morning glory, fried seafood salad with crabs, prawns and squid.

We also tried this place outside the Laguna gates. We had tom yum, fried rice with prawns, sauteed morning glory (yes, we had it in practically ALL of our meals) crab in red curry sauce, and tons of rice.

I love Thai food and am craving for some as I write this. Kowloon City (Little Thailand here in HK), here I come!

Food books and other thoughts...

Just finished reading:

The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain

Currently reading:

The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher
Sacre Cordon Bleu (What The French Know About Cooking) by Michael Booth

Moving on.

Little boy is a fussy eater. I have to mash his greens, or hide them in soup, cut his carrots and squash into teeny tiny pieces and make a smoothie out of all sorts of fruits. It's not so much the taste as the texture he has an aversion to, I think. He can eat dark green leaves but not the tough or crunchy stalks. For a long time I was sad because he would only eat soup, shrimp, noodles or fried anything, but this year signaled a change. He has started eating, and enjoying, sushi, pesto pasta, pasta with sundried tomatoes, papaya, honeydew melon, zucchini, prosciutto, and pizza. He still won't eat hamburger or mayonnaise or catsup or noodles that aren't in soup, but hey, I think he's starting early in the yummy food department.

Commercial Break Number 3

Little boy: Mama, why is that tower leaning?
Me explaining about the leaning tower of Pisa- we are studying the atlas these days...
Me: Do you think it's going to fall?
LB: Nope, the constructioneers (what he calls enigneers) have made sure it won't.
Me: How did they do that?
LB: By using glue and tape, of course!

How can you argue with such sense?

Megu

Saturday evening, dinner at Megu Japanese Restaurant, Elements Mall, Kowloon.

Megu is a modern Japanese restaurant aiming to dazzle clients with artistic, over-the-top presentation and equally exaggerated prices. While I was impressed with how each dish was presented, only half of the meal was amazing and fresh. Nobu Hong Kong is better, more creative and innovative, and I prefer their simpler designs.


the brightly lit ad of Megu in one of the floors of Elements Mall


the menu


VOSS water from Norway. Personally I would drink tap water, but HK restos like "pushing" expensive bottled water from faraway places....


an order of shrimp tempura, 3 pcs. costs a whopping HKD 175, which is quite "cheap" compared to sister-in-law's 10,000 yen (per piece) tempura experience in Tokyo! It came with a delicate, somewhat tangy, ume plum salt



the shrimp head filling was also battered and fried



fresh wasabi rhizome (none of that sickly bright green stuff from a tube) resting on a "oroshi" grater, sharkskin mounted on a wooden paddle


Our friend grating the wasabi. The flavor is milder than commercial pastes or powders.


Grilled "toro"(fatty tuna belly) at HKD 78 per tiny, thin slice. It wasn't too fatty, if you know what I mean. They say Inagiku's grilled toro are the best (Inagiku is located at the Four Seasons Hotel).


Wild Red Snapper Madai with Nuts, Vegetables and Oriental Spicy Dressing. The dressing was heated until smoking then poured onto the greens. It was an ordinary salad with extraordinary tableside presentation.


Special sashimi set served in a bowl of crushed ice decorated like a pond with an ice "grotto", lit by soft blue light. Resting serenely on the ice bed are slices of maguro (bluefin tuna), hamachi (yellowtail tuna), red snapper, scallops, fluke, alfonse, toro and 2 very fresh shrimp. I was a bit disappointed there was no amaebi in stock. The hamachi, snapper and scallops were very fresh, the tuna insipid.



Foie gras in Crispy Australian Wagyu Beef Croquette- crunchy breading, flavorful beef leading to a rich, foie-filled center.


White Miso Clam Chowder with Kiritampo (grilled rice) Stick


Mushroom Essence for 2



Dramatic: a siphon, which, when heated, allows the broth from the bottom to "drain" to the top.


Served in tiny, tiny cups.



Here I am refilling my cup with more broth, very light on the tummy, but full-flavored indeed. There was a small dumpling at the bottom of the cup, hidden by the mushrooms.


*We were served a grapefruit sorbet in shot glasses to cleanse the palate at this point.


Stone-grilled Wagyu beef with garlic slivers on top.



Set on fire with liquor.

* we also ordered their beef done 4 ways, cubed tender beef skewered and basted with wasabi, Japanese chili powder, sesame paste and garlic.


A view of the hot coals inside an implement used to cook the sauteed salmon and vegetable dish we ordered.

*They do a lot of table side cooking at Megu.



The comfort rooms were Japanese-inspired as well. Here you see the zen-like faucets and the softly-lit mirrors below portraying geishas. Of course all the cubicles had the high-tech bidet system found all over Japan.

Lasang Pinoy 24: A Warm Pinoy Dessert for the Cool Hong Kong Winter

I've always enjoyed the entries to Lasang Pinoy, and being able to finally join thrills me no end. Lasang Pinoy 24 is all about coconuts, which is perfect because my mom ate tons of fresh young coconut when she was pregnant with me! They say that's how I got the shape of my head and my pale complexion. Thank goodness she didn't crave for niyog or I would have been born with rough, scratchy, fibrous skin, although a permanent "tan" would be nice-- if you believe in these things, of course.

Hubby is in love with anything that has gata (coconut milk) in it. We eat Bicol express, or ginataang sitaw, kalabasa, talong at hipon (long beans, squash, eggplant and shrimp cooked in coconut milk), laksa (a dish of Malay origin that we discovered in Singapore and greatly enjoy), and any form of curry, whether Indian or Thai, at least twice a month. Yet as much as I enjoy coconut-milk based savoury dishes, I wanted to prepare and write about a dessert. So I thought-- why not make an ultimate comfort food, something sweet and sticky that reminds me of my childhood, full of soft chunks of saba banana, cubed pieces of gabi (taro root), little bits of sago that give off tiny pleasant explosions in the mouth, and my favorite galapong (glutinous rice flour balls).

I was fortunate enough to find langka (jackfruit) at my favorite independent (i.e., NOT a part of a major grocery chain) fruit stand. The bananas will have to be sourced from Worldwide House, a building in Central where a myriad of Filipino stores can be found. These include banks, remittance centers, shipping companies, jewelry, toy, cd shops, convenience stores where one can get his daily ration of pan de sal, and where I get my weekly supply of calamansi. Even kamote leaves can be found in this House away from home! Add to that the local dailies, gossip magazines, tabloids, photocopy and photo developing services, toiletries and canned goods, hopia and other kakanins (native rice cakes and sweet delicacies) and you feel that you're back in Manila.

I digress though, from the topic. Maybe I'll write more about this special "House", whose neighbor Jollibee always smells of fried Chicken Joy, next time.

Gabi, sago and coconut milk I bought from the ubiquitous Wellcome Supermarket. As much as I'd like to squeeze my own "milk" from freshy grated niyog, it's hard to find them in HK when you need them so I resort to using canned ones. I'm not that happy with the quality and find them watery at times, but in a foreign country you try your best... and pray the results aren't too bad.

And I'm happy to announce that the guinataan we made was nice and thick, with the right amount of sweetness to it, the langka flavor shining through, the sago and glutinous balls chewy and delightful to eat. Next time I'll add some ube halaya (purple yam cooked until is it thick and pasty) for color and because it marries well with langka.



We enjoyed this for dessert during a gathering at our home, a dinner with fellow Pinoys. We really are a resourceful and hardy lot. We create memories of home in any way possible - through the food we prepare, the company we surround ourselves with, the music we listen to (we have many CD's of Pinoy artists), the jokes we share. I certainly felt comforted, and remembered my mom and mom-in-law's own delicious versions of this dessert. On a wintry evening in Hong Kong, which hasn't experienced the shivers in many, many years, we all felt the warmth, thanks in part to the versatile coconut.

Sai Kung

One Saturday we were craving for fresh air and even fresher seafood so we hied off to Sai Kung with another Pinoy family. We rode the MTR to Choi Hung, then took the minibus to Sai Kung. The entire trip takes between 40-50 minutes from Central, and kind of makes me wish we had a car, or a yacht! :)

We ate at a famous restaurant gilded with gold all over and with huge display tanks in front. There's even a humongous fish swimming in an upright aquarium, and old folks say this fish can never be killed or eaten because some spirit resides within- that's why it's so old and big. It was too scary looking anyway, and would probably weigh a ton and cost the earth, so no thanks, I'd rather eat live garoupa.

After a satisfying lunch of scallops with vermicelli, poached shrimp, crispy fish, spicy squid with green pepper, salt and pepper mantis shrimp or "squillamantis", fried rice and sauteed pea shoots (normally I would insist on lobster and razor clams but we were only 6, after all) we walked around the town and ended up at a tiny coffee shop with 2 cute dogs manning the doors. The coffee smelled great and was a perfect ending to a cool, breezy day.





Live fish, geoduck clams, lobsters, razor clams, horseshoe crabs, shrimp, scallops and other marine life clamoring for space and attention in their tanks.



We had scallops served in their shell with vermicelli and tons of garlic.



No skyscrapers from where we stood: just boats, the sea, the breeze and hiking trails galore.



Hubby loves uni but kind of balked when he saw how it was harvested.



Check out my Lamma seafood post.

I take it back!

I wrote a few months back about this congee and noodle place in IFC..

M friend brought me there one time and we had the salted fish fried rice and baked fish head with ginger and scallions and both were chopstick lickin'good! The fish, especially. I don't normally eat fish head but this one was pretty easy to pick on, with salty gooey globs of flesh in between crunchy bits of head. The ginger slices are crisp and a joy to munch on. While I still think the noodles are a rip-off, the congee, fish head and rice, as well as the pork bun with running sauce are sure winners!

Manila Trip High and (Low)lights

Ms. Polly's cake: nothing fancy, sticky, moist and toothsome. Comfort food.


My favorite fruit: star apple. It's not in season, but I couldn't resist. Haven't had it in ages.



Pan De Manila bread and crunchy peanut butter and calamansi-guyabano jam. The jam was good.



Lechon skin meticulously sliced to serve the hungry horde at Christmas.


Baked lapu-lapu with 3 kinds of sauces.



Roast turkey with giblet gravy, another favorite!



Food lovingly prepared by my mom-in-law. Yummy pinakbet and pinapaitan. Igado. A crunchy shrimp lumpia appetizer. Sis-in-law from Japan made kimchi nabe, a hotpot that was quite spicy and tangy and delicious!



I ate the aligue of countless of these tiny crablets. On steaming rice it's a heart-attack inducing winner!


Enjoyed my lunch at Apartment 1B in Makati: cheesy vegetarian lasagna.



My best friend's order of salmon with tomato hollandaise was a generous portion cooked exactly right with the inside still soft and raw-pinkish.


Chinese lumpia from The Little Store in Gilmore: the wrapper was pathetic! All the filling spilled out on my first bite. My mom makes better lumpia.



The kian peng, or a Chinese paella of sorts, was tasty enough, but it lacked slivers of Chinese sausage. Again, my mom makes better.



The steamed fish was tiny and not too fresh, but thumbs up to the ginger soy sauce!



At Fleur De Lys in Tomas Morato, my sister ordered the chicken galantina with garlic rice and fried egg. Her verdict? It tasted ordinary.



I had the creamy adobo pasta at Fleur De Lys and I liked it! Bits of crunchy adobo in every mouthful of al dente pasta made silky with a creamy adobo sauce and salty with grated cheese. The raw sliced tomatoes went well with the dish, too.



Cute, cute, colorful glasses at Fleur De Lys. I know desserts are their specialty, and I tried the Bailey's Mousse, but it tasted old and dry.


I recommend taking Carlos Celdran's Intramuros Tour! It was funny, informative and far from being a boring history lesson! I cried during one part of the tour, haha! This is Casa Manila, restored with the help of former First Lady Marcos.



Courtyard of the rich and smelly. The servants bathed 2-3 times a day, the masters of the house so infrequently they slept without matresses yech!



Fountain at Father Blanco's Garden inside the San Agustin Church complex.



I forget what building this is.



San Agustin Church and Museum.


Taho before the tour.



Brings back memories of high school days when taho was a requisite after-school snack and students asked "manong" for more sago and syrup.



Frozen buko pandan sherbet at Don and Teban's, my cousin's grillery in Tomas Morato. Wonderful way to cool off! Speaking of T. Morato, I ate at Heaven and Eggs. Their steak and eggs was out of stock (grrr) so i ate the Corned Beef Sandwich. I liked the corned beef itself, but the bread was white and not rye and tasted like cardboard, the "sauerkraut" nasty, the cheese was freshly grated and not melted, and the coleslaw, horror of horrors, was swimming in its dressing. I had to fish the drowning shreds of cabbage out before they expired fully. NOT a nice lunch, expensive too. Definitely not worth my time or money. The mango shake was fresh enough, to be fair.



The much-hyped pudding. Expensive and too sweet. which reminds me, I tried a frozen Brazo from a place in Dasmarinas Village, and it was so sweet my head ached! NOT a pleasure to eat, I tell you.



Hubby and I enjoyed the Delimondo (by Chef Ed Quimson, P100 a can) ranch-style corned beef. I wish I brought back more cans to HK. My friend's dad makes a mean homemade corned beef and has generously agreed to share his recipe! Yahoo I can't wait to make some myself!



Part of my loot from the Salcedo Market. I bought Nana Meng's Tsokolate (average), Jaq's pesto with casuy and bangus (very good), Jaq's tuyo with red egg pasta sauce (haven't tried it), several budbod kabog and flavored suman (good), milkfish pate (average, a bit too fishy), malunggay pesto (Immigration confiscated it from my handcarry wah!), aligue sauce (still in my ref), La Cucina de Tita Moning Queso de bola sread (expensive but good), Ineng's BBQ (expensive too but good), kaldereta (ho-hum), Cely Kalaw's stuff (yummy!), and so many more I can't recall anymore. My only complaint? a lot of the cooked food were quite expensive! Manila has become expensive already!



Filled up half the cart even before 30 minutes passed. That's way too much plastic for recycling-obsessed me. I should have brought my MarketManila canvas bag but I was in too much of a hurry!



A stall selling French food: I spied a quiche, terrines and pates.


Paella: wanted to buy some but forgot. I wanted to try the crepes being cooked on site by this Frenchman and the pulled pork sandwich too. Next time.



People milling about the market.


It's my first time to visit Salcedo Market.




Other Manila meals:
Cuillere at Serendra: well-priced but the food wasn't special.
Chelsea Market Cafe at Serendra: some items were expensive, the others well-priced due to the generous portions. I liked our pizza, fish and portobello mushroom appetizer but the onion soup was watery and bland and the meatball pasta was served cold. And to those of you who know me well, of course I complained!:)
Trattoria Gourmet at Shangri-La: They have an interesting roast beef pasta.
Kitchen at Galleria: My duck adobo sandwich was yummy! The fried catfish appetizer was difficult to eat because of the bones. Too bad there were no people eating except us.
Cibo at Shangri-La: For some odd reason the spinach gorgonzola dip was tasteless that night, but my pork sandwich with 3 sauces: liver sauce, lemon mayo and red wine was divine.
Kai in Greenbelt: It's sad that when a new, trendy location opens, old ones lose their customers. The food scene in Manila isn't as vibrant as that of other places, and I suppose a lot of it has to do with finances. There are only a select few who can afford to eat out often. Plus a lot of households have cooks at home. Serendra was always full, and Greenbelt was sad and empty. Kai, the night we were there, only served 3 tables. I thought the food was executed and presented really well, and while the sashimi wasn't the freshest, the other items on the menu were innovative, and indicative of the owners' experience at Nobu.
Sango Burger and Amici Pizza: Both much-touted, but the actual meal didn't live up to the hype. I know there are many fans out there, but the burger and pizza didn't do anything for me.

Other places to try: Mamou (I couldn't get a table and I tried three times!), In-Yo in Katipunan, Cafe Juanita in Kapitolyo, Antonio's in Tagaytay, places these 2 blogs recommend: docchef's blog and this..