Prawn and Pomelo Salad

When you live in a tropical country where fruits abound, you have got to make the best use of them. They were made for eating in this ultra-warm weather -- mangoes, bananas, pineapples, and yes, the pomelo. Citrusy, bitter, and with a soft crunch to the bite, the pomelo cools and refreshes. This is probably why the Thais have made use of this fruit in one of their best-selling starters. Enough to fill you up or whet your appetites and prepare you for their spicy soups, curries, laksas, and the melee of flavors in their cooking.

Here's a PRAWN & POMELO SALAD Recipe that we've tried and tested and makes for a light, healthy, crunchy and delightful starter that is also easy to prepare:

Ingredients:

1 med. size pomelo, peeled and divided into wedges

10 pcs. medium-sized prawns, peeled and deveined

1 pc. chicken breast, cooked and flaked

100 g of beansprouts

1 tbsp. torn mint leaves

2 tbsp. coriander leaves, minced

3 tbsp. ground peanuts (unsalted)

2 tbsp. minced green onions

3 tbsp. toasted coconut flakes 

Dressing:

3 tbsp. lime juice

3 tbsp. Thai fish sauce

2 tbsps. brown sugar

1 small, red chili, sliced to bits

Flake the cooked chicken breast and set aside. Season the prawns with some salt and pepper and lightly pan-fry until it turns pink in color. You may also simply steam them for  a few minutes for a healthier option. It also keeps the prawns juicier that way. 

Quickly blanch the beansprouts in boiling water and then transfer to a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking. 

Divide the pomelo into wedges and further into bite-sized pieces. When all your main ingredients are in place, simply toss them together in a bowl or plate. 

Mix the ingredients of the dressing in a separate bowl. This should have a sweet, salty, sour and a slightly spicy zing to it. Drizzle the dressing on the pomelo and prawn mixture and you now have a pleasing, appetizing meal to start off a Thai or oriental feast.

Pair with a tall glass of lemongrass iced tea and it's sure to sweep the dark clouds away!

KULINARYA's Fresh Lumpiang Ubod

I've continued road-testing recipes in the book KULINARYA, now considered a national bestseller as it has become a favorite gift to friends and family, especially Filipinos living overseas. I've handed out a few copies of the book myself - to my "inaanaks" or godchildren for the new wives to work their way into the hearts of their new husbands thru the stomachs, and to relatives abroad who long to cook Filipino dishes the authentic way. At the very least, the photographs in the book would be enough to appease their tummies that might have gotten homesick for their traditional Filipino cooking.

So, off to another recipe out of the cookbook which is the most accurate by far that I've read and tested. This time around, since I'm catering for a nephew's one-year old daughter on May 17, I tried KULINARYA's Fresh Lumpiang Ubod (Coconut Pith Spring Roll). The trick to making this dish is to have really good coconut pith - the "ubod" - which means you have to get "ubod" that stays crisp and does not become chewy after cooking. I was able to get fresh "ubod" some from Makro which was already julienned into fine strips (that cut away part of the work for me). KULINARYA suggested that the "ubod" be soaked in some water with a tablespoon or two of fresh milk. I did that to make sure the "ubod" stays fresh. 

The recipe as printed in KULINARYA: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine

Of course, the all-important step in the recipe is to make the fresh lumpia wrappers as you can't use the store-bought kind. The lumpia wrapper must be soft yet it should hold the fillings well. It's best to cook the fillings first since you need to let it cool before putting inside the wrapper. 

KULINARYA's recipe for Fresh Lumpiang Ubod is quite simple. The filling was a mixture of sauteed garlic and onions, to which about 100 grams of ground pork is added. After sauteeing the ground pork, peeled shrimps are also sauteed. This is seasoned with some salt and pepper and then finally, the "ubod" (strained from the water and milk mixture) is added and again, sauteed for another 10 minutes or so. As a personal touch, for color, I added julienned carrots.When the filling is seasoned to one's taste, you can strain the cooked mixture and let cool. 

Meanwhile, you can do the fresh lumpia wrapper, quite tedious since you have do it one wrapper at a time. I used a 10-inch non-stick skillet, swirling 1/4 cup of the batter made of flour, cornstarch, egg, salt, oil and water, to make a perfect wrapper, although I was expecting something with a yellowish tinge. The other recipes I read used more eggs - maybe that's the trick to adding color to the wrapper. Nonetheless, the wrapper I made was soft and held the fillings well. 

Lastly, you need to make the sauce - a sweet, thickened soy sauce-water-sugar mixture. The recipe calls for caramelizing the white sugar first and then adding water and soy and thickening that with some cornstarch mixed with water. 

Finally, you can assemble the spring rolls! One lumpia needs one lettuce leaf on the wrapper, plus the filling and if you want, you can put in the ground peanuts and some of the sauce before wrapping and rolling the lumpia. Now, to serve, you just drizzle the sauce on top of one lumpia and add ground peanuts and minced garlic. Voila, you have a merienda delight that's fresh, healthy and bursting with a sweet, salty, garlicky flavor. A Filipino spring roll that rivals fresh spring rolls of our Vietnamese and Thai neighbors!

Halohalo ala DEC

Nothing beats the heat during a scorching hot summer day than a big bowl or glass heaping with sweetened tropical fruits, beans, gelatin, strips of macapuno or langka, a spoonful of ube haleya or ube ice cream with leche flan and pinipig packed with crushed ice, milk and sugar!

In the Philippines, that mix-mix mixture is called "halohalo." No self-respecting person from this country, young or old, male/female or any other sex, can say that he is a true-blue Pinoy if he does not know what "halohalo" is and what it tastes like. No summer in this tropical country can go without one dipping a long spoon into a tall glass and doing an up and down movement with it to make the ice melt, mix the sugar and milk down to the layers of sweetened saba, red beans, sweetened chickpeas, langka strips, kaong, gelatin and whatever else is there in the glass of "halohalo." 

There's simply no substitute for the experience of mixing the blend down to a cool, sweet, colorful, milky sensation that pops in your mouth:  bits of fruit mixed with crushed or shaved ice, then off to a soft piece of jelly to a pasty bit of red bean or chickpea. And if you ordered the "special" with a scoop of ice cream that's usually ube flavored, then you just turned your day around. "Halohalo" is bright, colorful, sweet, cold - what's there not to like? 

These days, most everyone goes to Razons of Guagua for a glass of "halohalo" with just three ingredients: sweetened saba, macapuno bits and leche flan, for P75 per glass. There's even an urban myth that goes around -- that these ingredients were made every night by the grand matriarch of the Razon clan back in Guagua. I almost believed that until I found the Razons commissary tucked somewhere in Pasig. Some even say that the secret is in the milk that is used, fresh carabao's milk. But really, it's only evaporated milk sweetened with condensada. The only honest thing about Razons' version is they reinvented it by using shaved ice instead of crushed ice. THAT makes a whole lot of difference! Take note, CHOWKING! 

Razons has made its mark in the "halohalo" world here in the country. But more variations of the sweet iced dessert are cropping up. It was my daughter, the aspiring pastry chef, who introduced our family to DEC's Halohalo. To most, DEC's is a Chinese deli selling kikiam, siomai, siopao and other Chinese foodstuffs. But this summer, we discovered that they made really good "halohalo" with a mixture that outnumbers Razons' magic mix: red beans, buko strips, saba, round gelatins, different types of jellies, leche flan, ube, and instead of pinipig, the mixture is topped with crunchy cornflakes! There is no secret ingredient - just evaporated milk mixed with condensada and of course, shaved ice. 

Since we like our "halohalo" packed with color and flavor, this is our hands-down choice for the best "halohalo" in town. We found DEC's at the ground floor of the Provident Building at the back of OB Montessori Greenhills. And for just P60 per glass, it comes with a disposable tall spoon and a huge straw so you can sip the goodness of the milk and "halohalo" bits at the bottom -- no need to turn a tall glass over onto your mouth to drink the milk! 

Paying Homage to Her Royal Highness : ALING LUCING

I had meant to write this article after going on a culinary day-tour that ended in a pilgrimage to a culinary shrine, Aling Lucing’s Sisig in Pampanga. Upon reaching the eatery one rainy afternoon, it certainly felt like setting foot on hallowed ground.

Having heard so many stories about the award-winning sisig place, I was determined to find out why the 80-year old culinary icon was befitting the title of royalty bestowed on her: Lucia Lagman Cunanan - SISIG QUEEN. What was the secret behind her tasty take on the crunchy mix of boiled and chopped bits of pig’s cheeks, ears and snout? What set her apart from all of Pampanga’s and the nation’s sisig-churners, enough for her to be hailed the Grand Slam Winner of the 2005 Sisig Festival in Angeles City over 176 competitors? 

Of course, my personal curiosity over Aling Lucing’s success came from my desire to improve on our own sisig dishes served in our food establishments. But after reaching Aling Lucing’s restaurant to unravel the mystery behind her sisig right where it all began, I stood there amazed at the Queen’s tenacity, her own passion to be the best among her fellow Kapampangans who are all known to possess high-grade culinary genes in their DNA. She is proud to be the best in a league of her own, dishing out what is the most flavorful showcase of the “pambansang pulutan.”

I have not had the chance to sample the other sisig recipes of Pampanga or those that competed versus Aling Lucing’s Sisig. But having a spoonful of freshly prepared sisig in her store raises your eyebrows, widens your eyes and makes you believe that the judges had good reason to laud the dish and heap awards on it.

Aling Lucing’s pork sisig, the original kind served in her restaurant since 1974, had just the right salty-crispy taste. Its crunchiness came from grilling the pork over hot charcoal and then chopping it to bits before it is mixed with mashed chicken liver and minced onions. It is laden with MSG which enhances the flavor of the dish and then sprinkled with calamansi juice and served with a dipping sauce of soy and vinegar with chopped onions and siling labuyo. It is also served on a sizzling plate to keep the dish hot, allowing the diner to scrape the scrumptious crunchy bits that cling to the hot plate. 

It has been two years since that trip to Aling Lucing’s in Pampanga and exactly a year after her tragic death – a stabbing that has been left unresolved. Her death was made even more tragic by nasty jokes that alluded to her having the same fate as the main ingredients of the dish that made her famous. Certainly, Aling Lucing was herself famous as the “rich and famous” park their SUVs alongside the humble eatery near the railroad tracks to have their fix of the most devilishly-delightful pulutan ever created.

Today, sisig is no longer just bar chow. It has evolved to being a regular viand, eaten with hot steaming rice and sometimes even with a side dish of vegetables. Too bad, Aling Lucing did not live long enough to see her legacy being continued. But time will tell if the passion that set Aling Lucing apart from the rest will be carried on by her heirs and yes, her franchisees. For there are Aling Lucing stalls now in foodcourts and some dine-ins in the metro. It is up to us to see if they live up to the memory of the one who is to be known, perhaps for all time, as the QUEEN OF SISIG. 

Long live the Queen! 

Kapeng Barako - Proudly Our Own

Ever since the opening of a new road going to Tagaytay from Sta. Rosa, Silang Road has literally been the road less taken by motorists on the way to this cool and breezy city south of Manila. Back in the days, it was on Silang Road where most of the good stops have been for pasalubong and for lunch or dinner going back to Manila.

While there are fewer passersby and motorists, some of these local stores have remained standing as Tagaytay’s testament to fresh and good quality food. One of them is a small coffee shop, Nature’s Original Kapeng Barako, which continues to make coffee that is truly Filipino and undoubtedly, the best.

My family and I have always dropped by the quaint store owned by Mr. and Mrs. Jun Dimapilis. We were first lured by its “vintage” look from the outside and the huge words “Kapeng Barako” and “vegetarian” written on the store’s frontage. We’ve never seen those two words used in a single sentence or on the façade of just one store.

The doorbell chimes loudly as one enters the tiny store where upon setting foot, one is amazed at the number of lovely knick-knacks, saucers, cups, coffee makers that are on display. One’s eyes wanders at the shelves where you can check out a Star Wars’ Darth Vader telephone, a plastic panic button that customers can actually press, dessert plates that bear Monopoly signs and so much more. All these capture your attention and you suddenly forget what you came in the store for: coffee.

The store is run full-time by the Dimapilis family who regale customers with information on how to brew your coffee, where they get the beans and how they have been in the coffee business for a long time in this part of Cavite. It turns out that the family once supplied coffee to Rustans but that bigger competition with snazzier packaging had gotten most of their business from the company.

Small as the business may seem, Nature’s Original has their mission and vision – just like big corporations – to which they remain true to this very day. All the coffee they harvest are processed by the family to maintain the quality. And over the years, they have begun to offer not just the Kapeng Barako which is widely-known in Amadeo and Batangas, but nowadays, Kapeng Alamid or the coffee beans from civet cats which foreign coffee connosieurs buy at steep prices.

They also have several variants now including hazelnut coffee, rice coffee and other blends of Arabica, robusta and more. What draws us to Nature’s Original is also their ginger tea or “salabat” which comes in powder form and is already flavored with muscovado sugar. One teaspoon in a cup of hot water is enough to give you the calming soothness of ginger with a sweet taste that goes down well in the stomach.

Everything that the store sells is natural or pure in essence. They use our own ingredients and products that are harvested within the area or in their own small farm or from suppliers of natural and vegetarian food.

While waiting for your beans to be ground and re-packed or while getting your orders set, Mrs. Dimapilis is quick to offer customers some coffee or tea – for FREE. In a small corner of the tiny store, you can enjoy a sip of our very own Kapeng Barako which leaves you wondering why you even go to Starbucks at all. For here in this road less taken in Cavite lies a store that enlivens the spirit and gives you a new sense of wonder as it also sticks to a path that it has vowed to take for over 20 years – to bring Filipino coffee closer to the hearts of our own people and to awaken our souls to the many wonders that nature offers. 

Batchoy: The Soup that Lives up to its Name

This article that I wrote last year placed third in the 2008 DOREEN FERNANDEZ Food Writing Awards. An extra bonus that came after my experience in Bacolod last year. It was definitely one of the highlights of my life. Hopefully, more blessings to come in 2009!

What kind of people would name a dish after “FAT?” Yes, only the Filipino can! We have named a best-loved comfort food after the very thing that would clog the arteries of U.S. FDA authorities in a heartbeat. Its very name is enough to send your cholesterol level soaring to new heights.

“Batchoy” is the vernacular for fat and to some, slang for “fatso.” No one would want to be called “batchoy” or “tabachoy.” It  has same ring as “baboy” or swine. The Wikipedia says that the dish traces its name to the Hokkien term “ba-chui” or “pieces of meat. But to us, “batchoy” stands for food indulgence of the highest order. And no Branding Guru will ever get us to change its name to sound less threatening.

The popularity of the “batchoy” dates back to the 1940s in Iloilo’s La Paz Public Market where an enterprising butcher decided to create a dish out of the nasty bits left over from main cuts of meat. The dish has since evolved and with the array of added ingredients, it has reached a level of perfection that sends you straight to heaven once you finish an order of the “Special” – a really big bowl with the works: a fresh egg, three heaping spoonfuls of chicharon bits plus snippets of chicken liver and pig’s brains, and a killer dose of MSG.

However, to our family, the “batchoy” has a different meaning. We owe our life of comfort to this humble noodle dish. In the 1970s, my father-in-law set up a “batchoy house” in Bacolod after several failed businesses. He opened a hole-in-the-wall eatery in Burgos Market. Soon, his “batchoy” enabled him to set up a small dine-in in a more populated area along Smith St. and the rest, as they say, is history.

The brisk sales of “batchoy” in that small diner sent my husband to the Ateneo. I was waxing sentimental about this when I made a trip this year to Bacolod to witness how “batchoy” was made in my father-in-law’s eatery, Super Batchoy, one of the last few bastions of batchoydom in Bacolod. It stands quietly on a busy street where at 3:00 p.m., students and workers fill up the place for a jolt of steaming hot “batchoy.” It is their daily ritual. It not only quiets the rumblings of one’s stomach on a rainy afternoon. Interestingly, its rich mix of ingredients leaves one with a sense of yes, wellness.

Making “batchoy” is never easy nor cheap as I discovered. The cooking starts in the wee hours of the morning. You need to clean the pork innards very well under running water for an hour or so while you boil chunks of beef bone marrow and pork bones in a vatful of water and let it simmer for several hours to extract their fullest flavor for the broth or the caldo.

Generations of Ilonggo cooks have many well-kept secrets to make the broth burst with flavor. Super Batchoy’s very own Roger, who has been with us for over three decades, has his own take on the dish, ranging from what type of oil to use to sauté the garlic and onions (not to mention what kind of onions to use), how much ginger and sugar to put, plus the blending of a special type of shrimp paste known as “guinamos” to the mix of meat strands and innards.

To the uninitiated, “batchoy” is just a bunch of thin yellowish noodles served with hot broth. But to true-blue Ilonggos, there is no substitute for a very special type of pancit miki bought only in Bacolod. The variety sold in Manila is way too salty. Roger swears that the miki can keep for days in the chiller after it is blanched.

For a perfect order of “batchoy,” ladle some steaming caldo on strands of miki at the bottom of a large bowl topped with slices of pork and liver. Garnish with chopped spring onions and then the kicker: a generous sprinkling of crunchy chicharon. But to make the dish really “special,” a whole egg is cracked at the side of the bowl. The egg is cooked by the boiling broth and mixed with the rest of the ingredients for a truly sumptuous meal.

In Super Batchoy, the “batchoy” comes with pan de siosa, a soft, sweet bun that blends well with the saltiness of the broth. A bite of the pan de siosa followed by the warmth of the caldo in your mouth will make you want to go down on your knees to thank the kitchen God up above who led us lowly mortals to the discovery of such a spectacular pairing of food.

My father-in-law beams with pride whenever a customer finishes the soup first, leaves noodles at the bottom of the bowl, and then asks for more soup for the noodles. To him, that is the ultimate testament to the goodness of his caldo. He then gladly obliges the satisfied customer with more hot caldo PLUS a sprinkling of more chicharon! On a rainy day, Super Batchoy can serve up to three hundred bowls of the super hot soup!

BATCHOY – even in a plain styro cup, its aroma arouses the hungry beast in you. In an office, it makes you drop whatever you are doing and drift to where the seductive smell of goodness is coming from. Yet to those who find comfort in a steaming bowl of soup, there’s no better way to treat life like there’s no tomorrow than with a bowl of “batchoy.” For despite its last name, LA PAZ BATCHOY, with all its killer richness, does live up to its first name – LA PAZ. It is wellness in an instant, aptly bringing to our restless stomachs a sense of calm and peace or “paz,” the town after which it is named. A way to celebrate life through simple indulgence. 

The Twelve Days of Christmas

The past holiday season was special for Filipinos as there were exactly eleven straight days of no work and partying! It was, indeed, the Twelve Days of Christmas, if you count Dec. 24th or Christmas eve when most Filipinos take the half-day off or get out of work early to start their holiday celebration. 

Check out the Facebook pages of most Filipinos over the holidays and you will see that they have been partying almost everyday on those Twelve Days of Christmas. It was a time for much family bonding as most members of the household got the days off or went to their hometowns. It was a time for reunions and gatherings of entire clans and those who were once affiliated with a certain organization, company or what-have-you. There were office parties and weddings to go to and parties, parties, parties. And everywhere and anywhere you go, there was a common denominator: FOOD.

Last Christmas, I hosted several parties at home for family and friends - I lost count - including showers, high school reunions, ex-officemate reunions, and several family parties, plus the office party for our staff. And all the time, I had to put out the best food on the table, owing to my claim of being a big quote-unquote "home chef." Thinking up menus for these parties was usually a difficult task and there were times I could not even go beyond menu planning and we would end up just buying food. But this time around, the menu planning went smoothly and I managed to learn and actually, cook the food for each occasion. 

My party fare included Pastel de Lengua, Paella Negra, Ginataang Sugpo, Chicken Relleno, Baked Fish Fillet with Kesong Puti, Adobo Carbonara, Chicken ala King and so much more! What made the task easier was the presence of so many reliable cookbooks around like the quintessential "The JOY of Cooking" and recently, for Filipino fare, "KULINARYA" which was a collaboration of the best chefs in the country. Having had the habit of working on a dish with three recipes of the same dish on hand, I had to convince myself that the authors of "Kulinarya" knew what they were doing. 

For the chicken relleno or stuffed chicken, I actually began with three recipes culled from the internet and cookbooks. But at the last moment, I decided I was going to road-test the recipe from "Kulinarya." This was not the first time I did chicken relleno. I managed to do one, albeit a steamed version, two years ago. Stuffing a chicken has the semblance of doing a science experiment and that thrilled me a bit in a strange sort of way. 

For the chicken, I bought a deboned one from the market - freshly dressed chicken and deboned right in front of you by the experts. I dare not do this myself -- YET. For the stuffing, there's ground chicken breast (instead of ground pork), minced chorizo bilbao and vienna sausages, grated edam cheese, sweet pimientos, some olives, salt and pepper and three hard-boiled eggs. Instead of steaming the chicken, I baked it after brushing with olive oil and melted butter. For a small chicken, I only baked it for 1 hour 10 minutes as I didn't want to end up with a chicken that was tough and chewy. Mine turned out brown and crispy and at the same time, juicy. Just right and the inside came out perfect! I also covered the chicken in foil to bake for the first 30 minutes and then took out the foil for the chicken to brown evenly in the oven for the next 40 minutes.

I did "Kulinarya's" recipe twice just to check if everything would still be perfect the next time around. The only change on my second chicken was the use of a different brand of sausages that turned out to be saltier. Also it was edam cheese during the first time and then quickmelt cheese on the second try. Generally, the first chicken was so much better and tastier!

Our holiday feast during Christmas day was served with nary a hitch! The chicken relleno wowed my brother who came in from the U.S. and served alongside fiesta favorites like beef/chicken pochero, pastel de lengua, beer-battered fish fillet and yes, the ever-present spaghetti, it was a Christmas that we will remember for a long, long time. 

Orange Rhum Cake by SWEET HIBISCUS

In the Bakers' Dozen Fair in Powerplant Mall, Makati, a rockstar pastry chef emerged two years ago -- Ange of Sweet Life. During our visit to the fair to sample this year's harvest of goodies, we chanced upon an old friend of my husband who was enthusiastically selling the now-famous Frozen Brazo de Mercedes of Sweet Life. The guy turns out to be the father of Ange! 

We were also quite surprised that Ange is two years younger than our daughter who is also into baking and who plans to go to the Culinary Institute of America in a couple of years to earn her associate degree in pastry arts. We were even more surprised that Ange, after being a celebrity of sorts in the pastry world, is bent on a degree not in culinary or pastry arts but in fashion and that the enterprising young lady is determined to make it in New York's world of high fashion and couture -- the reason behind Sweet LIfe's line of specialty Couture Cupcakes. 

If Ange became popular for the Frozen Brazo de Mercedes which we got addicted to two years ago, my daughter Nicole's signature dessert is her Orange Rhum Cake. We gave the rhum cakes as presents to our neighors and friends in the malls where we had our stores and it was a runaway hit last year - with rave reviews who were asking where we bought the cake! 

In the same manner that Ange's dad said that the frozen brazo's magic recipe was derived after downing several portions on a hundred different tries of the frozen brazo, Nicole's orange rhum cake also came about through trial-and-error short of giving our household members a case of diabetes before Christmas. 

But here it is, the Orange Rhum Cake that's good for sharing as Christmas is never complete without a traditional rhum cake to go with coffee or tea as an after-dinner treat or when you have friends and family over. SWEET HIBISCUS' Orange Butter Rhum Cake makes a Yuletide comeback! 

Spongy butter cake laced with hints of lite rhum, honey and orange and then topped with swirls of sweet vanilla frosting. Not too sweet though and best eaten with an appetite for all good things in life! MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!

SWEET HIBISCUS Sweet Christmas Treats

Today, I do a mother's job and write about how great my daughter is at baking. Yes, my daughter, Nicole, has opened her own line of sweet treats, inspired by the many ladies who have gone the dessert path before her -- Sonja Ocampo and her tribe of noveau pastry chefs and most recently, Anje of Sweet Life (famous for her frozen brazo de mercedes) who turns out to be younger than Nicole by a couple of years! 

It has actually been two years since she has been churning out dessert treats for special occasions like Christmas, bridal showers, baby showers, baptisms and every memorable family get-together we have had over the last couple of years.

Last year, my husband and I gave away her Sweet Hibiscus desserts for Christmas instead of buying from the local pastry shops. Nicole has been encouraged by the recipients especially with the rave reviews of last year's Orange Rhum Cake. This year, she came out with her line of Christmas pastries including Revel Bars, Snickerdoodles and her favorite kind of cookie: White Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

The tradition of giving a box of cookies or sweets to neighbors and friends is the Filipino way of spreading cheer during the holidays. And Sweet Hibuscus' simple line of treats this year is our family's way of making Christmas joyous and filled with sweet memories for families and friends who have made our year truly wonderful. 

Happy Christmas to everyone and may our coming year be full of the sweetest surprises!

ROYCE Chocolates is in Manila!

You read the headline right! Japan's most famous chocolates are now here in Manila and specifically, on the top floor of Rockwell's Power Plant Mall, right beside the chapel -- it's heaven beside chocolate heaven!

Now, everyone in Manila can get their boxes of the delectable chocolate treats - NAMA, Potato Choco Chip (yep) and the truffles with orange liqueur, kirsch and pralines. The Konbini Store used to carry only the Nama chocolates and some of the bars, no truffles. But this time around, everyone gets the full Royce' menu. No more calling for orders like before and no more waiting! You can get your orders right off the counter. Get your boxful of Royce' goodies now and have a merry Christmas before you run out of the best chocolates in town!

Here's my earlier post on the famous heavenly treats which I discovered last August, thanks to a friend who was then still importing her "loot" from Japan, HK and Singapore. Now, it's just a stone's throw away from where she lives :) ....  

As posted on www.amyuy.multiply.com last August 3, 2008: 

I was introduced recently by a Chinese lady friend to the Japanese wonder chocolates that go by the name of Royce. After having a tasty lunch at Seryna in Little Tokyo in Makati, we went straight to her place in Rockwell to have tea and yes, generous servings of Royce Chocolates! She had Royce's Nama chocolates - the kind that melts so smoothly and sinfully in your mouth plus the truffles with brandy liqueur and one of the varieties coated with sesame seeds or nuts. My friend has to fly in her Royce chocolates from either Hong Kong or Singapore since they're not available in Manila or so she said. But lo and behold, a copy of Yummy magazine this month pointed me right to where Royce Chocolates can be had for P620/box of 20 pcs for the Nama and the nutty bars at P500 or so a piece! 

Yes, all Royce chocoholics can get their fix of these rich and delicate Japanese delights in Konbini Tokyo Market, a Japanese grocery just beside Angel's Kitchen in Connecticut St., Greenhills. I got a box of the Nama chocolates that had no liqueur and so pure and heavenly that you can finish all 20 pieces without guilt. Unfortunately, you can't just buy the chocolates off the Konbini shelves. You have to place an order with the store in advance so they can get your chocolates for you. I promised myself to sample more of the Royce Nama chocolates, the au lait flavor w/ cherry liqueur and maybe the champagne one. Plus, the well-loved Potato Chocolate Chip variety!

The chocolates have a short shelf life and must be savored before the due date stamped on the box to get the full benefit of their goodness. This is one of the reasons why Konbini can't store a lot of the chocolates and you have to call in to order first. You also have to keep them cold lest you end up with your confections turning into one gooey glob of chocolate. The chocolates are kept in a foil with a small pack of ice to make sure you bring them home fresh and intact.

But yes, apart from Truffettes de France that used to come from Canada and that are now sold in Costco Stores in the U.S. and which you can now get from a stall on the second floor of the Shangri-la Plaza Mall, as well as those Leonidas truffles that go for P80 or more per piece, you can now sample Royce Chocolates right here in Manila. Give Konbini a ring first before going over to the store to make sure you get the kind you want. The staff is very helpful and friendly and they will help you sort the varieties. Royce is just one of life's simple pleasures -- and rated highly on Lonely Planet's Blue List of must-eats. :-)

Moistest, Chewiest CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Some like it crunchy, others like it chewy. Cookies, that is, and I, like so many others, fall into the second category. Chewy cookies especially the chocolate chip variety are an absolute favorite in my book ever since Chips Ahoy! came out with theirs and then Keebler also had their own soft batch. And of course, who can forget Mrs. Fields who even paid the Philippines a visit a few years back? That was years ago when we Pinoys believed that Chips Ahoy! was God's gift to cookiedom.

With the surge of popularity of desserts, cookies, cupcakes and other sweet treats nowadays, it seems that there has also been a sudden interest in home-baked cookies. Credit that to our recent discovery of the magic of Kitchen Aid here in Manila which makes baking easier and more convenient. So these days, baking your own cookies at home and finding a recipe that yields the cookie type you want - crispy, with nuts, moist and chewy, with chocolate chips, white chocolate, etc. - is the ultimate fun trip. 

My search for the best chewy cookie recipe meant going through several videos online, trying out a few recipes and asking friends for their favorite ones. I got one from a friend who turned into baking as therapy and she gave me the recipe of the moistest and chewiest kind I've baked. If you follow it to the letter, it gives you the perfect consistency and texture which doesn't crumble. Make sure to let the freshly-baked cookies rest for two minutes or so on the pan and then move them to a wire rack so you retain the chewiness PLUS a little crispiness at the sides. 

Yum!

OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Recipe from Sheila Paras 

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups oats (rolled or "quick," but not "instant")

2 cups chocolate chips (about 12-oz.)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars until mixture is light in color. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the milk and the vanilla extract.

3. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Either by hand or with the mixer on low speed, gradually beat the flour in to the sugar mixture until just incorporated.

4. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips by hand.

5. Drop 1-inch balls of dough onto the cookie sheet, placing about 1 1/2 inches apart so they have room to spread.

6. Bake at 350F for 10-13 minutes, until golden brown at the edges and light golden at the center.

7. Cool on baking sheet for at least 1-2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 4 dozen.

Ang Tunay na INASAL

Last February, before we opened our own inasal store in Megamall, my husband who is from Bacolod, asked me to go to his hometown and "train" in the land of inasal -- MANOKAN COUNTRY. After trying several chicken inasal in the most popular places in Manila, he still wanted to go after the "real" and "orig" taste that he grew up with. 

So off I went to Bacolod, landed in the new spanking airport in Silay and went straight to Manokan Country which now sits right across SM Bacolod. Immediately, we scouted the best of the best chicken inasal restaurants in the area and spotted the biggest one in the middle of the inasal strip: NENA'S BETH Chicken Inasal. I looked around and up at the sign hanging on the resto and wondered why the name with two names?? 

But first order of the day was to "order" and we did! Chicken inasal is actually street food in Bacolod and in Manokan Country, you at least get to eat at a table and not standing on a street munching away on a piece of "pechopak" or "pa-a." Here in NENA'S BETH, we were seated fairly comfortably and our table was laden with the standard condiments that add to the flavor of the chicken inasal: sinamak, toyo, chicken oil, calamansi and siling labuyo for that added kick.

 

Sinamak is the Visayan vinaigrette of sorts - a mixture of native coco vinegar with garlic, ginger, onions and chili. That's the base of the dipping sauce for the inasal. With some sinamak, you add a tablespoon or so of soy sauce or toyo, squeeze a calamansi and put a piece of siling labuyo. 

Of course, in MANOKAN COUNTRY there is nothing but inasal on the menu. You order the part you like best: pa-a (thigh), pechopak (breast and wing), and a variety of the innards like the isol, baticolon and liver. All are marinated in the secret inasal mix that makes NENA'S BETH and the rest of the restos on the strip distinct from the inasalans in Manila. 

We had our fill of chicken inasal served with steaming hot rice. That's all you need in MANOKAN COUNTRY and everyone's encouraged to eat with their hands. You get a spoon and fork only if you ask  - and let's not even ask for knives here... Some of the restaurants also serve other Ilonggo food like oysters and really large mussels (tahong) but the people go to MANOKAN mainly for the chicken. 

A talk with the owner of NENA'S BETH, Beth Baker, revealed the origins of their restaurant and why the two names. While she's Beth, her mother's name is NENA and so go the names of the restaurants of her other siblings. They are originally from Iloilo and her mother is one of the very first Ilonggas who made the street food a popular dish when they moved to Bacolod and set up their chicken inasalan there. Today, several restaurants carry their mother's name, NENA and then append their names after - as in NENA'S BETH, and so on. 

The chicken inasal recipe of Beth remains true to their mother's secret recipe and while there have been a lot of enterprising people who have asked for the recipe, they share it only with those whom they believe will promote the originality of the dish. A popular actor managed to get the recipe but as Beth says, it does not yield the authentic inasal taste, perhaps because a recipe that is simply passed on by word of mouth is not enough. You have to immerse yourself in the art of inasal-making to master it and later on, to replicate the color, flavor, aroma and the whole experience of eating Bacolod chicken inasal. 

Suffice it to say that after eating a few whole chicken inasal(s), I am now an expert. And Ms. Baker was kind enough to let us observe and capture the essence of cooking real chicken inasal - from doing the authentic inasal marinade to the right way of cutting the chicken pieces, to skewering the chickens, to grilling them over live hot coals, and then to making the famous chicken oil or achuete oil for brushing the chicken and topping your steamed rice. There's also the making of the sinamak which is a secret concoction in itself. 

It was a heady experience being there and witnessing the true Filipino way of creating a chicken barbecue that has made its way from Bacolod into the heart of all Filipinos in Manila and beyond: CHICKEN INASAL. Our thanks to the Bakers from the City of Smiles for their warmth and hospitality!