GASTRONOMIC GIFTS: WEEK 3

WEEK 2 WINNERS!!!!

For the 2 Angus beef tapa meals from the Angus Beef Tapa Lady at Mercato Centrale, the winner is knEEyah!

For the P500 GC from Malcom's Deli, the winner is Pia of http://www.windowseatpls.com/

Please click on the comments section of Gastronomic Gifts Week 2 entry to see how to claim your goodies.

To the rest, you can join yet again THIS week (and for the next 6 weeks!) for a chance to win. The prizes stay good so don't worry, you'll get something awesome for sure!

Here are this week's giveaways:

The first is a pint of my favorite ice cream lately---Pinkerton's Red Velvet!I love how this smooth vanilla ice cream is mixed with chunks (and lots of them) of red velvet cake. For anyone who ever thought that vanilla is a boring flavor, think again- a good vanilla can stand on it's own AND it is THE perfect base for experimentation! Love this ice cream... which reminds me, I must order again soon.

Just LIKE Pinkerton's page on Facebook and then click on the comments link of THIS page and answer this question: What is the most creative, imaginative and delicious ice cream flavor you can think of? Be original and describe in detail please!

The second prize this week will allow you tastes of new cocktail concoctions and N'awlins inspired cuisine. My two girls and I enjoyed our meal here about a month ago, and now you can get the chance to try out their food too. One lucky winner will get a P1000 GC to RUE BOURBON!

To win, Just LIKE Rue Bourbon's page on Facebook and then click on the comments link of THIS page and answer this question: Which New Orleans inspired food would you most like to try and why?

You have until Saturday 11:59pm to give me a great answer! Please specify which prize you want before answering. Good Luck!

Kitschen Chaos: Butter me up!

Been doing some kitchen experiments on different flavored butters lately and I'm having so much fun!So far, the people who have tried them have loved them and some have asked if I'm selling! I hadn't thought of it yet, as I was going to give these out as Christmas presents but we'll see! Few more tests!

Rosemary and Sage Bacon butter.Probably super awesome with steak, mixed into mashed potatoes or even just with toast (an alternative to garlic bread!)

Sun dried tomato and basil. Ananda really liked this!

Chili-Coriander and Calamansi butter. Had this last night with baked dory. Yummy.

Fish with chili-coriander-calamansi butter.

I can imagine this maple, cinnamon brown sugar butter with french toast, pancakes and I had it with toast yesterday and it's a great afternoon snack!

Here are the ones I've made- tried them all with toast to get their real flavors.

Clockwise from bottom center: Sun dried tomato basil, Maple cinnamon brown sugar, Chocolate peanut butter bacon (yes I did it!), Rosemary sage bacon, Cranberry Almond, and Honey Vanilla Cashew.

Ananda's picks: Honey Vanilla Cashew (in fact she's having this for breakfast with toast!) and Sun dried Tomato
Erica's picks: Maple Cinnamon brown sugar, Chocolate Peanut butter bacon and Rosemary sage bacon

Traveling Tummy: A little R & R at Sonya's Secret Garden

It's not really a secret anymore, but I was already going to Sonya's with my parents when she first opened her beautiful place in Tagaytay to the public. Back then, there was no bed & breakfast yet so people would go for long, leisurely lunches. I have been there on overnight trips a few times already and I can definitely say that Sonya's is one of my favorite places in the country-and such a short drive from Manila too!

Our family villa "Marjoram" (all their rooms are named after herbs!)

Ananda getting comfortable on her bed by the window.

Everything about this place screams "RELAX!" After all, her goal is to teach guests "the art of doing nothing"

Ananda on one of the little nooks that you'll find all over the property.

All lit up on the way to dinner :)

For dinner (or lunch) you get all you can eat salad, with ingredients grown in her own garden! There's egg, mango, pineapple, broad beans and of course, Sonya's Secret Dressing!

You also get all you can eat pasta with 2 sauces (sun dried tomato and a creamy chicken sauce) + toppings like salmon belly, shitake mushrooms etc. We were also served loaves of home made bread with olive tapenade, anchovies, basil pesto and white cheese that could also be used for the pasta.

For dessert, we ate sweet potato with syrup and mint leaves!

Abdul, Ananda and I slept at 9pm that night and didn't get up until 8 the next day! Waiting for us was this--> bangus wit mango salsa, adobo, omelet and garlic rice + mangoes. Ate so much, this was all you can eat as well!

I had 2 cups of my favorite hot chocolate- the homegrown Pinoy tsokolate!

Don't leave without visiting the Panaderia--bring home the Cheese Hopia, Spanish Bread and Piyaya. You won't regret it!

We ran into Sonya herself and she showed me and Ananda around her garden.

Word!

Sonya's Garden is located at Barangay Buck Estate, Alfonso, Cavite, Philippines
(near the vicinity of Tagaytay City, Philippines)
For reservations, call or text the following numbers:+63-9175329097 / +63-9175335140 / +63-9175231080 or email info@sonyasgarden.com

Out of the Kitschen: Boo! My favorite day of the year!

Because like I've said many times before, I actually do other things aside from cook and eat (unbelievable, I know, but here is more proof!)

Forget my birthday, forget Christmas... it's all about Halloween in my book! I love dressing up and seeing everyone's costumes and if it were up to me, Halloween would happen every month! Here's what happened at KYSS that night at the Freaks,Geeks and Punks Halloween Rager!

Vicky in full Dia de los muertos garb and Patring as Sto. Nino! (a drunk Sto. Nino lol)

Sarah as Morticia and Banj as Gomez Addams (Gomez being the host of the night)

Dee Jae = LMFAO and Abdul as a scarily realistic rocker dude!

One of my favorite costumes! Chrizo as a car freshener! hahaha!

And this year, I decided to go as a Fafinette, one of the girls created by French street artist Fafi.

Want a taste of what we had last week? Come through to KYSS tonight...we'll all be there for Banj's birthday and dope music! Minus the costumes, but hey, if you do come in one, I'll be jealous!

All Love Thursdays at KYSS (5343 Gen. Luna St.Makati-across A.Venue)
Strictly Hip Hop, Party Classics, Dancehall, & Dope Sh*t!
Hosted by Banj Billions, A Cut Above, & the Bodyrock Crew
Music by: DJ Jedi, SuperMikki & Nix Damn P

Resto Rant:The Real Thing Diner

The situation:
We were in the Tomas Morato/ Timog area.
Ananda was hungry.
Ananda wanted Bon Chon. We had Bon Chon 3 times in 2 weeks so I said no.
I parked in Il Terazzo because I wanted to check out Beyond Yoga and figured we could eat there.
Banapple was full.
Ananda saw The Real Thing Diner and asked if we could eat there.
I said yes.
I guess it's all my fault :(

The diner is Coca Cola inspired (hence the name) I wanted to be in and out so I wasn't very adventurous when it came to ordering. They have typical diner food with a Pinoy twist (I noticed Sarsi chicken wings on their menu)

Ananda's mac n' cheese. I am always suspicious of mac n' cheeses that don't arrive at the table in a bowl. I don't know why. It had these weird croutons on top, but I guess all in all, it was ok. Nothing to rave about but Ananda ate it, I picked on it but it's not something to write home about.

This in the other hand... OMG. Worst burger EVER. This is called a Cheesy Backyard Burger. First of all, the patty tasted weird. Second, I bit into numerous BONES while eating it. Third, they had the gall to charge P229 for it. SO.NOT.WORTH.IT. In fact, I would advice you not to order it.I ate it for no other reason aside from being famished.Some of it anyway.

The only thing I really enjoyed at this diner was the Cherry Coke. lol Hard to find here--> one of my favorite sodas!

Maybe I ordered the wrong thing, maybe, just maybe, their other items are way better. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but in the meantime, fix your burgers please!!!

The Real thing Diner is located at 2/F IL Terrazzo, 305 Tomas Morato cor. Sct. Madrinan, Quezon City

Kitschen Chaos: Urban Dinner 2

I hosted another dinner for my friends last week because 1. We love to eat and 2. We had guests from across the world who also like to eat.

STARTERS:
I wanted to do loose interpretations of street food as starters/ or food that is typically Pinoy. I played around with Filipino flavors and mixed them with that of other, mostly Asian countries. I love coming up with stuff like these starters because it's always fun!

I put a squid ball on a bed of carrot + green mango salad and wrapped them in lettuce leaves so they ended up being a kind of squid ball bomb. On the street, these are usually served with your choice of sweet, sweet and sour and sweet and spicy sauces so I made nuoc cham to dunk them in-partly for selfish reasons as I love nuoc cham and also coz I thought the sweet/spicy/sour/salty Vietnamese dipping sauce would work well with the other elements.

This is usually ORANGE when you see it on the street, but I made my kwek kwek with five spice and with a chili-hoisin-honey sauce.

While this isn't traditionally "street food", Pinoys love thier Chicken Lollies! I made this Thai style marinated in green curry paste, patis, bagoong, ginger etc and baked it in the oven. Meanwhile, I added some coconut milk + drippings to the mashed potatoes for an interesting twist.

And the last of the starters was toasted bread with kesong puti topped with dilis and drizzled with honey.

MAINS:
For the mains, I thought of a set of food that might work together (and obviously what I like eating hehe) It still went with the Fun Filipino theme that I love so much---you know, the older I get the more I appreciate and really like Pinoy food! Never was a fan growing up!

Lechon Kawali tossed in a brown sugar/soy/fish sauce/garlic glaze and topped with coriander. Love the flavors of this sauce, I also use it for wings!

From the outside, this looks like any other fried lumpia, but what I did was I stuffed it with egg noodles (if the Vietnamese can put vermicelli in their spring rolls, why can't we do this? lol) smoked fish and ubod and had a toyomansi dipping sauce. Super simple but bursting with flavor!

My favorite growing up--- no twists and turns here, just yummy, Royal Tru-orange prawns! Cooked in orange soda, butter and garlic! Seriously, you don't need much else!

Lastly, I made beef Rendang- typically known as a Malaysian dish but also really popular down south as a Maranao dish! Since my boyfriend's family is from Lanao, I have made it my mission to little by little learn how to make a few dishes from Mindanao! Thanks to my REAL (and damn good) chef friend Hylton Le Roux (Pi Catering) for the recipe! It was my first time to make it!

DESSERT:

For dessert, I mixed two Filipino faves on one plate. First, I baked Milo cupcakes earlier that day and warmed them in time for dessert--Yes MILO cupcakes, so good! Then I topped them with ube ice cream and a few halo-halo condiments such as kaong, langka and macapuno.

Guests:

Maybe we should start doing URBAN DINNERS again. What y'all say? Would you wanna be invited to something like this? :)

GASTRONOMIC GIFTS: WEEK 2

Congrats to last week's winner's of Ristorante Bigoli GCs (Mariel Ferrer) and Blackbird Farms Feta (Isel) Please check the comments box of the Gastronomic Gifts Week 1 post for details on how to get in touch with me!

This week, I'm giving away 2 GCs (1 winner) for my FAVORITE tapa in the country- Angus beef tapa from JAM Foods. It has the right ratio of fat and meat and is so heavenly when eaten nice and toasted. The Angus Beef Tapa Lady at Mercato Centrale has been so kind as to giving out 2 meals from her booth. I'm giving both to one winner because A. You'll want another meal after your first or B. It's so good, you'll want your best friend of Significant Other to try it too :)

All you need to do is look for and LIKE Angus Beef Tapa Lady by Jam Food's FB page and answer this question in the comments section of this post: Aside from the usual Tapsilog, what is the MOST CREATIVE way you could use Angus Beef Tapa?

My second give away is a P500 GC from Malcom's Deli. I wrote about having brunch here with Abdul and REALLY loving their pancakes! In fact, I think I even said I thought they were the best damn pancakes in Manila!

To get a chance at winning this, make me hungry by telling me on the comments section of this post- what, for you, is the ABSOLUTE PERFECT breakfast?

Contest starts NOW and will go on until Saturday, November 12. I'll announce the winners on Sunday, November 13!

Good Luck!