Food and Friends: Terry's Selection

One of my favorite fallback restaurants. It's been around for awhile but it's always been good and I am more than stuffed every time I eat there.I had not eaten at Terry's in quite awhile so when I set a quick lunch with my two lovely friends who I hadn't seen in awhile either, Terry's sounded awesome, specially since our next appointments were all in the Pasong Tamo/ Fort areas anyway.

Cla's Angulas al Ajillo, basically sizzling eel in olive oil and garlic. I didn't get to try it but I wanna order this next time. Looks soooooo good.

Chicho's Jamon Serrano and Chicken Croquettes. This is one of my faves!

Chicho and I both had Spanish Omelets, I had the Ilongga which was basically a garlic rice and chorizo omelet. SO GOOD. Heavy though so I couldn't finish it.

My two lovely lunch dates. Hopefully it's not forever until we see each other again!

Terry's Selection is located along Pasong Tamo extension and The Podium

GASTRONOMIC GIFTS: WEEK 5

Week 4 Winners:

The Winner of the TRUFFLES & MORE Sampler Set is DASH!

The winner of the P1000GC from OPUS is SASSY G

Congrats guys. Please email me at ericaparedes@gmail.com---> Sassy G need your address to send your GC and DASH on how we can arrange for you to pick up your truffle sampler pack!

This week, I am giving away a P500 Gift Certificate for Gino's Pizza!


This yummy pizza is the only one you will find along Katipunan that is not "junky" the way a lot of pizza chains are. My family and I love going there because of the fresh ingredients and authentic pizza taste (read, less american, more italian) Plus, you can bring your own wine and drink it while eating. Pizza and a bottle of red is one of the best combinations ever! Don't forget to end the night with their crack pie! All you have to do for a chance to win is answer this in the comments section of this post:Aside from Mozzarella, what CHEESE do you like on your pizza and why?

The 2nd awesome prize for Week 5 is a sweet AND yummy treat! I first saw Mochiko at Mercato Centrale on the day it opened but didn't get to try their mochi ice cream for a long time because it was always sold out! I finally got to try the avocado and coffee flavors eventually and I have been a fan ever since. The avocado especially, because of it's authentic taste! This week, you get the chance to win a half dozen Mochiko ice cream mochis! Simply click on the comments link and answer this question: Who would you share your MOCHIKO mochi with and why?

Contest ends Saturday, Dec 3 at 11:59 PM GOOD LUCK!!!!

Ultimate Taste Test 7: Mercato Centrale

These UTT's are getting bigger and bigger each time I go! Last one was at Rockwell, and I don't know if the space was bigger so everything was more spread out, or if there were less people, or just because everyone decided that it was time to eat at the same time on this Mercato Centrale UTT, but THERE WERE SOOOOO MANY PEOPLE. This, of course, is a good thing. That means more foodies are coming out of their shells to experience what's new in Manila's culinary world.

Like any place where there is a high volume of people, the quality will not always be perfect because these mostly home-based businesses need to produce enough for hundreds of people to taste. Nevertheless, you could separate the good from the "ok lang". I wish I got to try ALL the food, but I was with a tired 7 year old and the sheer number of people just made me give up after 2/3 of the booths. Here are some of my picks:

1. Papa Roti ---> Their stickers claims they are the "world's most awesome roti" Hmmm, well, maybe not but roti is one of my favorite things to eat ever, and the ones they had were good. So good I barely ate any because Ananda finished all of it, plus my dad's!

2. Happy Tummy Spam Musubi--> Have it with caramel sauce. It's one of those things where you'll kinda be like, well, it's just spam and rice, how special can it be? Then you add caramel sauce on it and you're like "Why the hell have I never done that before?"

3. Tree of Life Kamotea--> I don't usually like iced tea but this was clean, devoid of excessive sweetness and just... yum. I asked for another sample.

4. Dulcelin's Uni Pasta--> Uni is an acquired taste but once your palate likes it, it's over! You will want it again and again in any form you can find it.

5. Swiss Deli's sausages--> I'm a sucker for bangers. Period.

I sadly missed out on Merry Moo's fiesta ham and queso de bola ice cream. I NEED to try it soon. I had this Tilapia ice cream from another booth that was so-so. Nothing special and Ananda hated it :( I also had this battered fish with garlic dip that was amazing but I can't remember the name of the booth! I just remember it being the very last one outside! Choclery artisan chocolate was pretty good, although I wish I could taste the manchego a little more in their manchego truffles. Blackinese brownies were not as awesome as I expected but not bad!

Like any "food fest" of this size, there were sure hits, and some disappointments, but I can't wait until the next one!

Restaurant RANT: I love Peanut Butter but...

...it doesn't need to be put on every damn thing. To be fair to them, I know I walked into my own trap. I mean, the place is called Peanut Butter Company, what did I expect? Like I said, I love peanut butter as much as the next PMSing woman, but I don't want it in my "classic" spaghetti and I definitely don't want peanut butter in my BLT.

Let's start with what I liked:

The Elvis aka a banana peanut butter and bacon sandwich. This was good. It'd not the first time I've had this but I myself have done peanut butter and bacon chocolate truffles so I knew I would like this.

In terms of liking things, this is a no brainer. It's peanut butter and fluffy marshmallow creme, what's not to like? Its toothache-level sweet tho so just get half.

What I didn't like:

The "Classic" spaghetti. Ananda took one bite and refused to eat the rest. See, I like peanut sauce. I think it's great with noodles even. But maybe a hint of spice would have saved this, coz it just tasted like spaghetti noodles... with peanut butter.

BLT... with peanut butter. Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck.

Hey, no one can accuse me of being unadventurous with food (read all my blog posts) but this was just...NO.

Their creamed corn was also equally gross. It was basically corn in a sweet creamy sauce. If im not mistaken it's advertised as a garlic cream sauce? Bleh.

I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon...except maybe to grab half a pb and marshmallow creme sandwich :D

GASTRONOMIC GIFTS: WEEK 4

Congratulations to the following for Winning the prizes for Week 3:

The pint of PINKERTON Red Velvet goes to: Kamille!The simplicity of chewy sweet bits of yems in top quality vanilla ice cream got me! There were some others that sounded amazing, but she actually ALREADY has some flavors that others suggested.

The 1000peso GC for Rue Bourbon goes to Marie. Your story made me laugh. Enjoy your Gumbo!

This week gets a bit decadent!

First, do you love the night life, or simply adore really good food? Now you can indulge yourself and order items from their creative menu for dinner, cure a hangover in style and take part in their all day Sunday brunch, or even just get all dolled up and get yourself a few drinks coz I'm giving away a P1000 GC to OPUS! All you have to do is go to my comments box and answer this:

What is your PERFECT night out with your friends?

The 2nd prize is for the budding home cook, or someone that just has a taste for the finer things in life. If you love the taste of TRUFFLE or have never had it and want to try it, you will definitely want the Sampler Pack of White truffle oil, truffle honey and truffle salt I have from Truffles & More. To win this, LIKE the Truffles & More page on Facebook and answer this question on my comments page:

What is the MOST INDULGENT way you would use your truffle products (specify honey, salt or oil-or all)?

Remember you can try your luck for BOTH prizes but you will only be able to win ONE.

You have until 11:59 PM of Saturday, November 26. GOOD LUCK!

Kitschen Chaos: What's in my Kitchen

I am doing the Juju Cleanse today, and like any other time I cleanse or fast, I find myself either sitting in the kitchen, cooking or looking at food on the Internet. I probably need to find some other thing to do aside from inflict torture on myself this way, but I can't help it. The kitchen gives me comfort, even when I can't eat anything in it. And if I can't, I might as well feed other people!

Here are some of the things that have passed through my kitchen (on the way to people's bellies) the past couple weeks:

Blackbird Farms sent me a bunch of their cheese to try so one night, I had a mini baguette, sun dried tomato pesto, goat cheese and basil for dinner.

Ananda's new favorite food. Spicy Chicken stew. It was a tomato based stew with a bit of heat, and packed with other good stuff like carrots and potatoes. I also added a bit of sharp cheddar into the mix. She ate like 3 pieces of chicken in one sitting!

While experimenting with yet another adobo recipe, I decided to try to make one that I could plate and serve in a restaurant, and voila! Basil-Tarragon Adobo on a bed of garlic-parmesan mashed potatoes. I usually can't eat after I cook, but I sat and ate this entire plate!

On a recent Grilled Cheese party at the house, I decided to use my favorite cheese for my super sandwich--GOAT CHEESE. I thought the sweetness of the onion jam would work well with the salty-tanginess of goat cheese so I made some of my own. I topped it off by grilling the sandwich in my home made bacon rosemary-sage butter.Win!

A few days after the Grilled Cheese party, I found left over ingredients in the fridge, enough for one sandwich. I used raclette, gouda, salami milano, honey and rocket and grilled it in sun dried tomato and basil butter (shown here ungrilled)

Yesterday I was bored so I (of course) decided to hang out in the kitchen and make something, anything. I ended up with Toasted polvoron

and also doing a pastillas experiment! Vanilla-Lemon and Maple Cinnamon brown Sugar pastillas!

Apple French Toast Cupcakes with Maple buttercream and cashews.

What to make this week? Any suggestions?

Kitschen Chaos x 8: GRILLED CHEESE SHOWDOWN 2011

How to have an awesome Grilled Cheese party:

1. Invite dope people who like to eat as much as you do. To be more specific, people who would not think twice about stabbing your hand if you tried to reach over to grab the cheese they brought to make their sandwiches.

2. Have something not cheesy to munch on while assembling your grilled cheeses.

Rae excused herself from grilled cheese duties and instead brought smoked duck salad. Forgiven!

3. Bring your A Game

Marco's cream cheese, cheddar and pastrami grilled in tarragon butter.

Sarah's raclette and honey grilled in cranberry almond butter.

Dee Jae's Inverted baguette with gouda, apple, bacon mustard, rocket, salami and honey grilled cheese.

Banj's Vegetarian "bacon" grilled cheese with mozzerella and baconette strips.

I didn't get a photo of Sassa and Nix's Jalapeno-Bacon-Cream Cheese and "Unicorn Tears" grilled cheeses aka Brie, apple, honey and truffle oil.

Unfortunately, Since I was giving out the prize, I couldn't be part of the showdown. Not one to bow down to anyone though, specially not in the kitchen, so I spent the afternoon making onion jam for my superduperawesome sandwich.

My ingredients: Batard, Goat Cheese, Onion Jam and Bacon-Sage-Rosemary Butter.

My goat cheese, onion jam on batard and grilled in bacon-sage-rosemary butter.

And the winner is...Sassa (fine fine and Nix) who got to take home a dozen of my Birthday Cafe cupcakes!

'Til next time Cheese Heads!

Out of the Kitschen: Something Different

What seems to be lacking so much in Manila-SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Everywhere I look I see the same people on magazine covers, in event photos, I hear about the same type of events... while none of these are particularly bad, it seems as is so many things are done on autopilot lately.

So in my constant search for "something different", I found myself in Intramuros last week, at the opening of TBC Manila's art exhibit. On their website (www.tbcmanila.org) it is described as "A group show featuring 7 artists who traveled to Manila to create,
interact, and inspire." Despite the Manila traffic and not very convenient location, it caught my attention (and curiosity) Here's what I saw:

I love this little girl's photo. She looks so gangsta! haha!

of course.

Exhibit on until January 8, 2012. Check out tbcmanila.org for details on how to get there.