The Most Calorific Ensaymada Ever!

Cake Club @ Diamond Hotel, Manila

Many have written about this Ube Ensaymada. A lot of bloggers think that it’s the best, not to mention, the most calorific Ensaymada known… the melting butter on top of the grated cheese, just imagine.  You can actually hear yourself getting fat. By the time you stand up from your seat, you have already gained five pounds. Try it.

My Tita Nelia and I always share one Ube Ensaymada every time we indulge.  By doing so, the guilt is less. Kahit sa guilt, share kami. 

And I tried the Charcoal Roasted Coffee. As predicted, it tasted like your ordinary Non-Charcoal Roasted Coffee. I didn’t know what to expect. What I can say is that it tasted FLAT. However, coffee is coffee. I took it black. Perfect with our Ube Ensaymada. 

 

Usapang Fried Chicken #8: TRAXX GRILL HAUS!

One thing about being a "food lover" is that you have to be open to try all available food (and non-food alike!). Kahit ano, kahit saan.  You must go beyond mall restaurants or the ones being run by famous “Chefs."  

Warning though: You need to be prepared for the worst that may happen.

I was told of Crispy Sisig and Tapang Kabayo in Caloocan.  And off we went to try them.  Both items were not available that night (diba?) so we ordered instead for the Fried Chicken (what else?) with Special Gravy and Grilled Pusit.

Verdict. The Fried Chicken (P69) was good enough (a bit too much on the Magic Sarap!). It still has traces of blood on it. What did you expect from that price?  (a lot of non-fast food restaurants haven’t licked the problem of bloody fried chickens).

Actually, it’s not so much the food here I wanted to try but the I wanted to see the place. Nakaka-aliw siya. I didn't even mind the solvent-sniffing man talking and scolding himself while floating near our table.   

The place was relatively clean, lively (the loud music was coming from speakers inside AND outside of the restaurant) and blue. Yes, place IS blue. There’s extra effort to make the place hip.

Will I be back? Why not... but I’ll take my order of Crispy Sisig and Tapang Kabayo out. Better to enjoy my food at home. Enough of dancing blue lights and floating-solvent-sniffing men.

Deliciously Sensual Read!

'Like Water for Chocolate' by Laura Esquivel

I adore Tita. 

I'm jealous of her uncanny ability to make things happen with her magical cooking. 

I love the heartbreak she underwent (thanks to “the Mexican tradition that the youngest daughter is not to marry but remain at home to take care for her mother”) that lasted years before finally getting what she’s been longing for (the love of Pedro and yes, sex but not marriage).  

I love it that she prepares food that make people cry... and make them blush, blush... extremely horny (I really need to have a copy of that “Quail on Red Petal Sauce” recipe ahora!). 

  “It was very pleasant to savor its aroma, 

for smells have the power to evoke the past, 

bringing back sounds 

and even other smells 

that have no match 

in the present.”

I love it that Tita was born on a great tide of tears (literally!) while her tyrannical, pregnant mother, Mama Elena, was chopping onions. 




 

“… it doesn’t matter to me what you did, 

there are some things 

that shouldn’t be given so much importance, 

if they don’t change what is essential.”

I have admired Tita the first time I read the book (after graduation from college).  After re-reading it a month ago, I realized that my understanding of her has deepened. Her struggles have more sense now. The choices she made less stupid. And most of all, I can empathize with her passion for food. Its power to influence... its power to comfort. 

You can actually say that food has magic... however you look at it.  

“Anything could be true or false, 

depending on whether one believed it.”

Seriously, wouldn’t you wish to have that ability to affect the people with the food you personally prepared?  If that's the case, I'll buy all the quails available (San Rafael in Bulacan is touted as the Quail Capital?)  and all the red roses in Dangwa and start doing that recipe. Para lahat happy.     

“She’s wasn’t riding alone – 

she carried her childhood beside her, 

in the cream fritters she had enclosed in a jar in her saddlebag.”

"Mataba Na Kung Mataba!"

She’s big.

She’s a big star and must lose weight big time.

Yes, Sharon is one hippopotamic land mass. 

And that spells trouble to any serious actor. Well, based on the rating of her cancelled show (the one before the reality show of horizontally-challenged contestants) in the other network and dismal box office returns of her last movies, it would be moot and academic to say, that, well… her star has long dimmed. Sayang. 

It’s a good thing that she's allowing TV5 drumbeaters to come up with billboards, posters and television title cards to capitalize on her planetary size to promote Sharon, Kasama Mo, Kapatid  her new talk show. Well, the marketing experts are just stating the obvious, right? 

 

The set.

Sharon has an inspired staff. The show’s set has this refreshing, airy feel that doesn’t make viewer feel boxed in (like most talk shows). Having worked as a Creative Writer for two talk shows many moons back, I know for a fact the almost impossible challenge a Production Designer faces when he’s ordered to dress up a studio with zero budget.  

Well, with a billion-peso host, an ex-deal set just won’t do.

The host and the show.

In spite of dimming star power, Sharon is still the Megastar. She still has legions of supporters (most of which are already old and widowed) who follow her career or whatever is left of it. She has an okay body of work (“Madrasta” & “Crying Ladies,” the better ones) and she has been in the business for oh so long that she still deserves our respect. 

To be fair, Sharon can speak. Not well but passable. She’s not as widely-read as the lady from the other network who is also an actress who, in her films, gives out a spectacularly wide range of emotions from A to B. Yes... her.

Kris may have an extremely limited acting prowess (but we watch her films, right?) but the girl can host. Her style of tactless and sensible questioning is something you look for with every interview.

Not in Sharon’s case.  She begins and ends her interviews with her laughing (60 percent of the time), crying (30 percent), talking and listening (10 percent) to her guests with her face plastered with a look that’s a cross between a pretending-to-be-solemn-smile and I-don’t-care-about-your-problem-I-just-want-my-cheesecake-right-now-smile.  

Am I saying that Ms. Sharon is a fraud?  Hindi. Not all the time naman. It’s just that I can’t read the real Sharon. Parang everything she shows is a put-on, a performance (pa-cute giggles).  Ugh.  Maybe it worked for her during her Mr. DJ days but even now that she weighs as much as a Baby Butanding? Please lang.

Look, I don’t hate Ms. Sharon. Not at all. I just wish that she exerts effort on losing weight and that she tries to be more sincere with her actions.  Is she doing an Oprah?

Girl, Oprah is a world away.  Ms. Winfrey may have a weight problem but we know AND feel the honesty in everything she does. Can I say the same thing with you?

What I can say about you is that… at least naaliw ako sa billboard mo along Quezon Avenue with this… 

Passionate for PASSION!

PASSION @ Resorts World

We trooped to Resorts World to burn the mega-calories of lunch only to have them back by dinner.  Thanks (or no thanks) to PASSION.

PASSION serves good food. Real food. You know for a fact that ingredients used here are walang daya.

It’s expensive here. Well, what do you expect from a restaurant located within a casino complex? 

And the star of the dining table?

Fish in Pomelo Sauce! 

Really, really good!

  

 The Fried Fish with Pomelo Sauce which was perfect with the Spinach Soup and the Seafood Soup.

 

Quadruple Chocolate Cake: Woozy Moment!

It was for my birthday last year when my Tita Nelia baked this Quadruple Chocolate Cake. I've been hearing a lot of good things about it from other people who had ordered from her. 

We were enjoying the music at Celi’s Restaurant at the Hotel Celeste in San Lorenzo in Makati when Tita sprang a surprise on me. Well, I don’t want to go into details but just allow me to say that she arranged for everything that night. 

And the Quadruple Chocolate Cake is part of the surprise!  I wolfed down a few slices and shared some with the other hotel guests. After a few minutes, I (literally) felt woozy. It’s THAT rich!

It was Chocolate times four:  Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Filling, Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Covered Strawberries!

Will never forget that night, Tita! 

Thanks!

URBAN CAMP: 2-Day Family Adventure at SM MOA Open Field!

URBAN CAMP @ SM MOA!

Discovery Channel held a family-friendly event at the open field of SM Mall of Asia last May 19 to 20, 2012! 

Hundreds of young gentlemen from the Boy Scouts of the Philippines together with families with eager, hyper kids used this rare time for bonding and learning! The Boy Scouts taught different kinds of KNOT TYING; another group showed Fire Starting; a team of professionals held a demo on Tent Building and Dismantling and SM Nido Fortified Science Discovery Center sponsored a fun lecture on Star Gazing and funny experiments via the group, Mad Science!  

Numerous awards were given the following morning to deserving winners who, along with non-winners, just couldn’t get enough of the Urban Camp! Thank you to all participants and...

See you again next year at the 

2nd URBAN CAMP!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to...

The Awesome Team!