Back with red velvet cake!

Wew! It has been a while since I posted anything on here. Since I last posted, I have moved through two apartments and to a different country. Now, I am blogging from Copenhagen, and boy do I have a lot of food posts for you!

There won't be as many restaurant posts now, as CPH is a very expensive city for eating out. However, I have upped my kitchen production and have been cooking and baking as a form of relaxation.

Lately, I have been obssessing about Red Velvet Cake. This is mostly because i cannot get the right food coloring here for that deep red cake. Finally, I have succeeded, and it only took a bottle and a half of food color (about 40ml). :-) The cake also was kinda difficult to make, and I have a few ideas for improving it. The icing on the other hand is unlike other cream cheese frosting out there. With the addition of mascarpone cheese and heavy cream, it's a lighter version of cream cheese frosting!

General Tso's Sesame Chicken

I've been living in Germany for the past two years, and I have to say, I am fairly embarrassed that I haven't made any more posts on here.  I blame it on Facebook and how easy it is to just upload a photo on there with a short caption. :-)  I'll try to update more, especially since I have a lot of material to work with. :-)

One of the things I have missed greatly about New York City is the food.  Mind you, it's not the fancy schmancy stuff, but the simple everyday dishes you get from (one of) your neighborhood chinese take-out place.  The running joke with me and my friends who travel back home to the US is that they were going to bring me General Tso's or Sesame Chicken in their luggage.  No one has done it yet, and it seems like I don't need for someone to do it anymore. 

I found this quick recipe for General Tso's chicken online, and decided to make it yesterday.  I think the most challenging part of this dish was deep-frying the chicken.  In my tiny studio apartment, I didn't want all my stuff tainted with oil and smelling like fried chicken strips after! lol.  Also, since I can't always seem to follow a recipe, I used the linked recipe as a guide.  :-)

I used chicken breast that I sliced to bite-sized pieces, then seasoned with salt and pepper.  Then I dipped it in the cornstarch/egg mixture before frying.  Also, for the sauce, I added a bit of water to the rice wine, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and cornstarch mixture.  Here's how it came out!

Bo Luc Lac

I have been craving steak for a while and decided to make Bo Luc Lac.  This is something Dino and I ate a lot of when we were in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Who knew steak meat in Germany was that expensive?  I certainly did not!  The butcher I went to charged me 5.40 euros per 100 grams of beef.  I got 300 grams, then went to a grocery store and got 200 grams more of rump steak for 2.99 per 100 grams.

They both tasted the same.

I ganked this recipe from the Ravenous Couple.  Instead of serving it as a salad, I served mine over steamed white rice.

Pho in Hue, Vietnam

Our first meal for our two week long trip across Indochina happened in this tiny cafe called Cafe on Thu in Hue. Being in Vietnam, I wanted something very Vietnamese for food.  This, for me, was pho.

Wikipedia describes pho as a "Vietnamese rice noodle and beef soup".  The soup is usually served in a bowl with white rice noodles and clear beef broth with thinly sliced beef, basil, lime leaf, bean sprouts and peppers.

I have had pho in NYC before, and I tell you, this one in Vietnam was different.  It had a very clean taste to it.  I believe it's in the peppercorns that they use to make the broth.  The broth had a very distinct peppery taste, not offensive or spicy, but very good.

I believe that all the pho I've had in Vietnam were superior over any of the other ones I've had anywhere else. Duh.

If you ever get to Hue, go to Cafe on Thu.  They have really good and cheap bike tours too!  It is located at 10/2 Nguyen Tri Phuong in Hue, Vietnam.

on hiatus...

currently on a backpacking and food tasting trip across SouthEast Asia with foodtreks' new contributor, Clyde London!

It's been 4 days, and the food has been great!  Hoi An (Vietnam) is a great eating city! 

Stay tuned for when we get back!

Chinese bakery goodies

I was in Cebu last week and was at Breadtalk.

Chicken a la King!

One of the few dishes that I love that I remember from college, that I could only have when I had family visiting (because it was too expensive for even my bloated student budget), was chicken a la king.  I first had a taste of this creamy chicken dish at the French Baker in SM North EDSA.  In the 9 semesters that I spent at UP, I believe I've only had this dish about 3 times. 

 

 This is a creamed chicken dish with carrots, celery, bell peppers, chicken chunks and spices over a pastry shell, and served with a side of a garden salad and carrots and corn.  The French Baker used to only serve this with the carrots and corn, and frankly, the side salad didn't amount to much gastronomically for me. 

I still remember how I love this dish - how the multi-dimensional cream sauce played with my palate, and with my trips to Manila the past month, I have been able to indulge myself and have this wonderful dish again. 

turkey leg!

One of my indulgences when I lived in the United States were theme parks.  There wasn't a year when I didn't travel to Florida and go visit Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, Disneyworld, Sea World and the water parks.  Almost always, I would only have enough moolah on the budget to spend for admission to the parks, and some money for food.  Being on a tight budget had me spending on sensible food, and not on whims.

Well, a totally different thing happened last year. My cousin (in NY) and I went on vacation with family in Central Florida (Kissimmee, Orlando area), and we went to Tampa for a couple of days.  Our family treated us to free admission tickets to Busch Gardens, and for the first time, I was able to buy something to eat out of curiousity!  We got turkey legs!  It's not like chicken legs that are soft and easily eaten.  These are huge drumsticks of meat, with a lot of connective tissue that sometimes gets in between your teeth.  I wouldn't say I hated it, but I wouldn't say I liked it either (Althought the photo doesn't look like I didn't care for it much.)  I guess turkey leg is a bit of an acquired taste.

Italian food in White Plains, NY

When my Florida family visited over the New Year (2009), they stayed at the Ritz Carlton in White Plains, NY.  I commuted to them a couple of times, and the good thing about visiting family is the great food that you get to have.

One of my staples is fried calamari.  For a non-fish eater, I am surprised at myself for loving fried calamari.  My first encounter with calamari was at Carmine's in the Upper West Side, and I have to say, it was love at first bite.  :-)

The Zanaro version of fried calamari came with marinara sauce and a chipotle mayo dip, and half a lemon on the side.  Squid when cooked wrong will be leathery.  This calamari was perfect, the right amount of crunch and seasoning.  It didn't have a fishy taste either.  All in all, a good calamari in my book.

I had the Veal Parmigiana for my entree.  The meat was tender as veal should be.  The pasta on the side was well cooked.  The Sunday sauce it came with was red-wine based, and had the right amount of tang and flavor.

 Zanaro's is located at 1 Mamaroneck Ave. in White Plains, NY. 

Rodic's tapsilog!

Tapa! Sinangag! Itlog! 

TAPSILOG!

In my culinary adventures, nothing beats Rodic's tapsilog as a breakfast (or even anytime) meal.  I first encountered Rodic's tapsilog as an 8 year old listening to my uncle's stories of their bar review classes at UP Law. Little did I know that 8 years later, I'd be in the same campus, walking the same halls (of the UP Shopping Center) and partaking in the same dishes!

I was in Manila the past couple of days to interview for a German/Schengen visa, and with my spare time, decided to traipse around my old stomping grounds in UP Diliman.  Of course, food would be on top of my list, and boy, did we do food!  Rodic's tapsilog was one of the highlights of the visit.  

This is a type of tapa that I still have to learn how to make. It's all savory and sweet shredded goodness! And the way they cook the sunny-side up eggs are perfect!  I'll have to replicate this somehow.  Any ideas?

Drool.

arroz con pollo!

Due to the dearth of international food in Dumaguete (especially Latin American cuisine), I have been forced to make do with what I have.  Yesterday, I had a hankering for Colombian-style arroz con pollo (literally chicken with rice).  My favorite Colombian restaurant in NYC, La Pollera Colorada, in Sunnyside, served a great arroz con pollo that hasn't been surpassed by any of the other Latin American restaurants I've been to in the US (and trust me, I've been to a lot!).

So, I made up my mind and came up with my version of arroz con pollo.  It was a little difficult finding turmeric and cumin in the city.  Thank goodness Fortune Mart had it. :-)  And luckily, I was able to find most of the other stuff I needed at the supermarket.

As for the dish, the flavors were true to its origins (yep, definitely no soy sauce!), and I have to say, I'm impressed with what I made.  All I could ever add is that vinegar condiment and the platanos that La Pollera Colorada serves it with, and I should have been set!  But this is Dumaguete, I'll take any foreign flavors I can get!

Kaon ta! (Let's eat! in Cebuano)

Cimbali goodness!

One of my finds here in Dumaguete is Cimbali's Cinnamon Nut Raisin loaf at the basement of Lee Super Plaza. One of my family's favorites, it is especially tasty when you get it still warm! Ah! The gooey goodness of cinnamon sugar!

banana cue!

One of the things I have missed for being away so long are these delicious deep fried caramel-coated goodies on sticks. They're good piping hot and you can buy them for about PhP 5 - a far cry from the PhP 1 I used to spend when I was in grade school more than a decade ago.

We've tried recreating this in NYC, but it was just too difficult. We somehow couldn't get the sugar to caramelize AND coat the bananas the same way as here.

Yum!

home and Taster's!

It's been 2 weeks since I got back home on an extended vacation. Sabbatical, if you may. I have been trying to decide changing the tag line on this blog, however, I believe I'll always be a New Yorker at heart, so it'll stay the same. This will just be a more worldly journey at this point, as I don't know where I'll end up in the next couple of months.

---



Two weeks and I've already been around a ton of food. First and foremost is my favorite burger of all time. Taster's Delight Sandwich Style Burger. My family has a long history with Taster's Delight. We've been going since I was in kindergarten, I think probably after N's Pizza Plaza closed down. Even when my brother and I were in Manila for college, we'd get our monthly/weekly ration of Taster's siopao frozen via Air Philippines. The lady who takes orders there (who's been there 18 years at least) knows all of us and has known all of us since us kids were.... kids. And she tells us so too.

mobile posts

So the past 3 mobile posts I did didn't really go through. Once I get to a real computer, I'll edit them and post the photos.

Right now, on to Maricel's for some birthday food!

Sushi post 1C

This was Nic's sashimi lunch special. He got tuna, flounder, salmon and one
other fish I forgot. Maybe shark? Just kidding. After some cajoling, he got
me to try the tuna. It was my first time having sashimi, and I have to say
it was a good experience.

I have always been afraid of raw fish, and my greatest fear with sushi was
that it would be rank with the fishy taste. The sashimi at Maru was good
though, although I'm not sure I'll order it on my own.

- sent from Gelo's google phone

Sushi post 1A

My friend Nic and I went to Maru Sushi (2nd Ave bw 33 and 34 Sts) for lunch
a couple of weeks ago. Nic was visiting from Abu Dhabi and he mentioned
that he liked sashimi. I know that there are other places I could have
brought him to, but for our purposes that day, Maru fit perfectly well.

I ordered a spider roll (soft shell crab roll) and a shrimp tempura roll
(shown here). The sushi was great! Both seafood in my rolls were cooked and
fried, so I can't really attest to it's freshness. I applied what I learned
from one the sushi books, and that is, to eat sushi with my hands.

Nic ordered sahimi which I'll talk about in the next post.

Bon appetit!

- sent from Gelo's google phone

(edited using Gelo's computer)

French Toast at Bakers' Dozen (blech!)

After not being able to sleep due to a warm winter night (yeah, 18 degrees celsius in the winter! Hooray for global warming?), I decided to walk down the street to my neighborhood bakery for breakfast.

I was feeling french toast and coffee, and seeing that they had it on special ($3.25 including tax), I ordered it! The food came out a couple of minutes later, and I'm sad to say, I didn't enjoy it.  The french toast, albeit served in a huge portion, came out with a heavy dusting of cinnamon and with (I doubt it was maple) syrup on the side.

My first bite made me choke, and subsequent bites weren't about to redeem it. So, I threw it out and just had coffee instead. Blech!

This is not to say that Bakers' Dozen is a bad place, since I love their Manhattan special (hot pastrami with swiss cheese and sauerkraut on rye), it's just that their french toast sucks! They do have other stuff like bagels and muffins and other baked goodies, so I'll still go back for those. They also have a good selection of flavored cream cheeses and salads too.

Bakers' Dozen is located near the intersection of Lefferts Blvd and Austin St in Kew Gardens.

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays from the city that never sleeps!

(Vodka Cranberry at midnight)

Authentic Lechon Paksiw (bisaya-style)

For the holiday party with my Filipino friends, we ordered lechon (whole roast pig) cooked the bisaya way.

I haven't had lechon in more than 3 years, and neither have my friends, so this was a treat for us. About $30 well spent for each.

The lechon was just as we all remember it, cripy and very tasty!  No one could resist picking on scraps of meat left on the tray after the lechon was all chopped up. However, we all know that what's good with the lechon after the feast is paksiw.

So, in the wee hours of the morning after the party, my friend and I cooked two different versions of paksiw, reflecting the culinary traditions of the different regions we are from. I made mine bisaya-style, stewing the lechon in vinegar, bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic and a touch of soy sauce.  The other version was similar to mine but with liver sauce added.

Both paksiw dishes came out really good.  Mine was sour with a hint of sweet in the thin sauce, while the other balanced sweet and sour with the added liver sauce.  Both dishes are best served over steamed rice, like pictured above.

We all savored it!

Happy holidays!