A few weeks ago, my maid and I decided to try making homemade lumpia. This is pretty standard for any Chinese household, especially for parties. So after looking for recipes, this is what we came up with:
I know there is a lot of ingredients, and toppings like Hoti and crushed peanuts, not to mention you need to chop a lot of garlic and veggies, but with my chopper it makes a quick job out of all these. Continue reading
My friends love Nihonbashitei. Work week sucks? Well, we’ll go to Nihon on a Friday night. Want Japanese food that is both quality and pocket-friendly? Again we go to Nihon.
So one Saturday dinner, I walk in and see my friends waiting for a table too! We decide to just eat together. And yes, we ordered a lot! Yey!
BACON wrapped asparagus, Tonkatsu Curry, Eel bento set, Lapu Lapu sashimi, gyoza, clams and Spicy Tuna Roll! Yummy! Comfort food for me, I hope though they open a branch near my house!
Working in Quezon City gives me a chance to try places that I would normally visit. Since some of our officemates live around this area, they suggested F.I.S.H. for a birthday celebration, which our boss approves of since they offer videoke rooms (and no, I don’t sing).
Aside from the videoke, I find that the food here is both reasonable and pretty tasty, and makes a good alternative to places like Gerry’s or Dencios.
For our starters, we got Kilawin which was very fresh and light. We also added the staples: rice, ensaladang mangga and kangkong. Continue reading
Everytime I go to President with my parents, we eat the same thing, and I am not complaining!
We always get steamed suahe (and we always run out of it, even if we order more than the last time). Then we get sotanghon crab, yum! Really flavorful noodles even if I hate cracking open crab shells. We also get a steamed King Fish (which really is just a huge tilapia with softer meat) and salted fish fried rice.
Oh, this time, we also got a sizzling beef plate just to add protein to our meal because the “little” sister was with us. Hahaha!
This week’s post is about my little experiment with kamote, specifically the white native variety. I bought a big batch of kamote, boiled it until it was very tender before mashing it. I pressed it through a sieve just to make sure it was smooth and even before I added my other ingredients like milk and spices.
I prepped up the graham cracker crust, poured the filling in and baked it until it was set. While the pie was cooling, I whipped up a batch of marshmallow topping, which I spread on top of the cooled pie before returning it to the top rack of my oven (watch it very carefully at this point because it can burn really quickly). And there you have it! I liked the pie right out of the refrigerator and a small slice is enough. The filling was quite rich but not too sweet. The great thing about this is you could make so much from a kilo of kamote. I was able to fill 3 8-inch pies and a dozen cupcake-sized ones.
I know Christmas was months ago, and yes this post is long overdue. Don’t worry though, this post is definitely worth it.
So every year our college barkada celebrates Christmas with food (lots of it) and our “White Elephant” gift exchange with the theme your year or the year ahead. This year, the party organizers planned a menu based on Lechon. Yum! So here it is:
With start out with our crackers and dip (pesto, dulong, aligue, burong something). The organizers bought the lumpia from Claude Tayag as our starter, which wasn’t really that great. Our friends made their version of pako salad with salted eggs and tomatoes which was light and refreshing. Some of the people were pretty sad at this point since no meat has been served.
And then the lechon wave began: lechon balat, inasal lechon ribs with prawn thermidore, then our lechon meat in pita which you can do in 2 ways: one with an ensalada and gravy OR as I had mine, kimchi and cilantro which was really, really good. YES I ate 2 servings of this!
Then we had lechon sisig with foie gras (yum, so sinful) with brown rice, and more lechon meat if your stomach could still accommodate it!
For dessert, we were served buko pandan, suman and ube ice cream (of course from Cake Club, where else). Throughout the meal our servers poured us wine and my beloved drink of choice – Coke. I left the party stating that I will never ever eat lechon again, but the very next day I had lechon for lunch at the office again! That’s it for Lechonfest 2012, but seriously cannot wait for Lechonfest 2013!
For another baby shower, my friends and I made onesies for Baby Nathan. Here are the finished products.
Cute eh? But since this is a food blog, here is a picture of some doughnuts from Gavino’s, which they served during the party:
I have to say that their dough is great, light and fluffy. However, I would have preferred a more natural doughnut – meaning less the icing, gummy bears and strawberry filling. Talk about sugar overload! Thank god we had some white wine to wash it all down! 
For Halloween this year (2012), Banapple released cakes to celebrate!
Look at those cute marshamallows all around the cake! While I think that their cakes and pies are somewhat ordinary (especially since they use non-dairy whip in most of them), this was a cute cake and I enjoyed biting into the mallow faces.
After our dinner at Sentro 1771, we still wanted to hang out and catch up so we went off to Bonifacio High Street to Slice. Who can resist dessert?
Since there were a lot of us, we were able to get a good selection. I personally chose this banana cream pie, a dessert that I really love. Unfortunately, their version was so-so. In theory, nothing is wrong with it, but it just doesn’t do anything for me.
