Samsung Hope Ceremony

July 8, 2010 – Samsung Philippines celebrated the achievement of their social responsibility goals through the Samsung Hope Ceremony held at the 5F of the Joy/Nostalg Center at ADB avenue, Ortigas.

Among the beneficiaries of the Samsung I Imagine project is World Vision, a non-profit organization that aims to fund the education of children whose parents cannot afford it.

Among the donors is Folded and Hung who gave away hoodies and a huge cheque.

Greenwich Levels Up at Megamall with John Lloyd Cruz

That’s me with Jon, not Jaime Fabregas. I loved watching him at Sic O’Clock News, if you still remember that show. He really is a funny guy and this party with John Lloyd Cruz and the rest of the Greenwich gang was no different. I love the Angus Mangus! You should go out and try it.

The program was hosted by Chico Garcia and Delamar, who did a great job. We all had fun as the pizza, pasta and chicken kept coming our way. Mabait pala si John Lloyd, hindi sya suplado like other actors. He’s really nice. I just didn’t ask for a picture with him because there were too many people, but I was fortunate enough to sit near him during the event and I have to say that he’s a genuinely nice guy. Though I got most of my laughs from Jon, who was really funny.

Pass by Greenwich when you can so you can enjoy the same pizza John Lloyd stakes his name on.

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I bet you do. This is your chance! Click on the image above and be one of the first 100 people who get to see the American Idol Season Finale on May 27, Thursday at the Greenbelt 3 cinemas. Doors open at 7 am and the show begins at exactly 8 am.  Brought to you live via Star World.

So why watch it there when you can watch it at home? Because you won’t WIN GREAT PRIZES when you’re watching it at home. You gotta HURRY AND REGISTER NOW BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE ABOVE. It’s gonna be a GREENWICH PIZZA FIESTA and you can join us for free!!!

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I am not an American, but I did have Thanksgiving dinner with friends from the US Potato Board. Their turkey looked great! I bet it tasted great too. Wish we could do the same with chicken. Turkey tasted like white meat all over, even when you have the leg and thigh part. For the Americans, Thanksgiving is a major holiday. As big as this holiday is to them, the US Agricultural Attache decided to spend Thanksgiving by breaking bread with Filipino foodies and local restaurant aficionados.

Chef Sau Del Rosario was good enough to have whipped up a special menu that would fully utilize the good taste and quality of US potatoes.

Foie Gras in potato pea soup. How can anyone say no to foie gras?

Cooking with Potatoes

Potatoes are just as good in Continental cuisine as it is with our local cooking. To prove this, the US Potato Board had a culinary challenge called “Pinoy na Pinoy na Potato Recipe Challenge”. Chefs from all over the land were challenged to take a popular Filipino dish and re-invent it using US Frozen Potato products. The result? Thirteen recipes by some of the best chefs. The Grand Prize winner is Chef Liza Decasa of Annabel’s Fine Dining Restaurant. And as an added treat, here is that winning recipe.

Note: Pinangat is also known as Laing.

Potato Pinangat

Ingredients:

2 kg     US Frozen Potato Wedges (bruniose)

Brunoise is a method of food preparation in which the food item is first julienned and then turned 90° and diced again, producing cubes of a side length of about 3 mm on each side or less. Common items to be brunoised are leeks, turnips and carrots. The diced vegetables are blanched briefly in salty boiling water and then submerged in ice water for a few seconds to set the color. The brunoise is often used as a garnish in many dishes. A common dish which often uses a brunoise as a garnish is a consommé. A brunoise must be very consistent in size and shape, as it helps to ultimately create a visual effect.  (from Wikipedia)

1/2 kg     Onions (coursely chopped)

250 g      Shrimp paste

500 g     coconut cream (thick)

2 tsp     Iodized salt

1/2 tsp     white pepper

40 pcs     taro leaves (big)

4 tsp     vegetable oil

Sauce

1 liter     coconut milk (thin)

50 g     fresh turmeric (chopped)

30 g     chili finger

2 tsp     iodized salt

1/2 tbsp     granulated sugar

Garnish

80 pcs     Dried banana blossom (fried)

Cooking directions

1. Saute the onion and shrimp paste in oil under low fire until onions have sweat. Add the US Frozen Potato Wedges and continue to cook until the US Frozen Wedges are heated through.
2. Pour the coconut cream into the pan with the mixture and slowly bring to a boil; simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper then set aside to cool.
3. Divide the simmered US Frozen Potato wedges mix into the taro leaves; wrap in the leaves and set aside until service.

Making the Pinangat Sauce

1. In a saucepan, mix in the coconut milk, chili finger and turmeric. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer in low heat for about five minutes.
2. Put the US Frozen Potato Wedges wrapped in taro leaves mixture in the sauce and let it cook until the leaves are tender and cooked.
3. Strain the cooked taro leaves from the sauce and set it aside. As for the sauce, let it reduce until the desired consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper off the fire.

Plating the Pinangat

• Placed the cooked Pinangat on the center of a large dinner plate then pour the sauce over it. Garnish the dish with the fried banana blossoms. Serve while hot.

This recipe is from the Pinoy na Pinoy na Potato Recipe Challenge.

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I know it’s not my best picture, but I just want to show everyone what will happen to you when you eat too much dessert. You’ll be just like me. A VERY HAPPY FOODIE! See the smile?

I was very happy to have been invited to the Parvati Home Made Dessert Shop’s Grand Tasting Event. Parvati Homemade Desserts Shop is a place that sells homemade desserts. Before they can start giving your desserts the shelf space and advertising it needs, a group of food enthusiasts will sample your dessert and rate them. Parvati then takes the highest rating desserts and displays them in their store. If you make the cut, then it only means that your dessert is one of the best out of hundreds of dessert wannabes.

Parvati’s Top Desserts

This is my first choice. The Ube pie. Why? Because I love ube. I’m kinda biased with ube, because anything ube is great for me. I hope this makes the Parvati cut.

This is was good too. As good as it looked, the Passion cake did not disappoint.

I apologize for being critical with this. Royce did this already and I don’t see the originality in it. Much less, the effort. It’s just someone else’s good idea wearing thin. I hope they don’t try the bacon chocolate thingy, because Erica Paredes already did that one, and it was good. I mean, anyone can dip potato chips in chocolate. You don’t have to be a culinary genius to do that.

I remember Brad Geiser once told me that the ugliest-looking desserts are usually the best tasting one. Ube pie wasn’t ugly but it wasn’t frivolously decorated either. That’s why I loved it. Now this muffin IS GOOD! Simple, tasty and downright “lemony”. I’d love to see this muffin in Parvati shelves soon.

This must be one of the most delicious ensaymadas I have ever tried. I hope they have this in center of the store. This ensaymada is really good.

Who doesn’t like cream puff?

I deeply regret not having to taste this. Looks good, doesn’t it?

Parvati Soiree

Cupcakes and more cupcakes!

On my way home, I tasted this sugar-free cake.

I suggest you give this lady a call. Her cakes are Sugar-Free and really good! You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

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Chalk this one up for the husband and wife team of Rachel and Anton Diaz. They did it again, and this time the venue was bigger, more suppliers and more foodies joined the throng. Everybody loves a great meal but even more people love great company. In this event, I felt I was in the company of the some of the blogosphere’s most popular foodies, online and off.

The pretty lady on the left is fellow foodie, Annalyn Jusay. Beside her is Manang Tessie, the genius behind Ulcing’s Lechon Cebu.

Anthony Bourdain DID put Lechon Cebu at the top of his “hierarchy of pork” blog post. Score another big one for Filipino food. If we had Thanksgiving in the Philippines, we’d all have Lechon Cebu as the centerpiece of the meal.

That’s Manang Tessie with her idol Mr. Awesome himself, Anton Diaz. She told she wanted a picture with him so I posting it here. Manang Tessie is the lady behind the wonderful taste of Ulcing’s Lechon Cebu. For orders, call her at 810-6408 or her mobile 0919-4595591. ULCING’S LECHON IS THE BEST I’VE HAD SO FAR. Her prices will not give you a heart attack.

The History of Lechon

Not much is really known about the origins of Lechon. It is said that the Spanish brought lechon to the Philippines, as evidenced by the cuisine of our colonial siblings who were also set free from the Spanish under the Treaty of Paris. We enjoy Paella as much the regular South American does.

Because of frequent trading activities with the Chinese, it would not be so far fetched to say that some ancient Filipinos might have tasted Siu Mei sooner than Lechon.

I’m just showing other images here. To continue, Lechon Cebu is a world of difference with the Luzon-style lechon. For starters, Lechon Cebu never needs sauce because the meat is savory enough. I don’t know what else they put in Lechon Cebu that makes it better than local lechon. I guess it’s their little secret.

Enjoy the pictures and hope to see on the ultimate taste text event next year!

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This is the Quesadilla that won the contest. I was part of a six-person blogger team that went against another blogger team in a cook-off that frayed nerves, puzzled minds, tickled palates and made us victorious. By the way, here’s the winning team picture.

That’s me with the bib.

Century Corned Tuna is the secret ingredient

Contest rules were fairly simple. Cook up one pasta dish and one appetizer using the Century Corned Tuna. We had a swirl of ideas and finally we decided to make a nutty pasta dish using fettuccine, spinach and toasted almonds. For the appetizer, we decided to make quesadilla. Quesadilla  is a snack food that is made of wheat or corn tortilla stuffed with cheese. It is essentially Mexican, though other parts of South America and even the continental United States have their own version.

Our version of this Mexican treat was made more special with Century Corned Tuna. All we did was take a flour tortilla, halve it, then stuff it with cheese, Century Corned Tuna and some peppers and celery. You can try this with cilantro too! Flatten the tortilla and cook it on a Teflon pan with very little oil, just enough to prevent the quesadilla from burning. Just toast it on both sides and cut into slices. It was so good that the judges managed to finish it! There were people who were still asking for more but we only made 2 tortillas. I highly urge you to try this at home!

A little salsa on the side may this dish more inviting.

The pasta that we did was the bigger winner. AJ and Erlyn did a wonderful job in doing the actual cooking. Ohmski, Jane and Annalyn came up with the cool ideas for our winning dish. Check out pictures of our “great victory”.

Thank you Century Corned Tuna! I’m replenishing my pantry soon and cans of corned tuna are at the top of my shipping list.

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Did you know that grapes are also great for cooking? Fine dining restaurant Aubergine showed the media on how grapes can take an ordinary meal from great-tasting to life-changing. I made sure I approached Chef Stefan Langenhan just so he’d know that I was wowed by his creations.

Honestly, I hate eating grapes. I hate raisins even more. I was really expecting a ho-hum experience when the invitation said “ California Table Grapes, A Culinary Adventure,” but when I saw that it was going to be at Aubergine, I took a second look and decided to go. I was still limping from my ankle injury and couldn’t drive myself to the restaurant, but I made sure I wasn’t going to miss this one. True enough, Aubergine did not disappoint. Neither did the grapes.

What dishes can you cook with grapes?

See for yourself.

Amuse Bouche. French for “mouth amuser”, this little dish is never more than one bite. It is small but usually intensely flavorful. It is different from the hors d’oeuvres because you don’t get more than one serving you cannot order because it’s not in the menu and it’s something used by the Chef to prepare your palate for the feast to come.

Duck Foie Gras Terrine in blue grape jelly and smoked duck breast on walnut-grape salad accompanied by mesclun greens tossed in raspberry dressing.  Quite a mouthful to say, but oh what a mouthful to feast! The duck breast was outstanding.

Foie gras is made from force-fed duck or goose. It is, by far, the most exquisite taste I have ever experienced.

Cream of grapes and appples with oyster fritter and Champagne foam. This is the soup that followed the salad. Its taste is tangy sweet with grape bits and was complimented by the oyster fritter which was just wonderful, with no rancid after-taste. I will probably eat oysters again after this dish.

Seafood medley with lobster, Norwegian salmon and scallop on grape-celeriac puree and grape nage. Cooking a la nage means to simmer the food in a liquid (also known as poaching) which already contains herbs, spices and flavoring to hasten the cooking process without making the food soggy. Ala nage is usual for seafood.

See the scallop and salmon.

The lobster was slightly roasted and was really succulent.

In between this lovely meal, Chef Stefan gave us Grape Sherbet to cleanse the palate. The presentation was lovely!

On to the main event. Because there were two choices, Chef Stefan made us try both.

One one side, there was the oven roasted Australian quail, stuffed with grapes, porcchini mushroom and pinenuts served on a truffled grape potato Mousseline, vegetable cassolette, honey glazed grapes and port wine jus.

On the other side was the Grilled Chilean sea bass topped with a grape-prawn ragout, served on grape risotto and grape beurre rouge.

Then the cheese course. Crispy fried brie cheese praline on balsamic glazed grapes.

For dessert, we had flamed grape tartelette and grape spring roll, served with grape ice cream.

To cap that wonderful meal, coffee was served along with pralines and macarons.

Best to buy your California Table Grapes from reputable supermarket stores.

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Kraft Foods (Philippines), Inc.’s Senior Brand Manager, Carlo Licuanan, Graduate Training for Marketing, Cherry Ching, and Snacks Category Marketing Manager, Elio Machillanda prove that by simply saying a meaningful Thank You, we as a country can become the most Grateful Nation of all.

Aris Lacorte, Area Supervisor for The North Face, Bea Castillo, Events Associate and Macel Abejero, PR & Events Manager for Primer Group of Companies receive the Thank You certificate from Carlo Licuanan, Senior Brand Manager, Kraft Foods (Philippines) Inc. for their partnership to help spread the sweetness of gratitude.

Guests chose to say ‘Thank you’ the old school way by sending out handwritten letters on especially designed postcards through the Thank You Day Post Office which will then be sent via snail mail to the address specified.

Send a Thank You Day card to your friends and family by logging on to www.thankyoudayphilippines.com and help make the Philippines the Most Grateful Nation of all

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Yes and I am just as excited as everyone else (even if I’m not a finalist). More awards to give out and more categories to join. Pinoys abroad will have better chances of being recognized as well as advocacy bloggers and humor bloggers. There are just so many things to watch out for, so why don’t you go to the Philippine Blog Awards website for more details on how to join, nominate or be a sponsor (like me [drink healthy, drink Aqua Health]).

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Jollibee turned the Mall of Asia’s Atrium into one gigantic dance floor as 300 hundred dances of all ages and persuasions gather to celebrate life’s youthful moments. I was in awe when I saw a lot of dancers fill the MOA Atrium gyrating to the hits of Lady Gagah and Parokya ni Edgar. It was fun, vibrant and entertaining. Best of all, the tunes were catchy and the mood was contagious. Truly in the fashion of Langhap-Sarap Jollibee!

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