Much Needed Blog

July 25th, 2010 § 0

I’ve finally found some time to blog!

How long has it been…a month? A month and a half? I’ve been so caught up lately!

graygoose

I’ve been trying to fix stuff for our Chefy Store. So many people have been asking…so aside from those bags, what else do you sell? I wish I could have some time to really sniff out some cool stuff to sell..unique and useful at the same time. But the good thing is, The Chefy Store, finally has its own website! I haven’t quite finished it yet, but it’s getting there.

We have our new Chefy Lite bags out…finally! Well, I guess you can say that our designs are just getting better and better. Hopefully, by year-end, we’ll have 3 great items.

My pups have been a handful!

me and wiggle
Well, for my food styling, I’ve been doing jobs for my grandma’s company. I’m not sure though if I can post those up. Well…maybe just a tiny sample.

taco cups
tacquitos
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I’ve Been Busy

June 25th, 2010 § 2


paws
My dailies…have changed. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of doing pet chores and constantly hoping to get better house help. I was also starting to cook dinner for one (Thank God for the tiny Maxim and Ecopan stuff I have! They’re just the perfect size!) and wash the dishes after. Then my dog gave birth…so more pets to take care of aside from my 2 chihuahuas, a lactating golden retriever and my parrot…now I have 4 puppies too!

my fattest pups

Well, I’m glad that after a month of searching for good help, we finally got hold of some very good people (the last one talked on her cellphone all day and ate all our food and snacks…but was “too sick” to do chores!). And things are a little loose. I now only tend to my four pups and their mommy..plus some alone time with my parrot, Louis.

Wanda taking a break from nursing her pups

Ah it’s pretty interesting to have all these pets at home. It’s definitely taught me a great deal about time and balance. Well, in an hour I have to go home again and feed the pups! In a few weeks, I’ll be back to my old self again.

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Win This @ The Chefy Store! Our 2nd Online Raffle!

June 23rd, 2010 § 0

Finally after everything..(my newborn pups, my new baby parrot, my messed up schedule!) I finally get to post some great news! On our 1st year, Mig and I are going to raffle off a few bags, so here are the 2 new prizes up for grabs on our Chefy Store in Facebook. :)

win-this-bourdain
win-this-nigella

Now open to all countries that FedEx can ship to!!! :)

Mechanics:

1. Post this picture on your wall for everyone to see (make sure you set the privacy setting to everyone or else we won’t get to verify it). Make sure you’re already a fan of The Chefy Store so you can keep track of the raffle!

2. Reply to the note on our FB account so that we could check if you’re eligible for the raffle. (only one entry per FB profile)

3. Wait until July 7, 2010 where Mig and I will be posting a video containing this raffle’s winner!

4. If you win, you may pick up you blue peace bag or have it shipped to your home!

It’s that simple!
So what are you waiting for?! Start posting those pictures on your FB wall today!!


** For the winner who needs the prize shipped, you may deposit a P200 shipping fee to our account for shipment anywhere in the Philippines! Or have us compute for the FedEx shipment to your country.

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Kung Jeon Palace in Baguio

May 21st, 2010 § 11

they have a garden area
We saw this on the way to Baguio country club and wanted to try it.

We’re big Korean food fans, we’re still out to try the best of the best when it comes to these places. Korean communities are growing here in the Philippines, and with them comes a great integration of their culture into ours! Still on the road to finding more authentic korean places (like our favorite discovery, Seoul Condo), we’ve decided to try one in Baguio.

banchan

Banchan: There were 8 kinds of banchan that day, 2 of which were the new discovery we’ve had and were our favorites. The first was this soft chopped up nor, with some chilli flakes and some secret sauce to soften up the nor. It was pretty interesting! The second one was the chopped up chili with bean paste. This was delicious. And it went so well with beer.

stinky soup

They have the stinky soup! Chungkukjang soup smells just rotten. It has fermented bean paste and tofu. it’s a lot like blue cheese, the smellier the better. Lots of fermentation going on there to the point that it was bordering on bitter and slightly alcoholic. But there was something comforting about this. Something so horrible smelling was so good with rice. But I needed about 5 breath mints and 3 gargles to get this one out of my mouth.

chajang noodles

Chajang noodles. These were handmade noodles with a meaty, demiglace like sauce. It was subtle, with a good meaty flavor and the egg on top just gave it a fabulous rounded out flavor. This was my first time to taste something like this and i liked it a lot.

sashimi

China wanted to have the sashimi. But as expected, for something that travelled all the way inland and up the mountains, it came frozen, and we didn’t like it so much.

kalbi gui

Kalbi Gui was the perfect balance of sweet salty and sour. But my brother said it was the wrong cut of meat. Still it was pretty tasty.

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Kogi Korean in Eastwood Mall

May 20th, 2010 § 3

inside kogi

For me the 2 best signs of a great Korean restaurant is 1) the number of *free* banchan (free refills show that these people have the authentic korean attitude since in Korean homes, banchan is always unlimited, it is a sign of a good host) and 2) the taste of their kimchi (oh man, what kind of well meaning korean can’t make a good batch of kimchi? it’s their national side dish and side dish, added and eaten with almost all their food proudly!)

Because in Korean culture the banchan is a must for every meal. They are side dishes that should be eaten with the food.
Kimchi is an integral part of Korean cuisine. It is made up of fermented vegetables and chili paste.

banchan

Anyway without further ado, what we had at kogi:

crispy shrimps

Spicy crispy shrimp:
The shrimp was salty crisp but not so spicy, even if we told them to make it ultra-spicy. I ate mine with shells and all just to stress the point that this was crispy shrimp. Flavor wise, it had the korean components. Crispness was almost about to get disappointing, but we ate it quick enough that we still reached that “before it gets soft” point.

chicken kalbi

Chicken kalbi:
It had a sweetish barbeque sauce and is eaten with plum sauce and bean dip. Lettuce is the only kind of veggie in the platter, no garlic, no chili and of course, no ketnip. Quite disappointing. But it tasted okay.

Staff is helpful friendly and our banchan is refilled only twice, since the portions are so tiny you kind of try not to eat the side dishes too quickly. Refills over two, we were told, will be charged (geez).

it looks so big in this picture

Bibimbap looks so festive because of the huge pot that comes into your table. But the serving is quite small. It doesn’t have kimchi in the mixture (I knew I should’ve saved my free banchan for this one!). It’s just a bunch of sauteed and steamed veggies, arranged on a cup of rice with about  1/4 cup of cooked ground meat. Well at least there was a tiny rice crust at the bottom from the heat of the pot it was in. Topped with an egg and gojuchang, a spicy korean paste used i lots of korean dishes. Usually a bibimbap would use sliced meat along with some kimchi.

bibimbap

Flavor is still pretty good. Not yet too filipinized or economized but the ingredients are pretty much scarce. Variety of ingredients in the dishes we ate versus some of the authentic places we’ve gone to is a far cry. But what can you really expect from a mall setting considering the soaring prices of rent CUSA and percentage. Still the food was affordable even if they sacrificed serving size and variety of ingredients (this meaning they opted to remove the lovely extra ingredients to a dish). It was affordable on a per dish basis, but you feel that their servings are quite small.

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Hunan Cuisine in Camia’s Street’s Hidden Restaurant

May 19th, 2010 § 0

camia street yunan cuisine

Don’t you love immigrants who share their country’s culinary prowess? Deep within the winding roads of Guadalupe viejo, lies an unnamed “eatery” by immigrants who specialize in Yunan cuisine. So what is Yunan cuisine exactly? Most foodies know Yunan ham, of course, the prized canned salty ham. I haven’t got much of a clue to be honest, since I’ve never been to mainland China.

This place is so secret, they don’t have a sign. Instead they have a midea air conditioner condenser outside their place and frosted glass and a “wanted waitress” at the door. The place itself was hard to find, but it was easy to find the street. From Rockwell, go into Hidalgo drive and go straight into Guadalupe viejo and turn left at Camia street, right after the Barangay Hall.

ordering

Inside was pretty spartan, but there were lots of people eating. Oh yeah, they don’t have ice in this place so we had to take a short trip to Rockwell to grab a bag. I don’t want to sound like a jerk here but ice is a must for even the smallest decent eating place here in the Philippines. Their drinks weren’t cold either. But anyway, I wasn’t here to drink. I’m hoping they could add that to their repertoire.

inside

Without further ado, Camia Street Hunan Cuisine:

duck with bay leaf and herbs

Hot pot duck with bay leaf and chili:
The duck has been slowly deep fried, like a confit. I’ve never seen so much bay leaves in one dish in my life. This was my intro to Yunan cuisine. It was very smokey aside from spicy, and the bay leaf gave such an aromatic finish to the crispy fried duck. It seems that they have roasted the herbs before putting the oil and the duck. Mmmm, as the oils came out of the herbs while roasting, the oil absorbed it all when it was time to add the duck. It was quite salty, but the good kind of salty. The kind that makes you want to eat lots of rice.

ziran beef

Ziran beef with cumin and sesame seed:
I’ve seen this done in Dong Bei, one time great, and the other time, a total let down. But this was also good. The cumin was very prominent and the addition of sesame seeds gave it a beautiful nutty flavor.

fried rice with beef

Fried rice with beef:
Delicious and moist, it had the smokey after taste of the same herb mixture they used in the duck (or maybe they used the same pan for cooking the crispy duck).

string beans with chili

String beans with chili: The beans were again, very smokey. Like it was cooked in some sort of herb mix, with lots of roasted chilies. It gave the beans a rather “soft with a big flavor punch” appeal.

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Beniya Honpo – A treat before shopping for pets!

May 7th, 2010 § 4

bh open kitchen

You kind of wonder how a restaurant like this emerged in Cartimar, Manila’s pet center. I think the more fitting statement would be, why is it only now that a restaurant like this emerged in Cartimar considering the many authentic Japanese and Korean groceries surrounding this area? This place started out with delicious Bento meals with the characteristic Japanese salted plum and black sesame seeds on top of the rice. Yes they use Japanese rice. And yes, the owner is Japanese.

menu

The old man who owns this place is pretty hands on, he’s here daily watching over his stall. He has a big open kitchen, that spans even bigger than the dining area. They also sell frozen homemade gyoza, which is their specialty. The gyoza is pretty good, I’ve eaten it a couple of times before…and I just realized now, after a year of going to this place to snack while I’m shopping for pet stuff…guess I’ll write about this!

Although I would recommend trying their bento meals, there’s something pretty surprising with their new items…finally, they’ve expanded their menu to donburi and ramen.

ramen

Ramen is silky, it’s not your out of the foil-pack ramen which is dry and usually very very soft…this one is silky, fresh and firm. Silky, not from the oil, but from the ingredients of which it was made. The picture showed a perfect looking ramen egg…so I pounced at the chance to try a ramen egg made here in the Philippines…to my dismay, the ramen egg was just a hard boiled egg..but atleast it was a fresh egg. The broth was tasty, with a little soy sauce. The ramen bowl contains pickled bamboo shoots, a slice of pork and their funny looking fish ball. Not bad for a snack.

oyako don

The Oyako don is perfectly cooked. The chicken is tender. Slightly soyed with a tiny hint of sweetness. The egg creates a wonderful texture with the chicken and the rice. The onions brought out an amazing sweetness, not the sugary kind.

Pretty decent place to eat considering your other option is the very warm and sticky stalls outside. Food here is honest & freshly cooked and the place is cold. Nice combination for a place as warm and congested as Cartimar.

Oyako Donburi on Foodista

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Jurassic Pics from 2006

April 27th, 2010 § 2

Look what I found! Just when I thought all was lost when I got that stupid guest account bug, I found something in my hard drive. I really should look for the original CDs of this one.

me with the gals at CIA


We were all over the world and this was “going out” group in CIA, along with our mentor, Delores Custer. I really had a great time here! I think everyone should experience an American education. CIA was just the Hogwarts of Chefs! I froze when I met the roster of classmates I had, one was turkish working at Wall’s, one was japanese with her own resto, one was a r&d chef at a prestigious university, and here i was…fresh out culinary school just hoping that this was for me.

me at Denise Vivaldos class in Cali

At Denise Vivaldo’s I was with Pixie Sevilla-Santos, who happens to be one of the Philippines’ top pastry chefs. I was also with other food stylists going on refresher, and a really cool food blogger…

Those were the days. I didn’t even have a day job yet and I was on an extended vacation. Haha!

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Charlie’s Handcrafted Burger — You Have to Try This!

April 26th, 2010 § 6

ordering

Hidden among the tiny streets of barangay Kapitolyo lies Charlie’s Grind and Grill. The place was packed and had people lining up and waiting for tables because the place was so small.

mmm burger

This may just be the tastiest burger I’ve had for a really long time (coming from a resto!). The patty almost tastes bacon-y. The burger is thick but ultra soft and juicy, it reminds me of a sloppy joe. Even without the sauce, the taste of the patty screams in your mouth. The bun is moist and soft and has that gourmet look with the black sesame seeds on top.

black angus

As you eat thru the burger you taste the dill pickles and cheese and the onions, they provide a nice crunch to an almost pillowy sandwich. This is definitely burger heaven. I see everyone beside me eating so quickly, I guess they know that this burger won’t be good when it’s cold. It’s so juicy and flavorful, you start wondering if they actually brined the patty or got an extra fat cow for the meat. The burger patty is almost too soft. It’s really messy to eat but I assure you the slop on my chin was well worth it.

nuclear buffalo wings

The nuclear wings lived up to it’s name considering it was dotted with chili pepper seeds on the sauce. It was crisp and saucy at the same time. The sauce on the chicken was hot, slightly smokey, slightly sour and very buttery. The dipping sauce was creamy with globs of blue cheese, it was creamy and complemented the veggie sticks and chicken perfectly. Don’t let this one stay too long on the plate or you’ll lose the crispness.

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Le Creperie in Eastwood Mall

April 26th, 2010 § 4

yumm
What I find so nice about this place is that it’s small and bright. Perfect for the after dinner-dessert or the midday snack. It’s a cute place with a country atmosphere.

a-cute-place

Salted Butter and Caramel..with a little more sugar of course!

salted-butter-and-caramel

I love the texture of their newly cooked crepe. It’s a little slippery, soft, chewy with a little stretch all at the same time. The crepe is perfectly toasted to give it the soft and crisp areas as you bite. And of course, the crisp areas have a different taste too. The salted butter and caramel go perfectly, but I always like dumping some sugar on the top for more texture (the little crystals give the crepe an uneven crunch which is surprising to the palette). The caramel and butter both give a creamy dimension to the crepe, and the salt, well that’s what makes it so perfect…salty and sweet at the same time!

sparkling-aj

I washed my crepe down with a nice bottle of sparkling apple juice. My only complaint is that it came in a cup…I wish they gave me a glass.

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