A Very Special French Toast
I’ve finally found a great do-nothing Sunday to catch up on my home cooking and styling work and decided to do something “for two” since it’s almost Valentine’s day. For a very special toast, it had to have everything nice…it had to be decadent…and something you can share with that special someone, and yet easy enough to do. I totally love french toast, but instead of the usual just sweet component, I decided to add a bit of savory and favorite breakfast food inside: bacon and cheese. This version is made with cream cheese and grated cheese. It only takes a few minutes to make and is big enough to share.
A Very Special French Toast
New Year’s Shabu-Shabu at King One Rotary Hot Pot
Mig and I went for a long drive during New Year’s day and the road took us to the Hobbies of Asia Mall in Macapagal. I wasn’t quite sure why they call it Hobbies of Asia..there were a few closed pet shops and Mig and I wanted to eat a few different things for dinner, it was a good thing we were in the right place and right parking because we were about to enter Yaki Mix when we saw a bustling hotpot (at 5:30pm!) and it looked like they didn’t have your usual soups!
And we were very glad to find this place. King One Rotary Hot Pot’s broth selections are pretty good, but the best part about it is that it’s eat all you can, and if you sit in the right place, you can actually grab your *cook-ables* right beside your table (where the actual conveyor belt is!) we went for the Satay (which was supposedly their best seller) and I took a dive on the Szechuan Pepper Broth.
Both broths smelled amazing, but I had a feeling I would enjoy the Szechuan so much more. It reminds me of some real shabu-shabu we used to go to in Thailand. The Szechuan pepper broth smelled very aromatic and almost flowery, but you knew that it had a good kick to it because of the floating chilis. The Sate soup might be their best seller maybe because it’s the most diplomatic. The flavor isn’t as exciting as the Szechuan pepper, but the sate is pretty prominent…I just have one thing to say…when they refill the pots with water, the flavor isn’t as prominent so enjoy the first boiling.
The sauces were limited but you hardly needed any sauce because the broths flavored the boiled items pretty well. Mig and I also tried out their juices. They were pretty cute and tasty. Mig had the lychee with jello and I had the green tea and lemon which had lime flavored “bricks”.
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A morning at the Mandaluyong Animal Shelter (and it looks like I’ll be doing this a lot)
I’ve finally found an accessible shelter near my house! I’ve been wondering if I’ll ever actually get my butt to PAWS but it looks like I don’t have to go all the way there because there’s actually a shelter near our place! So I gathered some eggs, vegetables, chicken, rice, and found a huge plastic of noodles my mom was trying to get me to cook…and found some really hungry mouths who were going to have a good meal.
I heard about the Mandaluyong dog shelter shortly after I put up the Whole Pet Kitchen site. Someday, I want the pet bakery to start helping out local pet causes and I think I came to the right place. I had my own doggie “pancit” with vegetables and lotsa eggs prepared at home, while I gathered up some chicken and rice, with a bit of tongue and vegetable trimmings from the school. I ended up with 5 gallons of mixed food that even jack would be salivating over.
We got to the shelter a bit late…9:30, they were already feeding the dogs! I saw a giant orocan filled with pellets mixed with water. We quickly dispatched our food and the people who were doing the feeding (some were from Philippine Dog Owners club) laughed and said “Oy may pancit dito!”
The dogs were emaciated, but they still had the spirit in them to lunge for the food. Some of them fought, it got a bit bloody, it got really noisy, but at least a lot of them had some food in their stomachs. We saw dogs that bullied smaller dogs for food and I tossed a salmon moringa biscuit over for them…too bad some of the flooring gaps were too wide and the biscuits would fall through! A lot of the dogs were also unvaccinated so I strongly suggest a change of clothing and shoes if you have pets who are sensitive back home, they also have people there who do the feeding for you since you nipped by a nervous and hungry dog. So basically you can prepare and mix the food, put them into bowls and give them to the caretakers and watch the dogs eat. It was a weird feeling, like a bittersweet tugging in your heart as I watched the dogs lunge for the food.
Getting My Props Organized (sort of)
I was at a shoot once where I had to bring out almost everything I had in stock at Cafe Ysabel (I keep some at home and I keep some of it there for some impromptu shooting) and I realized…man, I really have to get everything organized and cataloged so that I can show my clients what I have during preproduction, especially when they want to see the containers (so that i don’t have to bring it).
So, I started with some of my stuff at home. Slowly but surely, I’ve been taking pictures of my placemats, glasses and other food containers.
But the hardest part about it is trying to keep taking pictures. After I took the pictures I posted here, I bought another round of great looking plates that are all lined up to have their photos taken…groan.
Creative Kids Food (for a kiddie show)
I was able to do some work with GMA’s kiddie show, Tropang Potchi…where we did some fun edible food styling projects for kids at home. This was the perfect opportunity to test out some funny looking food and the challenge to make it edible and good for kids.
So we did a small open faced sandwich but the kids had the liberty to get their creative juices going to make a delicious and fun looking sandwich. It was pretty easy for the kids to make some faces on their food and edible little works of art.
I made this pig out of rice, corned beef, some cucumber, tomato and raisins. It actually turned out better than what I had thought, it tasted pretty good too.
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Nomama
Nice organic looking place with brown black and white furniture, a semi open kitchen. I probably went in with high expectations, only because the last time I ate in ramen place was in Sydney, in a place called Ryu ramen with my bestfriend Ana. So here’s what we had:
Squash blossom tempura – this crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside had a ground up seafood mixture inside. It almost reminded me of some shrimp and a seafood ball that’s chunky. Sauce was your typical sweet chili…I am sort of looking for an extra cilantro flavor on the sauce that could’ve livened up this dish a bit more.
Ox tongue with chili tofu – broth was a bit more fragrant than the nomama ramen which I liked. Chili was on a good level, just enough to capture the heat at the back of my throat…I love the fat level of this by the way, it creates a velvety texture when the soup hits my tongue. This one I Liked much better than the one that carried their name, I actually think the ramen egg would work this broth too to take it up another notch, but that’s just my opinion. I love love love the tenderness of the tongue! Giant portion.
Scenes from the Baguio City Wet Market Part 2
Now we go to the usual dry section of the Baguio Wet Market, this is where everyone buys their pasalubong and fruits. A lot of people buy veggies here too (for those who never stray into the deep dark wholesale veggie section). There are a lot of things to see and a bigger space to walk through.The greenish hue from the roof is a little irritating though, it makes even your skin look green.
Here we find the usual strawberries, sagada oranges as well as other curiosities like sundot kulangot, jams, halayang ube, little pastries, all packed and ready to be given to friends and relatives back home. There are also special items such as habanero peppers, an organic vegetable cooperative and rattan fruit (which is has a snake like skin!).
Go deeper into the market and you will hit some rice and more dried fish sellers. There are also some vegetable vendors selling via “tingi” or retail. There is also a great coffee store in this area, and people really do line up for some fresh or ground up coffee. They even have civet coffee too!
Apparently, the Baguio Wet Market has a name…it’s called Hangar Market, and the roadside veggie section you see at the opening is just the tip of the iceberg. Before you get to the REAL wholesale veggies, you have to pass through the dry goods section, the meat section, another dry goods section and then you come into this dark marketplace with the old sign that says Hangar Market, Vegetable section.
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Scenes from the Baguio City Wet Market Part 1
I love markets. I really don’t mind the dirt and muck on my shoes, the smell, the thick amount of people…but one of the best things about the Baguio City Wet Market is the fact that it hasn’t changed much through the years. Our favorites seem to be in the same stall…but on a yearly basis, there are always some surprises…like new produce…more organic stuff.
The Baguio Wet Market starts from the street. A big sloping area with the meat on one side and some dry goods and veggies on the other…then it merges. I’d like to show you some of the things I saw on the road side of the market.
We began buying our vegetables from the roadside stalls. Being in Baguio, the “salad bowl” of the Philippines, vegetables are pretty cheap. Actually when you think about it, food is generally cheap. One of the things we bought in large bundles were the watercress we were going to cook in different ways for the days to come.
They had small leaves, and they looked so crisp. It only costed us about P25 per bundle…that is 1/8 the price of watercress in Manila…and the quality! Oh what quality!
Our next favorite stopover is of course, the Tuvera longganisa. I’ve been eating this longganisa since I was a kid. A longganisa is basically a sausage, slightly fermented. We like this one because of the achuete oil and tons of garlic it has. My brother bought some for our breakfast.
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More R&D and Photo Work at Home
I’ve been so busy with trying to get my pet bakery off the ground that it’s just such a welcome feeling to take some time off and take pictures of what I’ve been working on. Lately, I’ve been glued to either my computer doing computations, or in the kitchen fixing and testing out recipes that I have forgotten how happy I feel when I do some styling work.
I decided to take some items that I think would be a fitting background to a fun yet intimate pet party…a few bowls, a toy, some treats and a cake slicer. Jack had no idea that he was going to have first dibs on the cake after me.
This was a nice breather to all this sampling and baking, I didn’t really have to do anything cosmetic to the cake since that was how it came out…with some imperfections but it was still pretty.
Japanese Grocery-ing at New Hatchin
I had a shoot earlier in the year that called for some nice Japanese food items…so this took me to one of my favorite groceries, the New Hatchin Grocery in Makati. It was my first time in this branch since I really frequent the one in Cartimar..lo and behold, I found some very wonderful things and really great ingredients.
There were a lot of people, mostly Japanese shopping in this place. They have a lovely fresh food display where uncooked meats and pre-prepared fry-ables are for sale. I got myself a nice pack of thinly sliced tongue which is something you usually have in a Japanese yakiniku place. You can also find some sashimi here both chilled and frozen which makes it easy to have an instant Japanese dinner at home.
Sanma and shishamo are also ready to cook. Usually they charge about 200+ per sanma in a Japanese restaurant, but for here it’s about 80 per fish…all you need is a small charcoal grill and salt and you’re ready to go.
