This was probably one of my most challenging projects late last year. I was tasked to overhaul Mushroom Burger’s menu images and the client decided on getting one of Manila’s super food photographers, Allan Tuazon of Subject Matters Photography, to do the job with me. The thing about this shoot: the peg was really from major fast foods from different countries, I had to up my game 200% because we had to do 10-12 shots per day to be able to finish the menu within the specified time period…without letting the quality suffer.

Behind the scenes @ our sandwich day shoot

This shoot, like most commercial food shoots, focused on the food. We didn’t have props, backgrounds or anything. Basically, it was a gray background and a white surface. Alan’s giant portable Apple display made things even more nit picky because it magnified details 100 fold haha!

this tower of a burger was the trickiest to style

The thing with sandwiches, especially when having a fastfood peg is that everything has to conform to a specific shape…everything has to be aligned, perfect, without looking fake and stiff. The client basically had his eye on exactly what he wanted, and this helped me and Allan a lot since they reinforced a certain look they wanted to achieve for their restaurant (hey, if you are going to overhaul you menu’s image, you really have to be sure about what you want right?!).

allan and i with the mushroom burger team

Saucing was minimal, as I had the R&D chef on my tail the entire time to make sure we conform to weight and size standards. To be honest, this was really a great working experience for me, from picking out buns to grilling the burgers and of course building the mushroom burgers from the ground up like a building. They’ll be overhauling their store images soon with our new images so watch out for them soon!

salmon

I love this smoked salmon roll salad they have there, but my biggest challenge was to show the inside of the the roll without losing the shape of the salmon which is much like a sausage. Luckily, despite the slippery texture of the lettuce and the salmon, the salad was able to finally “pose” properly when it came down to taking the picture. Plating wise, the client wanted to make it more “chefy”, which is something I haven’t heard from a client in a very long time. Luckily, I am very much familiar with the “chefy” look with all things we plate here in the school.

shrimp

The second redesign is for their prawns thermidor. The old plating had a very stiff, totally symmetrical look that their kitchen followed. I just wanted to soften it up a bit with a little less symmetry and  a slight imbalance using the asparagus.

Just in time for Valentine’s day, you can now have a yummy strawberry frozen yogurt at Kenny Rogers.

To be honest, soft served ice cream shoots always make my skin crawl…first, they’re very, very challenging…second…you have to get the formula just right…and third, the shape. For this shoot, I had to make a fake yogurt recipe from home, and make a custom piping tip for me to resemble the tip of the ice cream machine.

yogurt-behind the scenes

I had to make sure my formula had the same color and look as the real thing too, since in Kenny, they like to use their products as much as possible. But to have less wastage on the frozen yogurt, and to buy the photographer and me some valueable time and better choices, we decided to do faux. Piping is tricky and will have to be practiced, but when you find a comfy formula and practiced enough prior to the shoot, you’ll be more comfortable with it.

Still, we used the strawberries and the syrup found in the stores and they photograph beautifully. I’m wondering if this item will be a seasonal special because its just a lovely flavor.

Finally, I get to spot one of my works online and apparently in the stores!

I had the opportunity to style and eat of course, KR’s new honey — Honey Roast Chicken that is! Basically we did several shots, some of them I haven’t seen yet, but I’m sure they’ll be out. I love the effect graphics did to make it more honey-liscious. The trick to any good roast chicken isn’t much of the color really, but sometimes it’s also the shape.

From-the-KR-Website

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.

mmm bacon cheese syrup and egg goodness

A Very Special French Toast

1 egg
1 tbsp cream
3 slices of white bread
1 tsp minced carrots
1 tsp minced celery
Pinch salt
1 tsp cream cheese
1 tbsp grated cheese
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp butter
6 bacon rashers
1/4 cup water

everything good

In a nonstick pan, Cook the bacon rashers in water until water evaporates. Add 1 tbsp of butter and cook till crisp.

On the first slice of bread, spread the cream cheese. On the next slice of bread, add the grated cheese. Top the 2 slices with the bacon and add the 3rd slice on the top and gently press.

love the specks

add a bit of richness to the egg with some cream

Dip the triple decker sandwich in the egg mixture until all sides are properly coated. Put the sandwich in he preheated pan and cook for 1 ,minute until golden brown. Add remaining egg mixture in the top of the bread while on the pan. flip the sandwich and cook the top side. When the top side is golden brown,  slightly cook the sides of the toast. Remove from heat and serve with your favorite jam or maple syrup.

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!

the conveyor belt

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.

your own food checklist

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.

creative asian juices

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”.

watercress

Vegetable selection is okay. I loved the fact that they had watercress, it was just lovely to blanche it and have it with a bit of soup. There were tomatoes, squash, spinach, kale, chinese brocolli and kankong available along with different kinds of mushrooms and tofu.

some of the stuff from the conveyor that we got

Meats were served in bulk, they were quite fatty, but still, they were great with any broth that you may choose. They even have beef or pork wrapped mushrooms, which is usually grilled but it was quite a treat as a boiled item.

fat beef

The best things I ate in this shabu shabu are the watercress, polunchay, tripe (which were preboiled and came out tender) and the prawns. The prawns were very sweet and crunchy! I also liked their version of the fresh meatball stuffed with cheese. Pork blood always has a nice texture. They also had an interesting pork blood with glutinous rice squares which is boiled thoroughly in the broth…it was quite filling.

beef balls with cheese stuffing

By 6:30pm, the place was getting really packed. This seems to be a favorite hang out of the Koreans who live in the area. We even got to order a bottle of soju with our meal. Looks like it’s going to be a flavorful 2012 for me!

King One Rotary Hot Pot

M2A Lower, Hobbies Of Asia
Pres. Diosdado Macapagal Blvd.
Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines

Phone Number
(+63 2) 556-1370, (+63 2) 556-1827

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.

some scenes at the shelter

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.

some scenes at the shelter

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!”

some scenes at the shelter

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.

this dog in training looks like our portobello

The dogs at the Mandaluyong shelter need lots of food. Down in the parking lot, I saw some police dogs in training, there was even a little guy who looked like the ungroomed version of our Porto. It made me think about how lucky our dogs were.

I’m glad I finally found the shelter so I could go there on my own. If you’d like to do the same, they insist that you place your donations in the log book. They are in need of METAL bowls (apparently, the dogs are so hungry they will eat plastic), detergent…FOOD…FOOD…FOOD…FOOD. If you have any donations or would like to donate in kind, you may do so by contacting mandaluyonganimalshelter@gmail.com

mandaluyongshelter

I’m actually thinking of having another go sometime after Christmas…would you guys like to join me?

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).

props

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.

props

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.

props

But having these pictures made me appreciate and remember my stuff more. I can actually say that I probably have over 300 pieces…and it keeps growing every month. I hope this doesn’t classify me as a hoarder but a collector of pretty things.

a little set

My next project is trying to improve my dish area in the basement. I was finally able to get a shelf that could fit some of my stuff so I can keep them in the basement. While the others become decors in my room and others still are kept in plastic boxes in our restaurant…all tucked away in the stockroom.

some placemats

The ones you see here are photos of them all together, but I have versions of them alone with a ruler in front so the client can check the perspective and everything. It’s actually a tedious system of having to take pictures of them all together and one by one but it’s worth it. Atleast I never have to look back in my mind and try to explain to people what the plates look like.

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.

kid's works

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.

pig by me

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.

unstyled sandwich

Lastly, we had to do a demo on how food looks so much better in commercials than they usually are in real life. So here’s the unstyled edible sandwich, vs the styled inedible one (sorry guys there’s tissue in there!).

styled sandwich

It was a pretty interesting first to work with kids on TV. Considering that my first ever food styling stint of almost 4 years ago was a kiddie cookbook with how to pages and product photos.

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

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 ramen

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.

beef tataki

Prix fix menu
Beef tataki with chips – nice with flavors of chili garlic and fermented bean. Though i can no longer taste the beef (wagyu sirloin). Chips were a great sweetish complement to the overall dish that is further “greenified” by the alfalfa sprouts. Tiny portion.

nomama ramen

Nomama ramen- finally!someone has the darned guts to serve some properly made ramen egg. I’ve been looking for this for quite a long time and I probably just haven’t hit the hardcore Japanese ramen bars here in Manila but finally I’ve found one that does. But the ramen egg did look properly made, but it was marinated in a mere soy sauce brine (sorry guys I’ve got high hopes for ramen egg, you should try Yamagoya in Bangkok…they’ve got some fine eggs going on there), I was hoping for the zing of sake and mirin since it looked like it was done well to start with. Ramen broth was quite nutty, noodles were done well still a bit chewy. Smokey notes fromthe nori. Pork was not really tender, which I had expected it to be, but I guess you can’t really do much about it if the pork was locally produced (unlike the infamous Kurobuta), the fat was pretty sift though, but that’s expected. Giant portion

little kitkat dessert

Kitkat bar – tiny portion. It seemed like a mere sliver. Chocolate wafer and caramel bottom, chocolate ice cream top. Yummy and rich, small portion seems just right for someone like me (not into sweets).

yummy tea

Xiaouen tea – served in a cute little clear teapot. This tea was wonderfully fragrant it smelled of apricots and peaches…it was like being transported to a peach gathering truck. The smell was amazing, and the flavor was subtle and yet bursting at the same time.

I liked my time at Nomama, I’ll be back for the Ox Tongue ramen.

Ground Floor FSS Bldg 2, Scout Tuason cor Scout Castor St.,
Quezon City, Philippines
Phone # 5422558