Stuffed tomato

Shortcut: remove the seeds of the tomato. Make some meat sauce ala Bolognese plus some BBQ sauce. Cook very well such that the sauce will almost dry up:

Season tomatoes with salt and pepper. Stuff tomatoes with the cool and almost dried up meat sauce, brush the skin with olive oil, top with some mozzarella cheese and bake for 10 minutes under 180C.

Stir Fried Pork Cubes with Mixed Vegetables

Vietnamese Spring Rolls
The best I’ve tried to date. Better than the ones we had in Viet Nam.

Pak Gui aka. Korean Chicken Bulgogi

Sweet Mustard Pork Stir Fry

Inside the tin can:

I’m not definite what it’s called but they’re these oatmeal treats are very crepe-like butter and caramel munchies. Looks like this is the start of my holiday weight gain scare!

You too can play Secret Santa among your friends! Just go to My Secret Santa, enter your friendsss’ (yes, there’s no limit!) e-mail addresses and send away. The best part about the first and biggest kris kringle celebration in Metro Manila is that it won’t cost you or your friend a single peso. YAY!

• The Lobby uses premium Selecta ice cream on their chilled treats.

  
  The Lobby’s Dessert Menu
  More info and prices HERE

• I really, really, really love ice cream!


caught in the act by Juned

• The all-time crowd favorite (me excluded because I can’t really make myself eat beans) Halo-Halo Harana has been deemed by Time Magazine as “The Best Legal High”.
• Pen Pals (the bowl I’m killing above) is made up of 19 scoops of premium ice cream, fresh watermelon, pineapple, honeydew, cantaloupe, two maraschino cherries, eight waffle sticks, fifteen marshmallows, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. WOW.
• It’s always great to share ice cream.

I am a Cooking Mama. I can chop faster than the Nintendo. I can beat egg whites to stiff peaks with my console (and a wire whisk). When it comes to repairing dishes… Do Not Worry… I can fix it…

Do email me your shipping address so that I can send you your cookbook. Congrats and enjoy your Wii party!

Beef Consommé with Celestine

Crème De Tomato with Pesto Soup
(something I never thought would work beautifully)

Cream of Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Foam

French Onion Soup

Hungarian Goulash Soup

Lentil Soup with Vegetable Brunoise

Minestrone Soup

Prawn Bisque with Herbed Fish Quenelles

Seafood with Vegetable Soup

Mise en Place photos HERE.

Lazy Sunday dinner recap:

CPK’s Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Php625 + 10% service charge
Our favorite CPK appetizer. It’s so hard not to love the chunky and cheesy dip!

Full sized Marsala Marinara with Chicken Pasta, Php545+*
This was ok lang, nothing special nor anything to complain about.

Bizu Pattiserie’s NAOMI, Php245

A combination of sugarless milk & dark chocolate mousse between layers of chocolate cake sprayed with cocoa liqueur.

My AMOUR, Php185

Valrhona orange chocolate mousse in between layers of crème brulee and brownie.

Jayvee’s cake had great overall texture and extra fine chocolate taste. The citrus kick in my cake gave it a wonderful dimension that left us smiling bite after bite. The white chocolate cover wasn’t very sweet too so I was able to bite on it as well (I don’t eat chocolate used as decor because it’s usually either very sweet or doesn’t taste like anything at all).

The Sous Chef’s birthday dinner at Elbert’s Steak Room:

Sometime last August…

Him: Let’s go to Elbert’s on your birthday (or something to that effect)!
Me: But I don’t like meat
Him: (makes face equal to “pleaseee…”)
Me: And their sauces (peppercorn, béarnaise, red wine & shallots, au jus) is exactly what we made in ISCAHM. I don’t want to pay for something so expensive I know I can make myself (LOL)
Him: (makes face equal to “pleaseee…”)
Me: Okay but I won’t order steak (doh!)

Fast forward to late October…

Me: What are we doing on your birthday?
Him: Let’s go to Elbert’s! Let’s go to Elbert’s! Let’s go to Elbert’s!
Me: mmmmkay :-/

Ding! Level 28! Gratz!

Our view

Super soft Fantan dinner rolls, complimentary

Each steak order includes a house salad and your choice of soup. Last Monday night’s salad dressing reminded my date of Pho Hoa’s signature fruity vinaigrette. It was very refreshing and it prepped us very well for heavy flavors ahead of us.

His meal:

Tomato Soup**

Baked potato w/ sour cream, bacon bits and chives, Php150 + 10% service charge*
hmmm this looks familiar

USDA Choice grade Bone -in Tenderloin, Php2000+*

My meal:

Prawn Bisque

Texture wise, it’s not too creamy nor too thin. Taste wise, it’s perfect with some freshly ground black pepper.

Mashed Potatoes with Truffle Oil, Php150+*

This dish made my date understand why I love, love, love truffle oil. A few drops definitely adds height to the dish’s over-all flavor.

USDA Prime grade Tenderloin, Php2200+

The beautiful dish above is (I hate to say this but it is) perfect. Prior to last Monday’s dinner, I’ve made my research on how they prepare their steaks. I wasn’t too impressed with the storage technique because that’s exactly how you should treat raw meat. Elbert’s started getting my attention during the pre-cooking stage. Slow thawing to room temperature and reducing moisture by paper blotting is the right way to preserve the quality and density of the uncooked steak. The brushing of grape seed oil (on thawed and paper dried meat) is just pure genius. Not only can it stand high cooking temperatures (~420°F, Chef Manoj will be very proud of me that I actually remembered LOL) but it’s also neutral in taste hence it does not alter the steak’s natural flavor. Both SC and I found the coarse Sicilian Sea Salt quite nice as it added dimension to the smooth and tender steak. The occasional crunch accompanied by the fresh pepper spice used as steak rub is just to wonderful for words.

What’s left of his meal + overall reaction

Dessert:

Mango Panna Cotta, Php 100+ and “Our Best Chocolate Mousse”, Php120+*

The smooth and delicate panna cotta was bursting with vanilla flavor (which I found rather comforting after a very heavy meal). I was more than happy to see my date finish it plus the mangoes (!!!). The chocolate mousse won me over because it’s quite dark and not very mousse like in texture. It’s sticky enough to keep me smiling sip after sip of my Lavazza Americano (Php90+).

*sigh* Christmas dinner can’t wait!

Elbert’s Steak Room
3/F Sagittarius Building III
111 H. V. de la Costa Street
Salcedo Village, Makati City
www.steakroom.com

* Please excuse the treatment (read: bad white balance). I was shooting under very low light.
** shot by Jayvee

Starbucks’ White Chocolate Sans Rival, Php120

Something cute:

Look! There’s a kitty!

Something to watch out for:

This year’s holiday drinks (all available in hot, iced, and Frappuccino Blended Beverage):

• Dark Cherry Mocha — mmmmm very good (note: I LOVE dark chocolate and cherries). It doesn’t taste like liquefied black forest cake
• Toffee Nut Latte – too sweet for me
• Praline Mocha –super love the nutty taste

The good about this year’s planner:

• You only need to drink 16 cups (YAY)
• Not bulky
• The spaces for writing are bigger
• There are 3 colors to choose from (the red one looks really sexy)

The bad about this year’s planner:

• I don’t see the detachable coupon where you write your name once you complete the planner for your (sort of) Spark of Hope pledge
• No free pencil nor coupons

Share lang, my little Starbucks planner story:

I don’t feel as cheery as last year because my favorite Starbucks Holiday drink (aka. Peppermint Mocha) was not “reissued” (a term MAC addicts love). Last year, I completed 6 sticker cards just drinking Peppermint Mocha and occasionally, iced caramel macchiato.

first sticker card still missing 3 stickers, 6th card redeemed earlier

I was chatting with S one weekday last December when she told me her friend who works at Starbucks told her via YM that the stickers are (sort of) buy one, take one on specific dates. I told her it’s too late because I’ve already completed several cards and even redeemed my first planner 5 days after the first day of the promo period (heehee I drink coffee thrice a day). Just the same I copy-pasted the message from that friend of Sophie and sent it to 12 other sticker collectors. They scheduled their team meetings on those dates. *wink*

Five months after that copy-paste spree, I met this friend of Sophie’s in person. We shared a wonderful meal two weeks after and now chat directly over YM. =)

On top of the Red Box Wii Party** for 5 (including yourself), the winner will also receive a Php500 CPK gift certificate, and this cookbook:

My sincerest apologies again and I hope you’ll find time to comment below, which Wii character you are. Deadline of entries is on November 14, 2008 23:59PM Manila time. My brother will pick his favorite answer and we’ll announce the winner the day after.

Corrupted,

Phoebe

*I requested for a back-up image of my site from my hosting provider as soon as I found out (I’m even willing to pay for it). I got a cute, BS reply from them: “unfortunately we dont have backups …the way the backup systems on our new servers work do not create .snapshot directories where periodic backups are stored.” Accommodating logs and back-up requests is what I do for a living and this is just unacceptable. Why will you even switch servers when they can’t perform at par or even better than your old/current ones?

**The winner may call and schedule their Wii Party at GeiserMaclang Unit 7C, 114 Tuscan Bldg., V. A Rufino St. , Legaspi Village, Makati City. Tel. No. 02.812.8828 / 02.812.9199 / 0917.523.4624

All from the Bamboo Beach (Kawayan Cove, Nasugbu, Batangas):

Calamansi slush on a rainy day

Native platter

I’m not a big fan of Filipino food (did you notice?) but I love anything with kangkong and chicken. Platter bonus: grilled squid with dried rosemary leaves. Never thought that something so simple actually tastes very good.

Homemade mini butter cakes from Joey Puyat
Sugary exteriors that crumbled nicely bite after bite.

From Thailand (from Brad):

Fruit Puffs

Similar to barquillos, my fave’s definitely the green tea (green) followed by the durian (yellow). The mangosteen (violet) was too fragrant for me. =p

(insert name here)
Too cute to be eaten!

From CPK:

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, and Avocado Pizza
A combo I never thought would work.

Zero grease on my pizza crust is LOVE!

From Piazza Pazzu (G/F Powerplant Mall):

Due Roke (Roke with Choco Hazelnut Crunch)
Something for the serious chocoholic. Too delectable for words!

For the mad little chocoholic in me:

nom nom nom nom nom

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