I was one hour late for our quarterly college reunion (our BS Food Technology UP Diliman 1974) and at Dole’s kitchen, someone was busy cooking Chicken Lemongrass and another was cutting up this miniature lechon. This was no ordinary lechon. It is what is called “Pritson”, short for “Pritong Litson” or deep fried whole piglet. The catch is this Pritson will be served PEKING DUCK style”. Don’t let the photo mislead you. The Pritson looks large but it is really small.

The chopped meat with some crispy skin is wrapped in pita bread.

There are various sauces served such as hoisin, garlic, liver, honey mustard, native, wasabe.

I normally don’t eat lechon but I just had to test one wrapped pita pritson. The crispiness stays longer than that of usual roasted lechon. My favorite sauce is the garlic sauce.

Malou who brought the Pritson over as her birthday treat told me it cost close to 5,000 pesos. Not bad, really. Serving Pritson can be such a conversation piece . Each of us had our own choice on the sauce and we would critique on the taste. That’s food technologist for you.

PRITSON wasn’t the only dish on our reunion dinner though. We had Bangus Relleno, Chicken Lemongrass, and Green salad. Dessert was Mangosteen, Lanzones and cake. Till the next reunion, I am looking forward to trying new dishes.

PRITSON provides other choices:

Pritson de leche package
120 pcs Pita bread with 6 kinds of sauce at 200 ml each

Pritson original package
240 pcs Pita bread with 6 kinds of sauce at 400 ml each

Pritson Fiesta package
400 pcs Pita bread with 6 kinds of sauce at 600 ml each

They offer free chopping service and free delivery on selected locations.

Contact details

+632-926-2985
+639228LITSON
+632-9201573

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You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

My family and I don’t eat at restaurants as often as we used to, but it feels all the more special when we do dine out together. For my dad’s birthday yesterday, we revisited an old family favorite – Red Crab’s Seafood Club at Greenbelt 3. One of the reasons we came back was because we enjoyed the restaurant’s Spanish-inspired seafood entrees, Filipino fusion cuisine, and the sumptuous selection of non-seafood items.

The other reason for our trip to Red Crab was to see if the Smart Rewards program really does live up to its promise of giving Smart users freebies and discounts. Yep, you heard that right – Smart users can enjoy all sorts of little surprises just by using their Smart prepaid or post-paid accounts! Every time you load your prepaid card or charge money to your postpaid account, you receive points from Smart, which you can use to redeem freebies like SMS and bill rebates.

All Smart Rewards users also enjoy discounts from over 100 establishments across the nation without using their accumulated points. All you have to do is download coupon codes on your phone by visiting www.smart.com.ph/rewards and clicking on Discounts. Red Crab is one of the participating establishments for the month of August, and we got a free appetizer for a minimum purchase of P1,500.

Our meal at Red Crab was highly satisfying, and with plenty of leftovers to spare! I wasn’t able to document everything we ate, but I just had to take a photo of how our Crab Omelet (P398) was arranged. Not pictured is the creamy crabmeat omelet within each shell, which was very tasty on its own (and much easier to eat than actual crab).

Since my dad can’t eat seafood due to his gout, he got the Baby Back Ribs (P445) which was smothered in sweet humba sauce.

We couldn’t stop looking at the paella section of the menu, so we ordered a plate of The Paella Flamenco (P425) – a seafood paella with chorizo and sunny side-up egg.

Other dishes include an appetizing plate of chicharon bulaklak (P195), which was oh-so-crispy yet oh-so-evil.

Risotto Balls

I could feel the cholesterol invading my body with every bite. We actually ordered croquettes, but I guess the waiter somehow misheard and gave us chicharon instead. My favorite dish was the Bacon-Wrapped Camaron with Saffron Rice (P395).

I thought that the rice serving would be about a cup large, but the camaron ended up resting on a large bed of saffron rice, which was delightfully salty and peppered with chorizo bits. Mmmm. Our total bill was P2,280 and we got a plate of crispy crablets for going over P1,500, as promised by the Smart Rewards coupon and a 10% discount or 280 pesos in savings. (The crablets didn’t last long enough for me to photograph them .)

You too can enjoy these awesome privileges with a simple text message to Smart! Visit this page for more information on Smart Rewards.
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You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

When I was in college, I used to frequent a cozy little restaurant called Gayuma along Esteban Abada street. “Gayuma” is the Tagalog word for “love potion” and as the name implies, the restaurant provides its patron with a sensual experience through mood lighting and aphrodisiac food. The restaurant closed a couple of years ago but I heard that a new incarnation of Gayuma called Gayuma ni Maria just opened along Maginhawa street. My friends and I just had to check it out one lazy Sunday!

Like the Gayuma of old, Gayuma ni Maria is located in an old house and quirkily decorated.

The second floor of the house has a Japanese-style seating area that will also serve as a shop that sells vintage items and Filipino-made goods.

Since Gayuma ni Maria is still in its soft launch phase, about half of the items on the menu are currently unavailable. Still, my friends and I had fun munching on two plates of Lumpiang Barako (P115) – melt-in-your mouth cheese logs stuffed with a whole green pepper. I was a little hesitant to try this at first; a friend of mine makes a batch of really explosive spicy cheese logs and I wasn’t in the mood to get my mouth burned. Surprisingly, this one is only mildly spicy and oh-so-gooey.

Beats Sex Anyday (P75) is the updated version of the Gayuma cult favorite Better than Sex chocolate cake. I’m not sure if this does beat sex any day but the marshmallow icing and chocolate syrup is to die for. The cake itself is on the dry side, though; I’d have wanted this a little more moist.

Smiling gingerbread phalluses are also being sold – a perfect naughty pasalubong to your girlfriends or significant other.

Perhaps the best part about Gayuma ni Maria is the board games, which you can borrow for free with a minimum order of P350. My friends and I ended up hanging out at the place for three hours, trying to beat each other at 3D Scrabble.

Despite the limited selections on the menu, Gayuma ni Maria is an awesome place to hang out with friends and maybe go on a romantic date with someone, especially if you despise crowded restaurants like I do. I’ll probably drop by again in a month’s time, when the restaurant is really open and everything on their menu is finally available.

123 V. Luna Extension (Maginhawa Street), Quezon City
Tel. No. (0921) 681-8989
Open from 10 am – 11 pm on Monday – Saturday and 10:00 am – 10:00 pm on Sundays————————————

You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

While I tweeted away that I was on my way to Cebu, @nixnolledo told me to try Zubuchon, which was endorsed by Anthony Bourdain. I asked my Cebuano friends if they heard of it. The locals in Cebu are not too familiar with Zubuchon except my internet savyy friend but she didn’t even know where to buy it. Another tweet by @charlsapina metioned it can be buoght at the pre-departure area at the Mactan Cebu International airport. True enough, I found the stall as I am waiting for my flight back to Manila

A kilo sells for 490 pesos a kilo. If you buy two kilos, it will be placed inside a box. A piece of paper comes with instructions on how to heat the lechon meat and the skin. You can also buy it frozen for 295 pesos.

There are actually two branches. You can buy at the Banilad Town Center daily except Monday and of course, the pre-departure area at the Mactan Airport. You can also order a whole lechon (roughly 15 to 17 kilos) for 7,500 pesos inclusive of freight cost but you have to pick it up at the airport in Manila.


So what did I think of Zubuchon?

Let me give you a background first. I grew up in Cebu and lived there for the first 18 years of my life. As a child, our house in Mabolo was right beside a lechonero who sold lechon every sunday. Sunday was always spent at our beach house at our Talisay property where we bought lechon at the stalls near the beach. My brother Oscar, started his own lechon business in the early eighties along the Redemptorist Church area in Mango Avenue. He called it “Oca’s Lechon”.

You have to understand that Cebu lechon is tasty to the bone. We never eat Cebu Lechon with a sauce. The taste of Cebu lechon is distinct and totally different from that roasted in Manila. The taste comes from the lemon grass, green onions, sliced onions, whole cloves of garlic, black pepper and salt. That’s the Cebu Lechon taste I know.

Zigfred Diaz shares similar observations:

This may be a bit hard considering that taste is relative and what is delicious depends upon the taste bud of the beholder. But trust me on this, I am from Cebu and I have lived in Cebu for most of my life, and I can tell where exactly in Cebu you can get the best tasting Lechon from Cebu.

The best tasting Cebu lechon I believe can be found in a place 13 kilometers away from Cebu City, the next city to the south of Cebu City which is Talisay City. (This is where I grew up) Almost all people in Cebu who has lived a long time here knows that Talisay City is where the best tasting Cebu lechon can be found. In fact Talisay City has an annual lechon festival which commemorates the glory days of the place being Cebu’s number one lechon maker. Now there are hundreds of lechon makers all over Cebu, but before people used to come to Talisay to get their lechon.

So when I finally tasted the Zubuchon, the first thing I noted was the usual lemongrass and salty taste then the distinct rosemary and thyme herb, which seemed a bit off to me. It isn’t the Cebu Lechon I am used to, perhaps because rosemary and thyme were added. Not that Zubuchon didn’t taste good either. My daughters who are used to Manila lechon loved it though and didn’t add lechon sauce on the Zubuchon.

Just to make sure I didn’t mistake the herbs, I checked on Market Manila’s blog post on Accuchon a la Marketman (Lechon # 4) where he explains how he roasted his own lechon at his backyard.

This is how we cooked Lechon # 4. The 35 kilogram live weight pig (the biggest we have ever used) was first stuffed with a mixture of seasonings nearly identical to attempt #3, with garlic, peppercorns, lemongrass, chillies, onions, lemons, salt, thyme and rosemary. The only miscalculation here was the continued struggle to put enough salt. I always fear I will over do it, but it is hard to put too much salt. And at perhaps 22-25 kilos of meat after it was cleaned, the volume of salt needed would probably exceed a good cup or two of sea salt.

Kudos to MarketMan though for his own version, for innovating the Cebu Lechon and having it known globally as the best of the best.

On the hierarchy of pork he’s eaten around the world: “Puerto Rico’s lechon is great. In Bali, the lechon is even better. And in the Philippines, the lechon is slightly better than that. It’s the best of the best.”

Contact Information

Zubuchon

63-32-583-5699
63-32-236-5264
0917-627-4761

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You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

I normally stay away from powdered health drinks, especially if they’re flavored. I don’t know why, but I get this weird feeling that they might taste too fake, like medicine pretending to be a fruity drink. Well, Chef Laudico’s designer smoothie for Nutrilite is nothing like that. Based on the idea that colorful fruits and veggies are rich in vitamins, Chef Laudico prepared a nutritious and colorful drink called the Nutrilite Immunity Smoothie.

Just like what the name suggests, the Immunity Smoothie is designed to boost the immune system with ingredients like yogurt, honey, watermelon, and ginger ale. These are mixed together with Nutrilite Active-8 with vitamins B and C. Just toss into the blender with some crushed ice, and you’ve got a healthy afternoon snack or liquid dessert to enjoy.

Nutrilite is exclusively distributed by Amway. For more information on Nutrilite and to find out where you can avail of the Nutrilite Active-8, please call Amway at 814- 8181.————————————

You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

My boyfriend and I save money by getting cheap takeout instead of dining at restaurants, but every now and then we give into our food cravings. When we do, we usually return to establishments we’ve enjoyed before. I had some errands to do at Megamall last Friday, and when we got hungry we revisited Kebab Factory for some good old-fashioned Indian food. (I keep forgetting to take a photo of the restaurant itself, but I was pretty tired by then. It’s a miracle that I remembered to take pictures of my food.)

Instead of the usual samosas, we started our meal with a plate of crunchy, tasty papadam masala (P65). Does anyone know where I can buy papadam to cook at home? I would seriously snack on this over popcorn or chips any day.

I got the usual chicken makanwala (P350.00), whose price went up by a whopping P100 (that or I got it wrong the first time). It wasn’t as creamy or tasty as I remembered, but it was pretty satisfying nonetheless. Since I’m trying to lose weight, I skipped the rice and ate this with plain naan.

We were curious about the new items on the menu so we got the chicken coriander kebab (P275), which I ended up loving most (next to the papadam). It has a clean and fresh taste, with just a hint of mint, and the tart yogurt sauce on the table was a perfect complement to the spices coating the meat.

Even though the price increase bugs me a little, I’d still go back to Kebab Factory, if only because I’m crazy about Indian food. but next time, I’ll skip the chicken makanwala and order something else.

Kebab Factory is located on the ground floor of Megamall Atrium.
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You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Bloggers were given a tour of Robinsons Starmills Mall in Pampanga and shown all the amazing deals at their outlet stores. Before and after we went shopping, however, the marketing department of Robinsons made sure that we were well-fed the entire time. We had a small merienda the moment we got there and dinner was a total feast of Filipino food.

Along with our ala carte orders, we were served a plate of pako salad, a local delicacy. In the States, this is known as fiddlehead salad because of the leaves’ fiddle-like shape. Someone mentioned that a plate of fiddlehead salad can cost as much as $22 in Manhattan, which is pretty funny considering that this grows everywhere in Pampanga. It has a nice, crunch to it but the dahon-like taste takes some getting used to.

The fiddlehead salad was probably the only healthy thing that was served to us. At dinner, a deluge of fried and fatty delicacies arrived at our table one by one.

There was already a plate of chicharon bulaklak when we got there. It was very crunchy, pretty meaty, and very deadly.

Then there was sisig, of course. What unhealthy Filipino dinner would be complete without a plate or two of sisig?

The crispy pata was placed right in front of me, and it was so difficult to resist the crunchy slivers of meat.

I ate a lot of the sizzling tokwa, the second most healthy food that was served to us all day.

I was glad that the bowl of bulalo was placed in front of me too. I love soup and I’m crazy about bulalo. I didn’t actually get to eat the meat of this one but the broth was very tasty; I had bowl after bowl after bowl.

There was barbecued pusit (squid) too but I didn’t get to eat this. Not really a fan of pusit.

The last dish to arrive was the pansit malabon, which was generously topped with chopped chicharon.

Of course, you can find these dishes at nearly every mall, but it was nice to start and end a shopping trip with all these Filipino delicacies. ————————————

You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

My daughter recently posted her Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt experience. I agree with her that the yogurt tastes like expensive ice cream. She even said that “if I were in the mood to over-pay for something that tastes just like expensive ice cream.” I like my frozen yogurt, tart. That is the reason I go back to Red Mango Frozen Yoghurt at the Eastwood branch. The tartness is just right especially if mixed with bland toppings.

I am quite boring when I select toppings. It is always almond slivers and some cereal. Today, it was almond slivers and muesli. I never add fruit toppings because I don’t want the tart and sweet flavors to mix together. I just want the tartness to rule.

The yogurt is the best snack after the gym. Right after my workout at Fitness First at Eastwoord, I walked over to the Eastwood Mall second floor. It is a good thing it is a weekday and I can eat my frozen yogurt in peace. The sales clerk offered me waffles with coffee, a treat that they offer till September. I said “no thank you”. I am here to satisfy my craving for frozen yogurt.

Red Mango can be found at the second floor of Eastwood Mall. There’s one in Trinoma too.————————————

You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Frozen yogurt stores are the Zagu of this generation – they’re trendy, popular, and everywhere. Not that I consider this a bad thing, though. Even if I’m a pretty loyal customer of Red Mango, I like trying out new frozen yogurt places to see if the variety, price, and flavor is any different from my favorite joint. I’ve heard a lot of people rave about how tasty Golden Spoon’s frozen yogurt is, but I never got the chance to try it out until they opened a branch at Eastwood. While waiting for a movie to start, my boyfriend and I decided to kill time at Golden Spoon to see what the fuss is all about.

There are two things that makes Golden Spoon different from other yogurt places. Their biggest selling point is that their yogurt tastes like premium ice cream rather than the tarty flavor we’re all familiar with. Besides the Simply Tart flavor (which I think tastes more like “normal” frozen yogurt), they also offer flavors like Cake Batter, Old-Fashioned Vanilla, Belgian Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cup, Espresso, and Strawberry. I personally prefer the tarty yogurt flavor over the ones at Golden Spoon. Not only is “normal” frozen yogurt moderately sweet and light on the tummy, but it doesn’t make me feel fat. I felt like such a blimp after I consumed my cup, I swore off sweets the rest of the week.

The other thing that sets Golden Spoon apart is the variety in their toppings. My eyes widened when I saw chocolate pieces, granola, nuts, and candy displayed in all their calorie-rich glory. So many toppings to choose from! Each topping costs P20 but unlike Red Mango, where successive toppings get cheaper by 10 bucks (ie. 2 toppings for P30, 3 toppings for P40), you still have to pay P20 per additional topping at Golden Spoon. I suppose I can forgive the extra expense, given the variety in their toppings.

Now, here comes the bad part. I got the smallest cup (P85) of Cake Batter frozen yogurt with mixed berries (P20) – I noticed that there were raspberries in the mix and I was dying to try those out. However, my face fell when I claimed my cup at the counter and saw how little the toppings were. I didn’t expect the entire surface area to be covered in berries, but there was practically just one piece of each berry type. I was indignant.

I went back to the counter and kindly asked the girl if she could add a few more berries. She agreed to do so free of charge, but I watched carefully and noticed that she added only two more fruits and some more syrup. She probably noticed my watchful stare because she looked up and explained somewhat apologetically that they’re only supposed to add one piece of fruit per cup.

And this is what my cup looked like after I requested for extra toppings – there’s hardly any difference. Though I appreciate the girl’s efforts to accommodate my request, I was extremely disappointed anyway. Sure, the yogurt was rich enough to eat on its own, but the fact that I had to pay five pesos for each minuscule portion of fruit made me feel so ripped off. And if there’s anything I hate more, it’s knowing that I over-paid for a product I could have easily gotten at a more reasonable price elsewhere.

My boyfriend was a little more satisfied with his yogurt than I was – the smallest cup of Belgian Chocolate (P85) with peanut butter chips (P20) and buttered pecans (P20). Though the peanut butter chips’ serving were at least a little more generous than my mixed berries, my boyfriend noticed that he only had about four pieces of pecans in his cup. Just like each berry species in my cup, you pay about five pesos per pecan if you choose this topping.

If this is how sparse the toppings are in the smallest cup, I’d hate to see what a large cup looks like.

Though the flavor of Golden Spoon’s yogurt did indeed live up to its reputation, I’d rather buy from Haagen-Dasz if I were in the mood to over-pay for something that tastes just like expensive ice cream. I don’t feel like I got my money’s worth at this establishment and I’m never coming back again. ————————————

You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

There were so many dishes to choose from at the Singapore Food Festival (SFF). Here are must try dishes based on the Chinese dialects.

Cantonese ‐ Century Egg Congee

Century egg congee – or “pheitan chok”, as the Cantonese call it – is a simple rice porridge featuring slices of century egg. When I was younger, I thought that century eggs were literally 100-years old, but it turns out that they have only been preserved for several weeks in a mixture of clay, salt, ash, and lime. Pheitan chock features slices of century egg, while the porridge itself is seasoned with lots of spring onion and ginger. You can easily find century egg congee at any Chinese restaurant.

Hainan ‐ Chicken Rice

Hainense chicken rice is one of Singapore’s most famous dishes. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Hainanese chicken rice is a steamed white chicken served on top of fragrant rice with coriander leaf and sesame oil. It’s normally served with light soy sauce and garlic-chili dip that you can mix to taste. This succulent dish hails all the way from Hainan in China and was originally made with the Wengcheng chicken – a bony chicken with very little meat. Unlike the Singaporean dish, the original Hainan dish uses pork and chicken bone stock to season the rice.

Hakka ‐ Lei Cha Rice

Lei cha rice is a very interesting dish to say the least, and a pretty rare offering in Singapore; there are no more than half a dozen restaurants in the island that serve this. Lei cha rice comes in two parts. The first is a plate of rice, either brown or white, served with vegetables, peanuts, fried silverfish, and other condiments. The second part is a hot green soup that resembles pesto; instead of basil, however, it’s made up of mashed-up tea leaves, mint, and other green herbs. Basically, you pour the soup over the rice and mix it all up into a delicious stew. This is one of the healthiest things you can buy at a coffee shop and a must try when you visit Singapore.

Hokkien ‐ Fried Hokkien Noodles

Hokkien mee is a popular dish in Malaysia and Singapore, served in various ways. Sometimes it’s served with fat, stir-fried yellow noodles covered in thick soy sauce; in other parts it’s noodles with stir-friend prawns, choy sam, and thickened gravy. Hokkien mee is also easy to make at home because of its versatility and simplicity. You can use anything to season it, from cuttlefish to pork.

Teo Chew – Fried Carrot Cake

Fried carrot cake (chai tao kway) isn’t actually a dessert – it’s made up of rice flour and white daikon cut into pieces and stir-fried with spring onion, garlic, eggs, and dried shrimp. The dish comes in two variants – the white one, where the cake forms a crust when fried on top of a beaten egg, and the black one which uses soy sauce and where the egg is mixed with the carrot cake.

Carrot Cake

Here are other Chinese dialect dishes at the Singapore Food Festival 2010

Kew Garden’s Hakka Chicken with Wine Lees

Kew Garden’s Hakka Yam Soon Kueh

Chinatown Tan’s Tutu (Hokkien)

Xin Sheng’s Ngoh Hiong Prawn Crackers

The name Ngoh Hiong is a Hokkien word that refers to the Five Spice Powder that seasosn the pork filling then wrapped in thin beancurd skin and later on deep-fried. In my native hometown, we have our own “Ngo Hiong” variant as well.

Handmade noodles

Gim Tim Traditional Tapioca Roll

Four Seasons Durian Muchi and other goodies

My favorite, Durian Ice cream

Yeh Lai Siang Hainanese Salted chicken

And they also offer Hainanese Curry rice

And Hainanese Kueh

Hainanese Xi Guo

Steamed Glutinous Roll

Roast Duck

“This is the first time that the SFF will focus on specialty dishes of Singapore’s main Chinese dialect groups. Far from being a homogenous cuisine, Chinese food is very varied and can differ greatly from region to region in China. With the evolution of the Chinese diaspora in Singapore, Chinese food in Singapore has also evolved in tandem to reflect our distinct culture and heritage,” said Mr Andrew Phua, Director of Precinct Development at the STB, who elaborated that the local version of Hainanese Chicken Rice is one of the best examples of a dish that has taken on a distinctly local flavour.
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You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado