thank God for food

champorado

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 10:59:00 +0000

Today is Champorado day. It's been raining a lot lately and nothing beats a having a warm bowl of chocolate porridge. And by the way, "Champorado" actually exists in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champorado. Champorado is a Filipino-style chocolate porridge that I learned how to make when I was only about 8.

Champorado topped with powdered milk.

Leftover cooked white rice can be used or raw white rice if you choose to cook from scratch. To use leftover rice, here's the basic procedure:

Wash cooked rice to separate the grains and strain it.
Add water enough to drown the cooked rice.
Bring to boil and then add cocoa. Sweetened or unsweetened cocoa may be used whichever is preferred.
Stir occasionally until it has a sticky consistency.
Turn off the heat and serve with milk and/or sugar.

To cook Champorado using raw white rice:

Cook rice as usual but use an excessive amount of water. Rice cooker may be used.
Bring to boil and then stir the rice to keep it from clumping.
Add more water if the rice is soaking up all of the fluid. The key is to have excess water since since we'e making a porridge.
When rice is cooked, add the cocoa power.
Follow steps 4 and 5 above.

Some use glutinous rice in place of the regular white rice. In my case, I prefer regular white rice because the cocoa powder already makes it sticky. My favorite serving style is topping the Champorado with powered full cream milk. Sweetened condensed milk will also do the trick.

a taste of Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:35:00 +0000

My first visit to Singapore in July was in time for the Singapore Food Festival. A few days after my arrival, my sister and I headed to the nearest kopitiam so I can have some char kway teow. I first tasted this dish in a Malaysian restaurant in the Philippines. Here in Singapore it's a very common dish and anyone can get it at the hawkers. I won't be expounding on the differences between a kopitiam and a hawkers center but in my experience you can get cheap food at both but the latter is traditionally an open-air food court.

char kway teow

Char kway teow is like a mix of everything - sea food, rice noodle, chilli and more. I cannot tell what else is in there. It doesn't look pretty but the taste turns out to be mysterious but good. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Singapore identifies a lot with this food. The country is a mix of different cultures and has turned into something exciting and interesting.

Without a proper itinerary, we headed down to Clark Quay one night to see the lights by the river. To my surprise, the bridge has been converted into a huge food court selling just about any Chinese street food and other local delicacies. We bought a kopitiam card, topped it up and tried three items.

The first item was the carrot cake. This one is not the sweet dessert. Instead it is white raddish with egg and spring onion. This one cost us SGD 4.00 though we could have gotten it somewhere else at a much lower price. To me it tasted close to omelette but with more substance so I give this a score of 8/10.

carrot cake

Item number two was the deep fried prawn ball. This one was SGD 1.60 per ball. There was no dripping oil, and I love prawns so I gave this a score of 9/10.

fried prawn ball

The third item was the pork bun and is very similar to the Philippine siopao. It is locally called kong ba bao. Stewed pork is inserted in between the bun and stuffed with some lettuce. To me it is a complete meal, so I gave this a perfect 10/10.

kong ba bao (pork bun)

The night wasn't over after my last bite. The city was still filled with lights and people craving for more food for the soul.

Left: The author; Right: Clark Quay Food Street.

tea is everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:36:00 +0000

I am still overwhelmed with all the new things in this new place. Green tea bread and milk tea is everywhere. The first time I had milk tea in a bottle was in Shanghai and being able to get it at almost every corner is like a dream come true. Now green tea bread is not some specialty anymore. It's as common as rice.

The Singapore Food festival happened last July when I first came here. I've been eating a lot and talking about food less. The calories have added up and now I think I should start documenting before all the thoughts melt away into just pure fat. How I wish all the fat melt away instead!

Singaporean food has become part of my system for more than a month now and I've been eating local food at least five times a week. That however doesn't keep me from cooking or eating home cooked food. My sister's been feeding me a lot and that explains why I'm a little more worried about my midsection now. But as long as this blog exists, I'll be talking about food. :)

Casa Verde Cebu

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:10:00 +0000

Love for food is always proportional to the width of the waistline but right now this love is much stronger than my desire to trim the midsection.

The talk of the town is Casa Verde's Brian's Ribs which is not disappointing at less than PHP200.00. It is served with a healthy side dish of sweetcorn and chopped carrots. The sauce is sweet so that adds more flavor to it.

They're not just all about grilled baby back ribs though. Calamares is in the menu and it wasn't bad at less than a hundred pesos. I should have kept the receipts. I couldn't remember the exact figures.

It is not my first time to dine here but good food always keeps me coming back. The thing I love most was the Chicken Salad which affordable at less than PHP150.00 for its quality.

Casa Verde also has the enormous burger which I have tried once and willing to try again. You can visit them at The Walk in Asiatown IT Park or at The Terraces in Ayala Center Cebu, or at the original branch which I have never been to and cannot discuss at this point.

Before I forget, these two brances have nice wall decors too which gives an ambiance that is a cross between fresh and vintage. I should take more photos next time.

kitchen alchemy part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:43:00 +0000

At least twice, we crashed at a friend's place and crashed her kitchen too. We all don't have the luxury of time so we all take advantage of using any spare time to cook anything that comes to mind. In this case, we cooked whatever was in the kitchen.

Without much preparation, we dug into the cupboards and the fridge and found a few ingredients that can still make a decent meal.

Here's what my friends found in the cupboard:

garlic clove
red onion
ground pepper (black)
iodized salt
sugar
pork chops
squash
tomato sauce
fish sauce
soy sauce

Most Filipino kitchens always have spices so it's almost always easy to make a flavorful dish with anything.

Here's a list of instructions of what my friend basically did:

Dice the pork chops and set aside. Chop one clove of garlic and one onion bulb.
Pour one tablespoon of cooking oil in a skillet. (We used palm oil since this was what was in the kitchen.)
Saute pork fat, garlic and onion together.
Add the rest of the diced meat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat until brown.
Add enough water to drown the cooked meat. Toss in the diced squash. Pour in some soy sauce and fish sauce. Add squash and bring to boil.
When squash is tender, add tomato sauce. Sugar may be added to cut sourness. Add more salt and pepper if needed. Let it simmer until most of the liquid is evaporated.

Serve the food with steamed rice. Here's some photos of the actual experiment.

We'll talk about more pork chops next time. Happy eating everyone!

Tip for the day: "Preparing Garlic" from startcooking.com

Fruits in Ice Cream!

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:18:00 +0000

Why does your ice cream melt so fast? There must be animal or vegetable fat in it. Not anyone knows that but it's true. Most ice cream use substitutes for milk fat. If you want to make sure you're eating ice cream that contains only milk fat, try FIC's Gourmet, Premium and Lite flavors. Who's FIC or what's FIC? I'm always asked that question when I talk about my favorite local ice cream stall in the mall. FIC stands for Fruits in Ice Cream.

FIC or Fruits in Ice Cream ensures quality in their ice cream. They're not the cheapest ice cream around but like everyone says, you get what you paid for. I learned about them when I was on a hunt for green tea-flavored ice cream. I wouldn't say I'm an adventurous eater but I love to try not-so-common flavors. FIC's green tea ice cream will not disappoint you and I'm very sure of that. Can you even imagine it? To taste is to believe.

The green tea flavor belongs to the Premium line. FIC doesn't just sell green tea flavor though. They serve almost every possible flavor you can think of. They have the Gourmet line which includes Black Sesame. This sounds like a weird jelly bean flavor but actually was very creamy.

The Pistachio also is quite surprising. It wasn't too sweet but it smells really good. It was like eating sweet perfume. Just heavenly.

Pure cream may not turn out so good so the texture plays an important role here. Also, their ice cream is not too sweet and it's not like your regular ice cream doped with tons of sugar. That's another good think about their ice cream.

For the health conscious or those who just cannot take table sugar, FIC offers Lite ice cream. The natural fructose from the fruits is what makes the ice cream sweet. It has lower fat than most ice cream so you can have too much without too much worries.

FIC also has the Pinoy Sorbetes line which imitates the local flavors that we love such as chocolate. This however is mellorine-based so that means vegetable fat is used alongside pure milk fat. If you're not too discriminating, go ahead and try it.

Uniqueness is the key that is why FIC's Cebu branch is offering their ala mode series soon. You may think it's very much like your favorite brownie cup but the ice cream is so much better than what they usually put on top of your brownie. Here's one called Molten Lava.

I had Raspberry ice cream from the Gourmet line on my cake. So why doesn't the ice cream look all pink? That's what makes it interesting. You can actually see the real bits and pieces of raspberry.

Soon to come are FIC's milkshakes. When I took a sip of my Green Tea milkshake, I felt the same feeling I had when I first had my milk shake. Oh it feels good to be a kid again.

Here's another one called Mocha milkshake which my fellow food blogger Jason tried. I had a sip of it. It was just irresistible.

I devoured too many ice cream today and I can do this all over again. :D (I can't help but put on a huge smile)

To all the ice cream lovers out there, this is a must-try. Visit their stall in Ayala Center Cebu on the 2nd floor, right outside Salon de Rose. FIC also has another branch in SM City Cebu. Guess I'll see you around!

cakes!

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:46:00 +0000

Last month, while my sister visited, we went to Vanille Patisserie. The first time I went there was in Valentine's day of 2009 with my closest friends. I had mentioned about some of their cakes in my main blog. I'm not familiar with their menu cycle so I might be getting the same thing on my next visit.

This one is called truffle cake. The cute pink chocolate ball on top is too enticing I know. Aside from the candy, this cake wasn't too sweet and was more of bitter.

They have another one called French chocolate cake. This one's really thick and it wasn't too sweet as well.

My favorite that day was the cheesecake. Anything with cheese I will most probably like so I am biased. It had another word in the name but I don't remember what it was. All I remember is that it had a lot of texture which I really love.

All the cakes are pretty as usual. I realized all of these three cakes had chocolate in them. I should try a fruity cake next time. I don't know if the store have other brances but this one's in The Terraces in Ayala Center Cebu.

cooked with love

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:25:00 +0000

The food lover had her orthodontic braces installed last week. It will take some time before she can bite into anything she wants. Guess it's going to be a little sacrifice for her. For the meantime let her post some of photos from the Christmas break.

I was deported to the kitchen during the holiday break and it was just brilliant. It was my job to wash the dishes but I also get to experiment. Too bad I only have one pair of arms and the camera doesn't alway want to smell like onion or garlic. But I managed to take some photos of simple food we had for Christmas.

Mom always cooks brownies. This is still a weak point for me. I still don't know how to bake. Anyway, we're tired of eating just plain brownies and decided to give it a makeover.
I never thought it would be that easy to become prettier. We upgraded the brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled it with chocolate syrup. Add a fruit like banana and your brownie à la mode is one step closer to becoming a hybrid banana split. Wish I can always be at home so I wouldn't have to spend a fortune just to have a dessert like this.
We also love pizzas because it gives us an excuse to eat anything we want at one time. My brother and I bought some ready-made dough and sprinkled it with ham, hotdog, ground beef, onion and cheese. I think we ran out of bell pepper that day and so you could see in the photo that the colors are a bit boring. Mozzarella is too expensive for me right now so we opted to use some quick-melt cheese.
The verdict? Anything with ice cream and cheese tastes good and anything made with love tastes even better. :)

Fresh Fish, Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:38:00 +0000

I'm not sure if cooking will ever be for me but I just watched this movie that made me want to learn how to cook even more. Anyway, I'm not going to talk about what happens in the kitchen but about my little dining adventure at Santa Fe in Bantayan Island, Cebu.

We stayed at the island for one a night. First lunch was not good. In fact it was terrible. After four hours of traveling, we got so tired and hungry to think that we went straight to the resort's restaurant and ordered plain Fried Porkchops and Fish Tinola. Tinola is a kind of soup. It's described in Wikipedia but the definition isn't enough. I'll probably talk more about it one day. Enough of sidetracking, the pork tasted as if it was marinated in detergent and the fish in the soup didn't even seem to amount to a quarter of a kilo like the waitress said. We wasted a lot of money for that.

So when dinner came we decided to go on a tight budget and just ate Chicken Inasal (roasted chicken) instead of dining in the expensive restaurants in the market. The next day we skipped breakfast because we spent so much time watching and taking photos of the sunrise and just swimming in the ocean. Just before noon time, we went back to the same place where we had dinner and ordered something more filling this time.

We ordered Fried Calamares and Fish Tinola. Why the same dish? We were on an island of fishermen and it would break my heart to be not able to eat fresh fish at my satisfaction. We got to choose which fish we want and here are photos of our dear fish friends before they hit the skillet. FYI, the dotted fish (rabbit fish) is locally called danggit.

I was nervous about the Calamares. I have tasted several different kinds but there are only a few I honestly liked. The cook didn't make it very good looking but it tasted really good. No rubbery feeling, none at all!

This is becoming the longest and most boring food entry here but hey, I'm just thinking loud. The Fish Tinola was just superb. It tasted like fish but didn't smell like fish. I should learn using appropriate adjectives here but I'm sure you got my point.

Santa Fe market had a row of restaurants but I should be grateful to that guy who gave us a tip about this one. The place actually didn't look like a restaurant at all. Just across are vendors selling goods such as dried fish.

The place was called "Arjaymay." Here's a shot of the restaurant and their menu. The menu was limited but you can have fish cooked anyway you like it. Right now, this is one of my "must dine" places in Santa Fe market and I recommend it to anyone who wants to enjoy fresh seafood without spending a fortune.

Calamares only cost us PHP120 (approx. USD2.4) while Tinola at PHP180 (USD3.6). Four guests were satisfied at that price so it's safe to say it is inexpensive. And no, they paid me no dime for this post. ;)

Check here for all photos.

Fredoccino

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Starbucks may have coined the term Frappuccino but that doesn't mean they have the best blended ice drinks. I am not really good at discovering food on my own. Most of the time I rely on my friends' recommendations and here's one drink I tried a week or two ago. They call it Fredoccino.

So is this some kind of frappe? I think it is but the ice granules were so fine that they went down my throat smoothly and almost freezing it. My first impression was, it must be a milkshake, but I ordered mocha and you can taste the coffee and chocolate in it.

Since we were planning to have a drink and chat at the same time, we decided to order potato wedges as well. I'm not really fond of potatoes but this one didn't disappoint me. After trying their crisp wedges, I would never think of potato the same way again. Sounds cheesy but true.

It took me about twenty minutes to consume my Fredoccino. I could have taken much more time if it weren't for a timed break. Now I have another place to go back to. Thanks to Brennan for introducing me to Fredoccino and for this new perspective here. I always shoot up close and it's nice to view food from the top this time.

To anyone interested in Fredoccino, check out Mocha Blends in Skyrise Building, Asiatown IT Park, Cebu. Everyone must think I frequent this park. Yes I do! I go here to work everyday. :)

Mango Sushi

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:05:00 +0000

Mango Sushi is not rice sushi in any way. Instead, it's mango wrapped in a crepe. I never heard of the unique name until a colleague introduced me to this restaurant called East West in The Walk, Asiatown IT Park, Cebu. This is the same place where Figaro, the coffee shop I talked about from my previous post, is located.

I loved the dessert since the first time we met. I went to the restaurant again with a close friend and my camera. The goal was to eat this fancy crepe but it was dinner time too so we ordered some rice meal.

Citrus chicken sounded attracted so I had it while my friend had her favorite hungarian sausage. Both were served with rice and a side dish. I have to admit I wasn't crazy about the chicken. Meat was tender but it wouldn't be as tasty without the sauce. I have to say the fresh tomatoes were a good complement. I had a bite of the sausage too but couldn't think of anything to describe it except that it's the same spicy sausage everyone loves.

Finally, dessert was served. Fresh mango slices neatly wrapped in crepes were topped with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream. Mango syrup went trickling from the top which made the dessert even more tempting. The taste exceeded the presentation which was good I think. Now this seem to be the next best thing to Mango Float for me. They served the dessert with fork and knife which I didn't find so useful. If I don't need a spoon for this then someone needs to educate me now.

The restaurant has several ways of serving crepe and I plan to try everything. Overall, dinner satisfied both me and my friend and I recommend the place to anyone who wants to have a not-so-expensive dinner and a delicious crepe.

Figaro

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:55:00 +0000

An old friend and I went to this cafe called Figaro in one of Cebu's fast-developing business districts, Asiatown IT Park. We preferred this place because they had free Wi-Fi and my friend needed to do some research while we catch up. The place seemed like the perfect spot. It wasn't crowded at all and park right across was so green.

Food was good though it wasn't the cheapest. We tried a few of their cakes. I'm not really good at remembering names that is why sometimes I keep the receipts to remind of the stuff I just ate. I think we had something like a brownie that day. I would have failed if I've gone to culinary school.

We pampered the sweet tooth too much and so we decided to order something that would trigger the rest of the taste buds. For some reason, sandwiches always taste good to me as long as it had all the right fillings. We were served with a fat clubhouse sandwich with lots of tomatoes, cheese, lettuce and everything else you could imagine in between two slices of bread. What more could I ask for?

I always prefer tea but this was one of those days when I had to try something different. It wasn't the sunniest day but the coffee latte warmed up my heart.

Sweet Night

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Halasan) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:40:00 +0000

Eating is always a guilty pleasure but then who wants to stop eating?

My friend and I went to this cafe called Postrio after a long day of walking in the park and dinner. It was an instant decision and everything ordered was the most attractive pieces on the shelf. I rarely eat my brownie with ice cream and hot fudge on it so that night we tried some.

Of course, we also had the always coveted chocolate cake. I love how they spent a little more time to decorate it. Good looking food is always interesting and tempting.

We finished the night with some green tea though we didn't want any more perking up. We eventually spent the rest of the night talking about life and just feeling happy about it.