Can I smell that? Please?

Things I learned from two weeks on the South Beach Diet:

- You'd think that being on Master Cleanser will make this one like a breeze in the park, right? But sadly: Whiny McWhine-Whine, the comeback. 

- Also: Mr. Can-I-please-smell-your-food, Part Deux

- If you go by how the amount of food I can't eat being offered to me has tripled, you ca conclude that someone somewhere out there is mocking me.

- Being next to Food and Foodie magazines, and their constant barrage of freebies is quite the pain in the ass. 

- A microwave—both the lack of and too close of an affinity to—is enough of a spark for corporate divisional tension.

- What doesn't help: watching that show with that woman who kinda looks like Natalie Portman on the Food Network.

- Speaking of lacking a microwave: you know what isn't fun? Eating cold adobong pusit.

- Saving will only be possible if you friggin' don't ride taxis all the time just because you're feeling sluggish.

- You can get sick of the following quite easily: peanuts, cashew nuts, omelets, sugar-free jello and pudding, lentils, curry and coffee with asperthame. 

- I should've had a sign that said, "I can't eat that (le sob)." Emphasis on the "le sob."

- What doesn't help: squealing like a girl at the sight of cookies. 

- You know what else is sad: event buffets. There's like a Chanandeler Bing-Lesbian wedding metaphor in there somewhere.

- You know you're a tennis addict when you're barely able to make it through the day upright, and you suddenly find yourself playing three rounds of doubles on a Saturday morning. 

- When you start mentally listing (and at times actually listing on paper) down the things you are going gorge on after this diet, the future doesn't look too bright for you. (Red velvet cake in da haws!)

- What doesn't help: effing smelling other people's food at random. 

- What was all that anguish and abuse worth in the end? About 13 pounds. And an aggressive form of nut phobia.

*Reposted from Belligerent Bliss

Everybody

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience."

- James Beard

Healthy Cooking

I actually attended a cooking lesson last weekend at The Farm in San Benito. This was for their restaurant called Alive! Most of the food served is raw, there are some dishes (minimal) that are cooked over 40 degrees C. I guess that takes getting used to since I'm so used to hot food (temperature and taste wise).
The chef who had a hard time articulating what he was doing (he had the F and the P syndrome) made up for it with his energy and smile. He obviously loved what he was doing (as a cook) but not necessarily as someone who had to explain what he did.
We watched him make cheese, out of macadamia nuts, miso, rock salt and nutritional yeast as well as pesto (which was delicious) I am a big fan of pesto and if I were to go vegetarian I would probably have this everyday.


We were served the cheese and pesto with crackers that are actually made on The Farm using young coconut. The taste was pleasant and the texture was still crunchy. It was quite amazing. I would recommend that everyone try and have some time out in The Farm to enjoy this wonderful and very nutritional way or enjoying more enzymes in their dishes. And if you like to cook, you may want to add some of their recipes into your home's menu for everyone's benefit.

Why I can't be a vegetarian

Not that I haven't considered it. I have, in fact, gone through several phases of pseudo-vegetarianism, the most recent after having read Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals, which made you want to be on the right side of the ethical food divide. The book details the evils of factory farming and the massive destruction being wrought on the environment just because we like our meat. It will also make you feel guilty for discriminating between animals. Why is it OK to grow and torture chickens and pigs but not a dog or a cat? Plus, a vegetarian diet has never harmed anyone, unlike the artery-clogging (but oh so delicious) fat marbling down a fine cut of cow.

But my resolve always goes out the window when I visit a country like Spain or Argentina, where they revere their meats, treating their cattle with love, letting them graze freely on the grassy pampas, not an ounce of hormones injected into them. They love their pigs, and consider their killing a beautiful sacrifice for the table community of men. It's almost not hard to imagine the animals, if they had a humanlike conscience, to be willingly led to slaughter after having a good, albeit brief life on earth.

That and learning that vegetable farming is also quite destructive to the environment. Essential forests and mangroves have been cleared to make way for potatoes and cabbages and ecologically-unsound monocultures and GMOs. There is no easy answer. Even if you try to go all organic, how do you really know you're eating the best possible thing?

And the last reason why I can't be a vegetarian: if one were to follow the blood type diet, my O type requires that I consume meat and not grains. My blood is build for consuming blood. If you believe that kind of thing.

I like meat, and I love vegetables. I try to eat more of the latter, and eat the former only if it's really good and ideally "happy" (like this wonderful chorizo and steak from a parilla in Buenos Aires). Until someone gives me a foolproof argument for drastically changing my diet, I can't reconcile the contradictory issues and can only just eat as healthily and responsibly as I can.

A buffet blast—and more B words

A couple of months back, my quiz night team, The (S)trippers, got invited to a trivia event in Cebu for their first anniversary. Jim, one of my teammates, brought up the idea of going straight to Bohol (his family has a beach house in Panglao) the day after so we could all make a long weekend trip out of it.

So, the morning after our not-so-crushing defeat (more on that here) at the Manila-Cebu, we made our way to Bohol via the Weesam Line. It was my first time in Bohol and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience though I didn't get to see some of the more tourist-y places (Chocolate Hills and, well, Chocolate Hills...) because our afternoons got rained out. 

One of the highlights of the trip for me (especially where this blog is concerned) was dinner on our last night. We were deciding between the Loboc River Cruise or the Bohol Bee Farm, both cost about the same. Most of us aren't into cruises, so we finally opted for the latter despite its rather sorry-looking mascot-logo (he needs to pluck). 

The Buffet is Pescetarian-friendly—really good salads and fish dishes like the Grilled Blue Marlin.

We stopped by after lunch to reserve a table for the night. The place was filled with locals, most of whom congregated around the Ice Cream shop just outside of the lobby. It offered unusual flavors such as Malunggay and Spicy Ginger (our friend Phil strongly advised us against that one particularly) and less interesting ones like Chocolate and Avocado. I had the Durian. (It had the consistency and taste of dirty ice cream, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.)

And so we went around where we could around the island—a tarsier center, Baclayon church (I KNOW) and the Hinagdanan Cave (where we met the most photo-savvy manong in the history of forever)—and found ourselves headed back to the Bee Farm for an early dinner. Given the relentless downpour, it was a good thing that we decided to go here instead of the cruise.

The place has a very laidback feel to it and great for groups of people.

One of my favorites from the buffer was this Seafood Lasagna dish.

After settling down to our places, I scanned through the menu. Since I'm a pescetarian, I went straight to the seafood section and decided on the Blue Marlin. But Kaia pointed out the buffet option to me. For about P600 (give or take, it goes down depending on the amount of people in your group), you get several dishes (salad, soup, grilled pork, chicken, Blue Marlin cutlets) plus unlimited drinks (if you opt for lemongrass) and a round of ice cream. 

The food came soon after we ordered (maybe the buffet option is so popular that they just cook in bulk?) and we happily stuffed ourselves. I love that this buffet is so pesce-friendly, what with the fish (cooked excellently BTW), seafood lasagna and a whole lot of vegetables. That is what I find sorely lacking in many places in Manila.

All in all, it was a pretty sweet meal. I'll be happy to come back to Bohol just to enjoy this gastronomic experience again.

Mini yummies

I attended a baby shower yesterday and in theme with "baby" all the food was served in miniature proportions. It's comforting to know that you can still get a lot of taste from tinier tidbits.

We were served a fruit shake (for authenticity they were mixed and mashed in a baby food processor) and we drank them out of little bottles:
The shakes were a very refreshing combination of watermelon, apples and a little ice. If we were feeling a little less "wholesome" we probably would have added some vodka. Perhaps after our guest of honor gives birth-we could that to celebrate :-)
Next were very yummy taquitos, bite sized and perfect with their spicy salsa:
Nothing is complete, small or big idea or theme without dessert. One of the hosts made a lovely spread of mini cupcakes and tiny red delicious apples (both unhealthy and healthy options) for the guests. The cupcakes were red velvet and vanilla (from Classic Confections) while the other tiny treats were from Dulcinea such as cream puffs and profiteroles.
A lovely detail was also done by the guest of honor's sister who is a production designer by profession. With the request for all gifts to be reading material, in fact the invitation had a very clever tagline of "bookmark the date" the guests were asked to give something they would like the baby to read or be read to.

So, keeping that in mind, she placed little flags on each cupcake representing some childhood classics. In taste and presentation, I can honestly say that great things come in little packages. May you all have a Sunday full of small surprises :-)

"Happy wedding day!"

This was our answer to the tiebreaker question: "How many days has it been since Phil proposed to Mia on quiz night? We were off by about 20 days. What? Of course there was quiz at the wedding.

Phil and Mia, friends from quiz night, got married yesterday during brunch time at Carmel, which is somewhere in New Manila. They're actually from another team, Urban Fervor. A year ago, I probably wouldn't have imagined being invited or attending the wedding of our bitter rivals (yes we take quiz night very seriously).

But now, I'm very happy we all became friends. It has become some sort of a community of people, all geeks in one way or another who completely get each other.

Here's to Phil and Mia and to little trivia babies soon. The (S)trippers hope to win at the baptismal.

Breakfast at Gerald's

I'm always on the lookout for a great place to grab a quick snack or a delicious breakfast. It was my mom who actually turned me on to Gerald's a little known (for now) deli on the 2/f of Ecoplaza along Pasong Tamo extension. She and her yoga friends would go there after yoga to well, un-yoga their bodies by stuffing themselves with coffee and butter-filled flakey goodness.

First off, was coffee. Now, I'm not much of a coffee drinker but I will try a cup if it's early enough in the morning and I know I have the rest of the day to "shake" off its effects
The coffee I tried wasn't bad, it wasn't too acidic and I loved the spoon-like sugar holders.
My mom ordered her favorite butter croissant and she let me try a little bit of it, this particular croissant gets sold out quickly as they only make a certain amount per day. If you are dying to have one and they've just run out, then be prepared to wait about 20 mins for a new one.

Finally, I ordered my quiche, this is probably one of my favorite "frenchie" dishes, I have enjoyed the ones served at Mickey's (on Jupiter) and Alexandre (in Fort Bonifacio) so I'm always on the lookout for something new. I thought I'd just get one slice, but it turns out for Php 170 you get the whole piece which I thought was quite generous. It wasn't as tasty as the spinach quiche I normally get at Mickey's and I enjoy the side salad and almost unlimited bread servings you get at Alexandre, but this was soft and tasty. In the beginning, after the first bite I thought it tasted a little too eggy, but as I worked my way through it, it got better and better. Gerald's is open everyday except Sundays. Some have told me that the owner (who I assume is named Gerald) used to sell his wares at the American Women's Bazaar. Gerald's also has a freezer section where you can buy all sorts of ready to eat (after unfreezing) goodies. Including a frozen paella. I'd much rather stick to the fresh out of the oven breads instead!

Burgers and a whole lot more

Last Sunday, my friend Berry Tenchavez invited me to the dry run of their family + partners' burger joint at the Ayala Triangle. 

Excited to try out new burgers (my husband and I had been burger-hopping for three weeks already), I obliged. Too bad I didn't bring my camera so please bear with my lesser quality phone photos :)

The new joint is called CBD (Cheesesteaks, Burgers & Drinks)

and as the name suggests, it is a hub for juicy burgers, sandwiches and drinks.

First, we tried two of their shakes. They aren't ordinary shakes—they're milkshakes blended in with REAL CAKE—they're called SHAKE & BAKE! Chunky and creamy and milky goodness!

Left: Strawberry Short Cake; Right: Chocolate Fudge Shake & Bake

Up next: spicy and flavorful buffalo wings! Too spicy for me but I've been told they are coming in with milder variety for the weak at heart.

I ordered the CBD Cheeseburger which was a good amount of crunchy and soft and juicy. Juuuust right! :9 It also came with crispy twirly fries, as all of their burgers do!

Berry (LEFT) and Cara (RIGHT)

CBD also serves imported beers and LCD TVs are all over the place, so if you want to watch the news or some ESPN, this is the place to be! (NOTE to boys: ahem, ahem)

clean, modern and comfy interiors to make guests feel welcome and comfortable!

And the prices aren't so bad, either! For three people, the bill only totaled P951—and we were STUFFED & SATISFIED! 

A Deelish Detour

If you haven't driven 1.15 hours to Pampanga for a gastronomic partay at C', then you're definitely living under Patrick the Starfish's rock. 500 meters into the ocean.

C' is this Italian enclave owned by, well, an Italian man named Charlie. The place is a pretty old, bricky structure that was most likely a house forty years ago.

C' is also where Yellow Cab's DEAR DARLA pizza idea was probably taken.

You see, people don't only go to C' for their generous serving of pasta:

And not the lamb, the steak, the risotto....They also come-a-drivin' over for the PANIZZAS.

What are panizzas? Well, tasty pizza that's cut into vertical strips and rolled with alfalfa sprout and arugula (sound familiar?)

But this has been around for YEARS! So go figure! :p

Just thought I'd take in a shot of my friends who were there with me! What's a good meal without good friends to share it with? Thank God for friends who eat the way I do!!! :)

Photos by Darwin Mago

Lunch in a bun

I'm becoming a fan of Starbucks sandwiches. Provided they are served hot and eaten right away. I try to get something new whenever I can, although I don't think it's helping in my battle against the bulge. Some favorites of mine include the Baked Sicilian Fish with Rustic Vegetables, the Tomato, Basil and Cheese Bagel (though they've now changed it to foccacia) and if I'm really in the mood to indulge, there is the Italian Ham with Three Cheeses.
Today for lunch I tried their Ham, Chicken and Gruyere ( I love gruyere) in a black sesame seed bun. The sesame seeds add a whole lot more flavor to the bread and when I ate the sandwich freshly heated, the ham, chicken and cheese all seemed to melt into my mouth in a lovely, delectable medley of flavors.


Sandwiches make for an easy, non-messy snack (well, unless they're filled with sauce and overstuffed) that don't take up too much space in your bag but depending on the ingredients a lot of space in your tummy. When I'm in a hurry, this is my go-to-meal, and on a very, very inspired day, I can actually make one for myself. But, that is a rare moment in my no-cook existence.

There are lots of new delis opening up, serving up fresh meats, cheeses, and other savory delights on a variety of breads, so pick your carb-buddy of choice, and have fun with your bun!

Fashion & Food: Friends or Foes?

(There are other things we can do with our forks! Image from Silver Fork Bracelets)


Unlike current popular belief which dictates that to be fashionable you should be stick thin & subsist on champagne & liquified vegetables, you CAN love fashion & love food—just look at the fashion capitals of France & Italy where the couture is as renowned as the cuisine. In fact, if you dig a little deeper, you will find that fashion and food have a lot more in common than previously thought.

First & foremost, the most important thing about both fashion and food is GOOD TASTE. Without it, neither one can exist.

Next is recognizing the importance of learning to MIX & MATCH the right ingredients in the right amounts. Balance is key.

Visual PRESENTATION is necessary whether you're showing a fashion collection or presenting a food tasting menu.

And last but not least, keeping things FRESH is paramount--both fashion & food stink when they're stale.

Both fashion & food are part of what satisfy our appetite for that wondrous thing called life. So let's live a little and learn to enjoy both equally! :)

Tet Offensive

While the rest of the Sino-influenced world ushers in the Year of the Rabbit, the Vietnamese Zodiac insists that it's the Year of the Cat (cue hippie Al Stewart song). I found this out on Friday, when the ambassador of Vietnam held a dinner celebrating Tết, or the lunar new year, at the Sheraton. Being half-Viet and fully unable to speak the language, I spent the night tweeting away politically incorrect observations like how the wine sucked and there were no gwapos in the room. That was a PNoy reference, by the way. Now I truly love Vietnamese food, I've spent the last three years searching for a comparable banh mi to the one from Hanco's, a little shop in Brooklyn I lived next to that was my go-to place whenever I was hungover or too lazy to cook, which meant all the time. The buffet dinner at this night of cats and caterwauling (you know what I mean if you've ever heard Vietnamese music) was heavy on the mystery meatloaf, which Viets are masters of. This one tray had an interesting array of gelatinous, layered slices, and despite my better judgment I sampled a piece, thinking it was some kind of French-inspired terrine. It was inedibly chewy and didn't taste like anything, but its texture was disturbing enough for my tongue to project bilious qualities it probably didn't possess. My mom hazarded a guess that it was made of tripe, offal, congealed blood and other pork by-products that are normally heavily disguised in other ethnic dishes. I think I'm over my Anthony Bourdain Nasty Bits phase where I'll try anything street. Just because an exotic foreign culture fries up a rat doesn't make it anything more than a fried rat.

My Girl

Being a single mom is hard, but sometimes, your 6 year old will do things to make you laugh and stop taking life so damn seriously.

Like dive into the fountain in Darling Harbour after she asked if she could dip her toes in.

So des ne! (The art of turning Japanese-ah!)

Japanese food is a true favorite of mine, and I daresay of many foodie filipinos. There is an abundance of Jap restaurants in the metropolis but there is a great concentration it seems in the areas near Makati Cinema Square. Little Tokyo is a little compound full of Yakiniku treats and the like. but today found me crossing through Little Tokyo and out into the Pasong Tamo area for always busy Kikufuji.
What's on the menu? A whole lot, and thankfully, with pictures to boot. It seems whoever put the actual menu together thought, a picture paints a thousand sushis. So, des, ka.
I'm not sure if I picked the business lunch meal, or the lunch set of the day but it came with a whole bunch of appetizers, which, if I was on one of my extreme diets again would have been enough for me.
There was a bit of sashimi, some tempura fish, cold veggie salad and even a warm veggie mix...and that was just for starters!
What was my dish of choice? Chirashi Don:

It even came with a generous helping of miso soup and I had hot Japanese tea to help ease them through my digestive system. Dessert was either iced coffee or fresh fruit. I went for the fruit which was a cleverly sliced banana, I should have taken a picture but it wasn't that photogenic. It was extremely sweet though and took away the lingering aftertaste of fish and soy sauce from my mouth.

I'm thinking that this would be a wonderful place to bring my Brunchie Brunch, we could get one of the more private sitting areas where we could sit on little cushions in traditional Jap style and chat away while we poke fun at each other and, knowing the way some our conversations begin to deteriorate into deviancy (is that even a word) probably make sexual innuendos pertaining to our meals. Sayonara for now everyone!

Have a Happy Meal

Photo by Tippi

The late American journalist John Gunther once said, “All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.”

I don’t know about ‘all’ happiness per se, but I do admit that a fantastic brunch can most times translate to a very good day. And good days and good times is the basis of our (this group of wannabe bloggers’) friendship. Having worked together in a magazine for two years, we have gotten to know each other well and have transitioned from colleagues to friends.

We love food (each in our own little ways). We come from different backgrounds and have diverse experiences. We all have definitive and distinct characters and creative voices. (Most are editors. One is a designer. One is a creative director. One is into nuni-nuni. One is a hipster-writer. One is a Bohemian flower child with a kid of her own. Some are panthers. Some are peacocks. Some are dolphins. I’m an Owl. Hopefully, I’ll get to explain all of these to you one of these days.) And we enjoy each other's company especially over a really good meal. That’s why we decided to meet up for Saturday brunch at least once a month to catch up on each other and try out different haunts in the metro.

So we thought, we have so much to talk about and so much to share, why not share it with more people? Which lead to this here online journal. Here, we will talk about topics that we would normally share with each other over our monthly gatherings (and more).

Basically, this is our brunch in blog form. We hope you like it as much we enjoy our monthly happy meals.