Super Sarap

Baking Weekend

I'm all set to do some "heavy baking" this weekend. Two days ago, the husband and I went on a shopping spree of sorts for baking pans, accessories and ingredients (new wooden spoons! loose-bottomed tart pans!)

This weekend, in practice for the coming Christmas baking rush, I'll be tackling the following recipes:

1. David Lebovitz' Chocolate-Almond Buttercrunch Toffee. Just look at the photos.

2. The Amateur Gourmet's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie. I mean, how can I not?

3. My own recipes for: Butterscotch Brownies and Chocolate Brownies, and

4. Graham Cracker Brownies. Smores, anyone?

somewhere!!, nueve yorko

cooking4models, found via the Amateur Gourmet, is hilarious:

"what i want ot know is why do boys get to eat fritos and chips and not get FAT and girls have to eat AIR and water all the time!?? it's like some kind of inequation or somethun..."

Is she for real? Read more at the blog.

Too full

megnut has a post up about Getting too full during a great meal, which includes some great tips for those of us who constantly need to pace ourselves:

In general, I try to avoid eating much during the day if I know I'll be going out to a big dinner someplace special, especially if it's the kind of place where I'll likely order the tasting menu and be eating for four hours.

As always, there are great tips in the comments section of the post as well.

Calling Food Bloggers!

We're looking for a few good bloggers to join our brand spanking new Food Bloggers Network!

Whether your passion lies in cooking, baking, eating out, or ordering in… if you’re passionate enough about food to want to write about it, we want to hear from you.

Positions are open to both first-time and established bloggers, amateur or professional. Contact Food Bloggers if you're interested.

Spice Dreams

Note to self: visit Spices 'n Flavours at Fort Bonifacio. Bring lots of cash.

Spices ‘n Flavours
RR-7 Phase 1 Street Market!
Fort Bonifacio Global City,
Taguig, Metro Manila
(632) 758-2159, 831-0449

Ah, garlic

Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.

- Alice May Brock

Salad Nights

In an effort to make up for all the premium ice cream we've been treating ourselves to lately, the husband and I have been sticking to salads only at night.

Because we didn't feel like preparing anything ourselves tonight, we ordered in- and went with California Pizza Kitchen's bestselling Original BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad, a favourite of ours.

The guy who took my order over the phone was nice and all, but I've got a few bones to pick with them:

We requested extra cilantro. There must have been a misunderstanding between order and kitchen, because what they gave me was no avocado instead of extra cilantro. Grrr.

And then there was the price. Our bill shows that: one full-sized BBQ Chicken Salad (with no avocado!) cost P395, and half-sized Waldorf Salad (which was particularly mediocre) cost P425. Hmm. This, plus Value Added Tax, Food Tax, and Packaging Charge, meant that we spent a total of P1005.81 for one salad, and one half-a-salad... really not worth it.

Food named after people

After my recent encounter with Cherry Garcia, I became curious about what other foods have been named after- or inspired by- people. Here's some interestingness:

The Bing Cherry (which I'm mentioning first because it's a major ingredient in Cherry Garcia, and therefore sort of appropriate) was developed by Oregon horticulturist Seth Luelling around 1875, with the help of his Manchurian foreman Bing, after whom he named it.

I was surprised to discover that Melba Toast and Peach Melba are both named for the same woman, Dame Nellie Melba (1859-1931). A famous Australian soprano from Melbourne, she was living at the Savoy in London when she took ill, and could only manage to eat extremely dry toast. It was also at the hotel that the dessert Peach Melba was created in her honour by Chef Auguste Escoffier.

Then there's the Salisbury Steak, created by Dr. James H. Salisbury (1823-1905), an early health food advocate who advised his patients to eat the dish three times a day and limit their intake of "poisonous" vegetables and starches.

If, like me, you find all this fascinating, you can read more on Answer.com's list of foods named after people.

Scoops of cherry-flavoured heaven

Okay, so I've been on an ice cream kick lately. I, who've never been an ice cream person, now find myself a little bit obsessed with these "premium" ice cream brands- specifically, Haagen-Dazs and now, Ben & Jerry's.

Tonight, it was two scoops of cold, creamy, sinfully rich Cherry Garcia, the most delicious tribute to Grateful Dead ever. Its official description is:

Cherry Ice Cream with Cherries & Fudge Flakes

But it just tastes like so much more.

Ben & Jerry's ice cream is available at all Rustan's Supermarkets in Manila- we got ours at the tiny Alabang "express" supermarket.

Now on TypePad

I've moved Super Sarap over to TypePad... figured I might as well make use of my account. I've also set my Vox account up to crosspost here. Ah, the joy of crossposting... it's like two posts in one! Or something.

In any case, I'm glad to be posting on TypePad more. I had almost forgotten what a nice place this is.