Mad about FOOD

Today is Tita Honey’s 80th birthday. She is my dad-in-law’s younger sister, one of only three ninangs at our wedding, and someone we love dearly. Every December 31st, she prepares a special breakfast and lunch at her house for our clan. So this time, her children decided to throw a surprise breakfast party for her at HEAT in Edsa Shangri-la Hotel.

I had been subtly persuading my husband to take me there ever since it opened, but I had made the mistake of informing him what HEAT stands for: Healthy Eating Amazing Tastes. It’s typical of my husband to shun all things healthy, so needless to say, we’ve never been there. Until today.

I’m the type of person who does not skip the most important meal of the day. I can never go anywhere without eating breakfast. For this extra-ordinary day, I wanted to kick up my appetite for a really hearty one. I’m quite used to breakfast buffets in hotels, but I’m not sure why I felt that the choices in HEAT are overwhelmingly endless. I had set my eyes on the bread station, but even that had too many offerings. So I just settled for some Danish pastries, a cinnamon roll, a small slice of fromage (my Bea’s term for cheese; she’s learning some French in time for the showing of "Ratatouille"), and then crossed over to the cold cuts section.

My husband’s plate was, naturally, filled with food that’s heavy on the stomach–garlic rice, hash brown, bacon, ham, sausage, sardines, scrambled egg. He even had baked beans and a ham-and-mushroom omelet.  I wasn’t able to take a bite of any of those, but I had some dumplings, herbed salmon, and California maki even though I couldn’t take anymore. I didn’t even bother to see what’s cooking in the other buffet stations. I mean, just how much breakfast can an average person eat?

To make it a truly healthy breakfast experience, I ordered a pot of green tea (sans sugar) and got a few slices of fresh fruits to cap off the celebration.

Tita Honey still looks fab even now that she’s officially an octogenarian. And we’re glad that, on her birthday, she enjoyed a breakfast fit for a queen. And we, her loyal subjects, were part of it, too.

         
                    the birthday girl with my little one (in a cheongsam)

With the popularity being enjoyed by Sonja’s cupcakes, these miniature cakes have suddenly become in vogue and other more established outfits have jumped on the bandwagon. Now one doesn’t have to go to Serendra to satisfy a craving–there are cupcakes, cupcakes practically everywhere!

The carrot cupcake (P37) from the House of Silvanas has been around for quite a while, but it’s only now that I’ve given it the much-deserved attention. I’m very fond of carrot cakes. I like the whole notion that you can have your (healthy) cake and eat it too! Unlike Sonja’s bunny hugger’s carrot cupcake, that’s dry in both texture and taste, the HoS’ version is dense but moist–with bits of pineapple and walnut for that unmistakable edge. And because I don’t particularly like cream cheese frostings, this humble-looking cupcake really does it for me.

Brownies Unlimited has recently added party cupcakes (P180/box of 6) to their line of baked goodies. These cute cupcakes are a vision of yumminess, crowned with pastel-colored beehives of butter icing and adorned with candy sprinkles. The chocolate cake itself is soft, but there’s nothing extra-special in terms of taste. The butter icing reminds me of the ordinary cupcakes of old–when life was much simpler. This is actually one of my favorite food shots, but the cupcakes are definitely not my favorite. My husband likes them very much, though. Like I always say, taste is relative.

More recently, Go Nuts Donuts took the plunge and came up with "insanely delicious" cupcakes that are very attractive, too. The new line made its debut last July 6, and I’ll have to give them credit for creativity and originality. There are so many varieties to choose from, and with names like white chocolate crunch, dulce de leche, chiffon rosette, Mexican mocha, and a dozen other flavors, they’re absolutely irresistible! I bought half a dozen pieces (P190), and they’re definitely worth a try! My personal favorite is the white chocolate crunch because it’s different, and the white chocolate frosting has just the right sweetness. But I vow to try all the other varieties. I read on the package that the cakes use
Callebaut milk chocolate and pure Belgian sweet cream butter to ensure
the very best quality. Wow. And with prices so affordable, how can you
go wrong?

Cupcakes sprouting like mushrooms all around are reminiscent of the lechon manok craze and the pearl shakes fever. But whether or not they’re here to stay depends on the fickle cupcake-loving market. The danger lies in the saturation of the same. If it reaches that point, I’m sure it will be a survival of the best…and the yummiest.

What comes to mind when you hear the word Mongolia?  Aside from its capital, Ulaanbaatar [Ulan Bator], and our very own Mr. Shooli, I can only think of one other thing: Mongolian barbecue! It’s one of my favorite pig-out foods. A hodge-podge of rice, noodles, meats, vegetables flavored with your choice of sauce, it simplifies the cooking process of something that involves a lot of ingredients. Unlike the usual barbecue, which we know to be grilled, the Mongolian barbecue is stir-fried. What I love most about this food is that I get to choose what goes into my bowl–that means, no bell peppers, no onions, no pineapples, etc.

So where do I go for a Mongolian barbecue fix? Well, first, there’s Mongolian Quick-Stop in SM City Sucat (where I do my monthly grocery-shopping). For only P105+ (single bowl), I also get a small serving of the soup of the day.

For the uninitiated, here’s how it works:

[1] Fill your bowl with all the rice, noodles, and vegetables that you like (I particularly like the flat miki noodles, vermicelli or glass noodles, bean sprouts, carrots, young corn, plus the fried tofu cubes).

[2] The counterperson will put the chunks of meat that you choose (I usually tell that person to add everything in–beef, pork, chicken, squid, fishballs and squidballs).

[3] Specify the type of sauce/flavoring that you prefer (could be sweet and spicy, regular, spicy or sweet).

[4] Get a number and wait for your bowl to be served to you hot and ready to enjoy.

I recently discovered this restaurant called Kublai’s Rock at the Paseo de Magallanes in Makati. The place is small but nice and modern. It serves a mean Mongolian barbecue (P279/person) with added ingredients like mussels, whole corn kernels, mushrooms, and a whole lot more. That also comes with a free bowl of soup (it was cream of potato that day). Mmmm…the Mongolian barbecue is really, really good! A complete and very filling meal, it’s something that we ought to thank the Mongols for.

A chocoholic’s haven

Serendra is definitely a place where one can enjoy la dolce vita. For one thing, there’s a shop called Cacao that’s solely dedicated to–what else–chocolates. I haven’t gone inside the store because surely I won’t be able to resist the urge to buy something, but knowing that such a place exists is already a source of comfort.

There’s this store named Tea & Therapy, owned and operated by the same group behind Haägen Dazs Café, Max Brenner, and Oliver’s Super Sandwiches–just three of my most favorite places in the metro. And because I’m a tea lover (I won’t last a day without a warm cup of my favorite tea), I checked the new place out and discovered that there’s a lot more on the menu than just tea. There are pasta dishes, bento lunch boxes and afternoon tea sets consisting of dimsum, among others. Since it was merienda time when I visited, I just had a slice of the chocolate cashew sansrival (P130++) and a tall glass of the German wild lover cold tea infusion (P95++). The sansrival presented a new twist on an old favorite, but it lacked the requisite crunch that gives this cake a truly unique character. Still, it was delicious, owing to the rich chocolate mousse and the chopped cashew nuts. The iced tea was very refreshing, like the one they have at Oliver’s. Infusing life with health and serenity is the restaurant’s concept. I hope Tea & Therapy thrives in the cut-throat restaurant business, because I find its concept really refreshing as well.

I hooked up with a few fellow chocoholics and we agreed on sampling the chocolate fondue at Serendra’s Café Xocolat. We ordered the Belgian Chocolate Bliss (P355) for sharing. I was a bit dismayed because of the limited choices for dipping–just four, actually. I remember that, for almost the same price (or even cheaper), Max Brenner’s had more stuff on the platter and not just one but two fondues (white and dark chocolate). Anyway, Xocolat’s version of the fondue is a pot of extremely rich, bittersweet melted chocolate that is, well, good enough. I liked the shop’s dulce de leche ensaymada more, though. It was my ‘yummy find’ that day.

Chelsea Market & Café is the newest restaurant on the block, and it promises to be a most interesting one. I really like the feel of this place–warm and cozy, and like a European delicatessen where you can buy cold cuts, spices, coffee, and other specialties from around the globe. So many items on the menu seem excellent choices like the pizza (served on a wooden chopping board) and the salads (served in a really huge bowl), but since I just had a cupcake at the nearby shop, I decided to  have only the Toblerone torte (P160)–layers upon layers of mellow chocolate mousse speckled with bits of nougat alternate with soft, light meringue layers and topped with a block of Toblerone. The result is a scrumptious dessert that tickles the tastebuds. A glass of strawberry iced tea (P95) is a great thirst-quencher, with bits of fresh strawberries adding a fruity sweetness to the drink.

I don’t think I can get enough of Serendra just yet, not until I’ve ticked off all the establishments on my list of must-try, like Ilustrado, Abé, Hosseins, Polu Kai, and Brazil!, to name a few. And just across Serendra is another exciting development, Bonifacio High Street, which is absolutely amazing! It’s unbelievable what Ayala Land is doing to that area, but this much I can say: I LOVE IT!