Making a Mini-Comeback with Spinach Pesto

Hey guys! *sheepish smile* So it's been ages since I last posted and I feel horrible about it.  Catering has completely taken a hold of my life these past few months and I've barely had time to breathe. So that plus a serious case of writer's block happened.   It's a pretty lame excuse, I know.

Anyway, I've decided to revive My Life on the B-List bit by bit and I'm starting on something small.  I've started a mini-project called Yu (a.k.a. Yuri my hubby) and Mich's Kitchen Adventures. I've been keeping my stress levels in check by cooking up dishes I've wanted to experiment on, but couldn't include in my catering menu, at home. No measurements, no shortcuts, and best of all, no client to please! Thank God.  Ha!  Freestyle cooking just the way I love it.  Bulk cooking has taken it's toll on my creativity so I'm going back to my roots so to speak.  I've posted our first two creations on my Facebook page.  Please check it out HERE. :)

I know this doesn't make up for the lack of posts but I'll get back to it I promise. Thanks again for being super patient with me.

Have a great year ahead everyone!

In the midst of a cooking class in KL, Malaysia. :)

~Mich :)

Binge Session at Kanin Club

It has been an insanely busy week for our catering business; and so, I am deeply mortified by my lack of posts this month.  My only excuse is that we had to cater to close to 5,000 people in a span of 5 days.  What few days I've had after that hectic week has been spent hibernating... and working some more.  Boo.  We were all operating on 2 to 4 hours of sleep per day but somehow we managed to pull through til the end.  So workaholics that we are, we scheduled a meeting with Anj, a consultant of ours and a very good friend of mine, last Saturday, which was just a day after our said hellish week.

I don't know how I managed to get myself out of bed, but I had enough of my wits about me to bring all the necessary paperwork for our meeting and my trusty camera.  It was supposed to be a simple meeting over lunch at Kanin Club.  I had no plans of blogging about what we were about to eat since all my energy was focused on staying awake.  It was a good thing that I'd developed a habit, akin to a muscle reflex, of taking pictures of everything I eat because our lunch at Kanin Club turned out to be not so ordinary after all.

I managed to drag my bleary-eyed self to Technohub 15 minutes past our agreed time.  Yuri was late too by association.  Teehee.  My bad.  He was ready an hour before we were supposed to leave as always.  Lucky for me, our other business partner and Anj had a hard time getting out of bed too so it ended up that we all got there at almost the same time.

Our team was in a celebratory mood, and since we had Anj with us as well, we decided to reward ourselves by ordering A LOT of food.

Among us, Anj was the only one who had eaten there before.  She enthusiastically recommended that we try one of her fave dishes, which was the Sinigang rice.

Sinangag na Sinigang Php 179.00

I wasn't sure what I was expecting but it certainly didn't look like anything I had imagined.  The crispy kankong (water spinach) topping, the "sinigang risotto", and the pork liempo slices wrapped around the rice had my interest piqued and I was excited to try it.  This deconstructed dish is an interesting take on pork sinigang and you can definitely pick out all the key flavors.  The rice was cooked in the sinigang broth with an extra helping of tomatoes, so the tartness and full-bodied taste of the soup was definitely there.  The portion size  was more than enough for three, but Anj and I needed no help in wolfing this plate down.

Yuri wanted to stay away from meat, so he picked out the Stuffed Squid.
 

Stuffed Squid Php 224.00

It was definitely a sight to behold.  It looked so pretty on the plate.  The squid was tender enough and the batter was crunchy.  The sweet sauce had hints of oyster sauce in it.  The menu says the squid was stuffed with chives but I'm pretty sure it was some sort of spinach.  I just wish the stuffing had some sort of flavor to it instead of it just being plainly blanched.  The dish would've been phenomenal if they did something special to the stuffing.

Itsi Bitsi Php 224.00

We were trying to sort of erm eat "healthy" so we decided to order one veggie dish.  We went for the Itsi Bitsi just because the name was quirky.  It was described in their menu as "It's sitaw, bitsuelas, and sigarilyas sauteed with beef.", hence the name.  They get plus points for trying to be funny, and they got us to order the dish anyway so that counts for something.  The vegetables were rolled in cornstarch and then deep-fried before it was cooked with the beef.  It was simply seasoned but really tasty. 

Binukadkad na Tilapia Php 246.00

You can never go wrong tilapia.  This dish is always a hit.  Deep-fried butterflied tilapia served with soy sauce.  It was fried perfectly.  I could've literally eaten the whole thing bones and all.

Now this is what the Kanin Club is known for.  Dinuguan a.k.a pork blood stew is a truly unique and exotic Filipino dish.  Kanin Club has somehow made dinuguan friendlier and more accessible to people who'd usually cringe at the thought of eating dinuguan.  The blood sauce part is non-negotiable of course, but instead of using offals, they've decided to use choice cuts of pork cooked chicharon-style.  It was a lovely surprise!  You'd never guess it underneath all that sauce.  I'm ashamed to admit that I have been unable to conquer my squemishness for dinuguan ever since I watched my lola cook it from scratch when I was a kid.  But I've been told that many people have ventured to eat dinuguan for the first time at Kanin Club and loved it.  So I gave it my best shot.

Crispy Dinuguan Php 261.00

More than anything, it's the visual of the thick dark blood gravy that psyches me out the most.  I had to close my eyes, like the big baby that I am, before taking a bite.  Once I was past the visual hurdle,  I could properly appreciate the crunchy chicharon together with the slightly tart sauce.  Yep this was my first bite of dinuguan in a loooooong time and it wasn't so bad was as delicious as any bowl of dinuguan could be. LOL.  So, if you're sampling this dish for the first time, then I must insist that you try it here.

To say that we reached a milestone in our business is gross understatement.  That's the most we've catered to  EVER.  So that pig out session at Kanin club was well-deserved.  :-)  I'm crossing my fingers and hoping we have more stressful weeks like those!



Address:  U.P. AyalaLand Technohub, Commonwealth Ave., Quezon City, Metro Manila
Tel. No. : (02) 332-5978
Other Branches:  Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati
                              Westgate Center, Alabang
                              Paseo de Sta. Rosa, Laguna


~Mich :)

Couponmania: Sakae Sushi!

About two months ago, I managed to eavesdrop on my friend's conversation on Twitter. I saw the words "coupon", "sushi", and "eat-all-you-can" being thrown around and I was resolved... nay determined, to find a way to get in on the action. Thank God the coupon deal, which was from Cash Cash Pinoy, was for a one hour eat-all-you-can sushi buffet for six.  I lucked out!  Plus they really were looking for additional people to go with them so my timing was perfect.   

So finally, we all met last Saturday at Sakae Sushi at the SM North Annex for our epic erm merienda (?) sushi buffet.  You see, we were only allowed to use the coupon during their off peak hours so we reserved a table for 3:30 PM.  We had been dying to redeem the coupon as soon as it was purchased online, but somehow work and other things got in the way.  We had been dreaming and talking about this sushi smorgasborg for months so you can imagine how excited we were last Saturday!

The coupon was worth Php 1,500.00, so it only cost us Php 250.00 each.  Our one hour time limit started as soon as we sat.  Our assigned server told us the rules as soon as we were ushered into our booth.  She told us that all the sushi/items placed on the conveyor belt were fair game, except for the bottled juices which would cost us extra.  We also got a bowl of miso soup each and a choice of bottomless hot or cold green tea.  The coupon was really too good to be true!  As soon as we were given the go signal I felt my adrenaline pumping.  I've always had a bit of a competitive streak in me so I was determined to get the most out of this buffet within the time limit given to us.

It took a while for us to come up with a game plan.  The whirring sound of the conveyor belt together with the assortment of colorful plates marching past our table was hypnotic.  I could've easily gotten lost in it.  But we had a running clock so we quickly started picking out plates that caught our eye.  Half of the fun was in grabbing the plates.  And grab we did. 


Here were some of my fave picks that day.  There was a wide assortment of nigiri sushi (hand-formed sushi rice with a seafood type topping over it) with toppings such as salmon, tuna, shrimp, blue marlin, and (weirdly enough) octopus.  They also had the typical maki sushi (rolled sushi with nori).  There were also a few non-shushi items on the conveyor belt like, sauteed pepper chicken, chicken roll with asparagus and cheese, tofu steak, and tempura crabsticks as seen above.  We prolly ate close to 55 plates of sushi between  us six!  That's 100++ pieces of sushi. LOL.  *high fives all around*

Our first 30 minutes!

Whatever Sakae Sushi lacked in quality, we made up for in quantity.  They made sure that their sushi rolls had extra thick layers of rice in it so the proportions were a bit off.  Hey from a business point of view I completely understand why they did this.  Rice fills you up really fast and if you get customers like us everyday it would be quite hard to make a decent profit.  During our last 15 minutes, our server asked us if there was a specific item or items we'd like the kitchen to put out on the conveyor belt.  We didn't know this was possible!  If I had known earlier, I would've been stuffing myself with salmon nigiri the whole time.  I quickly asked for a few more salmon nigiris and true enough, they immediately put out three plates of it on the conveyor belt.   I promptly ate two.  At this point, I was stuffed up to my head in sushi.

If we go by the per-plate-prices of their sushi, to say that we got our money's worth is a huge understatement.

Yuri and I had to walk around the mall five times to get our tummies settled.  Yep that was dinner for us.  I definitely won't be eating any sort of sushi for at least a month.  But if I do feel like going on a sushi binge, I now know where to go.  Sakae Sushi may not have the best sushi out there but we got it for a steal and we definitely had a blast!

Happy tummies. :)

I'm not sure when they'll release coupons again, but their All Day Sushi Buffet rates aren't half bad:

• Adults Php 399.00 / head
• Kids Php 199.00 / head

***This includes miso soup and a choice of bottomless hot or cold green tea.  No service charge.  Surcharges will be imposed on food wastage.



Address: UG/F SM City North EDSA Annex, North Ave. cor. EDSA, Quezon City
Tel. #: (02) 332-9139
Hours: 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM daily

Sunday Morning at Sidcor

Yuri's been wanting to go to the Sidcor Sunday market (now at Eton Centris) for over a month now. You're probably wondering why this is even an issue. Thing is, it's particularly hard for us... erm... err for me that is, to wake up earlier than 10:00 AM on Sundays. LOL. It's my designated sleep-in day since we usually have catering events on Saturday evenings.

Yep that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.  Now that I'm married and free from my parents' constant lectures on the merits of waking up early, I figured I had a right to my Sunday mornings.  I can and WILL waste it as I please.  *ahem*  Right Yuri? Teehee.

This morning though, we managed to get ourselves ready by 9:00 AM.  Indeed, that was no small feat, what with the chilly-curl-under-the-covers weather. But a promise was a promise. So I put on my most believable cheerful smile and trudged off to the car where Yuri was impatiently waiting for me.

It was an easy 20-minute drive from our house to Eton Centris.  Gotta love Metro Manila on Sundays.  By the time we got there, I was genuinely looking forward to our little outing and my usual morning sullenness was long gone.

The place was brimming with people despite the overcast skies and wet weather.

There's a separate section for fresh produce, meat, and seafoods, another for clothes and accessories, one for cooked food featuring mostly Filipino delicacies, and one for plants and all things green.  On this particular trip, Yuri and I were just there for herbs.  It was high time that our other herbs at home had some company.

I immediately homed in on Mang Narcisso's stall.  I didn't think we had to look any further.  He had a pretty neat selection of herbs, and it was awesome that he had all the ones we were looking for.  We ended up buying six seedlings and it took us roughly ten minutes to finalize our choices. The seedlings were only Php 25.00 pesos each.  Amazing.  You can't get a better price than that.

What I loved about Mang Narcisso is that he gave us a lot of practical tips on how to prolong the lives of our herbs.  Plus he was really nice and easy to talk to.  In fact, I had so much fun comparing notes with him with regards to our herb preferences for certain dishes, that I forgot about my slightly muddy feet and that I was awkwardly squished under an umbrella that barely covered Yuri and I.  He even let me take his picture! :) 

Yuri took his new babies straight to the garden as soon as we got home.  They have now been replanted into their own individual pots.  Mang Narcisso told us that we should make sure that we till the soil of each plant at least once a week.  He says that it's vital that the soil is always loose so that water seeps into the roots of the herbs really easily.  We were supposed to buy 7 herbs, but he vetoed our chocolate mint option.  He told us that his chocolate mint was looking wilted and that he'd bring us a nice and lively one next weekend.  He had my loyalty right then and there!

Now I'd like to introduce y'all to our new herbs!

Curly Leaf Parsley

Spring Onion

Italian / Flat Leaf Parsley

Arugula

Dill

Vietnamese Cilantro / Hot Mint

I can't wait to use them in my dishes!  The possibilities are endless. :-)



Address: Eton Centris Parking Lot, EDSA cor. Quezon Avenue, QC
Hours:  6:00 AM - 2:00 PM; Sundays

My Kind of Xiao Long Bao

My Xiao Long Bao fixation started in early 2010.  I was helping my dad scout for a nice, upscale, and somewhat exclusive restaurant since he was looking for a place to hold a meeting, at the time, for some industry bigwigs.  My mom and I were his taste testers, which was an awesome job, since we got to eat free food and sort of stage the dishes he wanted to order for his prospective clients.  We eventually went with Jasmine, a new-ish (at the time) Chinese restaurant located at New World Hotel in Makati.  We went through the appetizer section of the menu, and my mom insisted that we try the xiao long bao (soup dumplings) as a possible option for appetizers.  You see, she was still on a high from her trip to China back then and she was weirdly fixated (I thought) by these soup dumplings.  After a bite of it, I completely understood why she couldn't stop talking about it.

It's been more than a year now since my introduction to xiao long bao, and my enthusiasm for this Chinese dim sum is still as strong as ever.  Since then, I have been on the lookout for affordable and well-made xiao long baos.  Believe me, the quest has not been easy.  In most Chinese restaurants, the xiao long baos are either too dry, or the skin is too thick, or the skin somehow gets punctured while it's steaming so the juices seep out even before it gets to the customers' tables.

Thankfully, I've found my go-to place for my xiao long bao fix when Crystal Jade chain opened their doors last year.  The Xiao Long Bao craze has taken Manila by storm.  Everyone was just suddenly craving for these delicate "soup dumplings".  I remember lining up for almost two hours at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao when they first opened!  Yep, two friggin' hours.  Granted, they just opened at the time, but their service was terrible and their seating order was ridiculously inefficient.  Anyway, you can imagine how grumpy we were by the time we were seated.  We were all hungry and irritable by the time our orders got to our table.  We were so ready to nitpick and rant about the food.  At that point, I just wanted to eat my dinner and get out of there.  I was certain that I would never ever go back...well, until I tasted the food that is.  We, meaning Yuri plus my parents & aunt, all kind of looked at each other with bemused expressions because we didn't expect their food to be on point, what with the messy state of things on the service side.  Funny thing was, initially we were all kinda bummed that all the dishes we ordered turned out to be ridiculously delicious, since we were looking forward to complaining about the food.  Their, xiao long bao, chicken with cashew nuts, hand-pulled noodles, braised eggplant with pork, and radish pastry, definitely shut us up good.  LOL.  Mad props to them.  I think everyone in the restaurant kind of had the same sentiment.  Everyone was trying really hard to still look mad and annoyed, but a grin and a satisfied sigh would slip out here and there in between bites.

I'm happy to report that the crazed-xiao-long-bao-crowds have calmed down.  Crystal Jade is still as popular as ever, but at least now you don't have to wait to get in and the quality of their service has shaped up tremendously since they first opened.

Yuri and I decided to pop in for an early lunch since we were doing a bit of shopping at Greenhills.  I'm pretty sure you guys know by now what we ordered for our starter.  It was no other than their Xiao Long Bao! 

Xiao Long Bao Php 158.00

Making a good xiao long bao is a fine art.  First the dough for the skin has to perfectly circular and thin enough, that it becomes translucent when cooked, but not too thin that it breaks while it's steaming.  Once the flour dough or skin is thin enough, it is then usually filled with pork together with a meat aspic (jelly made from meat stock).  It is then sealed and pinched on top.  These soup dumplings are steamed and served in bamboo baskets.  Xiao long bao is always served with black vinegar with slices of ginger.  What I usually do is I wait a bit for the xiao long bao to cool down, dip it in the black vinegar, and then eat the whole thing in one go.  It's quite an experience really.  The tangy earthy taste of the black vinegar slowly combines with the rich flavors of the "soup" as the dumpling slowly bursts in your mouth.  The flavors of the savory pork filling then emerges while the delicate dumpling "skin" just sorts of melts in your mouth.  A tremendous amount of skill goes into making this Shanghai-style soupy dumpling and I think that's a big part of why I enjoy it so much.  Every single aspect of this delicacy requires a daunting amount of work (especially the aspic!) and a certain kind of finesse.

I don't go to Crystal Jade for the xiao long bao alone. They've got dishes here that are equally tasty and as well executed as the soup dumplings.  Since it was just us two, we decided to order two bowls of steamed rice and then we just split a plate of their Sauteed Chicken with Cashew Nuts in Spicy Sauce.  This is Yuri's fave!

Sauteed Chicken with Cashew Nuts in Spicy Sauce Php 288.00

This dish definitely shows off the skill level of their kitchen staff.  I love it when all of the ingredients on my plate are cut uniformly.  I'm just meticulous with my food like that.  It drives Yuri nuts!  It's no wonder too why this dish came out perfectly.  The onions were crunchy, mushrooms were tender, and the chicken perfectly cooked.  The textures were lovely!  It was bathed in a sweet-ish sauce (my guess is hoisin, XO, plum, garlic, and touch of Shaoxing wine) peppered with chili flakes, and chopped fresh chili.  They serve this dish with flour pancakes.

Radish Pastry Php 98.00

This is our default dessert at Crystal Jade.  We are big fans of radish cakes so when we saw this on the menu, on our first visit, we just had to try it.  These days, the Radish Pastry only thing we order for dessert at Crystal Jade.

Thin strips of radish and diced spring onions are wrapped in puff pastry and then deep-fried.  It's fluffy, light, and oh so yummy!  A must-try for radish fans.

They've got a lot of items to choose from so I'm pretty sure that no matter what you order you'll definitely enjoy dining here. :-)



Address: G/F, Virra Mall, Greenhills Shopping Center, Greenhills, San Juan City
Tel. #: 570-6910; 570-6912; 570-6914
Hours: Monday to Sunday 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM