What to Eat for Holy Week - Chili Sardine Angel Hair Pasta and Kani Sandwich at Figaro

I'm not Catholic. Since most of you are, I'm just sharing this because I know you'll be looking for yummy food on no-meat Fridays. Visit Figaro for their yummy Chili Sardine Angel Hair Pasta or Kani Sandwich. You'll surely enjoy these filling meals. It may be no-meat but maybe you'll still sin because you'll surely find pleasure eating it.




I love sardines pasta. I cook it when I get the chance. Figaro's Chili Sardine Angel Hair Pasta though, is the way I envision how my sardines pasta should taste (which I never get quite right, btw.) The amount of olive oil is just right. The pasta is not dry or greasy. The spiciness from the Spanish sardines and the chili flakes is mild enough for everyone, I suppose. Plus the combi of the olives, parmesan and parsley are will leave your restless tastebuds satisfied. Ah yes, angel hair is the perfect pasta used for this little beauty. I always use spaghetti when I cook sardines pasta. The thickness of the noodle in my own version takes away some of the flavor.

Anyway, why tire yourself to cook pasta? You can just hop on over to Figaro to get a nicely cooked, warm and perfect sardines pasta, right.

The Kani Sandwich is okay. I love kani salads, so this sandwich is okay for me. I just wish the bread had a rougher texture (like wheat or rye) to balance out the softness of the crabstick and vegetables. That's just me though. It's overall yummy.

Prices are also reasonable - P180 for the pasta and P179 for the sammich. It's okay because it's a meal in itself and satisfying.

P.S.  My officemate (also an avid pasta cook)  and I ate at Figaro again last Wednesday.  She tried out the Chili Sardine Angel Hair Pasta.  The verdict from this pasta fan:  Thumbs up.  She wanted more.  

Go on over to Figaro and try out these lite meals today! 




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Magnolia Ice Cream Frozen Delights are Back! :-p

I have a gazillion memories about Magnolia Ice Cream and Magnolia Ice Cream Frozen Delights. My family loves to eat. Through time I get to associate food with happy memories, especially if this food was a basic commodity in my childhood.

So of course, when I saw that Magnolia Ice Cream was launching their frozen delights line, I felt a weird mixture of emotions, from "Squeeee!" "Yum." "Yay!"

And of course, when I tasted these, it was the closest one could get to a time machine ride. Same delicious taste I remember. I suddenly had vivid memories of my dad taking me to the Magnolia House buy ice cream cake and several boxes of frozen delights (It was always his contribution to cousins' birthday parties.). Or an earlier memory in my pre-school, when he'd take me to the Magnolia kiosk for an ice cream cone. I would grab his big burly hand with my sticky little one, and we would walk back to the car as I licked the strawberry cone.

Ah, memories. Freud would dedicate an entire section on ice cream for psychoanalysis if I was one of his subjects. lol.

So folks, check out these nostalgic but updatedly hip Magnolia Ice Cream Frozen Delights.

Pinipig Crunch:  SRP : P13

I had to have the sweet corn pinipig crunch first.  *Tears on first bite*  lol.  

Popsies: SRP: P10

No longer twins, but still yum as singles.

Fun Bar:  SRP: P10

Turns your lips and tongue blue for extra goofing around.  heehee. 

Sweetie Bites:  SRP: P11

A sweetie bite for a sweetie (hopefully that's you)

My pops woulda been delighted with the return of these frozen delights if he was still around.  :-)



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How to Make Frozen Yogurt at Home, Pinoy Style

My garsh!  What a looong post for something so simple!
Here's a summary up here at the top, if you have more questions then you can read more below.

Summary:
1.  Need milk, store-bought yogurt, container with cap.
2. Put milk in container, put spoonful of yogurt. Seal.  Leave on sink counter, look after 24 hours, then freeze.

More below if you want it detailed.
- -

My online team mate introduced me to this yummy treat.  She kept whining online about wanting another and another serving (she lives beside a mall) until I couldn't stand it and finally ate one with her.  She introduced me to White Hat, which is REALLY excellent. The yoghurt there is the best tasting, so far.  I've tried some more brands, but some are too sour, some too unremarkable.  It's still White Hat that has perfectly captured my preference for sweet-sour foodums.  If my teammate had me taste another brand I don't think I'd be interested, really. I have even made up my silly ritual about White Hat "The only way to eat White Hat is to close your eyes at your first bite so you can really taste everything in your head!"

I started looking for ways to make yogurt because my sister said she saw a carinderia-looking mom-and-pop store in CP Garcia Avenue selling fro-yo.  She wondered how they made it.  So me, I looked for recipes and was shocked it was a no-brainer to make a batch!

The results for this when frozen are of course different from yogurt made by a yogurt maker.  The frozen final output bought outside is creamy and melts longer.  This one is more ... whut.. frosty? icy? maybe because of varying freezer temperatures or a lacking ingredient... I wouldn't know!  All I know is that it tastes great!  And I'm making some more!

Warning to the purists and faint-hearted:  My recipe writing is always freestyle, unprecise and with a big dose of lazy.  Meaning: You can just get an idea how it's done, then do it and repeat and repeat til you perfect the taste to your own liking.

Stuff you'll need:
Container with cap
Milk of your choice
(I use the non-fat, high calcium kind. Evap i haven't tried, and don't intend to, but if you're desperate to start today and that's what's there, then go ahead, just don't blame me if results are strange or radioactive.)
Store-bought yoghurt that indicates "LIVE" culture (live, not taped in the studio, okeh.)
Optional:  Sugar or condensed milk if you like it sweet and you aren't too-health manic
(I use condensed because I'm too lazy to stir and melt the sugar)

Then:
Really, it's just put a spoonful of bought yogurt into milk. Seal. Wait 24 hours.

If you feel motivated to read more about it, here it is with more detail:
1.  Put milk in your container (mine has measurement gradients, which I didn't realize til I made yogurt)  Quantity is your call.
2.  From my experimentation, not from youtube:  Add condensed milk or sugar, according to your preference of sweetness.  Shake or stir well.
3.  Put a tablespoon or 2 of the store-bought yogurt in the milk.  Mix a bit or tightly cap and shake.  Real cooks in Youtube put a tablespoon per liter or gallon of milk. 
4.  If it's a warm day, just leave it on your counter top overnight.  Or bring it out to the sun in the morning then bring in at night.
5.  After 24 hours,  put in the freezer.
6.  A bit later you can eat it as is, or add fruit and cereal and you'll be kilig if you are a fan of mall-bought fro-yo.

Note:  Real cooks explained that the live culture breed optimally in temperatures just a bit higher than our usual PH weather.  So if you think a bit, you can estimate adding a little warmth to your container will do the trick.  Me, I just put it on the sink counter on a warm day since my kitchen has an opaque galvanated roof that lets sunlight in .  The last batch I made the other day (when the weather was cool and balmy due to rains)  I wrapped the container in a clean kitchen towel, suffocated it in an SM grocery bag and let stay til the 24-hours was over.  Perfect consistency again!


Reminders  before you start:
-  No brainer:  Keep everything clean.  Purists do a lot of strange things to kill bacteria by heating etc.  but I figured if your containers are clean, and your box of milk and yogurt are freshly opened, you don't need to O-C things up in cleanliness for this little project.
-  Don't be afraid to experiment.  Change things around to suit you and make things convenient for you.  Just remember what you did so you can do it again or avoid it til you get to your perfect yogurt for yourself.
-  Make small batches at first.
-  If, after 24 hours you find funky stinky globs of milk separated from liquid, that's not yoghurt, that funky stinky spoiled milk. 
-  If you earn your own money to buy the ingredients, throw stuff out if yogurt is too funky for you.  If your mom bought the ingredients and it was a failed project, throw it out and claim you ate it all because it was too yummy.
-  Cooking with milk or tomatoes rule:   Do not dip spoons you tasted with back into the mixture.
-  Have your your fruit and cereal ready because you'll like the first batch so much  you'll regret not having toppings.
-  Set aside a small amount of your yogurt and put in the ref as your live culture, not taped from the studio, next time you make another batch.
- If you're health conscious, after your first batch, read up on which live culture bacteria and health benefit that you want in your next batch of yogurt.

Enjoy! 

Please tell me what happened if you do make this.  Come back and leave a message in the comments section.  Thanks!

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Public Service : Fastfood Delivery Hotlines in Metro Manila Philippines

If you're looking for delivery hotline numbers, I hope this post helps.

If I have posted an old delivery hotline number, please point out which has been updated so I can change it, thanks.  

(According to main food item)

BURGERS
Jollibee Delivery – 8-7000
McDonald’s – 8MCDO, that's 8-6236
Wendy’s Hamburgers – 533-3333
PIZZA

Pizza Hut Delivery – 911-1111

Greenwich Pizza – 5-5555

Yellow Cab Pizza - 789-9999

Domino’s (now called Angel's) – 922-2222
Shakey’s Pizza – 77-7777

CHICKEN
Kenny Rogers Roasters Delivery – 533-8888
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) – 887-8888
Max’s Restaurant – 7-9000


CAKES and PASTRIES , etc. 
Goldilocks Bakeshop – 888-1-999
Red Ribbon Bakeshop Delivery– 8-7777


CHINESE
North Park Noodle House Delivery – 73737
Chowking – 9-8888


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The Binondo Food Massacre : Northern Style Dumplings

One advantage to being an Online Filipino Worker is you can up and go anytime as long as skeds are manageable.

Yesterday, I went out with my 2 besties and we headed out to Binondo, Manila (Manila's Chinatown) for a DIY Binondo food trip.  My friend had prepared a looong list of yum stopovers.  I was quite doubtful whether we'd even have the digestive space to eat from all of those establishments.  I've been detoxing for 2 weeks now and I wasn't too hot at the idea of swallowing an assortment of food.  However, this was our christmas party, new year's party, valentines date and bday party for 1 bestie all rolled into 1: I was antsy to spend the day with the best friends.  The food is a side bonus.

Anyway, with all the relaxed conversation and walking between the eating, all we got to go to were only 4 establishments.  So this'll be the 1st article about it.  I expect more.  I didn't expect to blog about it so I didn't document at all (Boo.) .  Missing names and streets (Boo again.)   to follow.

First we had Northern style dumplings at 2 joints.

We were the 1st customers at Tasty Restaurant near the Binondo Church.  The place was quite nice and neat for a Chinatown restaurant.  We ordered dumplings and a pork dish similar to pata tim.  I also ordered seaweed.  Too sweet for my taste, but yum under regular circumstances.

We passed by Carvajal Street to get to Yuchengco Street.  Carvajal is narrow street, just a tiny opening in the grand scheme of Chinatown things, but it will attract your attention because it is indeed a very busy street.  It should be a must-visit place for all foodies who cook.  The fresh Chinese ingredients were all there in Carvajal.  Fruits, veggies, seafood and assorted Chinese ingredients were there.  I got an eye-full of sea cucumbers and sea weeds.  I wonder what ingredients I'll see next time.  Cooking foodies, before you go to Carvajal, research your recipes with sea cucumber and sea weeds so you're prepared to pick the ingredients you want to take home next time.

I also bought kiwi and strawberries at affordable prices from Carvajal.  And when I got home, it was only then that I observed how big and pretty and firm the strawberries were.  The next morning, I ate only 2 strawberries for breakfast.  It was yum. (Yup, it was that big.)

We'll be returning to Carvajal for Quick Snack's noodles, also at that same street so I'll definitely be back.  We didn't eat at Quick Snack even if it was on our list because we were full.

I really wanted to sample the Northern style food first, and I wanted to savor the food before I got too full.

My friend noted that 1 restaurant mostly had Northern style food so off we trooped to Yuchengco Street.  At the window of the Dong Bei Restaurant, you will be welcomed to the sight of a cook preparing the shallot dumplings and lovingly pressing the dumpling dough.  Looked yummy.  There we tried the dumplings again.  Plus we ordered the shallot and pork pancakes.  Yum.  The dip was delicious.  It's similar to lumpia vinegar-soy dip but not too sour or salty or spicy, or oily.  I can't describe it, only that it tasted just right.  They had other rice dishes but we were not interested since we were full.

By then we were interested with what tea they were serving.  The staff said it was oolong.  I liked the tea because it was aromatic but not strong.  It was the type you can chug the whole day instead of water.  The kind staff then offered they were also selling bags of it.  My bestfriend bought a bag from them for only P100.  The staff were also kind enough to give us instructions.  The P100 bag is well worth it.  They placed it in a big ziplock bag, and gave us an extra container if we wanted to share among ourselves.

Overall, this restaurant isn't as snazzy-looking as Tasty, but the price, taste of food and staff service are excellent.

- more next time-