Cook and Brew.

You Are a Sweet Person

When it comes to snacks, you’re more likely to grab some candy than heat up a pizza. There’s a good chance you’re female (women prefer sweet snacks)… Or at least, you prefer to be in the company of women. Your tastes are simple and predictable. You are young at heart. You tend to crave food you can just grab and eat.

Are You Sweet or Salty?

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

Wow..this is so true. Aside from my being affectionate, which the husband can attest to that, I truly have an incredibly sweet tooth. In fact, the barcode scanners in the grocery could actually break down whenever we shop for my sweets stocks for the week. I stock our cart a lot! From ice cream, to chocolates, cookies, donuts, etc. My latest sweet cravings lately are Goldilocks Polvorons which I’m currently munching as I blog.

Submit your happiest, wackiest and funniest perfect picture moments enjoying the Jollibee Spaghetti and you could win Jollibee party packages, gift certificates, digital photo frame, digital camera and photo printer.

Deadline for the submission of entries is at midnight of November 22, 2009. Check out www.jollibee.com.ph for the complete contest mechanics.

Going to Baguio City this Holiday season? Don’t forget to drop by Teahouse along Session Road or their SM Baguio branch and snag this delectable treat for your own feasting or as a pasalubong to your loved ones here in Manila:

Here’s what I have previously blogged about this sweet treat:

Ever since we tasted this heavenly cake dessert, we make it a point that this is the number one in the list of pasalubongs to take home from Baguio. This refrigerator cake called Chona’s Delight is named after the brilliant Aling Chona, the owner of Tea House Restaurant and Bakeshop located along Session Road.  This establishment is one of the oldest chow place for locals and tourists craving for noodle snacks, coffee, bread and sinfully delicious cakes such as the above pictured Chona’s Delight. Tea House now also has a branch at nearby SM Baguio where we bought 5 small tubs of Chona’s Delight for take home during our annual Christmas vacation in the city of Pines last year. Three of the five small tubs were exclusively devoured by me..yes, that’s how delectable and addicting this cake is.  It consists of layers of rich chocolate cake frosting and fillings of creamy custard and whipped cream. Don’t be fooled with the rich, dark chocolatey look but this doesn’t taste tooth-cringing sweet at all. In fact, you can really even consume all by yourself in one sitting the small tub which they sell at Php 105/container.

Tea House Restaurant and Bakeshop
87 Session Road, Baguio City
Branch:
SM Baguio, Upper Session Road, Baguio City

Coffee addicts out there, be sure to drop by at Greenbelt 3 and 5 on October 13-26, 2009 and join as the Philippine Coffee Board celebrates the annual coffee festival, entitled “Coffee Origins, Discovering The Philippines’ Best.”

Familiarize yourself with different coffee types grown from the small towns and private farms of the region. Overflowing coffee for FREE from different roasters and processors all throughout the event so get ready for a one of a kind caffeine-high experience.

For more information about this event as well as other events of the Philippine Coffee Board, check out what’s brewing on their website.

Kikiam

This has been my favorite merienda (snacks) these past few weeks. Our neighbor, who has a streetfood stand and sells variety of street foods, prepares the yummiest kikiam and tongue tingling sauce I’ve ever tasted.

Kikiam or Que-kiam is a popular Chinese dish made with ground pork and vegetables wrapped in bean curd sheets then deep-fried until golden. Basically, kikiam has been used as an ingredient of Chinese dishes like pansit because of its meaty taste. However, it also tastes great when eaten finger food style…best with a sweet and spicy sauce.

Lumpia is a type of stuffed spring rolls. They are served fried or non-fried and fillings vary: pork, beef or vegetables served with sweet and sour sauce. This is Chinese in origin and other Asian countries have their own lumpia versions and variations as well. In Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, it is called “popiah”. In Vietnam, it is known as “cha gio”. In the Philippines, it is called lumpia. The Filipino lumpia is further categorized to two: Lumpiang Ubod – served fresh and wrapped in a crepe-like sheet; and Lumpiang Shanghai, or Fried Spring Rolls or Fried Lumpia.

Here’s how we usually prepare our Fried Lumpia:
* 1 lb. ground pork
* 1/4 cup finely chopped onions
* 1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
* 1 small box of raisins
* 2 whole eggs
* 3 dashes of sesame oil
* salt and pepper, to taste
* 3 tbsp. soy sauce
* lumpia wrapper (1 pack usually has 50 sheets)
* vegetable oil, for frying

Procedure:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix until well blended.
2. Wrap into thin rolls with a lumpia wrapper. Fry in deep hot oil.
3. Serve with your favorite ketchup or make your own Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe.

To make sauce, combine vinegar, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, sugar, water, ginger and garlic in small saucepan. Bring to boil. Stir in cornstarch paste and simmer 5 minutes, or until thickened. Season to taste with salt. Keep warm.

“My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.”
~ Dave Barry

I’m literally drooling while posting this picture. And all the more I salivated when I noticed that my recent snapshots share are all food…so tempting and alluring. This is the husband’s shot of his special Father’s Day cake…Red Ribbon’s Chocolate S’mores Cake: moist chocolate cake with layers of heavenly marshmallow and grahams. Topped with caramel and chocolate squares.

A few weeks ago, I joined a blogging contest sponsored by Red Ribbon in line with their newest cake product, the Cookies and Cream Cake. My entry was about the birthday celebration of dear hubby where I sent pictures of him and my son enjoying the Red Ribbon cake. And that could have tickled the fancies of the judges and picked my entry to win the first prize. No not as grand and luxurious as Las Vegas Show Tickets (how I wish!) but Php 1500 worth of Red Ribbon Gift Certificates. Thank you Red Ribbon because we enjoyed a Smores Cake for our Father’s Day celebration.

One of the dishes that we ordered for hubby’s birthday celebration at Sentro 1771 Greenbelt last month was Rated GG.

This signature dish of Sentro 1771 consists of Galunggong (Mackarel/Big-Bellied Round Scad) fillets fried in garlic, oil and topped with browned garlic. Priced at Php 230, the husband and I find it too costly for its quality. Nothing really spectacular about the taste.

- dried watermelon seeds
- a popular Filipino salty treats during drinking sessions or while watching your favorite TV show or movies
- comes in big plastic packs in supermarkets and groceries but these can also be bought from the sari-sari store in smaller labeled packs (Captain Sid)
- to get the edible white seeds inside, bite the edges in vertical position until the seeds break in half
- anticipate to have wrinkly lips and a sodium headache after finishing a big pack of it
- pringles’ “once you pop, you can’t stop” also goes with eating butong pakwan

Food Nutrients Trivia for 100 grams of Butong Pakwan as calculated by Calorie King.