my favorite (COMFORT FOOD) finds

I KNOW AND I'M VERY CONFIDENT, that I have a fine-tuned palate. I enjoy good food and good conversations that come with it. But sometimes, it's always best to take a break from Beluga, Duck Confit, Amuse Busche and other luxurious food that's out there. Comfort food stands out usually during the happy and sad times that I I go through. You'd always like something delicious to depend on while pampering or soothing a hurt ego. So let me share my ultimate favorites with you...

• Nestle Ice Cream Double Dutch - this brand is hands down on creamy goodness, marbled with just the right touch of chocolate swirls, yummy chocolate slivers and chips, marshmallows and vanilla. I compared it with other brands and it didn't hold a candle to what the old-school Magnolia is famously known for.


• McDonalds French Fries - who would deny that this is the best fries ever made known to man? To me, at least. Those spuds could cure a heartbreak in a minute. I like it with salt or just happily dip it in my caramel sundae, brings happy highschool memories when all we lived on was allowances


• Tea House Palabok - I love noodles so much I could marry it! Palabok had been my ultimate comfort food. But I had worst one too many times til I stumbled on this. When this gets to the table, the noodles are covered with red-orange shrimp sauce rich with cooked oysters, pork, chicharon,tofu, pork, served with calamansi and patis on the side. Tea House never scrimps on ingredients so that's why it won my affection on my foodie list.


• Macsbox - a college favorite! Rice topping kiosk found at the U-belt and I'm thankful that it exist up to now. With P50, you geta bang-in-the-buck rice topping box exploding with flavors. One of my favorites would be their mouth-watering Binagoongan, big chunks of lean pork, little fat, chives, onion, shrimps topped with chopped unripe mangoes and scrambled egg mixed in bagoong sauce. The bagoong is heavenly, it has a combination of salt and sugar and it was mildly spiced.


• Orville Redenbacher Popcorn - in White Cheddar, butter or plain. For the plain popcorn, I nuke it and sprinkle M&Ms while it's hot and you'll be amazed how yummy this carnival food is.


• Taho - soymilk, tofu or any of its equivalent makes me happy. The gelatinous texture of it that shoots up on the mouth and melts like butter is heaven to me


• Taco Bell Churros - it is kinda greasy, because it's dough deep fried, but just pat it down with a paper towel or a table napkin and get ready to dunk it hot chocolate sauce!

This is part one. Once i'm camery ready, I'll post some pictures!

A CAN OF PORK and BEANS is staring straight at me from the panrty as I began uploading a few of my files online. I was curious what pork and beans taste like when canned. I have eaten it ONCE when I was a kid, but it never appealed to me at all when I was growing up. Instead, Fabada (a Spanish dish of slow-cooked white beans flavored with pork knuckles and Spanish sausages like morcillas) and purple cabbage salad is preferred at mealtimes dipped with brioche or baguette.
My parents didn’t really care for de-lata as they are leaning towards organic food when it comes to our daily diet. My mom is a nutritionist-dietitian, and anything that’s considered junk food is only welcome in the household for a few times. If it becomes a habit, she takes out the rulebook of the house. Canned goods to them are emergency food, and something you eat when you need to rush for a night time trip, or something convenient to pack.
When we were kids, there was a steady supply of meat, both fresh and frozen at the kitchen pantry because we needed all the building nutrients. When the six of us hit our teen years, fish, chicken and hefty servings of vegetables was a sight to see in the kitchen. Mama was always conscious of what we eat since diabetes and high blood run in our family history. All of us know how to cook and every small ingredient from sage, rosemary, dill, lentils, capers, celery salt, garlic salt, cloves, tumeric and cumin were all too familiar in our household. We were taught that a good meal comes in very unique flavors. Sure there were hits and misses in the dishes that we so lovingly prepared, but the essence of it, was preparing it fresh and delicious. If we had to use anything canned, this would only be something to support our cooking such as crème fresh. Our staff had been trained by us through the years, and such conversations would flow in our home..
“I like tomatoes”
HH: Fresh, stewed, or canned?
“What kind of roasted chicken shall we do today?”
HH: Maybe Rosemary Lemon, or we could do hainanese or ginger-garlic soy chicken
“What about adobo?”
HH: The one with giblets and liver is pretty good, but I cooked a three-day adobo in a claypot with coconut slivers and melt-in-your-mouth liempo
“Maybe a salad today?”
HH: Will we have Waldorf with walnuts or pili brittle or do you prefer a Russian potato salad with a choice of beetroot or rhubarb and smoked Norweigan salmon in place of bacon bits?
We tweak, improvise and add certain things that will adjust to our liking. We make traditions of good food that will someday be passed to our children and their children. Personally, to be able to appreciate the food served by others, I think learning it firsthand should come as priority. My mother taught me these things that's why my love affair for food never lost its fluorish...
Oh well, maybe I should open a can of pork and beans just for today to give my palate a break :)

here comes..Pizookie!

AN EXCEPTIONAL DINING EXPERIENCE will not be complete without a hands-down, sugar-rush dessert! And here's one more additional yummy dessert in my endless goldmine of yummy foods! Drumroll please... Pizookie!

It's a deep-dish dessert that can come in warm chocolate chip, brownie, chocolate macadamia, apple crisp or peanut butter. Pizookie is coined from the words: "Pizza" and "Cookie". The dessert is served warm then topped with a luscious vanilla bean ice cream. Did I say this is deep-dish? Sink your teeth into this ...

the Fro-Yo Phenomenon

AS A FOODIE, it is with pride to know that Fro-Yo's are the in thing happening right now. Fro-Yos are frozen yogurt for short. My first taste of yogurt resembled a yakult smoothie and I have loved it eversince. It's healthy alternative to ice cream and with the just the right sour tones on the cold creamery, it's so guilt-free! Fro-yo's like Red Mango, FYI, White Hat, Froz, Lulu Belle and the California Berry outdo each other providing great, healthy flavors.It's better than soft serve ice cream, gelato and sherbet! Kudos to Spot for helping us get rave reviews on the craze. Try your very first Fro-yo and save a spoonful for me :)

the Pizza Wars

I WAS HAVING a DVD marathon of Gossip Girl Season 2 last night when I suddenly craved for hand-cut fries and lechon. I was imagining the crunchy, golden brown skin sinking into my teeth as fat dripped down deliciously then marbled at dipping a spud on garlic mayo. I shook my head at the thought. Grease. I cringed slightly. How it made food so appetizingly good. A parade of food rushed to mind and people kept coming up to me to ask what's my ultimate favorite food. My love affair for pizza started as far as I can remember and as a foodie, no matter how far you go with experimenting food, pizza just hit home. I love the smell of freshly-baked bread, sauteed onions and peppers. Here's a list of restaurants outside the country, (across the US in particular) that made pizza a universal comfort food.

Ray's (Queens, NY) - A New York Pizza is known for its paper thin crust, so put-together ingredients such as tomato and mozarella. A typical New Yorker like their pizzas folded like a sandwich and Ray's is one of the city's favorite pizzas and where most people prefer to eat. Using a wood burner burning on cherry and applewood chips as a customer would suspect, the pizza has the right balance of sweet and salty dough.

Frank Pepe's, Sally's (New Haven, CT) also known as "Little Italy", both pizzerias have their own loyal following, as with any New York Pizza, their pizzas vary through flavors of Sausages, Margherita and plain mozarella. They have the same wood brick oven, however, the shape of their pizzas are not the usual circle form, customers would describe this as "amoeba-like" shape,when you enter the store, don't expect them to serve you a knife and fork, the trays come straight from the oven to your tables.

Pizzeria Uno (Chicago, IL) - "Welcome to Uno's, here's a copy of our menu, it takes 45 minutes to an hour for your pizza to be served, so I suggest to take your orders while I get you a table" a redhead smiled warmly as she handed out the yellow cardboard. The Chicago style pizza is normally thick and deep dish. They usually start with a black, round tin pan, dough is brushed with extra virgin olive oil then covered with generous slices of Wisconsin mozarella, topped with mushrooms, and bell peppers, then smothered with tomato sauce.


Malnadi's (Chicago, IL) - Same Chicago deep-dish but the top is layered doubly with dough to ensure nothing slips out of the pie. Locals love their pizzas because they call it the real deal, the flavors are all locked in into a thick pie. Malnadi's boasts of their Chocolate-chip pie dessert. They bake a cookie dough in a pan, and as it warmly bakes, it is topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream then topped with a cherry.

Caioiti's (Los Angeles, CA) - A California pizza is well distinguished from the rest of the pizza family. Angelinos like their pizzas gourmet-style. Anything goes! From fresh oysters, goat cheese and pesto, it's called a California Pizza. The owner wanted to make something apart from the ten classic toppings and when he served it, Wolfgang Puck liked it so much, he asked the owner to work for him at Puck's restaurant in Chicago which is Spago. The owner was the one who came up with the single, most duplicated gourmet pizza called Original Barbecue Chicken Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. They start out with the dough, smothered with barbecue sauce, chicken fillet, cilantro and mozarella cheese.

Nino's Bellissimo (Manhattan, NY) This high upper west end pizzeria sells the most expensive pizza in the world. With $1000 a pie, Manhattan's elite frequents the place to eat the most luscious and rich pizza. It starts off with semolina flour brushed with extra virgin olive oil,smothered with creme fresh, strips of dill and four kinds of the most sophisticated caviar namely: Beluga, Osetra, Caspian Sea and Sevruga then topped with the most fresh thinly-sliced lobster flown in from Maine paired with Crystalle white.

The one that tops my list is any garlic pizza downed with an ice-cold rootbeer. Rootbeer just brings out the flavor of the spices in the pie. You should try it some time :)