Fave Picks: Tropical Hut Burgers

Being a fan of "Man vs Food" from the TLC channel, I am always envious of the large portions of food served in American food places. Many fastfood joints here in the Philippines boasts of "large" portions for their fare, but fail to deliver because the sizes are not really that big, or oftentimes just filled with extenders. I often heard of stories of returning expats and foreigners scoffing at the measly portions of what the "food corporations" call as "large portions". The sizes and serving presentation in the shop fronts and ad campaigns are just shining examples of the "bait and switch" practice which is common place in most local businesses.

I once went out with my college buddies to a popular fastfood joint boasting a "mega-sized' meal combo with "stuff you face with food" portions. After paying the price supposedly appropriate to the size of the meal, we all jested that its just "snack-sized" portions served on a large plate, with some of the pieces rolling around the empty spaces around the serving dish.

Although there are some joints out there that serve very large portions but label it as their gourmet selection, therefore jacking up the prices making them out of reach.

But I find solace in an establishment I had been going to since I was a kid. As far as burgers go, for me, nothing beats the old school approach of Tropical Hut. They may be not as big as other famous and highly advertised chains in the country, but their classic burger beef patties are thicker than the poopular brand and packed with the flavor of the meat...not by the spices mixed in the meat.

Nothing tends to my tired soul and invigorates me better, after a tedious or tiring activity, than a thick classic burger from my fave Tropical outlet in Shaw Blvd.

"Seared Ahi Tuna" at Outback Steakhouse

I was able to try some "Seared Ahi Tuna" at Outback, Makati last night, and wow,... it packs a full smoky pepper flavor, rich in spices...but doesn't over power the lightly seared Tuna meat that dreamily melts in your mouth, just like one of those choice cut raw Tuna meat in Japanese sushi's.

The sharp tang that goes along it comes from the 2 select choices of dips, the lemony, sour yelloe vinaigrette, and the salsa type one.

It might come a bit expensive for my usual fare (Php200++ per half order) for an appetizer, but is sure is something that could make you comeback to this place establishment for.

Food Stuff to Look Out For (Japan)

A few snacks for summer in Japan.

Lotte Ice Bar: Suika and Meron Bar (Watermelon and Cantaloupe Bar). A cantaloupe and watermelon flavored ice pops, shaped like the way these fruits are cut and served. The cantaloupe flavored pops has these small white sugar beads that stand in for the seeds. And in the watermelon flavored pops are black chocolate beads that looks like the seeds. Cute and interesting presentation along with a refreshing taste, goes well with those intensely hot Japanese Summer.

Hazono Manjyu: Kuzu Manjyu. A manjuu is a traditional Japanese snack made of red bean paste. But what I don't like about manjuu is that its too sweet (that's why its served with green tea) and the sticky texture it leaves in the throat. But this Kuzu Manjyu is the solution. Its like its made from manjuu, jelly mix and fruit slices. It has a light sweet taste and refreshing flavors from various fruits that works with the flavor of the manjuu. The flavor that puzzled us all, Filipinos and Japanese alike, is the one pictured above. We don't know what an 'Aoi Ringo' (Blue Apple) is, but it was the most refreshing from the bunch.

Unagi Pie. Its not made from 'unagi' (eel) and its not a pie. Its a thin, crispy biscuit, which looks like a plate of barbecued unagi, is comparable to the Filipino 'Otap' which is glazed with something which is sweet, with an after taste of brandy (maybe thats why there's a V.S.O.P. tag in the front).

Midnight Snack Alert

Getting hungry in the middle of the night,I decided to fix up a little something something using the leftovers my wife used for her okonomiyaki.

First off, shredding some carrots and leeks.

For the cabbage, I shredded them in two different styles for texture. I sliced the half in strips and the other half julienne style.

Mix them together. Add some iodized salt and a generous portion of mayonnaise.

Mix thoroughly and put it through a bit of a cold treatment by setting it aside in the freezer.

While I do love eating veggies, I gotta have meat when hunger becons in the middle of the night. So with I have to deal with the sweet ham left over.

I don't particularly like sweet ham, so I treated it with a dash of black pepper and a pinch of iodized salt, hand mix, and slow cooked over a medium flame.

In cooking the ham, I used a vegetable oil brushed teflon pan.

With a minimal amount of oil, the glazing or sweet coating will be seared off.

I now therefore call this combo : CHUNKY CRUNCHY CABBAGE SALAD with PAN SEARED PEPPERED HAM

The Serious Cheese

This is one serious cheese...

(found at the grocery in the basement of Market!Market!, Fort Bonifacio)

Peanut Kisses straight from Bohol

Peanut Kisses...

I heard about this a long time ago, and my friend recommended that I find it when I go to Bohol.

This local delicacy is made of egg whites and crushed peanuts, and let me tell you, its the shiznizzle. Its sweet, crunchy and nutty, all for a very good price. I also love the way its packaged, proudly stamped by the agencies that help develop and boost the appeal of this crunchy treat.

I got my peanut kisses from this 24-hour souvenir shop a few minutes from the airport. "Angel-whatsis-something". I can't remember the name of the store clearly.

Eating a Nestle Kimy Krazy Banana

Beat the summer heat in a krazy way.

Nestle Kimy recently released its Krazy Banana ice cream on a stick and it has been a unique experience eating it.

By now everyone knows that you can peel away the jelly cover to reveal the vanilla ice cream inside. The jelly is pre cut but care is needed to peel it off like a banana. Genius, I tell you...pure genius!!!!

I found myself enjoying the peeling and eating the jelly more than the ice cream itself. Leaving my son with a plain vanilla ice cream on a stick.

Cheese Omellete with Lady's Choice Mayo

A booth promoting a mayo brand at the mall gave me and wife an idea i'd like to share. We are used to adding milk, butter or plain veggie juice to make our omelettes fluffy and tasty. It never occurred to me that adding mayonnaise to the omelette mix could make it taste and feel interesting.

I studied various components for baking on a chemical level as a report in my humanities class (despite my group being a bunch of metal heads, artists and musicians...my professor assigned cooking as our report). In my research, mayo in omelette is essentially like adding oil and more eggs to the mix. With eggs which primarily serve as a binder in baking, I fail to see the effects of a binder will make to another binder and make it fluffy.

To my surprise, adding Lady's Choice original blend made some difference in the texture and taste in what we were cooking. Its not that fluffy, but it was soft, with a bit of tang...a flavor not necessarily associated with omelettes.

I recommend using 2 singles pack (or two tablespoons) of Lady's Choice Mayonnaise to 3 eggs. Add a pinch of iodized salt. Keep in mind that adding too much iodized salt will flatten out the color of the whisked eggs and in turn, will make your omelettes or scrambled eggs leaner, thinner and less fluffy. As the bottom part forms and cooks, add 2 diced tomatoes and half a white onion. As the veggies cook into the liquid side of the whisked eggs, add the diced quick melt cheese then turn the half of the egg batter to close your omelette.

I assure you, this one will make for a hearty breakfast for anyone.

Salad Day

After a whole day of red meat, pizzas and cola, I needed to take a break with something light and refreshing. Its what I needed that hot and humid Sunday afternoon.

My wife made me this light salad made of iceberg lettuce, cucumber and crab sticks with garlic ranch dressing. Pair it up with ice cold apple flavored green tea and you got yourself a winner. If you want to change it up a little, add some Japanese wasabi mayonnaise to give it more wonderful taste.

Dynamites Makes Good Eating

My wife prepared a special treat for me... a dish my cousin introduced to us as 'Dynamites'. Its a combination of green peppers (or chili), cheese and fried ham packed in dimsum wrappers. When deep fried, it has a salty and spicy taste to it. The spiciness of the peppers are countered by the lactose in the cheese which is known to be an effective deterrant for spicy foods.

Its called 'Dynamite' because the finished product resembles an old dynamite stick with the pepper's stem as the fuse.

Heartburn city...here i go....

Enjoy a Cup of Sinigang Tea

Ahhh, the wonderful Pork Sinigang, it's a culinary treat that can lead the world to peace and unity. I love the way how it mixes the saltiness of its pork broth, the spiciness of green chili and pepper, and the sour tang of tamarind. A wonderful cocktail that plays around your taste buds (oh, you wanna play too, come here you little puppy you...heeeeereee puppy puppy puppy).

Sorry, I got a little over poetic there. Thats how much I love that viand we refer to as 'Pork Sinigang'.

I was eating at a small karinderia along Arayat St. in Mandaluyong one day when an epiphany came to me. It came to me like a large metal safe falling down on a helpless coyote in one of those Saturday morning cartoons. It seems to me that, the hospitality food of choice in the Philippines is the humble Pork Sinigang soup.

Now before you send me off to be institutionalized, I would like you to see it from my perspective. While studying in Japan, I learned that the Japanese green tea (referred to as 'ocha') was their hospitality drink. Everytime there is a guest, whether it be social, educational or business, they always serve green tea. Its considered as a refreshing drink in Japan, and its anti-oxidants is like bidding good health to your guests.

Now imagine that, transpose a little, convert welcoming to eating, in a fiesta or a canteen, flush it through the magic-head-trip-trauma-o-meter, fast forward, add ketsup, some spices and vinegar, leave to simmer, then head to your nearest Mini-stop or 7-11 cuz I'm hungry...

Now, where were we? (wow...another meaning for triple 'W') When eating on karinderias, the server will always give you an extra serving of soup (its called soup here but its actually called broth), the most requested is...ding ding ding...Pork Sinigang. That is mostly given to warm our tummies as we wait for our food.

But sometimes, eventhough they say that the soup they're serving is Sinigang, in reality its really Nilaga...

So does that mean that the Nilaga is the food of deception, atrocity and greed?

Hmmmm.....

My Hong Kong Style Noodles Remix

HongKong style noodles (and its other incarnates) has been around for quite some time now. Other franchises and fly-by-night dealers spring out of every crevise in the city. From established name brands to local street peddlers cashing in on the fad. But stir fried noodles , whether be it from the wok or a heated steel plate, are nothing new to our palette.

I tried a lot from various outlets, but nothing beats my favorite place, HongKong Style Noodles at the top level of Robinson's Pioneer in Mandaluyong City. Not 'da original', not 'da first', not even the 'Hoy! we sell HK style noodles here' on the name. Just plain and simple 'HongKong Style Noodles'.

Unlike most places where they just heat up the noodles then pack them up with siomai staight from the pan, this cart fries the noodles. Giving it its crunchy-chewy texture I love in stir fried noodles. Not relying on the 'toge' or spring beans to give that crunch.

There I also found my perfect mix in the sauce. Its a common misconception that you should drown your noodles in the various sauces available to enjoy it. You have to practice moderation. The sauces are there to enhance the flavor of the noodles, not serve as the main dish. My mix involves one scoop of teriyaki sauce, one scoop of oyster sauce, one scoop of toyomansi (a combination of lime and soy sauce), and a pinch of oil from the chili garlic bin just to add that little spice. Although that mix is for the single order sized serving, you don't have to double it for the jumbo size. Just make the toyomansi a scoop and a half.

Next time you decide to go for some HK style noodles, try this mix. You'll love it.

(as of press time, that particular HK style noodles is already closed....waaaaaaaaaaa -ed)

Snow Cones. anyone?

In this hot weather we are perennially experiencing in the Philippines, it has become a trend among Filipinos to escape the heat...normally on summer time.

I travel to commercial destinations for the humble snow cone.

"What?!? Travel far away for just a snow cone?"

Well, people do travel to escape the heat. Why not for a snow cone? They would prepare a lot of snacks, sets of clothes, supplies, plan the outing, organize things...just to escape the heat...and come back home exhausted. I do have the same needs, I love to travel, but there are times that I would like to refresh myself without the hassles of setting up an outing. I could just take the 5 min. cab ride to the nearest outlet and wallah...instant refreshing experience.

Now, I take the fruity flavors of snow cones over ice cream anyday. Ice creams are based on milk, which refreshes you momentarily, but you end up generating more internal heat due to the fat. The fructose is a naturally refreshing sugar base which doen't necessarily generate as much fat content as its milk counterpart.

As for places to get them, there are two places within the Makati area which I frequent. There's the snowcone stall at the ground floor of SM Makati, its own mix, and SnowCone in Market! Market!. The prces do differ...and so does the portions, it all comes down to what your immediate needs are.

If you go for quantity...the consumption of more ice than what your sensitive teeth can handle, I recommend the SM Makati branch. Its cheaper by 10 to 14 pesos, and its serve in a large cone, almost like a martini glass. So when I go to SM Makati, everytime I say "I want to stop for an iced martini", it usually means I want to go get some of that snow cone...or get really drunk.

If flavor is what you want, you'll get all that fruity sweetness at the ground floor of Market!Market, near the activity circle. Its a bit more expensive than the one at SM, in a more manageable serving size, like a regular sized softdrink serving, but it packs a lot os flavor in them.

So when in the neighborhood, do stop by for some iced martini...