my kitchen recipe: Chicken Steak

my kitchen recipe, are blog post about experimental cooking in my kitchen. Experimenting on food and cooking something I think was never done before is a thrill.

This is my first post on this. And I'd call this Chicken Steak.

What you need:

Chicken breast (deep fried)

Soy Sauce

Vinegar (or use calamansi as substitute)

Onions (cut in ring)

Water

How you do it:

Put water, soy sauce and vinegar in a pan. Add deep fried chicken when it starts to boil.

Balance the taste on how you want it. I like my steaks sour and salty. Add onions until you get the consistency of taste.

Plate, serve and most importantly, take picture of it.

got any foot long hotdog lately?

Footlong burgers, so called indicative of its 12-inch frank is believed to have started in a refreshment stand in Riverview Park, Chicago by George Schimdt in 1930's.

Today, you can order footlong hotdogs in any burger stand or can even make your own. There are readily available footlong hotdogs and buns in the grocery stores. Just like how to make sandwiches, stuff that foot long hotdog into the bun, spread cheese, mayonnaise and ketchup, add coleslaw if you have and whoala! You got a footlong burger.

pasta, chicken barbecue and a slice of choclate cake...cafe urbe style

Here's a chicken barbecue (BBQ) from Cafe Urbe.

Located along Alabang-Zapote road in Las Piñas City, its a not-so-small cafe, which used to be,  if I'm not mistaken a car dealership store or a bakery. Whatever it was, I don't really cared. Its just a good thing that it was turned into a cafe.

Far from the best and the fanciest cafe's in town, Cafe Urbe still needs a lot of improvement..interior wise, menu-wise and service wise. While I think they have the essentials for a cafe ambiance..the food still matters the most. 'Tis a food blog anyway.

Quick backgrounder, foobu Aida invited me for lunch after shift one day and she said we ought to try out a newly opened cafe, she recommended it coz she and foobu Gold tried it once. And she wants me to try it too. So I gave in, 'twas her treat as I remember.

She ordered pasta, Tuna Alfredo I guess. She could not eat fried dishes for health reasons, so she opted for the healthier choice. She shared some, as we always do, and it didn't taste bad. Good, a three stars rate out of five. Again not bad!!

Then comes the chicken barbecue. Service wise, we ordered almost the same time, but my order came 10 minutes after she got  her pasta order.  She had to eat ahead so her dish don't turn cold.

I had to order a rice meal because I was hungry as a lion and that I could eat anything in the bowl. But the order coming so late was such a big turn down. But anyway, back to the dish.


Its a quarter chicken cooked in special barbecue sauce, sweet and a definite delight.  Worth the wait. A rating of four stars.

 Then, a food trip won't be complete without the dessert. Cake is our topmost choice for desserts when dining. Chocolate cake is a staple on every cafe. So we ordered a slice of their chocolate cake. Moist and a little gummy was the icing. Not bad, ain't the best nor the worst either. A rating of 3 stars. 


Also, there's the banana bread. Something that you'd buy in a grocery. Crap. Fresh from its plastic wrap and the price ain't worth it. Rated with 2 stars.

doggpound burgers

So you like burgers?

There are quite a number of burger stands out there but its not everyday that you stumble upon the biggest and as they claim to be....the tastiest.

I'm referring to Doggpound Burgers. It used to be a burger stand along Grove, Los Baños, Laguna but has relocated to a hole in the wall treat still in the same location.

As a foodie, I'm not very particular about the name of their burgers, I usually associate the food with experience I get and the story behind the experience.

So, how I got to taste this burger, here's the story.

More than a year ago, a friend and who used to be a housemate in college was back in the Philippines for a vacation. She finished a degree in Computer Science but now works as a nurse in the US. Together with a fellow former housemate who now works as instructor for the Department of Development Communication,  we had a quick get together at Boston Cafe then blasted the past with a walk in Demarces Subdivision, where we used to stay.

She had to meet other friends so when we're done, I walked home and got curious about the burger. I bought one, took it home as a pasalubong to my wife and we shared the food.

The burger is big, but as a warning, don't expect much. I was expecting something bigger but .....

As for the taste, nothing was really special, still the same burger as the rest - buns, burger patty, tomatoes, lettuce and inevitable tandem of ketchup and mayonnaise. the packaging was neat, wrapped in foil and packed in paper bag.

But what sets it apart from the rest is the patty - thicker and juicier. But there's really something in it eat that I didn't like much. The stench taste. I'm trying to isolate the reason why it has that taste but I couldn't think of any other reason, maybe its the patty. You might even get to think, maybe its dog meat patty. I hoped not.

Overall, its still worth the buy, still worth the try. But honestly, I haven't had my second purchase of this burger.

Rated: 2.50

turonkit: the power of two

Turon is a snack made of banana slices, sweetened with brown sugar, wrapped in spring roll and deep fried. It is also called Banana Lumpia.

Malagkit is steamed glutinous rice often mixed with coconut milk.

Click here for malagkit receipe.

Turonkit is a fusion of turon and malagkit and you can do so much more. How to do it is same as how turon is done.

What you need:

Spring roll (lumpia wrapper)

Banana slices (horizontal)

Malagkit

Sugar

Cooking oil for deep frying

What you need to do:

1. Just wrap the malagkit and the banana slices with the spring roll, and should look like this:

2. Deep fry the raw turonkit and once cooked it should look like this: 

Aside from the usual banana and malagkit, you can also add others, in this case, my mother added bukayo (sweetened grated coconut flesh).

Its best when eaten with you favorite juice, carbonated drink or coffee. Makes a great snack for every afternoon.

sweet chillers

I am a self-confessed certified sweet tooth!!!

Chocolates, cakes, ice creams and everything chocolatey is a comfort food. Good thing, I have my wife to regulate my sweet cravings, otherwise, I maybe a diabetic years ago.

There's something about chocolates that I can't resist, even taking personality tests about chocolates. As per the Chocolate Personality Quiz:

You’re an exuberant lover of all things chocolate, from bars and candy to desserts. Chocolate is both a treat and a pick-me-up. It might be said that you’re a bit more enthusiastic than discriminating. In general, you’ve got a serious sweet tooth. You’re fun, warm, and love a party. You’re non-judgmental and open to new things and new people. If it looks like chocolate, you’ll eat it.

But ice cream craving is a totally different thing. Aside from the fact that its frozen sugar topped with different flavors, I pick and choose what I want. Chocolate ice creams are on top my list. I easily get amazed with new concepts especially when it comes to food. So the idea of fried ice creams and those served in a wafer bowl sounds really cool. But more than the coolness, its still the taste that matters.

Just like this mint with chocolate gelato by Caramia.. its a delight.

And this coffee topped with ice cream by Red Ribbon is a knock-out.

Sometimes, you need not pay much to get fill your sweet tooth cravings. The sundaes, mcflurry and many other twirls offered by leading fast-food chains is an option in you're watching your budget. As for me, I settle for the simple, yet sinfully tube ice filled McFloat.

Ice cream cakes are also gaining foot and is creating its own market. Bake and Churn happens to have a kiosk branch near where I live. They offer affordable prices for every slice of their ice cream cake. But ice cream cakes aren't my cup of tea, aside from they taste like melted ice creams re-frozen, the after taste of the syrup is horrible and not so pleasing on my taste buds.

A classic example is this banana blast of Caramia. Its banana-cum-chocolate ice cream cake topped with lots and lots and lots of strawberry syrup. Urk!!

I have yet to find that ice cream cake that will change my perception and accept it as the ice cream cake and not just another thing served in my sweets plate.

So next time you consider trying out a dessert, why not try an ice cream cake. Then let me know if you've discovered something different and exciting.

Chrysanthemum tea.... anyone?

Foobu Gold was in Hongkong last week for a vacation. Before she left Philippines, I asked her a favor if she could observe how people in Hongkong make coffee. Since we're setting up our own coffee shop, HEALTHYLand, I thought probably in the future we can infuse some international coffee blends.

She promised she'll bring home some coffee pasalubong and she did! It wasn't coffee though but tea.

I consider myself a tea drinker but my tea is limited to the bottled green teas and the usual tea bags like jasmine, chamomile, papaya, ampalaya etc. but chrysanthemum tea, as pasalubong, is really something new for me. It made me think, probably every edible plant can be made into tea. Hmmmmm.

Tea is served more than coffee in Hongkong. And tea in Hongkong tastes good,she said. I was excited to try. And I did.

Surprisingly, chrysanthemum tea doesn't taste much like tea. Its sweet and has a mild flavor. Its very aromatic but I can't tell whether its like the smell of the flower since I don't get to smell a chrysanthemum that often..only during All Saints Day and All Souls Day and probably in some occasions like funerals.

Plus its not in a tea bag. Its packed in a foil (just like the flavorings of an instant pancit canton) and its in granules. When dissolved in water the granules disappear and water turns into a dark solution less the dried leaf flavor of other regular teas.

According to research, chrysanthemum tea helps lower blood pressure, helps in the treatment of colds, headache, fever, flu and can even contribute to clear vision and alertness and many more.

Well, all those are given. In a country where tea is not as popular as soft drinks and coffee, there are a lot more to discover about its benefits. Gladly, we now have bottled green teas that set a revolution on tea consumption.