Buffet at Chef Laudico Guevarra's

Days before Christmas, your Dad and I went back to Manila (more on that on another post). Since it is time away from you (haha), we decided to also make plans for a quick dinner date at Chef Laudico Guevarra's.

I'm not much of a food critic. Food is food to me and it takes little to impress me. My baseline is your dad's cooking (naks!). I just wanted to share what I ate since we're removing my gallbladder in a few weeks, anyway. Hahaha. This will at least give it one last hurrah.

So anyway, we were too early for a 7:30pm reservation. We came at around 5:30pm and the current batch of guests being served were due to end at 6pm. We were told to wait for our reservation time, otherwise we will have to go at 6pm, too. 

No worries since their garden had plenty of seats to lounge in. We used the time to take pictures of the place.

Your dad doesn't like waiting. Keep that in mind.

So festive!

I usually start on Japanese food. But since this is a Filipino-food buffet, let's start with dessert! Meringue, palitaw and red velvet cupcakes.

Salad, lumpiang sariwa, and 2 other dishes that I forgot already.

Back to sweets! Maja blanca, macaroon, carrot cake and leche flan

Adobo rice, something, something, fish mayonesa (which inspired our Media Noche menu last New Year's Eve), and shrimps

2 kinds of pizza, lechon and lechon kawali

Dessert again! Meringue anf chocolate crinkles

Vanilla and ube ice cream

Salad, lumpiang sariwa and squid

I see you! Your dad was teasing me for all the fatty foods that I got.

Lechon! Sorry, gallbladder.

I think I was up to my neck in food. I was so full! Chef Laudico Guevarra's is so far the most value-for-money buffet restaurant that I've been to. This is actually the first buffet restaurant that costs less than Php500 that I have been to but all the food that I've tried tastes so good. (Rates are: Php399 for Mon-Fri lunch, Php499 for Mon-Thurs dinner and Php599 for Fri dinner to Sun dinner --- subject to VAT)

We will definitely be back at Guevarra's. Dad and I were already thinking of an event that we can celebrate there hahaha

Have you tried it? Bring me back there please! I love you!

You may also want to read about your dad's powers

Banana oatmeal cake

Banana is a semi-staple food in our household, especially since Ate loves it so much. So when we started with our baked-not-baked goodies, it was the perfect ingredient to experiment on.

We first made banana bread using a rice cooker. (More on that on another post) This time, we are making it on our turbo broiler. :)

We got this recipe from panlasangpinoy.com. I made notations on the changes that I made.

Ingredients are:

• 1 cup mashed banana -- I used 4 medium sized slightly overripe ones.
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence -- I used 1 1/2 tsp
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour -- I used 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup of quick cook oatmeal
• 1 tsp baking soda -- I only have baking powder on hand, and I read here that "you will need 2 or 3 times as much baking powder for the same amount of baking soda to get the same amount of leavening power, and you may end up with something that’s a little bitter tasting, depending on the recipe". But, uhmm.. I just used 1 1/2 tsp baking powder this time.

Basically, just mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, and all the wet ingredients in another. Once done, combine the two mixtures and put in a greased baking pan. You need to grease the pan to make sure the bread doesn't stick to it once done.

Remember we are using a turbo broiler for this recipe. We pre-heat the broiler at 350 deg Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Then we put in the baking pan and set the broiler for another 50 mins (still at 350 deg F).

See the center part? That was where your dad kept pinching off pieces to taste.

It was a hit! Everybody loved it, especially Miko! :) It was moist and had just the right amount of sweetness. If I were to improve on this recipe, I'd probably add more bananas or maybe add half a cup of sugar (to which I know your dad will contest), or maybe put in some nuts. Your Dad suggests adding frosting. I'll consider doing this when I need to make gifts for friends :)

Let's experiment some more in the kitchen okay? Read about our kitchen adventures here. I love you!

A day of errors - Nov 2, 2014

Have you ever had those days when you are excited to try something but it doesn't work out the way you envisioned it?

Today was one of those. After such a fun-filled and prayer-answered day yesterday (will tell you about it soon), I was looking forward to make puto for snacks before we went to church. I had googled the recipe a few days back and was so excited especially since dad brought back Lola Dely's steamer from Antipolo.

Dad and I talked the recipe over and he was commenting that instead of buying the dry rice flour, we should buy the ready-to-use galapong instead.

To make the long story short -- the lesson learned here is rice flour is different from glutinous rice flour. Duh. Sayang, it was cheesy pa man din.

It was a good batch of kutsinta/tikoy/maja blanca though.

Later that night, I planned to cook food for Miko to eat throughout the next few days. I steamed squash and brocolli and proceeded to make him a vegetable patty. I just mashed the squash and brocolli, then added cheese and a scrambled egg yolk (since most allergens are found on the egg white). Then deep fried dollops of the mixture.

Lesson learned: stop cooking this for Miko. He doesn't like it. Ate and Kuya ate one patty each and refused more.

What are your misadventures in the kitchen? Let me know and let's laugh talk about it okay?




You can read about other kitchen adventures here.

Have I told you about Baby-led weaning?

Definition from wikipedia

Kuya and Ate were both traditionally weaned, meaning their food was mashed, and they were spoonfed to. 

We tried BLW on Miko and I was a bit hesitant at first because we leave you guys with lolo and lola while we are away at work. I worry about the choking risk and how lolo and lola will react in case of an emergency. 

So we tried just doing BLW during the weekends. A facebook support group on BLW that I joined has 2 schools of thought on this. One was that this causes more confusion daw kasi the kid, i.e. Miko, wouldn't know if he is to swallow first (as done in mashed food) or chew first (BLW). One the other hand, some would say better do it during the weekends alone than not do it at all. 

I must say it was so rewarding watching Miko eat! Now we have breakfast together everyday. I eat while he chomps on a piece of bread, or a small tomato, really just anything that you give him. 

I just wanted to share some pictures of Miko eating. Probably because he mostly eats while seated on my lap, he like is more than being on his chair. (We'll get there, Bunso, don't worry.)

Oreos. Okay, not healthy.

Pan de sal. Usually shared with Mama over breakfast.

Tomato tongue. No seeds.

Eggplant from sinigang. Asim!

What are your thought on baby-led weaning? If you let me take care of your kids, will you let me do this approach?

of love and bavarian

I am not a fan of bavarian-filled donuts. Not that I hate them, but they wouldn't make it to my first 3 choices in a donut shop.

Your dad loves bavarian, though. I remember once we bought a box of assorted donuts and he told me he'd eat his bavarian later. I, unfortunately, forgot to set it aside so someone ate it up. He got mad at me, ofcourse, and I never forgot his bavarian since.

Fast forward to last week. I had been reporting to the same office as dad for a days last week. Afternoon came and I wanted a bit of a snack so I sent him a note.

"Pamerienda ka naman. Chocobutternut lang."

Now, I have been with your dad for 6 years. I have learned his ways, and I'd like to believe I have learned a lot about relationships at my age. I now know that (read this Iya)women should not think that men read minds. If we want something done, we must say so, even say how we want it done. It is up to the man to decide, ofcourse, how we actually wants to do it.

So, if you'll notice, I specified the donut flavor that I wanted him to buy because that was the flavor that I wanted.

Your dad bought bavarian.

I wanted to be disappointed. I wanted to smirk at his stubbornness. But then... God enlightened my mind and quieted my matabil na dila. :)

He bought bavarian because for him, that is the best flavor in the shop. Because he wanted me to have the best. Because he loves me.

And that, right there, made my day. :)

Disclaimer: Okay, I ate the donut. But I would still want for him to know that choco butternut is my favorite, not bavarian. But maybe I'll tell him another time. :)

Last meal

Hey kids! I saw an ad asking this, so if given a choice, what would you choose for your last meal? I think I'm gonna have: ~ baked salmon from Conti's, or dad's inihaw na bangus stuffed with tomatoes and onions ~ an all-cheese pizza ~ dad's chopsuey ~ sago't gulaman for drinks I asked Lola Fely and she wants chopsuey and fried chicken. :) Mmmm... mouth-watering! What about you? Let me know your favorite dishes and I'll try to cook them okay? Love you all!

Chikalang versus Palitaw

Chikalang is a quick-cook, heavy merienda from your lolo teng's hometown (zamboanga).

Add water to glutinous rice and mix until you get a claylike consistency. Form thin, pretzel-like knots, coat with sugar then deep fry. You need to make them thin so the inside will get cooked and soft, while the outside is crisp but not burnt.

Finished product :)

I like this with lots of sugar coating, well you know how much I love sweets. :)

This is like palitaw from the tagalogs, since they both use glutinous rice. The similarities end there. Palitaw is made into round mini-patties. It is cooked in boiling water, and you add the sugar coating (sometimes with desiccated coconut) after removing it from the water. It is soft all the way through. It is called palitaw because when you put the glutinous rice+water mini-patties into the water, it will sink. But as it cooks, it expands and rises to the surface of the water. "Lumilitaw", as the say in tagalog.

Photo courtesy of www.foodpick.me

I prefer chikalang. Which do you prefer? Any variants to these two treats that you can think of? Whip something up for your dad okay?

See you in the kitchen! :)

You can read about other kitchen adventures here.

Pancakes! :)

I'm making pancakes today. Hope i still get to make this for you when you grow older. :)

It has been said that we're in the age of technology and there is no reason for anyone to be naive anymore. Google has fast become my best friend, especially now that I'm trying my hands at cooking.

So there I was, following the instructions on the Maya Pancake Mix to the letter, when I just thought, what the heck, let's google "secret to fluffy pancakes". And there I found a lot of people swearing to -- beaten egg whites!!!! :)

I tried adding one beaten egg white to the batter and tada! Fluffy pancakes! I hope you get to taste them someday.

I love coffee as much as I love pancakes so I decided to add some powdered coffee to my 2nd batter and hope this works well too. Crossing my fingers! :)

What concoctions have you tried in the kitchen? Can't wait to cook with you. Love you both so much! :)