Pates de Fruits from LMduC
A visit to New York is punctuated with several food related “musts” that 
all have to be satisfied before I get back on a plane… I must have a thick veal chop, visit the Union Square market, eat a hotdog from a street vendor, consume some serious triple cream cheeses, get supplies for my pantry at Zabar’s, Citarella, Fairway and Economy Candy, eat a lobster and have an aged prime steak, medium-rare please. A visit would also not be complete without a stroll up Madison Avenue and a visit to my favorite chocolate shop, La Maison du Chocolat. Though their chocolates are sublime, another favorite are their pates de fruits, intense confections made of the essence of fruit and just a touch of sugar. Kiwi, blackberry, raspberry, lemon, lime juices are reduced and reduced again until the flavor is just so intense it is unrivalled by any artificial flavor… These pates de fruits are dense yet soft, intensely fruity but not overly sweet and a delicious luxury…just one is enough to cap off a serious meal… Here in the photo they sit confidently on a beautiful hand-painted Meissen porcelain plate that is probably more than 200 years old…
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around the corner to Francois Payard’s Bistro et Patisserie et voila!, freshly baked croissant, brioche and my sister’s latest discovery, mini craquelin - brioche with orange rind, almonds and a sugary crust! I love freshly baked brioche with sinful amounts of butter and lots of homemade jam and was a bit skeptical about the mini craquelin at first. But one bite and a new favorite has been discovered. A crunchy top with blanched Spanish almonds and a sugar crust preface the soft buttery brioche with chopped candied orange peel within. You could eat this plain or go truly over the top and add some really high fat butter (not the watery stuff we seem to have at home in Manila) and a homemade orange marmalade. Served with a pot of freshly brewed oolong tea and memories of flying over the Pacific in “slave-ship class” quickly faded away.
on flights packed like sardines and fed like anchovies and settling into an apartment just bursting with flowers that scream “it’s Springtime in New York!” I consider New York to be my second “home,” having spent long summers here since the mid-seventies, later attending graduate school and living and working in the city for several years. I have family here too. This trip is primarily to attend the marriage celebration of a nephew with a summer family holiday thrown in. It will hopefully provide several opportunities to post entries on food, provedores, flowers, etc., if I manage to find enough hours in the day to pack in all the desired activities. I apologize to die hard purists who expect only Manila or Philippine based entries but I hope you enjoy the next few weeks of Marketman in New York.
species of Trevallies / Jacks (Family Carangidae) that make excellent eating. Identifying to species level can be somewhat dicey so I will give you names of some of the commonly eaten smallish talakitok in the Philippines (say ½ to 1 ½ kilos) – Blue Trevally (Carangoides ferdau), Bluefin Trevally (Caranx melampygus), Gold-Spotted Trevally (Carangoides fulvoguttatus), etc. In several books, and on one internet dictionary, I noticed that talakitok is translated as “cavala” or “banded cavala” fish. I think this is probably incorrect as it is neither a scientific name or reference and further digging suggests it is a Portuguese translation for what they call a “mackerel” which talakitok is definitely not. Suffice it to say there are several species of talakitok that range from small to enormous (say 50+ kilos!) and they taste great.
definitely one of my top 10 fruits on the entire planet. It would be on the menu at my ideal last supper. A native to Malaysia and Indonesia, the picky tree requires exacting growing conditions and is difficult to propagate. In the Philippines, most of the mangosteen harvest comes from Sulu, Zamboanga and Davao del Norte. An estimated 5000 metric tons of fruit is harvested every year, according to the Philippine Department of Agriculture website. What is really stunning about this fruit is the complexity of its flavor. Ensconced inside a thick deep maroon or red peel (that stains blood red) are several cottony white segments (at least one large segment possessing a seed). These segments are sour, sweet, sharp, soft and delicious all at the same time.
consume “old” stuff (fearing the situation where an aunt found a duck that had been in her deep freeze for over 6 years, yikes!) when I came across some frozen strawberries that I made over 2 months ago at the height of the strawberry season. To freeze strawberries at the peak of ripeness, wash them and hull their stems and place on a metal tray that will fit in your freezer. Place in the freezer and when totally frozen, transfer them to a ziplog bag and store in a cold part of the freezer. What can you do with the frozen berries? You can make dessert sauces with them, thaw them and eat them mushy with whipped cream or make them into strawberry milkshakes or smoothies…
the development that included new roads, fancy malls and dozens of hotels on Panglao’s beaches, the islands still had that proud provincial feel that existed decades ago. Surrounding modest wooden homes were carefully tended gardens that bespoke a pride of place that is getting rarer and rarer these days. It was also nice to see that many of the native delicacies such as broas (ladyfingers) and other baked goods still thriving. And on departure, a line of at least a dozen vendors at the pier were selling another throwback to my early 1970’s visits to the island – calamay! Calamay is a sweet concoction of ground sticky rice, sugar, coconut milk, vanilla and some peanuts (optional). It is sold in smooth coconut shells that are sealed shut by a characteristic band of red tape.