Market Manila

I was leafing through the December 2005 issue of Food & Wine at the beach and saw a recipe for brownies with FOUR kinds of chocolate. It looked intriguing though I immediately thought we would be missing several ingredients if I hadn’t planned on this dessert on the way out from Manila. I opened the fridge and rummaged about and much to my surprise I found a box of Hershey’s unsweetened chocolate which WAS intended for brownies. But better yet, I found several bars of Lindt Dark Chocolate, some Hershey’s milk chocolate and a huge bar of Callebaut white chocolate and I started to get excited. Throw in some real vanilla extract, a pound of Plugra European style butter and a sufficient amount of eggs and I knew I was in business… brownies with four different kinds of chocolate was an hour away…

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Eating on the go is a necessity when you only have a few days in a city with so much to see… thankfully, Amsterdam is extremely accommodating with all of its terrific “street food.” If you are into herring, which I am not particularly fond of, there are several herring stalls all over the city. The month of May also means the arrival of the “fresh” herring and it’s a big deal for the locals, but I just couldn’t get into it. It tasted a bit like slightly going off fish with the blood clearly visible. I eat raw fish, lots of different sushi in fact, but the herring was not so easy. Served with pickles and onions, I suspect this is an acquired taste for most non-Northern Europeans. The pickled herring is a bit more palatable but still unusual for my palate…

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The tiny storefronts in Amsterdam are quaint and inviting. The narrow streets, cobblestone sidewalks, the low rise townhouses (many of them askew/leaning after 300+ years in existence) all make for a wonderful visitor experience. On the same street as the De Kaaskamer Cheese Shop, were two other notable food destinations… the first, was Pompadour, a dessert and sweets shop that looked like another gem just like De Kaaskamer. The tarts and cakes on display in the window screamed calorie overload and since we already had some triple cream cheese wrapped up and ready to eat, we were uncharacteristically self controlled and passed on more potential heart attack material. I regret not buying or eating (they served at small tables indoors) something on the first pass as the shop was closed for the next two days and I never got to try anything from them, bummer. But our guidebook seems to think they are worth the visit, albeit at nosebleed prices…

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(I have managed to finagle a high-speed internet hookup for a few hours so I am taking the opportunity to upload some of my Amsterdam posts now… enjoy!) Soon after checking into our small hotel on the Prinsengracht canal, we stepped out to check the surrounding area… a quick food reconnaissance mission. The food Gods were definitely looking out for Marketman & family as one of the first promising food related storefronts that we came across was a cheese shop named De Kaaskamer. I didn’t know it at the time (having only landed hours before) but the name meant “The Cheese Chamber” – and that is EXACTLY what it was. Located on a chi-chi side street (Runstraat, 7) along with several other notable food shops, this was the absolute “jackpot” in cheese, in the land of cheese. Less than 100 meters from our hotel, I was certain we were pre-destined to enter this fantastic store.

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Towards the end of a long holiday at the sea shore, I always go through the refrigerators and do a “mopping up” operation… in other words, “leftover” patrol. After several large planned meals, there are usually a significant amount of odds and ends that need to be consumed. In this case, I spied some leftover grilled chicken that was stripped for sandwiches, leftover grilled red peppers, whole zucchinis and some basil. There were 9 more eggs left as well. I decided to make a simple frittata for a light lunch…

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We are hopefully physically within the borders of Italy by the time this post comes out. So I figured I would do a classic Italian dish today. Spaghetti or linguine a la vongole is my wife’s favorite pasta. It ranks just a hair above a well made carbonara. She does both of them superbly. The problem is, finding small, fresh and safe clams to use for the vongole. I don’t buy clams in Manila if they come from within 100 kilometers of the city. As bottom dwellers that eat all the muck that flows by in the water, I worry about the quality of water and hence the quality of clams. It is ironic that the best “Manila clams” on the planet are actually raised in farms off of Vancouver, British Columbia. These clams are then exported to fine restaurants all over North America and you see recipes that specifically mention Manila clams. If those restaurant owners only knew what images that might conjure in Manila when one looks out onto the bay where millions of gallons of raw sewage empty out every day… My first suggestion, find a GOOD source of clams before you make this dish! Being out of town isn’t a guarantee either as some of the most pristine places have the most horrific fecal matter count. Not to spoil all those fabulous memories of those who have just returned from Boracay, but apparently few places on that island have proper sewage facilities and at certain times of the year swimming in the waters off of Boracay can be less than good for one’s health. It’s like swimming in a huge toilet bowl. Don’t take big gulps of sea water…

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Between shopping for produce at the local markets, planning the meals, cooking the meals, eating the meals, writing about the meals or dishes and eventually pooping the meals, Marketman and family do manage to do other things in between while at the coast… a stroll on a beach, a swim, a brisk walk or game of tennis to burn up calories, read a book or chat with friends. But as the hours grow longer and the heat bears down, we sometimes retreat to an airconditioned living room and pull out a jigsaw puzzle… I will be honest…I don’t have the patience to put together a 500-1,000 piece puzzle. I can do it, I just don’t enjoy it that much anymore. So my daughter is thrilled when we have guests that are not only obsessive compulsive but also have the patience of oxen. Over the Holy Week holiday, my daughter and our guests made two huge and rather difficult puzzles…of what else but FOOD. The first puzzle is of several trout in a brook. What made this extra challenging was the unusual straight or rectangular pieces that hooked together in several different directions… they did that 500+ piece puzzle on good Friday and it took two of them just 6-7 hours to complete!

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I first posted this in February 2005 when this blog’s readership was less than 1/10th of what it is today… I figured it would be worth it to post it again as there is an abundance of paho at the markets right now. In the weeks ahead I will revisit some of my archives while I am off on vacation… My mom was a great fan of paho and today would have been her 80th birthday if she were still around so this is for her…In my earlier post on paho, I promised to try and replicate the brined paho of my childhood and to taste/test the raw fruit, so here are the results. First, a salad of raw sliced paho, tomatoes and onions with Patis. I was trying to approximate a description of a Southern Tagalog relish but without ever having tasted it or access to a recipe. This experiment was pretty good, though it needed a lot of patis or salt. The paho has a distinctive flavor that is truly unique. It paired well with the tomatoes but be careful how much raw onion you put as it can be rather overwhelming.

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