Market Manila

The house specialty came before the house t-shirts. Anyone who has joined us for chili crabs at the beach goes home with an embroidered, slightly cross-eyed crab t-shirt. Originally developed so that guests could put this shirt over their nice clothes and the t-shirt would get all the splatters of crab sauce and we could all get down and dirty, the shirt has become THE house shirt… If you see anyone wearing this shirt, they have almost certainly had Marketman’s chili crabs over the years… With the 8 kilo or so bounty of the freshest crabs last weekend, and several guests in-house, we just had to cook up some chili crabs…

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A trip to the beach and a trip to the nearby market is always like a shot of pure energy… like plugging in a cell phone that is “low batt”. Despite the market being a small town affair, and grungier than most in Manila, I find that the choices are often purer in the sense that there isn’t a whole lot of “imported” fruits and vegetables (whether from Baguio, Mindanao or China)…so things more naturally go together. And the natural colors of the produce, when photographed outdoors, beat any still life I can put together in the city… Take this “centerpiece” of sitaw (yard long beans), kalabasa (squash), onions, ginger, siling mahaba (mild chilies) and squash blossoms…isn’t it just stunning? I used it as a centerpiece for lunch, but it would all eventually be cooked for dinner that evening…

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What is it about the smell of grilled pinoy pork chops, redolent with soy sauce, garlic, pepper and something sweet like sugar or 7up, still oozing fat that is packed with flavor, and begs for vinegar to cut the richness of the meat? And why does my crew always prefer their barbecued pork chops almost singed to the consistency of charcoal, eliminating almost all of the meat’s moisture? Hmmm, this stack of pork chops was dinner for the crew one night at the beach and I thought of a brilliant business idea while photographing the chops. I would bottle the essence of key Filipino dishes and give them names like “Eau de Baboy” or “Smokey Tinapa” then sell these to dieters or even Pinoys abroad in some far-flung lean pork (or no pork) nation so they can close their eyes and get a whiff of all their pinoy favorites…literally.

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An evening of Art and Music around the Ancient Roman Dining Table. Gosh, how could any serious lover of food, art and/or music resist? The Societa Dante Alighieri (the Italian Cultural and Language Society) here in Manila is sponsoring this spectacular sounding dinner (catered by Margarita Fores), to the sound of Alfonso “Coke” Bolipata and the Pundaquit Ensemble set in the Goldenberg mansion with its furniture, art and crystal/china collection. At a PHP2,500 donation per person, it may seem like a lot, but I don’t think so at all… considering the music, the surroundings and the fact that a portion of the proceeds will be given to charity, this seems like the perfect way to kick-off the month long (or more) holiday eating season for Marketman & Mrs. MM… With main courses that include roast baby pigeon with grapes, and suckling pig stuffed with fennel and dried fruit, among several other dishes, this is a meal to look forward to indeed. The event is on the 23rd of November 2006, 7pm at the Goldenberg Mansion, Manila. There are less than 100 seats total and they are going fast. If you are interested, please contact the Society directly at dantemanila@yahoo.com or call 7592016.

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As if the meal at Antonio’s that I described yesterday didn’t include enough calories to sink a rhinoceros, here are the four desserts that we had as well (and some of them multiple plates since there were 7 of us in the lunch party!). First up, in the photo up top, is a Dark Chocolate Souffle with Cardamom Creme Anglaise that my daughter had, and she truly has an ability to make her father feel like a million bucks… her comment on this dessert (she is the avowed dessert expert, after all)… “hmmm, it tastes good, but NOT AS GOOD AS DAD’S CHOCOLATE SOUFFLES!” How’s that for setting yourself up for a wonderful holiday season…Santa is listening, after all!!! We also had this Flourless chocolate cake that was very good as well…

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If you have just started reading Market Manila in the past 3-5 months (there seem to be a lot of new readers lately), you should know that there are well over 800 entries in the archives of this blog. Unfortunately, my search function isn’t as good as it should be and it is less discriminating than I would have liked. But don’t let that discourage you as many of the earlier posts cover items you are probably familiar with… So, what to do? Either hit the archives button up top and search by month, which can be a bit tedious unless you are like me and just like to wander through random food related articles. Or, type a key word such as “adobo” or “sinigang” and keep scrolling down and hitting the “more posts” button at the bottom of the page…keep hitting it until it disappears and that means all articles with adobo appearing in it have been displayed. In the weeks ahead, I will try to do summary posts for soups, meats, fish and vegetable recipes to make the recaps easier for you. Even I forget that I have posted something previously…last week, for example, it seems I doubled up a post on ham and split pea soup! I have earlier done posts on tapa, tocino, daing na bangus, markets, produce, various fish, etc. Happy hunting through the archives!

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The management of Gourdo’s has contacted me to let me know that they are offering a one-time 5% discount on items at their Fort store or at the restaurant, good through the end of November. This offer is good for anyone who attended the Eyeball on November 4th… please just mention your name (or nickname on the site), the eyeball and you will receive the discount! Isn’t that just nice of them? Shucks, and I went shopping the week before the eyeball! I guess I will just have to go back again and have a great pizza as well. They have terrific Lodge cast iron pans in stock, great baking equipment, gifts for the holidays, oddly, some terrific candy/stocking stuffers for the kids, etc. On my last shopping trip there, I got silicone brushes for the barbecue and pastry, I found lemon wraps and cheesecloth (which is HARD to find in Manila generally… Many thanks to Chris and Gourdo’s for this kind offer!

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We actually had this meal several Sundays ago…but I should have had it this weekend after finding out my cholesterol count was way down and I have decided to eat what I want for the next 72 hours… Marketman & family drove up to Tagaytay with another couple and their kids (great friends and incredible foodies) and we had booked a table at Antonio’s… I had been to Antonio’s many years ago, when it was newly opened, and my foie gras at the time was improperly deveined…in fact, it still HAD most of its veins or litid which was a real turn-off considering how much the meal cost…so despite a pretty good meal at the time, I never went out of my way to return to the restaurant. But this time around, I have to give it two thumbs and two big toes up…it was simply the best meal I have had outside of a residence in the Philippines in the past 12 months. Now that is saying a lot for Marketman. Just everything about the meal was terrific or very good. I know many bloggers and columnists have waxed poetic about Antonio’s and it does deserve a lot of the praise… But instead of writing too much, I will let the photos (which came out surprisingly clear) speak for themselves…

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