Market Manila

I was thrilled to see so many folks wanting to risk their lives vying for, winning and tasting and living through Marketman’s kalamansi marmalade. With over 160 comments, and two winners, your chances of winning were roughly 1 in 80; a pretty good probability, certainly better than winning the lotto…heehee. At any rate, on Sunday, The Kid randomly selected the winners, they were both notified by email, and they have both accepted and provided mailing addresses… I think at least one of the bottles was delivered to a Makati office address, while the other will be delivered to Manila, near the Bay, in the days ahead. LBC refused to accept the packages for delivery because it was breakable… so they have/had to be hand delivered by one of my crew. I was going to post the screen names of the winners, but where they work was far more interesting so I won’t give their identities away. The first winner works in the foreign exchange and treasury area of a large government institution (isn’t that just so apropos considering the PIPC SCam post recently?). The second winner works as an attorney working for a government office (gosh, I hope I never end up in the klinker and she is the lawyer on the other side)… Their jobs struck me as being really cool… makes me wonder what all the other commenters do for a living or their vocations… Mrs. MM, btw, was once a civil servant as well… :) I hope you both enjoy the marmalade, and to all the other folks who tried their luck, there will always be a next time… :) Thank you very much for participating in the first Marketman tambiolo extravaganza…

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I get into these semi-marathon baking weekends once in a while and though I have made a record 13 different items in a 36 hour period once, this past weekend I made just four… I noticed that our fridges are jampacked with dried fruit and nuts so I wanted to make a dent in the baking stocks. First off, at The Kids request, I made some cranberry biscotti for her, which I have previously featured, recipe here… but she didn’t want any nuts in hers so these were just dried cranberries…she wants to take them to school for baon… how’s that for a merienda trading item in the cafeteria? I didn’t take a picture. Biscotti are super, super easy to make, and great to have on hand for a quick and relatively healthy snack. While browsing my cookbooks, I spied a great sounding recipe for brownie crisps… essentially the idea is similar to muffin tops… here the objective was to have the nice crusty top of the brownie but make it all a bit crispy, like a cookie.

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My previous post on Chelsea Market Cafe at Serendra made me realize we had eaten at a restaurant near the Chelsea Market Mall on the last trip to New York. My nephew, an investment banker with Lehman Brothers, recently moved into an apartment in the neighborhood and he invited us to dine with him at Markt a Belgian Bistro that had recently transferred from another location on the East side… I told you Chelsea was one of the “hipper” new young neighborhoods… At any rate, despite it being NEWLY ensconced at that location, I suspect the feel or character of this restaurant is exactly what all “wannabee” pinoy bistro equivalents are trying to emulate, but just don’t manage to get… this corner restaurant serving authentic Belgian fare is rather impressive… a huge and impressive antique bar, old and heavy furniture and careful attention to details such as bread pans, cutlery, glasses, tablechloths, etc. really help to make you feel like you have entered a restaurant in a different city…

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We had lunch at the Chelsea Market Cafe at Serendra Mall, Fort Bonifacio the other day and was pleasantly surprised. It had a menu that read well and from which I could pick several dishes I that wanted to eat, the prices seemed reasonable for such a high rent district and the whole feel of the restaurant seemed positive and cheery for a mid-week lunch… I typically don’t eat at very new restaurants as I understand they need several months to “settle in,” and work out the kinks, but a good friend suggested we meet at Chelsea and we (I & Mrs. MM) agreed. I should mention that other friends have been to Chelsea and complained of appalling service in its opening days. First the setting… I presume they were going after a hippish vibe of the recently gentrified and hottish scene in the Chelsea section of New York City. A large food mall of the same name, Chelsea Market, with lots of restaurants opened in a renovated old Nabisco factory/warehouse. What used to be warehouses and drug shoot up nooks is now home to the hottest restaurants, clubs and highrise apartments for yuppies in New York. We ate in Chelsea the last time we were in New York, let’s just say naming a restaurant after an area can be just that…naming a restaurant. The whole “market” aspect of this new restaurant in Serendra is lame at this point, they threw in say 6-8 stainless steel shelves and are re-selling or stocking goods from other retailers such as Flavors N’ Spices 50 from meters away at Market!Market! (I love that shop, btw), Gourmet Cafe Coffee, etc. - Suffice it to say the market side of this set-up is mostly for “show” at the moment, and I don’t think they have any serious revenues from the food products for sale. The restaurant itself has high ceilings, is bright and airy and is a nice place to watch the pedestrian activity outdoors… but it is what I would describe as “chic on the cheap.”

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I floated the idea of doing a price comparison among groceries last January and got an enthusiastic response. Many folks even volunteered to check their neighborhood groceries, which was a pleasant surprise. I finally got around to attempting the idea, and I have to tell you, it was a a royal pain in the rear. I canvassed 10-14 products at 5 different groceries within a 24 hour period and eventually eliminated 4 products due to erratic availability and inconsistent size issues… At any rate, I have rushed to publish the results hours after my last grocery visit so that you can use this as a guide to check your own neighborhood grocery this weekend if you are doing some shopping. I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment with any prices you saw in your neighborhood grocery for the following SPECIFIC ITEMS so that the overall readership of Market Manila can benefit. The bottom line has some rather interesting conclusions (albeit the huge caveats on a small sample, small geographic area, etc.):

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This is the headline of the Philippine Daily Inquirer this morning (excluding the words in the parenthesis, these are my additions). And apparently some of the folks you might know have been caught up in these scams lately. First it was the Francswiss scandal that got middle-income to upper-income internet investors. Then now this news of PIPC and one of its senior officers alledgedly absconding with as much as $250Million!?! of “rich” peoples money… the innuendo being that it is the beso-beso crowd that networked with their like friends convincing them to march like lemmings to the cliff’s financial edge!?! Well, first of all, it is UTTERLY DESPICABLE and OUTRAGEOUS that folks would set up scams and cheat people, rich or poor, smart or dumb. That is first and foremost. I think if they are found guilty of this, they should be given novel food punishments like having to bathe for a day in a swimming pool of vinegar and salt with skin wounds all over. But let me rant on something else… the newspaper headline would be more appropriate for me if one of the suggested words in parenthesis were used instead. HELLO?! Why would you put your money with folks or companies who are of questionable pedigrees at best, when there are so many legitimate investment vehicles around? When folks are promising returns on your money that are too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true!!! I am currently hot under the collar as I occasionally get asked financial/investment questions by highly educated, well employed and well to do folks and friends like “should I put my money with so and so,” or “do you think this guy offering 15% guaranteed return is for real,” or other such questions… And my answer is always, go with the conservative option. Keep your hard earned money safe. Check out the institution. Be careful. It is weird that the same folks that store their $500 watch in a $1,000 home safe would so blithely hand out $50,000 to a relative unknown, simply because another “friend” vouches for them. I realize I may irritate a lot of my own friends and acquaintances with this post, but the reality is… LOOK CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU LEAP. As P.T. Barnum once said, there’s a sucker born every minute. Don’t get me totally wrong, I feel very badly for those who lost any money, and I am all for serious capital punishment of the perpetrators. But you have to look out for your own interests, particularly when it comes to money, period.

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Table setting is an art. I realize most folks today may not be able to relate to this statement given the economic times, but I firmly believe this to be true. The readership of this blog is sufficiently broad in number, age, income levels, tastes, etc. that some will find this post interesting and others not. There was a time when sitting down to dinner at a home was the pinnacle of an evening out. Today, most people are likely to meet friends and eat out at a restaurant instead of doing a dinner party at home. If you ever watched the movie “Age of Innonence,” and noticed the overhead cam shots of the dining table and dining room, you would have seen a very carefully orchestrated selection of tablecloths, dishes, silverware and crystal that should ideally enhance the overall enjoyment of the meal to be served. And despite the cost of pulling together a spectacular table of fine china, silver and lead crystal, I could actually make a good case that it is cheaper than some of the “necessities” seem so willing to spend on these days…

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If you like kalamansi, you will probably love this sherbet. I realize you may be sick of reading about kalamansi posts, but what to do when you have to use up an unexpected bounty of the fruit? And besides, it is at the peak of the season, so use it while it is cheap and plentiful! I have tasted several lime, lemon, citrus, kalamansi sorbets and sherbets and while I liked most of them, I often find the trade-off between the sweetness of added sugar and the sourness of the citrus, a balance that is difficult to get absolutely right. Sorbets are like ices or granitas, typically made with fruit, water and sugar though technically you can make sorbets from other ingredients. Sherbets differ from sorbets in that sherbets have added milk or cream and are closer to ice creams in taste and texture. Sherbets tend to be smoother as a result of the added and churned cream. A kalamansi sorbet would be a superb palate cleanser between rich courses of a formal meal. A kalamansi sherbet would be more appropriate as a dessert to a meal.

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