Market Manila

The third night of the Samsung/Metrowear series of fashion shows in Cebu featured an array of Bridal gowns for ladies and suits for men. I didn’t take very many photos but The Kid did… So, based on several requests by email, I am doing this quick post on the evening, and most photos are fully credited to The Kid. The Bridal show was the best of the three consecutive evening shows. The clothes were far more refined and carefully executed for the most part, the designs ranged from outrageous to clever to downright stunning. The crowd on the third night was huge compared to earlier evenings, not to mention the guests seemed to dress better and there was a noticeable amount of bling on display…

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On our recent trip to Ilocos, for which I am SO BEHIND on posts, we had a delicious chicken soup with miki and bagnet for merienda at our hotel. As soon as I got to Manila, I decided to try my own version, and these are the results of that experiment. Chicken soup is incredibly satisfying, no matter where you are in the world… there must be thousands of versions of chicken soup with noodles, rice, potatoes, vegetables, etc. that all provide an incredible amount of comfort and nourishment to millions of people. Many years ago I read that someone even did a study to see what there was in chicken soup that made it a seemingly universal tonic for those with the colds or flu. I don’t recall the results of that study, but I suspect steaming broths help to clear ones sinuses and warm the body…

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I know, I know, this is a food website. But some readers may find a quick fashion related post interesting. And if you are inclined, consider this AN INVITE to a pretty snazzy fashion event THIS EVENING in Cebu, with some wedding gowns by Monique Lhuillier as the anticipated highlight of the show. Marketman, Mrs. MM and The Kid have been in Cebu since Friday to attend a number of related fashion events as part of some of our business commitments. We aren’t “fashion show type of folks” for the most part, and I have never attended one in the Philippines before, unless you count a charity event that The Kid walked in when she was aged 8 or so. But we were game and even made sure we had something “casually chic” (what the heck does that mean, really?) to wear for three consecutive evening shows…

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The concept of a bread pudding never really floated my boat, if you get my drift. It just sounded so blah-ish. That is, until a couple of years ago when I saw Ina Garten make a bread pudding with croissants on one of her televsion cooking shows. I stored that concept in the back of my mind and when I was recently doing all those tarts, I realized that I had her recipe for that pudding in one of her Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. So while the inspiration was definitely from Ms. Garten, I think I have sufficiently altered the ingredients to tack on the “a la Marketman.”

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There were several requests for the lemon tart that I made a few days ago. This has to be one of the easiest and best tasting lemon tarts I have ever made, and it is from Payard’s Simply Sensational Desserts cookbook. I strongly recommend that you buy this book if you are a fan of tarts and other fine desserts. First, you need to make some tart dough, recipe here. For the filling, all you will need is the fine zest (I use a Microplane zester) and juice of three lemons, 3 large eggs, 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of granulated white sugar, and 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into little cubes. That’s it.

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I received several requests for the recipes of the lemon tart and the Kid’s pecan boats in this previous post so I decided to first describe the tart dough (which you can use in many, many different tarts) and then the recipe for the pecan tart boats. The tart dough is basically a pate sucre or a dough with butter, flour and powdered sugar. It is a bit “maselan” or delicate, but once you get the hang of it, it is an utter breeze. I use several variations of this recipe but here is the most basic, with full credit going to Francois Payard from his cookbook “Simply Sensational Desserts.”

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If your house/apartment was burning down, and you made sure that all humans and pets were all out of harm’s way, you managed to grab most of your jewelry and family photo albums and saved the laptop and on your way out of the kitchen back door, you had a chance to grab JUST ONE of your Filipino cookbooks, which one would you choose? That is a silly way of asking which Filipino cookbook do you cherish the most? Is it one filled with classic recipes? Regional favorites from your home province? A book filled with trivia or history? Is it locally published or one from abroad? I have been to several bookstores and have carefully perused their selection of Filipino cookbooks, and for a nation with nearly 90 million citizens, I am almost always MORTIFIED by the quality and lack of Pinoy cookbook choices. While we have more than 25 Filipino cook/food books/pamphlets in our home, only a handfull or two would hold a candle up to the 400+ other cookbooks I have on my shelves…

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A few weeks ago we had a bounty of fresh kalamansi (calamondin) fruit. To prevent wasting several kilos of the fruit which was ripening faster than we could use it, we squeezed out the juice from about 5 kilos worth of fruit and froze the juice in ice cube trays. Once they were solid, we transfered the kalamansi cubes to a zip lock bag and kept it in the freezer. Why am I posting about this? Because I find that with a little thought and foresight and freezer and refrigerator management, we can be much more efficient, economical, logical and practical. From the frozen kalamansi cubes we can easily make hot kalamansi juices during the cold and flu-prone rainy season, we can make cold kalamamsi juices, we can throw the cubes into a room temperature glass of 7up with some ice cubes for a homemade orangina-style drink, use it in pies, and you can even cook with the kalamansi cubes if you like. It isn’t as good as using freshly squeezed fruit but it is no fuss, no muss and quick. Many years ago I even tried freezing coke so that my glass of coke with coke cubes wouldn’t get unduly watery…but I never did that again…

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