Market Manila

The last time I did a survey over a year ago, approximately 90% of folks who had tried a recipe they saw on marketmanila.com were satisfied to pleased with the results. Frankly, that number is unbelievably and probably politely high. Even I have less success when trying out recipes from very well regarded cookbooks. So instead of just a multiple choice poll, I thought I should write a post for you to leave comments on instead. I realize a large percentage of folks who read this blog simply enjoy reading about food, and possibly rarely go into the kitchen to actually cook a recipe they read about. Nevertheless, I am hoping that say 20-40% of you actually do spend SOME time in a kitchen and do cook on occasion when the mood strikes you. So here is what I would like to know… Have you ever tried cooking a recipe you saw on this site? If so, how did it turn out? I am particularly interested in dishes that you tried and have made several times since, as these are the ones that really grabbed you. But I would also like to hear about the recipes you tried and they turned out horrific. We all learn from our mistakes, after all. I think the best example of a marketmanila.com recipe gone wrong is the basic tapa recipe where a reader substituted iodized table salt for the kosher or rock salt, then nearly had a salt attack as a result. Well, that seemingly innocuous change in ingredient was the equivalent of DOUBLING the salt volume, and yes, it would not yield a pleasant dish… In another case, a soon to be highly chagrined Manila socialite told me my recipe for gingerbread wasn’t complete or clear as it specified cloves… so how many cloves of garlic did I mean? Hello, in gingerbread? Duhhh. :) So please leave a comment if you have tried a recipe or multiple recipes from this site, positive or negative, they will hopefully help me when I write recipes in future… Many thanks in advance for your comments!

Read more…

The last time I made brittle, peanut brittle, using a recipe credited to the legendary kitchen of El Bulli in Spain, I thought it was such a breeze, and yet yielded such superb brittle that I have been waiting for an opportunity to try it again. So when I obtained then blanched and peeled some pili nuts a few days ago, I naturally decided to go for a pili nut brittle. And as an added touch of chi-chi-ness or sophistication, I decided to use Artisan Chocolatier’s suggestion of enrobing the brittle in dark chocolate to keep the brittle from softening in our wicked humidity and to provide that added touch of richness and flavor to the treat…

Read more…

The OTOP (One Town, One Product) Fair was recently held at SM Megamall, and as usual, they had delicacies from all over Luzon… I found some pili nuts for sale at PHP150 for a half kilo package so I bought some, hoping to experiment with my own pili nut brittle. Pili nuts are one of those uniquely pinoy kind of ingredients, and we often eat them in candied or sweetened form… but frankly, I think it is a product which we just haven’t leveraged enough, whether because of technology, marketing, perishability, etc. My grandfather hails from town outside Legaspi, and my dad was a huge fan of pili, so I feel I have a kinship to this nut and wish it would get the attention it deserves. I have written about fresh pili before, and did a post on poached or cooked fresh pili which is a Bicolano delicacy. I was particularly thrilled to write this post, on some FRESH pili nuts eaten seconds after it was plucked from a tree… and they were stunningly good. And finally, I did a post on pili nut delicacies, or perhpas should have been renamed as 50 ways to sell pili with some form of sugar mixed in…

Read more…

Komboloi, frequently referred to as Greek worry beads, are everywhere in Athens, and presumably elsewhere in Greece. Never have I seen so many men fondling their doodads in their pants pockets, palms or just right out in the open! Some guys claim that bigger is better, and more macho. While others go for more unusual materials. I actually found it rather mesmerizing to watch some men flip it effortlessly through their fingers, or flick it one ball at a time. When I was in high school, the thing was to twirl a pencil or pen around your thumb and back. At one point, I could even flip a pen up in the air and catch it while the teacher was facing the blackboard. So after a few days in Athens, I knew I just had to get myself my own komboloi as my goody for the visit… There were quite literally millions of kombolois for sale in the city… it seemed every tourist shop had hundreds to choose from, many of them probably made in China from synthetic materials and the prices ranged from about 1 Euro to thousands of Euros for a really fine piece…

Read more…

One of the reasons we headed to Evripidou Street, besides the spices and the shop Elixir, was a highly recommended taverna named Telis, whose specialty for the last 30 years has been grilled pork chops. But not any pork chops, rather, superbly seasoned and very thinly sliced grilled pork chops. FoodJunkie (Jo) who is based in Greece, had also highly recommended this modest taverna in her list of places to eat in Athens, so we made sure to set aside one lunch to try it out. It did not disappoint. We got to the taverna a little earlier than we expected, so we were one of the first to sit down to lunch….

Read more…

On Evripidou Street there is a gorgeous little gem of a shop called Elixir. Written up in several of the guidebooks to Athens, this dark shop is filled with herbs, spices, snacks and tea. It appears to have been there for a very long time, and the glass front wooden cabinets that stretch from floor to ceiling are jam packed with lots of dried herbs and spices. The dark shop yields discovery after discovery, and as we browsed and picked up several items we marveled at how much of a relic the shop seemed to be, yet it did a brisk business for locals and tourists alike.

Read more…

Evripidou Street near the Athens Central Market is home to several spice shops and fresh herb stores. We revisited the Athens Central Market a day before we left the city and made it a point to walk the length of Evripidou Street, for the herbs and for a meal… It was inspiring, to say the least. Colorful, fragrant, and simply a visual feast for the eyes, nose and tastebuds. Sun dried tomatoes, dried rose buds, citrus slices, cinnamon, lavender, etc. in bulk…

Read more…

If you missed the Taste Matters out of Singapore program featuring Manila and Adobo, two readers in Singapore were kind enough to post nearly identical short clips of the show. sometime_lurker used a cellphone and hence the maintained anonymity… heehee. But Hershey managed to capture nearly a minute of Marketman and has posted that on Youtube as well. Think of this as a trailer or teaser for the full show that will air on cable in Manila and Hong Kong in about 8 weeks. Will remind readers of program time as it gets closer (if I remember myself) but meanwhile, if you are curious, check out the links to the youtube video in the comments section of this post. Thanks. It’s funny how so many readers probably think I am this really old, fat, bald-headed guy…hahaha! Thanks sometime_lurker and Hershey! :)

Read more…