A few weeks ago, I had to have a fairly sophisticated and extremely budget un-friendly heartscan that gave my cardiologist wonderful three-dimensional colored images of my heart and its every artery and cavity. Thankfully, the results indicated that I have no significant plaque build-up or blockages at all. Phew. In other words, the heart plumbing is pretty clear. So my temporary fear of fat was set aside just in time for the lechon eyeball, lechon kawali, and this artery blocking Sunday breakfast at the beach. Half of a Marc Medina Hinayupak Ensaimada, toasted in an oven, two slices of homemade bacon (and after the photo, some butter and raspberry jam) and a glass of dalandan juice…
When we escape to the beach, I am instantly in relaxed mode. Arm me with a few back issues of food magazines, usually purchased at Book Sale or other discount shop, and I can sit back and relax for hours on end. Of course, in between, I bake ensaimadas from scratch and do the finishing touches on home-cured bacon. Then take an early morning trip to the local market, head home and prepare my Sunday breakfast enjoyed al fresco. Oh, and I spied a lady stringing ylang-ylang flowers so I prevailed upon her to sell me PHP10 worth which you see in the glass bowl beside my breakfast. It had an incredibly strong but pleasant fragrance…
The combination of the ensaimada and bacon was wickedly good. A fried or egg or two would almost certainly clog an artery or two. And imagine of the ensaimada was made with lard! The butter and raspberry jam (homemade by sister) were the perfect acompaniment to the ensaimada. I can’t afford to breakfast like this too often, but whenever I do, I always count my blessings!
64 Responses
Wow! A wonderful breakfast and a wonderful setting for an equally wonderful person! Indeed you are blest and I thank the Lord for your spreading of His joy through your posts…have a great weekend Mm and family…we’re glad your “heart” exam was good!! Keep on posting!!
I eat in moderation what is life if I will restrict what I love to eat. We only live once and I make the fullest of it. It is not that I eat like a race horse but I have to have the food that I like or an appetite of an elephant. Plus, I have so much faith in Zocor, flax seeds, multi grain cereals and angioplasty and every year the procedure is getting less complicated and invasive. I cannot ask for more of life’s glory as long as I start my day with a pan cake, bacon drowning in real maple syrup and good cup of creamed coffee!
That dalandan juice is what I envy the most! :-)
sigh! What I would give for a nice leisurely breakfast like that. But I’m usually up and working as early as 6 am and make do with sips of tepid tea in between patients. I envy you MM.
Maria Clara:
Amen to that! (and you’re funny!)
Hiya peeps,
Off topic… Where would I or could I get some noodles if I wanted to cook some Pancit Cabagan or Pancit Batil Patong in Metro Manila?
Just the noodles guys, are they the same type of noodles?
Sorry folks, I know MM has a lot of readers so trying my luck here. I’m trying to surprise someone with my very amatuerish on cooking.
Thanks all y’all.
Lava Bien…let me get this right…Cabagan…root word..Cabag? meaning gas?…so Pancit Cabagan ..pancit that gives you gas?
in my opinion, that’s almost a healthy breakfast mm. :)
What a heavenly looking breakfast!
BettyQ,
I hate to bother you again, but could you please send me the award winning chocolate cake recipe? It didn’t make it to my email: mrswanderjahr@gmail.com
I really appreciate it!
Rebecca
I don’t think I have ever had breakfast with only two rashers of bacon. How can you stop at two? I either have no bacon or a whole pile of bacon. Just a suggestion Marketman. If I had a whole slab of bacon such as yours I would slice thick slices and use it for a really great BLT.
lAVA biEN….MY APOLOGIES!!! i GOOGLED IT AND IT SAID…WHEAT BASED NOODLES…IS IT LIKE A TAN colored MIKI? If it is, I have seen it here and it comes dried and like bunched up…it said made in Taiwan. I think Taiwanese noodles? I could be wrong though!
Lava Bien. …I just checked the package I have….It said TAN-TZU NOODLES…Where are you? If you are in North America…Asian stores…dry goods section. I am positive they carry it and I think that is what you are looking for!
So sorry…I missed your post…you are in Manila…when do you plan to surprise a certain someone. If you plan to surprise him or her on Christmas, I do have a friend who is in the planning stages of going back home. I can send it to her kung matutuloy siya on Dec. 20.
MM congratulations on the healthy plumbing…i wish i could have a full breakfast like maria clara everyday, but i look forward to a few years of enjoyable retirement. once a week of a pinoy breakfast is good enough for me.
half an enasimada and 2 strips of bacon is satisfying enough.
MM you’ve officially motivated me to make an attempt at my own bacon. seeing your picture has made me realize how much i want to see that on my plate first thing in the morning.
for those readers in the SF bay area or LA area, i just wanted to let you know that i had the best “commercial” ensaimada and cheese roll from HOUSE OF SILVANA in daly city or carson. they’re light and fluffy, perfectly sweet and salty from the cheese. they also have various flavors of silvana that hit the spot when you’re craving the rich buttery cookie when thousands of miles away from the philippines.
yum! yum! although i don’t get the chance to eat breakfast regularly, i don’t think i can let a meal like this pass, specially that i love bacon! :) and i like the pitcher..
OMG….MM…your pitcher….I GOT ONE and guess where I bought it? ..in a GARAGE SALE for $2.00!!!!!!!! My friend had a garage sale in their cul-de-sac…whole neighbourhood. Then when I saw that pitcher being sold by her Canadian neighbor, I pretended to be an idiot and didn’t know what it was for…I asked her why does it have a hole…Anyway, long story short, she gave it to me for $2.00. I was going to make TAWAD but decided not to!
wow, a sister who makes homemade butter and raspberry jam, and a brother who makes homemade ensaimada and bacon. can i be an extra part of your family tree? i could be a dangerously hanging branch that’s about to fall off, but not before it grabs its nourishment…:)
or i could avoid the perilous fall and just attend an eyeball and partake of your cooking.
Nakakatakam…
Silly me, I suspected it to be ylang-ylang but have to check your post just to make sure if it was a salad you have there to “off-set” the fat! hahaha!=)
I have this nagging feeling inside me that I had a smilar kind of Marc’s Hinayupak na Ensaimada when I was a kid. I grew up with commercially baked ensaimada (you know the fluffy kinds you don’t like hehehe!) but once in a while I think I had an ensaimada similar to Marc’s in small and big sizes in the provinces. Would there be by any chance that baker’s in provinces follow the same recipe?
Maybe the reason why I can’t specifically remember is I always thought those were really not ensaimadas since they’re so tough for someone who is used to the “fluffy” ones.=P
Ang dami recipes to try soon: Marc’s hinayupak na ensaimada, Betty Q’s siomai, and now MM’s bacon. hope I can do it all during our looong Christmas break.
Betty Q: Pancit Cabagan is the pancit they cooked in the Cagayan Valley-Isabela Region. It is loaded with chunks of bagnet, pork innards and shrimps. Pancit Cabagan is served with soup and sliced onions on the side. If I got it right, shrimp juice are added to the dough when the noodles for Pancit Cabagan is prepared. Cagayanons, please correct me on this if I am wrong.
Hi MM, did you fry your bacon to a crisp? We love bacon (occasionally) and I like it both ways–crisp and floppy. My ‘fat-conscious’ hubby refused home-cooked bacon for (1) the lingering smell within the kitchen/house and, (2) the fat of the crispy bacon. UNTIL. I showed him how I did my crispy bacon: microwave. Layered between paper towels (which absorbed all the fat), it was crispy and not as fattening. 1 minute per rasher @ 1000w full power. Less fat, less guilt. :-)
Love the pitcher MM.
MM, sabi nila, hindi nakakatanda ang ganyang pagkain. You will remain forever young with that kind of diet.
I will choose to comment on the pitcher — I love it MM!
And having this breakfast on a beautiful sunday morning with your kids and wife. What else can you ask for ;)
Lucky you Betty Q.! I paid up the wazoo for the one looking remarkably the same, maybe even the same ones, at Crate and Barrel the other month…but that bacon sure looks wonderful…I wonder how that would taste like, if it was smoked with say applewood or hickory….
a heaven breakfast indeed! bacon is my all time favorite but im sure the homemade bacon you prepared is much much good than those available in the market…i wish i can try that too.
sorry off topic: betty q., we tried your siomai YUMMY!!! Thanks…do you also prepare your own chilli? can you share pls.
Betty q, Haha! It’s called pancit Cabagan because it’s from the town of Cabagan in Isabela! I don’t think it’s the same as Batil Patong. Pancit Cabagan is dry, like regular pancit, if I remember it right. Batil Patong has soup served on the side but most people mix it in with the pancit. And as if it needs more liquid, a sauce of calamansi, toyo and lots of chopped onion is also mixed in. As for the noodles, I think it’s just regular miki. It is best consumed in one of those roadside nipa hut panciterias dotting Tuguegarao =) I suspect enjoying it may be an acquired taste though.
Raggamuffin girl, I did make the jam but did not churn the butter, even I have a limit. Although butter is easier to make than jam… but in NYC you can get butter freshly made from Bonnybrook. I make different kinds of jams to give away as part of my Christmas baskets.
wow this looks gooood. i heart bacon =)
Hi MM,
May I recommend a cookbook that I acquired recently, entitled: “Fat – An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes” by Jennifer McLagan. I think you might find it quite enlightening and dare I say, reassuring… ? Thanks for the bacon post with the recipe – it’s homemade Christmas presents this year, and I think my parents would be grateful recipients!
Next Sunday: chop several slices of homemade bacon, add to the hinayupak ensymada (prebake), bake, have with chocolate ah/eh, pass out for a few hours, regain consciousness, think of a new way to add bacon into everything….
the pitcher is the killer! it’s very sexy!
Yum! Dalandan juice!
Follow up thought on the bacon…MAPLE SYRUP! Some really good Vermont maple syrup should give the bacon a nice sweet note.
yummy….how about adding maple taste? we like the maple bacon from Kirkland (costco)….MM, any idea how to incorporate that? hmmmm….smoked bacon would be good,
too..time to make some for the holidays!
it would be nice to have some dalandan juice right now, i have the flu… anyway your bacon is killing me….
hoy MM sorry i forgot to tell you.
when you’re rolling the dough you need a long stick around which you wrap the dough (which had been spread with queso) before coiling. that will give the croissant-like layers of the ensaimada.
i noticed kasi from your picture masyadong dense at parang cake yung iyong hinayupak na ensaimada. kelangan kasi meron ka ring hinayupak na stick.
ang isfeyshal sa hinayupak na ensaimadang yan ang texture ng hinayupak na dough. as in, when you tear the dough apart, it should rip like a croissant. you know, with layer upon layer upon hinayupak na layer.
gets? hoy nahirapan ako diyan sa ingles na yan ha! ano kaya mag blog tayo ng cebuano tapos sagutin kita ng kapampangan. o kaya sagutin kita ng nakakarimarim ang karumal-dumal kong cebuano (ang nanay ko kasi taga-agusan….)
o baka naman masyadong maraming queso ang nilalagay ko sa loob kaya nagkaka-layers yung hinayupak na ensaimada? ewan. basta. alam mo kasi, yung original niyan nilalagyan pa ng butter bago mo i-spread yung queso. pero over na over na yung hinayupak na butter na yan…yun pa nung may bruun butter na hindi pa namamatay yung mga cow sa mad cow.
in any case, many thanks for taking the effort of trying it out. and allowing me to share my pampango recipes. it’s such a joy to know that so many others are experimenting with my grandmother’s recipes. i don’t know if she’d be pleased that i’m giving away her secrets pero wala po akong pakialam dahil matagal na po siyang patay. lahat sila patay na.
i failed to reply to your entry regarding food and heritage. indeed, every time a recipe dies part of our heritage goes with it. and we have nothing to pass on to the next generation (namnamin mo yan MM dahil bihira lang ako maging profound).
so many dishes from my childhood have since gone kasi ang daming mga hinayupak sa arayat na ang swaswapang akala mo naman ginto yang mga hinayupak na recipe nila…
To Marc Medina: I consider this a great opportunity to ask you. I have one quick favor to ask you. Your featured article in Saveur includes plantanilla. I know I had them before and my recollection is — plantanilla is a crepe with coconut jam filling in it more like aborted latik not matamis na bao. Am I right? Thanks in advance for clarifying my inquiries.
plantanilla is filled with latik. but since travel time featured carreon’s delicacies and my mom waxed rhapsodic (ganyan ba sfelling niyan?) about the pastillas-filled plantanillas, mrs. carreon has since offered it to the public. so dalawalng klase ang plantanillas niya.
also, when you order from her please specify “yung ginagawa niyo para sa mga medina ng arayat” because she cooks the crepe longer for ordinary vendors, kaya matigas ng konti. those are mainly for the ones who travel back to the states and take that as pasalubong. it easily crumbles kasi if she does it the old way. the old way talagang melt in your mouth.
of course, mga kapampangan true to form, yung mga ibang gumagawa – isa sa magalang, at dalawa sa san fernando – they say the best and kanila, hindi yung carreon. in other words, classic crab mentality.
pero bumabalik ako kay mrs carreon kasi napaka-cute ng story niya. she worked hard day and night to send her son to la salle taft and he graduated. tapos ang kwento niya naiinis siya kasi di nag abroad yung anak, bumalik sa magalang to make her business bigger. eh gusto niya mag abroad yung anak, eh si francis naman napaka nationalistic ayway umalis ng pampanga, gusto niya palakihin ang negosyo…
ayan…lumaki na nga…
MM, if you have leftover cooked bacon( most likely none?), like MC said, add it to your muffins. I add it to my scones with chives and cheese….you know the secret to a good scone? … my idea of a perfect scone is light texture even when it’s a day old… cake flour and not all purpose flour…If you want to try it let me know!
Goldilocks came out with the worst ensaymada/brioche i ever tasted which they are hawking at our local costco store here. The bread itself is the same but it’s topped with only powdered sugar, what the heck. I mistakenly bought a pack of 8 and returned 7.5 of them back for a refund. I guess they are trying to market this to those diet conscious folks; but why change the recipe?
Thank you thank you Marc for clarification of the plantanillas. Yes, the ones featured in the Saveur montage were filled with pastillas/egg custard filling which I believe is the new spin of the plantanillas. We have to deviate from the traditional ones to catch up with culinary evolution. Greatly appreciate your input and Happy Holidays!
Maria Clara…I grew up knowing latik is the one you top Tibok Tibok with or sapin-sapin. Is matamis na bao and latik the same? I always thought they were two different entities. Anyway, in your recollection then, would the filling of the plantanilla be similar to the topping of MM’s biko (archives).
If it is, I am thinking pastry cream or custard with that latik (biko topping) folded into the pastry cream or like the filling for coconut cream pie…elevating it to a higher level….I think then that this is the Pinoy version of blintzes, would it?
Pardon my inquisitiveness for this is all Martian to me!…the plantanilla that is!
Bettyq: You are absolutely right matamis na bao and latik are two different coconut milk products. The plantanilla that I know of used filling I would call it “young latik†when heat evaporation taking place and oil begins to show up on the side of the cooking vessel and you can see the latik formation. It is in this embryonic stage of latik formation when they add the sweetening agent which is inuyat (sugar cane juice reduced until it reaches a sticky consistency and kept in a bamboo tube). I do not know the Tagalog name of inuyat. People who want to make plantanilla all year round kept their inuyat in an earthen jar. Inuyat is only available during the sugar cane milling season. The pastillas filling is something new to me and never have had the chance to try it. I just run across it in Marc Medina’s featured Saveur article.
Bettyq: You are right again they are Pinoy version of blintzes because they are crepes filled with latik filling and now they it per Marc pastillas filling. The selection of filling grows up a mile!
Oh, I get it! Maraming Salamat! I think I have a clue to what you mean now. It is all coming back to me now as the song goes!!! I remember this bamboo tube you are talking about. Also I have a Cebuano friend here who brought this thing over in a coconut shell….tastes something like what you are talking about!
This thing inside the bamboo tube…..when we were kids, my cousin called it “snot”!!!!!!…heeheehehee
wow breakfast!! my favorite meal of the day..i’m salivating at the sight of your breakfast, mm..wish i could have it right now ‘coz i’m having breakfast as i’m reading your blog..i’ll try to make your homemade bacon sometime soon..
Off topic, since betty and mc are talking about pastillas, has anyone have the recipe for pastillas de patatas? I remember my grandmother used to make this and love it.
Ang sarap naman ng breakfast na yan, MM! I second the comment of Marc re using a dowel/long stick. I remember our maid using this when she would bake ensaimadas. I am so enticed to try making Marc’s hinayupak na ensaimada pero I really have this fear of working with yeast. Feeling ko the bread will not rise!
Marc, when I was still back in Manila, I loved watching your mader’s show kahit late pa siya at night. She inspired me to explore the country.
To Marc…
I so idolize your mom. She is a Theresian, isn’t she? I enjoy watching travel time up to now if i manage to catch it on the tube.
(wipes drool off of keyboard)
that breakfast looks incredibly, chest-clutchingly good.
and i love the pictures and the pitcher! :)
Hey Marc…I am a THERESIAN, too!
Ms. bettyq…
So am I… STCQC
hi bettyq… am a Theresian as well… STCQC grad. :)
nagsilabasan ang mga theresiana..punta kayong salcedo market dami ng mga theresiana dun (des rodriguez, nene lichauco, carminda de leon regala etc…). lahat sila organizers…pati na rin nanay ko.
on another note, marketman, thank you for mentioning this 3d heartscan. i got very curious about it so i googled it. i think this is what i need considering i have a 320 cholesterol. havent been to the doctor yet as i know he would just prescribe the usual lipitor. but maybe seeing my heart would give me the jolt i need to make a lifestyle change. (on the other hand, id probably do less of your recipes…sob)
=) always good to count our blessings!
marc, pardon my ignorance…but, what is plantanilla in kapampangan? ali ku pa yata menakit kanita before…
yun mismo…plantanillas din. ala nang aliwang lagyu.
bettyq, chris b is correct. sorry for the late response.
Pancit Cabagan is from Cabagan, Isabela and
Pancit Batil Patong is from Tuguegarao, Cagayan.
I was wondering if the noodles for those are available in the Metro Manila Area. (I guess not) Thanks.
Quillene Petite and Betty q
Anong batch kayo? STCQC ’76 ako.