It isn’t often that I put desserts on a silver platter. When these freshly baked bouchons au chocolat were delivered to my office in Cebu minutes before I hopped onto a flight to Manila, I popped one into my mouth in the airport departure lounge, I was instantly smitten. By the time I managed to take this photo, on a silver platter, only 5 out of the 8 pieces in the package remained! Bouchons are a more rustic french bistro dessert, hence the name of Thomas Keller’s more casual restaurant, Bouchon. They are relatively simple to make, and if done well, have all the hallmarks of serious simple comfort food.

There is a post on Keller’s version in the archives, and they were superb. But if you don’t feel like baking them from scratch, and you have access to these Sweet Melissa chocolate bouchons, I highly recommend them. Bouchons are meant to look like bottle corks, and these certainly do. And I understand there is an amusing story trying to find the right molds locally, but I will keep that story a secret. Make sure you get the bouchons fresh, and when you get home, either zap them in the microwave for 10-12 seconds (not more) or stick them in a hot oven for a few minutes to heat them up. Then serve them with a creme anglaise or some good vanilla ice cream and you have a fantastic dessert. They are very chocolately and if warmed, they are soft and luscious. They do have a tendency to dry out, so don’t keep them around for more than a day or two.

At PHP200 for 8 pieces, I also think they are very well priced. I would be surprised if a restaurant or two or three in Cebu don’t put these on their dessert menus in the near future. Meanwhile, if you live or travel to Cebu, call 032-516-7406 or 0928-984-3609 to see where you can buy them. Thanks Artisan for sending these over, you have managed to foil my attempts at losing weight yet again.

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With superb sourdough and cheeses (as well as salamis) as Part I of the food pasalubongs, how could there not be a Part II with fruit and chocolate. Mrs. MM’s luggage included several containers of black mission figs and other larger green/purple figs, all perfectly ripe by the time they arrived in Manila. Also in the maletas were several utterly stunning pomegranates. The figs and pomegranates made a fantastic still life, and now I ompletely understand why artists always seemed to use still life arrangements of fruit and flowers as the basis for paintings…

I love fresh pomegranates, and particularly deep red, juicy, sweet and succulent pomegranates which are great in desserts, salads or simply to munch on as is…

And from the chocolate section at Whole Foods, three bars of different types of chocolates that we have never tried before. Cheese, cold cuts, bread, figs, pomegranates and chocolate. Yum.

San Francisco Treats (Part I), here.

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After a recent trip to Cebu, I realized there were three types of tableas in our pantry, so I decided to compare them… First and foremost, let me state that I love artisanally produced ingredients, and will patronize them as much as I can. There is just something so pure about something made by a person/persons, often with great skill, experience and soul… So regardless of my comments on this post, I strongly recommend that readers choose to buy local tableas for their hot chocolate, before they opt for the easy way out which is to buy canned cocoa or other pre-sweetened concoctions in their local groceries. This is about getting back to basics, experiencing cacao near its purest form, and we are lucky to have a rural tradition (albeit slowly disappearing) of having our own hot chocolate from scratch. I was very surprised by the noticeable differences in color, flavor and consistency among the three tableas…

To “normalize” the comparison, I carefully measured out exactly 30 grams (using a sensitive kitchen scale) of each type of tablea and put them in a mug. For the Binondo tablea, that was under 2 whole pieces, and for the Camiguin tablea, a little less than one paper bag individual serving. Next, I added one cup of whole milk, scalding hot, to each cup and used three different batidors/batirols/molinillos to mix and froth up the cup of hot chocolate. I did NOT add any sugar or any other ingredients at this stage so that only the chocolate tablea was the distinguishing factor between samples.

All of these samples of tablea were apparently sugar free, and I assumed made of pure cacao beans, roasted then smushed into a paste and formed into tableas. The first thing I noticed from the different tasting glasses was the color of the milk. If you have told me beforehand that the color alone would be dinstinctive, I don’t think I would have necessarily believed you. The La Resureccion tableas from Binondo yielded a very milk chocolate looking hot chocolate, it is on the left in the photo above and below. The argao tableas yielded the darkest milk, but it also looked murky and grainy. The Camiguin table shards yielded something in between…

Taste wise, I was partial to the smoothness and sophistication of the one on the left. But I can see why others would like the strong grittiness and rawness of the center cup. The cup on the right was somewhere in between, but tasted a bit less chocolately than the other two. Think of the cup on the left as a refined cup, the one in the middle more Batangas barako, and the one on the right a mix of the two. If I had to pick one, my preference would be the one on the left, but having said that, any of the three with good milk/cream or sugar would still make a nice cup of sikwate…

Boy, let me tell you, all that sipping of unsweetened hot chocolate had serious bowel movement implications! Better than dulcolax I would imagine! Hahaha. But at any rate, what was the perfect pairing for an outrageous early morning snack with unsweetened hot chocolate? How about several SUPERB polvorons and pastillas de leche that were sent to our home as a thank you for the jams and jellies we provided for the Roxas-Sanchez wedding? These were from the same batch served at the reception and they were delicious and beautifully wrapped. And as MF writes in the comments section of that previous wedding post, it seems they also used the jams/jellies in the modest evening reception at the Bahay na Puti. :)

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