Philippines Day 1: Arrival in Manila

Day 1: December 22, 2014

Every January, I suspend baking for as long as I can hold out. Partly because I'm still recovering from all the holiday baking I did in December and partly because January is when most people make a resolution to diet and eat healthier; I really try not to crater their good intentions by putting out sugar and fat-laden baked goods. I've usually recovered by February and even have people start commenting on "how long" it's been since I've baked for them and was I sick? I've even had people helpfully tell me they're not on a diet so I wouldn't be cratering them if I were to bake in January. But, regardless, I hold out for as long as I can. This year I'm going to go a different direction with my blog for the next few weeks and take you with me on my trip over the holidays to the Philippines. There, never let it be said I didn't support your healthier eating habits. At least for the first 31 days of the new year.

My niece and I before our flight

My other niece and my sister before their flight

My nieces are graduating later this year and it seemed like the optimal time to go before they started working full-time after graduation. My niece Shyla and I flew out of SFO while my sister and my other niece Lauren flew out of LAX and we all landed in Manila within an hour of each other. There's a 16-hour time difference between the West Coast and Manila and it was a 14-hour direct flight so we left on Saturday night and landed in the wee hours on Monday, Manila time.

Noise-canceling headphones = lifesaver

Although I love to travel, I'm a notoriously bad traveler because I rarely sleep on airplanes because of the noise and the inability to lie flat (ah, to be able to travel business class or first class without mortgaging an internal organ to pay for the upgrade) and have difficulty adjusting to the local time zone because by the time I get off the plane, I'm ready to fall horizontal and catch some zz's, regardless of the local time. But this time, I splurged and bought myself a pair of noise-canceling headphones. I was a bit skeptical on how good they would be. I had done my homework online on what to buy, which ones were rated well, what to look for, etc, but the one thing I hadn't had time to do before I left was go to a brick and mortar store to try them on for myself. So the first time I really put them on to test them other than when they arrived in my quiet house in my quiet neighborhood, was when I got on the plane. As soon as I flipped the switch to turn on the noise-canceling function, my life changed. Seriously. Wow, these things really work. No longer could I hear the loud roar of the plane engines or the ambient noise around me. Proof was that I slept a whole 4 hours straight on the plane. For me, that's pretty amazing.When I finally took the headphones off, I felt like I was being deafened by the plane noises. My travel life has taken a whole new turn.

Arrival at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila

Touchdown in Manila - my sister and Lauren met Shyla and me in baggage claim. It took awhile for our suitcases to come out but passing through Customs was a breeze and we were picked up by my cousin Albert and my dad who had arrived a few days earlier with my mom. We have a house in Metro Manila that's set in a "compound" with 4 other houses that also contain family members. It's affectionately known as "Villa Mahinahon" which literally translates to a villa of calm and relaxation, untroubled. Filipino humor often names things that are the exact opposite, haha. Calm and relaxed, my family is not.

Lechon (roast pig) in the making

I have a number of relatives in the Philippines and although it's been 7 years since my last visit, the nice thing about family is it doesn't matter how long we've been gone or how out of touch we might have been, we're still family and there's still unconditional acceptance. My nieces haven't been back for 12 years and much was made of how much they've grown since they were 9.

Since it was our arrival day, we didn't have any outings planned as my parents (wisely) knew we were unlikely to be up for much activity and wanted an adjustment period to the local time, local temps and local humidity. But, not wanting to waste a day of our 10-day visit, my mom arranged for my sister, my nieces and me to have mani-pedis done at home. One of the nice things about the Philippines is you can get a lot of in-home services come to you for a fraction of what they would cost in the US. Case in point, the wife of a neighbor from a family we'd grown up with back when we lived in the Philippines, came over to give us all manicures and pedicures. She did a very thorough job and it took just over an hour for each of us to get a thorough nail treatment. All for the equivalent of $5 USD per person and that's with us paying her more than her going rate. Nice, huh?

By the time my nails were buffed, polished and looking more spiffy than usual, I was seriously lagging in energy and wakefulness. But it wasn't night time yet and we were all trying to stay awake so we could adjust to the local time more quickly. So off we went with my cousin Abby for a walk around our little town and to buy "tsinelas" or slippers. Tsinelas can refer to indoor or outdoor slippers. Slippers can be flipflops or the more traditional Filipino-style slippers. I already had a pair of the latter and needed flipflops more sturdy and longer lasting than the cheap ones I can find at home so I bought myself a pair at the local store, relying on Abby to do the bargaining for me. Almost anywhere in Asia, it's customary to haggle. I'm horrible at it and don't expect to get any good deals with my American accent and my tendency to keep translating the Philippine peso into dollars and thinking "hey, that's much cheaper than back home." Fortunately, Abby is good at it and we let her do our bargaining.

A pair of tsinelas

I won't post a picture Abby took of us in the tsinelas store because you can clearly see I'd only gotten 4 hours of sleep in two days. Believe me when I say I slept well that night. On our walk, we also saw Puto Bungbong being made - more on that in a future post as I also hope to showcase some Filipino recipes as part of this month's blogging.

Bakery Review: Alexander's Patisserie

Alexander's Patisserie - visited December 12, 2014

This is actually my second visit to Alexander’s Patisserie but I didn’t write up the first time I went because there was nothing to buy. Literally. Nothing. Unless I wanted fancy coffee and I don’t drink coffee so that was a nonstarter. But on my first visit, which was soon after Alexander’s opened, the shelves were empty. There was a sign on the door that even explained there was nothing left. Imagine my disbelief. Really? Really?? There were about 4-5 staff people who were standing around and the operational person in me cringed at the lost sales, mismatch of inventory to demand, bad customer experience, and every other cranky judgment I could make when my sweet tooth has been thwarted.

Fortunately, the second visit with my friends after our dinner at Doppio Zero bore more fruit. As in there were baked goods in the display cases this time, mostly individual-size classy-looking desserts, some bread products and macarons. That’s more like it.

Prices were a bit steep. As Queen of Cheap Eats summarized, the prices would be fine if you were dining in with some friends and chatting over a lemon tart or a chocolate orange thingie but if you were buying it for take-home consumption without the social aspect, it’s expensive.

Since we had just come from dinner, we were too full to dine-in with a second dessert. I opted to buy a lemon tart based on my friends’ recommendations and forked over the $6 to have it boxed up in a classy Alexander’s to-go box. Based on the counter person’s direction, I wrapped it in plastic when I got home and put it in my refrigerator since I wasn’t going to eat it until the next day. Also on his recommendation, I let it come to room temperature before trying it. 

As lemon tarts go, it was pretty good. The custard was nicely tart and the crust shell was good. After a rich dinner or during the summer, this would be a delicious treat to have. Unfortunately for the tart and my wallet, I was inundated with desserts and baking when I bought this so I only ate a third of it and couldn’t finish the rest, even a day or two later. It was a relatively expensive  taste test but I’m glad I at least got to try it.

Alexander’s Patisserie fits the bill if you’re looking for a patisserie or something that looks and tastes high brow. I myself am more of a homey baker, literally and figuratively, so I still prefer Icing on the Cake for my comfort baked goods.

Restaurant Review: Doppio Zero Pizzeria Napoletana

Doppio Zero - dinner on December 12, 2014

A few friends and I are starting to have a monthly dinner club going on. We meet at one of the many restaurants on Castro St in Mountain View and have pledged to try a different one each month. We’ve done Asian Box (or at least Queen of Cheap Eats and I have) and Blue Line Pizza so far. For December, we stayed on the same block and went to Doppio Zero, a little Italian restaurant. Doppio won out from the options we discussed since they took reservations and that made it easier for us to plan rather than hoping a restaurant on a popular street during the holiday season would have a table for 4 ready without a long wait.

I have a tendency to want to mainline carbs, particularly bread and pasta, so Doppio Zero is my kind of restaurant. There was the requisite bread basket with warm slices of baguette and a pleasing variety of options on the menu from pastas to pizzas and other traditional Italian fare. I went with the lasagna, one person got the gnocchi, another the ravioli and our fourth member got the spaghetti with clams. The mark of a good restaurant? We all liked our entrees. We even liked each other’s orders from the sampling we did from everyone else’s plate (we’re girls, we’re not shy about stuff like that). My own lasagna was delicious although the portion size meant I had enough for 3 more meals that weekend.

Gnocchi

Not only that but our wandering eyes noted all the delicious-looking orders being delivered to nearby tables and we started planning ahead to what we would want to order next time we came: the fried calamari appetizer for Queen of Cheap Eats, the pizza for another, the calzone for me. And the gnocchi for a different person who liked the sample she tried from the other person’s plate. 

Ravioli

The prices were reasonable as well, which is always a plus(!). Our wait person was nice, service was good and the manager (I assume he was the manager) stopped by our table to make sure we were happy. We were.

Lasagna

My only disappointment was the dessert. Doppio Zero’s dessert offerings leaned a bit too much to custard-y desserts (cheesecakes, tiramisu, etc) but I thought the chocolate cake was promising so we ordered 2 slices to split among the 4 of us. We toyed with the idea of each of us getting our own slice of chocolate cake but I think we were trying to be grownup and go with the sharing concept. Which turned out to be a good call as the chocolate cake was just okay. It was chocolate, it was decent but I wasn’t wowed. I suspect they contract out their desserts or don’t make it inhouse because it wasn’t the same standard as our entrees were. Still, the main courses were so good that none of us had any trouble foregoing our original plan of trying out a new restaurant every month and instead decided that for our next outing, we were coming back to Doppio to try out more entrees. Can't offer a better recommendation than that.

Restaurant Review: Reposado

Reposado - dinner on December 9, 2014

Happy New Year's Eve! Sneaking this in under the wire for 2014 (I'm still behind on blogging).

For our holiday team dinner earlier this month, my manager took us all out to Reposado, a Mexican restaurant near our office. Our amazing group assistant worked with the restaurant to provide us with a fixed menu which is typically the most optimal way to handle large group dinners. There’s enough of a variety of dishes that everyone should be able to find something to enjoy, the restaurant gets advance notice of what food is needed, and logistically everything runs more smoothly.

Not being a big fan of Mexican food, I hadn’t been to Reposado before but given the choice to his team about where to go, I voted for Reposado on the strength of the dessert offerings alone. There was a “caramel banana upside down cake served warm with caramel sea salt ice cream” on the dessert menu. Let’s face it, they had me at “carammmmm……”

Shrimp Skewer

Empanada

Reposado isn’t small but it isn’t too large either. The tables are arranged somewhat cozily but we scored a large countertop table that accommodated the more than a dozen of us at the dinner.  We even had our own personalized menu so we could all see what was coming. We started off with appetizers, moved to salads, were delivered our entrees then dessert. I have to say the service was quite superb. The wait staff moved seamlessly between courses and were prompt in clearing out silverware and dishes between courses.

Quesadilla

Green Rice (pesto)

The food was good. It’s still not my favorite but there were some highlights for me, including the I-can-tell-this-is-so-fresh salmon. The chicken mole was less of a favorite, more because I don’t like mole than how the restaurant made it. Mole has chocolate and my brain wants to process that if something has chocolate in it, I should be able to taste the chocolate like I would in a chocolate cake or fudge. But I didn’t and usually don’t in mole. And I didn’t this time either. Bummer. Although maybe it’s just as well since chicken and chocolate just isn’t something I’m culturally used to or have developed a taste for.

Filet Medallions (also very good)

Chicken Mole

We did get asked for our choice between the banana cake and tiramisu as that (besides the salad) was something we were individually served rather than sharing family style. I hardly need to say which dessert I chose. But I was a bit disappointed that the banana cake wasn’t served warm as advertised. The taste was good but I wanted warm. Sigh. First world problem.

Salmon Yucatan

Plantain Chips

Overall, I think Reposado did a really nice job with our team dinner and seems to be a good place to go for such events or even with smaller groups. Get the salmon if you go.

Banana Upside Down Cake

Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Cheesecake Swirl Brownies - made December 7, 2014 from Yammie's Noshery

Excuse the anemic lighting in these pictures. I only had time to bake and take pictures of these when it was dark so no natural lighting here. This was like the Cheesecake-Swirl BrownieBites but the much easier version since you bake it as an entire brownie and just cut into bars. No messing with mini muffin tins and whether or not the brownie would pop out of the pan easily.

I think I just made these to use up more of the cream cheese packs I bought from Costco, not that I had any lingering love for a cheesecake-swirl brownie. Plus this was much easier to portion out, wrap up and include in my holiday gifts than the bites were.

My only issue with recipes like this is the cheesecake parts tend to brown before the brownie parts are done. In all the pretty pictures of cheesecake brownies I’ve seen, they always have perfectly pale, no-brown-spots cheesecake swirls. I swear they must have airbrushed those like models with flawless skin because for the life of me, I’ve never been able to have anything cheesecake-involved not have a little bit of browning to them. It doesn’t affect the taste and you know me as the Queen of Underbaking so I know I’m not overbaking the brownies. It’s just the darn cheesecake parts won’t stay uniformly pale while the brownie parts bake to fudgy goodness (not mushy mess).

Anyway, once you get over that, these brownies are pretty good and a nice way to dress up the brownie, even if you’re not a cheesecake lover.

Brownies
2 sticks of butter, melted
2 1/4 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Cheesecake
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

1. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Melt the butter with the sugar in a pot on the stove over medium heat until bubbly, whisking occasionally. Allow to cool for at least ten minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and flour and mix well to combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the pan.
3. In a separate bowl combine the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, and egg.
4. Make about one long trench at a time in the brownie batter with the end of a wooden spoon and fill it with the cream cheese mixture. You'll probably need about 5 trenches going across the long side of the pan. 
5. Take a knife and cut rows all the way through the batter the opposite direction of the trenches to marble-ize.
6. Bake for about half an hour or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs, not raw batter. Cool completely.