Foraging at the Food Market

Banilad Town Center (BTC) plays host to Cebu Food Market [0933 467 5890] every Saturday from 10AM to 9PM. Various vendors ply their ware at the ground floor of BTC, and there's something new to discover each week. At the time of my visit, the market offered lechon belly, rice meals, siomai (dumplings), brownies, potato nuggets, paella, empanada, and veggie burgers.

If I were a bottomless pit, I would have taken a bite out of every food item offered. Since I am not a bottomless pit nor my pocket, these are the lucky ones who got acquainted with my palate:

From left to right: Chorizo paella with egg, chorizo empanada, potato nuggets, and spicy lechon belly with rice.

Toni's Patatas Nuggets

0927 884 8469

This Japanese guy, Toni, has a little stove and a pot of oil ready for deep frying nuggets and lumpia. The food on his table don't look too interesting. That's what I thought. But don't judge the food by its presentation. I was delighted to find the nuggets to be mashed potatoes. It went well with their homemade sauce but would have been better with the Japanese mayonnaise (they ran out of mayo at that time). I was also able to try their potato nugget sandwich on another day, and who would have thought that potatoes as palaman (sandwich filling) would be lip-smacking? Couldn't say much for the lumpia though since I didn't try it.

Dos Hermanos

Alfonso Martinez

#47 2nd St. Paradise Village, Banilad, Cebu City

(032) 232 8693 / 0917 620 8764

fonso_zenitram@yahoo.com.ph

In another corner, a Spanish-looking guy, helped by two ladies, sells chorizo paella, chorizo empanada, and paella balls. No for sale sign for Spanish chorizo but they do sell such, priced per kilo. I found the portion size for the chorizo paella too small for its price (Php 120). As for its taste, I was a bit disappointed, but blame it on my expectations. The chorizo empanada was forgettable (I already forgot how it tasted). I took home half a kilo of Spanish chorizo and my mother loves it (and to think she doesn't like anything spicy). We had it for breakfast every day until our supply ran out.

Belly InThing

Autogas Station, Sanson Rd. Lahug, Cebu City

0933 336 1045

bellyinthing@gmail.com

Open daily from 1130AM to 2AM (Closed at 3PM on Sundays)

Boneless lechon belly and Pinakupsan

You can also ask for the tasty belly stuffing. They give some for free.

Boneless lechon belly has been all the rage recently in Cebu. This table at the far end of the food market is manned by two Filipinas. They sell lechon belly (regular or spicy) by weight, value meal (a meager portion of lechon belly and a cup of rice), Belly batchoy (batchoy with bits of lechon belly), and pinakupsan (pieces of pork belly fried until the fat shrinks and gets really crispy). Belly Inthing's lechon belly was okay, I didn't jump for joy at the first (nor the second or third) bite. I prefer Cebu's Original Lechon Belly which I found tastier and spicier :-)

How the Market foraged Mustachio's pocket:
Potato nuggets Php 50
Chorizo paella with egg Php 120
Chorizo empanada Php 30
Lechon belly with rice Php 50

The Kite Runner

I do not know why it took me so long to open the pages of this book by Khaled Hosseini when it has been sitting in my shelf for years. I'm glad I finally did. Of all the books I have read this year - I'm on a mission to read 52 books a year or one book a week - it's one of the few books that I had a hard time putting down. An indication, to me, that what I have in my hands is a really good one. 

The Kite Runner in a few words:
Friends: Amir, the son of a wealthy man, and Hassan, the son of the wealthy man's servant. Unlikely but friends. The annual kite tournament forever etched in their memory. The rest is up to you to find out.

I am quite positive you know that this has been made into a movie five years ago. If you've seen and loved the movie, do give the book a go (even if you already know how the story goes).


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Pass the Plate... to Me!

What becomes when a 21st century food magazine teams up with a product from the 19th century?

This my friends:

The event was cunningly called:

Pass the Plate: A Cooking Demo with Knorr and Yummy

I had a once in a blue moon opportunity to be invited to this cooking demo last November 24. It was held at the Activity Center of Ayala Center Cebu and was organized by Yummy Magazine.

Haven't heard of Yummy Magazine? Yummy is a modern food magazine for anyone who loves to cook and eat. It features easy cooking guides for everyone. Also, they have a nice online presence - do check out their website (or not - coz it will just make you hungry. Hehe). If you want food related things and more, visit their website, like their facebook page, follow them on twitter, or pick up the latest Yummy magazine.

It was my first time to watch this kind of event live, and I was expecting to see a potbellied mustachioed guy with a French accent declaring "Délicieux" every time he tasted his dish.

Blame it on Disney. (Photo courtesy of Disney)

But (and a good but)...

Instead, they featured two stunning chefs - Knorr's resident chef Chef Dianne dela Cruz and Yummy's contributing chef Chef Katherine Jao. Take out the cookware and the aprons, and one couldn't really tell if it's a cooking demo or more like a women's talk show event.

 

Left: Chef Dianne dela Cruz preparing the Moringga-Squash Cream Soup. Right: Chef Katherine Jao adding ingredients to her Mexican Tortilla Soup.

For the demo, Chef Dianne cooked Cream Dory Fillets with Sofrito (sofrito, commonly known here as ginisa), Binalot na Tilapia sa Pechay (Sinanglay, a Bicolano dish), and Moringga-Squash Cream Soup. While Chef Katherine brought in a Mexican flavor with her Mexican Tortilla Soup and Barbecue Chicken and Veggie Quesadilla.

After every food demo (every time a meal has finished cooking), I could hear myself saying "Please, please. Pass that plate...to me...to meeeeee!" Indeed they passed samples. Albeit small, the flavors were undoubtedly - for lack of a better word - flavorful. Like flavors hyperactively dancing crazy to Dubstep, except that they're party-rockin' in my mouth.

Close enough. (Photo taken from 1funny.com)

However, no sample for Cream Dory Fillets with Sofrito, and Binalot na Tilapia sa Pechay. Anyway, I've ranked the samples we tasted from best to good:

BEST

Moringga-Squash Cream Soup

Really tasty and can be prepared in just 30 minutes.

BETTER

Barbecue Chicken and Veggie Quesadilla

Wish I had more.

GOOD

Mexican Tortilla Soup

The flavors were fighting. Cilantro ownage.

Here are other photos from the Pass the Plate event:

Giveaways... for participants who answered the questions correctly.

After wrapping up, guest bloggers had the opportunity to take pictures of the dishes. I did too:

Cream Dory Fillets with Sofrito

Binalot na Tilapia sa Pechay
The lemon grass serves as tie and flavor.

Moringga-Squash Cream Soup

Mexican Tortilla Soup

Barbecue Chicken and Veggie Quesadilla

But what I really planned was to look for a container and take home this orphaned good looking dishes (with permission of course!).

 Journey to the Center of the Table: The Search for the Take-home Container.

Good thing Chef Katherine was kind enough to give me a small round plastic container which was used for the sugar. With quickness I replaced the contents with two slices of Cream Dory Fillets and two of the Binalot na Tilapia. For me and my date.

What to eat for dinner? Solved!

YUMMMMYYYYYY !!!