new blog is up!

http://stokedbunny.wordpress.com

– i turned into a lifestyle blogger, but I really dunno what kind of lifestyle I have.. really. haha!

Well, moving and not so moving.

Moving to a new blog address. Will open it with a food post on Singapore.
Ahlavvet!

Wait for it! 🙂
I will miss this blog though.

i will always be an undercover chef. =)

undercover chef

i’m really really thinking of changing the name of the blog.
I want to keep undercover and drop the chef.
The Amazing World of the Undercover Foodie? doesn’t ring a bell.

I’ve had a bad time calling myself a chef, although I do make stuff and sell em, I do have a culinary degree, I do have a catering business, my food’s been featured in some magazines, but it just doesn’t pan out.

I love food, and I want to create, but my passion in it is lacking.
Hence, I really can’t comfortably call myself a chef.

haha! here’s the dilemma, what to name the new blog.

The Kulinarya Experience— well, revisited

So here I am reading my trivia book while waiting for my lamb steak to arrive.

This morning, I was working out while watching Heston Blumenthal’s series “search for perfection” and the topic was steak. Having been in semi-faker vegetarian phase for a while, I suddenly had this near ravenous compulsion to find me some meat. So that being said, I find myself in Kulinarya in rockwell waiting for my lamb chops—cooked medium (hopefully as ordered) and sipping on this:

It’s the kulinarya fruit punch, allegedly it goes well with my lamb, so I took a sip and it’s—- sweet. And considering how my tastebuds usually like sweet and tart things, it doesn’t bode well when I say it’s sweet.

So it’s been 5 minutes, okay maybe more and my steak’s still not here. The fruit punch is waiting for godsakes! Let’s get a move on.

Consequently, I think the only sure way I can blog about food is when I’m waiting for it. What do you think? Haha! A new direction… blogging via blackberry, i can be called the undercover blackberry blogging chef?

So the food arrives… First thoughts are:
uhm…Those are little lampchops. And
my goodness I miss plated food!

So the plate looks like this:

Okay, so it’s served with mushroom risotto and some small vegetables (read: carrots and asparagus tips). Seriously, for 450, it’s a pretty small portion or maybe i’ve eaten in too many value-meal places. hmm. nah, it’s really a pretty small portion.

So I tried the risotto first, I actually liked it. No bells and whistles here but it was good rissotto, I actually scarfed it down faster than the chops (which you know doesn’t bode well to the quality of the meat)

These chops were small! Breaded with something that looked like panko breadcrumbs and parsely, it was firstly cooked medium-well, and the only reason I didn’t complain was because 1) I was hungry , 2) it wasn’t well done and (3) there were (thank God!) Juices left in the damn thing, so I could eat it.

The sauce looked like a demiglace sauce with rosemary in it, with some watered down mint jelly.

As all lamb lovers would know, mint jelly just makes lamb better, so this watered down concoction made me a little sad.

Okay.. a lot sad. I was this || close to asking for mint jelly, but I was already disheartened.

But I did finish the whole plate. As far as being full, I am, thankfully so, but my tastebuds have been left wanting.

They are telling me—“you cooked lamb better in culinary school”. Number one, my tastebuds may be a little delusional, and two, my tastebuds have more belief in my cooking skills than I do, but let’s get back to Kulinarya.

So as I sit here, eating the leftover fruits in my fruit punch (hello this is dessert!?!?), I ponder…maybe I should have just gone to the Myron’s next door, and I seem to remember a time that I was excited to eat at Kulinarya.

But that was 30 mins ago, and soooo before I got my bill for this meal which was P700.

Tsk tsk tsk.
Oh but the chandeliers are nice.

Joko

realizations are yummy

So I’ve been thinking…

1) I haven’t really written something other than a required article in a while.
2) consequently because of number 1, this blog has largely remained inactive.
3) Thank God for my froogie friend Vlad, he made me realize that I’ve been eating in the same places over and over again.
4) I haven’t really been cooking in a while, besides the quick lasagna or the usual toffee and chocolate truffle making for Parvati and the Manila Toffee Company.
5) I’m a lazy ass.
6) And really, I kinda feel weird for having the undercoverchef.wordpress.com blog title, there is nothing remotely chefy about me. Well, except for the culinary degree, but THAT doesn’t make you a chef. Okay, I’ve got a catering company, okay, that might suffice. But still……NO. I lack practice, I half think I’ve forgotten all my techiniques and it’s scaring the bejesus out of me.
7) So because of number 6, I challenge myself to the following:

* EAT AND WRITE ABOUT ONE NEW RESTAURANT A WEEK.
* EAT AND WRITE AND MAKE ONE NEW RECIPE/DISH A MONTH.
* WILL WRITE ABOUT A TECHNIQUE I WANT TO REMEMBER.

So I’m deciding.
Whether to keep this blog or make a new one. I’ll think about it today.

What was for lunch?

My phone got stolen on a surftrip in Quezon, so I didn’t get to blog Trois, which is this restaurant that we always stop over in going back to Manila.

Enihoo, just going to share what I had for lunch. 🙂

Chicken sausage
Sauteed lima beans and swamp cabbage
With a balsamic vinegar reduction

Wow sounds gourmet right?
Tagalog translation?
Chicken longganisa with ginisang patani at kangkong, na may suka

Haha! This was just playing with food combinations and trying to plate something (which I super miss btw)

And to test out the new phone’s camera. Food’s up!

Yogurt Series: Tutti Frutti Yogurt

After eating a rather dissapointing takoyaki from maru-maru, I was walking by glorietta and saw a new frozen yogurt shop.

New concept, you get to choose the flavor of yogurt you want, dispense it yourself, pick and put as much toppings as you wany, and pay by the ounce, P20/oz to be precise.

So I scooted in over messed up my hands and chose about 4 flavors.

Peach, original, Strawberry and guava

Guava, really tastes like guava and it’s growing on me. I can’t imagine what topings would go along with this though, maybe nuts? Nah, still can’t imagine it. Next time around I’ll go ask.

Strawberry was tart, kinda reminded me of a more watery but more tasty version of lulu belle’s, which if u know me is my “sige na nga yogurt”

I like the original. It’s nice and tart. And nothing more to say.

Texture is pretty much watery. it melted easily, didn’t have a creamy aftertaste like for example, red mango or white hat.

The fun thing is, for 178 pesos I tasted almost all the yogurt flavors which makes it pretty rad in my book. The toppings were not really anything new. Still better than the measly offerings of some. For example, red mango.

Service-wise
This spot is new, there are a lot of employees who seem to be willing to please but are not really sure what to do.

Damn, the guava is really growing on me.

What I didn’t taste was almond, death by chocolate and the taro, which are very interesting indeed. I’m not sure if they change flavors everyday, but well. Maybe I’ll just suprise myself and scoot on here again.

Just heard that taro’s the bestseller, damn I should have tried that.

My suggestions to this place would be the ff:
– free handsanitizers, sticky!
– get a tv outside showing people what’s inside, in other words take a leaf out of pepper lunch’s book
– always have someone in the counter and the yogurt dispensing places to help
– and less watering down of of yo.
– and have some suggestions of combinations, for example what goes with guava froyo

Came back the same day with kasuy and tasted all the flavors I didn’t taste. The death by chocolate tasted like the hershey’s cone from ministop, ferr real.

The taro was good. I’m going back for that alone.

Tutti Frutti can be found at the 3rd flr of Glorietta 4.

2.8.10: Mr. Kaypee’s and news!

Hi world.
I’ve been pretty busy these past few months, and although I have eaten a lot of things, i have not written about it.
Which sucks, if you think about it.
Bitten by the lazy bug.
So news!!!

PARVATI
I with my partner, Kwe Lo joined Parvati’s dessert soiree and ended up with the top rated dessert and the number 8th and 10th (if i remember correctly) respectively.
The store will be opening this coming year, and we’ve decided to just enter one product. We chose the Toffee because it was the top-rated product in the whole dessert soiree, so I gues, there’s a reason for that, maybe because it’s yummy, haha!

Also, sold a helluva lot of products last Christmas. Finally, i think I can say that I have some pastry skills. 🙂

Mr. Kaypee’s

I also recently went with the froogies to visit Mr. Kaypee’s Indian Canteen which is this little place in Marikina that serves helluva good Indian food. The meal was complete from appetizer to dessert, and like a true artisan restaurant, the menu changes every day.

Friday is biryani day and I have yet to taste the biryani which everyone told me was mucho delicioso. I’m jealous actually.

Favorite memory of that place? –Nothing beats sipping on milk and Rose Petals from india–translation– drinking Rose Lassi.

Life is good in my part of town, and I still don’t own a camera, and I know I should. My friends actually like to take pictures of food, so I should just get my sorry ass to post some.

I will do my best to update this blog, every so often, so I do not forget.

Forget that eventhough I am determined to make it big, I still want to enjoy life, and food.

Someone told me recently “matakaw ka talga” haha, and I wasn’t offended.

I like food, i love it.

But alas, i’m dieting, better make it count then.

8.1.09: Went to a party

Went to a party last night with Lani Mercado. Yes, Lani Mercado. don’t ask.
I forgot to ask who the caterer was, but the food was okay.
I loved the brazo de mercedes, but instead of custard they put halaya (ube), i loved it. As in!!! 🙂

weeee! I miss cooking and baking. like totally! 😦

Also went to Zenses, I didn’t make it to the nitro-coffee demo, but I made it to the ice cream. It’s my 3rd time eating bacon and egg ice cream. Doesn’t get old. 🙂

I should try the nitro coffee and write about that. Soon!! weeee!

Love is in the air.
My luck is on the pits, but it’s coming back, fighting to give me the good luck I know I need and deserve. A few more weekS! yehba!

7.26.09: BBQ Chicken and Southern Comfort

I heard about this chicken from my awesome yahoogroup mates, and I’ve always wanted to try it, but for some reason, never had the chance.

So, yehba!, they deliver and for the PG overnighter last night, we got some BBQ Chicken.

BBQ is a franchise from Korea, and it stands for Best of the Best Quality Chicken.

I really, don’t know what in particular we got, but it was very good fried chicken, smothered in rice syrup/spicy/sweet sauce that was DIVINE!

I have no idea regarding the price, but I want to go there and try it out on my own.

I might even do tom! 🙂 whatchuthink

—————–

On another note, I want to say Kudos to my friend Flory for giving us a sumptuous meal last night starring the SOUTH. We had gumbo(which suprisingly didn’t have okra) and Jambalaya, with happy homemade corn bread. Yes flowie, you can get married na!

See? Lawyers can cook!

I’m in a really happy mood, like you won’t believe. Weeeeeeee!

joko