Summer means Mangoes!

We are lucky to have a mango tree in our backyard that yields the sweetest mangoes.

mango lassi
Jamie Oliver This Indian drink is like a mango milkshake and is delicious. 9 fluid ounces (255 milliliters) plain yogurt 4 1/2 fluid ounces (130 milliliters) milk 4 1/2 fluid ounces (130 milliliters) canned mango pulp or 7 ounces (200 grams) from 3 fresh mango, stoned and sliced4 teaspoons sugar, to taste, or feel free to try salt and cardamom seeds Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend for 2 minutes, then pour into individual glasses, and serve. Feel free to try salt and cardamom seeds. The lassi can be kept refrigerated for up to 24 hours
Mango Lassi Recipe
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped mango (peeled and stone removed)
4 teaspoons sugar, to taste
A dash of ground cardamom (optional) Put mango, yogurt, milk, sugar and cardamom into a blender and blend for 2 minutes, then pour into individual glasses, and serve. Can sprinkle with a little cardamom. The lassi can be kept refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Makes about 2 cups.
mango shake
mango sherbet
mango pudding
shrimp mango salad
chicken and mango salad
banana and mango turon
Lime Mango Sorbet Recipe Print Options Print (no photos)Print (with photos) Ingredients 1 cup sugar1 cup waterZest from one lime3 ripe mangos (about 2 1/2 pounds)1/2 cup lime juicePinch salt3 Tbsp tequila Method 1 Heat the sugar, water, and lime zest in a medium saucepan until the sugar has completely dissolved. Set aside to cool. 2 Cut the flesh from the mangoes (see How to Cut a Mango). 3 Put the mango pieces, sugar water, lime juice, and salt into a blender. Blend until completely smooth. Pour into a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until completely chilled. 4 When ready to put the chilled lime mango purée into your ice cream maker, mix in the tequila. Process the mixture in your ice cream maker (Amazon sells a good one) according to the ice cream maker directions. Transfer mixture to a plastic storage container and freezer in your freezer until firm, at least 6 hours. Makes almost 1 quart.
Diet Mango Lime Ice:
2 cups chopped peeled ripe mango
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 Tbsp. grated orange rind Combine first 5 ingredients in a food processor, and process until smooth. Press mango mixture through a sieve over a bowl, reserving liquid; discard pulp. Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spoon mango mixture into a freezer-safe container; cover and freeze 1 hour or until firm. Garnish with thin lime wedges, if desired.

Chinese Mango Pudding: (A) Simple Method:

1 pack, approx. 90g mango jelly
1 small tin, approx. 160g condensed milk
1 ripe mango
225 ml hot water
1) Use 225 ml of hot water to melt the jelly, then allow to cool
2) Dice the mango. Add this and the condensed milk to the jelly. You can also squeeze the mango juice and add for extra flavour
3) Mix well and place in the fridge (for best results, leave overnight)

(B) A Relatively More Complicated Method:
1 pack, approx. 90g mango jelly
1 small tin, approx. 160g condensed milk
1 ripe mango
225 ml hot water.
176 ml fresh milk
1 egg, beaten
113 ml cold water
1) Use 225 ml of hot water to melt the jelly. Then add 113 ml of cold water. Mix well and allow to cool
2) Dice the mango. Add the condensed and fresh milk to the jelly. Then add the beaten egg and mango. You can also squeeze the mango juice into this mixture for extra flavour
3) Mix well and place in the fridge (for best results, leave overnight)

Lime Mango Sorbet Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • Zest from one lime
  • 3 ripe mangos (about 2 1/2 pounds)
  • 1/2 cup lime juice
  • Pinch salt
  • 3 Tbsp tequila

Method

1 Heat the sugar, water, and lime zest in a medium saucepan until the sugar has completely dissolved. Set aside to cool.

2 Cut the flesh from the mangoes (see How to Cut a Mango).

3 Put the mango pieces, sugar water, lime juice, and salt into a blender. Blend until completely smooth. Pour into a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until completely chilled.

4 When ready to put the chilled lime mango purée into your ice cream maker, mix in the tequila. Process the mixture in your ice cream maker (Amazon sells a good one) according to the ice cream maker directions. Transfer mixture to a plastic storage container and freezer in your freezer until firm, at least 6 hours.

Makes almost 1 quart.

Dusit part 3 – Basix

Dusit part 2

Although this restaurant was on the ground floor and part of the Sunday Crossover Brunch I never went in until after lunch. And it was just to take pictures. How could I after stuffing myself with food from 3 restaurants? Basix served international cuisine. These pictures were taken at 3 pm just before we left the hotel.


salad bar

roast duck

appetizers


hot dishes

This is the live cooking station with squid, fish, chicken and steak are grilled or stir fried.


veggies for the stir fry

pasta bar

baked fish en croute

roast beef

cheese selection

who wants bread?

chocolate fountain

Everyone must try this buffet at least once. It’s a gourmet trip around the world. It’s also a test of willpower, stomach stamina and a feast for the senses.

Dusit part 2 – Benjarong & Tosca

Dusit part 1

Between holding my plate, glass of raspberry bellini (from Tosca), camera and seeing all the food choices on the 2nd floor I was lucky to get these shots at all. There’s so much food that I wasn’t able to take pictures of. You have to be there to experience this food extravaganza.

There’s this sign to go to the second floor where Benjarong and Tosca restaurants are located.

Literally the whole second floor common area from the top of the stairs to Benjarong then to Tosca is filled with food. First up is the spread of Thai food. The Thai appetizers were all excellent. Some were spicier than others. You could get full from the appetizers alone.




(click pic to enlarge)
Thai appetizers

At the background of the picture below is the first cooking station of Benjarong. The chef was frying some spring rolls.

still part of the Thai food headed towards Tosca

The second live cooking station is for the Phad Thai. It was cooked to order by a Thai lady. All the ingredients were authentic and the taste was very good although a tad sour. The only thing I got from this section was Phad Thai and Khao Kluk Kapi (Fried Rice in Shrimp Paste) which was the best I’ve ever tasted in the Philippines.


(click pic to enlarge)

This section is all food and dessert from Tosca the Italian restaurant. They had made to order pasta and pizza. I wasn’t able to take pictures of those becaused I was dazed and confused. I ended up with only a glass of raspberry bellini and some dessert.


Baked Lasagna

Roast pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes

veggies

baked stuffed chicken

salmon

ice cream and toppings

my plate of phad thai and khao kluk kapi
(carb heaven)

Dessert from Tosca
(chocolate mousse in thick chocolate cup,
best cheesecake with toasted coconut
and apple pastry)

Boy, this was an exhausting lunch! Last part tomorrow.

Dusit Thani Manila’s Sunday Buffet – Umu

Dusit Thani Manila Hotel has a new promotion they call Sunday Family Crossover Brunch. I call it an outrageous buffet. For the price of P1,495++ or US$31 for adults and P595 for kids you get to eat as much as you want from their 4 excellent restaurants. There’s UMU the Japanese restaurant, Benjarong serving Royal Thai Cuisine, Tosca with Italian cuisine and Basix the international restaurant. Each restaurant has their own live cooking station, a huge selection of hot and cold dishes and dessert.

When you arrive in any of the 4 restaurants you are asked to pay immediately. Upon paying they issue you a green wrist tag similar to paper tags attached to your luggage when you check in the airport. The wrist tag is your ticket to eat in all the 4 restaurants. You can get as much food and drinks from any restaurant and take it back to your table. It’s not as easy as it sounds. The Thai and Italian restaurants are on the second floor and can be accessed by a spiral staircase. The walk from our room at the extreme end of the Japanese restaurant to the second floor provides a good workout.

I will start with UMU since that’s where we were seated. The Japanese restaurant is simply beautiful. The food was awesome specially the sukiyaki and the selection from the Teppanyaki table. Honestly, that was all I tried in the Japanese restaurant. All the choices overwhelmed me.


directional sign to the restaurants


japanese merchandise for sale

typical private room

outdoor seating


mixed vegetable salad

chicken and beef (i think) yakitori

sushi and sashimi

appetizers

cold noodles

siomai (according to the sign)

ham and cheese croquettes

This is the first live cooking station. Sukiyaki is cooked in front of you. You can pick out which ingredients you want in your bowl. The bean thread noodles or vermicelli is the best I’ve ever eaten. It’s thick and chewy unlike the Filipino kind which is thin. The beef is very tender and the soup is not too sweet.

sukiyaki

This is the second live cooking station. There are two teppanyaki tables to cook whatever meat, seafood and vegetables you choose from the center table. The lines were long and it took some time to cook the food but it was all worth it specially the salmon belly. I wanted to get more but I dreaded the line.

mushroom and veggies at the back
salmon, salmon belly, prawns and steak in front

plates are lined up waiting their turn at the teppanyaki table

each ingredient is cooked and seasoned separately

The third live cooking station is the fry station. They had several items coated with panko breadcrumbs on sticks. The only thing I didn’t get was the eggplant and lady finger pangko.


from top: ham & cheese, shitake mushroom, salmon belly


top: prawn & bacon roll, salmon belly

Just eating in this Japanese restauant is worth the P1,495. A lot of people must have realized what a good deal the buffet was because all the restaurants were full!

I have to break down this buffet into the 3 posts to feature all the food pics of the 4 restaurants. To be continued

Dusit Thani Manila
Edsa cor. Pasay Rd.
Ayala Center Makati City
telephone: (632) 867-3333

 

Sango! The Burger Master

I’ve been hearing about Sango burger from my friend but I only got to try it last week. I went to their Ortigas Center branch. I’ve had Japanese burger before. I’ve tried MOS burger in Hong Kong. It wasn’t really my taste. I prefer the American style burger. I wanted to try Sango and see if it tastes better than MOS burger. I bought 3 sandwiches and shared this with the 2 girls in our office.


(click to see the menu)

To test how good the burger in a restaurant is I always order the plain burger without cheese or any toppings that can mask the taste of the meat. This burger had a very smokey taste from the grill. It was a thin patty slathered with tomato catsup that I didn’t like. The staff said it was Del Monte catsup. I prefer Heinz catsup. I didn’t like this burger too much. Sango’s most popular burger is the Master burger which was slathered with cheese, mayonnaise, meat sauce and tomato. I’m sure all those toppings would improve the taste of the basic burger.
 Sango burger

I also tried their lenten special, the shrimp burger. As you can see in the picture it is drowning in Japanese mayonnaise. After scraping most of the mayo I got to try the shrimp patty. It was breaded and deep fried. I could see shrimp pieces and it didn’t taste oily. It wasn’t bad at all.


shrimp burger

The best is the Yakiniku Rice Burger. As soon as you open the plastic wrapper you inhale the wonderful aroma of marinated beef. The first bite of beef is an assault to your mouth. The beef is so juicy, well seasoned and pefectly cooked. Of course the mayonnaise is ever present. The rice patty is sticky and toasted and a bit crunchy. It’s quite messy to eat this sandwich with your hands. I ended up eating it with a fork. My only gripe is there’s not enough beef. I ate half the rice of one side with the beef. I wish they offered double beef for this sandwich. But for P109 I think it’s a pretty good deal.


Yakiniku Rice Burger

Sango! The Burger Master
8101 Pearl Plaza Bldg.,
Pearl Drive St., Ortigas Center
telephone: 636-1991
(they deliver!)

Calamansi Dacquoise

I went to have my hair cut at Symmetria Salon at their new location in MJ Paterno St. in San Juan. When I was done I decided to check out the cake shop beside it called Patisserie Caroline. They had a lot of muffins, loaves, cookies and cakes. The waitress encouraged me to try their bestseller, the Calamansi Dacquoise. I was expecting crunchy meringue layered with a tart calamansi curd. What I got was a soggy, nutty cake with a sweet curd with almost no calamansi flavor. If you didn’t tell me what I was eating it was ok. But since I was expecting a calamansi dacquoise it was quite a let down.

Patisserie Caroline
17 Unit E. MJ Paterno, San Juan
telephone: 722-6839

Symmetria Salon
17 MJ Paterno, San Juan
telephone: 726-6246

Kettle Korn Popcorn

A couple of years ago Holy Kettle Korn first came out with sweet and salty popcorn using a new variety of popcorn unseen in the Philippine market. As expected several clones followed suit. These popcorn shops could be found all over the city. Kettle Korn made their own popcorn but I never bothered to try it. The packaging didn’t appeal to me and I figured it would taste the same. But look what I found in the supermarket. Kettle Korn has a spanking new packaging and 3 new flavors to boot. This brings their products to the mainstream with more varieties at a more affordable price.

Of the 4 flavors I like the original sweet and salty twister and caramel the best. They actually taste better than Chicago Popcorn Shops’ caramel popcorn. The caramel isn’t very sweet yet it has a deep burnt sugar flavor.


caramel, sweet n’ salty twister, butterlicious and chocolate

The chocolate popcorn didn’t really taste like chocolate. But it’s not bad at all.


chocolate popcorn

According to the back of the bag, they use mushroom hybrid popcorn from Nebraska. By having a round shaped surface there’s more area for the thin glaze to stick to.


caramel popcorn

Fresh Chinese Lumpia

After the fried lumpia here is the healthier version, Chinese Lumpia. This also called Popiah in Singapore and China. They serve it into thin rolls over there and there are some variations in the fillings and sauce. In the Philippines, the Chinese Lumpia is commonly made of shredded beancurd, carrots, cabbage, green beans and shrimp. Pork is optional.


vegetable filling


basic lumpia set (click on pic)

Assembly Instructions

1. Unfold a lumpia wrapper and place it on top of your plate.
2. Line the lumpia wrapper with lettuce and wansuy (cilantro).
3. Place about a heaping scoop of vegetable filling on top of the lettuce.
4. Put some hoti (dried seaweed with fried vermicelli noodles) for crunch, sweet ground peanuts and brown sauce on top. Put as little or as much as you like.
5. Roll the lumpia, tucking in the sides and hold in your hand and take a big bite.

E’s overloaded lumpia

she can’t roll it so she just folds the wrapper

filled to the rim!

Below are pictures I took on how a lumpia is assembled. This was taken in DEC (Diao Eng Chai) a popular Chinese deli in Manila. Click to play the slideshow.

DEC – Diao Eng Chay Chinese Deli
203 Wilson St., Greenhills
telephone:721-1105

Lartizan Boulangerie Française

Lartizan is the high end store of the French Baker. Some of the items they sell are the same as the French Baker but more expensive because the size is bigger like the muffins, turnovers and croissant.

The place is small and tucked in the corner of Mickey’s deli in Jupiter St. They specialize in sourdough bread. I’ve tried the sourdough rye bread and it was fantastic.

crusty roll & whole wheat roll

assorted sourdough bread

pretzels & bagels

They have a limited product line that is baked right in the store.


deli buns, English muffin & French table buns


ciabatta & crustless wheat bread

The employee was busy packing freshly baked French baguettes. It was 2 pm when I was there. I asked her it they can sell all that. She said it was their bestseller and that was the second batch of the day.

I’ve never liked eggs and eggy products like souffle and quiche. But I decided to try the ham & cheese quiche. It was so good! A perfect balance of eggs, cheese and lots of ham in a thin and crisp crust. I went back the next week to try the vegetable quiche which had tomatoes, mushroom and broccoli in it. It was equally good. They don’t sell this in French Baker. Believe me I looked for it. It means I have to travel all the way to Makati just to buy this.
This is the best almond croissant this side of the equator. Enough said.

almond croissant


muffins


turnovers


croissants

I wonder how they wrap this huge lavash. It’s a shame to break it into pieces. I’ve tried the lavash and it’s very crisp and good by itself. It’s also good with cheese, pate or hummus.


lavash


French baguette

whole wheat baguette
This branch has closed as of 2012. You can still buy Lartizan bread at Santi’s branches around Manila. 

Lartizan Boulangerie Française (closed)
144 Jupiter St. Corner Orbit Street
Bel-air 2 Village, Makati
telephone:  899-6923

I Love Taho

I have a love/hate relationship with tofu or soybean. I don’t like eating silken (soft) tofu in Chinese dishes like ma po tofu. But I like fried tofu eaten straight or in casseroles like the popular chicken, tofu and salted fish in clay pot. I don’t like soymilk but I tried Silk chocolate soymilk that my niece Erin drinks and now I love that.

But I simply love taho or tofu pudding or dòufǔhuā (豆腐花). Whether it’s hot or cold, served fancy in a hotel or bought from the street vendor. Here are some of my favorite places to buy taho in Manila.

The Tofu Store sells the best taho I’ve even eaten. The texture of their taho is very,very silky and smooth yet not too soft. It has a very clean flavor with no after taste. They don’t provide sago though.


P22 or $.45

soybeans in sacks

healthy and good tofu chips

The Tofu Store
Unit 5 Citiplace Bldg.
8001 Jose Abad Santos St.
Little Baguio, San Juan
telephone: 727-7548

Taho de Manila is a recent discovery. It’s located in Metro Supermarket in Market Market. They have hot or cold taho with different kinds of toppings. They also have light syrup which I usually get. The taho with mango topping that I chose was very refreshing. The mangoes were naturally sweet and went well with the cold taho.


click on the pic to see all the toppings


new topping is the ultra, mega sweet macapuno balls (above the mango)


mango taho P37 or $.75

Metro Gaisano Supermarket
Market! Market! Basement Level
26th St. cor. C5 Bonifacio Global City, Taguig

The taho vendor used to be all over the streets of Manila. They would walk around carrying these 2 aluminum containers with the wood part balanced on their shoulders. When you hear someone yell “tahooooooo” it’s the signal for people to come out of their houses with their containers to be filled with hot taho. This taho vendor is smart. He parks his taho outside this office building in Annapolis St., Greenhills and wait for people and cars to come to him.


small sago (tapioca pearls) and arnibal (brown sugar syrup)

This is the small glass worth P10/$.20. A bigger glass for P20/$.40 is also available.

taho goodness in my car