Pinoy Food & Other Cuisine :: Food PhotoBlog and Events |

Besides the place itself, one of the things I miss the most about the cities and countries I’ve been to is their cuisine. Southeast Asian food in particular, is made up of a complex blend of spices and flavors, and I bet I wouldn’t succeed in trying to replicate them at home. That’s why I love it whenever our neighboring Asian countries open up branches of their most popular restaurants in the Philippines.

Secret Recipe is a restaurant from Malaysia that serves unique fusion dishes with that zesty Southeast Asian flavor. One of my favorite offerings is the Tom Yum Spaghetti (pictured below). It’s topped with stir-fried minced chicken and is not as spicy as the food you’d find in Singapore, but it’s good enough if you’re missing the flavor and want another bite of the country.

Tom Yum Spaghetti at 180 pesos

Secret Recipe is also well known for their award-winning cakes, the most notable of which are the Marble Cheese (which won the Best Cheesecake Award) and the sumptuous Chocolate Banana (which won the Most Original Chocolate Award).

More photos of the restaurant and the food under the cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

For Father’s Day, get something different for your sports-loving dad besides accessories and the usual paraphernalia. Krispy Kreme donuts honors all hard-working, fun-loving dads on June 15 by offering the Sports’ Lovers Donuts for the entire month of June. Give your dad the gift of four sporty donuts - Strawberry-Filled Baseball, Caramel-Filled Basketball, Lemon-Filled Tennis Ball, and Custard-Filled Football. Make your gift even more special by getting Krispy Kreme gift tin cans if you add Php 140 to your dozen donut purchase. Never mind the calories - Dad will burn them somehow!

The Krispy Kreme Sports Lovers Donuts will be available for a limited time only, so grab a dozen at any of the seven Krispy Kreme stores (Bonifacio High Street, Greenhills Shopping Center (drive-through), SM Megamall, SM Mall of Asia, TriNoma Mall, Robinson’s Galleria, and Ayala Avenue).

Join cooking demos at PISTANG KAPAMPANGAN at Salcedo Market on saturday, June 21. Learn techniques of authentic Kapampangan recipes:

• Fiesta Pork Asado by Pette Jorolan of Everybody’s Cafe , a Tatler Best Restaurant in 2008
• Panlilio-Lazatin Family recipe for Tidtad by Dely Panlilio Fernandez and Seng Lazatin
• Dulce Prenda Delicacy and San Nicolas Biscuits by Lilian Borromeo, one of the country’s top cooks.

Loads of food and fun at PISTANG KAPAMPANGAN. Block off June 21 from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM at the Salcedo Community Market.

Salcedo Community Food Market- At the Velasquez Car Park, Leviste St., Tordesillas Sts Salcedo Village, Makati City

Desserts are always pretty and yummy to start with. The child in me is always in awe whenever I see plates and plates of dessert. If I had my way, I’d take a pick of all the sweetness in this dessert buffet that Diamond Hotel is offering. I have known all the time that Diamond Hotel is one of Manila’s dessert Mecca where sweet excess and wild abandon are forgiven. One of my favorite all-time desserts are their mouth-watering ensaymada.

Read the rest of this entry »

During Ale’s last night in the Philippines, my parents and I took him to Barrio Fiesta for one last authentic Filipino meal. He heard a lot about Barrio Fiesta from his Filipino friends in Italy and I’ve been meaning to take him to one but I wasn’t sure where their branches were located. Fortunately there was one along Marcos Highway, a mere ten minutes away from our house.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve always wondered what it would be like to work as a professional chef but aren’t entirely sure if you’d like to be fully committed to it, there’s a way you can test out the waters without having to enroll in culinary school. The Center for Culinary Arts (CCA), Manila bridges the gap between the curious kitchen enthusiast and the food service and hospitality industry with their Kitchen Discovery Class (KDC). The Kitchen Discovery Class is a one-day, six-hour class where you can learn the basics of cooking and baking through lectures, cooking demos, and hands-on work. The class takes place in a commercial kitchen and simulates what it would be like for you to work in an actual restaurant setting. Besides giving you an idea of what being part of the food service industry might be like, you might also discover a thing or two about yourself, like I did during my Kitchen Discovery Class experience.

The Kitchen Discovery Class costs Php 3,800 and includes a certificate of completion, ingredients for all recipes, a copy of the recipes, a CCA apron, a CCA T-shirt, a CCA skull cap, and a side towel. There are only around fifteen slots per class, so visit the CCA website and register in advance.

Guess where I went for the weekend?

Imagine basking in The Farm at San Benito , the Hippocrates Health Resort of Asia doing work and relaxation at the same time. Yup, I was invited to participate in a nutrition camp sponsored by Nutrilite, the only global vitamin and mineral brand to grow, harvest and process plants on their own certified organic farms and Geiser-Maclang, Nutrilite’s PR. I was terribly excited. First of all, I love Nutrilite Vitamins. While in a short vacation to the USA in the mid-nineties, my sister introduced me to their top of the line vitamins, the Double X , a finely calibrated balance of 12 vitamins, nine minerals and 21 plant concentrates. I swear by it for the energy and vitality that I got from Nutrilite Double X.

Unfortunately even when Amway opened up its doors in the Philippines in the mid-nineties, the Nutrilite vitamins was not one of their first products. So I lost my supply of Double X.

Now the good news. Nutrilite is in the Philippines and I didn’t even know of its existence. I bet you didn’t know either. The Nutrition Camp was indeed a blessing.

Secondly, it will be my first visit to The Farm. I’ll talk more on this in another entry. For now, let me show you the wonders of being healthy and using the right vitamins and minerals for you and your family. You’ll be in for a surprise.

Read the rest of this entry »