Several years ago, I attended the Center of Culinary Arts’ Kitchen Discovery Class, where I got an inside view of the kitchen and had a fine lunch at Cravings. I haven’t been back to Cravings since then, but last night I got to attend the grand launch of a Filipino restaurant from the same group. C2 Classic Cuisine on Missouri Street, North Greenhills used to be an events place, but they decided to include a restaurant that serves classic Filipino dishes with a contemporary twist.

What I thought was pancit palabok was pancit bam-i – again, not a huge fan of it on normal days because I find it too bland. At C2, however, the pancit bam-i is definitely worth trying; the dish is generous with the shrimp and chicken pieces.

Tinola, however, is one of my favorite Filipino dishes. I actually didn’t think this was tinola at first because I’ve never seen it served inside a buko shell. It turns out that this was not just any tinola; it’s called tinolang binakol and it’s cooked with coconut milk. I expected the consistency of the soup to be a little thicker as a result, but it’s still the same thin chicken broth that I enjoy. Tinolang binakol is also a little sweeter than regular tinola, which took me a while to get used to. This turned out to be my favorite dish, next to the lumpiang hubad, but it got cold a little too quickly. The broth could also use a little more ginger.

Sisig rice is a Pinoy favorite I try not to eat too often because of its high fat content. Unlike other sisig rice dishes I’ve had at other places, this one did not feel the least bit oily; in fact, I didn’t realize it was sisig rice until I looked at the menu.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try the bangus belly because my dining companions got to it before I could. Bangus belly is another one of those dishes I stay away from; to me, fish belly tastes too oily and fishy. I wonder if the bangus belly at C2 would make me change my mind, the same way it did with lumpiang hubad and pancit bam-i.

C2 Classic Cuisine Greenhills can be found at 18 Missouri St. Northeast Greenhills, San Juan (near Anapolis St). ————————————

You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Last Saturday, I was invited to attend the Dona Elena Cuisinera Club Celebrity Cook-off at Annabel’s Restaurant, Tomas Morato. For those of you who haven’t heard of it yet, the Dona Elena Cuisinera Club is a free weekly cooking class that teaches moms and other interested individuals how to incorporate olive oil and other healthy ingredients into everyday meals. The past couple of Saturdays were spent teaching club members healthy, simple, and tasty recipes, but this Saturday was different. Four members of the Dona Elena Cuisinera Club, two members of the media, and two celebrity guests would be divided into two teams and take part in a one-hour cook-off. The objective of the competition is to make creative use of Dona Elena olive oil and incorporate them into a tasty dish made on the spot. Little did I know that I would have a rather interesting role in this competition.

Before the cook-off began, we were given a short talk by Prof. Luchie Callanta, the official nutritionist of the Dona Elena Cuisinera Club. It seemed as though the members of the club had already heard this lecture before, but a lot of the things discussed were new to me. For instance, I didn’t know that extra virgin olive oil should be used to toss salads and for other dishes that don’t require cooking. Extra virgin olive oil goes through a cold-pressed refining process that doesn’t introduce heat, meaning that its nutrients and flavor is still intact. Pure olive oil, on the other hand, contains a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and refined olive oil. This type of olive oil can be used to deep-fry meat.

I expected to be a member of one of the competing teams, but it turns out that I was going to be one of the four judges for the cook-off! The criteria for judging included the taste and texture of the dishes, its physical appearance, creative use of Dona Elena Olive Oil, and overall professionalism. I couldn’t wait to start tasting the food.

Each team was to have a chef consultant who will guide them and give them advice on how to prepare their respective dishes. However, the chef consultants are not allowed to prepare the ingredients or cook the food itself; their job is to stand in the background and tell the team members what to do. The first team was called Hijos y Hijas and had celebrity Gladys Reyes in it. When I was a kid, I used to watch Mara Clara with the household help, and I found myself rooting for her character, the contrabida Clara, rather than the weepy Mara (played by Judy Ann Santos). In person, Gladys Reyes is very spunky, feisty, and nice.

Team two, Don y Donas, had celebrity Bernadette Allyson, who I recognized from TV commercials.

By some coincidience, both teams decided to prepare a cream dory dish. This made me even more excited about my role as a judge; I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a big fish person, but I do enjoy dory fish.

After one hour, the Don y Donas group presented us with their finished product – a cream dory fillet with a side of seafood lumpia and crunchy noodles. This was the first time I tried eating a non-pasta dish prepared with olive oil, and I was impressed at how the olive oil really brought out the flavor of the fish. The crunchy noodles were also an excellent addition, and the seafood lumpia contained clam meat – another first for me.

Hijos y Hijas also had an exciting dish in store – instead of pasta noodles, they used egg noodles for their dish and topped it with a dory fish fillet deep-fried in olive oil. The name of the sauce they used escapes me at the moment, but it contained mushrooms, tomatoes, veggies, and a hint of olive oil.

Judging both teams was really tough, and I had a hard time deciding what scores to give them. In the end, I gave a higher score to Don y Donas. I liked how this team prepared three different dishes rather than one; they showed me how versatile olive oil can be and how it can bring out flavors better than ordinary cooking oil can. I’ll definitely make sure I use olive oil in all the dishes I make from now on!
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You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

In 3 sentences or less, tell us why you want to be a part of Doña Elena Cuisinera Club Cook-off on October 24?

You have to be a member to join the cook-off so post your answer here/ click to post answers

Event Date/Time 10/24/2009 from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM
Location October 24, Saturday – Celebrity Cook-Off Challenge

Time: 10:30am to 1pm

Venue: Garden Area, Annabele’s Restaurant, 194 Tomas Morato Ave. cor. Sct. Delgado Quezon City

Classes are for free! Please reserve your attendance!

RSVP:

Doña Elena Cuisinera Club Secretariat

Landline: 713.8144

Mobile: 0922.880.0142

Email: info@cuisineraclub.com————————————

You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Okay, let’s have a break and check our diet. Are you getting enough calcium? Four years ago, I broke my ankle and fractured my tibia perhaps due to my being overweight at that time. While recovering, my doctor advised me to drink Anlene which I took for just 6 months until I could really walk without crutches. The fracture made me think that perhaps I have brittle bones or worse, osteoporosis.

When I attended the Anlene event, I had no idea there was a bone-scanning activity. To my pleasant surprise, my bone scanning results showed I was “low risk”. Perhaps it was because I take calcium supplements with my other vitamins and take regular exercises since then.

Did you know that 50% of Filipino women are at risk of osteoporosis? I never really gave it much attention until the Anlene event. Osteoporosis is a bone condition caused by low bone density, which leads to an increased risk of bone fracture due to weak and brittle bones. Although a person’s bone density – the amount of bones present in a person’s skeletal structure – is hereditary, osteoporosis itself is primarily caused by lifestyle factors, particularly lack of exercise and a deficiency in calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D. We all know that calcium is the building blocks of the bones, and fortunately our diets are fairly rich in calcium. Milk, milk products, and vegetables like malunggay are excellent sources of calcium. However, it’s not enough to eat calcium-rich foods; the human body needs magnesium, Vitamin D, and Vitamin B6 in order for the bones to absorb calcium properly. Magnesium is particularly critical to calcium absorption; the body needs to receive the proper ratio of calcium and magnesium (1mg magnesium per 2mg calcium) for the bones to use the latter.

Osteoporosis does not occur overnight; in fact, it does not even happen within a year. Osteoporosis is a condition that accumulates over years and years of neglecting bone health. Aside from putting a person at high risk for bone fractures, osteoporosis also causes problems in the spine and vertebrae. You know how a number of elderly women tend to walk with a stoop? This condition is called dowager’s back, and it is a vertebral fracture that occurs during advanced osteoporosis. My grandmother had a dowager’s back and maybe it was due to the fact that she had low calcium depleted after bearing 14 children. Although old age is a long way off for many of us, we need to start taking care of our bodies as early as now. After all, prevention is the best cure, and getting used to certain healthy lifestyle habits is far better than dealing with the health problems of osteoporosis during our twilight years.

Fortunately, preventing osteoporosis is easy. All we need to do is exercise regularly, cut down on processed foods, eat healthier foods with lots of green vegetables, and make drinking milk like Anlene a daily habit. According to the National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on Osteoporosis, women younger than 50 need 750 mg of calcium a day, whereas pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women need 800mg daily. A regular glass of milk only has 250mg calcium, but a milk product like Anlene has 500mg of calcium in a glass, as well as vitamin D, magnesium, and zinc. Two glasses of this milk daily provides 1,000mg of calcium, meeting 100% of the Philippine RDA for calcium. Adults 51 years and older will benefit from Anlene Gold, which has 600mg of calcium, 3x more vitamin D than regular Anlene, magnesium, and zinc.

So if you’re happy with the current state of your health, do something to make sure you stay this healthy and happy for the rest of your life. Get into the Anlene habit today. I know I sound like a commercial but I swear by it and am going back to the Anlene habit.

I am drinking low-fat chocolate flavored anlene right now.

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You might also want to read my personal blog at Touched by an Angel and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, and Techie Gadgets. Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado