Earthly prosperity

One of the most elegant events at Culinaria, the wine and culinary arts festival in San Antonio, is the Grand Tasting at the Convention Center along the River Walk. Attending an event like this (or even just reading about it) allows you to pick up some great tips and ideas for future culinary explorations--both dishes to try on your own and a head's up about restaurants that are worth seeking out on future visits (find my tips in bold text).


At the Grand Tasting I had three favorite dishes. First was something very creative and tasty, compressed watermelon with pop rocks! Mainly it was just a lot of fun, juicy and crunchy and crackly. It's definitely a dish with a sense of humor, and while prepared by the chef at the hotel La Contessa restaurant Las Ramblas, it is available from their food truck, Tapa Tapa. I believe it also had a dab of black garlic. Pretty too. Compressing watermelon is a technique to try using a vacuum sealer, no sous vide necessary!


The next dish I really loved was a twist on Italian bread salad called panzanella. It was burrata, tomatoes (undoubtedly ripened in the hot Texas sun) with torn bread, micro greens, balsamic and roast chicken. I'm usually in the "please don't ruin Caesar salad by adding chicken to it!" camp, but in this case, it really worked. The dish was from Luke, a restaurant I got to visit last year.


The last dish was coconut ice cream with fresh red curry, pickled mango coulis and Thai basil micro greens. A sweet and spicy savory bite, I loved the cool sensation of the cold coconut ice cream with the hot curry swirled into it. A very innovative and unsual dish from James Beard nominated chef Jason Dady who runs several restaurants in San Antonio as well as a food truck.

I just noticed all these dishes had micro greens. Not sure why they are in vogue in San Antonio, but I guess you could call it a trend...

It's hard to say no to cheese. Since I never tasted Parrano cheese I was more than happy to accept a sample to try glass teapot set. Apparently it has been around since the 1970's but I can't recall ever seeing it at the market. It's a semi-firm cheese created by a Dutch cheese maker who went to Italy and was inspired to create a Gouda that would be reminiscent of Northern Italian style cheese. It's aged for at least 5 months and often described as tasting like a cross between Gouda and Parmesan. I'm not sure I agree with that assessment, but I can tell you it's buttery and has a caramel like flavor that complements tomatoes beautifully.

I've been inundated with cherry tomatoes recently and decided I would use them on a pizza with Parrano cheese. I also happened to have some grilled marinated artichokes and that combination is really something. I added chives for a little color and oniony flavor, but really, just a plain cherry tomato pizza would be delicious too baby bed. The good thing about using cherry tomatoes instead of tomato slices and Parrano cheese instead of mozzarella is that neither will make your pizza soggy. That said, biting into a cherry tomato half can be a deliciously juicy experience.

I love artichokes, but mostly the marinated ones available in jars are not very good. Recently I found Cucina & Amore grilled marinated whole artichoke hearts in a local grocery store and decided to given them a try. They are now a staple in my pantry! They are all natural and I think the grilling is what really makes them so outstanding. If you can find them, give them a try amway.

在我居住對面的街後面，有條小巷，說是街道，其實就是聯通這裏附近幾個社區的通道，道路兩邊，停滿了附近居民的車輛，使本就不太寬敞的街道，只夠一輛車通過。街道的一面是各種商鋪，而商鋪對面，是一條大約不足三百米的人行道，一行高大整齊的梧桐樹，挺立在人行道上。茂密的枝葉遮擋住了，全部人行道和街道的一半，讓夏日炎炎的陽光也望而怯步。一排木制的長條椅，順序擺放在梧桐樹下。十幾條椅上，已坐滿了休息納涼的人們。看著整條街道，在烈日下灼灼延喘，這條約三百米人行道，無疑就成了盛夏裏的一片綠洲。

蘇園 ，就在人行道中斷的對面，一道紅藍相間，鑲嵌著黃色琉璃瓦的，亭閣屋頂門臉，正對著街道，兩扇朱紅色大門兩邊，分別掛著一幅楹聯，上聯：水遠山長自古高原接棽汗，下聯：花明柳暗山間風物似江南。上方，一塊藍色的橫匾上，用篆體繁寫著兩個鎏金大字：蘇園。朱紅色的的圍牆，從大門左右延伸著，牆上沒有傳統公園圍牆的鏤空隔窗，在圍牆頂端的琉璃瓦上，翠綠的竹群爭先恐後地，探出頭來依在牆頭，大有點“紅杏出牆”的味道。

多年來，每當我經過這裏，哪怕是擦門而過，除偶爾會看一眼兩個醒目的大字外，就沒有一次想進去的欲望，有時甚至忽視了它的存在。原因是，在我心裏，這裏不過是個，供周圍居民休閒娛樂的小公園而已，沒有什麼值得進去的價值。可是今天，不知什麼原因我卻想都沒想，就閒庭信步地走了進去。也許是不想在烈日下受虐，想找個地方避避吧。

邁進大門，第一眼看到的，是一道長約五米，高兩米的鏤空隔窗朱紅圍牆，左右九十度分別延伸到門庭盡端，兩邊牆中間各有一道月亮門，是通向公園內的必經之路。而在正面圍牆前方，左右擺放著兩盆一米多高的鐵樹，鐵樹後面是一片美麗的紫竹林，修長挺拔的玉體穿著紫紅裳，亭亭玉立，婀娜多姿。青翠的竹葉，相互依偎掛在紫紅竹枝上，宛如隨風飄蕩在綠色湖面上的萬葉青舟，清高純樸的氣質，彰顯著清麗脫俗的風韻。猶如一個個窈窕淑女，恭迎著每位到蘇園的客人。

帶著驚歎，我穿過月亮門，經過幾間，類似公園管理辦公室和娛樂室的走廊，下了臺階，來到一個長方形的天井裏，在天井的中央，一座假山矗立其間，幾棵柳樹坐落有序，清脆碧綠的柳條，隨風垂簾搖擺著，一株兩三人才能圍住的桂花樹下，有兩張石桌，此時，石桌邊有一群人正圍著倆個下棋的老人，不時還能聽到幾聲埋怨。我悠閒地穿過天井，跨出了天井的月亮門。

而就在跨出月亮門的一瞬間，我驚呆了，被眼前的景色迷住了。在這個高樓林立的城市中，在這片鋼筋水泥冰冷的角落裏，居然隱藏著這樣一個世外桃源。我定了定神，才讓驚豔飄忽的思緒回到眼前。我平復著自己，慢慢地仔細搜尋著園內的點點滴滴。這是一個有足球場大小的，純江南蘇州園林風格的小型公園，整個公園的圍牆都被一排排由龜背竹、紫竹、斑竹、楠竹的竹林環抱著，翠叢印綠，鬱鬱蔥蔥，一簇簇鮮紅的三角梅，在萬綠叢中分外奪目。紅，藍，黃相間的亭臺樓閣，蜿蜒交錯地穿梭在碧綠色的池塘上面，（到現在我也沒明白池水為何是碧綠色）池中好多的紅色鯉魚在追逐嬉鬧。我輕輕地慢慢走在用鵝卵石鋪成小道上，生怕弄出的響聲，驚擾了這夢境般的世界。擔心腳步的輕重，碰疼身旁柔美嬌嫩花枝。

經過身邊被修剪的整整齊齊樹叢，有園型，方型還有菱形，每一片樹叢的裏面，都種植著各種各樣的樹木，鐵樹，椰子樹，桃樹，李子樹和一些叫不出名字的植物。不經意地，我停在了一棵掛滿果實的李樹下，看著青青垂涎欲落李子果上，一層淡淡的白色粉脂，細膩地包裹著青澀的果實，突然有一種忍不住，想伸手採摘的衝動。深深做了呼吸，我繼續延著左曲右拐的鵝卵石小路走來，行至亭臺樓閣下的池塘邊，碧綠的池水，也在那蔥翠的柳枝環抱下，微風吹拂，讓柔嫩纖細的枝條在微風中搖曳，像少女美麗的秀發，輕撫著微微泛波的池水，如同撫摸著心愛的戀人，在輕盈傾訴相思的纏綿。

I am that type of person that usually drifts towards the more chocolate offerings on a dessert menu. I am, by far, unapologetically and absolutely, a chocolate person. The darker, the better. The more layers of it, the happier I am. Chocolate chip brownies a la mode with chocolate ice cream? I am all for it. Chocolate soufflé with chocolate sauce? Yes, please. Nothing pleases my soul more (except for chicharon and bacon which are designer handbags clearance, to me, chocolate’s savory equivalent…a gift from the gods).

That said, I also have this uncanny, and opposing, love for plain yellow loaf cakes. Yes, true. I won’t even say pound cakes or butter cakes because they don’t really have to be either. They just have to be a sunny, unfancy, yellow loaf and the same part of me that loves hot chicken soup and my baby pillow cries out for it. There is something in its comforting solidity, its familiarity and plainness, that makes me want to take a thick slice and just cozy up to it.

They are also, usually, a breeze to throw together, so a craving is never too far from sated. This one is no exception. It’s been on my to-make list since I bought this cookbook, my beloved copy of Nigella’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess. Predictably though, I was waylaid by several chocolate recipes before I could get to this one. I’m so glad I finally did.

Nigella’s Mother-in-Law’s Madeira Cake
(slightly adapted from Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess)

240 grams softened unsalted butter
200 grams caster sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
Grated zest and juice of one lemon
3 large eggs
300 grams all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder


- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and then mix in the lemon zest.
- Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture, one at a time, with a tablespoon of flour for each.
- Gently mix in the rest of the flour, to which you have whisked in the baking powder. Add the lemon juice and mix until just combined hosting service.
- Scrape the batter into a buttered and parchment-lined loaf pan and sprinkle the 2 tablespoons sugar on top. Bake in a pre-heated 170C oven for 55 minutes – 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven to a wire rack and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely on the wire rack.

I’ve amended this recipe somewhat as the original calls for self-raising flour, which is hard to come by in these parts, so I substituted with regular flour and baking powder. Nigella also let’s this cake cool completely in the tin on a rack but I prefer to remove the cake from the tin after it’s cooled for about 10 minutes.

Let me just say, at this point, amendments aside, that this book has yet to fail me. All the recipes I have tried thus far I have liked, if not loved. My first ever post on this blog, seven years ago, was about the Burnt-Butter Brown-Sugar Cupcakes from this book. I’ve also tried the Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake, Store-Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake, and Torta Alla Gianduja…all to great response. I even love her Spiced Apple Chutney, which I have made many times since, and has served me well in the homemade gift-giving department. So, firstly, thank you Nigella!

This recipe one is no different from the others I’ve tried – a winner. For me at least who does love this sort of cake, and even for C who usually doesn’t. It bakes into a wonderful golden loaf, with a soft buttery crumb, and a sugar encrusted, crackly top. A traditional British teatime cake, I can also imagine this would make an excellent base for that other traditional British sweet, the trifle. Nigella’s, or rather, Nigella’s mother-in-law’s version is light and lemony. It is lovely on its own (or indeed with a cup of tea) or topped with fruits and cream, or, if your feeling indulgent, a generous scoop of ice cream iphone skin.

The week’s almost over so hang in there troops…heat and power outages be damned! And here’s to baking your cake, no matter what flavor or color, and eating it too!

Summer is here! Once again the asphalt sizzles, the heat is just this side of unbearable, and our thoughts turn to keeping cool. In Manila, summer for me means unbearable city heat trapped between buildings and turning my little flat into an oven...while I dream of the blue skies, white sands, and crystal seas that surround our islands, but seem so far away from my immediate urban reality vacuum tube.

As I sit here with my dreams, hoping to squeeze some beach trips between the piles of work that know no such thing as a “summer holiday”, one very summery promise wafts through the warm air...the scent of ripening mangoes. Mangoes here are like women in Brazil (or at least everyone’s idea of women in Brazil) – every single one gorgeous! Yes, we are home to the Gisele Bündchen of mangoes (in my humble opinion). Different provinces and regions lay claim to growing the best mangoes in the country. Some say Guimaras, some say Cebu, some say Zambales. I say tough competition for the growers, but a lovely position for the eaters! :)

Presently, I have a bunch of mangoes from Zambales ripening on my dining room table. With their tantalizing fragrance perfuming the sultry air, I don’t feel so bad being stuck in a concrete jungle while summer is unfolding recklessly about me. I get these mangoes from a nice lady from whom I also procure carabao (our native water buffalo) milk products.

The mangoes are ripening at different speeds, which is perfect for us as we don’t have to worry about suddenly having to consume 10 mangoes at once. I have already tried some and I must say that these are some of the best mangoes I’ve ever tasted in my whole tropical Filipino life! Everything that makes the Philippine mango enchanting is infused in each bite – wickedly sweet, scandalously juicy, golden perfection. Straight from the fridge on a hot summer day, I am hard pressed to find something to top it g-suite cardinal manchester.

These mangoes (from this particular farm in Zambales) will not last forever though. Their season may be over in a month, maybe less. I am thinking of buying a load and maybe freezing some...or maybe turning some into jam as I’ve done in the past. The mangoes high sugar content makes them perfect for jam (only if you can’t have them straight from the fridge on a hot summer day - which is really the best way to have them).

I didn’t make the mango jam used in this sandwich, nor was it made from Zambales mangoes. It was a gift from a friend and was delicious (“was” because I’m all out!). I paired it with carabao’s milk kesong puti, our local fresh white cheese, and squashed everything in a whole wheat pan de sal set on a contact grill. A delicious summer breakfast! If you don’t have a contact grill, just grill it on a skillet, pressing down on the sandwich until the cheese is nice and melty. If you don’t have kesong puti, you can use any fresh white cheese. That being said, mango jam also pairs beautifully with gruyere, melted the same way.

Happy summer to my co-islanders! I must get back to my beach escape plotting...and I do think another mango is calling my name from the dining room NuHar...