Kamote Meets Marshmallow

My mother is a big fan of sweet potatoes or kamote.  Thus, I grew up eating kamote on three forms:

• cooked on top of rice inside a rice cooker
  
• simply boiled in salted water (then slathered with margarine)
• cut into wedges, fried, then dipped in brown sugar... mmm...

During my mother's visit, I came across my friend Ayeen's recipe of  Baked Sweet Potatoes.  I decided to surprise my mom with this "discovery" of mine.  I have actually seen this made on the FoodNetwork for Thanksgiving several times before but, I never thought of actually doing it until now.  I sent my sister a text message; I asked her to buy a bag of marshmallows.

When I got home that day, I took out my Pyrex pie plate, and placed big chunks of unpeeled sweet potatoes in it in one layer.  I microwaved some butter then dissolved half a cup of brown sugar in it.  I poured the melted butter mixture into the pie plate then made another layer of marshmallows on top of my layer of sweet potatoes.  I covered the pie plate with aluminum foil and baked it for 40 minutes at 400F.

I thought that I would need an extra step of broiling after removing the aluminum foil but, my... the marshmallows have caramelized so much already!  You can see in the picture that it almost burned!

I gave my mother a bowl of this and I added some more marshmallows.  Oh my!  I hear her slurp the caramelized butter and marshmallows!  She asked for more.

Polvoron ng Goldilocks

My mother and sister brought this for me from Manila -- a box of Pinipig Polvoron from Goldilocks!!!

Goldilocks is a popular bakery chain in the Philippines. They are famous for their pastries and cakes, but I love their Polvoron the most. Polvoron is a molded sweet treat made with roasted flour, powdered milk, and sugar. Ofcourse, there are many variations but my favorite so far is the one with Pinipig or rice crispies. I remember, I used to have a box of Cookes n'Cream Polvoron (also from Goldilocks). I hid them in a hard-to-reach corner of the pantry so my roomate won't find it (yeah, I get greedy sometimes). But lo and behold!  One day I took out the box and it was half-empty! Hahaha! Oh... for the love of Polvoron =D

I Baked My First Cheesecake!

I used to make (and sell) Blueberry Cheesecake. I simply whip heavy cream and cream cheese together, and top it with blueberry filling. It's the no-bake type of cheesecake but it takes a lot of time to put together.

I have always wanted to make a real cheesecake -- yeah, the type that you bake in an oven. At the same time, I have been nursing this hankering for rich, creamy cheesecake.

Fortunately, Philadelphia Cream Cheese was sold Buy One Get One Free at my local grocery store. I got 4 8-oz bars, yey! I still have a lot of Hershey's Cocoa in my cupboard. And I have yet to fulfill the true purpose of my buying a 9-inch springform pan from Amazon.

Here's what I made: a Chocolate Marble Cheesecake from the Hershey's website. If there's anything I would change in the recipe, it's the use of baine marie. You see, my oven has a mind of its own. I set it to 450F and it goes up to 500! Because of my crazy oven, the cheesecake has cracks... lots of cracks. Thanks to the marbled effect, it's not very noticeable in the picture. Unless you look long enough, aheh! I am so satisfied to finally have my few weeks supply of home made cheesecake.

NYC East Village Food Trip 3 of 3

After a savory Japanese meal, we decided to find another place to have something sweet. We walked along St. Mark's for a bubble tea place but unfortunately, it was closed. I miss bubble teas. I miss Quickly's ChocoLoco which I usually get at SM back home in Manila.

We had frozen yogurt instead at Red Mango. They say there used to be a time when frozen yogurt first became a big hit that people lined up at Pink Berry, which was just across where we're at at that time.

I had green tea yogurt, while some of my cousins had pomegranate. I chose the green tea flavor because I almost wanted to order Matcha (green tea) Brulee at the Yakitori place where we had dinner, but due to the long wait, I decided not to. Yet again, to my disappointment, the green tea yogurt does not exude the taste of Matcha. It was too sour for my taste. I think the yogurt overpowered the subtle flavor of Matcha. However, the pomegranate yogurt tasted very good! It unites perfectly with the tart flavor of the yogurt.

NYC East Village Food Trip 2 of 3

Japanese Yakitori Taisho-Style

The wait at Yakitori Taisho (along St Marks, between 2nd and 3rd streets) is long. It was cold that evening so we kept ourselves warm by squeezing ourselves at the crowded hallway. This is the view at the hallway, next to the main entrance. As you can see, the kitchen is VERY small yet atleast six cooks make their way around it. Goshshsh! The smell inside is intoxicating due to the indoor grill as seen in the picture above.



The line got even longer after we came in. On 40 minutes or so, we finally got our seat and enjoyed some sake while waiting for the rest of our order. Kampay! The sake is not clear, unlike what I use to buy at H-Mart or Super H. It also seems to taste dry than sweet.



As an appetizer, we had Tako Yaki -- octopus in dumpling balls. It's soft and fried. It's very savory. As if that was not enough, it had bonito flakes and some sweet, savory sauce. It was served with mayonnaise but I'll do fine without it. We also had Yakitori (grilled) beef which was charred just right. It was garnished with cucumber and sesame seeds.



Ofcourse, for the entree, we had more Yakitori on skewers this time. We had a platter of ten skewers with either grilled chicken, beef, shrimp, and scallions. They were very good. The grilled scallions actually tasted the best, in my opinion. Haha! They were sweet yet savory. I guess I am just partial to onions.

My cousin ordered 2 kinds of grilled rice which piqued my interest the most. I think I know how these were made because during the 40-minute wait, I watched one cook mold a handful of cooked rice into a big triangle and placed it on the grill. We sliced the grilled rice in two, and in between is a filling. One had salmon (Sake Onigiri), while the other had bonito flakes (Okaka Onigiri).

The meal was great. Despite the lack of space and the long wait, I think I will go back here given the chance.

NYC East Village Food Trip 1 of 3

East Village is quite a popular hangout place in downtown Manhattan -- popular for the young foodies, that is. My cousins and I drove there for Joy's birthday dinner. The feel of the area is hip and exciting. There are lots of young people walking the streets. It feels familiar. It actually feels like home.

While walking on 2nd Ave, I noticed a familiar "Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Baldman". I asked My Sis if it's similar to the one in Makati back home. We both agreed it's the same chain, but this one in NYC isn't presented as upscale as it does back home.




We passed by a store filled with vending machines. It intrigued me and we stepped in. The vending machines had fresh chicken sandwiches, and free mac & cheese kroket ($2 a piece) -- take note that they're fresh, not packed and frozen. Such is the trend in Japan as I've seen in the Food Network. But NYC also has it!

Dimsum at Flushing, Queens

For my cousin's birthday, we went to Ocean Jewels Seafood Restaurant, a dimsum place in Flushing, Queens in 39th and College Point. This is just the second time I have been to a dimsum place where many types of dimsum are on carts peddled around the restaurant. It was fun trying out different kinds of dimsum. I asked for chicken feet which, my cousins didn't want to try. Joy, the birthday girl, attempted, but chickened-out (pun intended) when she had it almost touch her lips.



We were asked what we wanted but we just said yes to whatever they point to us. It was quite irritating though that they continue to speak with us in Chinese. We keep on saying we speak English but they never seem to bother understand us.

We tried taho (soft bean curd) for dessert. But it was not sweet as we are used to back home which should be swimming in caramel sauce. What's new to me, though, was Chinese doughnut dipped in savory sauce. Too bad I was not able to snap a picture of it. I hope I could have some more of the next time.



I did not see the bill but I hear them say it was a pretty cheap place. We were all so full we were glad we finally walk out of the restaurant and give ourselves time to recover from the food binge.