Moshi Moshi, Mochi!

Because I didn't have the time to shop for super personalized gifts this year, I got most people the gift of calories:

I know, it seems highly tamad to get a one-size-fits-all gift, but I took comfort in the thought that most people were bound to fall in love at first bite with these mochi.

Mochi are Japanese treats made of glutinous rice. The first time I had mochi was in Los Angeles some eight years ago, and they had an ice cream center. These babies from Dezato have a surprising filling: chocolate!

The box with a dozen bite-size mochi balls (P195) contains four different flavors: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate with walnuts, and white chocolate with green tea. (Unfortunately, their chocolate and peanut butter mochi--sounds heavenly!--isn't included in the box, so I've never had it.) Now I've never tried authentic mochi from Japan, but I must say that these Dezato ones are love. When you bite into one, you are first met with the jelly-like, slightly sticky rice. Then your teeth sink into the rich truffle center. The rice nicely offsets the sweetness of the chocolate. Such a wonderful balance of flavors and textures!

A couple of comments I've gotten from my gift recipients:

"At first I was sharing it with my family, then I realized how yummy it was so I kept it for myself!"

"My mom gave me one. ONE. By the next morning, it was all gone."

Christmas is supposed to be the season of giving--but you really can't be faulted for being a bit selfish when it comes to these teeny treats!

Visit the Dezato Cafe at 100 Hemady St., New Manila, Quezon City. Contact them through (02) 727-1229. Check out their website: http://dezato.multiply.com. They've also got mochi ice cream, and serve pasta and other filling dishes.

What's Orange and White and Sweet All Over?

Lookie lookie what I found at the supermarket: Orange M&M's!

True chocoholics would probably scoff at these little crunchy discs, but I am unabashedly an M&M fan. I'd choose a pack over a tumbler of popcorn while watching a movie. I was quite delighted to find that they had come up with this new, limited-edition flavor.

They come in just white and orange candy coatings, and they seem to taste sweeter than the regular version. I much prefer the original ones (no peanuts, please) or, even better, dark M&M's--but really, when did I ever say no to chocolate in any form?

White Is the Color of Sin

It's weird how we associate the color white with goodness, when some truly evil things come in white packages.

At a shoot for another mag, I got cupcakes and some cake to style a couple of setups. Some wonderful home bakers supplied us with these so-good-they're-bad treats (all white, as I requested):

The lovely Dessert Fairy, Karla Hernandez, provided us with equally lovely cupcakes.

Pretty cupcakes in full bloom

She can do colorful icing, but for this shoot, she stuck with white, and even tweaked her cake recipe to come up with the whitest cake possible. Since I needed them for a floral setup, I requested that the frosting be made to look like flowers or just a simple swirl. She gave me both. As I looked into one box, I admired the lovely toppers, before she even pointed out that she created different "blooms." She actually rattled off real flowers as she pointed to each cupcake, so I'm kind of convinced that she moonlights as a florist.

Karla lived in the US for a while, and so was used to US ingredients. When she got back to the Philippines, she was aghast to find that the quality of the ingredients here is rather...different, to say the least. She has experimented with many different brands (she's still on a quest to find the perfect non-gritty confectioner's sugar, but she's found some she could live with), so you can be sure that you're getting quality stuff.

Gay Vazquez sent us a macadamia sansrival that the Yummy Magazine managing ed was raving about.

You'll go nuts over this update on the sansrival.

Our photog had his eye on this cake in between setups, and when we finally gave him the go-signal to chow down, I could hear him praising the almighty.

Gay describes this cake as "four layers of wafer mixed with nuts and frosted with rich and pure buttercream frosting that is melting in your mouth and topped with chunky macadamia big enough for the eyes to see and the mouth to feel. Gets better the longer it stays in the freezer." It is very very sweet, but the nuts--being so large--temper this sweetness.

And the last in this three-dessert feast is the tres leches by Karen's Kitchen.

Mapapa-"leche!" ka sa sarap!

Karen is known for producing cakes that have made it onto some "10 (or 20) best" lists that have been well-circulated on the net. The tres leches is made by soaking the cake in three different kinds of milk. The center is all gooey and milky, encased in a surprisingly soft and not at all soggy cake. These are all surrounded by a thin layer of smooth icing and topped with big white chocolate shavings. I can only have small slices at a time due to its richness. But I could certainly have several slices staggered throughout the day!

Of course, after we shoot, we eat. Just another reason I love my job.


Contact The Dessert Fairy through 0928-5241166 or email dessertfairy@mac.com. You can also check out her stuff at dessertfairymagic.com.

Get your own 7 x 11 macadamia sansrival for P900 (kasuy sansrival is P650). Call Gay Vazquez through 0917-3010615 or (02) 631-0125.

Come face to face with sin itself by ordering a tres leches cake for someone's birthday...or no occasion at all. Contact Karen's Kitchen through 0917-5394986 or (02) 898-2280. See more of her goodies at karenskitchen.com.ph.

Me Want Cookiiieeee

Will you look at that? A perfectly chewy, gooey, fudgy chocolate crinkle. I've been eating Hungrypac chocolate crinkles for a while now, but it's the first time I had enough left to take a picture of. They've also got these chocolate cakes that look really simple but absolutely divine--the chocolate frosting just drips off the sides. Haven't tried it, but I imagine it tastes a bit like those el cheapo (and muy delicioso) chocolate cakes from that Shell station in Magallanes.

Hungrypac proudly proclaims that they've got "The Best Chocolate Crinkles & Cakes." I dunno about that--I haven't tried enough crinkles to say if this is true. But they have certainly got my vote. They're the kind of crinkles I aim for when I bake (which doesn't happen too often now, given my packed sched).

Cookiiieeeee. Num num num num num.*

*Blog imitation of Cookie Monster

Hungrypac is available at Glorietta 4, Alabang Town Center, Ash Creek Center (Madison St. corner Ortigas Ave.), SM City Manila, SM Mall of Asia, SM North Edsa, and TriNoma

Chocolate Oblivion and More at Swanky GB5

Lots of people are thrilled that Baba Ibazeta-Benedicto has opened her Classic Confections flagship store at swanky new Greenbelt 5. I got to try her Nono's Chocolate Oblivion some months ago, when Yummy Magazine was working on their dessert special. People were raving about this cake, although honestly, it's not a personal favorite. Let's chalk it up to personal preference--I think I like my cakes a tad sweeter and with much less stuff to distract from the chocolate. But hey, this baby wasn't voted a Yummy favorite and one of the top ten desserts in Manila (by Food Magazine) for nothin' so it's worth checking out.

The famous Chocolate Oblivion (P145 for an individual serving, P895 for a regular cake) has two layers of chocolate cake, dark chocolate cream filling, walnut praline bits, and cocoa powder. It's a nice play of different textures--the chocolate cream is smooth, the praline bits crunchy, and the layer of cocoa powder coats your tongue.

I just got stuff for takeout since H and I had just had stuffed ourselves at dinner and were raring to head home to sleep. (Kain-tulog! This is the life! Haha.) Besides, there weren't any free tables--Classic Confections has quite a following. I decided to get me a Calamansi Bar--needed something to wipe out the after-dinner umay, and since I love a good Lemon Square, this treat appealed to me. It was OK--I wished there were a thicker layer of the calamansi topping though. If I could find a Lemon Square or Calamansi Bar with 1/4 crust and 3/4 lemon/calamansi topping, I'd be in heaven!

Calamansi Bar (P180/doz, P345/2 doz): shortbread crust topped with calamansi filling and dusted with powdered sugar

They had a lot of other yummy-looking treats and I wished I could've tried all of them. (For blogging purposes. I swear.) There was a banana cream pie, a rum cake, a lemon torte (ooh!), a mocha sansrival. In the Yummy interview, Baba said she was particularly proud of her cheesecake, so that should be interesting. She's also got cookies, and I'm eager to get me some of her almond crunch (toffee candy made with whole roasted almonds and semi-sweet chocolate). I'm guessing they taste like those Almod Rocha-type bits that I buy from Christmas bazaars. A lot of the stuff comes in pretty packaging, too, so they would make great gifts.

GB5 looks like another eating destination, albeit a sosy one, what with all the newly opened restos. No matter where you choose to have lunch or dinner, you're most likely going to end up at Classic Confections for a sugar rush to cap the meal.

Classic Confections, 2/F Greenbelt 5, Makati City; tel. (02) 746-2773, 490-7896; mobile 0917-5245892; URL classicconfections.net

The Dark Side

Dark chocolate seems to be one of the trends this year (right up there with banoffee pie and cupcakes), with dark versions of the classics popping up everywhere--Hershey's Kisses, Nestle Crunch (which I luuurve, by the way!), and even M&Ms!

I'm guessing this has been out in the market for some time now, but last Saturday was the first time I saw it! The purple packaging caught my eye ("Oooh! Purple! Purrrty!") and when I saw the label saying "dark" I just let out a gasp. It was genius to put two of my favorite things together. H, who generally isn't a sweets kind of guy, much preferred it over regular M&Ms, so yes, there is a difference.

I wonder how dark it really is though. My taste buds have grown accustomed to really bitter chocolate (around 80 or even 90% cacao!), and these "dark" versions still taste quite sweet to me. Not that I'm complaining. I ate the whole damn bag, all 230 calories. (It wouldn't have been a big deal if only I hadn't just eaten a big meal and had a big buffet meal coming up later in the day!)

And can I just say, ang landi nung green M&M sa packaging! Love her!

Goin' Bananas (and Apples)

Ahh, finally! A new post! Been incredibly busy, so I have a backlog of about three or four resto writeups, but hey, this is a start!

There's a new food/coffee joint along Katipunan, right where City Jam used to be. It's called Banapple and I've been there about four times in the last three weeks. Haha. It's owned by a friend of mine (Maricel Jimenez, together with husband GJ), but even without the connection, I'd still keep going back.

(Top) Banapple is now open! (Above) The interior. These photos courtesy of GJ Jimenez.

The name is a play on the cafe's two bestsellers: the Banoffee Pie and the Apple Caramel Crumble. The Banoffee Pie (P480/whole, P65/slice) has been a favorite for a while now. Even before the cafe opened, my family would order it from Maricel, who supplied (and still supplies) cakes, pies, and pastries to places as far as Baguio! (The Baguio peeps actually pick up the goodies from Manila--an indication of how yummy her stuff is!) It's got a graham-cracker base, a banana and caramel filling, and a topping of whipped cream and chocolate shavings. If you've got a major sweet tooth, this is definitely the pie for you!

The Apple Caramel Crumble (P560/whole, P75/slice) is Maricel's crusty take on apple pie. Other Banapple goodies to try: Snicker Fudge Cheesecake, Cadbury Gold Oreo Cheesecake, Strawberry Cheesecake (unlike other cheesecakes, this one has no umay factor!)...the list goes on and on! Add P30 and you can get any of the pies or cakes a la mode! Mmmm. I couldn't get enough of the huge chocolate chip cookie, served warm and topped with vanilla ice cream. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Aside from cakes, pies, and pastries, Banapple also offers meals. Try the dory with rice (P145--I've had it three times, I think--and each time I polished off the generous serving of rice). The tapa (P120) is on the sweet side, and it comes with these creamy scrambled eggs. "People don't order extra rice," Maricel tells me, "but they order extra eggs. Each serving has two eggs, so they end up eating four eggs!" There are also pasta dishes, sandwiches, and savory pies. All entrees are just P85 to P150. Plus they've got coffee, specially blended for Banapple. All in all, a great, inexpensive place to hang out with friends!

(Top to bottom) The tapa served with lots of rice and delicious eggs; one of my favorites: the dory, also with a hefty serving of rice and some carrots; banoffee pie!

Banapple is located along Katipunan (across Kopi Roti). It's open every day from 7:30 a.m. 'til about 11:00 p.m.

I Know It Was a Steak Place...

...but I can't help raving about Steak MD's banana split pie! Yum!

It's got a crushed-Oreo crust, a layer of frozen bananas, a mound of strawberry ice cream, a dollop of whipped cream, and a cherry for good measure. I don't eat cherries (haha. Behave!), but I sure enjoyed everything else! Plus, it's only P75! (Hmmm, this is actually pretty easy to make at home...) The dude at the next table committed two of the seven deadly sins in one go--gluttony and envy! After polishing off two (yes, two) orders of steak, he asked the waitress for what I was having. Haha.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the meat of the matter! Steak MD's this small, super casual place (as in no aircon, so I prefer going in the evening when the air's a bit cooler) along Tomas Morato. For steak lovers out there, you don't have to shell out a grand to get your meaty fix--Steak MD offers T-Bone and Porterhouse steaks from P150 to less than P300 a pop! After choosing a cut of meat, you get to dictate which rub you want--you can choose from:

• Rub Ko 'To - the "house blend," a secret mix of herbs and spices
• Build Me Up Butter Rub - need I say more?
• Ang Cha-Rub - a sweet and spicy blend
• Atomic Rub - a hot, hot, hot rub
• Heart Rub - a garlicky rub

And it comes with a small bowl of bulalo-ish soup to start you off. (And Queen of Clumsy that I am, I spilled it all over my jeans! Bah.) A note though: I got the Rub Ko 'To over the small T-Bone, and the gravy was already poured all over the steak. Would've preferred to have it on the side--best to mention this to your server if you prefer the same. Still, the steak was satisfactory, and H's Porterhouse was especially tender. It's what you'd call bang for your buck!

Aside from steaks, the place also offers chicken and sisig. But where's the fun in that?

Steak MD is located at Creekside Square, Tomas Morato, Quezon City; tel. 448-7114.