What’s the most bizarre thing you’ve heard described about you? Is it that you’re the spitting image of a famous Hollywood celebrity? Or you smell like raw mushrooms after an hour on the treadmill? Or perhaps you sound like a hyena when you laugh?

Mine, I got when I was abroad. Entering an internet cafe in Dubai sporting a red headscarf and large silver hoops, the attendant happily asked me if I was from Ethiopia, her home country. To be honest, I had to steal a glance at my reflection on the mirror behind her before politely answering, ‘No, I’m Filipina.”

Then it happened again… on three separate occasions! I was being mistaken for an Ethiopian lady by no less than Ethiopians themselves. So I decided to make it my source of amusement. Every time I was out meeting new people who couldn’t divine where I’m from, I played this guessing game with them. Surprisingly, very few would get it right. Probably because I sound slightly American to non-Filipino ears. For those who’d finally give up, I’d then do the ‘shocking reveal,’ declaring that I’m a native of Addis Ababa. Ha! The look on their faces! As it turned out, no one I met there knew much about this predominantly Christian country in Africa (except perhaps that it’s the home of Haile Gebrselassie because he ran and won the Dubai Marathon) that whatever factoids I dished out about ‘my grandparents’ village and the state of economy back there’ were accepted without question.

It was my lovely Ethiopian work colleague who told me that I do look like some of the ladies ‘back home’, which of course prompted me to google some images to support this claim. Ok, I didn’t exactly find one that resembled me but that did not stop me from learning more about this Northeast African nation. When she invited me for an authentic Ethiopian lunch, I jumped at the opportunity.

The meal was a hearty one. We ordered different meat stews accompanied by spicy pastes that were all dumped on a basket table lined with injera, a spongy sour flatbread that you tear off with your hands and use as a utensil to pick up your food. I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. I felt perfectly at home eating with my fingers as many Filipinos are no strangers to this practice.

And no Ethiopian meal is complete without coffee. Usually, a full coffee ceremony is performed but since we were in a small indoor restaurant, I got to witness only the serving bit of the ritual. My friend showed us how they pour (from a great height!) the freshly boiled coffee, letting the stream of piping-hot brew fill tiny white china cups. Being a certified caffeine junkie and a collector of coffee brewers, I openly declared that I’d love to own a jebena, the Ethiopian clay coffee pot that they had in the resto. And being a truly nice person that she is, she gifted me with one, complete with coffee powder that she ground herself.

Today, I’m marking my birth anniversary with Ethiopian java done from scratch! Thank you Ileni for this wonderful present. With practice, I reckon not only will I continue looking Ethiopian, I may even get to serve coffee like one too. With popcorn!

xxx

Karima

You’ll have to forgive me if I’m still ranting about the insufferable humidity here. It’s not getting any better. We’re still inside the monsoon season, getting patches of dry heat here and there. It rains most afternoons and unfortunately, I will have to wait a few more months before the raging weather systems quiet down.

The thought of relocating to cooler climes has definitely crossed my mind. But at the mo, it’s nowhere near practical. I’ve exhausted my supply of granita and to be honest, if I so much as put a teaspoonful of these icy shards near my mouth, I swear my teeth will scream, ‘Granita again @#$%^& ???’ Pure murder.

So I’ve decided to do something my dad taught me when I was about 8 years old. Instead of using cold to counter the heat, I’m fighting fire with fire!

Yes, I’m assembling fish tacos with just-bought tilapia fillets, my brother’s spicy mango salsa and sour cream that had been laced with hot sauce. With that much heat, I’m expecting to sweat like mad and imagining my skin beginning to feel cooler as the perspiration evaporates. Got my cold beer in one hand and a buri fan in the other, all that’s lacking right now are huge waves crashing into tropical beaches. And perhaps a few shirtless surfers parading their bangin’ beach bods for my viewing pleasure.

Hmmmm…. I’m beginning to like this sultry weather…

xxx

Karima

Fish Tacos

Makes 6 servings
Fish Taco recipe adapted from Tyler’s Ultimate

Ingredients:

Fish Taco

Pink Sauce

Mango Salsa

Assembly

Method:

Season the Japanese crumbs with salt and pepper. Dredge the fish pieces in flour. Dip in egg and coat well with the bread crumbs. Deep fry in batches and drain on paper towels.

Prepare the sauce by combining the sour cream, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce and Tabasco. Season with salt and pepper.

Prepare the Mango Salsa and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Lightly toast the flour tortillas on a dry pan and set on a towel-lined plate.

Assembly

Take one tortilla and smear pink sauce right in the middle of it. Pile on 2 pieces fish fillets sprinkled with lemon juice, shredded cabbage, salsa and cheese. Top with more pink sauce if desired. Serve hot.

I never liked chayote.  The mere mention of it conjures up memories of overcooked green chunks of blandness drowning in tinola broth or trying very hard to make its presence felt amidst a scattering of sauteed ground pork.  When visiting a friend’s place and I happen to be served with anything that has chayote in it, I usually (politely) decline.  And then you get grilled as to why you don’t want to have some.  I’d love to have invented an allergy to this vegetable but at the risk of embarrassing myself, I’d oblige, carefully get a couple of pieces and literally swallow the thing, praying I wouldn’t choke on its mushy texture and obvious lack of flavor!

Well, that was before I discovered it can be eaten raw.

I have never seen it served uncooked.  So I kind of assumed it is only consumed after subjecting it to heat!  While researching for a menu that I had been asked to prepare for a friend who was going on a diet, I found a salad recipe that called for raw chayote.  At first I was flabbergasted.  Then I remembered: do we not cook jicama, radishes, cucumbers and eat them raw as well?

So I gave the recipe a shot.  And I fell in love.

I’ll think twice before I say never again.

xx

Karima

Raw Chayote Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Method:

Toss all of the ingredients except oil in a bowl and adjust seasoning to taste.

Place inside the fridge and leave to chill for a good 15 minutes.

Just before serving, drizzle olive oil and give the salad a quick toss.

Serve garnished with lemon slices and more chopped cilantro, if desired.

Hankered for some steak but not the 300-gm slab of meat that I usually drown in peppercorn sauce.  Not today.  I wanted a steak with a bit of finesse, flavorful but not intimidating on my plate.  And no, I don’t want a filet mignon either!

Then it hit me.  I remembered a recipe from one of my Valli Little cookbooks.  It did call for eye-fillet steak, which is filet mignon in Australia, marinated in soy, ginger and Szechuan pepper, chargrilled to medium rare, and cut up into cubes before being drizzled with a chili-cilantro dressing.  My version, I decided, will feature my favorite beef cut: sirloin.

So I raided my brother’s spice cupboard, ground up some authentic Szechuan peppercorns, marinated the meat and prepared the dressing.  I erred on the side of caution and made a bowl of cool cumin-scented cucumber raita, just in case my kid couldn’t handle the heat.  In any case, I could always offer him a cup of mango ice cream I had whipped up a few hours earlier but I’m digressing.

After a few forkfuls of spicy, hot, cool and lemony things that happily played with my taste buds, I sat back feeling my lips break into a grin, sated.  Oh, did I mention I ate two plates of rice with those little buggers?  Talk about finesse!

xxx

Karima

Deviled Steak Cubes

Serves 4 (Adapted from Delicious: 5 of the Best)

Ingredients:

Method:

In a shallow glass casserole, combine soy, ground peppercorns, ginger, garlic and vegetable oil.  Add the steak and marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Stir the rice vinegar and sugar over low heat until sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat and stir in the salt.  Let cool then add in the chili and cilantro.  Set aside.

Heat the barbeque or chargrill on high.  Cook the steaks 2 minutes on each side, just til medium rare.

Rest the steaks for a couple of minutes then cut into cubes.  Pile on a plate and drizzle with the dressing.  Garnish with more chopped cilantro and serve with rice and cucumber raita.

It was my first time to experience a private dinner. At first I thought we would be the only customers in the restaurant because it is “private”. I was dead wrong. But nonetheless, it still was a small group – only 18 of us.

We arrived early around 6:45pm and Chef Bruce was already in the kitchen doing prep work. Dinner usually starts at 7:00pm. The kitchen of the restaurant is the the actual place where they shoot his TV shows like Tablescapes. He greeted us and asked us about how we heard about the place. He was, by the way, trained by Mr. Kitchen Bad Boy himself – Gordon Ramsey. Ramsey actually kicked Chef Bruce’s butt (literally). Poor guy.

So blah blah blah, we were so hungry, harassed and couldn’t wait to taste his cooking. We were in it for a set meal of 6 courses and had the best seats in town – just a few inches away from Chef Bruce’s work area.

The Food

Filipino-style Laksa: It is a coconut-based soup with vermicelli (bihon) noodles and lapu-lapu. At first glance it looked like it’s hot and spicy. Surprisingly, it was not. This is good but I’d like it with one more dash of salt.

Caesar Salad: It’s a Filipino-style Caesar salad. The greens were torched and topped with chicken paksiw, queso de bola, dressing and bread on the side. Hands down, the dressing was a killer. There was not much paksiw taste in the chicken and it was specifically made that way as not to add more tartness to the already sour kalamansi-based dressing.

Calamari with Green Mango Salad: Yes, if it came with bagoong it would’ve been Mango KBS. Since we were craving for salty food, this hit the mark. The squid was soft and perfectly cooked.

Green Papaya Salad with Raw Salmon and Melon: If you’re not into vegetables and salads, you’d probably be whining that he’s serving ANOTHER salad! This reminds me of a Vietnamese salad we used to make. The salmon was really fresh. It had no fishy smell and has an impressive marbling. The dressing was, once again, sour. But once you bite into those melon cubes, the sweetness just bursts into your mouth and balances the other flavors. This could use some cilantro. After eating this one, we were already full.

Chinese-style Steamed Lapu-lapu on Mashed Taro: The lapu-lapu was basically steamed with soy sauce and sesame oil. The way we do it is we add a splash of rice wine as the final touch and we end up having a bit of sabaw for the rice. But since we weren’t having rice, we were served with mashed taro instead. It probably looks odd, but we were surprised it was pretty good. The fish was topped with caramelized onions.

Mango Trifle with Putong Ube: Chef’s Table had guests from the owners of Michelle’s Putong Ube. From what I heard, they requested Chef Bruce to make something out of the putong ube they gave. So Chef whipped up a Mango Trifle. It has a custard base with mangoes and those putong ube. He always makes mangoes for desserts because his wife is from Cebu. I ate mine and half of Anna’s. This dessert was followed by what I figured a kapeng barako.

Lemon Water: We were served with water with lemon and mint. It’s as refreshing as the other flavored water like those with pandan or cucumber. We didn’t opt for soft drinks or iced tea or wine. We were waiting for them to offer beer. But they never did so I guess they do not have one.

Restaurant Details

• Price: Php1500/head for a 6-course set meal
• Reservations: Book at least 2 weeks before. They are packed everyday.
• Parking: There’s enough parking for 5 or so cars. If you’re going there in a group, bring as few cars as possible. I do not recommend parking along the narrow street with lots of tricycles.
• Other Services: They offer cooking class for Php3,000/head and catering.
• Contact Details: Contact Michelle Lim at 0918-887-1227 or 0922-871-2777
• Address: E. Jacinto St. Corner Kalayaan Ave., Guadalupe Nuevo, Makati City

The Lowdown

Chef Bruce promotes Filipino food with a twist. If you think Filipino food is just ordinary food, then this place is not for you especially when you’re paying Php1500 a pop. So do not expect a wagyu beef in the menu.

Php1500 is actually very pricey for me. But this was a special day so I had to shell out a little bit more. How can you justify a 1500 meal? Well… come to think of it he used lapu-lapu, salmon, squid, very fresh greens. Plus a lot of talent (+1 on the premium), celebrity chef status (+1 on the premium) , private dining (+1 on the premium) and I love the flavors because this is my style of cooking – very Asian.

I was half expecting he’d cook something hot and spicy. Too bad he didn’t. I was disappointed. But that was probably just my only complaint. Chef was extremely nice and so is his staff. So I’m giving him 4.5/5 stars.

More Photos

Me, Chef Bruce and Anna.

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- Jon

Two siblings are about to embark on a tasty quest.  We’ll be traveling together (or individually) and will make it our mission to visit local markets, eateries and specialty stores and find new flavors and fascinating stories.  Then we come back to our homes, sample our gastronomic finds and perhaps whip up something in our kitchens.

All these, we are extremely excited to share with you. Hope you hop along and enjoy what we consider the ultimate ‘food trip.’

Xxx

Jon & Karima