Foodie Manila

Thanks to the Holiday, I was able to attend one of the culinary classes at the Heny Sison Culinary School. (Check here for schedules! Promise super cheap and super sulit!)

I attended Chef Kathy Sion’s class on Chinese Rice Toppings. The class was about P1,850 (inclusive of the materials and recipes and certificate! you also can take home what you made!)

Like I said, if you want to learn how to cook, but don’t really want to take up culinary classes this is for you! I am a frequent visitor!

On the menu for today was:

• Spinach Seafood Soup
• Mandarain Grilled Beef with Green Pepper Sauce
• Chicken on Lemon Sauce
• Braised Pata Tim with Chinese Mushroom
• Shrimp Balls with Brocolli and Straw Mushrooms
• Grass Jelly Icecream

It was an awesome class. Very light and alot of jokes and advice. Also alot of cooking tips for non -culinary people. How to saute and fry. How to test for the heat of the oil and a lot of little trade secrets that you won’t read in the books. BTW, chinese cooking or dishes with NO MSG is awesome!

Chef Kathy was a great teacher. She even let me cook the beef as well as marinade and feel the texture of the beef to make sure that it was tender without tenderizing sirloin!

*Sorry guys, although I’d love to put the recipe here, I can’t since I wanna encourage you guys to go to the classes. Trust me, if you love cooking for friends or family or even for yourself, this is the way to go. They actually have dimsum making also by Chef Kathy Sion as well as Gourmet Burgers by Chef Jason Stacy. Even those with zero-knowledge will be able to do it!

But I can share with you the pictures! Enjoy!

Missing from the pictures is Mandarin Grilled Beef in Green Pepper Sauce
It was so good we ate it up before we even got to take a picture!

Most if not all have tried this sumptuous dish brought to us by the Ilocanos from the north! The sweet crispy and yet succelent pork just oozzess fatty goodness. But do you know how it is prepared? Some mistakenly think that Bagnet is just Lechon Kawali or pan seared pork. Oh how you guys are mistaken. They are nothing alike. What makes Bagnet so special is that it is double fried. Yes you read that right; DOUBLE FRIED. (double the goodness then?)

The concept of bagnet stems from a rich history of Ilocos. Back in the olden days, when a pig was slaughtered all the parts needed to be used in order to minimize wastage. There were no freezers or refs back then to preserve the meat. The Ilocanos then came up with the idea called Bagnettin which means to preserve the meat. They would boil the unused part of the pig and then fry it in a Kawa. (A huge wok) This would preserve the meat for up to 10 days. Since there were no microwaves also during that time, in order to heat the meat they would fry it again. You can even see the skin turning into chicharon. The secret some Ilocanos say is the stock in which you first boil the meat in. This is where the flavor is locked in.

A common misconception with Bagnet is that only the porkloin or porkbelly is used for Bagnet. Although these parts are the best parts, it is not always so. Bagnet is basically ANY part of the pork that is boiled, and deep fried twice. The twice frying is what gives it the unique taste. 

Just because I want to share with you how to cook pasta correctly… here it is. I got this from yahoo.

Pasta may be the most fabulously cheap and simple meal, but it’s also the most misunderstood according to chef Scott Conant of the restaurant Scarpetta (locations in both Manhattan and Miami), named one of America’s best new restaurants by Esquire. He shared some secrets with us at Serious Eats, so we’ll never again find ourselves with a plate of soggy spaghetti and lifeless, loser tomato sauce.

1. DO Read the Instructions: Spaghetti packaging recommends certain cooking times for a reason. Follow their advice! This is not an area where creativity is encouraged. Pay attention to the clock and don’t overcook pasta—it’s one of the most committed pasta faux-pas. (And here are some tips on which pasta shapes go with which sauces.)

2. DON’T Add Too Much Water: The ratios of water-to-pasta are important. You want about 1 to 1.5 gallons of water for every one-pound box of dry pasta.

3. DO Salt the Water: Add about one teaspoon of salt per quart of water before sticking the dry spaghetti into the boiling water. The salt and water should almost reach a broth-like consistency. The saline content in the water is important. Salted water for boiling is actually a very heated debate online. It remains the most commented-on recipe on Epicurious.com.

4. DON’T Parcook Pasta: Parcooking, or partially cooking foods early so they take less time to cook when you’re preparing to serve them, is definitely not recommended with pasta. But if you must, as in an emergency dinner party situation, put the pasta on a large tray (but don’t stack it), let it cool, and drizzle olive oil on top.

5. DON’T Try the Toss-Against-the-Wall Trick: Throwing food against a wall should be avoided, just generally speaking. “It’s an old wive’s tale,” said Conant of this projectile method of checking pasta doneness. He recommends letting it cool for a second, then sticking it in your mouth. It should be firm, but not difficult to eat in any way.

6. DO Gussy Up Packaged Sauces: There’s no shame in cheating a tad with store-bought sauces. They provide a great base, but you should add your own flair. Try sauteing a couple cups of cherry tomato halves with salt, crushed red peppers, garlic, and extra-virgin olive oil. Add this to the pre-made sauce. The cherry tomatoes will release fresh flavors and create a nice balance with the tastes from the prepared sauce. Plus, you can easily throw this together during the pasta-boiling time frame.

7. DO Toss Pasta with Sauce: Once the pasta is two minutes shy from being done, drain the pasta and add it to your tomato sauce creation. This will allow the noodles to finish cooking while soaking up the good tomato flavors. Plus, a fun chemical reaction will happen where the pasta releases starch to thicken the sauce. Watch this video with Mario Batali on how to sauce pasta for further guidance. Or listen to Mark Bittman, who takes a slightly different pasta-saucing approach.

8. DO Finish the Dish with Fresh Toppings: Fresh basil takes the flavor to the next level, or try the garbage-pail sauce approach with nuts, raisins, and capers or kale and white beans.

We left Manila via Terminal 2 at around 545. Along with our entire group of 17, we had to check in alot of stuff. Since I was travelling with Chefs, they all brought along their own equipment. Even their own pots and pans, as well as mixers, knives, ingredients, flowers, and plates. (talk about being prepared!) Chef Heny was the head of the group. Chef Glenn acted as usher and Chef Kathy was also kind enough to chat me up since I didn’t know anyone. She made me feel comfortable actually. I was so intimidated with all the different Chefs!

We arrived at Laoag International Airport (I didn’t know it was an international airport) at around 7:15 PM and we arrived at our hotel an hour later. We had a GREAT dinner of Prawns in Lemon and Butter Sauce, Pinakbet (Ilocanos ALWAYS has Pinakbet at gatherings!) Green Mangoes and Bagoong, Stuffed Crab in tausi sauce, and of course Lechon. What was special about the lechon was the skin was so crisp and juicy that you could hear the crrrruunnnnccchh when you chew. The sauce for the lechon was made with the liver of the pig mixed with herbs and spices along with Ilocano Vinegar. It was like a sour liver patee. I wanted to continue eating but I didn’t want to indulge myself too much because we were heading straight to bed that night and whole day of eating will commence tomorrow.

We were briefed about what was going to happen tom as well as assigning who will judge which contest. Yes FoodieManila was on the list of judges! The iShore Chefs on Parade Event is FoodieManila’s first event!

As a sidenote, the resort we stayed at was Cabugao Resort. It is located in the town of Cabugao, 30 mins away from Vigan and 1 hour away from Laoag. It was beautiful.I am leaving you with pictures for today.

I will be adding more content here as the day goes on. But for now I leave you with the pictures!

Cheers & Happy Eating!

The first competition was the Cordillera Cuisine Fusion competition. The challenge was for the students to come up with a different twist of Cordillera style cooking. It may be anything using the native ingredients and bringing out the flavors of the region as well as accentuating the local cuisine in various styles. Most memorable for me would be the Igado wrapped in wild boar and bacon pan-seared and placed above a sweet rice concoction similar to risotto.

As you can see, some looked impressive while others left me wanting for a little bit more. I was asking Chef Jason Stacy regarding the term fusion. If did it mean 2 dishes being combined or something else. He mentioned that it was more of the style of cooking rather than the dish itself.

With the first competition tackling the wider array of flavors that the region has to offer, the 2nd competition delved into a more familiar, more homegrown theme. Challenging students and pro’s alike to come up with a fusion cuisine of their native province of Ilocos. With bagnet, poque-poque, Ibago and other Ilocano dishes, the students came up with some of the more creative ideas. There were still that needed that extra oomph, but most of the dishes were pretty good.

As one of the chefs mentioned while they were judging, these students do not lack the creativity as well as the ambition to cook good food. But what they do lack, is the execution as well as technical skills. Luckily, the chef mentioned, that these things can be taught!

True indeed.