It’s good to know that Figaro is widening its variety of products offered among its loyal consumers. What would you ask for, if a certain coffee shop also offered a complete set of pasta and delightful breakfast meal in A la Carte.

Last week, I was invited by a good friend and got the chance to visit the Figaro Shangri- La Plaza branch just to get a free taste of their newest A la carte menu by Chef Karl Marxist Tan. It’s very convenient for me this time that I can have my favourite hot or iced coffee having my breakfast, lunch or dinner with the newest a la carte meals.

The long wait is over and Figaro finally launched four new exciting and delightful meals at your choice. These include:

Dory Provencal – Php199.00

Pan fried dory fish fillet infused in zesty provencal sauce.

Breaded Dorry Fillet with Tartar Sauce -  Php229.00

Battered pan-fried fish fillets seasoned with selected spice, dredged in bread crumbs for an extraordinary crisp.

Tuscan Chicken – Php199.00

A hearty Italian inspired chicken sauce with selected herbs and spices topped with Provencal sauce.

Chicken a la Kiev- Php229.00

A Russian-inspired chicken dish, stuffed with cheese and bacon cooked to perfection.

The meals was indeed a satisfying taste for me. The uniqueness of its taste, the composition of true chicken, bacon, cheese and pasta ingredients surely gave me the feeling of contentment that I paid for the meal that is worthy and delicious.

And what would you ask for if these meals will be served with 12 ounces of Ice Coffee or Ice Tea and a heavenly taste of Ambrosia and Chocolate Éclair for your desserts.

Ambrosia – Php70.00

Chocolate Eclair – Php65.00

So celebrate life to the fullest and enjoy eating the A la carte meals at Figaro. Treat your friends now! Come and visit Figaro!

Figaro’s A La Carte Meals by Chef Karl Marxist Tan is a post from: Patay Gutom

Taking a break from the usual restaurant tours, I decided to add something that has somewhat become a tradition for this blog; our traditional meals in our family. Although we trace our lineage from the Kapangpangans or Cabalens and have that inculcated with our daily meals, it is during the special holidays do we really roll out the good stuff. Last New Year I featured, Callos on this blog and how we made it, our own family recipe I presume. And since Holy Week has just dawned upon us here in the Philippines, we have a tradition of having a HUGE SEAFOOD spread on Good Friday. But over the years it has been watered down to 2 basic dishes: Bacalao and Fresh Oysters in onions, ginger, all soaked in vinegar and left to “cook” for awhile. We call it Kilawin.

I won’t go into details about the Kilawin since most, if not all of you know about this dish already but basically just DON’T EAT IT ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

Bacalao or Bacalhau on the other hand is a different story. It is a completely foreign dish which traces its history all the way back to Spain.Bacalao is the Spanish term for dried salt cod. The dried fish is white, delicate, and tender once it’s re-hydrated. Lomo is the best cut; avoid the chewy end pieces.

Pronunciation:

[bah-kah-LAH-oh]

Tomatoes! Tomatoes! and more Tomatoes!

Stripping the Meat by Hand was a chore!

Stewing the Bacalao!

Although it is a staple in Spain, we only have it in our family once a year. (Mostly because it is a very very expensive fish which doesn’t yield too much meat costing about P800/ half a kilo) Our preparation includes, tomatoes (and lots of it), potatoes, garbanzos, red bell pepper, oh and did I mention tomatoes? The most time consuming part of the dish would be the preparation of the fish. It takes 2-3 times to completely wash the fish meat. After which you need to strip off the meat by hand to ensure that no bones go along with the mushed up meat in the stew.

According to Wikipedia:

Salt cod has been produced for at least 500 years, since the time of the European discoveries of the New World. Before refrigeration, there was a need to preserve the codfish; drying and salting are ancient techniques to preserve nutrients and the process makes the codfish tastier.

The Portuguese tried to use this method of drying and salting on several varieties of fish from their waters, but the ideal fish came from much further north. With the “discovery” of Newfoundland in 1497, long after the Basque whalers arrived in Channel-Port aux Basques, they started fishing its cod-rich Grand Banks. Thus, bacalhau became a staple of the Portuguese cuisine, nicknamed Fiel amigo (faithful friend). From the 18th century, the town of Kristiansund in Norway became an important place of producing bacalhau or klippfish.

This dish was popular in Portugal and other Roman Catholic countries, because of the many days (Fridays, Lent, and other festivals) on which the Church forbade the eating of meat.Bacalhau dishes were eaten instead.^[1]

Bacalhau is also popular in Sfax where this dish is eaten in the first day of Eid ul-Fitr with charmoula.

Finally! Stew is OVER!

More Bacalao Please!

I’ve always loved this dish and always will. Drizzle some olive oil on it, toast some bread, and voila, you’ve got a dish fit for royalty! Although it differs with preparation every time since some are better at stripping bones than others, this is something I would choose to continue as a tradition. Not because of its religions implications, but rather because of the tradition that comes with it. The memories, the feeling of belonging to a tradition laden family is something I’ve always aspired too. Along with Lengua, and Callos, Bacalao I’m sure is something my kids will be eating someday.

Photography and Food Styling by: Carlos Palma

Bacalhau, Traditions, and Good Friday is a post from: Patay Gutom

HOW TO MAKE DUMPLINGS

Ingredients:

• spring onions
• garlic
• Ginger
• white pepper
• salt
• Sake, sherry, or rice wine
• Sesame Oil
• Light Soy Sauce
• 2 cups flour
• 1 egg
• Ground Pork

Instructions

1.Mince the spring onions, garlic, and ginger and set them aside for later use.

2.Mix the ground pork well with the spring onions, garlic and ginger.

3.Add the Sake, Light Soy sauce, Iodized salt, white pepper and Sesame oil until a pleasant aroma is produced.. (if you can’t smell anything then either you have colds or your not doing it right *wink*)

4.Set aside the meat mixture and start mixing the flour with egg. Mix and knead well until a sticky lumpy mixture forms. Add more flour until it gets dry. Mix well until no more cracks or wet portions form.

5.Flatten the mixture with a rolling pin and go as thin as possible.

6.Use a circle cutter to cut the skins.

7.Put one scoop of meat mixture on the skin and close the skin into a half-moon shape then seal it with water and in the shape of frills.

8.Dip the dumplings in boiling water and let it boil for 10 minutes

9.Eat them with Silver Swan Soy sauce and calamansi for best result

10.Go to the gym to burn off what you ate

Dumplings 101 with Photoblogger is a post from: Patay Gutom

And oh, here’s a picture of the two basic ingredients used in this recipe:

How to cook Fish Adobo ala Jehzlau:
1. Pour a small amount of cooking oil in your frying pan
2. Add at least half teaspoon of powdered garlic and onion in your frying pan
3. Once the powdered garlic, onion and cooking oil is thoroughly mixed, add your fish cubes
4. Wait for 10 to 12 minutes until your fish cubes is cooked
5. Cut the string beans by 2 inches then pour it in your frying pan
6. Add a fair amount of vinegar, soy sauce, and water
7. Mix all the ingredients together and add at least 5 table spoons of Oyster Sauce
8. Add 1/4 teaspoon of McCormick All Spice (Continue Mixing)
9. Add Bay Leaves and Black Pepper
10. Mix all together and wait for 5 minutes
11. Check if your fish cubes and string beans are cooked enough
12. Taste it, and if you think that it’s already cooked and good to eat, then stop cooking! Yay!

That’s all for the instructions. Forgive me if I’m not that “GOOD” in creating food recipes.

Here’s the output of the experiment! Weee!

Here’s a macro shot of Fish Adobo ala Jehzlau!

That’s all for today, I hope you like it!

Fish Adobo ala Jehzlau is a post from: Patay Gutom

If there’s one thing I love about cooking, it’s the endless possibilities of combining ingredients to achieve a unique flavor. I was browsing the contents of our refrigerator this afternoon and I found a couple of “cookables”. I decided to make my own Macaroni Meat Sauce.

Ingredients for Macaroni Meat Sauce ala Yagit:

• Del Monte Macaroni
• Left over tomato sauce from last night’s dinner
• Minced Garlic
• McCormick Powdered White Pepper
• McCormick Granulated Garlic
• White Onion
• Ground beef
• Lots of Cheddar Cheese
• Parmesan Cheese
• Flaked Chilis

How to cook:

1. Cook the macaroni for 15 minutes in a hot boiling water with 1 teaspoon of rock salt.
2. After cooking the pasta, drain the water using a strainer and set aside.
3. Saute garlic and chopped onions in a sauce pan.
4. Add the garlic beef and simmer until cook.
5. Add last night’s leftover tomato sauce. *This part makes the sauce “ala Yagit”.
6. Mix last night’s leftover tomato sauce with the beef.
7. Add some grated cheddar or Parmesan cheese.
8. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted.
9. Pour the meat sauce on top of the pasta.
10. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
11. [optional] Add some flaked chilis for extra spice.

Macaroni Meat Sauce ala Yagit is a post from: Patay Gutom

Ingredients:
1. Mama Sita’s Oyster Sauce
2. McCormick Minced Garlic
3. McCormick Powdered Garlic
4. McCormick Powdered Onion
5. Century Tuna Flakes in Oil
6. McCormick All Spice
7. Sliced Brocolli

How to cook this awesome recipe:
1. Add a small amount of cooking oil just enough to mix the spices
2. Wait until your cooking oil is hot enough then add your spices
3. Add at least 1 table spoon of powdered garlic, powdered onion and all spice
4. Mix all your spices until you are satisfied
5. Separate the oil from your Tuna Flakes.
6. Add the Tuna Flakes without Oil in your frying pan
7. After 5 seconds, add your sliced brocolli then mix it
8. Mix, mix, and mix until you are tired of mixing
9. After 1 minute of mixing and stir frying your brocolli and tuna, add at least 5 table spoons of Oyster Sauce.
10. Mix all together for 15 seconds, then add at least 5 table spoons of clean water (preferably mineral water, yay!)
11. After you have added and mixed all of the it and you are 100% sure that your brocolli is ready to eat (well-done, medium rare, rare, or just-the-way-you-want), then stop stir frying and transfer your Tuna Brocolli ala Jehzlau to your plate!

That’s it! This will be the final outcome of your oh-so-yummy Tuna Brocolli ala Jehzlau. Cooked just the way you want it!

Tuna Brocolli ala Jehzlau is a post from: Patay Gutom

I’ll just enumerate the ingredients then tell you how to cook it. Actually, I just stir fried it until it was well-done.

Ingredients:
1. A1 Steak Sauce
2. McCormick Minced Garlic
3. McCormick Powdered Garlic
4. McCormick Powdered Onion
5. 1/4 Kilo Tuna Cubes
6. Cooking Oil (Of course)

How to cook this awesome recipe:
0. Turn on your stove
1. Add cooking oil in your frying pan and wait for 5 minutes
2. If the cooking oil is hot enough and you can’t wait to put your 1/4 Kilo Tuna Cubes, then don’t hesitate to put it in your frying pan
3. Fry your tuna until it’s semi-cooked
4. Add at least 3 table spoons of McCormick Powdered Garlic
5. Add at least 10 table spoons of A1 Steak Sauce
6. Add at least 3 table spoons of McCormick Powdered Onion
7. Now add 5 table spoons of McCormick Minced Garlic
8. Mix Mix and Mix all your spices, sauce and your 1/4 Kilo Tuna
9. While you are mixing, slice your tuna in your frying pan
10. Mix all of your ingredients and wait for 10 minutes while mixing
11. After 10 minutes, check if your fried tuna is properly fried.
12. If you think your tuna is well-done, sprinkle some minced garlic onto it until you are satisfied of how your Garlic Fish Steak ala Jehzlau looks like. Yay!

Once done, your Garlic Fish Steak ala Jehzlau should look like this:

Soon, I will create a video version of this recipe to make my cooking technique more detailed. So watch out for it!

That’s it! Was that easy? Cook your own Garlic Fish Steak ala Jehzlau now!

Garlic Fish Steak ala Jehzlau is a post from: Patay Gutom