eNTeNG’s The Best Of… Native Delicacies – Butterscotch, all the way from Iloilo City! (3rd in a Series)

Luscious treats from down south - Biscocho Haus's Butterscotch from Iloilo City! Thanks, Rhyne!

It’s a beloved Filipino custom to bring back tons of “pasalubong” from a vacation or any trip.  “Pasalubong” actually doesn’t really translate to something in English.  I mean, as far as my ‘limited’ prowess in the language is concerned (see, I’m referring to a prowess as ‘limited’… such paradox!), it doesn’t have a direct equivalent.  Loosely, it could mean anywhere from a souvenir, a token present, or ‘coming back home’ gift, if you will.  But if there is something I love about “pasalubong,” it is the fact that most of them are food items!

 

Which brings me to the latest installment to my ‘eNTeNG’s The Best Of…’.  And this one – Biscocho Haus’s Butterscotch – comes all the way from Iloilo City, lovingly hand-carried by my friend’s sister, then passed on to their mother.  Now, how can that be short of anything but love?!

 

Speaking of love, my ‘love affair’ with these goodies began about four years ago when our many engineers from Iloilo City brought back bags and bags of these goodies from their last trip back home.  And I’ve always craved for them since.  And this may sound preposterous, but I’ve come to love Iloilo City because of these treats.

 

Later on, I realized that most other bakeshops offer butterscotch.  But the ones from Biscocho Haus in Iloilo City are tops on my list!

 

 

Technically, butterscotch is something made of sugar and butter.  That’s about it.  And mind you, that tastes good in itself.  Though a word of caution to those with a short fuse for extremely sweet confectionery, sugar and butter alone may seem too cloying.  Probably that was why Biscocho Haus threw in flour, eggs and milk to the mix and came up with their to-die-for, heavenly butterscotch!

 

I can finish a bag of these.  And to shamelessly borrow a line from another product, ‘once I pop, I can’t stop!’  I tear the plastic bag open, and like a conveyor belt assembly line, I open each butterscotch cube wrapped in multi-colored cellophane, put it in my mouth, chew, and experience one of the most intense moments of pleasure I’ve ever had.

 

Each cube is like the most dense, but at the same time, most moist piece of confection there (ever) is.  It has a nice crumb that’s packed well (like ‘packed’ brown sugar), and when chewed gives the sensation of the smoothest nougat.  It almost tastes like ‘food for the gods’ but without the dates.  And the best part of it is that these are made from ingredients that can only be fresh – flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk.  Plain and simple!  I read the package and I see that I understand everything that went to what I’m putting in my mouth!

 

I’ve had butterscotch from practically everywhere – including the ‘caramel bars’ from Max’s – and these ones from Biscocho Haus in Iloilo City are undisputedly the best!

eNTeNG’s The Best Of… (Chocolatey) Snack straight from the grocery shelves (update to ‘2nd in a Series’)

TWO POSTS down, I did promise to update the second installment of the ‘eNTeNG’s The Best Of…’ series.  And that one was all about snacks one can get straight from the grocery shelves.  Two made it to the list, kinder bueno and this one – Hunt’s Pudding Snack Packs (in chocolate or chocolate fudge).

One will never be enough! My other entry to the best of snack straight from the grocery shelves - Hunt's Snack Pack Chocolate Pudding!

As the title of this entry suggests, I found this snack on the grocery shelves.  And for the second time on this blog, I am heralding a discovery as serendipitous.  It happened at, where else, but the international landmark (pun intended) for all things affordable and within-reach – SM Supermarket!  It all started with a sharp turn I made on one of the aisles of their Makati City branch, in a frantic search for chocolate-flavored marshmallows.  I couldn’t remember when it started but I have had a prolonged, unfulfilled desire for these spongy confections of gelatin, sugar and corn syrup, in chocolate flavor.  But there just wasn’t any at that time.  In exasperation, I heaved a sigh that could rival that of the wind’s in trees, when I couldn’t find the marshmallows of my desire even after an exhaustive search.  With my right hand on my forehead, I looked up to the ceiling, gritting my teeth.

 

That was when I saw it – piled haphazardly at the top shelf, some of them already looking a little dull.  I reached out for one pack (pack of four), looked at it, and nonchalantly threw a couple right in to my cart.  Yes, nonchalantly, but a part of me got excited with the thought of enjoying one of the most comforting food items I had discovered in the States.  As a matter of fact, I keep in mind a recipe of it that I got (yes, in the States), that for me, has just been simply the best.

 

The boxes said ‘Needs No Refrigeration’ but still, I arranged them in our age-old refrigerator.  After chilling them well, I took out one of the 3.5-oz. cups.  Using one of my many Oneida® Silversmiths long-handled teaspoons, I dug into the cup and scooped a heap of the chocolate pudding.  It looked sa delicious, velvety smooth and soft.  And as it caught glints of the kitchen’s lighting, it was as if it was asking me to give in to temptation.

The chocolate pudding on my Oneida© Silversmiths long-handled teaspoon.

And I did.  The chocolatey taste was just perfect – not too sweet, and most of all, not pretentious.  The cornstarch in the ingredients gave the pudding its smoothness.  The box said ‘real non-fat milk is our #1 ingredient’ and yes, it was for it could only be the source of the pudding’s good old-fashioned richness (non-fat milk could give richness too!).  The pudding had a little oil and rightfully so, to give it its distinctive shine and to perfect its consistency.  All in all, it was more than what I would expect Php 79.00 (four 3.5-oz. cups!) could buy me!

 

As if I could never get any more sinful, I whipped 250-mL of all-purpose cream.  And without remorse, put a huge dollop on top of my second cup that night.  And since I felt a pristine white top looked lacking, I shaved dark chocolate on top before I took my first spoonful, licking away like a spoiled brat!

 

I’ve been wondering why a snack that good could be so affordable (not that I’m complaining).  But yesterday’s visit to the grocery revealed that its price had gone up – all the way to Php 95.00!  I didn’t mind.  It’s really good.  Chocolate-craving be gone!

eNTeNG’s The Best Of… (Chocolatey) Snack straight from the grocery shelves (2nd in a Series)

kinder bueno - one of eNTeNG's favorite (chocolatey) snacks from right out any grocery shelf!

I  ACTUALLY have two items that made it to this installment of the series.  But the other one’s stock in the fridge at home just got totally wiped out before I could even take photos!  So, expect an update to this post over the weekend.  I hope!

 

For now, I’m starting off with something I have steered clear of for the longest time.  For some reason, the bright white-and-red foil packaging didn’t appeal to me.  So, how did I get to try them?  I received six packs thrown in for free with the MANY MANY 16-piece boxes of Ferrero Rocher© that I purchased at one point this year (for my Ferrero binge moments and to give to friends).  I hadn’t the faintest idea what the freebies were, so I went through the packaging.  And one thing immediately jumped out of it and made me bright-eyed with expectation – they were made by Ferrero S.p.A.!

 

‘kinder bueno’ (‘WITH MILK & HAZELNUTS,’ the label screams) is ‘milk chocolate-covered wafer with smooth milk and hazelnut filling.’

 

The actual kinder bueno bars are faithful to the image on the package. Yummy! Don't the strings of milk chocolate drizzled on the chocolate coating just look so tempting?

That’s about as succinct and, at the same time, as complete as one can get in describing these treats.  I could very well park my pen here (I’m on pen-and-paper mode right now) and just hope that you will go out and buy them for yourself.  But I guess I can go on for a few more words. 

 

I still remember the first time I had these.  Before I gobbled a quarter of one of the two bars that come in one package, I licked off the milk chocolate covering first.  It was a delectable blend of the smooth chocolate covering and what I surmised as chocolate sauce that was drizzled onto the bars and allowed to harden.  For milk chocolate, it was NOT annoyingly sweet.  I know of some people who will only have dark chocolate.  But I think, the sweetness of kinder bueno is something they will be able to tolerate.  It was a plus too that it was just so velvety.

 

That thick center - of milk and hazelnut filling - is just too good to resist. Its light texture is perfect in giving character and body to the blend of flavors.

As the milk chocolate submitted to my insistent licks, it revealed the yummy brownish layer of wafer.  The wafer gave a crunch that reverberated within the walls of my mouth.  With each bite I made, the crumbling wafer helped scoop up the smooth milk and hazelnut filling that was snuggling inside it.  By filling, in this case, I don’t mean cream like whipped cream.  Though it’s not the ganache you would find in truffles too.  It’s a rather thick consistency that looked so crumbly.

Every component just felt so light – the milk chocolate, the wafer, the filling – but with each chew, I realized just how substantial and satiating kinder bueno could be.  I’ve loved Ferrero Rocher© all this time.  And munching on kinder bueno is a feeling akin to munching on Ferrero.

 

I brought a lot of these with me to work today and I shared them with friends.  Superman would’ve loved this!  As you shall see on the pictures, I used my old-but-trusty IBM ThinkPad T42 as foil to these luscious confections.

 

It would be nice to put this on your shopping list the next time you hit the grocery shelves.  At just Php 40.50 for a 43-gram pack of two bars, kinder bueno is such a steal.

"Bite me!"... kinder bueno on my laptop.

eNTeNG’s The Best Of… Breakfast (‘An Introduction’ and 1st in a Series)

A week after my birthday in 2000, I wrote an essay I entitled, ‘Over Coffee.’  And yes, I unashamedly forced it down my friends’ throats.  I sent them copies and ended up short of quizzing them about its contents – just so I knew they did read it!

The best of breakfast at Leisure Coast Resort... was very affordable. Only Php 600+ for full breakfasts for four very hungry people.

In that work, I recognized that most of the good years and the good times of my life and my friendships had been punctuated by coffee.  And now I have to say, by food too.  And as I have said, I’ve been toying around with the idea of sharing my own ‘eNTeNG’s The Best Of…’ a.k.a. ‘eNTeNG’s Favorite Things(?)…’.  From the moment the thought of doing this ran through and ricocheted in my mind, it had been so persistent – an itch that had been dying to be scratched.

 

Whatever will make it under this ‘The Best Of…’ header, is purely eNTeNG’s opinionated voice speaking.  Without a doubt, all the ‘best’ items here were judged by no other than me, myself, and I.  So I won’t be too hard on any reader who would end up violently reacting.

 

Quite fittingly, my first selection is for the best of breakfast.

 

And in this world of fastfood chains that had sprouted everywhere, I surprised even myself with my selection that found me going all the way up north to Dagupan City in the province of Pangasinan!  It was a plate of hot garlic fried white rice; sidings of sliced cucumbers and tomatoes; a cute mound of “atsara” (pickled shredded unripe papaya, with carrots and shallots); and, the shining star that had got to be the crispiest, tastiest, most flawlessly executed deep-fried vinegar-marinated milkfish that I’ve ever come across!  I found this unassumingly simple platter at the eight-year-old Sabina Restaurant of the Leisure Coast Resort.  And my finding it was quite serendipitous.  I was in that beauteous resort, with friends, to attend the wedding and emcee the reception of two of my best friends – James (Spider-man!) and Juvy.

 

I had the milkfish for two consecutive mornings there and up to today, nothing has come close to it.  All I can do is look back to how perfect it was.  The flavor was awesome, as I got right away how the salt, black pepper and white vinegar blended harmoniously, infusing every shred of the fish meat with undeniable flavor that complemented well the resulting fried-to-golden-brown-perfection texture.  I loved the crunch that came resounding with every bite as if what I was having were crispy chitlings.  The first that would hit me was the subdued acidity from the vinegar, made more defined by the salt and rounded by the pungency of the black pepper.  Because of all these, hard as it was for us, we couldn’t leave any piece – not even a small one – for any cat to enjoy.  And I love cats.  Alex (one of our engineers) actually finished everything from the head to the tail.  No sign of the tasty fish dish was left on the plates.

eNTeNG loved these – Jing Dadulla’s ‘Perfect’ Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

eNTeNG loved these – Jing Dadulla's 'Perfect' Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies!

FASTER THAN the speed of thought, a couple of feet away from the object on my desk, I identified it to be a small tub of sweet treats.  Close enough, the object of scrutiny made itself ostensibly known.  It was a container of seven cookies (I counted!).  Beautifully tied with a bright red ribbon, it had a note that said: “To Boss eNTeNG, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!! From Jing D.”  It was the 9^th of December.

Yummy treats prettily tied with a bright red ribbon. Everything really is good... with a red ribbon. Hahaha!

 

Officially, this would be the first ever home-baked treat I’m receiving this holiday season.  There really is no better time than the holidays for the home baker to come out from obscurity and showcase his or her edible works of art.  Having been friends with quite a few gifted home pastry artists (Cecille Carnay and Therese Yuvienco-Kinney), in my own right, I have championed their talent.  And I brag about them just about any chance that I get.

 

 

With what she shyly left on my desk – her Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie – I’m adding Jing Dadulla to my short list!  I just had to swing by her office (she’s one of our Product Planners) just to confirm that indeed, what she whipped up was a batch of cookies that combined the melt-in-your-mouth goodness of chocolate chips with the earthy taste and texture of old-fashioned rolled oats.  I was right.  And I promised her that I will let her know how I would find them, especially since I’ve never had an oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips.  I saved the treats for later, primarily because I didn’t want to mess up the pretty red ribbon they were tied with.  (Sometimes, the petty stuff gets in the way!)

 

 

But the thought of a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie just wouldn’t let up.  Up to this day, I still salivate over the thought of Otis Spunkmeyer Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (I don’t think we have them here).  And since I surmised that home-made goodies have a short shelf life – probably 2 days tops – I gave in.  After dinner in the office (yes, I rendered overtime work yet again), I ceremoniously pulled one end of the red ribbon; pulled off the lid… and, with breathless anticipation, freed what could very well be some of the best-looking home-made cookies I’ve ever seen.

 

I smelled the cookies before taking the first bite and all I got was a faint buttery goodness with a light gust of vanilla.  They were surprisingly not greasy.  I held one in my hand while taking time to think how to capture its image nicely, and it didn’t bleed with grease on my fingers.  The cookies were crisp and crunchy outside, with a surprisingly chewy center.  The chocolate chips were sparingly distributed throughout, with one or a couple temptingly sitting perfect on the cookie top.  The size and the shape of each cookie were also near-perfect, which just testified to how well Jing must have chilled her dough before scooping portions and lining them up on the sheet pan and baking them.  And even after the whole process, the chocolate chips had managed to retain their integrity – they didn’t fall apart in all the mixing and the baking.  The best part?  The cookies were not cloyingly sweet at all!

Doesn't this half-bitten-into cookie just scream: "Bite me more!"???

 

Jing may not agree with me that she could add ‘Perfect’ to the name of her cookie, and call it the Perfect Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie.  But she could very well do that.  After all, Martha Stewart’s daughter Alexis did name her own cookie the ‘perfect’ chocolate chip.

 

Jing’s cookies were so good that I believed it would be a waste to let even a single crumb fall off.  Those that I did manage to catch on the palm of my hand, I licked!  Without needing to say it, these cookies didn’t last to see the light of the next day.  They were that good.

eNTeNG’s ‘The Best Of…” – these cookies make it and start my list!

I love these! 'Good Shepherd' Snowballs! Yum-O!

They look yummy, don't they? My good friend Adam Sia took these shots, using my Canon IXUS 860IS. He'll teach me how.

In my hasty handwriting. Simple ingredients in a luscious treat - flour, cashew, butter, salt, vanilla, confectioners' sugar.

FRIENDSHIP KNOWS that I have been toying around with the idea of sharing here my “eNTeNG’s The Best Of…” a.k.a. “A Few Of eNTeNG’s Favorite Things.”  And I do intend to post that before the year ends, in installments if needed.  I have a list in the works, a work in progress for all the past years I’ve been in existence, if I may say so.  But fairly recently, ‘the list’ has taken a whole new incarnation – bits and pieces – scribbled on the back of restaurant receipts, or ATM receipts (the flip side of which never fails to snap me back to the reality of how measly I am worth)… or some torn piece of paper, tucked away in between the pages of my Starbucks Coffee® 16-month Date Book & Journal from Singapore.

 

Fortunately, before the spine of my beloved journal bursts and breaks apart, I have finally mustered enough courage to sort of kick off my ‘the best’ series.  Sort of.  And the impetus for this decision is none other than the subject of this post.

 

They came tightly packed inside the ubiquitous transparent plastic canister with the yellow lid, as if pebbles you’d rather play with than eat.  Only a simple label, probably printed with technology from eons past, humbly made known the canister’s contents – ‘Snowballs,’ it said.  The words ‘Good Shepherd’ made my heart skip a beat, especially since I have long associated it with probably the best ube (purple yam) jam commercially available.

 

With the insistence of a petulant, spoiled kid, I begged my friend Diane – ‘The Bored Gaga’ – to tear away the scotch tape that sealed the fate of these luscious treats.  Sealed the fate…  haha!  What’s with me and all the intended puns?!  The tape offered a stubborn hesitation and would not budge.  But perpetual pushing and perseverance did put the difficulty out of countenance, and made the seeming impossibility give way.  Long story short, we won the battle of the canister and dug our fingers in!

 

The snowballs were all I imagined them to be and more.  They were light, almost airy in spite of the dense crumbly inside.  I got the buttery flavor right away.  But a bit unlike its most likely kin – the Russian Tea Cookies (my faves are from Classic Confections… saving that for another post!) – these snowballs had chips and fragments of cashew, generously and evenly distributed throughout the cookie.  With each bite, a cashew nut would peak out of the cross section, as if asking to be nibbled.  The liberal dusting of confectioners’ sugar on the outside of each snowball was a fitting reminder of the coming holiday season.  Personally, it reminded me of actual fine snow, bringing me back to Christmas eve in Chicago, Illinois in 2003.

 

They were so good that I ended up hogging a majority share.  I chirpily walked back to my cubicle, feeling as light, though hopefully not as ‘nutty’ as these treats.  And I won’t forget to say thank you to my new friend Lyndon Macam for bringing these divine goodies to work today.  And for Diane for never failing to holler whenever there is a belly pleaser lying around her place.

 

Yummy treats... with 'The Bored Gaga' herself - Diane.