Nothing like the presents

Send-Off Gift from Sonja L. Ocampo, Chef and Owner, Cupcakes by Sonja, The Serendra Piazza

WE CAN think of countless good reasons under the sky for giving.  But the sweetest one may be for no reason at all.

Or when it is meant to send someone off well.

A message from Sonja. She wasn't in the store when I stopped by (it was already very late). But she had left instructions to her girls about my box of presents. Sweet =)

——-

“Are you bringing that with you to Singapore?”

My youngest brother asked, nonchalantly, in between taking up spoonfuls of the scrumptious dinner that I made, his eyes set in a fixed glassy stare at the object in question.  I lifted my first-edition Nokia XpressMusic – its original casing cracked near the power-on button and its screen broken on the right side – and brandished it with the response, “But of course!”

A couple of days later, I got a text from him asking me to meet him up at Greenbelt 3 where he was hosting dinner for about twenty architects, engineers and interior designers who worked with him on his latest (successful) project.  I didn’t want to intrude so I asked to be met outside the restaurant.  He got out and handed me a brand new Blackberry Bold 9780.  “Thoughtful,” I immediately said to myself.  Not so much because of the gesture of giving me a gift, but more so because he knew I wouldn’t like the Blackberry Torch.  I’ve never been into sliding phones.

Actually, I’ve never been into gadgets.  With cell phones, as long as I could text and handle calls, I’m perfectly fine.  And I’ve never received one as a gift.  So I was really surprised.

Why am I thinking of this anecdote?  Yesterday marked my third month here in Singapore.  And I couldn’t help but look back to all of the presents I did receive days before I got on that Singapore Airlines flight.

Sometimes it’s nice to reminisce.  Here are some of them.

Brand new Blackberry Bold 9780 from my youngest brother. The other one, the "Curve", was for my other brother.

 

I love that the Blackberry came with a free holster.

 

Sonja makes the best cookies!

 

...And of course, cupcakes! They're the very reason she put up her pioneering store in the Philippines!

 

From Thea, an Onitsuka Tiger bag, "handmade to the highest standards!"

 

And from Batman himself... another Batman!

 

 

Copyright © 2011 by eNTeNG  c”,)™©’s  MunchTime™©.  All rights reserved.

My kind of Thai

At Thai at Silk. Vintage Mickey Mouse T-shirt from Hong Kong, Nixon "Time Teller" in Blue X, a stalk of lemongrass with an orchid.

IRON MAN wouldn’t hear any of my pleas to split the bill with him.  I knew the dinner was quite expensive.  But I knew all too well that in this place, it was always worth every peso forked over.  Or in Iron Man’s case, swiped with his pre-approved plastic.

Yet another one of our “the-best-laid-plan-is-no-plan-at-all” dinners transpired last Wednesday night.  Iron Man and I sort of agreed to foot the bill for the night, but the self-proclaimed “excellent orderer” me decided on the place on my own – Thai at Silk at the Serendra Piazza.

Thai at Silk has always been one of my usuals.  Batman and I used to frequent the place.  And since I knew very well that having amazing company – Mike & Thea, The Flash, and Iron Man – would take care of 50% of an unforgettable meal, I had to make sure that the restaurant of choice could deliver the other 50% – great food.  And in the case of an establishment that brandishes directly the country of origin, the place better deliver authentic food.

The Flash, eNTeNG, Mike, Thea, Iron Man.

And that has struck me as something consistent with Thai at Silk.  One sip of my favorite Tom Yum Kung (Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup) never fails to conjure up images of how people from the Northern part of the country would make this soup with plenty of freshly caught shrimp, then people from the South would add pounded roasted chilies in oil to give the soup its characteristic deep orange color and powerful kick.  This same soup embodies the ideal of Thai cuisine, a perfect balance of all the four tastes – sweet, sour, salty, and spicy.  To this day, I maintain that Thai at Silk makes the best Tom Yum in Manila.

Tom Yum Kung

Around the soup, I built a spread that continued to showcase this balanced play among the four tastes.  The Roti with Choo Chee Kung had wedges of slightly charred roti bread elegantly served alongside a dipping sauce of minced prawn in reduced red curry sauce.  I usually would break the roti by hand, and dip each piece into the sauce.  But Thea recommended doing it one better – by dusting each dipped piece with white sugar before eating.  It was superb.

Roti with Choo Chee Kung

To the uninitiated, the Tod Man Kung (Thai shrimp cakes) would seem to be deep-fried, dried-out breading with a sporadic sprinkling of minced shrimp.  But no.  Each cake is Thailand’s answer to the Italian Veal Milanese!  Tender chunks of fresh shrimp are lightly breaded, formed into cakes, then deep-fried yielding an appetizer that does whet the appetite – tender and juicy on the inside, crunchy on the outside.  On their own or laced with the special sweetish sauce, these are cakes you would fight to have and eat too!

Thai shrimp cakes

For our entrées, we had Pla Lad Prik Sam Ros (deep-fried fillets of fish with tamarind chili sauce), Kaeng Khiaw Waan (green curry chicken), Deep-Fried Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab, Phad Thai (stir-fried flat rice noodles), Pineapple Fried Rice, and steamed fragrant Jasmine Rice.  All of these, save for one revelation, were excellent as always.  I’ve never been the one to ask for soft shell crab.  The reason why it found its way to our selection was the enthusiastic recommendation of our server.

Lad Prik Sam Ros (deep-fried fillets of fish with tamarind chili sauce)

 

Deep-Fried Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab

 

Pineapple fried rice

 

Phad Thai

 

Iced lemongrass tea

Thai at Silk’s Deep-Fried Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab is one huge blue crab cut up into pieces, breaded and deep-fried, before being tossed up in their special black pepper seafood sauce.  It was surprisingly quite tender!  I didn’t have to fight with the “soft shell” with chewing that would be a lot of jaw work.  Before the evening ended, I realized I made a new favorite that would be worth coming back for.

Granted that we feasted on a meal that balanced the sweet and sour with the salty and spicy, you would expect us not to crave for any desserts.  But Cupcakes by Sonja being a few doors down the Piazza, it was inevitable to have desserts.  And this time, on me.

The Flash, Mike, Thea, and Iron Man at Cupcakes by Sonja

 

eNTeNG with the gang!

 

 

Copyright © 2011 by eNTeNG  c”,)™©’s  MunchTime™©.  All rights reserved.

Peanut Butter Nutella. Eat Pay Love.

CUPCAKES BY Sonja keeps giving back.  And I keep coming back!  It’s like having your very own Eat Pay Love moment.  Have your cupcake and eat it too.  Pay for it.  And, send ripples of your love to as far as they could go.  I’m sure that’s what happens when part of the proceeds go to a good cause.

Peanut Butter Nutella cupcake by Cupcakes by Sonja

 

A box of four. Actually, one of boxes of four.

That exactly is the case with every purchase of the Peanut Butter Nutella cupcake by Cupcakes by Sonja.  Reminiscent of her “Red Velvet Vixen for Red Cross” campaign in 2009, this new socially responsible drive benefits the Virlanie Foundation – “Giving back the smile to street children”.

And sinking your teeth into one of these peanut butter-nutella confections likewise couldn’t help but put a smile on your face!  I love peanut butter, reason enough for me to explore turning it into a sauce for egg noodles long before I got formally exposed to the wonders of Indonesian satay.  But over the years, I’ve come across peanut butter cookies and cakes that had proven to be wanting.  Even Otis Spunkmeyer’s version of the classic peanut butter chocolate chip cookie wasn’t able to impress me.

I just love the height and the look of that Nutella buttercream frosting.

Cupcakes by Sonja’s Peanut Butter Nutella cupcake puts an end to the dry spell that’s my search for a really satiating peanut butter confection.  It has got to be one of the most visually compelling in Sonja’s wide array of offerings – an imposing tower of swirls of nutella-spiked buttercream frosting sits prettily on top of the peanut butter cake, in which is ensconced a dollop of Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread.  It’s an “architecturally sound” work of edible art as handling and traveling didn’t compromise the integrity of the frosting’s design and structure.

I freed one from the hold of the box-of-four liner and soon the feast for the eyes became a feast for the palate.  The cake is crumbly and moist, my Oneida Silversmiths dessert fork being chased by just enough eager and yummy crumbs as it pierced its way through to the bottom.  The flavor is undeniably peanut buttery – unapologetic in its goodness but at the same time, not cloyingly sweet.  And when savored in the mouth, it is amazing how a small piece of cake – kissed by Nutella, and slathered with buttercream – becomes something big.

And when you get reminded where part of what you paid for for the cupcake goes, you do realize just how big.  Now, doesn’t that bring enjoying dessert to a totally new level of guilt-free?

A pile of treats from Cupcakes by Sonja! My all-time favorite is somewhere in there.

 

Four red velvet vixens in a box!

 

Once bitten...

 

I just had to get these too – Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies!

 

The very scrumptious Peanut Butter Whoopie Pie in a solo box. The "doily" that lined the pie against the box was a nice, elegant touch.

 

Sharing the love – a Peanut Butter Nutella and a Red Velvet Vixen shared with our company's very efficient and outstanding Executive Admin Assistant, Ms. Deng.

 

Cupcakes by Sonja menu

 

My excitement over the Peanut Butter Nutella cupcake makes it to a card.

 

Every purchase of the Peanut Butter Nutella cupcakes benefits a good cause.

 

Copyright © 2011 by eNTeNG  c”,)™©’s  MunchTime™©.  All rights reserved.

The Cupcake Queen in print

Ready for her (almost) close-up – Sonja L. Ocampo, chef / owner of Cupcakes by Sonja.

SHE WILL always be, to me, the pioneer and foremost purveyor of the edible art of cupcakes in this country.  I first came to know of her and her efforts – not the least of which has been to elevate the public’s taste, and make it more discerning – through Friendship.

In part, this blog was born out of my fascination of Cupcakes by Sonja.  First, the cupcakes.  Then, the chef/owner who is the store’s namesake – Sonja L. Ocampo.

She is featured on the Style page of the September 2010 issue of the Philippine Tatler.  It’s quite refreshing to see her all dolled up.  I’ve always been used to seeing her hard at work at her store.  She will always be in a neat and uncluttered ensemble, accented at most by South Sea pearl studs or some other pair.  But she doesn’t mind partaking in the heavy load with her staff.  Elbow grease is the least of her concerns.  If it is at all.

Copyright © 2010 by eNTeNG  c”,)™©’s  MunchTime™©.  All rights reserved.

eNTeNG’s 25

Totally unrelated to this post. Haha! Just dug this up during the week-long break. Taken on a dinner-out with Friendship and Mother.

 

UPON MY friends’ prodding, I signed up for a Facebook account.  But it didn’t take a long while for me to figure out one thing – I couldn’t keep up with Facebook!  To my friends, I’m almost always the one they will name when asked as to who among they know is the most relentless – nagging even!  But when I got on Facebook, I realized I couldn’t really stand being on the receiving end of a “poke” or a “tag.”  Talk about getting a dose of my own medicine!

 

But if there’s one thing I think I could succumb to, it’s making this random list of 25.  (I’ve been told that being “tagged” to do this on Facebook has spread like forest fire in the dry Outback.)  Things “random” appeal to me.  I even made a category here just for my own “random musings.”  Hahaha!

 

So here it is, my list of 25 random things – yes, 25 things I love! – mostly about food.  They are in no particular order (again, “random”!).  I just have to sort of count them down from 25.

 

25.    I have a very weird snacking habit.  I can devour a whole pound of cooked ziti pasta.  Yes, you read it right – just cooked pasta WITHOUT any sauce.  On other days, I would munch on bunches of fresh coriander.  Clearly, popcorn is not my idea of snacking while watching my favorite TV shows.

 

24.    Unlike, most people, I adore in-flight cuisine!  I particularly love Singapore Airlines’, especially whenever they have their chef specials right around the holidays.  Air India still makes the best curry for me (I had second helpings!).  And Philippine Airlines will always be memorable to me.  I gained appreciation of – and long-standing romance with – enoki (winter) mushrooms on board one of their flights.

Some of the in-flight menus I have saved through the years.

 

23.    I collect in-flight menus.  But I politely ask the attendants first if I could keep a copy before I stash it away.  Another would be room service menus.  Again, I’d ask first before I keep anything!  And oh, I keep all my restaurant receipts too!

Yet another shot of the in-flight menus.

 

22.    My favorite salad green is arugula.  I like its slightly bitter, peppery taste and its succulent, slightly thick fleshy leaves.  So I always get SaladTime’s “Arugula & Mixed Greens.”  For some reason, I couldn’t find what is commonly known in the U.S. as “garden rocket” or even what Chef Jessie Sinsioco refers to as “micro-arugula.”

 

21.     When I read somewhere that Aga Muhlach’s personal chef would make him an all-eggwhite omelet as part of his diet, I started to make the same – my own version, my own recipe! – for one of my best friends who happens to be a health buff.  Mine would call for provolone cheese and fresh white button mushrooms.  Unfortunately, I still couldn’t find provolone locally!  So I’d settle for the next best thing – the Australian COON Light & Tasty 25% Less Fat Shredded Natural Cheddar Cheese!

For my all-eggwhite omelet, I first saute the sliced Tuscan Fields fresh white (or Swiss Brown) button mushrooms in 100% pure canola oil (or light extra virgin olive oil).

 

I couldn't find provolone. But this does just fine!

 

20.    My dream all-eggwhite omelet recipe would be made out of, of course, eggwhites, fontina cheese, chives, and shaved fresh truffles (from Italy)!  Yummy!

 

19.     Growing up, my favorite local chocolates were Serg’s “Mocca” bars, Goya’s block chocolate, and Ricoa Flat Tops!  Too bad, I don’t think they make Serg’s anymore.

 

18.     Among imported chocolates, I intensely love Godiva (their boxed sets are really pretty); Leonidas for their pralines and truffles; and, ROYCE’ …  for so many things!  Among their variants – that I have tried and shared with Superman – I particularly love the NAMA CHOCOLATE CHAMPANGE PIERRE MIGNON, NAMA CHOCOLATE AU LAIT, NAMA CHOCOLATE MILD COCOA, NAMA CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY, Pure Chocolate (Venezuela Bitter & Ghana Sweet), Coffee Chocolate, Prafeuille Chocolat Coffee Chocolate, and PotatoChip Chocolate.

All the way from the Greenbelt 5 store...

 

...to a superhero's desk!

 

For sentimental reasons, I've kept the wrapper of my very first Royce' chocolates, handcarried from Singapore!

 

17.      I’m particularly proud of my chicken tinola.  I make my chicken broth the same way chefs Jessie Sinsioco, Gordon Ramsay, and Tyler Florence would make theirs.  Friendship calls me the “sabaw” king!  If I don’t have the time or the ingredients to make my chicken broth fresh, there’s always Swanson.

My chicken tinola up close. Postscript: I just had to cook this right after I made this post! Haha!

 

16.     Like Superman, I love macarons de Paris from BIZU PATISSERIE, in pistachio, coffee and caramel flavors!

 

15.     Of all media personalities, Daphne Osena Paez is the best food “critic.”  I mean, I trust her.  For me, nobody has come close to how she would account, describe, or share her gastronomical experiences on the now-defunct show “F.”  I guess it’s in the combination of her (palpable) sincerity, facial expressions and enunciation.  Oh, and the fact that she has got to be one of the smartest personalities to grace the boob tube ever.

 

14.     The best “spice” I’ve ever put on a bowl of Chinese noodles is ground green tea leaves.  I forgot the name of the dimsun place.  It’s a kiosk inside the Hong Kong International Airport, near a big book store.  From where I would sit, I’d see Starbucks directly below.

 

13.     I love New York Cheesecake from KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUTS®.  It’s their doughnut shell loaded with cheesecake filling and topped off with cream cheese icing and a very generous “dusting” of graham cracker crunch.  Spider-man loves it too, as well as the blueberry cheesecake.

A box of six Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The one on the bottom left is the New York Cheesecake I love so much!

 

12.     The Good Earth Tea Room makes the best chicken chow mein and black mushrooms with beancurd casserole.  Their duckquitos (roast peking duck with onion leeks and hoisin sauce in taco shells) are so worth coming back for!

 

11.      I get my tom yum goong (hot and sour shrimp soup) fix at tHAI AT SILK at the Serendra Piazza.

The elegant place setting at Thai At Silk.

 

10.     I’m not a huge sandwich fan.  But whenever I would decide to have one, it would only be one of three.  The roast beef sandwich at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (first had at the Alabang Town Center branch).  The crabstick sandwich at The Soup Kitchen (first at Glorietta 5).  And, the farmer’s ham ciabatta at Delifrance (first at the NAIA Terminal 2).  Superman finds the last one particularly fancy when I described it to him.  It’s actually slices of ham and brie cheese with an iceberg lettuce leaf in ciabatta bread spread with a raspberry dressing!

One of my (so far) three favorite sandwiches – the crabstick sandwich at The Soup Kitchen.

 

9.       The Danish butter cookies that I’ve never forgotten were of a brand called “Oxford.”  It was a gift.  I wasn’t able to find it anywhere.

 

8.       Brother and I would often pretend that we had officical business at our apartment’s admin office in the U.S. just so we could get our hands on the free Otis Spunkmeyer oatmeal cookies.  We’d shamelessly swipe off everything in sight (Haha!).  They later caught on.  Talk about being caught with our hands in the cookie jar.  Haha!

 

7.        Other people’s signature dishes that I love to bits are Mother’s adobo, Sister’s tortang talong, Therese’s barbecued baby back ribs, and (again) Therese’s pot roast.

 

6.       The one recipe I’ve been  meaning to try – for the longest time – is Rachael Ray’s Boeuf Bourguignon (“Beef Burgundy” or simply, beef in red wine).

 

5.        My most memorable past-midnight cravings were for Hainanese chicken rice.  I’ve had it twice at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel, and once at the Diamond Hotel Manila.  Makati Shangri-La’s was way better.  And more special too as they didn’t really have it on their coffee shop menu.  I wrote the chef a thank you note.

One of the Makati Shangri-La receipts. Hainanese Chicken Rice at 11:39PM! They punched it in as "open food" because the lobby lounge / coffee shop menu didn't really carry it! I wrote the chef a thank you note! To date, it has got to be the best I've ever had!

 

Room service for Hainanese Chicken Rice at 11:51PM at the Diamond Hotel in Manila.

 

4.       I get my cupcake fix only at – wherelse?! – Cupcakes BY SONJA.  Here in the Philippines, Sonja L. Ocampo is still the one and only cupcake rockstar!  Of her creations, my favorites are Bunny Huggers Carrot Cake, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Valrhona Flourless Chocolate Cake, Red Velvet Vixen, Choco Cream Cheese Swirl, and Pumpkin Sweet Spice (seasonal).  Spider-man adores the Bunny Huggers.  Superman likes them a lot too!

A stack of Sonja's pretty cupcake boxes. When Sonja learned I was blogging, she had her staff put this out, and even told me it was okay to style the cupcakes for my pictures. Such a nice lady!

 

This box of four went to Superman. A serious chocolate lover like this superhero likes the melt-in-your-mouth flourless Valrhona chocolate cake cupcake a lot!

 

3.       I still mourn the demise of the cookie dough flavor of HÄAGEN-DAZS®.  I love BEN&JERRY’S cookie dough too.  I’m just not sure if it is available locally.

I've kept these through the years – the boxes of the first (ice cream) snacks I've ever had in a moviehouse abroad! See – Ben&Jerry's!

 

Cookie dough is really my favorite. But on that first night, this had to do. Not bad at all really!

 

2.       I make the time to cook for someone.

 

1.        I still eat Cerelac!

 

 

 

Red Velvet Vixen for RED CROSS

CUPCAKES BY Sonja is giving back!

 

Have your cupcake.  Eat it.  And help too!

 

For a limited period, CUPCAKES BY SONJA, through their customers, is donating Php 5.00 to the Philippine National Red Cross (Rizal Chapter) for every purchase of their signature Red Velvet Vixen cupcake.  Now, doesn’t that sound like the perfect deal?!  On my visit to their store last night, this was the first thing that captured my attention.  Strategically positioned on top of the display counter and right on the dividing glass to the kitchen are the posters that announce this worthy cause.  I was told it just started this week.

 

 

So apart from this cupcake being one of my all-time favorites (already), this signage made my choice for last night’s cupcake all the easier!  Make that choice for last night’s cupcakes.  I don’t know what it was, but I managed to down a couple of these moist, flavorful, cream cheese-frosted confections!  And for the first time, I tried their brewed coffee (extra cream and sugar, please!).  Funny that it has been a couple of years already since I first started frequenting this store and it was only last night that I finally noticed they have their own coffee machine!  See, even with those you’ve been so used to, there’s always something new to discover or learn in an otherwise usual day.

The first Red Velvet Vixen Cupcake I devoured in the store premises. And that's the brewed coffee you see.

That's the second red velvet I devoured!... Just couldn't get enough!

Loved their brewed coffee!

Yes, I again had that comforted and satisfied feeling in my tummy.  But knowing I somehow helped out a worthy cause (no matter how little), makes the feeling more profound.

As it turns out, this tie-up between Ms. Ocampo’s signature Red Velvet Vixen cupcake and the RED CROSS has been in the works for a while.  It is just so nice to see it into fruition.  And as I have said in my “recessionista” post a short while back, if there is anything that these trying times have room for – it is generosity.

 

Next on my must-try list - the NUTTER BUTTER COOKIE!

 

 

**  And of course, I got a few boxes for special people.  I had a box of four Choco Cream Cheese Swirl cupcakes put together for four new friends.  Another two boxes of four Red Velvet Vixen cupcakes (I finished a couple more at home!).  And I had two sets of boxes of four – two Bunny Huggers Carrot Cake cupcakes and two Red Velvet Vixen cupcakes – one each for Spider-man and Superman.  Ms. Ocampo graciously threw in for free an “Elvis,” though I would insist on paying (I never mind paying for good food or service).  The Reese’s peanut butter chocolate pieces on top of the whipped cream were portents of the yummy-ness underneath – cookie crust, peanut butter mousse… caramelized bananas!  Now that’s a specialty cupcake!…  The “Nutter Butter Cookie” sandwich is next on my list of must-try goodies!