The Pilgrim’s Pots and Pans

One of the recipes that I have long wanted to try out was that of dulce de leche, but from scratch – not the one made by boiling a tin of unopened condensed milk. Rather, I thought I’d make use of a bottle of fresh carabao (buffalo) milk. Of course, I haven’t gotten to that yet, amongst other things on my ever-growing wish list.

Earlier this evening, I found a recipe on the Globe and Mail for alfajores de dulce de leche, a South American delicacy. I thought it simple enough do undertake one lazy evening. It may even merit some granules of my precious fleur de sel.

Again, I’m putting this on my blog as a reminder for me to go get the baking pans!

e-mail aila@yonzon.com for inquiries

Every once in a while, something catches our fancy and the fascination does not usually last. But now and then, very, very seldom, what captures our imagination keeps on getting better and never fails to surprise us with something fantastic each time it crosses our paths.

In the case of fancy or art cakes, I was never much of a fan. However, when Kensei Yonzon started posting pictures of The Bunny Baker‘s creations on Facebook, I couldn’t help but be in awe. Kensei’s wife Aila, is the main cake artist – he helps her run The Bunny Baker and they’re Quezon City-based (bordering San Juan). Their cakes are so cute because of the attention they put into the details. You should see the cartoon character cake toppers. You’d think they jumped out of the TV. But their cakes are not just cute! They can also produce realistic-looking toppers such as wine bottles, cheese, olives and of course, my most beloved comic characters, Asterix & Obelix! Seems like art for art’s sake and it happens to be edible.

Full disclosure (in the light of the current food blog controversy): no payment in any form was received to write this post. Though I went to school with Kensei (we were sometime blockmates in college), that has no bearing on my writing this blog entry.

Photo from www.mediterraneanmarkets.com

No New Year’s resolution from me. If I want to change or do something, I don’t wait for a year to start to do it. But I have a list of things I want to do and thought I’d write down the details for item #2 here, since that and item #1 are food-related.

At first glance, one would think it must be from all the holiday eating or a whim that I am planning this. It is not though. For a few years now, I’ve been involved in cooking and feeding a crowd. Well, that is aside from the clan, which makes up a crowd when we decide to be in one place. No, this is for feeding a multitude other than the clan, such as friends and other members of the community.

And so, I am wishing for sturdy tableware, simple yet elegant. I do not have the money to buy it right now but I will try to enumerate the most basic necessities. I want my service to be graceful and appropriate, yet not intimidating to those who are not used to elaborate settings. The gentle reader may wish to give a few more suggestions, upon reading my list.
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Does it seem obvious that I didn’t take the photo above? It was by a professional, my director for the TV programme ‘Pupul’, which is Capampangan for ‘harvest’. Indeed, I’ve been on TV for a season and what a whirlwind it was! I’ll write about how I got into local TV (indeed, Karen on TV, for goodness’ sake!) later. It will probably be worth two posts, hehehe!

The episode on goat-raising featured one recipe, which is actually inspired by Elise’s (Simply Recipes) Stir Fry Ginger Beef since goat goes very well with ginger.

Below is the recipe:
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The other night, my Mom and I were in San Fernando and had a buffet dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Balé Capampangan. As always, their spread was something not for the faint-hearted but since we are regulars, I searched for those that I seldom saw and found a few that I liked (more about them in the coming posts).

This morning, my Mom was back at the restaurant for a meeting and before she left the place, she SMS’d if I wanted her to bring home a dish or two to take pictures of (yes, she knows I blog about food). I told her nothing of the usual and she did not disappoint. One of the dishes she came home with was bistig damulag. I seldom have this since the meat isn’t sold in marketplaces everyday.

What then is this bistig damulag? Like many of our Filipino dishes, this is another example of the inherent fusion that results when an archipelago such as ours is situated in a very strategic place, the islands having seen many waves of migration both from indigenous cultures and from more alien adventurers, both from the East and the West.

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