Entries Tagged 'Ortigas' ↓

Balut is a Philippine street fare which is rarely welcomed by foreign tastebuds, especially when they are oriented on what it is.

Philipine Balut

Balut is fertilized duck embryo, cooked, kept warm, and usually sold as street food.

The concept is generally a taboo in western countries but also available in other south east asian neighbors like Vietnam and Laos. A famous source of balut in the Philipines is Pateros where incubation and selection of the eggs are carefully done.

NomnomClub.com @ WordCamp Philippines 2009

Eating balut has also been featured in a number reality-TV series as part of daredevil tasks like Survivor, Amazing Race and Fear Factor. It is also considered an aphrodesiac.

In a WordCamp Philippines 2009 conference held last Saturday, we had Beau Lebens and Seth Bindernagel as guests speakers from WordPress and Mozilla, respectively.

WordCamp Philippines 2009

On a gathering at the night after the wordcamp conference, a balut vendor passed by Whistlestop where we were having our dinner. And being foreigner and guests, we dared them to take on a balut-eating challenge. Seth was game and ready, although Beau needed a little more convincing.

The Japanese guy, also from Mozilla, was tough. He compared the probable experience to Japan’s serving of fish sperm. This totally deserves a completely separate blog (perhaps next time). 🙂

Seth Bindernagel

Anyhow, it was Autralia versus the USA with Seth on the right corner and Beau on the left. The Wordcamp organizers, volunteers, and friends taught them the step by step procedures as to how to eat a balut and proded them on in the process mentioning “don’t look” (at the embryo) so as not to visually discouraged them. LOL.

How To Eat A Balut

1. Lightly tap the tip of the egg shell on any hard surface just like a hard boiled egg. This is done with caution so as not to spill the young duck’s juice.
2. After a hole has been punctured, one could immediately sip the warm juice. The broth essence is full of protein.
3. Peel off the rest of the eggshells to reveal most parts of the yolk and the young chick.
4. Give it a dash of salt to enhance the flavor. The embryo is slightly moist as some of the juice still remains. This is perfect for the pinch of salt to mix with.
5. Eat while still warm. Swallowing it whole is possible but bite-after-bite is recommended. (do not forget to remove the “white part” which is hard and rubbery – this part is not eaten as it is hard to digest).
6. Congratulations! You have just proven that you are as tough as the Survivor, Amazing Race and Fear Factor contestants! 🙂

Peel off the Balut Shells

Add a Pinch of Salt

Chew Away 🙂

With the recent interest in balut, the delicacy has found itself  served in different ways including as appetizers in restaurants, preserved in bottles, or cooked as adobo. Unsold balut in the streets are eventually fried and sold as a different delicacy alltogether.

Here’s a video of the “How To Eat Balut” incident.:

A good tip is to choose your balut young, with the embryo as undeveloped yet as possible. This means that the young chick is “not yet” a chick. Otherwise, you’ll feel some feathers/hair in your tongue or end up chewing out the balut‘s “beak“. Eeewww. LOL. 🙂 Nomnomnom.

Light finally shed on the drumbeat on the recent “Let There Be White,” today. It was Red Ribbon‘s newest cake – the White Forest.

Inspired from Black Forest

It was named so as it was inspired from the Black Forest Chocolate Cake of which Red Ribbon has been greatly known for and has become a classic cake through the years. With the release of the White Forest, it aims to tap the white chocolate lovers out there in a similar way.

The White Forest is a light combination of white chiffon layers and cherry bits filling. Covered with light cream all-over and held by sweet wedges of premium white chocolate, the White Forest is also adorned by whole red cherries on top.

It is one of the softest and lightest cake I have ever tasted. In Filipino, “Hindi siya mabigat.” (It is not heavy)

Unlike other cakes, the White Forest is both light and soft which does not overpower the meal you just had. A friend remarked that it does not have the “liquor after-taste” apparent in the Black Forest; which she liked.

White Forest - Red Ribbon

Price

A junior sized cake is priced at P335 while the regular one is at P560.

In summary, I think the White Forest is perfect for the white chocolate lovers out there; or simply those looking for a soft and light cake that would deliciously cater to their sweet desires. Nomnomnom. 🙂

When I discovered Ravioli early last week, I knew I found my first feature-to-be for my new and yet to be created food blog – Nomnom Club. Similarly, Ravioli is new having just started mid of this year.

Ravioli

It prides itself in serving fresh pasta even with the fast-food serve set-up amidst Robinson’s Galleria foodcourt. And indeed, serving freshly made pasta matters in the taste and the resulting firmer texture (al dente).

This was particularly true for the Chorizo and Tomato Ravioli that I had. It was a chorizo-stuffed square-shaped ravioli in tomato sauce. It’s their best-seller and I knew why. 🙂

A bite on the first piece of ravioli reveals the juicy spanish chorizo and the subtly soft pasta. The tomato sauce was good as well.

At P130, it certainly was worth it.

Chorizo and Tomato Ravioli

A trivia about the Chorizo and Tomato Ravioli– the number of pieces is counted as standard for consistency in serving. 🙂 The non-ravioli  pasta are weighed. This includes the spicy Shrimp Diablo (P95) and Bacon Carbonara (78) which I also was able to try.

Ravioli's Shrimp Diablo

Ravioli in the Making

One would also notice  top of the line cooking equipments in their open kitchen. My friend said that this is so because one of the owners is actually a chef who would settle for no less than quality equipments.

Bacon Carbonara

With the minimal and humble space, they churn up the freshest of pastas around.

The order is served fast but their food is prepared fresh and only cooked as ordered.

The tasteful experience was just far from foodcourt standards.Surely, I’ll be back to try the other interesting menu items.

The Mushroom & Mozzarella Ravioli on the menu board looks good. 🙂

Mushroom and Mozzarella Ravioli

Lastly, good news for people from the south where Robinson’s Galleria is just too far, Ravioli is opening a bistro in SM Mall of Asia come December 2009!

They’re even expanding their menu to include Pizza de Pugon. Nomnomnom! 🙂

Goodness of Fresh Pasta

Jeff, Ravioli's Pasta Maker

Business looks good and growing for Ravioli. Hopefully, same bids for Nomnom Club. 🙂 Woot! for my first feature post! 🙂