Dinner from Cooking for Mr. Latte

A few weeks ago, I finished reading Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser, a gem of a book that my sister and i found browsing through a bookstore in Eastwood City one lazy Sunday afternoon. The author is a food writer for the New York Times, and the book is a memoir about her love story with Mr. Latte, which is inextricably intertwined with her love story with food. Each chapter of her story was tied to a memorable meal, with the recipes given at the end of the chapter.

I really enjoyed the author’s witty, honest, down-to-earth storytelling. I loved how she showed how much food plays a part in everyday life, whether it be at a gathering of friends at the table, or a romantic dinner with that special someone, or a solo meal enjoyed just for the sheer pleasure of the food itself. Food brings people together; it nourishes and comforts; it can make you smile or laugh or cry.

I made this rule a few months back, that whenever i bought a cookbook or a cooking magazine, i would have to make at least one dish from that book/magazine. So for dinner tonight, i decided to make lamb chops from chapter 14 of Hesser’s book, Dinner When No One Wanted to be Alone.

I chose the recipe not because i particularly craved for company tonight, but because i wanted to make something a bit more special than our usual dinners but at the same time was really easy to prepare. I coated the chops in a mixture of rosemary, garlic, and olive oil and left them in the fridge for about a day. I added salt and pepper before broiling them in the oven for about 3 minutes each side.

The chops came out nearly perfect, brown on the outside and pinkish on the inside, and really flavorful. The olive oil and the fat from the chops gave the dish a creamy texture. Both my sister and i thought that the chops needed more salt, but that was probably my fault, as i’ve never been good at estimating how much salt or pepper to sprinkle over anything. In the end, it was still a really good, satisfying meal that my sister and i thoroughly enjoyed chomping down

Amici @ Don Bosco, Makati

Food trip at Amici, Don Bosco with people from work finally pushed through, after two months of trying to work out a common schedule! Amici is famous for their gelato, which comes in a spectacular array of flavors and colors, so i was raring to try that. But we did things the traditional way, dinner first and then dessert:

Tutta carne pizza

i know meat’s supposed to be the star of this pizza, but one of the things i loved most about it was the soft, creamy, melted mozzarella cheese–not at all gummy like what you’ll see in other, more commercialized pizza joints. Fresh herbs sprinkled generously all over the pizza also gave the dish a lot of great flavor.

Risotto di mare

Soft, fluffy saffron risotto with seafood with clams, mussels, and prawns–this dish was light and clean on the palate.

Roast chicken

Moist, tender chicken infused with rosemary.

Spinach fusili montanara

Spinach corkscrew pasta with a creamy tomato sauce with Italian sausage and mushrooms. Am such a fan of mushrooms.

Here comes the dessert!

As you may surmise from the photos below, i had trouble choosing a flavor. i ended up with mango jubilee, a dreamy creation mango creation topped with a tempting combination of strawberries and blueberries. The gelato was delightfully dense and creamy. i thought it could’ve used a bit more tang, to highlight the mango flavor, but it was still good, nonetheless.

i also got to taste the sans rival and mint flavors. i liked mint the best, but then again, it always has been my favorite flavor.

With pizzas going for around Php300 and meals at around Php200, Amici is good Italian food on a budget. Sure, it’s not something you’d have for lunch everyday, but if you’re looking for a food trip that won’t break your wallet too much, this is it. And with the gelato going for Php50/scoop, i’ll definitely be back for more of that.

Kitchen sessions

Sunday, October 26, was my only free afternoon of the entire month. i got home at 1pm and spent the first part of the afternoon lazing around and watching Wanted on DVD. By 5pm, i told my sister Genine that we had to do something fun that afternoon. She originally wanted to see a movie, but since there wasn’t anything good showing, we decided to cook up an extra yummy dinner instead.

The menu

French onion soup

Roasted Portobello mushrooms topped with mozzarella cheese

One roasted bell pepper sandwich

Mojitos

I made French onion soup as a starter. French onion soup has a classy ring to it, but it turns out it’s not so classy when you’re slicing the onions, your eyes all stinging and tearing up (from the volatile acids released by slicing the onion, which cause eye irritation). i resisted the temptation of asking the maid to slice them for me, just so that i could say that I cooked something by myself for maybe the 5^th time in my whole life.

Preparing the dish was an experience not only of taste, but of sight, sound, smell. The hiss of sliced onions hitting a hot saucepan, the rich heady smell of them sautéing in butter, the slow transformation of color from a raw white to translucent to a light caramel made for a true feast for the senses.

The caramelized onions went into a pot of beef stock. the soup was ladled into individual bowls, topped with a generous helping of velvety Colby cheese, and served with toasted French bread on the side.

Genine and i thought cocktails would be fun. We started making the Mojitos while we waited for the peppers to roast, so we could have a little drink before dinner. The Mojitos in the recipe called for white rum, brown sugar, crushed mint, and lemon juice. It tasted great, sweet and citrusy with a kick, although it looked nothing like the photo in the recipe. (I don’t see how mixing brown sugar with white rum can still produce a crystal clear drink; ours turned out sort of mud-colored.) It was so good that i ended up guzzling half my drink. By the time dinner was ready five minutes later, i had developed the worst case of lightheadedness in my life. It was so bad that i may never mix a cocktail again.

Anyhoo, we started dinner off with the French onion soup and the Portobello mushrooms. Both dishes turned out great. The soup was rich and creamy, topped with a generous helping of Colby cheese that melted into the steaming hot broth, and served with French bread on the side. Roasting the mushrooms gave them a great, meaty flavor, and mozzarella cheese has got to be one of my favorite things in the world.

Genine made a roasted bell pepper sandwich from different varieties of bell peppers she bought on a recent trip to Indonesia. The peppers were roasted at a scorching 500oF, cooled, then marinated in balsamic vinaigrette. The filling was scooped on top of a slice of French bread and topped with Colby cheese. They sandwiches were supposed to be our main dish, but we were so full after the starters that we ended up sharing one tiny sandwich. Anyhoo, Genine explained that it was one of those dishes that would taste better the next day, when the peppers had overnight to soak into the vinaigrette.

And so my most recent attempt at cooking met its happy ending in one satisifying dinner. I’ll probably be doing this again sometime

My favorite frozen yogurt place

In my book, hectic days at work deserve sweet rewards. That’s why i’m in love with Yohgürt-Froz, this little frozen yogurt store along Tomas Morato, Quezon City.

Yoh-gurt Froz logo

Yohgürt-Froz started by selling soft-serve frozen yogurt without the tang, which you could flavor with different fresh fruits or sweet choices like cookie bits or Oishi Pillows. Fruit (snack bits) and yogurt then go into this machine that blends them together, and what comes out is flavored frozen yogurt that’s like ice cream, except that it has a more natural, fresh taste. Plus, it’s healthy.

Recently, Yohgürt-Froz came up with Fro-Yo, which is tangy frozen yogurt which you can top with fruits, nuts, chocolate, or whatever they have on the toppings bar. I was reluctant to try their new product at first. Shops selling this kind of frozen yogurt have been sprouting up all over the city, and I hadn’t been impressed with any of them so far. My previous experience with tangy frozen yogurt was tangy = sour = icky.

Yesterday after work, i invited my sister to Yohgürt-Froz. She’s a huge fan of tangy frozen yogurt, so she ordered Fro-Yo topped with strawberries and blueberries, while i had non-tangy mango frozen yogurt, which is one of my favorites on the menu. Whenever we go out, my sister and i make sure to try each other’s food, so i had a spoonful of her Fro-Yo. Right then, my skepticism flew out the door, because Yohgürt-Froz’s Fro-Yo was del-i-cious. It was creamy, with just the right amount of tang to balance out the creaminess, but not so much that you could call it sour. So then i had several spoofuls of Fro-Yo, until my sister got mad because i was finishing her dessert. So i had to stop and concentrate on my own frozen yogurt.

The fruit toppings were okay, although not great. The strawberries were succulent and mildly sweet, pairing well with the creamy-tangy frozen yogurt. The blueberries were served frozen and turned out to be really watery when you bit into them, so i wouldn’t order those again. But for me, the real star of the show was the frozen yogurt itself, which totally made me look at tangy frozen yogurt in a new, positive light.

Fro-Yo tangy frozen yogurt topped with strawberries and blueberries

mango frozen yogurt

So it seems i may have a new favorite frozen yogurt at my favorite frozen yogurt store. I still love my old favorites, non-tangy yogurt blended with cheese and mango. But Yohgürt-Froz’s version of tangy frozen yogurt is definitely worth trying a second time.

lovely girls enjoying lovely desserts

Jumpstart

I didn’t go to work today, something which i haven’t done in like, forever. Being an intern at the hospital means you’re there 7 days a week, except for the occasional holiday when you’re pre-duty. Like now, Quezon City day, for me.

To celebrate the gift of free time, i’m reopening my blog. I wrote my last entry three years ago, on another webhost, which i got tired of. I hope i’ll have something substantial, or at least fun and quirky, to say here.

Yesterday was a holiday, too, Ninoy Aquino Day. I was from duty, which means that i stayed at work from Sunday morning to Monday morning, aka 24 hours. When we’re from duty, we usually get dismissed at 5pm, but holidays mean we get dismissed at 8am, once the next batch of interns on duty arrive. So woohoo for me. My dad picked me up from the hospital, and then i took a shower at home, and then we had lunch at Italianni’s Trinoma. Then i treated my dad to coldstone ice cream at Cold Rock. Mint chocolate chip’s the best ice cream flavor ever. Yum yum. I must’ve gained five pounds, but my excuse is that i’ll probably burn it all off at work. That happens when you have to climb four flights of stairs everyday. Besides, it’s not everyday that i get to spend time with my dad, who lives in La Union, which is 6 hours away from Quezon City.

Today, once i decide to get up from bed, i’m going to the mall. Again. I’ll probably get something from Fully Booked. Or i could get a shirtdress, if there’s one that i fall totally in love with.

Today i am relaxed and stress-free. It’s been a while