Happy holidays!!!!

Sorry guys....been busy spinning fire..and juggling work and a million other things....but....in two weeks...yours truly and my partner in crime and pleasure and gastronomical adventure would be reunited for the holidays, Filipino style.... so stay tuned as we feast during christmas and share you where our hungry mouths would lead us...

-live well, eat well and be merry!!!!cheers!!!!

More rain in Phuket

One thing that I can say honestly without being cheesy, is that my dear friend can cook a kings meal with a near empty fridge and virtually no exciting ingredients around. This time we were better off, the hotel reception mentioned that a fresh market was not far away, a bit further down the road. So we followed their instructions and found quite a big supermarket where we ended up with too many bags of food and drinks. But where you trip over taxis in Bangkok, in Phuket they are rare, if not existing at all..

With help of a parking guard we could jump on the back of two scooters and with full speed we were in 5 minutes back at our hotel. Before putting his sleeves up, my partner got rid of his holiday attributes and took position in the kitchen.

While I was watching Centurion, a hack and slash movie without a deep storyline, but not bad at all since I love Roman Empire movies, my private cook for the day created some magic on just two hot plates at the other corner of the living room.

Once ready, the result was awesome and old times were relived. I could have shared these pictures as from a classy restaurant and you would probably not notice it was home made. Lucky me ;-)

Cream soup d'execellent with shredded carrots

French fries with egg slad

beef glazed with onion and veggies

and wine...

And so it was worthwhile staying inside this day. The early dinner for me was one of the highlights of the holiday, with great wine on a lazy rainy day in Phuket. You don't have to travel far to have a 5-star meal...

Rainy day in PHUKET

The day before, we were actually planning to take an island hopping tour to Kho Phi-phi for the following day, but since our lazy asses were to exhausted from..ahmmm...lazing around....we just decided to cancel our trip and decided to stay in Phuket...

The next morning, a misty, rainy morning greeted us from our huge hotel windows....such a romantic weather!!...(and yeah, great thing we cancelled our island hopping trip, i couldn't imagine myself being stranded in an exotic island where god-knows-what-will-happen-next)...

The weather left us with no choice but to stay in our hotel, so we just decided to hit the hotel's restaurant- East 88 Beach Lounge....which was a delightful surprise....

rainy day in PHUKET

As for starters I ordered beef carpaccio, the meat is so tender,the saying "melts in your mouth" would be such an understatement... it was mildly flavored with choiced herbs and spices which perfectly complemented the raw flavor of the meat...

beef carpaccio

..and as for Tet, lo-and-behold, such daring taste buds, he ordered caesar salad.....

caesar salad

We were seated at the edge of the restaurant over-looking Krabi island which was fully covered with mist and fog...it's a very surreal yet romantic splendor....and surprisingly,though it was raining, it was also low-tide; the shores were wide and inviting for a run...

Our main dishes were sublime.....I ordered king prawns with mango salad served with green rice which was very fresh...it's bursting every mouthful,like a summer field in your mouth. A very playful complex mixture of flavors in the salad: tangy, spicy, sour, sweet...a totally interesting harmony of flavors....

king prawns with mango salad and green rice

My friend's daring choice for the main dish is...(***drum rolls..)...

beouf ala bourguignonne....

in fairness, it was a really good piece of meat...tender,soft,juicy with a very rich gravy poured over it...

beouf ala bourguignonne

After savoring our hearty meal, we decided to walk along the shore...armed with a camera, and my friend's photography skills, paired with a model-wanna-be,..ahem..that's me....we decided to capture the beauty of the place and the weather...

...strike a pose here..strike a pose there..OOOH...there as well!!!.....we were just fooling around and totally enjoying the rainy weather...

look ma!

...it was indeed a rainy day in Phuket, but that didn't stop us from having so much fun and a great memorable experience....


-eat well,live well and be merry!!!!....

Teddy rice...

The most surprising rice delivery ever...

Could you ever eat such a cutie?

So much better then this, which I also could not eat...

Far from cute... 

blehhh!

Best Chicken, Worst Chicken secrets...

What would South East Asia be without chicken? What would the world be without chicken? For some reason has the chicken discovered the world together with human beings since I have not traveled any serious restaurant on this globe without seeing chicken on the menu. 


During our culinary mission in Thailand we came across the best and the worst outlet for chicken dishes. Let's start with a very well known dish called Stir Fried Chicken With Cashew Nuts. Actually its my favorite chicken dish and now, after many years, I have finally identified Secret Garden in Bangkok as the best restaurant dealing with this dish ever.


I was so enchanted by the flavors, aromas and taste of this dish, that I forgot to take a proper picture, so we have to do it with this one, the plate at the right side...

The cook must have learned this recipe straight from its inventor: normally the oyster sauce overwhelms the whole dish (at least that's the case at Da Shi Da, my provider in Dubai, but in Secret Garden I could distinguish every separate ingredient: sweet peppers, carrot, garlic, french onions, celery, dried peppers, unexpected small bites of ginger and not in the last place the cashews and chicken chunks. Wonderful! 

This dish traveled all over the world, and I discovered even its origin: In 1963, David Leong served the first cashew chicken dish at Leong's Tea House in Springfield, Missouri, USA. Leong moved to the United States from China in 1940, and since then he had been searching for an Asian-influenced dish that could please local residents.

Well, honestly I think mr. Leong just brought it from China to the US, but okay, the Americans, lets give the Americans also a bit of history... 


So Secret Garden remains a secret, I really can't tell you exactly where in the Thai capital you can find this place. We were simply dropped of there by a taxi driver... 


Another secret chicken recipe is even more known across the globe, but for several reasons I am not interested at all to find out how to make it: The Colonel's secret flavor recipe of 11 herbs and spices that creates the famous "finger lickin' good" chicken remains a trade secret. Portions of the secret spice mix are made at different locations in the United States, and the only complete, handwritten copy of the recipe is kept in a vault in corporate headquarters.  Yep, we are talking about this colonel. 

In Phuket - no other option was left to get rid of our hunger - we were forced to enter this fast food chain and order the chicken pieces. Or is it still chicken, cause it's not really recognizable. The eleven spices in breaded butter are so strong and widely wrapped around the chicken, that I am quite convinced that you eat more oil breaded spices than chicken...

Above you can see the different pieces of KFC in the middle of our late 'dinner'. Completely over the top are the so called chicken popcorn... I have opened at least two pieces of breaded spices without finding anything that could point in the direction of a bit of chicken. I need to admit that I never liked KFC and so I can conclude that the myths around its secret recipe is much more interesting than the dish itself, read here. 


The colonel was bought out of KFC in 1964 and during the following years the food chain added oil, salt and flour and less chicken. The colonel reacted angry that  they prostituted every goddamn thing I had. I had the greatest gravy in the world and those sons of bitches-- they dragged it out and extended it and watered it down that I'm so goddamn mad!  


If the table hammering colonel then started cooking Stir Fried Chicken With Cashew Nuts in a Secret Garden in Siam, is never confirmed...   

Current Obsession: Oishi WAFU

Current Obsession: Oishi WAFU

This post has nothing to do with our gastronomical adventure in Thailand, but I never stop eating and I have accidentally discovered something that my 5-year old nephew is munching days ago…and now it is turning into an obsession, I am consuming this,not just by pieces but by boxes….

pardon me for the bad image...believe me,it tastes divine!

It's amazing how sophisticated it tastes; the buttery, cheesy filling is just perfect complement to the light, crispy wafer…aaaah….now I'm finding ways to play with it,…with cream?!…ice cream,perhaps?!….fresh mangoes?!….with or without anything, it tastes divine….now off i go to open more packets of WAFU!!!!….

-eat well,live well and be merry…cheers!!!!

Sawasdee ka Thailand!!!

Sawasdee ka Thailand!…

Right from the airport up to my hotel for that night,i could feel the warm welcome of the Thai people,it's amazing..and very genuine…

Since I arrived midnight,i was quite starving and a bit exhausted, being unfamiliar with the place I decided to just stay in my hotel room and order room service...

I ordered a simple dish..it's egg noodles with pork topping…being from a neighboring country,this is not new to me,until I had my first spoon of the broth…I was punched, I was then reminded that I was indeed already in Thailand,where food are extra spicy even if it says mild….after drinking a bottle of water in one gulp, i indulged into the complex broth of mixed spices,the tender pork topping melts in your mouth,and releases a delicious marinade.

egg noodle soup with spiced pork topping

The following day,after picking up my partner in crime at the airport,a whole new bigger adventure begins….a totally crazy adventure; exciting gastronomical journey that we would be telling in the coming posts...

-eat well,live well and be merry!!!!...cheers!!!!

Next stop: Thailand

you missed us ,didn't you???

well,let the countdown begins…12 days to go before we start a journey together with my partner in an exotic land..a land flaming hot,you'd burn your tongue when you lick its soil; a land of rich cultural heritage; a land that is diverse as the fishes in the ocean….a land once called Siam…the land of the free...sawasdee ka Thailand!!!!

image from photo atlas -a buddhist temple,one of the many temples scattered across Thailand

Yes,in less than two weeks,we will invade Thailand….exploring its beauty; enjoying its natural wonders; experiencing Thai culture and of course, diving into Thai gastronomic delights….ooh,the thai foods..my taste buds are too excited, i could feel them doing somersaults….

Oooh….pattaya,phuket,chiang mai…..where to go???where to begin????what to do???where to start???...the elephants..the floating market,the temples….we are not sure yet,but for the first few days,we would be staying along the legendary Chao Phraya river…then we'll take it from there where we would be heading next...

So stay tuned in the coming weeks to take a peek into the chronicles of our adventure in Thailand...

...eat well,live well and be merry!!!!!...cheers!!!!

Food, fashion and losing some weight

Pardon us dear readers for Tet and I have been very busy. As I am typing this entry, Tet is somewhere up in the stratosphere on his way back to Dubai after a much-needed vacation in Holland. So, what happened during our literary hiatus??? Well,as for me I have been gaining a lot of weight eating my mom's meal every single day, so I decided to go on a strict "JUNK FOOD and Vogue diet"…you might be wondering what the hell is that??? well….

when hunger strikes, i open a bag of chips and munch on it,for breakfast,lunch and dinner, and when the craving for real foods strike, I grab the nearest issue of vogue and look at the skinny people on the magazine,a reminder that I should stick to my diet…hahaha…how's that for motivation???..so there, i guess i'll be doing my junk food and vogue diet for a while until I lose this extra weight….

A start in FashionVille

Last week I did my first steps in the world of fashion. Jay is planning to conquer the world with his great designs, it was about time for me to do a more in depth study of this phenomena. Personally I have not much with fashion; I don’t follow trends, don’t know which celebrities matters today and still wear clothes till they get fashionable again... No, I am more a gadget man, but that will be another blog. 

The Emirate Towers

The event was to take place opposite of the Emirate towers, another luxury place which I never visited before in the Shopping Metropole. And this place was even more exclusive in high end fashionable boutiques then I saw before. The show took off a bit too late, and meanwhile the guests were entertained with drinks and snacks - high end snacks of course. 

It was all about a contest between young designers who had to design a summer dress inspired on the Mercedes Benz Cabriolet including five other less concrete conditions. The speaker lady started to read out loud a text from a piece of paper while a cool trip hop beat build up some tension. Nineteen models were about to pass and turn in front of a four headed jury from the Dubai fashion world. 

The winning dress in blue

None of the 19 finalists dresses - but that’s just my opinion - did look like a Mercedes Benz Cabriolet. I would send my model in a cabriolet on the catwalk I think, with a summer dress (flower motive) of course. The judges were looking puzzled to the models, while sucking on legs of their glasses and making rejecting notes on their pads or whispering mysteriously in each others ears. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tet

After the last model left the ramp and without any communication with the judges, the speaker lady announced all winners in an embarrassing speed. Prices were going in the wrong sequence and to the wrong people. During this chaos trendy drinks were coming down the stairs and due to the heat - it felt like a hot air oven - everybody stormed towards the waiters to cool down a bit. 

And so I had reported this event live to Jay via twitter, and I made contact to a couple of future customers - or at least I hope they will - and so the success of this evening is yet to be seen.  And for me personally? I think I have done it well and was promoted to level two of FashionVille - (tailor assistant!)