Santis Delicatessen

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Restaurants
Cuisine:	International
Location:	Timog

Clarification first: Santis is not really a restaurant but a delicatessen. I go to Santis to buy premium meats and fish, but yesterday, I got to taste their blueberry muffins and it's really good. Priced at P61.00 a piece, I was hesitant to buy one because I find it quite expensive for something I can make at home, but it was really good. It was moist and tender, and the crumb melts in the mouth. Real blueberries were also used so that's a plus (I hate muffins made with artificial preserved fruits). Well, aside from this nice discovery, I have tried their sandwich too and it's really satisfying. This is really filling so it makes a quick lunch or a heavy merienda. Priced at about P100 a big sandwich, they put in generous layers of cold cuts plus a bounty of fresh vegetables between their soft, brown bread- even Trixie likes their sandwich. :)

It's Chocolate Cake once more.

I'm obviously obsessed with baking chocolate cakes this week (three times in a row to be exact) and I blame it on the rainy weather hehe. This time, I made it into a two-layer cake and I frosted it with Cote d'Or Belgian Dark Chocolate which I got as a "pasalubong" from Gatch (I'm blessed with generous friends, really). This version, I must say, is the best among the three. It really pays to use top quality ingredients; it's so worth it. This is my official chocolate cake from now on. Side comment: I decided to put Trixie's photo in the end because she helped me bake the cake and she happily waited for Brandon to finish taking the photos so we could sing a birthday song and blow an imaginary candle. :)

Ghirardelli Chocolate Cake

Thanks to my kumare Maybelle who gave me a big can of Ghirardelli cocoa (best gift ever!), I am happy to present this chocolate cake for everybody's visual enjoyment. This is just a simple but moist chocolate cake that I topped with satiny, bittersweet chocolate glaze, dark chocolate chips and chopped pistachio nuts-- really satisfying! Photos by Brandon who was rewarded with a slice after the shoot :)

Long weekend at Subic

We spent last week's long weekend at Subic and we went there via SCTex- a really impressive highway. The highlight of the trip was our afternoon at Ocean Adventure.

The fun is in trying :)

Here is a video of Trixie trying to pump a balloon. Trix, try and try until you succeed... well, even if she didn't really succeed in making a huge balloon, she had loads of fun trying.

Chicken Teriyaki

Here's another winner recipe for chicken teriyaki.  I got the recipe from Pinoy Cook, but I added some elements to our liking.   This is one satisfying meal; next time, we will try grilling the chicken instead of frying it in a pan.

Chicken Teriyaki
(Serves 3)


Ingredients:
About 400g chicken thigh fillets, skin-on
1/4 c light soy sauce
1/4 c of mirin (sweet rice wine)
1/4 c of sake
2 Tbsps. sugar
Ginger strips
Cornstarch Slurry (1 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp cold water)
Toasted sesame seeds (I did this in the oven toaster.)


Procedure:
Combine soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar then marinade the chicken fillets for several hours in the fridge.  (I did it in three hours and it was enough.)  Drain the fillets and save the marinade.
Add oil to a pan and when hot, add the ginger stips until fragrant.  Add the chicken pieces with the skin side down and fry until brown, then flip to the other side.  Drain excess oil if necessary.   Add the marinade and simmer until chicken is cooked through.  Remove chicken pieces from the pan (leaving the sauce in the pan) and cut into slices.  Put the chicken on top of hot rice. 
Let the remaining sauce in the pan boil then add the cornstarch slurry and cook until the mixture thickens.  Lower the heat to prevent the sauce from boiling over.  Pour the teriyaki sauce on top of the chicken slices then top with toasted sesame seeds.


Tip:  Save remaining teriyaki sauce for another dish; i.e. Pan-seared/ Baked Salmon with Teriyaki Sauce (Yum-yum!  Will do this soon.)

Silly Faces

After dinner, Trix was in such a happy mood so we took these photos of her making silly faces.