http://bucaio.blogspot.com/

House of Sans Rival


Spent four days, inclusive of a weekend, exploring the southern part
of Negros Oriental, in the Visayas, on a child-friendly itinerary.
Since my youngest has turned a year old and is already running, though
awkwardly and still falls from time to time, I decided it was time to
break my self-imposed vacation ban, after two years, and go island
hopping.

Nothing too rigorous and too demanding as I had been used to, just a
stretch of beach so the children can build sand castles, a grilled
picnic among some mangroves, and an entire morning spotting dolphins.

The Dumaguete airport is the nearest access point to the places I
wanted to cover, so it became our base. Though we stayed there for
only one night, we crossed the city several times during our trip, and
it was where we naturally ate more than half of our meals.

The House of Sans Rival, near the famed Rizal Boulevard, was one of
the few restaurants we made sure to visit. The pastry shop gave rise
to The House of Silvanas proliferating in the food courts of most
malls in Metro Manila, specializing in silvanas and sambos, which are
just really individual-sized sans rival cookies.

Sans Rival was established in 1977 in Dumaguete City. More than three
decades later it is still managing a bustling operation in a cute shop
done in blue, and serving pre-cooked meals during lunch and dinner
hours.

During our visit the outlet was full-packed with people, ordering
whole cakes or slices and eating lunch, even though it was still a
full hour before noon. We decided to wait for a table while perusing
the pastry showcase, taking tabs of what we wanted to sample.

The lunch set looked promising so we took an early meal. It was a good
decision, as we enjoyed everything that we ordered, with good value
for money. There were two choices for the main dish, accompanied by a
bowl of potato salad.

Fish Almondine, fragrant with lemon-butter sauce


beef stew


The pastries, while not superbly outstanding, can hold their own
compared with many pastry shops in Metro Manila. The ingredients used
were not the finest, but they are of good quality, and they were all
well-made. This is a bit of a wonder, actually, because not a slice
went beyond Php30, with even some priced below Php20, yet in every
bite you get something incredibly good.

More importantly, all the pastries that we sampled were very lightly
sweetened, so that we were able to finish several without suffering
sugar glut, and we left the shop full and satisfied, and in the mood
for a leisurely walk along Rizal Boulevard before our flight back to
Manila.

Cheese Brownie and Opera

Brazo de Mercedes


Silvana


And the sans rival? We nearly weren't able to sample it, as it wasn't
displayed in the showcase cabinet. Good thing my companions had the
sense to remember what we were there or, and promptly ordered a slice.

Like the rest of the pastries, this sans rival was light in sweetness,
but big in flavor. Toasty, spongy meringue layers sandwiching good
quality butter and bits of cashew nuts. A cake worthy of being the
foundation for which a name, and a legacy, have been built.


House of Sans Rival
Cakes & Pastries
1 San Jose Street
Dumaguete City
Tel. Nos. (635) 2254440, 2254393, 4229482



For other posts like this, read The Featured Cakes in the
Cake of the Month series

Posted by Kai at 12:44 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Labels: cake of the month, food finds, regional delicacies,
restaurants, tinapay (bread/pastries)

Monday, June 29, 2009
Lechon for Recess


So school has started, and by this time I hope the kids had already
adjusted to their new routines, if any, and more importantly to new
teacher/s and classmates.

Stress for me is only just beginning, though. After the rigors of
enrolment and the frantic preparation for school opening, not to
mention the previous almost unresolved debate on where to enrol the
child this year, comes the ten months of assignments, projects, fights
with classmates, extra-curricular activities.

Getting a child to school, on time, with enough sleep, well-prepared,
well-groomed, all assignments done, all materials secure in the bag,
is a major logistical nightmare. The fact is aggravated in my case by
my having to go to work two hours away from home every single day, so
that stress levels are shooting up to the heavens by dawn, and by the
time I arrive home all of us are ready to lie down with sleepiness and
fatigue, assignments untouched.

Add to that the planning of the every day baon (food taken to school/
office) and it becomes simply unmanageable. And a major headache when
I find that sandwiches, or milk, sometimes remain untouched and
brought home already spoiled. I get chills imagining my children
spending the entire morning inside the classroom shaking with hunger,
so that I've tried all the tricks in the book. Even, yes, packing up
lechon (whole roasted pig) in their lunchboxes.

just look at that blistered skin

But my kids are not meat-eaters, growing up in my household. So they
don't take to lechon seriously. But they do take to ingeniously shaped
bread, getting a kick out of biting off faux heads, eyes, tails, feet.

The wonder of visual impact. Animal shaped bread, which I found in a
bakery on the way to my son's school and in a bakery atop the Airmen's
Mall in Villamor Air Base, don't taste spectacular, but no matter how
huge each one is, they get finished before the school bell rings.


The attention to detail is impressive. Besides the almost natural
coloring, the spikes and spines make me almost afraid to touch this
crab. There is also a lobster, a crocodile and a fish. My son is
requesting a mouse. I say eeewwwww.

The lechon, from Villamor, can be ordered to one's preference - filled
with hotdogs, ham or bacon. Maybe Mang Tomas?

Posted by Kai at 12:34 PM 3 comments Links to this post

Labels: tinapay (bread/pastries)

Friday, June 26, 2009
Kee-Ann's Fried Siopao


Classes in all levels opened one week after another starting on the
first day of June, which happened to be a Monday this year. So for the
last few weeks mothers have been shopping and shopping upon receiving
the list of things needed for their kids’ school year.

I’m lucky that I still have a preschooler who goes to a school which
provides all materials. I only needed to supply personal toiletries
and stuff, all bundled in a pastel paper-wrapped box – but all these
things had been required last year, so I only needed to unearth them
from oblivion in the always messy playroom.

As for my eldest – he’s starting grade school this year, but looking
at the list of materials he needed I saw no reason to hype myself up
and go shopping big time. Especially since the two kids received
trolley bags stuffed with school things as gifts from an aunt, and
previous uniforms can still be used (they have to be ordered from the
school, anyway). So I just visited the nearest bookstore and assembled
everything in a night or two.

But for other mothers out there who needed loads of notebooks, papers,
pencils, bags, holders, scissors and arts crafts, and other school
materials, plus uniforms, for several kids, it would have been quite
economical to make a trip to the veritable shopping destination that
is Divisoria.

It is during these times that vendors at Divi, for short, make a
killing, getting the feel that everything is alright again with this
world. No A (H1N1) pandemic, no freakish weather, no economic crisis.
The same goes during the few weeks before All Saints’ Day, gaining
momentum as Christmas approaches. And before school year ends by March/
April.

Divi holds and sells all things. And I mean all things. One street, or
mall, specializing in one thing or another. It is the ultimate
cheapo’s destination – everything can be had at unbelievably low
prices, the products the same quality as those being sold in most
generic malls.

It is quite interesting, too. Various trinkets and gadgets, which are
guaranteed to malfunction in a day or two, abound.

But I don’t go to Divi to buy made things. I buy things there to make
things. Materials for party favors and decor, ingredients and
containers for party food, textiles for sewing curtains, bedspreads,
pillows, mantles, odds and ends for Christmas ornaments that I get a
kick out of making every year.

So luckily I avoid the mob, which can be monstrous and quite
unpredictable, during peak seasons, except for Christmas shopping. I
could go ahead and buy holiday favors in September or October, along
with birthday party materials and candle-making paraphernalia, but
products are also seasonal, and you’d be hard-pressed for choices when
shopping out-of-season.

Not to mention the moolah allotted for seasonal shopping are also
given seasonally. Which is important, because I treat any trip to
Divisoria as an opportunity that should be maximized.

I don’t go there regularly, because it is such a harrowing, back-
breaking experience managing the congested alleys under the sun, or
rain (with mud to boot), people carrying piles of boxes and loaded
pedicabs jostling for every inch of space anywhere and everywhere,
that I usually need months to condition myself and months to recover
afterward.

Of course the blame is partly mine, since I have to maximize due to
the irregularity of my trips, I tend to buy much, much more than I
could actually carry home. So in addition to whatever I go there for,
I include kilos and kilos of fruits and vegetables, dessert
ingredients, household items, toys, ponytails and other girl stuff for
my daughters, and whatever are laid out on the pavements that attract
my attention, which are usually a lot.

Cheapskate that I am, I take the view that bringing a car would negate
the savings I would accumulate from buying at Divisoria because of the
fuel expense, plus finding a parking space is an additional stress
factor.

It is best to go to Divisoria early in the morning, when the traffic
is still manageable and the crowds are still thin. But no matter how
early I go I end up trolling the alleys and stalls til evening, which
is when it really gets interesting (the regular stalls close at 6PM
but vendors lay out ingenious stuff along the roads by dark). By that
time I am ready to collapse, with sheer exhaustion from lugging loaded
plastic bags, and hunger. Because, frankly, there is no decent eating
place in and around Divisoria.

The few fastfood joints are scattered too far away from one another
that I usually think it is not worth walking there with blistered
palms from all the bags and an aching back from my huge backpack.

But a few years into my Divisoria treks (started in earnest after I
got married), I had learned to manage shoppping the whole day, with
fried siopao.

laid out and ready to cook

Specifically, Keeann's fried siopao, virtually a street food made,
cooked and vended in a small stall in the heart of the shopping
district. I had first seen, and bought, ready-to-eat fried siopao
walking along the length of Ongpin Street in Chinatown, but I had
since discovered that Keean's freshly-made on the premises fried
siopao is a great way to tide me over one whole day of shopping, right
within the location of the stalls I frequent.

It is not the usual asado-filled siopao, with large chunks of pork
fat, but a soft bun containing lean ground pork sauteed with chives
and finely chopped jicamas. Crunchy, a bit sweetish with salty
undertones. The siopao I prefer.

The fried tag gives the siopao dough a sightly burnt bottom, but
otherwise it is not much different from the common steamed buns. I
suspect some form of seasoning - light soy sauce, perhaps - is added
to the sauteed filling, so that the steamed buns are saucy enough and
do not need the requisite siopao sauce.

steaming merrily away

At P15 a piece, the fried siopao is so Divisoria, cheap and Chinese,
but filling and satisfying. I usually buy one mid-morning, stop by
again by mid-afternoon for several more to bring home, gobbling
another piece on the road while I contemplate the things I bought, and
the things I will make of them. And plotting the next trip to Divi.

Keean's Fried Siopao

* 665 Sta. Elena Street
Binondo, Manila
Tel. No. (632) 3093036
* 1670 C.M. Recto Avenue
(Nice Hotel)
Tel. No. (632) 3091498

Posted by Kai at 12:47 PM 1 comments Links to this post

Labels: abet (pasalubong/food mementos), tinapay (bread/pastries),
tindaan (palengke/public market)

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The Best Pasalubong Packaging


Pili brittle rounds - pili nuts cooked with sugar and formed into
discs - that come semi-wrapped in dried, large pili leaves, four
pieces to each leaf.

Handy, economical, but best of all environmentally correct, and
impressively presentable. Informative, too, for those of us who didn't
have the privilege of growing up seeing pili trees in our backyards,
and who won't likely see any tree, or even just a leaf, on a tourist
trip to Bicol, where these trees abound.

Posted by Kai at 12:36 PM 4 comments Links to this post

Labels: abet (pasalubong/food mementos), food finds, malamis (matamis/
sweet), regional delicacies

Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Fruits in Between Seasons


Some fruits abound for such a short time that I tend to see them as
"fruits in between seasons," because they appear at the tail-end of
summer and disappear just as the rainy season is in earnest.


Lychees are imported and so are expensive, leaving gaping holes in my
pocket because my elder daughter can finish a kilo of them in a day.
Those we've had this year are small with big seeds, so the flesh is
relatively lesser, but so, so sweet.


Siniguelas, which my baby has taken to, and duhat, though, are quite
cheap, mainly because these can all be harvested from the neighbors'
backyard trees. A kilo of each fruit is about Php40, and would yield a
lot of the berries, which could be more than enough for sensitive
teeth, even if shared (the fun of eating these are in sharing in the
bounty).


Huge makopa, freshly harvested from the vendor's own tree beside her
house. Freshness of the fruit is critical when eating it, because
fruit that had been sitting on the counter for days will have the
texture of cotton.


.

Loading