JUST how do you make Eggs Benedict, that delicious, creamy, mouth-watering gourmet breakfast delight that’s a meal in itself? English muffins are topped with tomato slices, crispy bacon, perfectly boiled egg with a firm body but a runny yolk, and freshly made Hollandaise sauce… Cut into it with a fork and knife and savor that mouthful that simply bursts with flavor. It’s heaven on earth and, since you’re having it for breakfast, the day is just beginning.
But if you think Eggs Benedict is complicated to make, this yummy breakfast treat is actually easy to make, says the culinary experts behind Hunt’s Tomato Sauce. Just follow this recipe from Hunt’s and impress your family.
8 eggs
8 pcs. thick-cut bacon
8 pcs. English muffins (*or pandesal for variation)
200 ml. white wine vinegar
30 grams chopped onion
3 grams peppercorns
3 grams laurel leaf
6 egg yolks
1/4 pc. lemon, juiced
pinch of salt
125 ml. clarified butter or melted butter
50 ml. mayonnaise
1 pack Hunt’s Tomato Sauce with Lycofiber 115g
8 slices Baguio tomatoes
16 grams alfalfa sprouts or 10 grams parsley
1. Boil eggs for exactly 6 minutes. Remove, let cool, then peel and set aside.
2. Pan-fry bacon and English muffins or pandesal, then remove and set aside.
3. Simmer together white wine vinegar, chopped onion, peppercorns and laurel leaf. Reduce until only one-fourth of the mixture is left. Strain and set aside the liquid.
4. Make the Hollandaise sauce. Whip egg yolks and add the liquid with the lemon juice and salt. Gradually pour in clarified butter while whisking. Add mayonnaise and pour in Hunt’s Tomato Sauce with Lycofiber. Mix well.
5. Assemble muffins on plate, then top each with a tomato slice. Place egg on top and wrap with bacon. Pour Hollandaise sauce over it and top with alfalfa sprouts or parsley.
The Traslacion during the Feast of the Black Nazarene
(Photos by Rafael R. Zulueta)
THE first time I ever took part in the Feast of the Black Nazarene, which takes place in the district of Quiapo, Manila, every January 9, was years ago, when Tita Chona Trinidad, a seasoned food columnist/writer, brought me and my husband Raff along with her. Back then, the procession started at the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene (better known as simply Quiapo Church), made the rounds of the area and returned to the church. Tita Chona’s annual routine during the Feast of the Black Nazarene was to join a group of friends on the second floor of the PS Bank building standing right in front of Quiapo Church across Plaza Miranda. The owner of the building, whose name escapes me now, usually had lunch catered and invited friends to come and partake of the food, after which they could watch the procession of the Black Nazarene from the windows. The second floor provided a good vantage point for watching the procession, and it was safe to watch from there because the owner’s guests did not have to join the crowd at ground level and run the risk of getting hurt when the crowd became rather unruly when passions ran high. Besides, the second floor had a concrete overhang, so Raff had a great vantage point when the procession passed right beside the building. I felt very privileged to have experienced the procession of the Black Nazarene that way.
But that precious experience never had a repeat, and crowds grew larger with the years, and without a sure vantage point to look forward to, Raff and I had to content ourselves with watching the annual procession during the Feast of the Black Nazarene on TV. The route of the procession has changed since then, now starting at the Quirino Grandstand at Rizal Park, making the rounds of certain streets and districts of the City of Manila and ending right back at Quiapo Church after an agonizingly slow 16- to 22-hour procession.
Today, January 9, 2015, Raff and I broke our TV tradition and hied off to Quiapo to join the festivities of the Feast of the Black Nazarene, the life-sized iconic statue of Jesus Christ carved by an anonymous Mexican artist in the 16th century depicting Jesus bearing the cross en route to his crucifixion at Golgotha.
TV networks estimate the crowd that turned out for this year’s Traslacion at 5 million. Here, the Traslacion approaches.
It was, of course, my bright idea to go to Quiapo to witness the Traslacion (“solemn transfer of the image of the Black Nazarene” from the Quirino Grandstand to Quiapo Church). Raff put his feet down at first, but after repeated assurances that I wouldn’t insist on going too near the Black Nazarene and that I wanted only crowd shots and photos of the Andas (it’s what they call the carriage or carroza used to carry the image of the Black Nazarene) from afar, he finally consented to it. But not before he had me promise that I would follow his strategy and that once he got some shots of the procession and the Andas, we would back off.
I googled the route of the procession and let Raff decide how to go about it.
So, off we went to Quiapo this morning, driving to SM Marikina, then leaving the car there and taking the LRT (Line 2) from Santolan all the way to Recto. Arriving at the Recto station of the LRT before 12 noon, we walked the entire stretch from the Recto station of the LRT to Plaza Lacson in Sta. Cruz, Manila, through McArthur Bridge and along Padre Burgos, passing the National Museum.
On we went, joining the thick crowds that have gathered everywhere along the route of the procession. Devotees were already garbed in maroon and yellow shirts bearing the image of the Black Nazarene. Some Black Nazarene images were being paraded in carrozas along the streets. Small ones were carried by their owners. Vendors were aggressively selling Black Nazarene shirts and towels as well as charms. Other vendors offered bottled water, boiled corn, fishballs and other street food.
I wanted to go up the steps of the National Museum and wait for the procession of the Black Nazarene there, but Raff said it would take several hours more for the procession to get there and, by then, it might start to get dark. Our strategy was to walk on until we get to where the procession was, I would stay on the side, Raff would take some pictures, and then we would break away from the crowd and start walking back to Quiapo to take pictures of the church and the devotees waiting there and then head back to the LRT station and get on our way back home.
Quiapo Church is home to the miraculous image of the Black Nazarene
Crowds gathered inside and outside Quiapo Church to hear the hourly Masses on the Feast of the Black Nazarene
A little past the corner of Maria Orosa St. along Padre Burgos, we saw the procession arriving, with a sea of devotees carrying banners on sticks, towels being waved in the air, and crowds chanting “Viva!.” We went to the left side of the road, climbing onto an island, where we had a vantage point but was safely away from the crowd. I had goose bumps, especially when the two large ropes being pulled by the barefoot devotees snaking through the sea of human heads came in sight. Some devotees were clambering up to the Andas for an opportunity to touch the image, and towels were being thrown up for the Hijos del Nazareno (*marshalls from the Quiapo Church who rode with the image of the Black Nazarene to protect it from possible damage) to wipe on the miraculous image and throw back to the owner. Just how far a devotee would go to profess his faith by putting his life on the line simply overwhelmed me.
A few shots later, Raff faced me and commanded “Atras na!” and I did. We walked away and found our way back to the “safe” part of Padre Burgos and walked back to Quiapo through the Quezon Bridge. We ended up at Plaza Miranda in front of Quiapo Church, where thick crowds had gathered to attend the hourly Masses being held until the Traslacion reached Quiapo Church.
By 3:00 p.m., we were at Mang Inasal in Isetann Recto having very late lunch and, a few minutes later, back in an LRT coach on our way back to Santolan station, Pasig City. We had called it a day.
It’s half past midnight as I finish writing this blog post. Monitoring the progress of the procession on TV, the Traslacion hadn’t reached Quiapo Church yet. I will be hitting the bed in a few minutes, feeling sublimely joyful that I was part of the celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene this year. It’s an enriching experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
I end my day telling Raff, “Next year uli,” and his smile and nod in response are precious.
BROWN’S, the home of interesting international comfort food, used to be a home-based business that occupied an intimate 30-square-meter area in Granada St., Quezon City, started by young entrepreneur Kristian Gadia and his wife. Now, Brown’s has found a new and permanent home at The Hub, Greenfield District, in Mandaluyong City.
Greenfield District is a prime 12-hectare commercial and residential development framed by Shaw Boulevard, EDSA, Sheridan and Reliance Streets, where the EDSA Central Complex used to stand. In answer to the demands of the times, the place was rebuilt and elevated to become home to several high-rise condominium buildings, open spaces dotted with trees and greens, retail zones and dining hubs. The Hub is Greenfield District’s newest dining strip, and it is home to several unique dining concepts, one of which is Brown’s Gourmet Café.
Brown’s Gourmet Cafe at The Hub of Greenfield District in Mandaluyong City
The cozy dining area on the mezzanine
Brown’s Gourmet Cafe’s Kristian Gadia
A cozy and comfy place to dine, Brown’s serves international comfort food at affordable prices. The menu is quite extensive, offering a wide range of appetizers, salads, soups, sandwiches, all-day breakfast fares, roast chicken and rice meals, pasta dishes, Omm Rice (which is flavored rice wrapped in an omelette, much like the Japanese Omu Rice), entrées, rice variants, desserts and drinks. The food is good, the portions are generous, and the prices are reasonable. They range from Php90 for a delightful appetizer like Mushroom + Spinach Croquettes (buttermilk, button mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and local spinach in croquettes), soups such as Roasted Carrot + Garlic Soup (seasoned carrots, roasted garlic and spinach) and Potato + Leek Soup (organic potato, sautéed leeks and cream), and a must-try dessert like Churros + Blonde Mocha (churros served with mocha-flavored chocolate dip), to Php249 for a hefty 1/2 Chicken + Rice + 2 Sides complete meal.
Mushroom + Spinach Croquettes
Pinakbet Omm Rice
The home-cooked original recipes served at Brown’s offer familiar flavors yet with a delightfully unique twist. The Omm Rice, for one, is a specialty that must not be missed. It comes in five variants—Arroz ala Cubana (Php160), which has ground beef, tomato sauce, raisins, carrots, potatoes and banana; Pinakbet Rice (Php155), with homemade shrimp paste, squash, okra, eggplant and stringbeans as filling, much like the all-time favorite Ilocano dish; Chicken Rice (Php165), which is roasted chicken with cumin, paprika and cilantro in rice); Smoked Fish + Olives (smoked fish, olives and tomatoes), and Beef Bulgogi (Php170), which recreates the flavors of the Korean dish using sirloin beef, homemade sauce, leeks and carrots. My favorites are the Smoked Fish + Olives Omm Rice and the Pinakbet Omm Rice.
Chili-Calamansi Salad + Candied Nuts
The salads at Brown’s deviates from the usual Caesar’s Salad, Chef’s Salad and Garden Fresh Salad that most restaurants offer. What it has are Garlic Dijon Salad (Php130), which has watercress, cherry tomatoes, bacon bits and croutons; Lemon + Basil Salad + Caramelized Pear (Php140), with Parmesan cheese, croutons, chiffonade of basil, and caramelized pear wedges; and Chili-Calamansi Salad + Candied Nuts (Php135), which has cilantro and candied mixed nuts to go with the mixed greens.
Roasted Tomato + Garlic Basil Pasta
Pasta dishes are another interesting item on the menu. Diners can choose from among eight variants: Basil Pesto (Php150) with garlic and pumpkin seeds; Summer Squash (Php170) that combines roasted squash with nuts, bacon and black mushrooms; Classic Carbonara (Php160) with bacon, cream and cheese; Roasted Tomato (Php165), which has olive oil, garlic, basil and Parmesan cheese; another classic, Aglio Olio (Php150), made up of anchovies, garlic, olive oil and basil leaves; Arrabiata Pasta (Php155) with homemade tomato sauce, chili and olives; Shiitake Cream (Php170), which has button mushrooms, spinach and cheese in a cream sauce; and Puttanesca Pasta (Php150), using stewed tomatoes to go with red wine and herbs.
Baked Spaghetti
Baked Spaghetti (Php220) is a pasta dish, but it is grouped together with the entrées in Brown’s menu because it is a generous amount of spaghetti with ground meat in tomato sauce and is served with garlic toast and a house salad.
Paying attention to details, Brown’s offers five kinds of rice—Plain Rice, Garlic Rice, Hainanese Rice, Egg + Leek Rice and Rice Pilaf—priced between Php30 to Php45 so diners can try a different variety with each visit. The place also serves a house blend of Iced Tea, Brown’s Iced Tea, and three refreshing fresh herb and fruit shakes: Ginger + Basil Shake, Mango + Mint Shake, and Mixed Berry Shake. I’ve tried them all, and my top pick is the Ginger + Basil Shake. Of course, Brown’s serves the usual canned sodas, but why would you want a soda when you can have a unique and refreshing shake?
Churros + Blonde Mocha
Deep-fried Cookie Dough
Finally, dessert is a toss-up among Churros + Blonde Mocha (Php90), Deep-fried Cookie Dough (Php95) which I surprisingly fell in love with, and Mango + Cream Trifle (Php120).
(Brown’s Gourmet Café can be found at Unit 18, The Hub, Greenfield District, Mandaluyong City.)
TIME was when family meals were always gently and lovingly prepared by mom. Once in a while, some dads also try their hand in the kitchen, but cooking is generally associated with moms, so most of our childhood memories include sharing meals with the family and in the center of it all is mom. Such memories bring warmth and comfort to us as adults.
But times change, and with the fast-paced lifestyle that we now lead in this age of fast-food restaurants and convenience foods, lunches and dinners are now mostly harried affairs. It has become faster, easier and more convenient for us to stop by restaurants and take quick meals especially during working days. There’s nothing like a good, home-cooked meal shared with the family at home, but compromises have to be made, and while home cooking remains to be an important component of family life, home cooking is glaringly in a decline. New research even reveals that 80% of young people aged 23 to 27 do not and cannot cook and the 1,000 respondents surveyed mentioned that two of the reasons why they do not cook are lack of confidence and inadequate knowledge about recipes. Add to this the fact that most of them now work and its demands on their time doesn’t leave much time for cooking and other domestic chores.
“Home cooking is in a decline, but Knorr is fighting back here in the Philippines to inspire and help moms create the wonder of their flavor and build lifelong family bonds,” declares Oliver Sicam, Unilever’s marketing director for foods.
Event host Apples Aberin, Unilever’s marketing director for foods Oliver Sicam, and Unilever’s senior brand manager Jec Inocencio
Knorr is determined to make mom-cooked meals matter again by inspiring people to cook more at home and by showing how mom-cooked flavors are the real key to the powerful bonds mothers yearn to build with their loved ones. To ensure that meals prepared by moms remain an integral part of home life so that strong family bonds continue to move the world forward, Knorr started a movement called Sarap ng #LutongNanay. The movement is backed by the latest scientific discoveries. Working with leaders in the field has confirmed that mom-cooked flavors help create memories which reach parts of the brain that other experiences cannot. The brain has a way of connecting memories with the wonderful flavors cooked by mom for her children, creating deeper and more vivid emotions than any other.
World-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Stuart Firestein, PhD, from New York’s Columbia University has been carrying out research into the wonder of mom-cooked flavors for many years.
Knorr’s new brand ambassador Carmina Villarroel, Dimples Romana and Pia Guanio
Danica Sotto-Pingris, Delamar Arias and Christine Jacob
To push the Sarap ng #LutongNanay movement forward, Knorr formally launched the campaign at the Blue Leaf Pavilion in McKinley Hill, Taguig, recently to bring back home-cooked meals and make them accessible to everyone. The program, hosted by Unilever’s own Apples Aberin, professional events host Christine Jacob and Knorr’s newest brand ambassador Carmina Villarroel, gathered four celebrity moms — TV host Pia Guanio, host and actress Dimples Romana, DJ Delamar Arias, and TV personality and chef Danica Sotto-Pingris — as LutongNanay mom-bassadors.
After their formal presentation on stage, they took to their own cooking stations and showed the audience how to cook four exciting Filipino dishes with a twist. Pia made Crispy Tofu Sisig, Dimples prepared Tinola sa Gata, Delamar assembled delightful Spicy Adobo Tacos, and Danica, the professional chef among the four of them, whipped up Sinigang sa Pakwan.
Sinigang sa Pakwan
These four dishes are not only interesting and modern variants of Pinoy favorites. They’re also delicious and easy to prepare because they make use of Knorr mixes and seasonings. With recipes that are easy to follow and make use of readily available ingredients, Knorr is sure moms will be inspired to start cooking more at home and, thus, families will have more opportunities to bond over good home-cooked meals.
“It fascinates me how brain instinctively knows that certain flavors and foods have the power to mean more to us than just sustenance. This is called sensory recall and is a phenomenon which demonstrates how the brain is hard-wired to respond in certain ways to different tastes and smells. Even over time and distance, when we taste mom’s cooking, it transports us back to a special place and a unique memory,” Dr. Stuart Firestein ends.
Certified U.S. Prime Angus Beef Top Blade served with three dips, mixed greens salad and hand-cut fries
THINK authentic Spanish cuisine served in a hip and modern setting with some of the best Spanish cocktails and wines, and one of the first places that come to mind is Tapella by Gaudi, located in an unobtrusive corner of Greenbelt 5, with provisions for al fresco dining.
Tapella, which specializes in tapas and paella, has always been known for its authentic Spanish cuisine, which diners enjoy with the best wines around the world at reasonable prices. But since Chef Robert Spakowski joined the restaurant as its executive chef, it became even more popular because Chef Robert constantly introduces new dishes that are a combination of classic Spanish dishes and modern interpretations of Spanish flavors. He puts these on the restaurant’s Chef’s Specials, which are always exciting because it’s a collaboration between him and his team of chefs.
Not one to take all the credit for the restaurant’s success, Chef Robert has put in place an unorthodox management system that focuses on time management, food safety and sanitation, and promotes leadership, team work, discipline and accountability among the staff. One of the other important things that he did when he came in as executive chef was standardize recipes to ensure food consistency and authenticity of flavors.
Tapella’s new executive chef Robert Spakowski
Armed with 15 years of experience in the food industry, Chef Robert — Polish-Kapampangan on his father’s side, and Spanish, American, Lebanese and partly Chinese on his mother’s side — earned his Diploma in Culinary Arts and Technology Management from the Center for Culinary Arts Manila (CCA). Dreaming of one day running his own restaurant, he worked in the kitchens of some of Shanghai and Beijing’s noted restaurants. In Manila, he also gained experience as executive chef of Venezia Bar and Restaurant, overall consultant of H&H Martini Restaurant and Bar, special projects consultant of Dunkin’ Café, research and development food specialist of Chef’s Secret Inc., and guest chef of Café 137 in Tagaytay, among others.
When a family friend, the former executive chef of Tapella, talked to him about the possibility of him taking her place as executive chef of Tapella after she decided to go back to Spain following the demise of her husband, Chef Robert decided to take a three-month intensive Grand Diplome in Spanish Culinary Arts course under Chef Jose Andres at the International Culinary Center in New York, USA, to equip him better for the job. There, he worked seriously on his studies, drawing inspiration from the wall near his locker which displayed the handprints of the most famous chefs in the world and surprising even himself with his perfect class attendance record. He came home to Manila afterwards with a wealth of knowledge about Spanish cuisine and eager to take on the challenges of his new job.
Now, as executive chef, partner and restaurant consultant of Tapella, Chef Robert has steered the restaurant to even greater heights of popularity, earning for it a steady clientele who come to the restaurant to enjoy its food and drinks to go with its cozy and relaxed ambiance.
Morcilla de Cebolla
Chorizo Picante
Butifarra
Among the most recent — and most popular! — Spanish tapas that Chef Robert has introduced are Morcilla de Cebolla (Php450), a traditional blood sausage stuffed with onion and special Spanish spices, grilled and sliced, and served over a bed of Patatas ala Pobre in olive oil; Chorizo Picante (Php350), spiced and savored as an appetizer with a kick, and served over a bed of seasoned Patatas ala Pobre with strips of red and green bell peppers; Butifarra (Php475), a popular tapas originating from Catalan and is grilled over a bed of hand-cut, spiced and seasoned cubed fries, and served with a Dijon mustard dip; and Chorizo Criollo (Php475), which is just as good.
The dashing chef of Tapella also recently introduced his Certified U.S. Prime Angus Beef Top Blade (Php1,499+), which comes with three kinds of dips: Dijon Mustard, Mojo Rojo and Mojo Verde. The Mojo Verde dip, which highlights the pleasing blend of cilantro and cumin, is also great with the new tapas on the menu mentioned above. Going back to the Certified U.S. Prime Angus Beef Top Blade, it is also served with a side of specially seasoned hand-cut fries and a salad of mixed and micro greens, candied walnuts and feta cheese tossed in tamarind balsamico, a house vinaigrette. One order is good for sharing among two to three persons.
Paella Marisco
Not to be missed, of course, is Tapella’s paellas (rice dishes), which come in different variants, including Pulpo (octopus), Gambas (shrimps), Calamares (squid), Negra (squid ink) and Marisco (seafood).
Banzai Sangria
Don Roberto Sangria
Lychee Sangria
Then there are the new cocktail drinks. Chef Robert has just introduced four new Sangrias: Banzai Sangria (white sangria, which combines sake, cucumber, and infused with homemade candied ginger), Lychee Sangria (sake with lychee among its major ingredients), Don Roberto (red sangria with red wine and fruits that have been marinated for 24 hours), and Rico J (an even more potent red sangria).
(Tapella is located on the ground level of Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati City; with telephone number 757-2710.)
JUST how do you make Eggs Benedict, that delicious, creamy, mouth-watering gourmet breakfast delight that’s a meal in itself? English muffins are topped with tomato slices, crispy bacon, perfectly boiled egg with a firm body but a runny yolk, and freshly made Hollandaise sauce… Cut into it with a fork and knife and savor that mouthful that simply bursts with flavor. It’s heaven on earth and, since you’re having it for breakfast, the day is just beginning.
