June 18, 2022
3:02 PM
by: Dolly Dy-Zulueta

Diamond Hotel Prepares Feasts
for Dads on Father’s Day

IT’S Father’s Day tomorrow (Sunday, June 19, 2022)! What better way to spend it than to treat Dad to a feast. Or feasts?

At Diamond Hotel Philippines, a feast awaits Dad at Corniche’s Lunch and Dinner Buffets at Php3,300 net per person. He gets to enjoy a wide selection of appetizers, soups, salads, mains, carvings, desserts and more, and he also gets a complimentary beer to go with his meal.

If Dad and the family prefer to go Japanese, Yurakuen offers a Set Family Menu Platter good for four persons at Php8,000 net and a Set Family Menu Platter for six persons at Php11,000.

Over at the Lobby Lounge, Father’s Day is the day to enjoy a mouthwatering 3-course set menu for Php1,580 net per person. Dad also gets a complimentary glass of house wine or local beer.

And for all dads who dine at Diamond Hotel on June 19, 2022, they get to take home a special memento.

To book a table in advance, visit onlineshopping.diamondhotel.com or call (632) 8528-3000 or 0975-7921473 (from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. only).

(Diamond Hotel Philippines is located at Roxas Blvd. corner Dr. J. Quintos St., Manila.)

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June 7, 2022
5:42 PM
by: Dolly Dy-Zulueta

Chef Tatung Sarthou Headlines
Diamond Hotel’s Filipino Foodfest

Kulawong Talong

IF there is one chef who knows Filipino cuisine from Luzon to Visayas and all the way to Mindanao, it’s got to be Chef Myke ‘Tatung’ Sarthou. An award-winning chef and restaurateur, best-selling cookbook author and YouTube star, Chef Tatung hails from Cebu (which is in the Visayas), is now based in Manila (Luzon), and has done extensive research on Maranao and Tausug food (Mindanao).
Small wonder he was handpicked as the featured chef in Diamond Hotel Philippines’ Rediscover the Flavors of the Archipelago Filipino food festival, which is ongoing at the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant, Corniche, until June 12, 2022.

A weeklong celebration of Philippine independence, the food promotion has an amazing menu cycle that covers the appetizers, main dishes and desserts of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Laid out every day in the lunch and dinner buffet spreads of Corniche, these renowned dishes by Chef Tatung include appetizers such as Pako Salad and Kulawong Talong (Luzon), Kinilaw na Tuna and Lumpiang Ubod (Visayas), and Sinuglaw and Utak-Utak (Mindanao).

To keep warm and comfortable just in case it rains, have a bowl of soup, the choices of which are Sinampalukang Manok (Luzon), Papaitan (Visayas), and Beef Hinalang (Mindanao).

Pansit Pusit

Balbacua

For the main event, nothing beats Pansit Pusit and Callos (Luzon), Balbacua and Pork Humba (Visayas), and Piyanggang and Beef Kulma (Mindanao).

Dessert is also a joy with Leche Flan and Tibuk-Tibok (Luzon), Torta Bisaya and Binagol (Visayas), and Browa and Daral (Mindanao), among others.

Buffet price is Php3,300 net per person. Aside from being able to partake of the extensive buffet spread, guests spending Php5,000 net at the Corniche buffet also get a chance to win round-trip airline tickets for 2 persons to any local destination of choice via Cebu Pacific.

For restaurant reservations, call (02) 8528-3000 or reserve online via onlineshopping.diamondhotel.com.

(Diamond Hotel Philippines is located at Roxas Blvd. corner Dr. J. Quintos St., Manila.)

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May 29, 2022
3:37 PM
by: Dolly Dy-Zulueta

Popped Rice / Puffed Rice

Popped Rice or Puffed Rice

POPPED rice or puffed rice? I really do not know what the right term is for this delightfully sweet and crunchy rice snack, but my new caregiving and housekeeping assistant Jing Molis introduced me to it recently. Being a food writer and columnist and cookbook author and editor, I am always curious about food stuff, especially those I am not familiar with. So, one day, while we were eating and engaging in small talk about leftover rice, Jing mentioned about her favorite tummy filler when she was young. She also made some good money selling it in school whenever she did not have baon in her pocket.

Popped rice. Or puffed rice. Whatever. But it is basically leftover rice, better known as bahaw in Filipino, that is sun-dried until completely dry. Then it is fried in hot oil, batch by batch, until puffed or popped and light golden in color. The rice kernels are then removed from the hot oil and allowed to cool down and have the excess oil drained off on a paper towel, brown sugar is cooked in oil until caramelized. The rice is mixed in, drained off, and left to cool. It is then scooped into paper cones and popped into the mouth.

Depending on the quality of the leftover rice and the way it has been dried, the popped rice should be smooth to the bite—and the crunch will definitely be there.

2 cups leftover cooked rice
cooking oil for deep-frying
3/4 cup brown sugar

1. Spread out leftover cooked rice on a bilao. Sun-dry until completely dry, which usually takes two days.
2. When ready to cook, heat oil in pan. When very hot, start deep-frying the dried rice kernels. Test if oil is ready by dropping a few rice kernels. Once they pop or puff up, drop the rest of the rice kernels in manageable batches. Cook until puffed up, then remove from oil and drain off excess oil on paper towels.
3. Drop brown sugar into the pan. Cook in oil until caramelized. Drop in the puffed rice and mix to coat completely. Remove from oil and transfer to a bowl. You can leave the puffed rice as is then scoop into paper cones when cool or shape them into balls while still basically hot to make them stick together.

Posted in Recipes Tagged , ,

May 7, 2022
6:14 PM
by: Dolly Dy-Zulueta

What’s Hot:
Workshop’s New Decadent Cakes
for Moms on Mother’s Day

Workshop’s Leche Flan Tres Leches Cake for Mother’s Day

GOOD news for those who are looking for that ultimate sweet treat to gift Mom with this Mother’s Day: Workshop Bespoke Bakery by Le Petit Soufflé has whipped up quite a few new, decadent cakes just in time for this happy occasion.

Two of these cakes have been particularly created for Mother’s Day but will be available for dine-in, take-out, and delivery until July 31, 2022. These are the Leche Flan Tres Leches Cake and the Nutty Brazo Sansrival.

Selling at Php360 per slice and Php2,250 per whole cake, the Leche Flan Tres Leches Cake is a rich and creamy treat with layers of tres leches soaked sponge cake, Chantilly cream, fresh mangoes and strawberries in between, a generous layer of leche flan sitting on top, and outlined with fresh mangoes and strawberries on top.

The Nutty Brazo Sansrival, which retails at Php350 per slice and Php2,000 per whole cake, is Workshop’s take on the classic Filipino dessert—with layers of thick Brazo de Mercedes custard and cashew dacquoise, frosted with vanilla buttercream, and topped with caramelized pili nuts.

Matcha French Flan

Then there is the Matcha French Flan, another delightful new cake creation that’s perfect for matcha green tea lovers.

Order these cakes for delivery via thegridfoodmarket.com (from Workshop) and Tasteless.ph (from Le Petit Soufflé), or via Grab, foodpanda, Pick-a-Roo or Rider Ko.

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May 6, 2022
3:58 PM
by: Dolly Dy-Zulueta

Enjoy a Tatatito Feast on Mother’s Day

Squid Ink Bamboo Rice

TREAT Mom to a seafood feast on Mother’s Day this Sunday, May 8, 2022.

At Tatatito Filipino Home Kitchen, the bounty of the sea, presented in heartwarming Filipino dishes, awaits families honoring moms on this special occasion. Truth is that two new celebration dishes have been rolled out just in time for Mother’s Day—Squid Ink Bamboo Rice and Ginataang Salmon—both unique renditions of classic flavors.

Inspired by the subtle flavors and bold look of Adobong Pusit, Squid Ink Bamboo Rice is the result of a collaboration between Tatatito’s culinary team and restaurant owners Reagan and Aileen Tan of the MC Wilson Food Group. Cooked the same way as the restaurant’s other Bamboo Rice selections, this new dish infuses the rice with mild earthy flavors. The addition of roasted garlic and cherry tomatoes provide additional taste and texture to the dish, with a squeeze of the wedge of lemon that comes with the dish also adding a deeper flavor profile to it. Squid Ink Bamboo Rice goes very well with Tatatito’s signature dishes, such as Tatatito Fried Chicken, Tuna Belly Inasal, Classic Crispy Pata, and Crispy Binusog na Pusit.

Ginataang Salmon

The other new dish, Ginataang Salmon, is a huge slab of salmon, with its skin crisp and savory, sitting on a bed of beautifully silky coconut sauce. To balance the creaminess of the sauce, it is served with vegetables (mustasa, cherry tomatoes, stringbeans, okra, eggplant, and onion).

These two new seafood dishes are guaranteed to make Mom happy on Mother’s Day.

(Tatatito Filipino Home Kitchen is located at the Ground Floor of OPL Bldg., 100 Don Carlos Palanca St., Legaspi Village, Makati City. It is open daily—Monday to Thursday, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; and Saturday to Sunday, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. For online orders, call 0991-3005000 or order via GrabFood and foodpanda.)

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