Kaya Toast + Kopi Roti

I suddenly mustered the courage to prepare the food that I've been salivating to eat. While in SG, I was facinated by two foodies - laksa and kaya. A couple of days ago, I read from one excellent food blog that Bread Talk in Malaysia serves kaya bun, and then just the other day I read from an equally great blog that kaya toast is being served in Kopi Roti in Mall of Asia. My salivary glands began to work overtime. I could have easily gone to MOA but the adventurist in me affirmed that I can make a good bottle of kaya (wishful thinking). So on an overcast Saturday afternoon, I tugged the bf to the nearby Rustan's supermarket to buy the ingredients - eggs, sugar, salt, and coconut milk.








Armed with an anonymous recipe from the internet, and another one from Chubby Hubby, I started to follow the procedures by heart, which to my surprise, were so darn easy...or so i thought. The end product of this brave attempt? Yummy, actually, (even my officemates think so, too!) and the taste is reminiscent of the kaya toast we had at the airport, only the texture isn't as good. My kaya never made it to the jam state, instead, it turned into some sort of flan-ish mixture minus the wobbly form. It was like a soft, fluffy, greenish, scrambled egg in texture. What's puzzling to me, though, is the greenish color of the kaya without even a drop of pandan essence, hmmm...At least it tasted like kaya, hehehe...and what better way to serve it than to slap it on a toast with lots of butter, served with soft boiled eggs, and a home made cowboy kopi roti (generous tablespoons of condensed milk + black coffee) to wash down all the carbs, ahhh, life.

Fancy Puto

Puto is a staple meryenda food for Pinoys. I toyed with the idea of fancying it up to mimic a cupcake. You know, like Sonja’s cupcakes that everybody is raving about. I’ve yet to visit Sonja’s at the Serendra in The Fort, but I will one of these days. For the moment, I tried making my own buttercream puto to compensate my cupcake craving. The result, yummy! The downside, buttercream puto can’t be served hot. Anyhoo, this is just okay since cupcakes with frostings aren’t served hot either.



Puto (makes 22 medium-sized puto)





2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tbsp baking powder
1 ½ cups milk
1 ½ tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
grated cheese
add a drop of yellow food color if desired



Mix all dry ingredients and set aside. Beat eggs and mix with milk and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients until mixture is soft and creamy. Pour into greased muffin pan and steam for 5-10 minutes. Remove puto from the mold and cool.





Buttercream Frosting (enough to lightly cover 22 puto)







½ stick butter
½ cup sugar
¼ cup milk



Beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar and milk, and continue beating until mixture forms spikes. If you don’t have an electric mixer (like me) a good old wire whisk will do (with extra effort of course).

random weeks

I've been out of commission for the past weeks because work has been toxic. I've just juggled simultaneous projects (three in all!) and it left me leaving the office at three in the morning, sigh. Two of them were already put to bed, while I'm still wrestling for the last one to see finalization.



A lot has happened since my temporary hiatus. The biggest of them all is typhoon Millenyo. Scary, I tell you. I watched neighbors scamper after their roof and walls, watched my non-functioning cable tv wire frantically wave at me from its harness, watched my front gate gather floodwater decorated with a motley of debris consisting mainly of plastics, tree branches, broken glass, cast iron, and anything and everything that a 200kph howling wind can ever throw out of its course. Even the ten-year old mango tree in our Paranaque home was uprooted and landed on our neighbor's roof of all places. Yeah, a casualty charged against us, huhuhu. But to top it all off, the 3-day total darkness! It was so stone-age backward. I'm glad I kept myself sane and didn't start killing myself in the process. I've got to give credit to all Filipinos for pulling through the rough times as always, as ever. I hope everybody is safe!




On to a lighter note...me and my food trip buddies went wild on a binging spree despite work. Since I've yet to get past my disappointment over Sorabol, I've managed to sway our small crew to favor Korean food instead of fusion (if Cafe Ago-go serves such). We braved Meralco Avenue and headed toward Yedang. It was authentic and filling korean dining for us, and definitely way over the league of my first korean foray at Sorabol. The Bibimbop (P250) was so tasty just as it was satisfying for 2 people. And the bulgogi (P300 -P400) was really a feast of meat for us that it barely fit on our table grill. Not to mention, the greens consisting of lettuce and spinach, were abundant, complementing the exciting miscellany of side dishes that go with the bulgogi. Sadly, no pictures of the food this time as we didn't expect to be food tripping on a hectic work week. We promised to go back, though, can't wait.




We also tried the now famous JT's Manukan (of course the initials stand for Joel Torre, the actor) at Granada corner Valencia Streets in Ortigas Avenue, with Mr. JT himself seeing that his customers eat well. I may be too tired to even notice how special JT's inasal is, as I munch on my pecho with a dash of chicken oil, but my foodtrip buddie, Ercel, swore that it was the best chicken she's tasted so far...compared to Chicken Bacolod's, anyways. No picture again, as we were too busy with our spoons and forks (and bare hands!) to even use our phone camera. Just this for now, back to work :(

Happy W-Day Erwin and Tin!

This is one of the nicest, most adorable, ideal weddings I've attended. I fell in love with the motiff, the church, the ambiance...and the looong buffet table, haha!



First off, I can't believe we can actually change clothes at the Holiday Inn (former Galleria Suites) without so much fuss about reserving a room or ordering from the bar or anything, hehehe, nice. But still, we arrived late at the St. James The Great Parish Church in Ayala Alabang even if Pencil drove wildly like he's rushing us to the hospital. Too bad we missed Erwin's march. After a solemn ceremony and the not to be missed photo sessions, we went to the reception at the Palms Country Club and got entertained by the couple's emcee. Officemates say she's DJ Crystal from one of the local FM stations, erm...I really can't recognize her...Anyhoo, The couple looked
perfect together that we can't help but adore them and smile all through out the program.












I am beginning to love weddings!