Based in Manila, Philippines, Dessert Comes First is a chronicle of the food-obsessed food writer, Lori Baltazar. This website is all about desserts, restaurants, coffee, and the pleasures of homebaking. Read more about me The 10 Best Christmas Gifts to Give The Food Lover On Your List#10: One Damn Good Hot Chocolate (to drink after all the gifts have been opened)
Tue, December 26th of 2006
10:55 am
I have been remiss with this list. The haze of Christmas and the ensuing lethargy that results from too much festivity, too much eating – heck, too much of everything – has drained my energy. My computer is dying of neglect (if that’s at all possible), so resistant am I to actually plopping down in front of it to type away. Today is also Bin’s and my 9th wedding anniversary – yup, we got married the day after Christmas, crazy folk we are – so there’s more celebration later. But enough of my moaning and groaning, albeit goodheartedly. Frankly, I’m psyched to take a break from my reality and hibernate in the blissful mist that is Christmas.
One thing that’s remained constant for me throughout this holiday season is my hot chocolate. It’s the one thing that spells Christmas for me along with ensaymada (Filipino brioche) and a thick slice of ham. Because I’m more relaxed at this time of year, (at least with the food that I put into my mouth), I’ve been experimenting with different milks and sugars when making my cup of hot tsokolate. My low-fat milk has been replaced with half-and half, thick cream, evaporated milk, and whole milk. I’m also trying the range of muscovado, turbinado, and white sugar.
Fellow food writer Margaux Salcedo has also been instrumental in teaching me a few things about making a better cup of hot tsokolate. We’re better friends now since our high school days when we used to thrash each other in debates (obviously we were from opposing schools). As the owner of Nana Meng’s, a purveyor of fine native tsokolate, Margaux has done wonders in re-introducing this special drink to the younger generation and others who may have forgotten about it. Nana Meng is Margaux’s grandmother, still sprightly in her 90s, an expert in traditional Bulacan dishes and delicacies. Her Original Tsokolate Filipino is a pleasantly gritty chocolate paste redolent of nuts and the smoky earth, indeed, cacao and peanuts. Its recipe is based on the traditional Spanish chocolate adapted to the Filipino palate.
At the Nana Meng’s stall in Glorietta, the attendant serves me and Margaux a steaming cup of tsokolate. It possesses a mysterious bitterness tempered with plenty of sweetness and the rich caress of evaporated milk. As I sip, the hot liquid unfolds on my tongue in a steady rhythm, little doses of nut and intensities of chocolate. I shiver at its richness, and revel in the giddiness that I feel.
My personal favorite at Nana Meng’s is the Special Cashew Tsokolate – I admire the nut’s buttery undertones swimming in the mass of cacao. Other options include the Pure Spanish Tsokolate, the traditional Original Tsokolate Filipino, as well as the tableas, cacao “golf” balls.
One last thing: Margaux is adept at using a batidor (also batirol) to whip the cooked tsokolate into a frenzied fluff with prize-worthy froth. Me, I’ve given up trying to learn and make my froth the modern way: with an immersion blender.
Nana Meng’s Tsokolate is available at:
Glorietta IV Level 3,
2/F Market! Market! Activity Center
Salcedo Market on Saturdays
Other tsokolate posts:
A lola’s hot chocolate
Transforming Tsokolate: Thin to Thick
Duman and Tsokolate
…and the mother of all my hot chocolate posts:
My search for the best hot chocolate (in Paris)
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Hurray, first again. Mama and I just had hot Pampango chocolate this morning. I wonder whether the Bulacan tsokolate is different. Happy Anniversary darling.
[Reply]
Comment by Anonymous — December 26, 2006 @ 12:50 pm
Hot chocolate is also a part of our noche buena with my mom’s family…with ensaymada and ham too!
We usually have it after all the gifts have been opened. Glad to hear you had a good Christmas and all the best for the new year!
And belated happy anniversary
[Reply]
Comment by joey — December 26, 2006 @ 6:10 pm
Thanks, Lori, I feel honored that Nana Meng Tsokolate made it to your list! And I LOVE the pictures. Your pictures are just amazing. =)And your prose! So eloquent. (BTW i mentioned your blog again – as an inspiration, naks – in this coming weekend’s MENU (Sunday Inquirer Mag) – check it out around Monday on inq7.net/sim)
To Anonymous, Bulacan and Pampanga hot choco are the same! Both have peanuts. I don’t know though if they also practice using cashew nuts for extra special feasts in Pampanga. But using peanuts is definitely a common hot choco trait for these neighbors.
oh, i noticed your authentic tsokolatera Lori. impressive!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Anniversary, Debater! =)
All the best,
Margaux
[Reply]
Comment by Anonymous — December 26, 2006 @ 11:38 pm
this makes me want to call my lola. when we were kids, she would whip out her handy-dandy batirol and these chocolate tablets, and then make this lovely, nutty, dark hot chocolate for all us lucky grandkids. i would close my eyes and pretend to be padre damaso and co., imbibing our tsokolate eh (or was it “ah” that was good?). my cousins and i still talk about it, and would eagerly and shamelessly (it must be really tiring for her to work that batirol, but nobody else could do it as well as she does) request for it everytime we go home.
[Reply]
Comment by keith — December 27, 2006 @ 2:14 am
Our medya noche isn’t complete without hot chocolate, we always use Hershey’s. I will try Nana Meng’s chocolate this year.
Belated happy anniversary.
Wishing you the best this coming New Year.
[Reply]
Comment by Lani — December 27, 2006 @ 8:50 am
try the hot chocolate at cafe enzo inside s&r fort. its the coffee kiosk after the check out counters. its soooo good!!
[Reply]
Comment by Anonymous — December 27, 2006 @ 7:58 pm
Hello Lori –
Do you know where I can buy a batirol as well as the vessel used for cooking tableya?
Thank you, love your site!
ChocoNut
[Reply]
Comment by Chox — December 28, 2006 @ 6:21 pm
To Lori,
Let me just send you my sincere THANKS for starting this blog. It’s just wonderful. I won’t be home for the holidays, like always, but I still can keep track of the latest food trends in my home country. I hope your career in blogging will floursh in 2007 and beyond.
TNM
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Comment by Anonymous — December 31, 2006 @ 12:43 am
Gorgeous gorgeous photos. And who doesn’t love hot chocolate??
Have a very Happy New Year!
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Comment by Fiber — January 1, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
just blog hopping
nice photos and yummy chocos
i’ll linked u up ha, i hope its just ok
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Comment by jhenny — January 31, 2007 @ 3:51 am
[...] take me long to get up in the a.m., and once I’m up, I’m up. No need for coffee or even hot chocolate to get me going. Leaving for Baguio at 3 am? I’m there. Breakfast on a Sunday at 7? No problem. I [...]
Pingback by ” The Market in the Morning (An Essay in Photos) at Dessert Comes First - Dessert Comes First — March 16, 2007 @ 6:01 pm
[...] memory, although those are certainly most welcome. My chocolate holiday memory is homemade tsokolate frothed up with a hand blender just because I’m useless with a batidor. I then dunk chunks of [...]
Pingback by Contest Alert! : 3 Royce’ Gift Packs Worth P2,000 Each at Dessert Comes First - An obsession with dessert and other unabashed opinions of a food writer — December 1, 2010 @ 3:51 am
Where does one purchase a tsokolatera like the one pictured?
[Reply]
Lori Reply:
November 8th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
[Reply]
Comment by René — November 5, 2011 @ 7:07 am