Part 1 here. Part 3 here.I’m disappointed that I can’t make it to the local markets on this trip. I’m only here for two days and my schedule is tight. I’m limited to the department stores and photography is frowned upon here. So I do what any self-respecting, okay desperate, food lover will do – I take some ninja-style shots and I turn on the charm when need be to get that much-coveted photo.Each of the department stores I visit, Paragon and Emporium, have an entire floor dedicated to what they call a Gourmet Food Hall – a supermarket at the back and food stalls in the front. Sleek and clean, the space is modern and mouth watering. I’m drinking everything in; all my senses are on full alert.The Thais have mastered the art of preserving food, especially fruit and seafood. I see a lot of stalls like this where baskets upon baskets of dried fruit are on display, their colors a mosaic of reds, browns, and yellows. I spend some time admiring various kinds of dates, some still on the stem, something that I’ve never seen before....

2nd part here 3rd part here This looks like ManilaI’m in Thailand the day martial law is declared: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been ousted by the military and the TV in the airport is flashing images of tanks on the streets and soldiers brandishing machine guns. I’m anxious about the political situation but all is quiet and relatively normal. It’s a holiday and shops are open. People are milling about like nothing’s happened. I overhear an Indonesian colleague of my Bin saying: “My god, the Thais are such a peaceful people. If there had been a coup in Indonesia, people would be protesting and burning tires in the streets!”Seeing that I won’t have to resort to lounging beside the pool, I’m out of the hotel and on to the BST or Sky Train, the city’s extremely efficient mode of mass transportation. Thailand is roughly the size of France (514,000 square kilometers), possessing a wide range of topography. The largely benign climate blesses the country with a wide range of spectacular fruits and vegetables. Truly, the produce here is eye-catching and mouth-dropping: custard apples (atis) larger than ...

Once again, I’ll be out of the country (in this case, the Philippines) for the rest of the week, so all will be quiet here. As always, all destinations are kept secret. Ah, enigma.

The food writing industry in Manila is very small. It’s a group of people who maintain columns in the larger newspapers, are editors of publications, and then there are the free-lancers, which is where I belong. Because it’s a small group, we all know each other at least on an acquaintance-level, if not just by face.Tonight, we’re at a press dinner at Mi Piace to meet The Peninsula Manila’s new Italian Executive Chef, Massimo Veronesi.Milling around during cocktails, I nibble on the goat cheese and prosciutto on crostini. I sip my champagne and as I lay the glass down on the table, the light from the candle casts a haunting glow on it. Suddenly I hear a whisper: “You know how you can tell if it’s champagne or just Asti?”That’s J, daughter of a renowned gourmand and member of a wine and food society for women. She taps my glass. “Champagne bubbles continuously and the finer the bubbles, the finer the champagne is.” I nod, now enlightened.“So is this new chef cute?” Someone asks.“Well, he’s not as cute as Michele (Mi Piace’s former ...

Bacolod chicken inasalTeaching 4-year old Boo how to recognize the letters of the alphabet is an exercise in culinary creativity. Simply because she is my daughter and judging from our frequent arguments over who gets the last siopao, it’s obvious that she’s inherited the family “nobility”: an unabiding love for food.Not content to teach her that “A” is for apple and “B” is for boy, I’ve come up with different foods to refer to each letter of the alphabet. Thus, “A” is for ampalaya (bitter melon, a vegetable I love to loathe); “B” is for Boo (the only non-food reference in our culinary alphabet); “C” is for chocolate, and so on.My little foodie in training has three favorite letters in the alphabet: KFC (and I know that I don’t have to tell you what they stand for.) For Boo, when it comes to food, chicken is tops, preferably fried. Speaking of this fine, feathered fowl, there’s another kind of chicken that she likes.JT’s Manukan is a roadside stall in Quezon City. Like other food stalls of its kind, the ...

homemade chai teaIt’s all Christine’s fault, really. There I am innocently browsing through my favorite food blogs early Sunday morning and not really expecting to find anything. Then I chance upon her post on masala chai tea, or chai tea. So poetic is her recounting of sipping chai tea at London’s Camden Market and feeling at bliss with the world, that soon I feel that I need a cup of chai. Thank goodness I still have the rest of the day to hunt down the ingredients for it!Chai tea is an aromatic spiced tea from India. A blend of several spices – cloves, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and pepper – it’s a mixture nuanced only by the individual’s taste and preference. The spice blend is added to a boiling pot of loose-leaf tea and milk is often added. It’s a drink that I believe, eases and empowers. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s chai teaWhile chai tea itself is centuries old, I was only introduced to it when Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf ...

It’s a most compelling store that rivets my attention and holds it until I walk inside and browse. Every time I go in here I come out several hundred pesos poorer, but immeasurably richer in terms of spice wealth and knowledge gleaned.Spices ‘n Flavours is a new food store that’s tempting and tantalizing Manila’s food lovers. Owned by Carmen Ragas and Claudine Mangasing, the store is a fortune of food finds with a spice selection unparalleled in this country. Fetchingly displayed on ascending shelves are bottles and bottles of dried spices and seasoning blends, both the common and the more unusual: long stemmed dried chilies, galangal leaves, kaffir lime, Greek seasoning, salt-free seasoning blends, 5-spice powder, a trio of peppercorns, assorted marinades, rice vinegars, green peppers in brine, Iranian saffron, the esteemed Herbes de Provence, and that’s just for starters.“It was actually the Ayalas (owners of Market! Market!) who came up with the idea,” Claudine begins. “They wanted something similar to the Turkish spice markets where everything ...

Sigh. Pie. I love to make it, eat it, talk (write) about it. But making pie is laborious, especially since there’s the task of having to mix the dough together, roll it out, and then letting it “rest” in the fridge so that it achieves its flakiest, most tender potential.Sometimes when I’m most craving for pie, I’m just too darn lazy to make a crust, and no way am I going to make pie without a crust, for then it couldn’t be called “pie,” now could it? So I make a cobbler.Cobblers are a part of the family of homey desserts served in deep casseroles with dough atop and bubbling fruit underneath. Other family members include crisps (American) and crumbles (British) – deep-dish pies with a crumb or streusel topping; cobblers, which are topped with a biscuit or rich butter dough; and shortcakes, open-faced biscuits slathered with fruit and cream (hello, strawberry shortcake!). nectarines and plumsIn the supermarket, stone fruits such as green, red, or purple plums as well as nectarines have been making an appearance, so ...