It’s spelled Tsoko.Nut and pronounced “choco-nut,” not “choco-dot-nut.” The word, ‘Batirol,’ – also known as batidor or molinillo (photo here) – attached to the name is there to remind people that this is Pinoy tsokolate, as opposed to hot chocolate. I’ve written about the process of making tsokolate, true Filipino chocolate made from 100% cacao. Grown, roasted, and ground locally, it’s unlike any other hot chocolate drink in the world: caressed by the sun, kissed by the earth, and tasting of smoke, chocolate, and nuts. Ironically, while this drink started out as a beverage of the elite during the Spanish times, it survives today as a proud marker of our heritage, a drink for every Filipino. It’s this concept that owner Marian Romano built Tsoko.Nut on. Her nationalistic pride was bothered by the number of people in foreign coffee outlets swilling down foreign liquid that she says is, “… a taste that isn’t ours.” But the trigger was when she and her husband, Jimmy visited Max Brenner. “We tried the chocolate, we ...

Kopi Roti group photo -- I prefer the eggs without the soy sauce My Bin tells me that when he was growing up, his mom firmly believed that eggs would make him tall and strong. She’d run around the house after him with a spoon and soft boiled egg in hand screeching, “Eat this! Eat this!” It’s because of this trauma of sorts that’s responsible for my Bin’s aversion to eggs; that he married me, an avowed egg-lover, could be some kind of weird retribution. But he is tall and strong, although I don't think eggs can be attributed to that. I cook eggs at least twice a week, most often for breakfast. Whether poached, fried, or usually soft boiled, I want the whites cooked ‘til just set and the yolk very runny. It makes my Bin cringe to see me eating something that to him looks like white and yellow goo. I’ve actually been successful at getting him to eat soft-boiled eggs with me (sometimes), but he prefers them scrambled, really, as does Boo, so I’m alone on this one....

isn’t he a beaut? Over the holidays, I purchase a panini press, one of those sandwich makers with grooved metal plates. This one is from 3D, and it costs me just under P1,500. Sweet. For the more serious, there are pricier, fancier ones available from Krups and DeLonghi, starting from P6,000. For me, the best food on earth aside from dessert is bread. If butter’s around too, then all the better. Bread and butter, butter and bread. Life is good. But a sandwich is even better. Breaking in my new toy requires some serious ingredients, so I pull out the smoked meats that Ricky (Morelos) has given me. I’ve talked about Ricky before on this website, describing him as the smoked meat god. He has an incredible touch with meat, smoking it for almost a day to coax out its beefy goodness. Ricky also makes his own barbeque sauce, a vermilion, peppery affair with just enough kick to make the sides of my mouth pucker. “Don’t forget the caramelized onions, Lori,” he reminds me....

Most people I know are addicted to the prospect of an al fresco meal, and if that meal is anywhere near a body of water, then even better. Consider the proliferation of restaurants in Boracay and those right here in the city that try to conjure that outdoorsy feel. There’s something about the open air that stokes the appetite, not to mention that carefree, windblown look that comes for free. Woe to those perhaps with long manes but my hair is even shorter than most men I’ve met, so it’s not an issue for me. As the cool air carries over from the holidays, the Mandarin Oriental Manila evokes balmy evenings and that tropical feel with their version of BBQ Nights, complete with a Latin band to inject rhythm into the whole affair. Pulsing strobe lights, truncated drum beats, the sizzle of the barbeque – it’s all here in the fancifully named, “BBQ and Latin Salsa Music Under the Stars.” And the requisite body of water? Well, there's no beach, but the pool of the Mandarin is a breathtaking cerulean blue, a deep ...

A portico was the principal porch or entrance to a Greek temple possessing an expansive roof and open sides. In Manila, it’s the name of a restaurant backed by years of experience in the industry that has found a new home in Serendra. In this city’s ambitious restaurant scene, it stays ahead of the game with its cutting-edge, imaginative cuisine. Consider the house specialty, a benignly named spring tofu (P180). To lay eyes on it and then dub it a tofu omelet is doing it a great injustice. What it is, really, is blocks of soft tofu (I assume of the Japanese sort), ensconced in a fluffy omelet. Almost gossamer in texture, it’s a creamy creation the likes of which I’ve not encountered before. This dish truly deserves to be called the house specialty. Another appetizer, the shrimp cracker salad (P280) reminds me of an Indonesian salad. Dainty crisps of kropek (in Indonesian, krupuk) serve as receptacles to an edible patchwork of minced shrimp, hearts of palm (ubod), fried shallots, lemongrass (tanglad), and shredded ...

Food writers are often exhorted to “put meal to paper,” that is, to write about a meal while it’s still fresh in one’s taste memory. I stick to this rule as much as I can but sometimes… well, life happens is what, and I have no excuses. The following dessert that I’m about to describe here is something that I ate last May – yes, May 2006. Several months have passed – heck, it’s a brand new year already, and I was still shooting with my old camera, but I still remember this dessert as clearly as if I ate it just last night. I was in Cirkulo last May on assignment for one of the magazines that I write for. It was a dessert article and in the course of my research, someone mentioned that the restaurant had a very unique dessert – something with tomatoes in it and olive oil as well. Naturally, my curiosity was piqued, and since my love for dessert encompasses all types of ingredients, I was at the restaurant in a flash. It’s called Cirkulo’s olive oil ice cream sandwich (P225). It’s not ...

It was a magazine article about a private chef who’d come back from several years abroad and decided to make Manila his home. At the bottom of the page were his contact numbers and the words, “Menus begin at P2,500 per head, minimum of 6 heads.” I remember my jaw dropping and I thought, “P2,500 per head??! Is he out of his f--ing mind??!” I snorted and tossed the magazine aside. Some months later, I actually got to meet this chef and so nice was he to me that I immediately felt bad about my previous thought. But I still believed he was out of his mind to charge so much… …until the night I spent with two private chefs catering a dinner party in an upscale Makati condo. It’s an 11-course meal for seven people priced at P5,000/head. Good grief, it just gets worse, doesn’t it? Cooking tonight are Chris Bautista, the executive chef at Gourdo’s, and Farah Tolentino-Ylagan, whom I consider to be Manila’s master of foie gras. Both are trained in classical French techniques from years spent studying in Paris. They jokingly call their catering company “Farah’s ...

It's unusual for me to let more than a week go by without posting. But I've gone and done it and I offer no excuses -- okay, well maybe just a few. As I slowly climb my way out of this holiday funk that I've allowed December to leave me in, the earthquake in Taiwan has reduced my internet connection to a crawl. Yesterday, in a fit of maniacal desperation, I texted my dad that I was going to quit my website and find another day job. He texts back: "Go out and exercise. Take a deep breath and quit making such rash decisions." Nothing like hearing it from my dad to snap me out of my psychosis. As I write this post on a seemingly "faster" day, I can't help but lament how dependent I (we!) have all become on technology. Ay yay yay. Okay, enough ranting. I ask for your patience within this month, since new posts will be highly irregular. I'm working hard on a new project that I've been planning for a long time, something that I've always wanted to do. Rest assured that Dessert Comes First is not ...