Persia Grill and Banoffee during lunch out...

Lets take a break from my usual culinary school stories... I just wanted to share my experience in Persian Grill and Banoffee in Makati...

Persia Grill
Having a friend at the office who loves Persian dishes we tried out the little Persian restaurant called  Persia Grill along Valero St. Makati. The restaurant itself was cute and has its little Persian flair. I have ordered Baba Ganoush (Freshly roasted eggplant with garlic, tahini, fresh lemon and olive oil and pita bread) for starters and Chelo Kebab Kobideh (charbroiled ground beef prepared with Persian spices, fresh grilled tomato and steamed cooked long grain rice.) Overall the food was good and we had our fill. We used up a lot of the garlic sauce and hot sauces by the way.

Would I recommend it to a friend? Well its a so-so for me as I would probably recommend Cafe Medeteranian or Cyma instead. Also my friend swears that we should try Mr. Kabab next time.

Banapple
I have learned of Banapple from another office friend who brought assorted slices of Banapple's pies and cakes in the office. I really love their cakes and boy was I glad that they opened up a branch in Ayala Triangle. But contrary to their best selling banoffe pie, my favorite is the old fashioned chocolate cake. Recently I tried their holiday offering called "Banana starry-berry custard cheesecake" the cake is worthy of its tongue twisting name. Its a perfect balance of the sweetness of banana and custard with the tartness of the berries and cream cheese. Banapple also offers dishes such as hickory baby back ribs and baked fish to name a few.

Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes I will. I already visited Banapple 3x this week, if that is not proof enough of how good they are... too bad for my diet though.

Cookie Monster

 After the success of our first stint at the kitchen, last week we made cookies. We made, choco chip cookies, double choco chip cookies, chocolate crinkles, Chirstmas cookies, oatmeal and raisin cookies and tulip cookies. But before I tell you guys about the baking and making part we first had to finish our lecture in the morning. In the middle of the lecture our instructor asked who consumes more cookies than anybody? Me and my big mouth blurted out "Cookie Monster" hence the laughter inside the class. But the correct answer was the Americans. We were told that USA consumes more cookies than any other country in the world.

After the lecture we had our lunch break followed by our hands on. My group was assigned to make chocolate crinkles and tulip cookies. (For those who do not know what a tulip cookie is, this cookie is similar to the a delicate wafer cone or a krumkake) I was surprised that we finished faster in making cookies than our previous stint making muffins and banana loaf. We even have enough time to help other teams in making Christmas cookies and gingerbreads. Tomorrow we are scheduled to make bars and when they say "bars" in the baker's linggo this means brownies, blondies, food for the gods and fruit cakes to name a few. And as always I will keep you guys...(if there are people reading this) posted...  =o)

Quick Breads

Woot! Woot! Finally we are having our hands on in baking, and today's topic is Quick Breads. Pancakes, waffles, muffins, banana bread and zucchini bread all fall in that category. The ingredients and tools are ready, or again if I may use the terms I picked up from school...Mise en place.

At first it was a bit chaotic in the kitchen as we are measuring our ingredients, prepping the pans and making sure we have everything. After a few minutes we got our rhythm and things were running smoothly...well as smoothly as a class of eager excited students can be, plus the fact that half of which have their cameras. Our rhythm was temporarily broken by a visit of a "little guest" to the horror of a few of my classmates, who shrieked and jumped in the kitchen. Followed by laughter after we found out what really happened.

We have accomplished our chocolate muffins, blueberry muffins with struessle and double chocolate muffins by lunch time. We took our 1hr lunch break and discussed the next batch of goodies we are going to make, zucchini bread and banana bread.

When our chef instructor asked who wants to make the zucchini bread, well nobody really volunteered because apparently everybody wanted to make banana bread. So a few brave souls took on the task of making  zucchini bread.

Meanwhile a classmate thought that we wont have enough bananas so he asked another classmate to buy some at the supermarket across the street. The funny thing is, we end up having more bananas that we could possibly need.

Everything went smoothly as we go about doing our breads. We took a break for pictures and admiring the goodies we have made. We also have an impromptu lesson on plating and on chocolate ganache and "Lactofil". Before we knew it, it was already 5:00pm and its time to go. We have divided the goodies and say our goodbyes, and will see each other again in next week's class...    

'Will be in the kitchen next week

Wow next week will be my first month in Baking and Pastry Class, and we are finally going to be in the kitchen!!! Don't get  me wrong, it is not that I don't like the classroom setting, but for me being in the kitchen is way better! We are set to make six recipes or "formula" if you may in baker's lingo. 4 types of muffins, a banana bread and a zucchini bread. I an sooo excited!

Ooh! I just thought of something...*sigh* hopefully I wont get fat by being surrounded by tons of good pastry every week...(keeping my fingers crossed).

 P.S. Would you believe that I was elected as class president...lol!

The First day

And my culinary class has begun; although not late, I was the last one to arrive in our class. I was told that there are 11 of us but since its All Hollow's Eve only 6 of us were there. (November 1, All Saint's Day is a major holiday in the Philippines where people pay their respects to their departed loved ones)

So I have met 5 of my classmates, 3 ladies and 2 proud gays. Our instructor as we have learned used to be the head or the pastry kitchen of a famous hotel chain. He's resume seems to be impressive and knows what he is talking about. Well it better be since our culinary future is in his hands.

All in all it was an interesting orientation, I was still a bit reserved since I haven't quite know my classmates yet. It was also a bit of a bummer to find out that my next few classes sounds like all lectures and discussions. Oh well, as excited as I am with being in the kitchen; I should better put those books into good use...

All Hollow's Eve

I hope that having my firstday at the culinary school on All Hollow's eve is not an indication of things to come. I finally finished all of the paper works needed for enrollment, and hopefully my mom wont forget to pickup my uniform after her class today.

One little regret I have right now is that I wont be able to have manicures for a while. Just realized this during my Dashing Diva appointment last Wednesday... oh well just a little price to pay for good eats!  =o)

First Entry

Last October 2, 2010 I have recently enrolled myself in a baking class. Although the school has some fancy name for it I would just keep it as simple as that. A baking class. Why a baking class? Why not follow my mother’s footsteps and take up culinary class. My initial reason was simple, to get more value for our money, my mom will concentrate on the culinary class while I take the baking class. We can then just teach each other what we have learned. Simple right?

But last Sunday as I was making cookies from the box, I have realized one thing. That growing up I have learned to cook relying only on my senses. No measuring cups or spoons, only knowing that a little splash of this or a handful of that can do the trick. This method worked so well within my family, that it sometimes baffles friends when they see our family recipes as pieces of paper with only the ingredients listed and no measurements. This method that I grew accustomed to is a big no-no in baking.

In baking precise measurements and accuracy is a must, where everything must have the proper ratio. Where I must re-learn what I know about the kitchen, because my method of throw this and that in the pot would not do.

Now I have decided to create a blog to document my journey, the ups and downs, the struggles and hopefully victories of my six months of baking adventure.