Preparing for the holidays

Want to impress your family and friends during the coming holiday season? Do something extraordinary, enroll in a cooking class and learn new tricks in the kitchen other than recipes. There’s a new chef, a young chap from Switzerland, Stefan Trepp, 27, who is conducting Gourmet Cooking Lessons at the Mandarin Oriental Manila on 23 Sept., 21 Oct. and 18 Nov. Catch one of these and surprise everyone. Stefan also suggests the proper wines to go with the dishes he prepares, from appetizer to dessert.

We were among the lucky ones at a preview of his show and we were delighted that he works with easy commentary, a lot of times referring to his mother (yes, ladies, he is single) and does magic with gourmet dishes infused with Asian influences. We found nearly all of them refreshingly perfect for a tropical country like ours. He presented a very easy to prepare menu which in his words "would allow the hostess-cook to relax and enjoy conversation at the dinner table". He does this by preparing some of the things a day before or a few hours before serving. If prepared a day before, the food must be refrigerated. That’s something we have adopted for quite sometime now.

We never like mangoes any other way except ripe, sweet and served fresh on its own. But Stefan did a lemongrass and coconut infused salmon ceviche with mango-chili salsa to balance the fish taste. What came out was a soothing starter that whetted our appetite. He had a masterpiece in his confit of duck with Asian spices and herbs (lemongrass, rosemary, thyme) on vanilla risotto. But you can substitute other premium rice varieties.

Here are some pointers we got from the young chef. When using coriander for marinade, do not chop, put it in whole, as those little pieces of leaves would render the final dish unattractive. When buying salmon, get the center part, it is the best for flavor and texture. To peel sweet chili, steam in hot water, cover until you can take the skin off. You get the best from lemongrass when you pound it. Be careful with egg yolks for Crème Brulee, too much will make it crack. To "cook to the rose" is to get the right consistency for the brulee, such as when a wooden spoon is removed from the pan after dipping it into the mixture, ripples in the form of a rose will form as one blows on it. Quite poetic.

Speaking of eggs, you hardly find them really big these days. What are labeled as large are actually medium. Our suki Rene and Carrie from the BF market tell us that the weather has something to do with this. However, they always manage to have the premuin size, which they sell at P52 a dozen. We did not realize that the price of eggs has gone up so drastically. In a supermarket we frequent, they go as high as P58 a dozen. But still, having an egg as ulam is much cheaper.

Back to dining. Spiral is perhaps the most ideal name for the newly re-furbished coffee shop at the Philippine Plaza Hotel in the Cultural Center area on Roxas Boulevard. It gives diners an escalating high as they go meandering around the humongous buffet area. We could not count how many courses are offered. There must have been a hundred or more. There’s a wide choice from appetizers and salads to dimsum, sushi, roast lamb, noodles, and many, many more. We concentrated on the succulent lamb and had our fill of dessert, but we skipped the very tempting halo-halo.

Pre-holiday bazaars and tiangges have started to mushroom all over. We visited that one on Cuenca in Ayala Alabang. Late as we were, we only saw the carcass of a roast calf. We picked up a flyer from Hero, producers of processed meats which is open to franchising. Their product range includes sausages (Hungarian, schubligs, hotdogs), packed corned beef, pork tapa and tocino plus sweet ham and bacon. Their factory outlets are in Quezon City (tel no. 712-9833) and Antipolo. So far they supply only Anna-Lyns in Alabang and Jomaz Family Mart in Malate.

Friends have complained about receiving mail that have been opened prior to delivery. We have just been victimized. We got a letter from Australia with a torn end. This was from the Silang (Cavite) post office. If the culprit was expecting money, he/she must have been so disappointed. There was none. However, we know of someone who lost US$500 in a letter from America. Can the postmasters be more vigilant and be held responsible?

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