Impressive Campus

Not quite fully done, but the new home of Enderun Colleges on McKinley Hill (1100 Park Avenue) in Taguig, has already impressed us. It is an ideal place for learning – new buildings spread out on a multi-hectare land, quiet, and far from the usually busy avenues of The Fort.

It has been designed to project a township, encouraging interaction within the community. Classic exteriors of the buildings represent different eras of Asian colonial architecture, adapting European old world elegance and fusing it with Asian cityscape. Inside the buildings, one is awed by the modern facilities, the latest in learning technology. With such an environment, and tutored by some of the masters in the culinary and business world, how can one not graduate with full knowledge of the specific career he or she wants to pursue?

It was at the Culinary Center, located in the heart of the campus, that we culminated our recent tour of Enderun, where aspiring chefs are trained not only to be cooks but managers as well. The training kitchens are constructed according to the specifications of Alain Ducasse, a celebrated French chef. The school expects their graduates to be industry leaders.

We were enlightened on some management tips by Dr. Lance Masters, Provost and COO. One useful tip was to listen to your market.

We had fun and were challenged by the entertaining Alex Jureeratana, the institute’s executive director of Food and Beverage with regard to matching wines with specific food. In the end, he said the rule fish and chicken with white wine and red with meat is now being ignored. Rather, choosing one’s preferred wine regardless of the dish is what is being followed.

The session with the young French chef, Marc Chapolin, in one of the training kitchens, whetted our appetite as it was nearly lunch time. Marc produced a delicious filet de bar a la seoise, sole with aioli sauce and pistou. He prepared the fish stock with onions, olive oil, fish bones and parsley in water. He peeled the potatoes in a most unique way, producing small oval shapes. This and carrots, plus garlic, were cooked in a steamer then blended. The fish was steamed, then topped with aioli and pistou (blended parmesan cheese, basil, garlic, pine nuts, anchovies and olive oil). Great dish, really. Enderun is now offering a four-year course in Business Management (BSBA) .

Now, for those not wanting to go through such complicated food preparation, Knorr recently introduced the Real Sarap all-in-one seasoning mix, packed in .25 ounce packets, priced at P2.50 per. We must confess that, at times, we have to resort to quick fixes like this one. It is a great help when one is pressed for time or when some people suddenly knock on your door at meal time. The “enhancers” here are garlic, celery and parsley. We rubbed Real Sarap on the fresh pampano we bought and indeed it gave the fish special flavor.

Do you have the energy to run through three supermarkets in about three hours? We did this last week at the SM North EDSA Complex and we had fun. We visited the Hypermart which has live fish and the usual breaded meat. We were attracted to the array of cut potatoes.

The main building that houses the department stores and other outlets has the expanded supermarket. Trust SM to sell some items at much lower price. Chicken is tagged at P108 a kilo, ox tail at P174, lean ground pork for P142, beef (caldereta cut) at P189 and beef shank at P183. There are mangoes for P38 for half a kilo and avocado for P23. Salad tomatoes are now in season.

Our last stop was Save More, where we found saba for our la oya.

A question from a foodie friend: “Is there really enough supply of LPG?” She did not have a tank for quite a while – long after a particular public servant announced the supply could meet demands. Is lying now endemic for these people?

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