Passion for food evolves into food enterprise

Hurry up – cost of every food item is escalating fast. There are hardly any promos in stores but only regular prices remain.

We met Kayen Zialcita a few years ago at a public relations meeting to promote a then emerging pizza chain. We lost contact with her until the wedding of our niece and her cousin. Early on we discerned a passion for food in her. This was expected, as she comes from a family where tables were/are always laid out with delicious food. Soon the Burp ladies emerged, converting their home kitchen into a thriving enterprise. Since then the Burp-Excuse Me team of four sisters have become a thriving enterprise – with Kayen and Ditas baking to fill their increasing orders, while Mench and Mimit have been producing exquisite food, culled from a collection of heirloom recipes.

At Christmas time, expectedly, their kitchen hums with the sound of chopping, cutting and slicing multiple ingredients. There is a massive movement of grilling, roasting and baking. This Christmas they have special offerings which could be assembled into elegant trays. Some of the recipes have been tweaked, such as sinigang na lechon or sinigang na hamon.

Of the pasta selection, since we are a truffle fanatic, we suggest the mushroom and truffle oil lasagna or, if you are true blooded Filipino, the pansit palabok two ways might be good for you. Then there is the TRK (tinapa, red eggs and keso) noodles. You cannot go wrong with their callos con chorizo or, for meat, the Korean inspired beef kalbi jim. They also have Wagyu and mushroom burger steaks.

For pork fanatics, you can order pork steak pepitos and pork tenderloin salpicao. This is unusual because normally salpicao is cooked with beef. There’s a combination of tokwa and lechon kawali among the pork dishes.

If seafood is your pleasure, the prawns are grilled with anchovies and capers. There are still so many courses to choose from. Salads and vegetable dishes include artichoke salad with bacon vinaigrette, arugula and walnut salad and baked broccolli and cauliflower casserole.

Hurry up – cost of every food item is escalating fast. There are hardly any promos in stores but only regular prices remain. Sadly we missed the buy-1-take-1 lamb chops sale. They are now on regular price of more than P1,000 a kilo.

Christmas is just a little over a week away. Let us endeavor to have a loving celebration among family and friends.

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