Innovative cooking contest

Recently we spent half a day at the San Miguel Purefoods Culinary Center in Ugong, Pasig, with the gracious Maricel and her staff of young but efficient chefs.

There we were introduced to an innovative cooking competition dubbed as “My Sunday’s Best Recipe Contest”.

Members of the San Miguel Great Food Club were encouraged to take videos of themselves cooking dishes that they are proud to serve for their Sunday meals.

After going through a screening process, the top ten entries will qualify for on-line voting. Everyone can vote by logging on to www.mygreatfood.com. Voting period starts August 8, and ends on the 21st.

The top five will be considered finalists and will compete in a cook-off to be held on September 17 at the San Miguel Head Office complex. P25,000 and other prizes are at stake for the top winner. A lucky voter will also get a prize of P5,000. Log on and vote now.

Also on that day, our friend Gwenn of Anvil handed us much-appreciated magazines and a cook book – Nora Daza’s latest, titled “Festive Dishes, with family and friends”, Bay Books’ “New Asian Cooking” and “Tasty Low-Fat Recipes.”

Nora’s book is autobiographical, going back to her great-great grandparents, focusing on their culinary ventures, as well as Nora’s many travels that have influenced her career as a food master. Among the many cookfests she has graced are those which flew her around the region with Maya of Liberty as a major sponsor.

Sad that the book did not credit Cathay Pacific Airways, which for at least four years flew her and the “Great Maya Cookfest” winners to Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta and Thailand for memorable culinary exchanges.

The two magazines carry recipes produced and double kitchen tested by a group working under the Confident Cooking umbrella.

We are not aware whether they had Filipino consultants or if they wanted to inject new tastes and elements into the recipes, especially those from the Philippines.

In the Asian collection, oxtail and vegetable stew, which presumably is our kare-kare considering the ingredients, is done with soy sauce and sweet potatoes and served without bagoong. We thought this could pass for a mix of kare-kare and cocido.

To the chicken adobo, coriander and annatto seeds, paprika and chicken stock were added. The annatto seeds are placed on top of the serving plate – perhaps for aesthetic effect? We plan to try these two recipes at home and find out how they taste.

Two of our usual stops while waiting for an appointment in the Alabang area are French Baker on the ground level of the South Supermarket and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at the Alabang Town Center. At the former we found their newest loaf – white sourdough bread for P46 per. At the latter, brewed coffee is our choice beverage which we take with a piece of biscotti that is full of nuts (each for P45, while the coffee, depending on the blend, has different prices). Service at both places is commendable.

Organika, producers of the original vegetable juices, has extended their line to include other organically-produced items. Among these are farm-bred and raised eggs at P70 a box, dressed chicken for P220 per, chicken gourmet with herbs for P350 each and organic pork at P320 a kilo.

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