Having escaped the heat at home for the past few weeks, it is back to more home stay for me. Yesterday was a Friday and my youngest and I went to this burger place outside BF Homes for lunch. We didn't get the biggest one as no way can we devour that, and the point of the trip was to try the burger and what made it a hit, and the price was just right. She ordered one of the classic burgers and I had a hotdog.
So after enjoying and scrutinizing lunch, the verdict is, great and yet, the patty has extenders that is why it is soft and the onions are sweated not caramelized as those should be browned. The fries are good as those were made from real potatoes and the brown sauce dip of the hamburger was not necessary.
Dinner today was hamburger made from ground beef with the addition of a tablespoon of the McCormick hamburger seasoning that I won. The yield of half a kilo of ground beef that costs 102 pesos can make 6 medium patties without extenders. If I will extended with the use of soft bread crumbs, per piece of bread can add one more patty and the results would be a softer burger. Note that placing eggs or flour as binders makes burgers tough. The right way to make a burger is with pure ground beef, forming it into a ball then flattening it to become a patty. Burgers are flipped only once while cooking and if the ground beef is excellent, it may be placed on a plate after cooking and covered with a heavy plate for around 5 minutes so that the juices to come out which is the secret of preparing a steak before serving.
Instead of making french fries, I boiled those small potatoes that cost 36 pesos a kilo, scrubbing these clean and leaving the peel on and then frying it in a little butter. Chopped parsley may be added to the butter while cooking the potatoes for it to look and taste gourmet.
After our Friday lunch, I went to my usual hangout to see friends then to the coffee shop, lingering until after 9 pm so that I may see my daughter at her work place and she treated me out. Checkpoint Rock Bar at Metro Star Mall serves the real Vigan bagnet with the correct siding and it's only 150 pesos. Each bite provides the perfect crunch and a variety of texture as there is the skin that pops like chicharon, the soft fat, and the dark brown meat with the incomparable goodness when it comes to flavor. Right now I have no stock of bagnet at home and though I can make bagnet, it is work intensive so at this price, it's actually far better to just to eat bagnet at Checkpoint as the meat serving is large and you'll be wanting extra rice!
My daughter and I chatted at the 3rd floor terrace after dinner as there was a rock awards event and the music was loud, of course, and the place was getting full.
I did have lunch at my usual hangout today, June 6, but skipped having a couple of scoops of ice cream with cone as this has been my "summer treat" lately as I decided to buy ice cream for the house as there was mocha in the 3 plus 1 ice cream and mocha was my Dad's favorite flavor, even if he is no longer around, as there was a time that we went hunting for mocha ice cream and there was none to be found! To make eating the ice cream more interesting, I have made available the almond slivers, chopped peanuts, mini-marshmallows, and semi-sweet chocolate chips which I use for baking and there are fresh mangoes also to use instead of bananas. If requested to make chocolate sauce, it'll just take a few minutes to make by mixing cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and milk.
Happy as the lava brownies I made for the coffee shop are nearly all gone and our chocolate chip cookies are becoming a hit again and I was thrilled as these two dudes were having these with their iced coffee and they said it was delicious! As I see the cookie stock getting depleted, it makes me remember the years that those cookies made us enough income on school days and I am excited as there are a lot of my kids friends who miss our cookies and now they can buy these once again at Barako Haus near Pizza Hut, BF Homes!
Reserved for Cookie Monster
The challenge after eating out is to try to replicate the dishes at home. There are a lot of food items that I cannot cook though American dishes are easy to make. Cooking at home is cheaper and one can eat well, to the point that the food may be made to be gourmet even on a budget but there are restaurants that you can go to that has great food for less than 200 pesos such as Checkpoint in BF Homes and Samu Eats at Z-compound, Malingap St, Teacher's Village, QC, the Japanese restaurant of my daughter, Timi, that has been getting rave reviews.
Pork Katsu Bento
Beef Ramen Curry
And, of course, to chill on those night outs, as drinking at home is a no-no for me, I do love going to Metrowalk in Ortigas to hang out at Fluids bar for a couple of cold beers like what my daughter, Maxi and I did on Thursday.
Stepping out to eat and drink is great and yet, keep in mind that eating well at home doesn't have to be gourmet. There are a lot of good food that you can make. Click this link to learn how to make perfect sunny-side up, scrambled, and boiled eggs.
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