Exciting Things in Store for Filipino Dishcrawls...and Tocino Truffles!

Hi everyone!

If you haven't been to one of our Dishcrawls, what are you waiting for? Before I go into the next one coming up on Thursday, the 24th, I want to just touch upon the last one we had in January.

Dishcrawl #3 was at Mercury Lounge and Chef Dom was brave enough to ask me to help him in the kitchen. The day before and afternoon of the dinner, Bub and I went to Mercury to help prepare a few of the courses, including the "ukoy" and TOCINO TRUFFLES! "Tocino" is sweet cured pork from the Philippines and it is usually served at breakfast. Say the word "pork" and most people start smiling. Say the word "chocolate" and they start drooling. Say the term "pork with chocolate" and people go nut-so.

This whole thing started as a Facebook status turned big opportunity to make gourmet desserts. Chef Dom taught us how to make these salty sweet treats and they are beyond easy! As you will notice, I am not giving specifics on measurements. Why? I hate measurements.

Ingredients:

- Good chocolate
- Heavy cream
- Philippine sea salt
- Cooked and minced tocino

The trick is to weigh out the chocolate and heavy cream equally. Example: 12 ounces chocolate? Pour out 12 ounces of cream. Make sure you 0 out the scale with the container on it. After you measure out the chocolate and cream, heat the cream just until it starts to boil. Immediately take it off the heat as it will boil over if you don't...it happened to us. Lesson learned.

We tried making the truffle mixture in two ways:

1) Melting the chocolate once over a double boiler and adding the hot cream
2) Adding the hot cream to the unmelted chocolate chips


We liked the 2nd method more as the consistency smoother. We stirred the cream and chocolate until thoroughly combined, poured the mixture in a shallow sheet pan, then sprinkled on the minced tocino and sea salt. Add as much meat and salt to your liking, but make sure to let each ingredient shine. Plus who wants extra salty chocolates? THEN CHILL! It will be the longest couple of hours of your life. If you're impatient like I was, stick it in the freezer.


Once the mixture is set (not hard), put on some gloves (trust me, you want the gloves), take out a cookie scooper (for uniform-sized truffles) and ingredients to roll them in. We used cocoa powder and graham cracker crumbs, and I've also seen powdered sugar used. Voila! Truffles! Now wasn't that easy?!


I apologize for the lack of pictures as they are difficult to take when you have cocoa powder all over your hands. My friend Arnold of Inuyaki took some great pictures of the meal, take a peek here!

It was so great to see and hear the reaction of the diners when they ate the tocino truffles. If only they knew how easy they are to make!


Photo by Arnold of Inuyaki
Here is a video recap of the 12-course dinner produced by our lovely videographer Dianne Deguzman:

Filipino Dishcrawl at Mercury Lounge from dishcrawl on Vimeo.

If you like to read, here is the recap that Tracy Lee wrote as well as Dishcrawl's Facebook album.

Here is the SF Weekly piece that Jun Belen wrote. BTW, have you seen Jun's blog? It's one of my FAVORITE blogs of ALL TIME. He writes beautifully and his photographs are breathtaking.


Tracy, Chef Dom, and myself
Photo courtesy of Dishcrawl
Thank you to everyone who made the night possible, especially Tracy, Chef Dom, and my husband Keaton. It was quite a rush in the kitchen and I had a great time!

**************************************************************************************************

Dishcrawl #4 at Intramuros is coming fast
on Thursday, February 24th!

Don't fret, there is STILL time to get your tickets!

CLICK HERE NOW TO RESERVE A SEAT!

***************************************************************************************************
Dishcrawl #5 at ???? on ????

Tracy and I are currently scheming with a great restaurant on the Peninsula. Want to find out where it is? You're just going to have to attend the Dishcrawl on the 24th to get your answer!

Dishcrawl has certainly grown in the last few months. We are hitting up New York, San Francisco, Montreal, San Jose, and South San Francisco all in one week! Call it a GLOBAL DISHCRAWL. It's so great to organize these types of events. How can you go wrong with food and new friends, right?!

Hope to see your gorgeous faces at one soon!

xoxo,
Jo

Kulinarya Cooking Competition 2010 - Innovative Filipino Cuisine Takes the Stage

Event: Kulinarya: A Filipino Culinary Showdown
Venue: City View at the Metreon, SOMA, SF
Date: December 14, 2010

Jo says: I’m sorry for the tardiness of this event recap. I can’t believe I haven’t posted this yet! Better late than never, I say. Besides, it was too great of an event not to post about it. Enjoy. Believe me, you will be hungry from the pictures of the fabulous and innovative interpretations of Filipino food.

I love events like this one.

Filipino food is something I live for. Something I want to promote. Something I want everyone to try at least once in their lifetime.

When I saw this event promoted in Twitter, I knew I had to go to it. It’s like Iron Chef for Filipino cooks!


This was the final competition. A semi-finals cook-off was held in August and the top 3 from each the amateur and professional divisions were competing at this event housed at the City View in the Metreon. I saw the flier and was absolutely happy to see Uncle Clem as one of the finalists. I met Uncle Clem and his adorable family at the Asian Culinary Forum’s Adobo Cook-Off in May. I had also met Aileen Suzara, another one of the other amateur competitors, on Halloween at Filipeanut’s Halloween party! To see familiar faces there was just great.


Franco Finn hosting the event
By the time I arrived, the competition had already begun. Sorry, I was running on Filipino time. Blame it on the PapaHobo burrito! The amateur competition was up first and here are two examples of what each cook created:


Clemente “Uncle Clem” Escopete
Left: Fish Relleno
Right: His Famous Adobo Bicolano

Aileen Suzara
Left: Aileen’s Soup
Right: Chicken Binakol

Nathan Camba
Left: Kang Kong Fingers
Right: Ginumis with Langka

The Amateur Champion!
Nathan Camba, only 19 years old, was the winner of the Amateur Division! He won a trip to the Philippines with a culinary tour of the islands. Such talent at only 19!

The Professional Competition was particularly exciting because of the caliber of these chefs’ skills.


Sisig by Kristela Nazario Mendoza

Cream of Sweet Corn, Crab Meat, and Moringa Leaves
Cornelio “Cocoy” Ventura III

Kinilaw Na Tuna
Edgar Grajo
I was blown away by the adobo round.
One dish, varying ingredients, but all Filipino.


Chicken Adobo
Kristela Nazario Mendoza

Green Papaya and Chestnut Adobo
Cocoy Ventura

Adobo Trio: Pork Belly, Squid, and Chicken
Edgar Grajo

The Winner of the Professional Division
Chef Edgar Grajo
While the other competitors brought their A-Game, in the judges' eyes Chef Grajo went above and beyond. Let’s visit his other dishes:


Fish Escabeche

Halo Halo De-Constructed
I fell in love with Edgar’s interpretations - they were just too gorgeous!


The Display Table
Before Everyone Ravaged It Post-Competition

Ron, Uncle Clem, and Auntie Ofie
Uncle Won a Trip to Hawaii
Like I mentioned before, I met Uncle Clem and his family at ACF’s Adobo Throwndown. I was so happy to see him compete again! His food is incredible and Ron is lucky to have a father who can cook so well!

Bonus - watch Uncle Clem and Ron make their famous chicken adobo
on Adobo Nation's Kusina Busina:




Aileen and Ron
Momma won a trip to Manila!
Aileen and Ron are such a great couple! You can find Aileen on her blog at Kitchen Kwento and Ron at Kulintronica. Such talented people of my generation. =)

Bonus - Listen to Aileen describe Chicken Binakol herself:




Albert, Fred, Rex, and I
Rex what size is your pun-tee?!
We just had to. Rex is a legend in the comedy scene and I’ve been a fan for over a decade. Great to meet him (again).


Kulinarya Magazine
So this was the magazine that was printed as a precursor to the event. It was distributed on December 2 as an insert of the San Francisco Examiner. I was thrilled to be a part of it.


I’m in page 15!

If you want to read the “unedited” version of my piece, please CLICK HERE.
It was exciting to be part of this event and the turnout was great. The audience was pumped to see the remarkable food that came out of the kitchen. For me, I was glad I went. I met such wonderful people and gifted cooks that day. I can only hope that Kulinarya will have another event like this in 2011.

Filipino food defintiely is ready for it’s close-up!

Special thanks and shouts to those I got to see and supported me at the event:

Fred Briones and the Briones Family of I Love Sisig, Albert of Filipeanut, Jun of Jun Blog, LeRoid of Attic Restaurant, Chef Dom of Mercury Lounge, Aileen of Kitchen Kwento, Ron of Kulintronica, Uncle Clem and the Escopete Family of Uncle Clem’s Food

To find contestant bios and more information about Kulinarya, please go to their website by clicking HERE.

xoxo,
Jo

Namu - In for the REAL Thing

Restaurant: Namu
Address: 439 Balboa Street at 6th Avenue, Inner Richmond, SF
Phone Number: (415) 386-8332
Cuisine: Asian
Date Last Visited: January 2011
Dining Partner: Bub

Namu, oh, Namu. Namu is one of those restaurants that I have been meaning to visit for the longest time. I was blessed to attend a dinner prepared by them in 2009 and I have made numerous visits to their stand at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market at the Embarcadero. One day, I thought to myself, “Enough is enough” and called Bub to inform him that we were having dinner there that night. I am so happy we did.

Banchan
Korean Small Plates
I love the little dishes that come out to accompany the food. Each of them had their own flavor and were quite refreshing. It was only a couple of years ago that I was introduced to kim chee. Ever since that first acidic, almost putrid bite, I was HOOKED. I love the crunch and spiciness. A Korean meal would be incomplete without kim chee, so whenever I get short ribs, or kalbi, this MUST be alongside or I am not happy.

The second dish was made with Napa cabbage - little nuggets of goodness and the third was seasoned mung bean sprouts. I predicted that the sprouts would be Bub's favorite and they didn't fail us. I don't even like mung bean sprouts and I enjoyed these.

All delicious.


Korean Short Rib Tacos
Rice, Nori, and Tomatoes with a Kim Chee Remoulade
I remember the first time I had these last year at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. They were little tacos of heaven. Packed with flavor from the meat, seaweed, and sauce. These are a must-try whether at the market or the restaurant. You can't say these are the neatest things to eat, but don't worry, your fingers will appreciate the licking.


Rice Powder Crusted Tofu
Garlic Ginger Dashi and Pickled Red Onions
The texture is very reminiscent of agedashi tofu, but with way more flavor from the dashi they are sitting on. “Dashi” is basically a soup stock which you can infused just about anything in such as kombu and fish flavorings. Imagine biting into a piece - delicate crispy coating encasing an inside that has the temperature of the surface of the sun. These are no joke. Bub and I were arguing who would take the last piece.


Beef Burger
Kaiware, Pickled Daikon, Soy Glazed Onions,
Dijon Mustard, Aioli on Pan De Mie Bun

Now THIS is what I call an Asian burger.

I saw Bub take a bite and it was so juicy. All the flavors were in harmony from tangy, to rich, to sweet. The bread it was on was also great as it soaked in all the great meat juice. If you haven’t had an Asian burger, this is the place to try one. You’ll never look at the plain old cheeseburger the same way again.


Dashi Braised Daikon
Oxtail and Garlic Shichimi
This was under the “comfort” section of the menu and comfort me it did. I was advised that a bowl of steamed “koshihikari” or white rice would be ideal to have with it. I couldn’t resist. We’re coming back to this “dashi” business. The broth was dynamite - but not in a loud way. It was flavorful and complex, but still had a delicateness with hints of garlic and spice. Adding the tender as can be oxtail and sweet daikon reminded me of coming home to my grandma cooking and her serving me something she had been working on in the kitchen. MUST TRY. I caught myself cupping my bowl of rice and just staring off into space as I fed myself spoonful after spoonful of broth and tender daikon. This dish took me to another place where times were simpler…as the menu suggested - comfort.

I am so happy that I FINALLY paid Namu a visit. The staff - you can’t ask for a nicer one. Attentive and polite, but engaging and sexy. Owned by the Lee Brothers, you can tell this is their pride and joy - a place to share their dishes with the community and people they love. I sure do wish that it was closer to home because I could easily make this my go-to spot if I needed a place to calm my nerves after a tough day (or even a good day) at work and eat a good meal full of flavor. I read they have sisig on the menu?

Say wha?! Yes, I promise, I WILL be back!

xoxo,
Jo