Couldn't get more sinful than this, Sinfully

When was the last time you entered a store and wouldn't want to leave it, ever?  This is probably the reason why Sinfully, the offsite branch of the Makati Shangrila patisserie didn't provide dine-in facilities in their store.  No one would wanna leave.  

Whoever thought of putting the chocolatier and all the chocolates in front of the store, in full view of the malling public is a genius!  The chocolates, I swear, called out to me to come into the store and buy them all.  Haha.  

We looked at everything and couldn't decided which ones to try.  If only I could take all of them home. *Sigh*.  So finally we decided to skip the chocolates and tried two mini cakes instead, Desire and Endless Summer (I think that's what its called) and tried to find a bench where we can vent out all out ooohhhhs and aaaaahhhhhs.

                                               Desire at its finest

                   Endless Summer

Between the two, we both agreed we loved Desire more.   Its layers perfectly blend and compliment to make each forkful a perfect bite.  The chocolate sponge bottom supports a layer which reminds you of a Ferrero rocher chocolate piece, topped by a thick rich caramel layer and finished with a dark chocolate mousse, all enrobed in a thin and shiny dark chocolate icing and topped with exotic fruits such as a physalis (my current obsession), a bunch of cranberries and a strawberry holding a blueberry. Miraculously, even with all these, the cake wasn't cloyingly sweet.  Definitely a piece of heaven on earth!

No doubt about it, I'm coming back for the chocolates but for now, I'll just dream and drool.

Pork Ribs with Tomato Sauce

I have shelves full of cookbooks, some given, some bought while others inherited.  I still add a few more titles each year whenever one piques my interest but it seems I always bring down the same titles whenever I want to try a new dish.  

And every time I feel like cooking Chinese, my hands just automatically reaches for this book "The Technique of Chinese Cooking", a 36 year old book I inherited from my Nanay (Mom).  I may have several books, all teaching how to cook a variety of Chinese dishes but this one seems to be the most authentic (I think I saw a peking duck recipe there which starts with teaching you how to kill the duck.. haha).  But since it was made in Taiwan, the translation could sometimes be off, fortunately the gist can be understood anyway. 

Today, I wanted to eat pork.. period.  Its been awhile since I cooked anything with pork but I didn't want to go out anymore to buy ingredients so I had to make do with what was inside the freezer and cabinets.  Fortunately, there was a pack of pork ribs.  Yey!  This is definitely my day.  

I searched the book for a simple pork rib recipe and found this.  Easy peasy.  I didn't have celery in the crisper so I omitted it,  added more sugar to the sauce and replaced hot soy sauce (didn't have this ingredient) with soy sauce and chili powder. So worth to try, definitely finger-licking good. (Sorry Col.Sanders, this one really is) :)

Pork Ribs with Tomato Sauce (Cantonese dish)

Ingredients:

1/2 k pork ribs, sliced about 2 in long and 3/4 in wide)

Marinate

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp MSG (omit if you want)

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/2 Tbsp soy sauce (I used Kikkoman All Purpose soysauce)

2 tsp Shaoxing cooking wine

1/4 tsp meat tenderizer

1 pc celery (I omitted this since I didn't have it at home)

Glaze

2 Tbsp soy sauce 

1/8 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 Tbsp tomato catchup

2 tsp sugar

Other ingredients

oil for deep frying

parsley for garnishing

1. Mix all the ingredients of the marinade.  Massage onto pork and let it stand for an hour or two.

2. Combine all the ingredients for the glaze.  Set aside.

3. After marinating, deep-fry pork ribs in very hot oil until crispy.

4. Boil the glaze mix, drop in pork ribs and mix evenly.  Garnish with parsley.