Chef Tatung's Garden Cafe

I’ve read great reviews for a resto just within the UP Village area, run by a Chef Tatung.  So when a deal came for it, I excitedly bought a few vouchers for a family weekend lunch-out.  It took us awhile to find a common time, but when we finally did, I booked us a table and headed out for a short drive to UP Village.

With just the address on hand, we looked for the resto.  As expected, it looked like an ordinary house with no visible sign that it was an eating place (or did I miss it?).  Anyway, the white gates were open so we trooped towards the door and entered the Chef's abode.  I've read somewhere that this is really his private home converted into a resto.  It was homey and welcoming.  Definitely a good sign.

After scouring a computer printed menu, we ordered what we thought would be interesting.  We started with Chicken Sisig Lettuce Wraps (P240) and Local Veggies with Assorted Dips (P160).  We enjoyed how the chicken sisig was plated.  But being Tagalog who enjoys her buro, it was refreshing to find it as a menu item in a resto.  The local vegetables were young and sweet, paired with three dips, buro, patis-calamansi and bagoong, it was a match made in heaven (though I'm pretty sure my Tatay (Dad) wouldn't agree)

 

Chicken Sisig Lettuce Wraps (P240)

  

Local Veggies with Assorted Dips (P160)

 

We continued on with Chicken in Roasted Coconut in Yellow Ginger Sauce (P320) which would have been better if it had absorbed more of the flavors.  The sauce reminds me of thai chicken in coconut sans the basil.  Prawns in Aligue Sauce (P480) proved too rich for me, so I just took the prawns and separated it from the rest of the sauce.  For carbs, we tried Tatung's Favorite Fried Rice (P160) which I think was called Nasi Goreng rice when we ate there.  It was an interesting mix of shrimp, peanuts, carrots and scrambled eggs.  It was a meal in itself, heavy and satisfying.  I think we  also tried their Molo soup too, which at P180 was a steal since it was good for sharing.

 

Tatung's Favorite Fried Rice (P160)

 

  

Chicken in Roasted Coconut in Yellow Ginger Sauce (P320)

Prawns in Aligue Sauce (P480)

 

We didn't get desserts anymore since we were all full from the meal but over-all, the place is great for families who want to enjoy reasonably-priced, Asian/Filipino home-cooked meals leisurely in a not too crowded and noisy atmosphere.  As for the desserts, maybe we'll return for them one of these days. (The chocnut chocolate cake sounds interesting)

Chef Tatung's Garden Cafe

17 Matipid St., Sikatuna Village, Quezon City
Mobile: +63 915 846 3234
Telephone: +632 352-6121 

The waiters said you don't need to reserve but the space is quite limited so I'd still recommend to call them up before going there.

Break from the holiday binge, my first assignment for the year.

I have a love/hate relationship with food during the holidays.  I cook/bake myself to exhaustion that I don't feel like eating anything heavy anymore by the second week.  Mostly, I ask for something light, just to fill my tummy.  So, when I got my recipe assignment for Yummy.ph, it was easier than usual since this was actually what I was eating during December and well into January.

The assignment called for healthy, low-calorie dishes for the new year. Perfect!  

First off, an eggwhite omelet.  This has been a regular breakfast item for the last few weeks out of necessity.  We had at least 3 liters of eggwhites stored in the ref from a holiday leche flan cooking spree.  Our cook usually just scrambles everything with onions and tomatoes but for the readers, I added a few more ingredients, bell peppers for crunch and color, and three different types of mushrooms for added fiber, subtle flavors and protein.  Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.yummy.ph/recipe/egg-white-omelet-with-three-mushrooms. A complete meal in 10 minutes tops!  Can't beat that.

I included a few more recipes from our home kitchen.  The 15-minute baked fish is actually our own version of Pinangat, 5 minutes prep time, microwaved for 10 minutes on high.  Simple, and yet so flavorful. http://www.yummy.ph/recipe/15-minute-fish-fillet  

Another is the Low-carb Chicken Soup, a clear soup that's light on the tummy. http://www.yummy.ph/recipe/low-carb-chicken-soup .  Other recipes are the Pan-grilled fish with Indian Mango Salsa and Steamed Chicken with Veggies.

For the first time, everything is unbelievably easy even for beginner cooks, prepared and cooked in less than 30 minutes. After all, diet-friendly grubs need not be too fussy, right?

Two days of chocolate bliss at Puratos University

Our chocolate cake.  The pink bows didn't turn out the way I envisioned it to be. Oh well, I'm sure it tasted good naman.

I’ve been in blogging hiatus.  There was just too much to cook, bake, eat, meet, shop, run around for, it was one of the things that I had to sacrifice to get more time to be holiday crazy.   Seriously, I also didn’t feel inspired to write.  Maybe I’m just completely worn out.  It’s now January and the madness has died down considerably. Thank God!  Just finished a foodie project and thankfully this spurred this break from my writer’s block.

I have been having friends over and trying recipes we both haven’t been doing but I still miss going to cooking classes.  I’m sure I’ve attended enough of them through the years  but surely there’s still something exciting to learn.

Shienna, the chocolatier showing us how to make pralines from scratch

When Puratos, a food company which imports both compound and Belgian chocolate (there’s a difference apparently) posted a facebook ad for their Carat chocolate course, I was excited.  I’m in love with chocolates (who isn’t?).  It’s my Achilles heels!  I’ve dreamed of becoming a chocolatier (no kidding).  I’ve made molded chocolate giveaways a few years ago but never really learned how to make it properly.  I guess, I was just content with buying my Meiji and Baby Ruths or getting from Ate, Kirkland’s Chocolates of the World (at $10, it was worth every bit).  The course was a steal at P5,000 considering it was good for two.  The only problem was, how to get there.  Their plant is in FTI Taguig.

I’ve never drove by myself to FTI so as expected, I got lost. Thankfully, I was with my nephew who I brought along, so at least I didn’t get lost alone.  Anyway, found FTI at last, with still a few minutes to spare but whew! The drive time from the house to FTI took more than 2 hours.  This, I thought to myself, better be worth it.

Cupcakes covered with chocolates, isn't it obvious which ones were decorated by a pro and which ones were decorated by the newbie? ;)

Thankfully, it turned out we were just 4 in the group.  The place was spacious for 4 but I don’t think more than 10 would fit comfortably.  We started with being just onlookers to what Shienna, the chocolatier was doing.  There was a bit of hands-on chocolate molding and cupcake decorating. Without realizing it, we stood up the whole day and went home with this realization:  working as a chocolatier wasn’t as easy as I thought but I’m telling you, the smell of chocolate is the best perk-me-up!  Actually, can’t stop tasting it while working on it.  Got to taste their natural Belcolade Belgian chocolate, too. OMG.  This is bad. It's so addicting.

Double chocolate drink.  Even the decor was made from chocolates.  Be still, my heart!

Second day, we were given a free hand to make whatever we wanted to create with chocolates. Best of all, we get to bring everything home.  Yey!!!    My nephew and I were a team and made A LOT of molded chocolates and pralines. Actually, we knew we had to decorate a cake but we didn’t plan how to go about it so we just continued on making pralines and molded chocolates for 3 hours.  When the cake came, I panicked.  I worked for half day on molded chocolates and didn’t once thought of starting making decors for the cake.  Our other classmates, being cake professionals, were already working on their cake since the day started.  Haha.  Oh well, we’ll just have to wing it.

That's us, trying to make a presentable cake as fast as we could.  We got too caught up making the pralines

Working with pralines at least taught me some valuable lessons.  First, water and chocolates don’t mix so be obsessive about drying molds.  Second, as with anything, it requires patience and a lot of practice.  Lastly, as with drying the molds, never use a mold unless it’s totally clean of everything, including leftover chocolates!

And here they are!  Can’t say its all perfect but even the imperfect ones are soooo good. 

The finished pralines.  I love their polycarbonate molds.  It really turned out perfectly shaped... well, at least most of them.  

Best of all, we got to bring home 10 kilos of white chocolate.. yes, 10 KILOS!  I’ve  probably used more than half of it already for my holiday baking but I still have more than enough to practice my new skills.

After two days of chocolate bliss, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of eating chocolates but, seriously, I have to find a different second career.  I’ll never survive working as a chocolatier.  The boss will certainly fire me on the very first day for eating all my creations!

Cake done by a classmate.  Oh, she's a pro at this!