OUR AWESOME PLANET: December 2006

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

A Popit De Leon Experience

I am Popit!

Popit personifies the term Character Chef. He gives life to an exclusive dinner with friends, family or special love ones through his generous tasty dishes and personalized service. How can a theater actor in school plays and self-confessed La Salle bum transforms into a down-to-earth Les Roche-trained Character Chef ? How can a chef be lactose intolerant and still provides a menu full of cheese, milk and cream as ingredients that comes with an offer of free lactaid pill for lactose intolerant guests?

On weekends, Popit cooks for excited guest at his cousin Charley's place in Lipa. Charley's is the latest out-of-town restaurant set in Charley Leviste Antonio's Equestrian farm in Lipa. For 793/head net for a minimum of 10 guests, he will cook you a sumptuous meal with the freshest herbs grown organically from Charley's garden.

On weeknights, he provides an exclusive pool side dinner to friends and customers at his Crown Tower condo in Makati. It is an exclusive one man show, where Popit plays the master Chef, the waiter, the cashier, and the entertainer. At the end of your dinner, I'm sure your stomach would applause and your wallet would wonder why only pay P750/head (minimum of 10)?

Thanks to Popit for making Makati's chef-for-hire scene alive. I've never seen such passion in a chef who is not concerned about money but concerned about serving other people through memorable dining experiences. He names his catering business World Domination Through Food, and now I understand why.

My P&G Friends (L-R): Romi Garduce, Patrick and Quennie Cua, and Aileen and Paul Albano.

It was definitely a memorable Christmas dinner event for us last Dec. 26. Nothing beats good conversation with friends and a good meal in an exclusive and personalized setting. Overall, the dinner was a building momentum in food approval ratings and culminated with the killer Mahi Mahi dish and to-die-for Tiramisu. The pool side setting was risky due to the possibility that it might rains. Our night was hot and humid on a December evening (what more in summer).

An exclusive dinner in Popit's Crown Tower condo offers a wider menu choices because he is not limited to cook his dishes with the fresh herbs in Charley's garden. On the other hand, a meal with fresh rosemary ingredients and other herbs is something worth driving to Charley's Equestrian farm in Lipa. Dinner can be held in his Condo or your own designated place within Makati for P800/head. If you want it exclusively for two, he prepares a 8-course tasting menu for 1,250/head.

Let me share with you, our unique Popit de Leon experience...

World Domination Through Food Menu Choices
(750/head minimum of 10)

Appetizer
Bruschetta
Pita with hummus
Tomate farcie

Soups
Cream-free pumpkin
Garbanzo
Tomato-potato
Soupe de poisson

Salad
Mixed greens with choice of dressings
(Dill mayonnaise or mixed herb vinaigrette)
Eggplant-zucchini tower

Entree
Pan seared mahi-mahi with caper cream sauce
Batangas beef stewed in rosemary & wine
Baked pork steak with thyme
Chicken Florentines with pommodorro sauce

Starch
Rice pilaf
Garlic mashed potatoes
Buttered noodles

Vegetable
Buttered mixed vegetables

Dessert
Crème Brulee
Crepe Suzette (On Display)
Tiramisu

A Popit de Leon experience starts with booking the date and time of the dinner or lunch event and selecting your 5-course meal from the menu above. You can bring wine on your own with no corkage fee and he will be glad to offer his recommendation. I was amazed at his wine recommendations which were helpful:

"If you will be providing wine, my recommendations will be as follows: For reds, I would recommend getting a cabernet sauvignon. I doubt if a Shiraz or merlot would compliment the savoury sausage or ham, especially with Merlot--I have to agree with Paul Giamatti from "Sideways". For a white, Pinot Grigio has the right balance of dry and sweet to match the dishes. A Paul Masson Chablis (available at SM Makati) may compliment the Mahi-mahi with caper sauce. " - Popit

Popit’s special sliced sausage and ham.

Popit's Sausage was tasty and good; I was hoping to say the same thing for the ham, but it did not meet my expectations. The sausage comes with a Popit story and a good laugh :)

Don't expect too much from the pool setting in Crown Tower. It was a simple pool and we appreciated the effort of putting flower bouquets as the center piece which we took home to be placed at the altar. Popit welcomes you as his guests so you are free to use the pool if you like.

Bruschetta and Garbanzo Soup (not shown). This bruschetta was relatively good but nothing to rave about. The Garbanzo soup was bearable but lacks texture and bits of ingredients.

Eggplant-zucchini tower. I was pleasantly surprised by this and I loved these grilled vegetables and pesto herbs. Unfortunately, no one asked for seconds (serving) despite repeated offers from Popit because of generous supply of these towers.

This was a funny shot for me because our dinner was set with our Petron Megaplaza office as backdrop.

Pan seared mahi-mahi with caper cream sauce served with garlic mashed potatoes & buttered mixed vegetables!

Everybody agreed that this Mahi Mahi was a winner. The thick Fish Meat with a texture of a steak is definitely worth more than the P750/head. The fish was creamy, tasty and "di malansa" (what's the english for this?). You can immediately see that this one was wiped out in a few minutes, except for our lactose intolerant friend. I finally thought: this is what Les Roche cooking is all about.

Tiramisu with Barako Coffee.

Each of us has this generous serving of tiramisu; it was also devoured in a few seconds. My friend Aileen commented that desserts like Tiramisu are not supposed to be served this big but I'm not complaining neither did her husband, Paul. I can still remember the tiramisu with generous layer of cream and bits of cream cheese on top of butter cookies crust. Simply a yummy treat to end the Popit de Leon Experience.

Thanks Popit for the lovely evening and interesting discussion. Glad to know that we come from the same school and best of luck! Animo La Salle!!

Popit de Leon
Personal chef * caterer * culinary instructor
+63 917 893 1938
iampopit@yahoo.com

Crown Tower
107 HV dela Costa Street
Salcedo Village, Makati City
(between Trafalgar and Sagitarius Building)

December 28, 2006 in 02. 100 Awesome Restaurants in the Philippines, 06. Amazing Chefs-For-Hire | Permalink | Comments (20) | TrackBack

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Beard Papa vs. Happy Cream Puff

And the winner is still... Happy Cream Puff! At least for us....

First time for me to eat Beard Papa and I was surprised by its size which is a little bigger and its price at P50 just for one vanilla cream puff. The Beard Papa eclairs goes for P55 and what is nice is that they have other cream puff versions with different toppings of chocolate (White choco chips, Black choco chips, Choco fudge and Choco glazed). This reminds me of the doughnuts flavors we have. The Happy Cream Puff sells for P20 and P25 for the eclair. So technically, you can get two for each beard papa.

The cream filling taste almost the same and the difference would be: the Happy Cream Puff has a more egg milky taste versus Beard Papa that has a Vanilla after taste. I was not able to taste the vanilla bean from Happy Cream Puff.

As for the puff, the Beard Papa has a crispy/ fried base and it feels like eating croissant with cream inside. The Happy Cream Puff has a soft pillow type consistency throughout which feels like it was expertly baked. Although, I liked the crispy base of Beard Papa which gives a more crunchier texture into the cream puff experience. My wife did not prefer her cream puff to be crispy.

The chocolate layer on Beard Papa has more interesting taste but it is gone after the first bite while the Happy Cream Puff lingers more in your mouth. It would be interesting to see if there are different chocolate topping variations for Happy Cream Puff in the future and of course, the value for money when you buy more.

Overall, we still personally love our Happy Cream Puff Eclairs! Interestingly, we discovered that it can be served cold and the eclair continues to be soft but firmer and not chewy. I ate a lot of cream puff this Christmas that I should stay away from these goodies for the rest of the year ...

Beard Papa Vanilla Cream Puff (P50) vs. Happy Cream Puff (P20)

Beard Papa Choco Fudge Eclair (P55) vs. Happy Cream's Eclair (P25)

For Beard Papa's fans, they offer discounts when you buy at least 6 pcs of their cream puffs or eclair. Save at least P25 for the vanilla flavor while P35 for the eclairs ones. The more you buy, the more discounts you get as much as P95. While Happy cream puffs are fixed at P20 and P25. You can also get cream puff variants in one box.

Happy Cream Puff! We love the Eclairs!

December 26, 2006 in 07. Foodie Discoveries | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Pagudpud,Ilocos Norte - The Definitive Guide to Pagudpud and Ilocos Norte

Didn't you wish that there is a one-stop online travel guide that can help you plan your awesome vacation or travel in the Philippines?

Sometimes, I myself, is frustrated with the low quality of online information we have for most of our awesome Philippines destinations. By far, the most comprehensive travel guide of the Philippines is the Lonely Planet and they are written by foreigners.

Lastly, most people ask me about tips on places in the Philippines and I thought wouldn't it be nice if I can share these tips with more Filipinos.

As a Christmas Gift to everyone, I was inspired to create online travel guides that can help you plan your next awesome vacation in the Philippines! One of the most frequently asked question from me, recently, is how to plan the Northern Trip to Pagudpud or Ilocos Norte. I've written an extensive and comprehensive travel guide that is short, complete, and full of pictures.

Introducing... Awesome Philippines Travel Guide on Pagudpud

The Definitive Online Travel Guide to Pagudpud

Favor. Can you check it out? Please place some comments in the articles and additional suggestions if you have been to Pagudpud and Ilocos Norte. Spread the word... Traveling in the Philippines should be easy and awesome!

P.S. This might be late already for people traveling this Christmas Season 2006. Sorry for that...

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