Is the Green Lantern Doughnut any good?

Combining the love for sweets and superheroes, our friends over at Comicology celebrated National Doughnut Day (late) with half a dozen of Krispy Kreme's newest offering, The Green Lantern Kreme Doughnut. 

Because I cannot try it myself, I satiate my cravings with Mr. Comicology's delicious account of this special fried treat.

Green Lantern Doughnuts (p264/half dozen; p370/dozen)

Comicology says: This is one of those very rare instances where comic book geekery and food meet to create a GEEK FOODIE FUSION. And with that comes the very first cross post between Comicology: The Study of Awesome and BaconTunaMelt. Huzzah!

I, for one, love the marketing being put behind the Green Lantern movie. It’s a hell of a lot less traditional than mere TV spots and blogger events. (Yes, I’m just bitter no one asks me to come to the party anymore.) They’ve got a Green Lantern logo in the park at Glorietta. Scattered among the trees there are little green paper lanterns that just look spectacular at night. Another one of their efforts is the Green Lantern donut by Krispy Kreme. I just had to give this bad boy a try.

Wanna know if the Green Lantern Doughnut is any good? Click this link to read the full doughnut review on Comicology. If you're a fan of Green Lantern or doughnuts or desserts, you should definitely check it out.

Green Lantern Krispy Kreme Doughnut

This morning, I woke up to an image link of this fantastically sweet treat. The puppy-daddy, who is a huge fan of anything comic book related, showed me this odd-looking doughnut. (Also, I have been ordered made to memorize the Green Lantern oath.)

The Green Lantern Kreme Doughut

In time for the movie, Krispy Kreme's latest offering is a Green Lantern Kreme Doughnut. Krispy Kreme's newest sugar creation is made of rich chocolate dough iced with chocolate made with Hershey's Milk Chocolate, powdered with sugar and topped with green (lantern) jelly. Sound good?

Hello there, Mr. Reynolds. *waggles eyebrows*

Hurry then, and head to the nearest Krispy Kreme branch and go get some. Green Lantern will be showing in cinemas starting June 16.

And here is the Green Lantern oath (because memorizing this was a requirement, not an option): "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power.. Green Lantern's light!"

My Birthday Treat - Mousse Royale Fraise

From my last post, you guys already know that I celebrated my birthday in France away from family and friends. Although I was by myself, I had to treat myself to a birthday cake. I mean, it's not a proper birthday without a cake, yes? The day before, I headed to the nearest patisserie and got me a couple slices of the most sinful looking cake on display. This-

Birthday cake (slices)! Mousse Royale Fraise (€3.20 or Php196 for 2 slices)

It's called Mousse Royale Fraise, or in english, Royal Strawberry Mousse and I bought two small slices of it. The base was a paper thin layer of cake, then a layer of cream, and then a small layer of foamy cake, followed by an inch thick  layer of strawberry laced cream glazed on top with thin layer of gelatin and topped with a thin slice of chocolate with an image of a strawberry.

On the day of my birthday, I blew my pretend candles and savored this sinful sweet treat. The first bite of this delicate cake was a delightful feast for the tastebuds. The mousse was smooth, creamy, and rich. Perfect as a birthday treat (but not as daily fare).

Lachis Classic Sans Rival - Delightful Davao (Part 5)

It seemed fitting to end the Delightful Davao series by recounting our afternoon at Lachi's, the place that EVERYONE recommended. This bakery-cum-restaurant seems to have gained a huge following and has won the favor of even the most critical Manileños.

Lachi's Classic Sans Rival (p50+/-)

As soon as friends found out about the trip to Davao, a lot of them told us not to leave without trying the bakeshop's famous sans rival. We asked our tourguide Kuya K about it and he gladly obliged (our want to fatten ourselves up some more). So one rainy afternoon in Davao, we drove over to Ruby street and shortly found ourselves settled inside the small cafe. Nomming, of course.

Actually, the cafe was full to bursting when we arrived (surprising because it was raining like kitties and puppies) and there weren't enough tables and chairs to fit our semi-large group. So we checked out the pretty cakes on display while waiting (salivating the entire time). Cake slices were fairly priced at a range of 50-100 pesos and we were excited to stuff our faces with the sweet stuff.

Cream Custard Cake (p48) and Cashew Mocha Torte (p52)

We had to try the sans rival of course, everyone seems to be all agog over it. They have a durian variant that was sadly not available (Bim was happy) so the first orders were a couple slices of the very famous Lachi's Classic Sans Rival. What I liked about it is that the wafery cake was sweet but not sickeningly so and the layers were crunchy but soft (is that weird?).

 Regal Chocolate Torte (p60) and Carrot Walnut Cake (p48)

Being in Lachi's where all the cakes were on display, we couldn't just try one cake. We had to order a few more (diabetes, here we come). 

My favorite would have to be the Cream Custard Cake which was a chiffon cake with light cream in the middle and sweet custard on top. The Cashew Mocha Torte and Regal Chocolate Torte were both delicious (similar to chocolate mousse) while  the Carrot Walnut Cake is a classic that's a steal for its price.

Click for a larger image

They're more than just a cake shop and have a full menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner nomz. Since we didn't get to try them, I thought to post the menu, just in case you wanted to see what's available. When you're in Davao, you have to go and visit Lachi's, it's definitely worth it.

(Click here to read the rest of the Delightful Davao posts.)

Lachi's Sans Rival, Atbp.
Location: Ruby Street, Marfori Heights, Davao City
Contact info: 6382-2245552; 0916-9841183
Other info: Lachi's Facebook Page
Map:

View Larger Map

Best Damned Chocolate Cake Ever

This right here is the best damned chocolate cake on the face of this earth, bar none. Rich, moist, fudgy, soft, and fluffy, Ms. Polly's Chocolate Cake is just perfect. Perfect with coffee, perfect with milk, perfect for dessert, perfect for just about any occasion or any mood.

I discovered this little gem from a friend who brought one over a few years ago to a potluck party. I didn't think much of it when I saw it, it was a little square chocolate cake in a simple brown box bought from a gasoline station. Meh, I thought. But as soon as I had a small bite, I was hooked.

Polly's Chocolate Cake (p495 for an 8x8 cake)

On the whole, Polly's Chocolate Cake is a cake with no frills. Two layers of spongy cake is separated by thick chocolate icing and then topped off with more of the same chocolate icing.

Typical? No, not really. The icing is thick and tastes of cocoa powder instead of your regular chocolate icing, it's also not sugary sweet like most commercial cakes are. The cake is extra soft and moist and each bite seems to melt in your mouth.

Best chocolate cake ever!

All this time, I thought that this little piece of heaven on earth can only be bought at Shell Magallanes, where stocks are replenished every day and you can be sure that the cake you'll get is fresh and moist. It turns out that they have branches in Robinsons Galleria and at the Comissary in Merville, where the prices are cheaper (compared to the one at Shell). They also now deliver to select locations via Quick Delivery.

FYI: The chocolate icing on this cake is particularly fantastic and because icing a weakness of mine, I usually hog cake corners in the thought that they'd have more icing than all other parts of the cake. It is interesting to note that with Polly's Chocolate Cake, the middle slices have the thickest icing layer in between the cake layers. ~_~

Ms. Polly's Specialty Cakes and Desserts
Location: 4th Floor Robinsons Galleria, Pasig
Contact info: 703-5058
Other info: Facebook Page; Download official pricelist here

Origami and Yema Balls

Following the success of yema balls attempt number two were requests to make more. I figured that if I were to give them away, the yema needed a better presentation than being haphazardly arranged in assorted Tupperware. So the day before making them, I made my way to the nearest mall to find me some fancy containers. 

The end result

I was looking to get either those boxes with windows on them or plain old acetate boxes but the search was fruitless. There weren't any with the dimensions I wanted so I thought to make them myself via plain old origami (see instructions here). I bought a couple of cartolinas and set out to make square boxes and ended up with these.

Origami boxes in BaconTunaMelt colors!

The boxes are a little uneven, but you can barely tell. The big boxes contain nine yema balls each and the small boxes have four yema balls each. Nope, I'm not selling these so if you want some, just leave a message and I'll see what I can do. :)

BaconTunaMelt Yema balls

How To Make Yema Balls: Possibly the Simplest Recipe Ever

If you follow this blog, you'd know that I tried to make fluffy yema balls last week. Unfortunately, it ended up in something close to a disaster (click this to read last week's post on how NOT to make yema). What was supposed to be soft, round, yellow, and fluffy balls of yema lightly coated in sugar ended up as a hard, brownish, uneatable slab of sugar.

Minor setback, I thought. So for the weekend, armed with a new recipe and renewed vigor, I gave it another shot. And the end result looked like this-

Yummy yema balls!

Following the recipe from The Pilgrim's Pot's and Pans (with a few tweaks), I had me some fantastically fluffy yema balls when I was done. (WARNING: The following text will contain much gloating at the success of my second atttempt in the kitchen.)

Step1:	Prepare the ingredients. A 300ml can of condensed milk, 10 eggs, butter, sugar, and cupcake cups.
Step2:	Separate the egg yolks (set aside the egg whites) and put them in a medium-sized bowl.
Step3:	Beat the egg yolks, pour the condensed milk, and mix well. Notice the beautiful golden yellow color of the mixture?
Step4:	Set the heat on low (as low as you can), lightly coat the non-stick pan with butter, and pour the mixture in.

And then comes the stirring-

Step6:	Initially, your mixture should be slightly thick, with a consistency not unlike syrup. Stir your mixture some more.
Step7:	After about 10 minutes of stirring, your mixture should be noticeably thicker. Make sure your heat is set to low, so your mixture maintains its happy yellow color. Keep stirring.
Step8:	After 15 minutes of stirring, most of the water should have evaporated and your mixture is about as thick as your typical congee.
Step9:	After 20 minutes of stirring, your mixture should be thick and dry enough, similar to the texture of cookie dough.

And now the fun part-

Step9:	Transfer the dry mixture into a bowl and wait for it to cool. After about 10 minutes, you can start rolling them into balls.
Step10:	Lightly coat your hands with butter and scoop out a small amount and roll it into a ball. Dip in white sugar and place it on the cupcake paper. Repeat until you use up all the batter and serve.

You now have soft and rich yellow yema balls. I deviated from the recipe I found online and did not add lime to the mixture because I thought that might give it a weird tangy taste. I also opted not to coat it in caramelized sugar because I did not want the rich taste of the milk and egg mixture overpowered by caramel, which tends to be too sweet.

This version of yema balls is sweet but not too sweet either. You can eat as many servings as you want and it won't leave a bitter taste in your mouth. The plain white sugar coating gives each bite of the soft ball a nice crunch. They're soft but they hold together well and are not messy to eat. You know you've made yummy yema when everyone who tried it loved it and requested for a second batch. 

I'm not so useless in the kitchen after all, yay! (Thanks Comicology dude, for being a cute kitchen elf. ^*^)

How Not to Make Yema

For those who know me,  you would know that the extent of my cooking abilities is limited to making instant noodles and frying hotdogs and eggs. I am almost useless in the kitchen and have never willingly stayed longer than I have to (only as long as I need to reheat old nomz in the microwave). 

Inspired by the wonderful dishes from Carnation's Good Eats! Bloggers' Night, I attempted to actually use our kitchen (and not start a fire). I wasn't going to be overly ambitious the first time so thought to start with something small and simple. Scouring the net for the easiest thing to make that involved sweets and milk, I found a short recipe from the post Yema Balls - A Simple Filipino Treat on the blog A Cupcake or Two.

4 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of butter, 2 small cans of condensed milk, sugar (for coating) and small cupcake cups

It sounded easy enough to make, with too few ingredients for a noob to mess up. Come Friday night, I passed by the grocery to get eggs, Carnation condensed milk, sugar, butter, and cupcake paper for BaconTunaMelt's version of yema balls.

Up bright and early on a Saturday (also a first), I had my ingredients prepared, utensils ready and the recipe printed out by 9am. There was a bit of a snafu right when I started because I didn't know how to separate the egg yolk from the egg whites. That should have been my indicator that although the recipe is simple, a kitchen noob will remain a kitchen noob without any actual practice.

Here's how NOT to make yema:

Step 1- Melt butter in a non stick pan over low heat;

Step 2- As soon as the butter is melted, pour in the can of condensed milk and stir for half a minute;

Step 3- Pour in the egg yolks;

Step 4- Keep the heat on low and stir. Your mixture should be a light yellow color and slightly thick;

Step 5- You'd notice your mixture getting thicker, keep stirring over low heat;

Step 6- The mixture would be bubbling a little because of the heat, but keep stirring;

Step 7- After about 15 minutes, your mixture should be getting darker and you'd still be stirring;

Step 8- Your stirring arm should be feeling really numb now, but keep stirring.

Now if you weren't such a noob, you'd figure out that the mixture is thick enough and you should stop the heat to let it cool down and when it's cool enough, you start rolling them into balls and then coating them with sugar. But for noobs like me, we keep going.

Step 9- Stir until your arm feels like it's about to fall off and until the mixture looks like brown paste;

Step 10- The mixture is cool, but is also rock hard. Take it out of the pan if you can and end up with this solid mass of brown.

You now have a yema that's not really yema, but a hard candy that kinna tastes like toasted pastillas. Or peanut brittle without the peanut. If you're really nice, we can call it candied yema. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how NOT to make yema.

*this isn't going to dishearten me from wanting to make yema, I'll try again soon enough. Tune in next week to find out what I'll end up with then.

UPDATE: My next attempt at making yema was successful! Check out the fantastic results here- How To Make Yema Balls: Possibly the Simplest Recipe Ever! ^_~

Yogi Berry is the Cheapest Froyo in Town!

If frozen yogurt was the hottest dessert in town a year ago, today froyo shops don't get as much hype anymore, and are sometimes even ignored. The market has become saturated, with frozen yogurt available in just about any corner of most malls in the city. Froyo shops now seek to differentiate themselves from the crowd. 

In my opinion, a big factor in the decline of the frozen yogurt consumers is the price. Most shops sell their yogurt at 20-25 pesos per ounce, which can get expensive once you heap on the extras on top of the yogurt. A 6 ounce cup (just about average) would cost 150 pesos at 25 pesos/ounce. That's a bit too much for dessert for the regular diner on a day-to-day basis.

Most affordable froyo in town

And here comes Yogi Berry, a new froyo shop that recently opened in Greenbelt 1 mall in Ayala, we froyo lovers don't have to spend as much for the good stuff. Yogi Berry offers their frozen yogurt at only 15 pesos per ounce. That's the cheapest I've seen so far!

Mony Milk Powder is a Blast from the Past

When my young cousins gave me some Mony Mony Milk Powder one Saturday while I was at their house, I couldn't help but grin at the sight of the colorful bottles- it made me remember my childhood.

Back in gradeschool, I remember saving up my allowance to get candies instead of lunch (kids, this is a bad, bad thing to do). I'd get my sweets from the candy stall at the school canteen, from the vendors who hopped on the school bus on the way home, and most of it, I would get from the sari-sari store at the corner of our street. 

Mony Mony Milk Powder

Manang from the sari-sari store would have a wide variety of sweets that ranged from the imported Nerds and Gobstoppers to the locally made Choc*Nut and Haw Flakes. Once in a while, Manang would mix it up and surprise us with different sweets from the usual ones. This candy was one of the less common but much loved surprise treats.

Like paste containers!

Mony Mony Milk Powder is basically just powdered sugar packaged in colorful soft plastic bottles that is eaten by sipping it through the straw that it comes with, or simply pouring the contents into your mouth (this I do). I remember enjoying the texture of the powder and letting it melt in my tongue before swallowing all of it.  Now it kind of feels weird to be eating that much amount of powdered sugar in one go.

P.S.
Kids, another cool thing about Mony Mony is that you can pour the powder on a small piece of squarish paper, roll it up, blow into one end, puff away and pretend you're smoking. You can also achieve the same effect with baby powder, but always remember to never suck in (baby powder does not taste good at all).

P.P.S.
Don't ever smoke, it's bad for you.

Singapore Street Treat - Selecta Ice Cream Sandwich

Even before the inception of this blog, I was already taking occasional snaps of nomz I've tried or wanted to try. It's a good thing that I kept some of them, now I can share my past food discoveries with my readers (all three of them). Some shots were from few months ago, when I was in the lovely country of Singapore for a summer trip (primarily to check out the newly opened Universal Studios ^^,). 

While walking along the famous Orchard Road, a pushcart not unlike those you can find in the streets of Manila caught my attention. My curiosity was piqued but I chose to ignore it the first time. A short distance away, there was another one. The length of Orchard road was peppered with these red trolleys! All of them bore the familiar heart logo of Selecta ice cream. I figure it was the perfect way to deal with a hot summer day (any excuse for ice cream), so I made my way to one of the carts to see what they got.

Yummy Selecta Ice Cream Sandwich (SGD1)

On the cardboard menu filled with pictures of ice cream sandwiches in different flavors, along with the typical ice cream flavors of chocolate, vanilla, and cookies & cream were a number of unusual flavors such as honeydew, durian, and jackfruit. Being my weird self, I bought a durian ice cream sandwich. The nice old man who was manning the booth took out a huge chunk of ice cream (he was wearing plastic gloves), sliced it in half, plunked the solid ice cream block in between two square wafers, and handed it to me.

Mad Scramble for Pinoy Skrambol

There's a new dessert fad in town and I've just hopped on to the already-crowded pink bandwagon. Everyone is just going crazy for the classic Pinoy cooler- the skrambol. (Is this the end of froyo?) Some people spell it as 'scramble' but I choose to spell it the way I do because this refreshing sweet  dessert is uniquely Pinoy and it deserves a (relatively) Pinoy name.

Couldn't take a picture without anyone in line

What was once street food has now gone mainstream, with many new franchises littering your favorite malls. One of the more popular franchises is BuzBox Scrambles. They have a stall at the busy food court of SM Megamall and the customers just keep on coming. We were there last Sunday around eight in the evening when the crowd was thin but we still had to wait a good few minutes in line before we got to order.

Beard Papa's Cream Puffs - SUPERIOR!

A bit of Googling (yes, it's now an official word) led me to Beard Papa's Wikipedia page where I found out that my favorite cream puff store is actually a franchise from Japan (woot!). Admittedly, I wasn't expecting that. Yes, Japan is known for many things- technology, anime, pixelated body parts, and virtual girlfriends among others; but if there's one thing they're not famous for, it's desserts.

Japan, superior (again)!

I was lucky enough to have worked with a lovely Japanese national for a good two years (Herro Ms. Chiaki!) and within that period, I have learned many a thing about the Japanese food culture. One thing I learned is that although they make for fantastic cooks (we always got to try Japanese-style home-cooked dishes), the Japanese don't really like strong flavors- sweets included. And this is the reason why I'm surprised that Beard  Papa's sweet cream puffs are from Japan.

Delightful Desserts at Caramia Gelateria

Instead of going for the usual coffee to cap off the night last Saturday, we decided to get some gelato ice cream from Caramia Gelateria inside Amici Restaurant along Tomas Morato. We made our way along the restaurant-lined street which was busy as usual, bustling with cars and people at quite a late hour, finding Amici near the landmark circle of scouts.

Happy counters at Caramia Gelateria

Caramia Gelateria, which is the gelato ice cream shop inside Amici, is always, always a joy to visit. Their walls are brightly colored, their cake and gelato ice cream displays make the place feel like a happy little party, and their staff always have ready smiles. You can't help but be cheered up no matter how gloomy you are.

Here's what we got:

Guiltless classic-

The classic pistachio gelato ice cream

This is a classic favorite. Pistachio flavored gooey, yummy gelato ice cream (p65 a scoop). It was of course, delicious. Did you know that gelato ice cream has a lower fat and sugar content than regular ice cream? This means less guilt and more ice cream!

Ice cream cake-

Cara Mia's Banana Blast

This looked so good on the display that we just had to try it. It looked very pink and brown to me, so it was kind of unusual that it was called Banana Blast (p95).

It turns out that this ice cream cake is made of chocolate, strawbery, and banana gelato topped with strawbery and chocolate syrup. It's a gelato banana split! I liked the combination of the 3 flavors, and the zing that the syrup gives. It took a good long while to finish this one, savoring each bite takes some time.

~

It's always a good experience every time I visit Caramia Gelateria. Besides gelato ice cream, their gelato cakes are also delicious, affordable AND healthier than regular ice cream cakes! ^_~ You can check out the price list and descriptions on the Caramia website. Next birthday party I'm going to, I'm bringing one of these!

Iloilo Treats – Barquillos, Biscocho, and Bañadas

While I have never been to Iloilo, it has already etched a place for itself in my heart because of its well-known pasalubong goodies- biscocho and barquillos.

A friend who shall remain nameless (clue: her name starts with an 'M' and ends with 'arie') recently came back from a trip to Iloilo and gave me a bagful of lovely Iloilo treats from Biscocho Haus.

Here they are: Iloilo's well-known biscocho, barquillos, and bañadas

Oldies but goodies-

Biscocho is what Iloilo is most known for, and Biscocho Haus makes the best of them. For those of you who have not tried biscochos yet, that's a shame, these biscuits taste like toasted bread smothered with butter and topped with sugar, only crunchier and tastier. I'm kind of ashamed to admit it, but I can finish nearly an entire pack in one sitting.

Another treat that they're known for is the barquillos (this is my mom's favorite). Sure, you can buy a pack off the rack at your nearest grocery store or ice cream shop. But they wouldn't be as good as Biscocho Haus' barquillos, nope. These barquillos are wafery (they melt in your mouth), they're just the right kind of sweet (they're perfect), and they're great with (pistachio) ice cream. I tell you, they're fantastic.

Something new-

Bañadas- giant pacencias

This time around, my friend whose name starts with an 'M' and ends with 'arie' added a new treat- Biscocho Haus' bañadas. I was halfway through the package before I remembered to take pictures (they were delicious~) They're like pacencia biscuits, only lighter, crunchier and five times the size. That part of my heart that belongs to Iloilo has just become bigger, I have added this to my favorites list.

When I set foot in Iloilo someday, expect me to be bringing back home boxes of all of these yummy treats.

Northern Sweets – Tita’s Special Silvanas

My maternal ancestry originates from Pampanga. And although my mother and her brothers and sisters were born and raised in Manila, we still have relatives who live on that side of the country. In fact, on family reunions and gatherings, I often find myself lost in a babble of Kapampangan, barely understanding the gist of everyone's stories. I only know a handful Kapampangan words like matudtud (sleep), me keni (come here), mangan (eat), and most of the lines from the song Atin Ko Pung Singsing (I Have A Ring). What? That was the first piano piece I learned to play.

Anyway, it is because of this that we find ourselves spending time up north once in a while. For as long as I can remember, no matter how late, we would always stop by the delicacy store called Tita's before heading home from Pampanga. And it would always be a treat. The shop is designed like a mini grocery, with sections for meat products, pastries, candy, preserves and you push a trolley around to haul your loot. They would have fatless tocino, skinless longganisa, turones de kasoy, sansrival, taba ng talangka among others. All lovely. But of all their specialties, my absolute favorite would be Tita's Special Silvanas.

My mom recently went to visit some relatives and brought me this as pasalubong. Silvanas, for me, are best eaten cold and crunchy with a tall glass of milk on a rainy day. Tita's Silvanas are the best silvanas on the face of this earth! No contest. I say they're the best, because they simply are. These bite-sized silvanas are light to eat and not as sweet as the ones that can be bought commercially in the city.

What's unusual about them is that they're kept refrigerated, but they're crunchy, but also creamy inside, and melts in your mouth. It's weird, but it works. I can't even begin to guess how to make them, but maybe it's because I'm such a kitchen noob. Tried searching for recipes and how-to's online too, but no such luck. My friend said something about blowtorching but she can't be serious, can she?

Tita's oh-so-yummy silvanas!