Saturday Sept 25 2010 was about food! It started with Spanish Class Nivel 5 when our muy sympatica profesora Sandra walked us through a conversation exercise to drum Preterito Imperfecto into our slighly dazed heads. My partner was Kat Rodriguez, who earlier gave me a box of my favorite Cinammon cookies from Calea, that delectable bakeshop beside El Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City where the delicious cakes literally wear high heeled slippers. But let's not get into that now! Eh muchas gracias ga!
Pregunta por todos: lo siento mucho, I still haven't figured out when to use por o para even when my otra muy genial professora Tessa Carlos tried to drill it into our silly heads during Spanish conversation classes at Poveda, because Cynch, Nando and I were too busy goofing around.
Que te gustaba hacer de pequena? What did you like to do when you were little? Sorry I can't find the inverted question mark on my keyboard.
Mi repuesta:
Me encantaba leer novelas que de mi padre nos compro.
Me gustaba jugar con mis amigos y mirar peliculas con mi papa y hermanos.
and the clincher
Me gustaba comer chucerias. Yeah I loved to eat, snackies! I was a fatty foodie. Well, I still am. Which one? The fatty or the foodie? Both ! Muy gracioso!
Fast forward to 5:30 P.M. Cynch and I and our 16 year old classmate the very pretty Yvonne Liboro were waiting for the downpour to stop so we could skip the light fandango ( Cynch said its skip the fantastic toe) across the slippery tiled courtyard to Casino Espanol without breaking a bone or getting Cynch's Italian straw shoes wet. Its Chefs on Parade day, which promises to be a gastronomic event at the Salon de Rizal Grand Ballroom
of this revered for -members- only- Spanish Club. And the rain gods must have heard us drumming our bored fingers on the table at Cafe de Letra of Instituto Cervantes, that the rain actually let up to a drizzle and we did skip the light fandango across with out any visible damage except maybe some watermarks on my favorite black Lacoste shirt. ( yes,shameless brand name dropping here!)
My favorite Genie a.k.a. Cynch treated Yvonne and me to dinner. You see we have this arrangement, anything to do with expenditures over P100, it's Cynch treat. Anything below that is my treat! Egalite, Fraternite! What else? I forgot! So much for French history!
The ballroom was filled to the max with fellow foodies all wanting to sample spanish cuisine brought to you by:
Chef Jaume of Barcino, Chef Richard Manapat of Kusina Teatro, Chef Angela Legarda-Montinola of Kusina ni Tia Moning, Chef Poch Camahort of Cocinero, Chef Hercules of Casino Espanol, chef Amanda de los Reyes-Alba of Barbara's. All names courtesy of Casino Espanol's GM Adolfo Munatad so I hope I got everything right. We were seated together with his pretty wife Mercy who matched Cynch's can- I- show- you- a- picture- of- my -handsome Swiss-only- son mode by whipping out her cellphone pictures of her almost two year old twins. Awww they're so cute. Side event of the night, pretty Yvonne dying of laughter and "shame" and practically hiding under my pashmina, everytime Cynch would bring out Albie's picture with his equally gorgeous girlfriend to show to
Chef Jaume and Barcino's manager Uri Singla and anyone else within arms length.I feasted on Paella and lapulapu fish fillet and bread pudding with fruits, but my food portion was kinda skinny compared to the ample portions Cynch and Yvonne got of Paella with callos and Paella with a tongue dish.
Yes we got to sample some of the food, Chef Jaume's hearty potato and chorizo meal and Poch Camahort's muy rico paella, before we scooted off to go home, while Chef Angela was arranging the tongue that she boiled for six hours on a plate and she ladled a creamy garlic onion white wine gravy over it. Cinderella's three!
So here's a couple of recipes that Yvonne noted down from Chef Baume the handsome 24 year old soltero from Barcino who's a native of Cataluna.
MAYA MAYA A LA VASCA
Fry maya maya on a skillet with olive oil. Heat oil on a separate skillet. Saute chopped garlic add finely chopped parsely and mix well. Add flour to make a roux, estimated at one table spoon , add water until the flour is dissolved. Add green peas and mix everything well. Add clams and then add the maya maya. Add fish broth made from maya maya head boiled for about 20 minutes. Transfer to serving plate, decorate with hard boiled eggs.
I would substitute cream for the roux and shrimps for the maya maya for variety.
PATATAS RIO ANAS
Fry chopped chorizo in olive oil. Fry 2 pieces bigger sliced chorizo in a separate pan. Transfer the chopped chorizo to the other skilled with the bigger chorizo pieces. Saute garlic. Add some of the oil where chorizo was fried to the saute garlic .Mix well until golden brown. Add potato wedges to the golden brown garlic, mix well, then add the chorizo. Add water, chicken broth. Sprinkle paparika for color, a dash of black pepper and salt to taste. And voila. A robust meal for rainy days in the campesino.
Buen Provecho!
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