delectation

Alma

I always need to remember -- when planning a party, and especially a dinner party with a largish number of people (anything over 3 or 4) -- to always set the start time at least 1/2 hour earlier than when you actually make the reservations. For Nora's birthday dinner on the 23rd of November, only 2 of us were on time; the rest trickled in anywhere from 15-30 minutes late. But the staff at Alma was exceptionally gracious and welcoming, and didn't complain once nor slight us in any way for our (technically speaking) rude tardiness.

Overall the experience was simply lovely -- fantastic food, a great, attentive staff, and warm surroundings. I'm definitely returning someday...

Our amuse bouche: a small dollop of crab salad and cucumber atop a tortilla chip.

As usual, Brian took charge and ordered the table a series of appetisers to share. Clockwise from the topmost left:

• Wild striped bass (ceviche) with mild green chilies & red onions, champagne-grapefruit marinade
• Ceviche caliente- Crimson Snapper cured with Seville oranges, & quickly fried
• Butternut squash & queso fresco empanadas with guajillo chile sofrito
• Achiote roasted chicken tamale with tomato pico & cumin- lime crema fresca

• Churrasco style pork chop, garlic-scallion potato mash, jicama cabbage slaw & smoked chili jus
• Grilled ribeye steak with papas a la "pampa" & sungold-habanero hot sauce "on the side."

The pork chop and steak were exceptionally popular as main courses -- perhaps because there were slightly more guys than dolls at the table that evening...

For her dinner Julie ordered 2 of the same appetizers we had already ordered, and an additional dish of Quinoa & purple potato gratin with poblano cream and queso casero.

Dave C. came after night class and ordered a light dish of the "Almejas"- steamed clams with garlic, white wine, linquiça sausage & roast gypsy peppers.

And I -- I ordered the Sonoma duck with camote fries, braised greens and Fuyu persimmon mole. Absolutely fabulous!

We ordered Nora an After Midnight Chocolate Cake, one of Citizen Cake's signature offerings. "Chocolate devil's food, Scharffen Berger dark and El Rey milk chocolate glazed with chocolate ganache. Finished with chocolate shards, straw and edible gold leaf." It was exceedingly beautiful, exceptionally rich and obscenely decadent. There's a $15 cakeage fee, however...

All in all, a wonderful evening. Go. Alma's fantastic.

411
1101 Valencia St., corner 22nd
Dinner: Tu-Th 530-1030pm; Fri-Sat 530-11pm;
closed Sunday & Monday
Phone: (415) 401-8959
Fax: (415) 401-8960
website: almacomida.com

Reid's Bread Pudding

This is my attempt at Reid's (of 'Ono Kine Grindz) yummy bread pudding, posted last week. Reid's recipe makes the pudding more custardy, but I wanted mine with a little more bread.

I couldn't find any Portuguese sweet bread and so just picked up 2 kinds of rolls I found at my favourite Asian market. One package was labeled Quiapo brand Pan de Leche. Quiapo is a district in Manila that's dominated by a huge 16th-century church. In the church is a large statue of Jesus that is rumoured to be miraculous so that supplicants often approach the altar on their hands and knees. Quiapo is also a popular shopping district with a huge market and is the site of several colleges, a mosque, and other cultural landmarks. Just seeing the name on the label brought back waves of childhood nostalgia. The other bread I purchased was Vietnamese -- sweet dinner rolls from the Bui Phong Bakery. I thought the latter tasted better, but using two kinds of bread made for a pretty contrast in the casserole dish.

Because I used more bread I used 2 cans of evaporated milk (Reid's recipe calls for 2 cups), 6 eggs (vs. 4), 1 whole stick of butter (rather than 6 T) and 3/4 cup of sugar (1/2). I also played fast and loose with the vanilla, cinammon and nutmeg, and sprinkled the pudding liberally with raisins and chopped, toasted pecans.

It was perfect. Soft and slightly custardy, even a little silky, but with a little more substance and texture thanks to the raisins and nuts. This was a really easy and fun dish, Reid, thanks so much! I'm going to make this for my family when I visit them for the holidays in a couple of weeks.

Thanksgiving

I know Thanksgiving Day's long gone, but in keeping with my tradition of being a couple of weeks late with my postings on delectation, here's my little summary of the day, with selected pictures:

I always use a big holiday as an excuse to go all-out on mushrooms, and in this case, I was making recipes that called for an inordinate amount of the fungii -- this year I got no less than eight kinds: regular crimini (also called baby bellas, since they are small portabellas); tender shiitakes; regular umbrella-like portabellas; copper tops, rounded and burnished; golden chantrelles; oysters, pale and ethereal; rugged-looking hawks wings; and finally, some dried porcinis...

Among the dishes I planned to make: mushroom stuffing (rosemary bread, shittake, criminis, dried porcini) with accompanying gravy (mixed wild mushrooms, cream, marsala, thyme, sage), and a yukon-gold potato, gruyere and mixed wild mushroom gratin.

My amazing roommate Bert not only made these two -- pumpkin topped with toffee and walnuts and mixed berry pie -- but she also threw together a latticed apple pie and a rich rich rich chocolate-orange bundt cake!

Brussels Sprouts, before and after... the pine nuts in the pie picture above gets sprinkled on the sprouts before serving.

One of these days I might try another recipe for Turkey, but for now, I still love Mom's, which she got taking cooking lessons from Ninoy Aquino's sister-in-law, Ma-ur, back in the Philippines. The trick is to inject the turkey liberally with a mixture of melted butter, honey, and soy sauce.

Ma-ur's recipes are Western with a Filipino bent -- she substitutes ingredients that are usually found in the States with those that are available in the Philippines. The stuffing reflects this:

Stuffing:

• 1 cup ground pork
• 1/2 cup Chinese ham
• 1 can Vienna sausage (mashed)
• 1/2 cup liver sausage (aka Braunschweiger, mashed)
• 1 can Chorizo de Bilbao (chopped fine)
• 4 T maggi seasoning
• 2 T Worcestershire
• 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
• 1/3 cup chopped raisins
• 7 cups white bread cubes

As I could not find the tinned Chorizo de Bilbao packed in lard that's sold in the Philippines, I used Portuguese linguica instead. I think it's rather funny that I now have to find substitutes for Filipino ingredients... On the other hand, readily available here is Maggi seasoning, another sauce from my childhood. There was a time when I was absolutely crazy over it, and used it in most everything I ate: over eggs, on rice, in spaghetti... Mum eventually stopped buying it since she feared I was consuming too much sodium.

Some shots of the rest of the dinner (note Nora's yamallow and pineapple souffle in the bottom right -- Philly traditions)... I was having a tussle with the camera, and more than a wee bit distracted, so I didn't end up taking that many inspiring shots. We also did not plan that well and there was definitely a surfeit of comestibles, but guess that too much is to be infinitely preferred over too little. The party was loads of fun, and we had a crazy mixture of "orphaned" friends and friends of friends who kept asking, "So, are you from the lindy scene or the capoeira school or the Philly crew or the hiphop group or....?"

Back in the Kitchen

Everytime I think I'm completely uninspired and don't know what to cook, all it takes is a quick surf to my favourite food blogs to make me think that the weekend can't come soon enough so I can start cooking again. Here are my favourites that I want to try (not sure if it'll be accomplished this weekend, but I'm going to attempt at least a couple...).

• First since I want to try no less than three of his posted recipe are Reid/ Ono Kine Grindz's Bread Pudding, Kang Kong Blachan (Kang Kong with shrimp paste); and Portuguese Sopa de Feiojao
• From Renee of Shiokadelicious - a lovely simple green bean omelette which reminds me a little of the oyster omelettes I used to eat when living in the Philippines.
• From Stel of Baby Rambutan - Paksiw na lechong pabo: a sauce, usually served with lechon (roast pork) for leftover turkey!
• Sassy at the Radical Chef recently tried out a recipe that seemed like a wesernized version of the filipino kare-kare: Potato, Beef and Peanut Pot.
• Becks N Posh's Sam recently made a gorgeous kuchen from the French Laundry Cookbook
• And clever Santos took a peek at a Williams-Sonoma brining mix to inspire her own soaking mixture for some lovely roasted citrus herby game hens...

Can't wait to fire up the ovens! After this past Thanksgiving, I didn't think I'd be cooking for a while, but now it seems like last weekend was just the beginning...