Flashback Friday: WILDFLOUR CAFE + BAKERY

On the rare occasions that I fly back home for a visit, I make sure to go to restaurants I haven't been.  It's so easy to go back to my favorites again and again but it's also fun to eat  at the new restaurants that have opened up in Manila recently.

Wildflour actually isn't new, they opened their first cafe and bakery in Bonifacio Global City in 2012.  It's new to me though since I had heard so much about it but had never been.    I finally got my chance when my cool designer friend TC took me there for lunch.  I was so pleasantly surprised and impressed that I went there twice more in the short week that I was home.

What's great about Wildflour is that aside from their massive selection of fresh-baked breads, pastries and cakes, they also have a full all-day dining menu serving breakfasts, soups, sandwiches, salads, pastas and a few main courses. (The menu might be different in each outlet, I have only bent the one in Legaspi Village) For lunch, I've had the moules frites and a chocolate tart.  The next time I went for breakfast and had the bagel and lox with a pot of filter coffee and another time, I stopped by for merienda (snack) of a sticky bun and a  latte.  I always think a place has made it when it becomes my go-to restaurant and Wildflour is just that - a cafe and bakery that is perfect for any time of the day.  You'll know what I mean when you go.

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Wildflour Cafe + Bakery

L.P. Leviste Street, Salcedo Village, Makati
Phone:+63 2 808 7072
Hours: Monday to Saturday 7AM–10PM

Frabelle Business Center 111 Rada St, Legaspi Village, Makati
Phone:+63 2 833 9799
Hours: Monday to Saturday 7AM–10PM, Sunday 8AM–4PM

Ortigas The Podium, 12 ADB Avenue Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City
Phone:+63 2 571 8588
Hours: Daily 7AM–10PM

Ground floor, Net Lima building, 26th St, Taguig (Bonifacio Global City)
Phone:+63 2 856 7600
Hours: Monday to Saturday 7AM–10PM, Sunday 8AM-4PM

Flashback Friday: LES DELICES

Can it already be August?  Here's a flashback Friday post from our Christmas holiday in Punta del Este.

Breakfasts usually involve coffee and the medialunas con dulce de leche (the local version of croissants, slightly sweet and served with a caramel spread) and Les Delices in the town center of Punta del Este (or Punta, as everyone calls it), has been the go to spot for years especially for Argentines on holiday looking for their medialuna fix.

We did the same and had breakfast there bright and early before heading to the beach.  We did the works - fresh orange juice, coffee, toast, scrambled eggs and a bunch of medialunas.  While we ever there, there was a steady stream of patrons buying their breakfast pastries and a few locals quietly enjoying their coffee.

Aside from their large selection of pastries and cakes, they also serve a full lunch and dinner menu and do a good business in takeaway boxes of assorted mini pastries and cookies for afternoon tea.

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Les Delices

29 Las Gaviotas, 20100 Punta del Este, Uruguay
Phone: +598 4244 3640

MOSCOW RESTAURANTS

To finish off my long-delayed posts on Moscow is a list of a few restaurants I went to that I really enjoyed. Most are located either in the center or just off the garden ring road.  Here they are in no particular order:

Moloko Cafe

Ulitsa Bolshaya Dimitrovka 7/5

Moscow

Telephone: +7495 692 0309

*Open 24 hours daily

Moloko Cafe used to be a state milk store hence the name (moloko means milk in Russian).  Interiors are modern - great velvet chairs line each side of the room with a large bar in the middle.  There's a good crowd of expats and locals and not everyone is dressed to the nines.  We came for lunch on a Sunday and the place was half-full with mostly young Russian couples and their kids.  We shared a starter of smoked mackerel on baby potatoes followed by the sea bass in red curry for me and the beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes for A.  Food was fine and service was friendly, the only downside was the dessert which seemed store-bought.  As it's open 24 hours, I'm sure that there is a pre-club crowd that hangs out for cocktails and a post-clubbing crowd who come for breakfast before heading back home at dawn.

Vogue Cafe

Kuznetsky Most 79

Moscow

Telephone: +7495 623 1701

*Open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. till late, Weekends from noon to midnight

Another concept from the Novikov group, Vogue Cafe is a modern, bright space with a black and white interior with some color brought in with the large framed model shots on the walls and shelves of Vogue magazines.  Food is modern European Russian-style which means Italian or Mediterranean with some sushi and sashimi thrown in.  The combination works though as the place is crowded on most days with fashion-conscious Muscovites enjoying the Euro-inspired menu.  Its' location alongside trendy department store Tsum also helps.  We had a decent mixed salad, a penne arrabbiata and a pappardelle with cepes.

Il Forno

Ulitsa Neglinnaya 8/10

Moscow

Telephone: +8495 621 90 80

*Open weekdays from 8:00 till midnight and weekends from 11:00 a.m. till midnight

Other branches on Ulitsa Ostrozhenka 3/14 and Kutuzovsky Avenue 2/1

We stumbled into Il Forno on a cold windy evening on our first night in Moscow since it was on the same street as our hotel not expecting anything special and we were pleasantly surprised with the pizza and the service.  We had a salad to share and some pizzas on one evening and pasta on another night.  The menu has classic Italian pastas, risottos and pizzas and a few meat and fish main courses.  It's a casual restaurant with a proper brick-oven which makes the pizzas perfect.

Brownie Cafe

Maly Kozinsky Pereulok, 10

Moscow

Telephone: +7916 336 26 33

*Open 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily

In hip and happening Patriarch's Pond, Brownie Cafe is a tiny. welcoming place owned by the Friends Forever group, which has a dozen hip cafes specializing in cakes and coffee.  This newest addition which opened in February of this year,  has a retro vibe with it's multi-colored chairs, communal wood tables and large display case filled with all sorts of cakes and sweets.  We shared two - a chocolate raspberry cake and a strawberry shortcake with excellent coffee.  I dare you to enter and not have a slice of cake.

FILIPINO FOOD FIESTA

In early April I left for the Philippines to visit my ailing 94-year old grandmother (who has since sadly, passed away) and spent several days in Manila with my sisters having a taste of home.  As we were all jet lagged and awake at dawn, we were all dressed and ready to go for breakfast very early in the morning.  Most days we just crossed the street to One Rockwell where we usually ate either at UCC Cafe Terrace, Apartment 1B (more on that later) or our old favorite Pancake House. 

UCC is a Japanese coffee franchise that uses the siphon method to make their specialty coffees.  The place isn't fancy but the coffee is very good and the Filipino breakfasts are fine.  We tried most of the "si-log" combinations (meaning SInangag, Filipino for garlic fried rice and itLOG, Filipino for egg) with tapa (marinated beef), longanisa (local pork sausage), bangus (milk fish) and tocino (marinated pork).  I liked the longanisang hubad (naked longanisa) best - when they split open the pork sausage skin and take out all the sausage meat, fry it till it's nice and crisp like corned beef hash, then place it on top of the garlic fried rice and serve it with a sunny side up egg - a Filipino breakfast of champions.

On another evening, after a log day spent at the hospital, we decided to have some Filipino food to go from my friend Malu's Milky Way Cafe on Pasay Road.  We ordered the usual classics: kare-kare (oxtail stew made with peanut-flavored sauce), inihaw na liempo (char-grilled pork belly), adobong sugpo (prawns cooked adobo-style in crab roe) and a crispy pata lechon de leche (deep-fried suckling pig knuckle) with a home-made vegetable dish of pinakbet (long beans, bitter melon, okra and eggplant cooked in shrimp paste).  The food came with rice, appropriate sauces (spicy vinegar, bagoong - shrimp paste and chili soy sauce) plus banana leaves that we used to line the serving plates.  Fantastic Filipino food that we enjoyed at home.

When my Lola (grandmother) was brought back home for her last days, we all gathered around the table once more for our traditional lunch which we spent at my Lola's house every weekend when we were growing up.  On this occasion, we had two versions of crab - sauteed in garlic and deep-fried in butter - both of which I hadn't eaten in a long time and probably last enjoyed at one of my lola's weekend lunches.

We also had the traditional summer heat quencher - halo-halo (literally meaning mix-mix of sweetened fruit and beans topped with leche flan, and ube ice cream with milk and lots and lots of finely shaved ice).  We did the classic Via Mare version and the superior Milky Way version which was better because it was filled with more goodies and the ice was so finely shaved that it never made our halo-halo watery.

Last but not least was my dinner with J and N who very nicely picked me up at home and drove me to get my Filipino food craving and took me to Greenbelt's Mesa Filipino Moderne where we had a delicious dinner of deep-fried inside out tilapia where the crispy fish was prepared in bite-sized chunks ready for dipping into the four sauces - spicy, sweet, salty or sour, a prawn and pomelo salad with crispy shredded coconut, grilled pork belly, mixed vegetables in garlic sauce and something I had never tried before: sauteed sigarilyas (wing beans) in coconut milk with chili and shrimp.  For dessert, we shared the leche flan turron (a flan-stuffed spring roll) and the refreshing pandan and coconut jelly.  As you can imagine, it was a Filipino food fiesta.

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UCC Cafe 
Ground Floor, One Rockwell West Tower, Makati
Telephone: +63 2 896 3951

Milky Way Cafe
2nd Floor, 900 A. Arnaiz Avenue (formerly Pasay Road), Makati
Telephone: +63 2 843 4124

Cafe Via Mare
Ground floor, Rockwell Center, Makati
Telephone: +63 2 898 1305

Mesa Filipino Moderne  
Greenbelt 5, Makati
Telephone: +63 2 728 0886

LA MORAGA SWEET

After a recent walk around Puerto Banus, I noticed that the storefront near Pizza San Marzano (aka Pizza Express), which was still under construction a few weeks back, is now open.  La Moraga Sweet, operated by chef Dani Garcia and his team at nearby always-packed tapas bar La Moraga Iberica, is a little cafe with a large display of cakes that look almost like art in their perfection.  This little place will definitely give Le Notre (on the other end of the same road) a run for its' money.  When we dropped by, they were still stringing up the plastic bubble lamp over the cake display case but otherwise, the place was ready.   I had an illy espresso in a special cup created by Pedro Almodovar along with a designer looking eclair filled with coffee cream.  The stools are fun but not that comfortable so it be a place where you can linger with your cappuccino but you can always drop by for a quick coffee and a pastry and then choose one of the cakes to enjoy at home.  It's a great place to buy a hostess gift or as a present when one is invited over.  I'm definitely going back for another espresso and to try another of their pretty pastries.

P.D. (January 30 2010) - Went back today to buy some of their wonderful pastries.  Pricey at 3 euros a piece but worth it especially with the fantastic packaging.  Just wish that the staff would learn to smile and make the experience more pleasant.

Easy Apple Crumble

All of a sudden the temperature has dropped and from warm sunny days of 22C, it's become overcast and 16C.  We've been waiting a long time for some cooler weather and the opportunity to light a fire and  have some warming food - pot au feu, cocido, onion soup with melting hot gruyere.  Along with comfort food come winter desserts - fluffy whipped cream concoctions just won't do which is why tonight, we made one of our favorites.  The classic apple crumble has many different versions but we made the simplest one.  For a fast and easy pudding, this tops the list - apples, sugar, flour, butter and oats and dessert is ready in half an hour.  Make sure you have either creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream to make it perfect.  Winter's here!
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Easy Apple Crumble

• 100 grams plain flour
• 175 grams unsalted butter, cold and cut into small chunks
• 100 grams brown sugar
• 50 grams oatmeal
• 900 grams tart apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Mix the flour and butter together, either in a food processor, or with your hands until it becomes like rough sand.
• Add in the brown sugar and the oatmeal.
• Place the chopped apples in a baking dish (use one that can go in the oven that you can then serve the dessert in).  Line the bottom with the apples.
• Top with the crumble mixture and make suer to cover all the apples.
• Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the top is crisp.
• Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche.

KABUKI at ABAMA

On our second to last evening in Tenerife, we had dinner at Kabuki. We had been to the original Kabuki in Madrid in the summer of 2007 and still haven't forgotten the wonderful meal we had then that we were so looking forward to trying the one at Abama.

The restaurant is located within the Citadel (main building of the hotel) and has modern interiors with black mosaic tiles and touches of red. Staff uniforms are in muted greys and on the table are a simple grey and white rectangular plate with a silver chopstick rest. We had a quick look at the menu just to see what interesting dishes they had - there was a chef's tasting menu, sushi, sashimi, tataki and fish tartars, main courses and even a kid's bento box menu.

We started with an amuse-bouche (palate teaser) of steamed sea snail with a sesame oil dressing - an interesting flavor that one either loves or hates (I loved it but J and A wouldn't have any of it). Our first courses were served: salmon sashimi (slices of raw salmon), negi-toro roll (fatty tuna, spring onions and rice wrapped in seaweed) and soft-shell crab roll (fried soft-shell crab with rice). The sashimi was excellent - not-too-thin slices raw salmon eaten just with a tiny bit of soy sauce and wasabi (Japanese green mustard) and the soft-shell crab was hot and crispy while the rice was cold - a very good flavor combination but it was the negi-toro roll that stole the show - half a dozen delicious mouthfuls of buttery fatty tuna and finely chopped spring onions. (Toro is expensive but every bite is worth the price.)

Our son happily coloured his paper place mat until the main courses arrived - from the kid's menu, a bento box of tori karaage (deep-fried chicken pieces) served with rice and spinach - just the right size, it's the yummier Japanese version of chicken nuggets. A had the unadon (grilled eel served over rice), I had the prawn tempura (deep-fried prawns) and we both shared a salad of cold cooked spinach with a soy sauce and sesame oil dressing. After our delicious dinner, A brought our son back to the room to get ready for bed.

We ended our dinner shared one of the desserts especially created for Kabuki by famed Catalan chocolatier and patissier Oriol Balaguer - three quenelles of dark chocolate, over white chocolate jelly and caramel sauce topped by crunchy dark chocolate crumbs - a delicious end to a fantastic meal.

Peach Tarte Tatin

Another hot summer's day with the temperature at 32C and no wind at all. The best thing to do would be to sit in the shade with a large glass of iced tea or iced lemonade and take a nap or read a book but since we have family arriving today from Argentina, I'm making our dessert for tonight's dinner instead. (*I made this last Wednesday but haven't had the time to post it until today.)

This is a classic recipe that I've adapted to take advantage of the abundance of summer fruit available. Peaches are used in place of the traditional apples and it's a twist that works as the sweetness and juiciness of the peaches is perfect with the shortcrust pastry. All it needs later on is a dollop of extra-cold creme fraiche to complete it or if you want to be extra indulgent then some vanilla bean ice cream wouldn't be too bad either.

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Peach Tarte Tatin

For the short crust pastry :

• 2 Tbsp. ground almonds
• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour, sifted
• 6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, chopped into chunks
• 2-3 Tbsp. ice water

• 8 ripe peeled peaches, preferably white but yellow ones will do
• juice of 1 lemon
• 6 Tbsp. vanilla-flavored sugar (*I always leave a spilt vanilla bean in my baking sugar)
• 4 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter

• Make the short crust pastry by adding the flour and butter and process briefly. Add the ice water by tablespoon until the mixture comes together. Wrap in wax paper and chill for at least 30 minutes. This may also be done a day ahead and left in the fridge overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 190C (375F).
• To peel the peaches, place them in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Leave for 30 seconds then pour out the hot water and peel gently. Sprinkle them with lemon juice to prevent them from getting black. Cut the peaches into wedges but make sure to leave one half peach for the middle of the tarte tatin.
• Warm the sugar in an enameled cast-iron skillet (about 10-inch diameter) or any pan that can be put in the oven. The sugar must turn deep, dark brown and liquid so do this over medium high heat. Do not stir but keep moving the pan round to prevent the sugar from burning. Remove from the heat and add half the butter.
• Place the half peach in the middle of the pan, cut side up. Line the rest of the pan with the quartered peaches, remembering to place them cut-side up.
• Add the remaining butter on top of the peaches and then place the pan over the heat for a further 2-3 minutes to gently start the cooking.
• In the meantime, roll out the pastry. It must be large enough to cover the pan with some pastry hanging over the edge.
• Cover the pan with the pastry and then tuck the rest into the pan edge.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before inverting into a plate.
• Serve with vanilla bean ice cream or cold creme fraiche.

Argentinean Dinner

Last night, we invited our next-door neighbors M & A and kids over for dinner. They had prepared a traditional Iranian meal for us a few weeks back and we decided to do an Argentinean dinner to reciprocate. After a week of careful planning - recipe research (from my mother-in-law), looking for ingredients all around Marbella and making do with our Weber grill instead of a parrilla (Argentine grill), we managed to re-create a near-authentic (at least food wise) experience for them.

As most Argentine meals are rustic outdoor set-ups where a large wooden table is set right beside the grill in a shady area of the garden, we opened all our sliding doors to let the outside in and first had aperitifs and appetizers on the terrace followed by the asado (grilled meat bien sur) indoors at sundown which is around half past nine anyway. The table was set with a place mat, a square plate, simple cutlery - forks and Laguiole steak knives, a linen napkin and some rosemary plants in terra-cotta pots as centerpieces.

To start we had empanadas de choclo (corn) y empanadas de carne (mince) along with Provoleta (grilled Provolone cheese) and chunks of baguette. The fried empanadas (we prefer these to the baked ones) were hot and crispy on the outside - the meat ones were either dipped in a bit of sugar or eaten with salsa chimichurri (oregano-based sauce for grilled meat) while the corn ones were eaten plain.

As soon as the appetizers were finished and the grill was ready, A prepared the three cuts of meat: entraña (skirt steak), asado de tira (short ribs) and bife de costilla (T-bone or Porterhouse steak). As we don't have a proper parrilla (grill) which can be lowered and raised depending on the heat of the coals, it was more difficult to ensure that the meat stayed red and juicy on the outside while not completely burning the outside. The grill sparked up with flames a few times but my Argentine husband managed to keep the flames to a minimum and cook the meat to medium-rare. We had two salads with the meats: a beet-carrot-egg salad and sort of a Waldorf salad of celery, apple, pear and walnut - both popular in Argentina. We also had some papas rejilla (crisscut fries) which are similar to potato chips to accompany the meat. I didn't have time to drop by the wine store in Marbella and see what Argentine wines they had so instead of the traditional malbec, we had an excellent Tempranillo from Ribera del Duero.

After dinner, we went back to the terrace for more conversation and to wait a but before the extra-sweet dessert we were going to have - mousse de dulce de leche (caramelized milk mousse). Much-needed espressos followed until we realized it was past midnight and time for the kids to go to bed.

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Salsa Chimichurri

• 1 Tbsp. oregano, crushed (fresh is better but dried works fine as well)
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, crush the leaves
• a handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
• 1 tsp. ground red chili flakes or to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• sea salt and freshly-ground pepper
• 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil (if you want a milder flavor, use vegetable oil)

Soak all ingredients in the vinegar and water. Leave for at least an hour then add the oil. Adjust seasoning and serve with meat empanadas and grilled meat.

*If you're in a rush, get some of the ready-mixed dry chimichurri herbs that you add water and vinegar to, set aside for an hour or so, add oil and it's ready. I've used this many times and the result is very good.

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Mousse de Dulce de Leche

• 1 bottle of Dulce de Leche (about 454 grams) - buy the best that you can find. (*I use either La Salamandra or Havanna)
• 454 grams of whipped cream (in other words, equal amount of whipped cream and dulce de leche)
• Crushed meringues
• Walnuts

Crush the meringues and line the bottom of a large bowl, a serving dish or any container that you would like to present the mousse in Whip the cream until stiff. Add a dollop of dulce de leche to the whipped cream and whisk in. Gently fold in the rest of the dulce de leche. Make sure that the two are mixed together. Transfer into container then chill in the fridge for at least a few hours or better yet, overnight. When the mousse is solid, top with a few walnuts. Serve very cold.

Paris Museums and ANGELINA

Saturday afternoon was spent at the Musée Nissim-Camondo, a mansion overlooking the Parc Monceau filled with Moise Camondo's collection of late 18th century art, furniture and decoration. The museum showcases the home as it would have looked when Moise and his children lived in it. The rooms have been lovingly preserved and the furniture and decorations are exquisite as is the architecture of the mansion itself. The bathrooms and kitchen were modern for their time and showed the wealth of the Camondo family. When Moise's son Nissim died in the first world war, he changed his will and bequeathed his home and everything in it to the state to be made into a museum in memory of his son, Nissim. Moise died in 1935 and the museum was inaugurated in 1936. The last of the Camondo family, Moise's daughter, Beatrice and her two children died in Auschwitz in 1943. Such a tragic end and an incredible legacy - a museum worth visiting.

After a late breakfast on Sunday morning, we went to another museum that A had never been to and that I had last visited in 1993. It was a bitterly cold day and we almost left the queue and gave up but we were let into the museum after about ten minutes. There were quite a lot of people waiting in line because it was the first Sunday of the month when all museums are open to the public for free.

L'Orangerie, originally built in 1852 to house orange trees during the winter, was opened to the public in 1927 first to display Claude Monet's Les Nympheas and later to house the collection of Jean Walter and Paul Guillame. Renovations began in 2000 and when the museum reopened in 2006, Claude Monet's works which were previously underground were now brought up to the first floor where light filtered in and the rest of the paintings were transferred down below. Now, the collection is presented in a modern space with large windows letting light in from the Jardin des Tuileries.

It was past one when we left the museum and headed over to Angelina on the rue de Rivoli, another of our Paris favourites. As always, there was a line of people waiting to be seated. This time the wait was longer than at the museum but we were indoors and right beside the display counter of patisserie which made the wait bearable. Most people were having Angelina's famous Africain (thick, dark hot chocolate) and a pastry but we decided to have a light lunch and shared a club sandwich and a salad with anchovies and hard-boiled eggs. Breaking tradition, we shared a Cafe Liegeois (coffee ice cream), even if it was so cold outside instead of the usual hot chocolate. We wanted to browse around Galignani, the bookstore, right beside Angelina but they were closed so we put that off for the following day, our last in Paris.

Buenos Aires Gourmet Discoveries

Having masitas (petits-fours), facturas (croissants and pastries) and sandwiches de miga (crust less white-bread sandwiches) for tea or for any other occasion is a must in Buenos Aires and each one has their own favorite Confiteria or Panaderia. La Exposicion on Juncal corner Libertad is located at the busy intersection called cinco esquinas used to be THE place to go. Some years later, a few employees of La Exposicion opened their own bakery/pastry shop - Confiteria Norte (on Vicente Lopez). As we had already tried the formers sandwiches and medialunas (croissants) on a previous visit, we decided to drop by the latter on this trip. Although the selection was vast at Norte, their croissants were industrial-like and not very good plus the staff forbade me to take photos in the store (like taking pictures of their display was some sort of pastry espionage).

After recounting the episode to my mother-in-law, she suggested we visit Dos Escudos on Montevideo (between Quintana and Guido) which was the best Confiteria of the three. It's also the most expensive but it's worth the price. We bought a few facturas - medialunas de grasa (lard croissants) and medialunas de manteca (butter croissants), vigilantes (sugar-covered puff-pastry sticks) and the bomb pastry that my husband likes - the bola de fraile, literally friar's ball - which is a dulce de leche-filled sweet bread. All were excellent - freshly-made and delicious. The shop is also the most modern of the three and looks like a typical bakery and cake shop with refrigerated displays of whole cakes plus chocolates, all sorts of breads and a wide variety of masitas (Argentine-style petits-fours).

If it's gourmet food shopping you're after then head to complex on the corner of Rodriguez Peña and Vicente Lopez where many of the city's best food shops are located. On the Rodriguez Pena side there are several specialty stores worth mentioning.

One of them is the Verduleria Napoli which has a wide selection of fruits and vegetables. They are a bit on the pricey side but the quality is incredible. We purchased a lot of fruits and had them delivered to our apartment and they were excellent.

The shop right beside them sells fresh pastas. Pastas San Jose is a local standby for all sorts of raviolis for the weekly "raviolada del Domingo" (or Sunday ravioli meal). There are other types of fresh pastas on offer plus an assortment of ready-made sauces from tomato, mushroom cream to four cheeses packed and ready to go and even freshly-grated Parmesan cheese.

There is a butcher alongside Pastas San Jose with a display of all types of chorizos and sausages plus marbled cuts of meat ready for the grill which is perfect for when you want to attempt your own "asado".

On the corner is a small attractive boutique, Bonafide, which is a local brand that sells coffees of all kinds available both in beans or freshly-ground. Coffee accessories are also available plus beautifully packaged Panettones (Italian Christmas fruitcakes) and Pandoros (Italian icing sugar covered giant brioches).

As for delivery options, nothing beats the fantastic empanadas from El Mirasol - no minimum order required, although about a dozen should make it worth their while. They arrive in a labeled cardboard box, crispy, piping hot and ready-to-eat.

Buenos Aires Cafés

Every year, we spend about two weeks in Buenos Aires to visit family and friends and each time we do, we rent an apartment in Recoleta which is our favorite area. This year, we managed to try some new places that we chanced upon while exploring the neighborhood while still not forsaking our regular haunts.

First on the list and quite close to where we were staying is Che Buenos Aires on the corner of Avenida Montevideo and Libertador and a block away from the chic shopping center, Patio Bullrich. This café used to have a dark, wooden interior until it recently got a face lift and is now following the on-trend modern design of most cafes in the area - bright lights, designer plastic chairs and of course, Wi-Fi for the tech-savvy. Decent coffees and the usual selection of pastries and toasted sandwiches are available.

Next up is the tiny café Nucha in the foyer of Patio Bullrich, which serves real Italian espresso (Segafredo) and yummy desserts - the cheesecake I had was delicious. It doesn't have the natural light and fashion and football crowd of Patio Bullrich's other indoor café, Francesca, on the lower ground floor, but at Nucha the coffee, cakes and service are infinitely better.

Just around the corner from the boutiques on Montevideo and Guido streets is Buenos Aires' equivalent to Starbuck's, Café Martinez (a.k.a. Café M) where one can buy coffee beans, whole or freshly-ground plus order a cappuccino to-go in a cardboard cup which is uncommon here as most people get their espressos and pastries delivered on a covered tray by a waiter from a nearby cafe. This local chain has many outlets (in shopping malls and scattered all over the city), and have clean, bright interiors serving cakes, pastries and simple toasted sandwiches. Although lacking in atmosphere, the coffees are good, the medialunas (croissants) and the other facturas (pastries) are surprisingly yummy and best of all, it's packed with locals.

More upmarket then the others listed above is Croque Madame which opens daily and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner to fashionable locals. This chic little café has a few locations in town, one of them within the gates of the lovely mansion housing the Museum of Decorative Arts on Avenida Libertador. We went to the Recoleta branch on Avenida Callao close to the Alvear hotel. It's a WiFi hot spot as well so you can have lunch or a coffee and check your emails while you're at it.

A bit further off from us is iFresh Market. Located in the up and coming docklands area of Puerto Madero, it's a a deli/home boutique café concept that has remained popular since it opened about five years ago. It's become a regular brunch hangout for homesick expats hankering for a taste of home and egg breakfasts and for locals wishing for a bit of Continental flavour. Aside from the all-day menu, there's a fruit and vegetable counter, a deli counter with cheeses, among them a local goat's cheese, and cold cuts on display. Chocolates, cakes, petits-fours and other sweets are also available along with jams, spreads, cooking utensils, cutlery, crockery and all sorts of fun home stuff.

Double Chocolate Chip cookies

Today was the first day of school and my first day home alone after the two months of summer holidays. I spent most of the day catching up on filing and replying to emails as well as sorting out my desk and organizing the stack of mail and bills that have piled up over the last month. After all that was done, I decided to make a back-to-school treat for my son. He loves chocolate chip cookies but this time I made them even better and did a chocolate-chocolate chip cookie based on a recipe from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2. They were fresh out of the oven when he finally got home and perfect for his after-school snack.

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Double chocolate chip cookies

• 250 grams (8 oz.) butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 200 grams dark chocolate chips


• Preheat the oven to 150C (300F). Place the butter and sugars in a bowl and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs gradually and beat well. Add the flour, baking powder, cocoa and chocolate chips and mix well.
• Shape 2 tablespoonfuls of the mixture into rounds. Place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper, allowing room for the cookies to spread, and flatten slightly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until dark brown on the bottom. Cool on wire racks.
• Makes 28

Summer Dessert

After our busy week in London, I spent the first few days back getting back on track with chores and preparing for the summer. The weekend was spent relaxing at home and since I was craving a fruity dessert, I thought why not attempt an apple crumble? After looking through several cookbooks, I finally found a really easy version in Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. His recipe was used only apples but I decided to make use of whatever summer fruits I had in the fridge s0 my version has yellow peaches, a bit of mango, some strawberries and apples. It was exactly what I wanted, a not so sweet fruit-based dessert with a crisp topping - perfect with creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream. Since plain vanilla ice cream is almost impossible to find in the supermarkets here (don't ask me why, I have no idea), we settled for the vanilla-based Macadamia nut brittle from Häagen-Dazs which worked out wonderfully with the fruit crumble.

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Summer fruit crumble

(adapted from Mark Bittman's Apple Crisp in How to Cook Everything)

• 6 cups, peeled, cored and sliced fruits (I used 2 cups apples, 2 cups yellow peaches, 1 cup mango and 1 cup strawberries. Try to slice the fruits in about the same size and shape)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2/3 cup brown sugar (If you want it less sweet, you can reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup)
• 5 Tbsp. cold, unsalted butter plus extra for greasing the pan 1/2 cup rolled oats (I used Quaker oatmeal, not the instant or quick-cooking kind)
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, optional
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts, optional (I didn't add any nuts because I didn't have any)
• dash salt
  
• Preheat the oven to 400F (around 200C).
• Toss the sliced fruit in the lemon, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar.
• Lightly butter the bottom of the pan (I used a ceramic baking dish but you can also use either a 9-inch round baking pan or an 8-inch square baking pan).
• Spread the fruits lightly in the pan.
• Combine the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until everything is Incorporated. Alternatively, you can soften the butter the slightly, then toss the dry ingredients together and work in the butter with your fingertips or a fork).
• Spread the topping evenly over the fruits and bake for 30 to 4o minutes until the topping is browned and the fruits are tender.
• Serve hot, warm or at room temperature with some double cream, creme fraiche or even better, vanilla ice cream.

Tiramisu

It was another lazy Sunday at home and since we were stuck inside because of the rain, I decided to make a tiramisu with my six-year old. It's a great recipe to do with kids because there's no baking involved and it's not too fussy so they can make it from start to finish. You'll see from the photos above that he did the dipping and layering of the ladyfingers plus the cocoa powder topping. Here's the foolproof recipe.

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Tiramisu

• about 24 Italian savoiardi biscuits (ladyfingers)
• 3 Tbsp. (45 ml.) espresso coffee
• 1 Tbsp. brandy or grappa (optional)
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) vanilla sugar*
• 8 ounces (250 grams) Mascarpone cheese
• 1 ounce grated bittersweet chocolate or bittersweet cocoa powder

• Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites.
• Whisk in the vanilla sugar to the egg yolks then mix in the Mascarpone.
• Make 3 small espressos and pour into a shallow container to cool. Add the brandy or Grappa if you decide to use it.
• Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff.
• Slowly fold in the egg whites to the egg yolk and cheese mixture.
• Dip the ladyfingers one by one into the coffee then lay them side by side in a porcelain or glass dish.
• After making one layer, spread half of the egg and cheese mixture over it, covering the biscuits entirely.
• Add another layer of coffee-soaked biscuits then spread the rest of the mixture onto the top.
• Strain some cocoa powder onto it or if you prefer, grate some dark chocolate on top.
• Leave to cool in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight.

* Vanilla sugar is made from leaving split vanilla beans in the jar with the white sugar. If you don't have vanilla sugar, you can use plain white sugar and add a teaspoon of vanilla essence instead.

Pancake Day

I was talking with my friend Chinot when she mentioned that she had made pancakes today and suggested I make some too. I completely forgot about Shrove Tuesday and the tradition to make pancakes on this day. When I was living in Moscow in the early nineties, this day was called Maslenitsa and was always celebrated with lots and lots of sweet and savoury blinis, the Russian pancake, being made and eaten. It seems that Shrove Tuesday became pancake day as a way to get rid of all milk, butter and eggs, (rich ingredients to be avoided during the Lenten season), on the day before Ash Wednesday. Anyway, my son was really happy with the surprise crepes and we finished the full recipe, at least two crepes each, for dessert.

The recipe is easy and even more convenient to make if you have one of these special French measuring cups with the ingredients already listed on the side in gram weight to avoid having to use a weighing scale. I also used a 12 cm. cast-iron blini pan instead of the traditional 22cm. cast-iron crepe pan. Happy Pancake Day!

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Crepes

• 125 gr. plain flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 300 ml. milk
  


• Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, make a well in the center and add the eggs.
• Gradually beat in the flour from all sides and slowly pour in the liquid, to make a smooth batter.
• Sieve, if necessary and cover and let rest for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
• Beat thoroughly before using.
• Makes about 12 crepes.

Banana Tart

Another day, another recipe. Since I pulled out The Art of the Tart from my cookbook shelf the other day, I've been skimming it for recipes to try. Luckily, we had lots of extra bananas from the market last week and since they were starting to get overripe, I decided to make these banana tarts. I made the puff pastry myself just because I enjoy the challenge but it works fine even with store-bought puff pastry. You can also use thinly-sliced green apples but I prefer it with the bananas.

Banana Tart - from Tamasin Day-Lewis' (yes she's Daniel's sister) The Art of the Tart

• just over 1 lb. puff pastry
• 8 ripe but firm small bananas (I used 4 large ones)
• a pat of unsalted butter, melted for brushing on the tarts
• confectioners sugar
  


• For the Frangipane (almond custard filling):
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg and 1 yolk, beaten together
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  


• Roll out the dough and stamp out with 4-inch squares or 5-inch discs. Place them on a baking sheet lined with brown paper. With the back of a knife blade, draw a rim just inside each disc, and prick the center with a fork. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400F (200C).

• For the Frangipane, cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the beaten egg and yolk, then the almonds and flour, beating all the while. Spoon the mixture into the middle of each pastry disc, leaving the rim clear, and enough space for a band of sliced bananas to surround the Frangipane. Fan the bananas around, closely overlapping, then top the Frangipane with the remaining slices. Brush with melted butter, then finish with a fine dusting of sifted sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the bananas are caramelized and shiny and the pastry puffed up and golden. Domestic ovens are not always good at caramelizing, but you can always brûlée the banana tops with a bit more confectioners' sugar and a blowtorch when they come out of the oven. Serve hot with some dark rum and brown sugar beaten into some heavy cream.


• Makes 8

Peach Tarte Tatin

I found another little market nearby in Cancelada which takes place every Friday morning. The best part though isn't how close to home it is but how good the quality of the fruits and vegetables are. It caters to local residents so the prices are very reasonable.

I bought half a dozen ripe yellow peaches. I planned to eat them plain but remembered this recipe that I used to do often in Santiago when the white peaches were in season. It's from Tamasin Day Lewis' The Art of the Tart. Tarte Tatin is traditionally made with apples but this version makes use of the summer's sweet peaches and is as good as the original.


Peach, Vanilla, and Amaretti Tarte Tatin
from The Art of the Tart by Tamasin Day-Lewis

• For the dough:


• 8 amaretti


• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces


• 2-3 Tbsp. ice water


• For the top:


• 8 ripe peaches (white are the absolute best, but yellow-fleshed are fine)


• juice of 1 lemon


• 1 vanilla bean


• 6 Tbsp. sugar


• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter


• To make the dough, crush the amaretti in the food processor, add the sifted flour and butter and process briefly to combine, then add 2-3 Tbsp. ice water and process until the mixture comes together. Wrap in wax paper and chill for at least 20 minutes.


• Preheat the oven to 190C. Roll out the dough 1/2 inch wider than the circumference of the pan - I use a heavy, 10-inch diameter Cousances enameled cast-iron skillet with a metal handle that I can put in the oven - and set the shell to one side.


• Scald the peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds. Peel, and sprinkle them with lemon juice to prevent discoloration.


• Split the vanilla bean and scrape it out into the sugar. Warm the sugar in the skillet until it is a deep, dark brown, and totally liquid. Do not stir, but move the pan around to prevent burning. Remove from the heat and dot with half of the butter. Put half a peach in the middle of the sugar mixture, cut side up. Quarter the rest, and, starting at the outside of the pan, lay them next to one another in a tightly packed wheel. Arrange the remaining quarters in an inside wheel. Dot the rest of the butter and put the pan back over the heat for 2-3 minutes to gently start the cooking.


• Remove from the heat and cover with a mantle of pastry that you tuck inside the pan edge, and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate. Delicious with creme fraiche.

(Tip: Vanilla beans are expensive so to use one per recipe is costly. What I do is take a vanilla bean, split it lengthwise and leave it buried in my white caster sugar. When a recipe calls for vanilla-flavoring, my sugar already has it.)