Recipe | 15-minute Pasta

The 15-minute Pasta
Servings per batch: Good for 2 to 3 people
Total preparation time: Around fifteen minutes
Difficulty: Easy! :)


It's rare that I actually find time to cook during the academic year, but there come days when I feel compelled to just make something, and this happened to be one of those days.

I'm not a big fan of our local renditions of pasta dishes so today I wish to share with you a very simple pasta dish that may be quite different from what we can typically get in some of our more popular food establishments.

I hope you guys enjoy making and eating this as much as I did! :) Happy cooking!

PS. When cooking and baking, I don't follow recipes. I go by intuition. For this dish, feel around for how much of each ingredient you wish/need to put. It may seem a little intimidating if you're not comfortable with having no set recipe, but you'll see what I mean when I say you'll just know how much you need once you're there when, well, you're there cooking already ;)

I also encourage you to throw in things you have lying around in your cupboard, if you want. Things like a can of flaked tuna or a can of anchovies -- just a little common sense about what you put in there, of course :) Haha! Don't go too crazy.

The 15-minute Pasta [ good for 2-3 people ]

• ~½ pack of your pasta noodle of choice
  
• Olive oil
• Tuscan sauce (you can buy this or make your own; this would be a good idea to have as a staple :) it's salty and a bit spicy, you can use it in a lot of dishes, and a little Tuscan sauce goes a long way!)
  
• Pesto
  
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cheese (can be robusto, parmesano, etc -- even Quick Melt, if you like! :P you can use as many varieties as you want)
  
• Herbs of your choice (rosemary, Italian herb mix, etc)
  
• 1-2 tomatoes, diced
• 1-2 teaspoons tomato paste
  
• 1 small garlic, diced
  
• 1 small onion, diced
  
• A couple of olives, sliced
  

Be sure that all your ingredients are prepared beforehand because this really is a quick dish. Have your noodles boiling in a separate pot (water, a little oil, a bit of salt) while you throw together your sauce.

Pour a bit of olive oil in your heated pan (big enough to hold your pasta later on) followed by your garlic and onions. Once your onions are translucent, add some of your Tuscan sauce then your tomatoes. Mash them up (your tomatoes will add a little tang to the taste and some colour to your plate :9) then add your olives, pesto, salt and pepper, some more of your Tuscan sauce, tomato paste, and herbs to taste. This would also be the time to add your tuna/anchovies, if you wish. Add oil at your discretion -- hint: if it's looking a little dry, it's time to put more oil in. (Don't worry -- there's no meat here, so there's no fat from the meat for everything to cook in.) Add a bit of your cheese in.

Once you're happy with your sauce and your noodles are ready (al dente!), strain the noodles (basic idea: just strain them, pour a little cold water over them while still in the strainer) and once most of the water is off, add them into your pan. Stir well so all the noodles are coated, add more salt and pepper to taste (if you want), then add in your cheese. Stir some more, until everything is mixed well and serve.

Simple and delicious. :)

Features | YOU Magazine

YOU magazine turns its eyes on our 5-month-old food blog in its feature "Manila Foodistas: Student foodies chronicle their campus food indulgences." Here's a photo of our feature in the magazine.

Again, thank you YOU magazine for having us. We're very humbled to be included in your issue.

Manila Foodistas represent!

Grab your copy of Sept/Oct 2008 Issue of YOU in any of your local magazine stands nationwide.

Restaurant Review | Heaven N' Eggs

Heaven n' Eggs
Level 1, Space 1140, TriNoma Mall, EDSA cor. North Ave, Quezon City
Type of Cuisine: American
Average cost per person: Php 200 to 300 (US$4.34 to US$6.50)
Overall Rating:

Joey was originally wary of eating here because she wasn't very fond of American cuisine or enticed by the idea of having breakfast all day (or, at least, the idea of having breakfast all day with the sorts of breakfast with fried eggs and fried anything in it). But every time we go to TriNoMa, Harrell would suggest eating at Heaven n' Eggs and, figuring that she ought to at least try it, Joey finally agreed.

We're happy to say that Heaven n' Eggs did not disappoint. The interiors of the restaurant were warm and inviting and reminiscent of charming diners and while we didn't quite understand why they had them, we were tickled by the TAXI signs that adorned the top of every bench/seat. Their service, we are very happy to report, was excellent. Our server, Arnold, upon our entering the establishment, swiftly ushered us to our table and handed us our menus. He was very helpful and attentive: helping us select our meals and generally made our dining experience that much better because of how comfortable and attended to he made us feel, even while also tending to other tables.

Since Heaven n' Eggs is famous for their meals of steak and eggs, their pancakes, and, well, their breakfast meal offerings, in general, and since we didn't think we could stomach their meals with larger servings, we decided on having two of their, according to Arnold, more popular non-breakfast dishes.

Heaven n' Eggs is definitely a place we'll be going back to one day. Maybe next time we'll have appetites enough for their (what we hear are) delicious Steak and Eggs. :)

Manila Spare Ribs (Php 195, US$4.23)
Delicious!! Joey initially had her reservations, since she's not one for sweetly marinated meat, but she was taken from her first bite. The meat is perfectly cooked and flavored and sits on a generous serving of java rice. The serving is quite large, but not a bit of it was wasted -- definitely a dish to try!


Roastbeef and Rice Skillet Slammer (Php 275, US$5.96)
This dish was not bad, but not excellent. The serving was enough, but the roast beef could have been a bit more tender. It could also have been more flavorful, as the dish seems to get rather monotonous after finishing half. Harrell liked Joey's dish more.

Reviewed by Harrell and Joey.
Photography by Joey.
See more photos on Joey's flickr.

Recipe | Joey's Banana Cookies

Joey's Banana Cookies
Servings per batch: Makes around 40 cookies
Total preparation time: About an hour and a half
Difficulty: Another experiment -- I've yet to actually follow a recipe. So I suppose you can say this is relatively easy, if I managed to cough it up haha :)

These are like banana cake in cookie form, but not as sweet and definitely much, much healthier than your typical banana cake. My cookie experiment #1 came out soft and quite fluffy :9

These have absolutely no butter in them (just 2 tablespoons of canola oil that I put in as a "safety measure") ♥ I think these cookies are very healthy, as far as cookies go.

This is my first baking experiment. I'd have to say it went better than I thought it would :9 Considering that my baking experience is a total of one cookie, I wasn't very confident about how the cookies will turn out, since I still only have a vague idea of the "proper" proportions and what sort of ingredients you have to put in to make the cookies come out tasting and resembling cookies.

I'm glad these came out okay tho. Not quite what I wanted, but my brother says he likes these more than my apple cookies (but, personally, I liked those better). And, to be honest, I wasn't planning to post this recipe since I still want to tweak it a bit, but talking to a few of my friends who got to try it (and apparently loved it), I decided to share the recipe anyway and, should I ever find time to try it again, just update this post with the improved recipe.

In any case, I hope you guys enjoy this! :) It's really quite simple to make, and it's healthier than most baked goodies ;) (Most of my cooking tends to be on the healthy [and tasty!] side -- Hannah says it's my niche.)
Happy baking~! ♥

• 1 cup mashed bananas (~5 bananas)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
  
• 2 eggs (or egg substitute, the equivalent of two eggs)
  
• 2 and ¾ cups flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
  
• 1 and ½ cups brown sugar
  
• 3 tablespoons cinnamon

Mix the mashed bananas, eggs, canola oil, and brown sugar together in a large bowl. Combine the rest of the ingredients together in smaller bowl, then add the dry mixture into your wet mixture. Mix well.

Preheat your oven to around 250°C (480 °F).

Line your baking sheet with parchment/wax paper. Spoon dough to the sheets, leaving at least a ½" gap between each cookie. Bake for about 20-30 minutes. The cookies should come out soft and a bit airy/fluffy.

See more photos on my flickr.

Restaurant Review | Wong Nai-Nai

Wong Nai-Nai
6 Christian Street, Grace Village, Quezon City
Type of Cuisine: Chinese
Average cost per person: Php 50 to Php 65 (US$1.11 to US$1.45)
Overall Rating:

It isn't often that we venture into this particular area of Quezon City. Since we were going to be in the area for an org affair that day, our friend, Francene, insisted that we have lunch in a place she called Wong Nai-Nai.

Situated within walking distance of Grace Christian High School, Wong Nai-Nai is a small, unassuming hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant. It was pretty empty when we arrived (around 1.30pm), but we were told that during lunch time and after classes the place was always packed. Upon perusing the menu, we could already understand why.

Their prices are really cheap! We thought that it would mean that the servings would be small, so we were very pleasantly surprised when we discovered that their servings were very generous as well. And, even better, the food was good! We realized then why Francene was so fond of the place,and why it was so popular in that area.

Wong Nai-Nai is definitely worth a visit, if you're near the Grace Village area! Delicious food in generous servings and surprisingly low prices -- three things that instantly won our favour.

Steamed Sharksfin (Php 25, US$0.56)
We ordered this under Wendy's recommendation (a friend of ours who was the only customer there when we arrived). Of course, it's not actually made from a shark's fin. We suspect its prolly pork prepared so that it would taste like sharksfin ought to. Whatever it is though, it's very cheap and yummy.

Kiam Pung & Adobo Egg (Php 30, US$0.67, & Php 10, US$0.22, respectively)
This is what Francene calls the Filipino-Chinese sort of comfort food (her exact words were: "If Pinoys' comfort foods are bulalo, isaw, etc., these are the Chinese's counterpart for that."). Tasty and savoury and incredibly cheap.

Chicken Teriyaki (Php 65, US$1.45)
Wendy swears by Wong Nai-Nai's chicken teriyaki: "Super yummy!" There's a delicate balance of sweetness and spiciness. The chicken is not too tough and not too soft either. They don't try and make the dish look bulkier by putting too many vegetables and too little meat -- really great value for your money.

Wanton Noodle (Php 65, US$1.45)
It was surprising to see how generous they were with the serving. We don't think we've ever had a bowl of noodles with so many wantons till Wong Nai-Nai -- Francene wasn't kidding when she said to Joey, "That's a lot! Sobrang nakakabusog yung mga noodles nila!"


Chicken Steak Noodle (Php 65, US$1.45)
The chicken steaks themselves were a bit tough, although plentiful. The noodles were great, and made Harrell rather wish that he'd ordered the Wanton Noodle like Joey did.

Reviewed by Harrell and Joey.
Special thanks to our guest reviewers, Francene and Wendy.
Photography by Joey.
See more photos on Joey's flickr.

Thank you! ♥

Never did we imagine that our less than four month old blog would be counted as one of the most influential emerging blogs of 2008! We feel incredibly blessed that we were given this honour and we are so very thankful to everyone who believed in us, who cheered for us, and who helped us get to where we are now.

This was all just for fun, and to find that what we do for fun is something that people enjoy and find helpful makes us all very proud. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou to everyone who reads, comments, shares, enjoys, listens and gets involved in our blog!!

And, of course, thankyou and congratulations to Ms. Janette Toral for hosting and spearheading this wonderful project! There would be no Ten Most Influential Blogs named if not for her.

Again, thankyou so much to everyone who has given us love, support, and votes (hahahh!) -- you know who you all are :) We hope you continue to read and enjoy what we do :)

Lots of love,
Your Manila Foodistas
Joey, Bong, Harrell, Pat, Tiff, Mark, Hannah & Kat

Harrell, Joey & Bong at the Awarding

You guys made this possible -- thankyou!

Restaurant Review | Sa In-Yō

Sa In-Yō
68 E. Abada St. Loyola Heights, QC
Type of Cuisine: French-Japanese Fusion
Average cost per person: Php 400 to Php 600 (US$10.00 to US$15.00)
Overall Rating:

We've been meaning to dine at In-Yō for months now, but we never really pushed through with it. But when we noted that our anniversary as being best friends was drawing near, we decided that there was no better time to have dinner at In-Yō than on our special day.

The place itself was gorgeous. Joey was especially taken by how part of the floor of the entrance was see-through. The service was also brilliant, with our waiter very attentive and accommodating. We had difficulty choosing what to eat, since everything sounded tempting.

While waiting for our meals to arrive, we were served slices of freshly baked cornbread, which Hannah adores, and dollops of butter. We were also each served a small plate of wasabi fried oyster (review below). The meals themselves were also wonderful, pretty much sealing the deal that we'd be making In-Yō our anniversary dinner destination from then on.

It's a wonderful and satisfying experience to dine at In-Yō. Give them a ring at 928-6459 and reserve yourself a table. It's the perfect place for an intimate family dinner or a romantic date -- or even the anniversary of your being best friends ;)

Wasabi Fried Oysters
This was interesting. The oyster's exterior wasn't as "slimy" as it typically is but the interior retained its rather creamy texture. It's not something you can have a whole lot of, but it was a nice surprise. It was a fun play on Japanese Kaki Fry, with a light wasabi batter replacing the traditional breaded batter.

Shitake Mushroom Udon with Light Soy&Garlic Sauce (Php 240, US$6)
Kat really liked the presentation of the shitake mushroom udon. With every bite, you get the nice crunch of vegetables and the juiciness of the mushrooms, which complemented each other well. The sauce was really good, rich in flavor but not too overpowering.

Honey Glazed Grilled Salmon (Php 440, US$10)
The salmon was cooked just right, just bordering on medium rare to well done. This made the fish a "melt in your mouth" texture. Hannah really loved how the sweet tones of the honey and the sauce complimented the fish. Strangely reminiscent of tare sauce, in how well the salmon was complimented by the honey and citrus miso sauce. The wasabi mashed potato could have been much creamier and smoother.

Mesquite Smoked Fillet of Local Halibut (Php 450, US$10.23)
This was wonderful, from the taste to the textures. The emulsion was light and with hints of sweetness, the watercress fresh and crisp, the pasta al dente and the fish perfectly cooked.

Reviewed by Hannah, Joey and Kat.
Photography by Joey.
See more photos on Joey's flickr.