Mirsbin’s Kitchen

With Clorets being my only officemate, I started getting used to eating alone. Sometimes I would bring “baon” to the office or just have Mcdo or Jollibee deliver food. One time I ate in this burger joint named JBJ’s in Tomas Morato. I had onion rings, strawberry milkshake and a really juicy burger. Sad to say I found out the other day that it just closed already.

Eating alone is not as pathetic as it may seem now that you’re not in school. I’m actually enjoying it. So with this initial blog, I’m starting my adventures of eating alone.

For this first entry, I ate “fishballs” in UP — alone. I had errands for my client last Saturday and I couldn’t resist not eating “fishballs” at the UP Shopping Center. It was really good! I had two sets of fishballs worth P10 plus an Apple C2. I had fun conversing with the manang while she was cooking. I asked how many packs of “fishballs” can be consumed on a daily basis, then some discussions on the price of oil and other ingredients. I told her about my now defunct Egay stall in St. Luke’s. I’ll probably do this again, next stop is the BBQ / Isaw stand nearby.

I haven’t been cooking lately, I’ve been watching what I eat for the past 3 weeks and it I don’t find any urge to cook. A friend recently asked me if I was trying out new dishes, and sad to say I haven’t really thought of whipping up new ones in the kitchen.

I’ve been eating out a lot though, but just the same I would just order salad or a sandwich. Nothing really specatacular.

Here are food updates around Metro Manila

- Amici resto is now open in Tomas Morato. It’s right beside Uno Resto and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
- Check out Guia’s blog on Mommy Thai, her canteen used to be in the Asian Studies in UP then she transferred somewhere along Katipunan. She’s back but this time in Ortigas Home Depot. Hot not hot?
- Cow King recently updated it’s interiors. We’re currently planning the new menu.

Hopefully I get my cooking groove back in the coming weeks.

If this were dessert, I would cherish the last spoonful. But this is about closing down a store, the first project with my siblings. It was the last day of Egay yesterday, the store was just 5 months old but my brother and I decided to close it down due to several factors.

My sisters could not bear to look at the now empty store. I was there until the end but I vowed that this will be the first and last project that we will close down. All my efforts are now focused on 3 things - my design studio, my dips and Cow King.

My hopes of opening a small cafe is still in the dream stage, one day I will open it. But when that time comes I hope to finally have perfected the ins and outs of running a resto.

Catch the 2-day seminar of New York City’s renowned pastry chef instructor Nick Malgieri on May 20 and 21 at the Rockwell tent! A rare treat including meals and recipes. Early bird rate is P8,500 if you pay before May 11.

To enroll, call Bel Roldan at 4152768 or the Food Magazine and Foodie office at 4128507 for assistance.

There are times when I am more comfortable cooking alone. During our New Year’s day get together with my mother’s relatives I did the cooking all by myself. I was up as early as 6 am and cooked all the meals for our 30 guests. During these times I am in my element and my adrenaline is high since I want to beat the lunch deadline. A lot of times I would ask my yaya to leave the kitchen, sometimes I find it bettter to cook alone.

Somehow in my other cooking stints, women from my family from my sisters to my aunt and to the househelp would ask what they can do to help in the cooking. They sometimes try to volunteer to cut the vegetables, cook the stock etc. The same way that women are drawn together to cook in fiestas, weddings or anything that require extra help. When I was in Australia, women gathered to make desserts for my cousin’s wedding. Such was also the case when I was in Cuyo, Palawan. Where the movie - Ploning was shot. It was a shock for me that I would be cooking for 100 people from the cast and crew everyday. But the load was eased as women from Cuyo started to help. Just like Mrs. Medina who always volunteered to cook the rice and two more ladies from the area would help in cutting the vegetables.

Usually there was small talk, starting from the weather and the prices of the produce that came from the market. Sometimes we would talk about their children and some snippets of their lives. They asked me about my life in Manila.

It was a surprise for me that when I watched Ploning. In the movie, four women gathered in the kitchen too to make Cashew Brittle. Cashew brittle is a native delicacy in Cuyo. The women of Ploning (Celeste - Mylene Dizon, Alma - Meryll Soriano, Nieves - Ces Quesada and Ploning - Judy Ann Santos) each had a story to tell but the one thing in common about them is their friendship and the bond is strengthened everytime they gather around to crack cashew nuts or cook the Cashew Brittle.

For more details about the film log on to www.ploningthemovie.com