Kanin Club Desserts

Here are some of the yummy Pinoy desserts that I like in Kanin Club (KC).

Turon KC. Their turon is short and stout. Kinda looks like fat lumpia togue, but full of yummyness you won't forget.

The crispy turon wrapper is glazed with caramel and stuffed with banana, ube jam (purple yam), buko (young coconut) strips, and sweetened beans. You can order the ala Mode version so you get a scoop of ice cream. It's like eating halo-halo minus the crushed ice - a dry halo-halo. The only thing missing is the slice of leche flan.

Maruya with Ice Cream. The humble banana fritters reinvented to a hot and elegant Pinoy dessert that is sprinkled with cinnamon and topped with a scoop of cold ice cream.

Saging ulit: Saba con Hielo. A sweet and tummy-filling cold treat perfect for our tropical weather .

A quick dessert stop-over this Valentines Day - Paseo de Santa Rosa or Alabang - hmm....

How to make turon and lumpia wrapper

I love turon - especially those with soft, ripe sliced banana, few strips of langka and crispy wrapper glazed with caramel. But just how are those thin turon wrappers made? How are lumpia or spring roll wrappers made? I thought these wrappers were made by roll pressing dough until it's super thin then baking it in an oven.

Well yes, they are made of dough, but they are not rolled thin to the desired thickness in microns. They just slam a chunk of slightly wet dough to a large hot plate so that when they lift the dough, a "dough print" (analogous to fingers making finger print) is left on the hot plate.

The thickness of the dough print is determined by how wet the dough is. This in turn determines how thick the wrapper would be.

In just a minute or two, your freshly made wrapper is done, ready to be the crispy outer cover of my favorite turon and lumpia.

Bye Intel Cavite

Intel Philippines was part of the first batch of Intel sites to be established outside the US. It's been in the Philippines for more than 35 years now. More than half of that time they were in Makati and around a 12 years ago, Intel Philippines planted its roots in General Trias Cavite.

A strong sense of corporate social responsibility, plenty of parking space and well equipped engineering cubicles is how I remember my visit there.

This year is when Intel Philippines closes its doors and turns off its lights in Cavite. Time to halt microprocessor production. Time for all of its Pinoy folks to share their exceptional skills elsewhere. Time to rest. Time to move on.

What else is there to say - Farewell.

Lechon Baka

How do you make Lechon Baka?

Start with getting a leg of a young calf, inject it with spices and seasoning, then roast it above charcoal.

Unlike Lechon Baboy (roast pig), cow's meat is denser and it is difficult to evenly cook a baby cow's leg inside and out. The outer part is already well roasted but the inner part of the leg is still red and raw.

So you slice off the perfectly roasted outer layer,

to let the layer beneath it have its turn to roast to a nice brown color.

Make smaller bite sized pieces and it's done. The way of cooking Lechon Baka reminds me of Shawarma where the beef is cooked the same way.

So how do you want yours - rare, medium rare,

well done or medium well?

The left over bone intentionally have some meat attached and can be used to make beef soup.