Pasta Alfredo with Salmon

Happy Easter everyone!

It's been awhile since I've posted a recipe (come to think of it, it's been a while since I've blogged, but that's a different story) so I've decided to share with you a pasta dish that I have prepared for the meatless days of the Holy Week.  It's my version of the Pasta Alfredo and I have used a can of pink salmon that I've bought from the grocery as a variation from using chicken strips.

Ingredients:

1 can of Pink Salmon (Century, yes the Tuna brand, got a good Pink Salmon that is just right for this recipe but you can use fresh Salmon fillet if you want to but you may have to cook it a little longer)
2 tablespoon of pitted black olives halved
1/2 bottle of cream cheese
1 all purpose cream
3 cloves of garlic
olive oil
butter
powdered garlic
oregano
salt
pepper
175 grams of Pasta pre-cooked according to package instructions

First, sautee the salmon with 3 cloves of garlic on about a teaspoon of oil or you may use the water of the canned salmon.  Sautee for about 3 mins.  Make sure to take out the skin and bones.  Salmon normally only has one piece of bone in the center.  The canned salmon already has salt so it is not necessary to add some more if you have used this. Separate the garlics, place on a plate and set aside.  Aside from Salmon, Tuna is also a good alternative.

Heat about a tablespoon of butter on a non stick pan once dissolved put in another tablespoon of olive oil this prevents the butter from burning.  Put in 2 dashes of powdered garlic and then the pitted black olives.  The aim here is not to burn any of the olives as the Alfredo sauce should have a consistent white appearance and the olives should not taste bitter.  Add in the cream cheese until it melts, stirring constantly.  Add in the all purpose cream and stir to blend all the ingredients together.  Add a dash of oregano, some more powdered garlic, salt and pepper to taste.

Toss in the pasta and make sure that all of it are coated with the Alfredo sauce.  Top with the cooked Salmon, toss some more and transfer to a serving dish.  It is best to serve and eat this immediately as the Alfredo sauce is known to harden at room temperature because of the cheese.  This serves 2 to 3 people and probably just for one very hungry dude!

Here is what I have cooked last Good Friday.  I have used spaghetti for my pasta but Fettuccine also works well.

Bon Apetit!

Fastfood chain suspends ads on 'Willing Willie' - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Fastfood chain suspends ads on 'Willing Willie' - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Yes! Mang Inasal I'm happy that you are sensitive to the Filipino people's sentiments and for standing up for what is right.

"Unboxing" a Becky's Kitchen Blueberry Cheesecake

The term unboxing has usually been reserved for new high tech computer products.  I came across this term during the launch of the iPad where first buyers (those who usually waited in line for long hours for the store to open) made a vlog of their unboxing of the new gadget.  According to Wikipedia, unboxing has been labeled as a new form of "geek porn."

So now I am "unboxing" not a tech item but as I have promised in my review the Becky's Kitchen Blueberry Cheesecake which I have judged in my recent post as my favorite cheesecake by far.  http://execlunch.blogspot.com/2011/02/for-love-ofcheesecake.html

So you have to take out the tape off the tape on each side...

Are we ready for this?

And here you go my friends.  Our first look at a Becky's Kitchen Blueberry cheesecake.

Yup, I just bought a half cake this time since we are celebrating...uhm...err... Earth Hour!  That's right we are celebrating Earth Hour so that is why we are having blueberry cheesecake :-p

Ready to have a big slice...

Don't worry I am not having this slice just for myself I am sharing this with my wife :)

And the verdict, I really love Becky's Kitchen's Blueberry Cheesecake I believe most of the fine qualities of the cheesecakes that I have sampled in my previous blog entry were combined with this one.  And the price is very reasonable too.  Aside from the store located at Bautista corner Pablo Ocampo St (Vito Cruz) where I bought this cake there is a branch at Community Center Suha St Valle Verde I Pasig City so people from the Eastern Metro wouldn't need to travel that far to sample these.

Bon Appetit!

Tried Recently: Guilly's Island Buffet

Buffets has been a constant crowd drawer for us Filipinos. I have tried some of the best buffets in town (see my entry on-buffets here.) And in my recent trip to Davao, I have also learned that the buffets fever (much like the Bieber fever) has also hit that city with lunch buffets as low as P 145 pesos per person.

Well another restaurant has jumped into the buffet bandwagon following the footsteps of Cabalen, Hard Rock Cafe and Kamayan. Guilly's Island Resto Bar a known gimik place is now offering lunch buffets at P239 while the dinner buffet is at P300. The dinner buffet comes with a grilling station with choices of meat and seafood ready to be grilled and served at your table. The selection is not bad either with good filipino dishes like the sinigang na baboy, lechon paksiw and kare kare. There is also pasta, Mongolian barbecue and dessert stations. The buffet comes with a glass of iced tea too.

One the best part about Guilly's buffet is that there is still an ala-carte menu that is good for my little princess who is a picky eater. Although kids can also partake of the buffet for half the buffet price.

Try the Guilly's buffet in their Glorietta 5 branch.

For the Love of....Cheesecake!

I love Blueberry Cheesecake!  I first tasted this heavenly dessert about 19 years ago.  It was at Sugarhouse back when they have their good old branch at Greenbelt.  At times I ate this dessert at Cafe Rizal and if I am looking for a budget variety I would buy a whole box at Red Ribbon.

The landscape of GB has changed through the years, Cafe Rizal is now gone and Red Ribbon has stopped selling Blueberry Cheesecakes (a pity!  Bring it back!)  So here are a couple of restaurants where I have tried their variation of the blueberry cheesecake and my take on them.

This one is from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.  This is quite good as the crust is just semi creamy which makes sure that the base is intact, the blueberries are whole and full and every time you take a bite each piece bursts with blueberry juice.  The downside is that this one of the priciest of the lot in proportion to the serving size.

This one is from Flapjacks.  It is not too creamy (more flour on the base) and the graham crust is not too sweet.  The serving size is proportionate to the price so it is best to have that special someone to share this cheesecake with you (yihee sobrang cheezy, lol!)

The picture above is Cheesecake Meliza's version of the blueberry cheesecake.  This cheesecake is also more flour based and what I have noticed is that the topping is too sweet.  And the whipped cream didn't really help the cause either.  For a cost of 76 pesos the serving is quite small.

Now this one is a bit of a sorry state as you can see in the picture.  I can not dare say anything bad against this though (c'mon this is cheesecake, if Friends' Joey loves sandwiches that much I consider it a sacrilege to say something bad about the cheesecake no matter what its condition is.  Save the Cheesecake!)   I would let this store to remain to be unnamed as well.  (What's that?  You can read the name of the store in the picture?  Oh well...)

This my friends is Conti's, enough said. No just kidding, well the first cheesecake I tried was a bit frozen but it does taste good.  It has a cream base and the graham cracker crust blends well with the taste.  I needed to have another try before I can say that this is my favorite cheesecake so far so I tried it another time.

Now this one is not frozen at all so I can probably say that Conti's cheesecake is my favorite commercially available blueberry cheesecake thus far.

But wait, a challenger awaits...

This large tray of blueberry cheesecake comes from a friend of mine as a Christmas gift (I understand his brother who is a chef made this.)  The graham crust is not too sweet (a tinge of salt to counter the sweetness of the base and the topping.)   It was simply heavenly, I hope it does become commercially available.

And my verdict, the best place to get yourself cheesecake comes from this place.  

No explanation nor description can do justice.  You simply have to try it to understand why I believe they offer the best cheesecake in town.  And I would tempt you by not showing you the picture of the Blueberry Cheesecake just yet.  I would post my Becky's Kitchen experience one of these days.

Happy Heart's Day!

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Welcome the Year of the Rabbit (or bunny, whatever.)  Los Luchador/Executive Lunch wishes everyone a wonderful year ahead.

I recently went to Singapore and they have already decorated Chinatown for the Chinese New Year.

Now this next picture is what I call "who the heck?"  See the girls at the background?

There are Chinese lanterns all around.

And of course, the reason why I posted these here in the food blog and not in Los Luchador (http://www.azicran.blogspot.com/) is because during this trip I tried the food in Chinatown.  And boy was I in for a gastronomic treat!

The place is basically point and cook.  Sa Tagalog, ituro mo at lulutuin ko!   That sounded like a song from VST and Company.

The place is quite packed being a Friday night and the only table we were able to sit on is beside the stall where we ordered.  Unfortunately, it is also near the kitchen so we smelled like barbecue all through out the meal.  But then again it is worth it since the food were really great.

These sauteed kangkong are wonderful.  See the red chili smothered together with it?

Barbecued shrimp, yup you can't go wrong with these barbecued shrimp. Yummy!

But are you ready for some fried STINGRAY!

Actually, stingray tastes a lot like tuna.  Don't let the garlic fool you, there are still more chili together with that brown layer.  And that red side dish there is their version of the atchara.

And of course you need a fire extinguisher for those hot chili.

Again our location was very good since we are beside the beverage store too.  so once we are settled down the lady arrives and offered us two bottles of beer.

The sizes of the beverages there are weird, this one is actually 650 ml.

The only downside is since it is al fresco dining you also attract the street peddlers who sell you wet tissue, candies and other stuff.  

Since this is in the heart of Chinatown the shops are just near by.  Here is a video of my walkabout in Chinatown.  I am not that tall nor the Singaporeans short i have to raise my JVC Picsio camera above my head since there are a lot of people.

It's been some time since I've been to Binondo but probably that would my next stop and the subject of another post in the future.

Favorites: Burgers!

One of the best sandwiches that was ever invented is the burger. Actually, I think it is a sacrilege to call it a sandwich, a hamburger is a whole different category all together.  That is just how I love burgers.  In fact, whenever I would go to a different country I would always try the McDonald's Quarter Pounder there just to compare.  And the results of my experiment is that there is no difference with the burger in the US, Singapore, Japan, etc. with the burger that our local "Mcdo" offers.

I usually have a burger craving that can not be satisfied with the offerings of the bee, the clown, the girl or the king.  So whenever I would like to eat a burger there is only one place that I go to fill that void.

I think that the stripes is already a give away on the what place this is.  Yes, for me the best burgers in town could be found at TGI Friday's.  Featured in the photo above is the Bacon Cheeseburger, it is served with yummy fries.  And it is best to pair this with a strawberry milkshake.

I like Friday's burgers because of the large servings and thickness of the patty.  It is really very filling that if you eat it in the afternoon you are still filled up till dinner time.  I like my burgers medium well which you really can't ask from a fast food chain :)  Sige, try natin minsan sabihin nyo sa Mcdo na gawing medium well ang chesseburger.

Second honor goes to a gourmet burger place that has been in existence through the years - Hotshots!

Hotshots uses only flame grilled burgers which is great if you want to be sure that there are no lards used to fry the burger.  There are also other variety of burgers to choose from like the Garlic Cheese, Chicano and Mozzarella.  Good thing that Hotshots is back in Ayala Center.  They are now located at Food Choices 3rd floor of Glorietta 4.

So I just indulge in burgers over the weekends since I go to a strict low carb diet on weekdays.  And when it is weekends as I say on my tagline above the mantra is "the diet starts (again) tomorrow."