Rex SupperClub is the pop-up resto being hosted by Chef Rex Soriano in his restaurant, Banh Mi Vietnamese Eatery. What interested me in trying him out, apart from what I've already mentioned earlier, is how he made his own interpretation of sisig. I love sisig. I'm always up for trying out different versions of it. Chef Rex' version looked like a terrine. I've never seen one made just like it.

Armed with A, T, my mom, and uncle, we made our way to Angeles. Banh Mi Vietnamese Eatery is a humble place with a filipino-industrial look. I wouldn't think that a celebrated chef would be seen here. Then again, that already made me appreciate him more.

We met Christine there along with familiar faces whom I've met over time as well as new ones. As we waited for the others to arrive, Chef Rex stepped out to check on us. Honestly, he'd pass off a schoolmate in college that I used to eat fishballs with. He's that unassuming!

When we're all complete, food started coming out...starting with the kamias lemonade that I didn't want to touch at first because I'm not a fan of kamias. Eventually, I figured that I came all the way to Angeles to eat something different that I should keep my hesitations aside. It was actually a pleasant surprise. I could taste the kamias, but it's not overpowering the lemonade taste.

Next that came out was the L.A. Mexican street corn. I don't think I could ever think of using mayonnaise in my corn, but this one wouldn't make me think that it had mayonnaise at all on it, let alone slobbered in it. The parmesan, for me, played an important role in masking that mayonnaisy feel on the corn. I'm a fan of this one!

Going to the goat cheese crostini, I eat bone marrow, but mostly involves sucking it in a soup dish. Though not everyone is into eating bone marrow, this is one way to try it out without being grossed out by it or not feeling the texture of bone marrow as the mango chimichuri helps in easing out the feel and taste of it on the palate.

Finally, I saw the dish that got me here in the first place - Sisig Matua. I was told that "matua" in Kapampangan means "old". The dish refers to the original sisig recipe, not like the usual ones that we see on a sizzling plate. This one took 3 days to prepare. It took a whole lot of love in making this dish, and it shows in the presentation and taste. The presence of the red onions, celery, and green apples add texture to the gelatinous texture of the terrine. The citrusy dressing gives it that extra tang that blends everything together. 

By the time Chef served the Pollo ala Brasa, I was already full, but the chicken looked soooooo good. Even the fried plantain sprinkled with white sugar that came as a side dish was something that I kept scoffing off. What I failed to do on this dish is to try the green sauce that was served with it.

The suman...OMG, the suman! As if I wasn't being a glutton enough. These are fried, breaded suman bites topped with flaked salt served with smooth, chocolate mousse. In all honesty, THE BEST SUMAN VERSION I'VE EVER HAD!

The whole experience reminded me of Remy the rat in Ratatouille. Remember that scene wherein Remy was feeding his brother Emile? No? Let me refresh your memory:

That's how it felt like with every dish that Chef Rex served: one could taste the individual ingredients, then it slowly transitions into a combination of flavor, and finishes with a unified taste of deliciousness. A story in every dish. 

Rex SupperClub is literally worth the trip and I have Christine to thank for giving me (and this time, with my family) another food adventure!

If you'd like to arrange for a degustation schedule, for at least a group of 10 (I think) as it's a by-appointment-only setup, you may reach Christine Nunag at manyamangan@gmail.com.

I've always wanted a Bodum coffee press, but it costs so much here. So, I ended up with a rather lengthy waiting time to finally get myself one. Taste Central had it on sale before, but it sold out quickly.

I was buying a drink at Starbucks, when I saw that they were selling a "recycled coffee press". I can be quite a sucker in campaigns that try to save the planet and do what I can to contribute to it. Of course, seeing that it's from Starbucks and the press is made by Bodum, I'm still expecting a hefty price tag. When I picked up the 8-cup press to take a closer look, it's just Php 1,095! I checked on the 4-cup and it was priced at Php895. You could easily guess which one I got.

Pretty happy with the purchase, I brought it home as a gift to A. 

I think he was just paying attention to it because of the colors on the packaging. Personally, I'm quite fascinated on the design concept of these chocolates. A, well, I'm pretty sure the chocolate stash would keep him busy the next few weeks.

I've started looking at different designs and tried to assess which one I can work with economically:

While trying to sort out a more permanent setup for the project, we did start planting some seeds in commercial pots that have grown well.

Initially, I just thought I'd hire a carpenter to do a pallet type. I still have plans of doing that since we have a number of rectangular pots already, but the universe decided to join in on my project. 

I was in line at Starbucks to order a drink when I saw the barista holding an empty milk gallon. When I reached the cashier, I asked her what they do with the empty gallons. She said that they just throw them at the end of the day. Giving her a follow through question as to how many they have at the end of the day, she said around 20. "That's quite a lot," I was telling myself. I asked if I can have them and she said I can come back for it at the end of the day. So, I went back for the gallons, brought them home, and cleaned them up.

Going back to the net to look at designs, the easiest one that I could find it this:

It may not be pretty, but it seems easy to build since you just need to cut the bottom part of the milk gallon, drilling holes through the bottle caps, and use place a plank through the handle to hold them in place.

As I was looking at our porch trying to visualize how the setup would look like, I saw that we have a couple of wire displays that we no longer use. So I thought of recycling it by using those as the "wall" similar to the one used in the used bottle setup. So, I went to Ace Hardware to get another pair of wire displays and cable ties. Then started to assemble our first vertical garden.

Now, I'm going to start drilling holes through the bottle caps and ask yaya to start transferring the plants in the milk gallon pots. 

Since we have 3 posts and a fence to work with, plus seed donations from my neighbor (Thanks Patrick!), looks like I'm going to be making some more trips to Starbucks.

Do try this project out guys! Your very own green wall using recycled plastic gallons. You get to do your share in saving the environment while being able to have your own garden close to free. Don't forget to ask Starbucks for their used coffee grounds as well to use on your plants. They give it out for free as well.

I stumbled upon Wondrous Ink while I was browsing Facebook. They're a UK-based company that offers a 14-paged personalized children's book printed on 26cm x 23cm thick paper. Their product site is pretty straight forward. It just asks for the name and gender of your wee one, and poof! you get an instant preview of the personalized book.

One can actually preview the whole story book. It costs around Php1,600 including shipping to the Philippines. I just placed my order and was given 18 April as the estimated delivery date via Royal Mail. I can't wait for this one and read it to Scout!

To get a 15% discount on your first order, just click on this link.

My birthday falls in this month. No big birthday plans this year. I thought I'll just have some pansit cooked at home and share with my boys.

I wasn't expecting to celebrate my birthday on numerous occasions this month. It started off early when I received an email from Yabu:

That's pretty generous of them. I can take my boys on a date! 

A week before my birthday, TWG participated in World Macaron Week wherein they were selling their macarons for just Php30 per piece! 

Let's just say we've had our fill when we received a total of 72 pieces of of it. A lot of macaron sharing went on with that one!

When my actual birthday came, we were trying to beat a work deadline. So, it went as expected, receiving greetings from people and had pansit. A friend took me out for lunch at Mango Tree. It was only in the evening that I realized that I didn't have a cake! It wasn't really a big deal, it's just one of those things that would've been nice to have, but slipped  my mind. At the very least, I got to spend the day with my boys.

The following day at work, one of my friends came back from lunch with this:

I got my birthday cake!!! In case you're wondering about the message on the cake, I've been greeting people "Haberdey" instead of "Happy Birthday". So, I shouldn't have expected anything different from them when it was their turn to greet me.

Well, March isn't over yet. Another friend of mine is taking me out to Lucca Bakery + Café (couldn't seem to find a website or Facebook page, but it's right across the skating rink in SM Megamall). My friend knows that I frequent the place for my chocolate cake fix. 

All that chocolaty goodness for just Php95 a slice. Even I have trouble finishing a slice. You guys really need to try this one!

So, what did A gave me as a birthday present?

I'll tell you more about it on another post.

That about sums up my it's-not-over-yet birthday month. Receiving all these blessings make me even more thankful and a greater believer of giving on to others. Thanks, Daddy! I miss you.

Overall, the taste reminds me of gyoza. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of gyoza. So far, the only gyoza taste that I like it that of Osaka Ohsho's and that of our helper, Yeng. A liked it, which is the more important part since it's his emergency food.

I've gotten fond of some recipe sites that I have some favorites already when it comes to certain dishes. Just One Cookbook is one of the ones I go to for Japanese cuisine. Luckily, there's a Sukiyaki recipe on the site and below is the finished product for A:

Since there's quite a bit of soy in the Sukiyaki, I decided to make a different dish that Scout can try. Scout, like myself, looovvveess mangoes. So, I went for California Maki. I have an idea on the ingredients that I want to put in it, it's how to wrap a sushi that I need to read about. I found this article from PBS on How To Make Sushi With Step-by-step Breakdown. I tried to do it two ways: nori wrapped outside and one with rice outside rolled in tobiko (fish roe).

Of course, it wouldn't hurt to have one meal for each of us. And since there's still some excess sushi rice, I tried experimenting with a spicy tuna recipe in search of something that tastes like the Spicy Toro Maki in Nihonbanshi Tei.

I don't like the taste of wasabi...never have, never will. Most of the Japanese restaurants that I've tried that serves spicy toro maki use wasabi. To date, I only eat Nihonbanshi Tei's version. After doing a bit of research, I decided to try Use Real Butter's Spicy Tuna Recipe which uses sriracha. And to add that crunchy texture from tempura bits, here's the recipe for Tenkasu from Essence of Japan. Here's the finished product:

The spicy tuna is OK, but still far from the taste that I was looking for. So, more recipe digging in search of the recipe. 

All in all, it was a fun meal to prepare. A liked it and so did Scout, only we didn't let him try the spicy tuna maki since it has raw fish. 

I miss this..decent cooking for the family. On to the next meal!

So, the search went on for a baby haircut brush maker. I don't think we have one here in the Philippines. Ms. Penk referred Hong Kong and Taiwan. After some research, I found that the Chinese refer to it as scholarly brush and the usually, the ones who had one made before were emperors and their heirs. 

I found some in Hong Kong and noticed that they've incorporated auspicious aspects on it. Like a brush made of pure baby's first haircut trimmings is very powerful and that if a brush is made using that of the baby and the mother, it's more powerful.

I also found some shops in Singapore wherein the shop barber would even do a home service in cutting the baby's hair. There's this shop that has a branch in Malaysia wherein the Malaysian branch is relatively cheaper than the shop in Singapore. It would cost around Php4,000 to commission to have the brush made. I just have to ship the trimmings to them.

While in the process of selection, a former office intern of ours told me that he was going back to Manila to do some further tasks for his thesis. I was discussing to him the idea and eventually found out that Japan makes them too. One thing that I like about the Japanese is the quality and respect that they put into their crafts. This could work! He got in contact with a shop in Kumano, the brush-making capital of Japan.

He came on the same month that Scout had his first haircut. Prior to the haircut session, he already advised me the length and amount of hair requirements needed to make the brush. Before he went back to Japan, he asked me for some of the trimmings. When he arrived home, he asked me what carvings to put on the brush. Scout's Chinese name was there, of course, and decided to include his lunar birthday as well. We had to make some changes in the Chinese name as there's a slight difference in the character in Japanese. I showed the suggested change to my sister-in-law and she confirmed that it's just the same meaning. So we went ahead with it.

We got this today in the post office:

Quite nice, right? Although I tried to offer to pay for the brush, our intern said it's his gift to Scout for his birthday and for letting him stay with us while he was here in Manila. I did ask, for curiosity's sake, how much it costs. He said it's around Php4,000, same as that of Malaysia's.

There are actually many different styles. If you're willing to pay more, like at least 3x more than what I got, you can consider getting a lacquer handle like these:

Apart from the design perspective, the feature that I really like about the lacquer brush is that the color of the lacquer changes over time. So, it's like watching the brush age along with your kid. If you're interested in getting this brush, you can order it via Jcrafts in Japan.

A number of colleagues who have children have theirs delivered to their homes on a weekly basis. Or if for some reason, delivery fails, there's always Starbucks to run to. The thing is, these establishments sell their milk in big 4-liter containers. The ones who deliver to your doorstep would have a minimum purchase amount requirement. Either way, too much for a 1-year old to consume in a week.

It really didn't take long for me to stumble on a solution to my problem. I accidentally saw an ad for Kefseft Dairy Farm. It's a Japanese-owned and operated farm located in Sta. Maria, Bulacan. Locally produced milk using Japanese technology...interesting, right? So, I contacted the the owner, Yamaki-san to inquire about their products. Luckily, they have a regular delivery in my area once a week. So, the minimum purchase amount is just Php250. They only have 1 size for their fresh milk, and that 450ml, which sells for Php80. 

The packaging size is perfect for my requirements as compared to a 4-liter jug wherein I'd have to worry about consuming the rest of the content once the seal has been broken.

Apart from fresh milk, Kefseft also sells yogurt (Php50/cup) and cheese (Php120). They have a buy 4 get a 5th on for free promo on their yogurt. Both my boys at home are yogurt eaters. So, there's no issue in scoffing them up. I'm not a fan of yogurt. This one doesn't taste like the commercially produced ones that are usually sweet and tolerable to me, but I actually like it.

Since my initial order, Yamaki-san sends me an SMS over the weekend to check if I would have order requirements for the following week. It's quite reminiscent of my childhood days with the Magnolia milk man sans the SMS technology. We get our fresh milk delivered to our doorstep. Scout actually has started greeting Yeng, Kefseft's delivery lady.

Kefseft has regular deliveries in Makati, BGC, and Alabang. Minimum purchase order would vary depending on your location. You can find them in Legazpi Market on Sundays too. You may contact Yamaki-san at +63.916.381.3846.