Project Pie : Artisan What?

I admit I'm a reverse snob. Just the word "artisan" automatically causes my eyebrow to rise. However I love my mother who is a pizza fanatic and I wanted her to experience something new. So after she had her medical check-up today, I thought it would be the perfect time to take her to Project Pie, a new restaurant that just opened near Mall of Asia.

The restaurant is part of the newly constructed complex called Bluebay Walk along Edsa-Macapagal which is located just before reaching Mall of Asia. The area is so new that all of the other spaces are still closed.

surprising number of people on a Monday afternoon

sounds like a mantra :p

The concept is simple. You have the option to order 1) one of their 7 basic pizza or 2) create your own. You can add as much toppings as you like without extra charge! Yes, seriously.

plenty to choose from

If you're like me and find it difficult to make a decision, you can choose one of the basic pizzas and just either add/subtract the toppings. I ordered two basic pizza ... #2 (all meat, red sauce) and #5 (cheese).

more toppings please!

For # 2, I requested they add prosciutto because face it, more meat is goooood.

For #5, I requested they add feta cheese, mushroom and caramelized onions.

pretty colors

Tadaaaaa! My cheeezy pizza with mushroom and caramelized onion. Love the super cheezy flavor and the feta cheese adds just the right amount of saltiness. Caramelized onion was just enough that it adds that sweetness to compliment the cheese.

I really liked it even though it was a bit oily.

Mom loved her meaty pizza. The red sauce was just perfect (not too sour), it had plenty of meat toppings and the pizza was just cooked enough to have that bubbling cheese effect without having a burnt pizza bottom.

Normally, I don't eat the edge of the pizza but for this I happily made an exception. Nice, not-too-thin crust that is really flavorful by itself. Each pizza is about 9 (?) inches - not really that sure. All I know is that it's the perfect size for one hungry person :D

happy, happy, happy :D

Final Verdict?

The above caption says it all. I like the fact that I can create my own pizza and add on numerous toppings without additional cost. The pizza tastes good .... nice thin crust, flavorful toppings, different kinds of cheese to choose from. Best of all, the price is very affordable (P350 for a pizza and drink). Mom, who is a pizza snob, gives it an enthusiastic thumbs up!

Just some minor concerns: 

-  Sloppy cut on both our pizzas. Had a bit of difficulty cutting the pizza with a plastic knife. Not take out friendly.

- There is only one size for the pizza (about 9 inches) so each person needs to order their own (which makes the line and waiting time longer). Not sure what you do if you want to order take out for the entire family. Buy 6 pizzas?

- Even though there was a flyer at the entrance telling you what to do, the kinds of pizzas available and toppings, people would still ask the server, ""What is available?" Believe me, I understand since I also asked the same thing. However, if you're already hungry and  if there is a long line being held up by a person who can't make a decision if he/she really likes mushroom with her pizza, it can get a bit annoying. I hope they make a big sign before the start of the line which shows the instruction and basic pizza and toppings available.

PROJECT PIE
Blue Bay Walk
Edsa - Macapagal Ave
Pasay 
https://www.facebook.com/projectpiephilippines
hours: 10am - 10pm
credit card accepted

Direction: Coming from Edsa, go towards Mall of Asia. Once you cross Roxas Boulevard, keep your eyes open on the right and you will see the store from the street. They are located before the first intersection light.

Thai Cooking: Pad Thai

After my cooking lesson last November in Thailand, I resolved to "re-create" the Pad Thai recipe for my family this Christmas.

all important recipe guide

preparing everything - had to use chicken instead of prawn

I know, I know - cheating a little bit with a prepackaged Pad Thai sauce

The original recipe (good for 1):

70 gram thin rice noodle
4-6 prawns
1 egg
1 tbsp hard Tofu
1 tbsp dried shrimp
1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 tbsp chopped shallot
1/2 cup bean sprout
1/2 cup garlic chives
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp chopped roasted peanut
4 tbsp Pad Thai sauce **

** Pad Thai sauce (for 4 tbsp) - mix all together

1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp tamarind paste or vinegar
1 tbsp oyster sauce

1) Soak noodle in tap water for 20 minutes.

2) Heat wok. Put oil in pan and sautee garlic and shallots. Add prawns , dried shrimp, tofu. Stir fry until prawn is cooked. Set aside on pan.

3. Break egg into pan and stir until cooked. Set aside on pan.

4. Add noodles and water. Stir until noodle is soft.

5. Add Pad Thai sauce in the noodle and stir until noodle is cooked and dried. 

6. Add bean sprouts and chives. Stir everything together until cooked.

7. Put in a bowl, sprinkle roast peanut, add one slice of lime and top with coriander leaves. 

Ta-daaaaa!!!!

Since there were 4 of us, I just tripled the recipe. Overall, the dish was flavorful. Right combination of salty, sweet and sour. However, I think next time I would add some salt while stir frying the chicken. I would also cook the noodles a bit more since mine was a little chewy. All in all, not bad :) Can't wait to cook the curry!

Bangkok: Cook for A Day

I love Thai food. So when I saw that attending a half-day cooking class as one of the recommended activities to do in Bangkok, I did not hesitate to sign up and dragged my friends along on our recent trip to Thailand.

Sompong Thai Cooking School is located in a quiet neighborhood just near Bangkok's business district. The owner, Ms. Nancy, used to own a restaurant but then decided to open a cooking school at her home. Reservation is made through their website and you can check the dishes that would be taught depending on the day you choose. Normally, you get to prepare, cook and eat 4-5 dishes for 1000 Baht/per person. 

:D

We had no problem going to the place because their representative met us at the exit of BTS Chong Nonsi station wearing a red apron with the logo of the cooking school. We took a short ride to the venue which was actually an apartment with a covered garage.

Cooking area which was very clean and organized. No aircon
but plenty of electric fan to cool us off. 

It is a small cooking school which can accommodate up to 12 people. At that time, there were 12 of us but mostly Asians (Filipino, Chinese) and 1 German guy.

Each person has a cooking station

Inside the house is an air conditioned area where
we will eat our "masterpieces"

While waiting for the other students, you are free to
munch on some cookies or biscuits and drink some Thai tea

clean utensils and apron while chopping board is covered 

They offer morning and afternoon classes. We opted for the morning class which is 9am-1pm  and includes a market tour. 

ready friends?

ready to buy curries

Teacher Ann showing us the different vegetables

almost ready!

Back at the school, we were taught the basic spices and ingredients of Thai cooking. Although they gave us each a folder with print outs of the recipes, I will strongly advise you to jot down notes. Most of the advice of the instructor is not shown on the print out and your notes will prove helpful later on.

spices, spices, spices

Some of the ingredients are prepared beforehand but we did the prep work of the vegetables ourselves. 

First, the instructor will demonstrate how each dish will be cooked. 

After each demonstration, it will be our turn to prep and cook the dish. The instructor made it looks so easy but once she says, "Okay, your turn!", my mind immediately goes blank - lol. Good thing that while we're cooking the dishes, the instructor would give out the step by step instruction :)

Here is what we prepared:

Kao Phat Kai (Chicken Fried Rice)

Tom Yum Kung  (Spicy Prawn Soup)

Kang Mussaman (Chicken Mussaman Curry with horse radish)
- we prepared the curry from scratch (!)

We made the dessert (golden pumpkin in coconut milk) 

while the Mango was free

After cooking everything, our dishes are brought into the dining room so we can enjoy them. I don't know if its because I'm a genius at cooking (hehe) or because the dishes was still hot when we ate it or the recipes have been tried and tested but ..... everything tasted really really good!

Since Pad Thai was not included in the course for that day and we really wanted to know how this is done, we paid an extra Baht 300/per peson to prepare this. No regrets - this was really good as well. I tried to recreate this when I went home. For the complete recipe, go here.

Bottled water, Ice, Coke and Thai tea is served. 

If you cannot eat all of the food you prepared, the school offers to pack them in individual containers. Of course, glutton that we are, the only left over we had was the Pad Thai. This we took back to the B&B which became our snack in the afternoon :D 

Final Verdict 

The teacher gave very simple instructions that were easy to follow. The cooking and eating area were very clean. No flies even if it was an open space. The helpers would immediately clean up while you were cooking and prepare the next ingredients. However, the instruction on the recipe print outs could use a bit of a tweaking since some of the instructions printed were not that clearly written. 

All in all, one of the best experiences we had in Bangkok. Highly recommended even if you're not going to prepare the dishes again. Going to the local market, seeing how our favorite Thai food are being prepared, having a sense of accomplishment in preparing the dishes AND eating such delicious food at such an affordable price is well worth it!

Note: Wear light clothing, don't eat a heavy breakfast, be prepared to remove your shoes inside the school. No credit card so prepare to pay in cash after the class.

happy cooking!

Sompong Original Thai Cooking School 

31/11 Silom Soi 13 , Silom Road,

Bangrak Bangkok 10500  

Tel 662-233-2128

www.SompongThaiCookingSchool.com

Punta Fuego Weekend

Lately, I have been stressing at work and putting in long hours. I have been hankering for a quick getaway weekend but stuck on where to go. So when I saw this Metrodeal ad for Punta Fuego, I didn't hesitate and immediately bought the vouchers. 

It's P1599 for 2 Days / 1 Night stay with breakfast and other perks. Club Punta Fuego is an exclusive member only community in Nasugbu, Batangas. A place not normally open to the general public. However, like all discounted deals, there are some catch: 1) You need 4 vouchers to reserve the Casita which is good for 4 person (that means P6,400 total) and 2) You can only use this from Sundays - Thursdays. Nevertheless, I still thought of it as a good deal.

We arrived late Monday afternoon after having a bit trouble finding the place.

nice double infinity pool overlooking the sea

Puffy was taken to the Casita by a golf cart

Casita 4C - Seaside View

The room was very big, clean and nice. Each bed can fit 2 people comfortably but might be a tight squeeze if you add a child/toddler between you. The mattress was thick and very firm with 4 semi-firm pillows for each bed - love that they don't give you the usual 2 skimpy soft pillows that instantly deflates when your head touches it. Strong aircon.

nice alternative to the usual table lamps

small table and chairs

The bathroom was huge with a small pocket garden. No exhaust fan but you can slide the door to let fresh air in. The shower portion can fit at least 20 people (no joke) which I thought was a waste of space. Might have been better to put a tub. Unfortunately, forgot to take a picture. 

However, I did take the most important picture and that was the view from our balcony. Absolutely, perfect. 

could stare at this all day

Punta Fuego did not allow food and drinks to be bought in. However ..... :D

chips and some form of tequila with strawberry cream

My friends and I just relaxed and had a couple of beers which we bought from the room's mini-fridge at P105/can. Knew we should have just stopped at the local mini mart in Nasugbu and bought some waters and beers :P

watching the sun set

Eventhough there were a lot of free things we could have done like go to their beach, watch a movie at their mini theatre, play games in their game room, etc., my friends just decided to stay in our room and relax. So nice to watch the sun set.

For dinner, we went up the hill to their restaurant.

small place

Hamburger for P305 - burger was okay, same with the fries,
bread tasted like something you buy from the local panederia

Grilled Lamp Chops with mashed potatoes and Bearneise sauce  for  P685 -
3 small pieces, nothing really that great but at least lamb didn't taste too gamey

Spinach Canneloni with Cream Sauce for P385 - the cream sauce
was so-so, the spinach was okay, the canneloni was weird since it
tasted like it was disintegrating (old noodle).

Service was really really bad. The Burger came first after 20 minutes, the Lamp Chop 10 minutes later and the Canneloni after 15 more minutes. All in all, it took them 45 minutes to give us all 3 dishes. Since they didn't come out at the same time, the others would look on while one person was eating. The food wasn't that good either. .

Next morning we fared a little better during breakfast. They served it buffet style ensuring that we could eat all at the same time. They had the usual bread, danish, bread with toppings (sardine, corned beef) jams, tapa (very tough), adobong manok, sausage and malasadong scrambled eggs.

After breakfast, explored a bit of the resort.

And back to our Casita for some serious scrabble game.

I like the view and it made concentrating on the game difficult. Still, it was a pleasant way to end the morning. Going back home, we did get lost again because there were a serious lack of signage going back to Tagaytay. Basically, here is the direction going to and from Punta Fuego:

From Tagaytay, go towards Nasugbu town which is about 40 kms away. You will see signs indicating Hamilio coast or Pico de Loro which can guide you on the right direction. Go straight until you reach a rotunda with a Caltex station. Turn right. After a couple of minutes, you reach an intersection with a Shell station. There is a big sign indicating Matabungkay Beach. Turn right and go straight until you reach the Nasugbu town proper. Follow the signs indicating Punta Fuego which is about (a long winding) 6kms away from the town. Don't mistake it from Punta Fuego de Terrazas which has the same developer but is a different place. Punta Fuego is much further down just after Tali Subdivision.

Going back to Manila, just be mindful of the Shell station to turn left. There weren't clear signs and the Shell station was so small that we passed by it and went straight to Calataga town which is about 10-15 kms to the wrong direction.

The final verdict?

The place has become a bit run down. A lot of construction going on which I hope will spruce up the place. Food in the restaurant is very expensive, service was awful and the taste of their dishes were nothing special. Bring lots of snacks and drinks. The room was very nice and the view spectacular. Going there could be a bit of a hassle. Liked that it wasn't too crowded even on a Philippine holiday. Nice place to stay and have a nice cold beer while viewing the sunset. Insist on a seaside view. Any other and it would be a waste of money. If privacy is what you want with nothing much to do except relax, this is a good place. Otherwise it might be better for you to stay elsewhere.