Bubblegum soda

When Raquel and I went to Japan last year, I discovered this wonderful softdrink called Mitsuya Cider. It tasted like a cross between 7-Up and Juicy Fruit. That’s right, the chewing gum. I was an instant fan.

On the day we were to fly back to Melbourne, I came to a sad realisation: I wouldn’t be able to drink anymore Mitsuya Cider. That is, unless I can find a shop in Melbourne that sells the drink. Unfortunately, I’ve looked all over the place and couldn’t find an Asian shop that sold it.

Today, we went to the big Asian shop in the city to get some siopao and siomai. Since I was already there, I decided to look for the drink again I’m their drinks section. Well, it wasn’t there, as expected.

However, there was a drink being sold there that caught my eye. It was drink that I saw numerous times in Japanese animation. It was a variation of Ramune, the drink that’s sold in a glass bottle with a glass marble in it. Except the one in the shop was sold in a can and was called Ramu Bottle instead.

I’ve been very keen to try the drink since seeing it in anime and now’s my chance to sample it. I know I should’ve tried it when I was on Japan but I just totally forgot about Ramune and it wasn’t a drink I noticed being sold there. I would’ve instantly recognized the odd bottle.

Anyway, I bought it had a sip of it. To my delightful surprise, it had the same Juicy Fruit taste I loved about Mitsuya Cider! At last! Although I couldn’t find Mitsuya Cider anywhere in the city, I at least have a nice substitute for my favourite bubblegum soda in Ramune.

I’m so happy! I can’t wait to get back to the shop and get some more.

Tale of the tinned tuna

It all started when Gabriel opened a tin of tuna to prepare our breakfast sandwiches for the next day. He was in the kitchen and I was in the rumpus when he exclaimed that something’s not right with the tin he just opened. Imagining the worse, I thought there was something dead and rotting inside the tin, or something that shouldn’t be there, like maybe a dead insect or something. There was something inside the tin that shouldn’t be there alright, but it was not a disgusting insect or anything rotten.

You see, the tin he opened was labelled Caramelised Onion and Tomato and yet the contents of the tin had a white sauce instead of the expected red. We were so dumb-founded that we both stared at the tin on the counter for several seconds, maybe even a minute or two, trying to reconcile the label with the contents and wondering what the hell has gone wrong?

We ran a fork into the center of the tin to see if maybe half of the contents are right but all we saw was tuna, mustard seeds and white sauce. I was still staring stupidly at this suspect tin while hubby got another tin marked Caramelised Onion and Tomato from the cupboard. He opened that and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the expected red sauce. Looks like the first tin of tuna was an aberration after all and didn’t affect the whole batch.

Curious as to what the first tin contained, I proposed that we eat it. Horrified, hubby said that maybe I shouldn’t and maybe it’s not safe. Well, if curiosity killed the cat, this cat could have been killed by a tin of tuna because I ate it anyway. I poked around the can some more, smelled the contents, tasted it and proceeded to spread it onto a slice of bread. It tasted like tuna with mayonnaise and mustard and a later search in the manufacturer’s site made us conclud that the tin actually contained the Seeded Mustard Mayonnaise flavour. It was nice and hubby actually liked it but we were still disappointed that we now have one less Caramelised Onion and Tomato and we were already looking forward to that for our breakfast the next day.

The next day, I showed the tuna of the photo to a work mate and she said that I should write the manufacturer expressing my concern. I was planning to send the company a proper snail mail complete with a print of the photo I took of the two tins side by side. Having to compose the letter, print the photo and then mailing the letter just seemed to be too much work though and I finally settled on filling out the online form on the manufacturer’s site.

It took a couple of days for them to reply. The contents of the email basically had a reference number on it, inviting me to call their customer service lined on weekdays from 9am-5pm. At this point, I just couldn’t be bothered anymore and replied to the email that I have given them all the information they needed to rectify the problem (I sent them the barcode number and the numbers stamped on top of the tin, but not the photo as there isn’t a facility to attach photos in their online form). That was a couple of days ago and I thought that was the end of it.

However, I got an envelope bearing the manufacturer’s name yesterday containing a letter, a page of recipes flogging their corned beef and a mail order cheque for $3. Here’s part of the body of the letter.

Incorrect labelling is very unusual because of the strict precautions taken to ensure that each container has the right label. What may have happened in this case is that an error has occurred either in sorting or in feeding labels into the machine, and this has been missed during final inspection before packing.

As a result of your report, our Quality and Production staff have been advised so that corrective action can be taken.

We are concerned that you have been inconvenienced as a result of this incident and, as a gesture of goodwill, we have enclosed reimbursement for your purchase. We value your custom and trust you will continue to enjoy our products in the future.

Should you require further information do not hesitate to call us on our Consumer Services Helpline (number given).

And with that, I suppose that is the end of the whole tale. I’m still a bit wary of their product though and haven’t bought anything else from them since the tuna incident. I buy things from manufacturers expecting that I get what I paid for and that it has passed stringent quality checks. Although package mislabelling doesn’t seem to be such a big deal in this instance, it somehow casts a shadow of doubt on what else could go wrong or has gone wrong in their production process.

Would I buy from their brand again? Not if I can help it.

Madeira cake out of a box

I’m not a fan of anything pre-mixed but figured I should probably try some before I knock them so when the local supermarket had a promotion of 2 cake mixes for cheap, I bought two. This is the first of the two I’ve baked. I followed the instructions on the box exactly, going as far as timing the mixing on the stop watch function of my mobile phone. It’s pretty much fool-proof I guess, just add two eggs and milk.

The finished product came out looking just like the photo on the box and the cake was moist and had a very nice texture to it. We weren’t too keen on the lemony taste of the cake though and I bought most of the batch to work. A work mate rated it “very nice”.

Hmmm… maybe this pre-mix thing isn’t too bad after all? Don’t know about that though as I scanned the ingredients list on the box and saw several ingredients with numbers in them (477 or some such thing). I guess they’re okay for when you’re in a pinch or just can’t be bothered making things from scratch but I won’t make a habit of it.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Bought these two tins of tuna from the supermarket on special. Aside from blurring out the brand name, the subjects and the photo were not changed in any way.

Dinner is served

Hubby had to work late tonight and I had to eat dinner alone. Here’s what I had, chicken and zucchini soup. The original recipe called for pork but I used chicken instead although I followed the recipe exactly (although the proportions were a bit different as I rarely measure ingredients). As the recipe had no photo, I submitted mine and it got accepted. Anyway, the soup was yummy and hearty, perfect for a cold night alone.

Mobile photo dump

At the risk of this blog being all about food, I did a photo dump from my mobile and found more food photos. What can I say, we absolutely like to eat!

This is by far the oldest photo in the batch and is so far my first and last attempt at Spanish Flan or as Filipinos know it, Leche Flan. I think the finished product looks decent but it was on the bland side. It wasn’t creamy enough nor was it sweet enough. Definitely not one of the best that came out of the our kitchen. If I ever have to make one again, I would have to look for another recipe to use.

With winter well and truly upon us, our usual breakfast of cold sandwiches just have to change. We wanted something to warm us up in the morning and I don’t remember anymore how I came up with the empanadas but I recall searching for recipes online. Some of the recipes mentioned using frozen puff pastry instead making my own and I did just that even if it’s technically not the proper way of doing it.

Well, the empanadas worked well and we’ve been having them for several weeks now. I’ve used two brands of puff pastry and I find the most thing I have difficulty with is estimating the amount of filling to put in. Too much filling and the filling would spill out as it bakes, too little and we’d end up hungry before lunch.

While we were in our weekend away at Brissy, we frequented the food courts for some fast food. We found a Japanese shop at Wintergarden on our second day called Hanaichi and decided to try the limited menu mainly because of the number of people queueing in front. With the price ranging from $6.20 to $6.70 a bowl, it’s quite affordable as well. I gave the Chicken Hanaichi a try after seeing so many other customers order it and I must say that although I initially had misgivings because of the amount of greens it has that it’s almost like a salad on rice, the accompanying karaage chicken with the sour cream made it my favourite. Gabriel, on the other hand, was consistently a Katsudon fan.

Another thing we tasted in Brisbane was the Wicked Banana at the Southbank markets. It’s basically a banana that had a thin strip of chocolate injected at its center. They had different kinds of chocolate such as milk chocolate, dark, hazelnut and a few more. However, we only ever bought the milk chocolate ones and hubby loved it so much that he bought one again when we visited the market again the next day. Having the combination of a naturally sweet banana paired with chocolate though gave him the inspiration to create his own version. He bought a bottle of chocolate hard tops, sliced a banana and had the chocolate as a topping. I must say it’s his favourite snack at the moment that he keeps stealing the bananas I’ve been buying for baking!

I like my salmon occasionally and rotate through a few recipes. Unfortunately, hubby doesn’t like salmon and hasn’t taken to any of the recipes I’ve cooked. However, I recently tried this recipe that’s supposed to be simple but yummy. I marinated the slices overnight then baked it in foil packets. I gave Gabriel a small slice as usual and lo and behold, he actually liked it enough to ask for more! With this small miracle, I wrote the recipe a review and said that even my salmon-hating hubby liked it. After typing up my review, I proceeded to read the comments of the other reviewers and found out that most of the other reviews were the same. Something along the lines of even husband who won’t eat salmon loved it. Gabriel jokingly then said that the recipe’s title should be changed to Salmon Hater’s Grilled Salmon. Yeah, maybe they should!

Baking my first cake

Between bouts of Nintendo DS game playing and sleeping, my time is being occupied by another hobby recently. I’ve borrowed a copy of Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook from the library and got inspired by the beautiful photos to try my hand at baking.

Aside from muffins and the occasional quick bread, I haven’t done much use of our oven. Although hubby likes his sweets, he’s not that much into cakes and with me not being a sweet tooth at all, there was just no motivation to progress beyond what I’ve been doing. However, Gabriel has been hankering for some pound cake lately and couldn’t find a Sara Lee version anywhere so I thought it might be a good opportunity to learn how to make one.

First though, is the problem of equipment. Hand mixing is fine for muffins and quick breads but I don’t think I could cream butter and sugar with just a wire whisk. So after several days of researching mixers, going to the shops to compare prices and going back and forth between getting a handheld one and a stand mixer, I finally settled for a basic Breville Wizz Mix. While shopping, I also got myself a pastry brush, cake tester and a rolling pin (for when I try my hand on pastries and breads).

Next, I scoured the Net for a suitable recipe and bought some ingredients. Since we have some leftover yogurt in the fridge, I decided that my first try on cake baking would be for a pound cake using yogurt instead of the usual sour cream. Then there’s the problem of creaming butter and sugar, I just don’t know how to do it and there’s nobody who can teach me!

Enter YouTube with instructional videos galore. When I first read about creaming with sugar and butter until the batter is light and fluffy, I didn’t believe it possible or if it is, what does light and fluffy look like? What if I don’t mix it enough? How do I even know what is enough? As it happened, I shouldn’t have worried about not mixing enough.

Once I started the creaming process, I found that I need to get a bigger bowl if I’m to do this again. Next, I had some difficulty with the bowl wandering about in the counter top at first but I soon got used to controlling the mixer’s speed and direction. The rest was easy and an hour later, I have baked my first cake. Ten minutes of letting it cool on the rack and it was time for the taste test.

Hubby and I shared a fragrant slice and pretty soon decided that it was too sweet for our tastes. We also noticed that the cake was too crumbly – some searching on the Internet later suggested it was caused by too much mixing.

Anyway, there was no way for us to finish off a whole loaf and I brought the rest of the cake to the office. I left the cake slices anonymously on a plate and when I checked on it an hour later, there was only a small half slice left. I guess that was a good sign although I suspect that some people were just feeling peckish and thought morning coffee goes well with a piece of cake.

Would I be baking another cake? Perhaps, although I’m mighty glad I didn’t plonk out major cash for a stand mixer. After seeing the amount of sugar that goes to into a cake, the experience reaffirmed my preference for muffins and breads. What’s my next kitchen experiment going to be? Stay tuned.

Random photos

Since selling my compact digital camera several months ago, I’ve been relying on my trusty Sony Ericsson k800i to capture everyday snaps that usually end up as blog posts here. However, most of them never get downloaded (I’m lazy that way) or are forgotten altogether. I’ve just gone through my phone’s memory card and here’s the current batch just sitting there to be blogged about. What I didn’t realise is that a lot of them are about food. What can I say, we do love to eat!

We’re trying to change our diet and introduce more vegetables and cut back on meat. This stir-fry is one of the first experiments in our kitchen and although I like the way the mix of colours go together, it was just so-so in the taste department. I’ve forgotten which recipe this was and it didn’t feature in our dining table again.

My previous blog post was about the incredible canned chorizo from Purefoods. A couple of friends have pointed out since that the canned sausage shouldn’t be eaten on its own and would probably go well with other ingredients in a pancit (noodles) or fried rice recipe. Be that as it may, I still don’t think I’d go for the sausage packed in lard. We’ve discovered this fresh Continental chorizo from the chilled food section of the local grocery and we’ve already used it for a stew and Jambalaya. Delicious, albeit still a bit fatty! Colours in the photo are a bit off but can’t be bothered to edit.

Hubby bought several packs of Graham crackers about a month ago, intending to eat it with ice cream but never got around to it. It reminded me of cheesecakes made by aunts and my mom while I was young so I thought of making one. This is my first attempt at it. I’d like to make a healthier version of the traditional cheesecake so I opted to use yogurt instead of cream cheese. I was also intending to serve it to guests but I wasn’t impressed by it when I tasted a slice so the guests never even found out that we have this in the fridge. A couple of days passed and we were having this regularly for a snack. I guess you can say that it has aged well! The original recipe didn’t have an accompanying photo and a submitted this photo. I believe a photo helps in making other cooks try a recipe, don’t you?

Bananas here are affordable again (after prices went through the roof after a terrible storm) and we always get some when we do our grocery shopping. Trouble is, we always forget about them and we end up with spotty, overriped bananas. I have enjoyed adding them to soy milk to make smoothies (200 ml soy milk plus one banana blended together makes a great smoothie) but I was ready for something new. I also had some french vanilla yogurt left over from making the cheesecake and so searched for both ingredients in Allrecipes.com to see what I could make out of these two ingredients. I found a highly rated muffin recipe and tried it. It was fantastic! I’ve now made this twice in two weeks and here’s the latest batch! Yum…

While baking those muffins last weekend, I noticed that my lone muffin pan is starting to show signs of rust. Thus, I took advantage of Myer’s current stocktake sale and went out to get these. We wanted a silicone pan this time and these pink ones were the cheapest. I don’t care for the colour much but it won’t affect the muffins and hubby and I are the only ones who’ll get to see them in use anyway. I also got some custard cups for another kitchen experiment I am planning to do soon. Hmmm… if you tell my parents I’ve been out shopping for kitchenware and been busily searching for recipes and trying them, I’m quite sure they won’t believe you. I’m not sure I believe it either! Ah, let’s just say it’s a lesson in self-sufficiency.

Now that winter is here, my hands and feet are perpetually cold. Doesn’t matter if I swath them in layers of clothing or socks, it takes awhile for them to heat up and quickly gets cold again. Hubby’s arms and feet are warm enough so I usually press my hands or feet against his to quickly get them warm again. Trouble is, he complains about it saying my hands or feet are too cold. His solution was to get me this wheat pack which is basically just a bag of wheat which can be heated up in the microwave and retains its warmth for about 30 minutes. Now we could both be happily warm and cosy. The downside to this is that the bag naturally smells of wheat when heated up and makes me think of oatmeal and how much of a waste it is that the wheat inside my heat pack isn’t filling up someone else’s belly. On the other hand, hubby reminds me of the water and energy we are saving since we aren’t using a water bag instead.

Then there was the time when I’ve signed us up for publisher Simon & Schuster’s mailing list about a fortnight ago and as a thank-you gift, we each get a free book. We don’t exactly get a choice as to what specific book we would receive but we got to choose the category of book we would be receiving. I chose Mystery and Thriller and got A Thousand Bones by P.J. Parrish while hubby got Sacred Bones by Michael Brynes for choosing Action and Adventure. I’m not sure if they give out the same books to everyone who chose the same category or if it’s totally random. However, I’m quite happy with the book I got and hubby said that the subject of his book is something he’s interested although not quite sure about its plot. We both intend to read the book we got, the only thing is finding the time to do so.

Lastly, this is the latest photo in my mobile phone – our dinner tonight! We had Zucchini Corn Fritters, which goes well with Ranch Sauce. I’ve made this several times now and although it doesn’t look too pretty, it’s a favourite in our house.

See what I mean when I say that the bulk of my photos are of food?

Diet makeover

Due to the popularity of the 2-fruits-and-5-vegetables campaign of the government a couple of years back, we attempted to change our mostly meat diet to a healthier one. That previous attempt lasted all of 2 weeks and we were back to our old habits in no time. Needless to say, our girth continued to increase with no end in sight.

One of the difficulties in our previous attempt of incorporating fruits and vegetables is the lack of variety – there were few recipes that I could make quickly that would feature vegetables. Vegies also meant hard work as there’s all the peeling, washing, slicing and chopping involved. It just took too much time and effort and after a long day at the office, who really needs that?

Then there’s only a few Filipino dishes that I could find that would have vegetables in them and would only use things that are readily available in the groceries here. Another difficulty is hubby’s insistence of avoiding some vegetables (squash/pumpkin, celery, etc) so I would either have to substitute or forgo them altogether.

Another thing is that we have to watch our budget, certain fruits and vegetables are only cheap when they are in season and we can’t afford buying the same kind of produce year-round. Clearly, we have to at least try some fruits and vegetables that are currently in season that we could buy for less.

With those conditions in mind, I embarked on another attempt at changing our eating habits last month. I’d like to lose weight and don’t mind having to strategize to achieve that goal. In addition to exercising daily, I frequented recipe collection sites, bento box blogs, borrowed cookbooks from the library and started this whole project. I started at the Better Health Channel site to see what fruits and vegetables are currently in season and then searched for recipes featuring a certain fruit/vegetable from Allrecipes.com.

After that, it’s a matter of choosing the recipes to try, drawing up the grocery list, buying the ingredients, preparing and cooking and finally, the taste test. I specifically targeted recipes that received good ratings, read the comments to improve the recipe and sometimes tweaked the amounts of the recipe to suit our tastes.

With all this experimentation, we found some great recipes and some not-so-great ones too that we won’t be making again. Among our new favourites are Zucchini Corn Fritters, Chicken Jambalaya, Harvested Chicken Stew, Chicken Claridge Stew and Cream of Broccoli Soup. For Filipino style dishes, we go for new favourites Tuna Lumpia, Chicken Chop Suey, 10-minute stir-fry and basic stir-fries that feature one main vegetable with some minced or diced meat.

We also bought a small but handy food processor to help with the slicing and grating. Unfortunately, it can’t dice things so I still have to do those by hand (slowly I might add, as I sliced a deep cut into one of my fingers about a fortnight ago and don’t want a repeat). I also learned to cheat in some ways in that I could finely chop a vegetable that hubby isn’t keen on and he sometimes might not even notice that it’s there. However, I still have to watch its amount in proportion with the other ingredients or the dish would most likely be deemed not-so-great.

Even if we have a new-found appreciation of vegetables, we’re still lagging behind in our fruit consumption. It has to be a concious effort for both of us to reach for a fruit, peel, wash and eat it. Somehow, it seems like too much work or we sometimes forget about it since we haven’t formed that habit yet. One work-around I’ve tried is using fruits to make muffins or bread. My first attempt wasn’t so successful and we have yet to find a favourite fruit recipe.

A good outcome of this project is that we’re eating healthily, enjoying our food more, discovering new tastes and textures and with rising food prices, save some money on produce that are in season. If you’re wondering, I still haven’t lost a lot of weight (only about a kilo) but hubby has lost 2 kilos without doing anything different than his normal routine!

So, does anyone have some tips on how to creatively incorporate fruits and vegies in everyday life without too much hassle?

Trouble with Nando’s

There is a restaurant chain called Nando’s here in Australia. They basically specialise in roasted chicken which closely resembles the taste of home’s Lechong Manok. You can even order plain steamed rice in some of their franchises, too. No wonder it seems very popular with Filipinos living here. It was one of our favourite places to eat, too.

However, several days ago, we ate lunch at Nando’s at Melbourne Central. We ordered a quarter chicken meal (with rice and 390ml Diet Coke), a BBQ chicken thigh meal (with rice and 390ml Diet Coke again), and one extra side dish (2 pieces of corn on the cob) for a total of $26.85. As you can see, it is a bit expensive to eat out. And this was a non-fancy restaurant. Anyway, I paid for the meal with my credit card and thought nothing more of it afterwards.

That was, until we got our credit card statement. Supposedly, we were charged $86.85 by Nando’s on the day we ate there. We couldn’t believe it. That’s a $60 difference! (Converted, that’s about 2,300 Pesos!) At the time, I didn’t have the receipt on hand so I couldn’t be one-hundred percent sure how much our meal was but I was very sure it wasn’t over 80 bucks!

I rang up our credit card’s bank to dispute the erroneous charge. I explained the situation to the customer support person over the phone. He told me that he could easily mark the charge as being disputed. It would cost me an additional $10 to do this, he said. Then, the bank will bring the matter up with Nando’s. If Nando’s could prove that the charge was all in order, then I wouldn’t get my $60 back and I would’ve lost $10 more for the attempted dispute. I would end up losing $70 instead of just $60! Of course, if Nando’s agreed that they were in the wrong, then I’d get my $60 back but I would’ve still lost the $10 for the dispute fee.

I wasn’t sure if I had thrown away the original receipt so I was afraid to proceed with the dispute. What if Nando’s said that I signed the credit card docket that had $86.85 on it? There was no way for me to contest that claim. So, I told the bank guy that I’d first look for the receipt and call back when we have it.

Raquel and I looked all over the house desperately hoping that the receipt was just stashed somewhere and not in a rubbish bin somewhere in the city. Luckily, Raquel found the receipt just on top of our coffee table. In fact, there were two receipts. There usually is when you pay by credit card. One is the official receipt that comes out of the cash register and another receipt that comes out of the credit card device (that also prints out a docket for the owner of the credit card to sign on).

The Nando’s receipt said we paid $26.85 for the meal. However, the credit card receipt said that I paid for $86.85! It’s basically a carbon copy of the receipt that I signed. I couldn’t believe that the amount on the cash register wasn’t the same as the amount on the credit card device. I thought those two devices were linked electronically!

Now we know better. Apparently, the cashier had to type in the amount twice and unluckily for us, she typed the amount in the credit card device incorrectly by pressing 8 instead of 2, 86.85 instead of 26.85. With this in mind, Raquel and I decided that disputing this with the bank wouldn’t be such a good idea. Nando’s could always claim that I did sign for the $86.85 charge, and they would be right.

In the end, we might have a better chance of getting our money back if we disputed this with the actual branch of Nando’s at Melbourne Central. Luckily, we work in the city so we could just easily go there during our lunch break.

One day during our lunch break, I went to the Nando’s where we ate. Nearing the place, I tried to muster up some anger so that I could visibly show my great displeasure to the manager while I explained to him our problem. In the end, I’m not that type of guy. I ended up explaining the matter with the manager very calmly.

I fully expected him to immediately refund the difference to my credit card right then and there. Instead, he photocopied my receipts and told me that he would consult their video footage to prove my claim. I couldn’t believe it (for the nth time!). But since I was in a rush to get back to my office, I just asked how long should I wait for a resolution. He told me that he would call me.

I went back to work not at all hopefull for a quick resolution. In fact, I was pretty sure I would have to call back the manager after one week just to follow up on my complaint. My officemates at work couldn’t believe the situation, too. Consult their video? How would that help? Did they take a photo of me so they could make a match? Why didn’t they just refund the money directly back to my credit card? It was the same credit card as on the receipt? One of them even suggested I raise the issue to Nando’s ombudsman (apparently, each company has one).

However, near the end of business hours of the same day, the Nando’s manager called. He told me how very sorry he was for all the inconvenience and told me that I could pick up the $60 at the store that afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised at how fast they looked into our problem. And not only would I get a refund, but I would get it in cash (as opposed to debitting the difference to my credit card).

When we got to Nando’s, the supervisor (the Manager went home for the day) profusely apologised to us for the inconvenience and handed us an envelope. Inside the envelope was the $60 in cash along with a few vouchers to upsize our side dishes and/or drinks plus a fridge magnet. That was nice of them.

I was frankly thinking of never eating there again. But since they handled this issue so quickly, I forgave them. The free vouchers certainly helped in soothing ruffled feathers. Bribes do work. 😉