Surviving My First Week at St. James Hotel

Fish Piccata in Tomato sauce

My three-month training at St James Hotel in Sukhumvit has started. I was given the late morning to evening shift so despite my desire to update this blog regularly, I can't. Since I got back from my country, I had been  busy preparing for this much anticipated "event". I had only five days rest before my training began and I still had not fully recovered from travel fatigue.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you my experiences in the first week of my 3-month stint. I was assigned to assist the Thai chef. She's an older woman, probably a little younger than my mom. We hit it off right away. Even I'm not proficient in Thai language  I had a blast working with her.  She taught me some knife and cutting techniques used for different types of vegetables. There were times when she let me cook Thai dishes just by following her instructions. It's a bit of struggle for me as I was not sure if I understood her instructions right. She's a very nice woman and she smiled at me even I didn't quite catch them.

Yesterday was a different story. There was a party later in the evening. Another chef was on vacation and the sous chef who's in-charged of Western dishes had to work alone. He asked me to assist him. With just a yes and a no, I managed to follow his instructions and I was able to help him finish all the dishes on time.

What to do with left over grated carrots?

Last year during Christmas time I had three carrot cake orders. After all the baking, I had about 200 grams of grated carrots left. To throw them away was a waste of money so I turned them into delicious patties. These are great as main dish or side dish or as  sandwich fillings.

A Glimpse of Marinduque - The Heart of the Philippines

Highlights of my quick visit to my hometown, Marinduque.

Riding the roll -on/roll-off ship (Roro) to Marinduque

Philippine Trip - Mommy's Birthday

Birthday cupcakes and cake I made for Mommy

The main reason of my trip to Philippines last Christmas was to attend Mom's birthday celebrations. Her birthday is the day before Christmas and it is an opportune time to share her blessings to others. Every year, she gives away 5 kilograms of rice to widows and widowers in the church and her community.

Originally, we planned to have her gathering at a park on a hill.  We changed it the last minute because most of her guests were older and were too weak to hike. Mom's favorite color is purple so my sister decorated the venue with purple and white balloons. I made cupcakes and cake frosted with purple butter cream.  Here are the highlights of her birthday gathering.

My Holiday Food in the Philippines

I'm back! To kick off my first blog entry in 2013, I'm going to share photos of food I feasted on during my recent Philippine trip. Hope you enjoy.

Breakfast

1. Mom's homemade soymilk
2. Vegan pancake made of soy pulp, young coconut, mashed banana and flour.
3. Oatmeal topped with banana slices. (My uncle supplied us with loads of bananas while there).
4. Pan de sal - a bread roll made of flour, eggs, yeast, sugar and salt.