gourmet and gourmand

What's the difference between a gourmet and a gourmand?

Discretion. Pickiness. Taste. Knowledge. Put simply. A gourmet is a connoisseur of fine food and wine: a gourmand is one stop short of a glutton. Webster's dictionary kindly defines gourmand as "one who is excessively fond of eating and drinking."

- Reader's Digest, May 1997 edition, vol 69, No. 410

Hands down. I am a gourmand.

4BZ7XK36QEKS

Froggz Clogz

I enjoy reading local and international food magazine and ogle at the delicious looking food preparations and gobble up the details of recipes which I normally would not give a damn trying because I find the ingredients just so meticulously meticulous. Of course I cook but not that grand, yet, where I can publish recipes created by myself. Being a cook or a chef is a tedious and tiring work. I am not even excited to clean up all the pots and pans piled up high at the kitchen which is part of kitchen work.

But I have a new chef clogs courtesy of my sister and brother in law. They gave it to me as an advance gift for christmas, i think. It looks like the more famous Crocs clogs but is called Froggz. Original names, isn't it? Reptiles both. It is used by Hotel and Restaurant Management students and its got a non slip sole apt for oily kitchen floors.

This is a good start for my cooking career.

Authentically Arabic

If there is one sure way to know the authenticity of the restaurant, just check out the customers.

- Calixto L. Fangki
Etag Cooking Expert

Thelma and I went to Ermita, Manila for some errands and got hungry because humans do get hungry, and we are but human. We scanned the area and decided to go Persian for supper. So we walked towards the place we know that serve Persian food and saw another Persian restaurant in front of the familiar one in Soler St, Ermita, Manila. The new Persian restaurant was teeming with middle easterners of all shapes, colors and sizes smoking their sweet scented shee-shas. So this might be the feeling in Oman or Qatar or Saudi Arabia, so we thought, minus the mutawah.

The restaurant’s name is so exotic evoking visions of the romantic but dangerous desert from Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist as the lead character journeys across it to discover his treasure across dunes and oasis. The name is Shawarma Snack Center. Very Arabic.

We ordered a two hundred fifty peso (P250) plate consisting of 3 piece beef kebab with tomato, onion, and pita bread. I think it is expensive compared to the kebabs we get from West Avenue. After the long wait, the three tight Kebab made a grand entrance and it is by far, I should say, the best kebab I have tasted. Even their yoghurt and red sauce combined deliciously brings out the steady beefy taste of the kebab stick. I think they use a tiny wee amount of extenders on their kebabs giving it that full beef flavor.

The place is so middle east that they do not have free water. It’ll cost you P25 hard earned bucks for a 250ml mineral water coming from the springs of Maynilad.

The mood inside the restaurant is very Arabic you can almost see desert sand particles beside the cans of olive oils from Jordan sold at P8,500 per can. They sell dates and canned corned beef made in Brazil. Very Arabic.

Suffice to say, Shawarma Snack Center was a great cultural and palate experience. We felt sorry for the original restaurant in front because of its steep new competition. So as we went out, looked at the original Persian restaurant in front, and what do you know, it is also Shawarma Snack Center! A doppelganger.

Banapple Experience

I am still sleepy after a marathon seminar, partying, drinking, chatting from Saturday until 7 am Sunday in Antipolo City. Sunday afternoon after the link of events brought me back to my house all wasted and at a loss walking like a zombie, fucking affected with even the tiniest hint of brewing noise or distraction, just looking for the bed and the time to recover.



A good early afternoon snack at the Banapple Pies and Cheesecakes along Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City where I was picked up never lifted my sagging physical body. Try as I may to lift my spirits with a juicy looking hamburger, it still did not affect my tired disposition. Hamburger was juicy and thick all right but its only the presentation that got me attracted. I was not impressed with the taste.



But I did taste their lasagna and that might be the reason why people pack the small cramped but cutely chummily decorated hole beside my friend's house. The lasagna is "i'll dance the pogo like a shaker in trance" ecstasy. I eat lasagna, I might not know a great deal about what constitute a good lasagna like that fat cartoon cat, but Banapple's lasagna is just hell on earth for satanists who dreams of meeting satan horn to horn. Its so hot! It has a taste that is bitingly twisted. You put it inside your mouth, let it stand there as your taste buds study its taste contours and there you can taste that twisted taste. The spice combination is just perfect.

Even their tapa was pleasingly tapastic! Their rice can stand alone. It looked more than steamed. It has a greenish shade topped with some leaf garnishing.

Banapple is known for their cakes. We did order two slices of cakes. One has strawberry and white as coupon bond icing and the other was brown with some pecan as filling. The cakes were sweet. I bet it has sugar.