Flying Gecko - Baguio City

When you are learning to cook, its important to familiarize yourself with various dishes, that is why on our Baguio trip we tried different places to eat. I already blogged about Forest House, here is the second installment. I introduce to you - the Flying Gecko.

Flying Gecko can be found along Session Road, you really would'nt notice the place if you're not walking since the place was really not that big. Because I did my research before going to Baguio, I know excatly where to find the place. We went to Fyling Gecko for our last lunchout in Baguio City.

Like the other places in Baguio, Flying Gecko was not airconditioned, hey who needs airconditioning in Baguio, right? We got there around 10:30am, so we decided to have our breakfast/lunch there.  We went through the menu and I decided to try their New Zealand Fish Fillet and Chicco sampled their Beef Bourguinion.

The Beef Bourguinion was a surprise! When you bite the beef it seems like there is an explosion of flavors in your mouth, it was a dish like no other. This dish is originally a french cuisine, but the version from Flying Gecko incorporated a Filipino feel to the dish. It was worth every cent we paid for it. A big plus was the serving size, it is actually good for sharing.

The fish used for the fish fillet is mahi. It was topped with almonds and the fish has a lemon taste to it. Like the Beef dish, the fish fillet serving was huge! I would definitely recommend this.

I hope you get to visit Flying Gecko :)

RECIPE: Tuna Spaghetti

There was nothing left on the fridge today and I don't have the energy or the will to brave the heat outside and go to the grocery. It was past lunchtime and we have'nt eaten anything the whole day. I checked the ref and found out that I have leftover spaghetti noodles from my brother's birthday, leftover tomato sauce from the pork in tomato sauce thingy and also Century Tuna in oil. What to do? Improvise! Right then and there I decided to make my own version of Tuna Spaghetti! Mind you, it's the first time I made this dish and it came out really well :)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

onions

garlic

pepper

sugar

Filipino style tomato sauce

1 can Century Tuna flakes in oil

Italian Seasoning

cheese

Magnolia Gold Butter (I often use this is cooking - gives a salty taste to the dish, and I sooo love the smell) 

Spaghetti noodles

For the sauce:

Step 1:

Saute minced garlic and onions in Magnolia Gold butter until the onions are transparent. Add drained Tuna and a dash of peppe, let it sit for a while for flavors to blend together.

Step 2:

Add tomato sauce and let it simmer. Add a dash of sugar and Italian seasoning and again let the flavors blend before adding the next ingredients,

Step 3,

Add grated cheese and again a dash of pepper. Stir and adjust seasonig to your taste.

***Cook noodles as per package instructions

There you go, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

RECIPE: Pork in Lemon-Sprite Marinade

I wanted cook something with Lemon juice in it, so I made a recipe from scratch. My brother, sister and Chicco sampled my dish and they loved it.. (well, i think they did. hahaha) Sorry if I don't have the exact measurements. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 kilo pork

4 pcs lemon

garlic

onion (sibuyas tagalog)

pepper

sweet onion

half a bottle of sprite

soy sauce
sprin onion

Step 1:

In a bowl, mix about 1 tbsp of soy sauce, juice from three lemons, minced onions and garlic, half a bottle of sprite and pepper. Lastly add the pork refrigerate and marinade overnight.

Step 2:

In a frying pan, sear the meat on both sides to seal in the flavor. Set aside the oil used for frying. After all the meat is done, put the meat together with the marinade in a pot. Add freshly minced onions, a dash pepper plus the juice from 1 lemon and a little water then let it boil unitl the meat is tender and the marinade is reduced.

Step 3:

On a frying pan, heat the oil used for searing the meat and caramelize sweet onions. (cut in circular shape)

Step 4:

Once the marinade is reduced, sprinkle with spring onions and place caramelized sweet onions on top. Serve with love :)

Forest House - Baguio City

I was browsing through my Baguio pictures and realized that what makes Chicco and me click is the fact that we have a lot of things in common and we also have our differences which does not make us lose our individuality :)

One thing we have in common is our love to cook and eat. So when we went to Baguio last week, we tried some foodie places that were given good reviews.

First stop? Forest House, which was located about 15minutes (by cab) from where we were staying. After dropping our stuff at the hotel, we went straight to Forest House.

The place reminded me of a storybook house, it has a cottage vibe which makes it cozy and homey. The place was supposed to open at around 10:30am but we came a bit too early.. still, the staff was courteous enough to invite us in and accomodate us. We were given the option to dine at the overlooking part or inside where it is less chilly, we opted for the inside table because I wanted to take pictures of the interior.

When we were given the menu, I was actually impressed with the variety of dishes they serve. From the menu alone, I was convinced that that this was not an ordinary dining experience.

We chose Seafood Gambas for our appetizer and I have to say that its the best Seafood Gambas that I have tasted, it was a bit spicy which made me eat it in small servings. It was the perfect appetizer.

For the main course, I opted to eat St. Peter's fish in Honey mayo, don't be fooled byt the fancy name, St. Peter's fish is actually our local tilapia. I was curious on what magic they would do on the tilapia, When the dish arrived, it was plated perfectly, and the honey mayo sauce was heaven to the mouth, it removed the fishy taste of Tilapia while maintaning the natural taste of the fish. You can also tell that the fish was really fresh because it was tender and it literally melts in the mouth.

 

Chicco chose the Pork in Lemon grass Marinade. Just like the first dish, it was plated very well. Just remembering the smell of the meat and the spices it was marinated in makes my mouth water up to now. The meat was so tender and was juicy all throughout! It was seasoned perfectly!

Finally after a very satisfying main course, we chose Peach-Cherry cheesecake for dessert. Aside from the main restaurant -Forest house also has a pastry shop which makes cakes for dessert in the main restaurant. It was not the best cheesecake, but the combination of cherries and peaches made my taste buds happy :)

 Did I mention that all the dishes came with buttered veggies straight from their very own garden? Sulit tlaga!

Forest House gave us the fine dining experience in Baguio City, the food was superb and the staff was really accomodating and courteous and they are in formal uniform which added to the high class vibe. I would trully recommend eating there. I promise you won't regret it.

Oh - you should try their Benguet Blend Coffee. They have the best coffee in Baguio, believe me - it came straight from Chicco the coffee critic himself! I would blog about the other Baguio foodie paces that we tried, so stay tuned to my next entries. :)