Costa

It is surprising, what are doing in those days without wifi at home. As I was anyway shopping and hungry, I went (searched... MOE mall direction are not updated) to Costa... Having free wifi, it was an understandable move.

It was not easy: Shakeshack was lure'ing me... But I was withstanding my cravings and went to the more café'like environment.

My order:

Double espresso

Aged cheddar and apple sandwich

Chocolate-brownie

The sandwich

Hm... cheesy. The cheddar was great (even if I am not so sure to call it vintage), the apples were a bit refreshing on the palate... were not pronounced but still worked great with the cheese. There were also cranberries,which worked well with their sweet tartness (huh), in favor to the whole composition. Overall a great sandwich - however it falls a bit behind if you are considering the price (and that it is prepacked).

The espresso was good. Nice blend I would say- not too strong but strong enough with some great chocolate notes. Unfortunately it was far too cold!

The brownie

It looked just gorgeous! A dense chocolate brownie with a chocolate cream on top with white chocolate nuggets! Well... it was rather disappointing! It was too dense and the chocolate fondant didn't had the typical (dairy) creaminess - tasted more like cheap cake topping. It was just unnatural in your mouth and heavy... No great choco aromas...

Service

The Tagalog issue. Staff was genuine friendly but were talking loudly without a pause in their language (guess which) and while I am ok with casual and occasional chatter, this was clearly too much. Felt like in little Manila. Otherwise wired self service (staff wanted to take the order, but without English menu it was not possible).

Meh or Wow: so-so

Service: 6 (due to their friendliness)

Ambiance: 4 (due to the backyard Manila sound-environment)

F & B: 5.5 (the sandwich would fare a, 7 the coffee an 8, but the brownie a 4)

Wifi: 6 (complimentary and they gave me two 1hour tickets, but it was slow)

Verdict: American café style with filipino flavor...

Fails and successes

Ok... Just some updates about my some cooking experiments:

Tacos de lengua

I made homemade tacos which were a revelation. It was pretty but not very useful to incorporate a flowered chive in a spiral fashion... There most of the time the tacos broke apart. The beef tongue (cooked sous vide for 72 hours on 60°C was very good - tasted beefy , soft with an distinct ham texture. I made a Mexican sauce with dried chili (of course reconstituted in water) and fresh poblano,  dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, cumin, coriander seeds...

Tasted surprisingly authentic Mexican! Served it with sour cream, fresh tomatoes, salted onions and freshly diced avocado.

Frozen Scotch eggs

After my Mexican adventure I just wanted to do Scotch eggs - as I had still some beef chorizo in my fridge. Eggs were slightly overlooked (too small for the recipe) but I just went ahead. I put the already shaped sausage balls (already hiding the eggs) into the freezer.

But then S. asked me to come to bed - already 5 in the morning and I forgot the unfinished Scotch eggs in the ice box. 

Tried to finish them today - but as expected the egg white was oddly  layered and watery. What a waste... Into the bin...

Lamb belly / breast

I asked at Géants the butcher to debone some lamb ribs (the meaty-fatty one).

In it went into a flavorful brine with fresh rosemary, sugar, fresh garlic, coriander, chili, salt, water) for around 10 hours. From there I rinsed it and put it into vacuum bag with a frozen mixture of more rosemary, roasted garlic, olive oil, honey (I had to freeze it, as the normal foodsaver won't work with a liquid marinade- if you have a chamber cryovac- you can skip this step) and it went into my hacked rice cooker for around 24 hours at a fairly high 67°C. Took it out- into an ice bath (which I used then to rinse the meat).

First attempt - seasoning and deep frying it: nice... Not enough salt... Overall very nice.... Not too much lambiness... crisp... slightly overcooked.

Second - breading it (still had the breading station from the blœdy Scotch eggs...) and frying it... Odd... very crispy (thanks panko)... but it taste like breaded bacon... not so good... again underseasoned!

Third - just flouring a piece and pan fry it ultra hot in little oil... again with seasoned flour with added salt and pepper... very nice... slightly crispy... but again underseasoned (damn).

Fourth and last attempt - seasoning it with salt and pepper (a lot)... frying it in ultra hot pan with little oil... salting again with Maldon sea salt... Perfect! Could not be happier... meaty, fatty, without being greasy. Taste like lamb without being overpowering with hints of garlic, rosemary and honeysweetness (without being too sweet). Voila!

Suhoor - my way...

Since a couple of days, I do have a sous vide rig. Oh boy, was this a operation to get it to Dubai. First I got my thermocouple via Amazon. Not cheap (especially the optional but recommended DHL shipment), but definitely far cheaper than a professional SV rig (which you cld buy here in the UAE. 

Then I had to buy a slower cooker... Not available! But a rice cooker is as good (only thing is, that rice cookers are usually smaller than slow cooker).

And then the cables. Lets say it like that... My set up might not be recommended by any quality & safety organization (TÜV, CE etc). But it works!

After 64°C eggs and an über beef tenderloin (both amazing) - and an "uneaten" beef tongue (48hours sv'ed) and a rump round steak (12 hours), I wanted to do the chicken, which waited since a couple of days in the fridge. I butchered it (quite well), made some airline breasts (with the wingbone) and sous vided it with garlic, scallions, cilantro and black pepper. 1 hour only made it the most juicy but still properly cooked chicken breast, we had for a long time. I served it with avocado tomato salad and oven kale chips (which were slightly too salty)

After the breast left their jacuzzi, the legs & thighs were vacuumed with aromatics and a lot of butterand had a swim (well they Are still in... For around 9 hours) - I thought, it would be nice to have chicken leg confit...

Hence there will be enough to eat in the next days... Despite (or even especially) of Ramadan.