Jatuyak is a place to discover great food finds. This open air market is only open on Saturday and Sunday. One needs about two whole days to fully explore the whole area of Jatuyak. You can buy virtually anything in this market. In the area where antiques were sold was a restaurant that was packed. We started to get curious, and so we joined the long line to grab a table. True enough, the long line was well worth it.

Some 18 years ago, I had an affair…with a butter cake. It came in a rectangular white box with oil spots on its side. As soon as you opened it, you would see a light yellow-brown cake with lines embedded on its surface. Its middle part looked strangely raw, but a closer look revealed soft butter melting with creamy crumbs. I took the first bite…and I finished half of the cake.

There’s a fine distraction to my thoughts lately: when do we really say that being a chef is in luminance of being an artist? Does gastronomy really hover on social acceptance as culinary arts? Or is it just another mode of intellectualization?

Putting Thai and Philippine cuisine on a parallel table-set, suggests that both countries are not too dissimilar from each other when it comes to historical tracks, and gastronomic anthropology. For so, both socio-influences in their culinary histo-graphics could be rooted to the fundamental need of food-preservation. In modern regard, this is considered as both science and art of preserving viands and food. However, in recent years—as socio-economic needs arise—culinary as boosted by tourism is one key element.

KHAO JAAO (RICE) - in three types - Paeng khao jaao – or rice flour / Paeng khao neow – or glutinous rice / Paeng man sampalang – or tapioca flour - made from tapioca.

A couple of columns ago, I described to our readers the unfortunate situation of having been bumped off from my yearly Bangkok sabbatical, and of how I have had to think of ways and means to console my agonized palate that misses the infernally hot street side cuisines, and for missing out on the wonderful shopping for trendy apparel. Well, I did get my way this time; I didn’t miss the yearly junket which I have enjoyed for the past eleven years. At one point in my trip—upon touching down—a documentary on Bangkok was showing on the airplane, and one of the featured personalities was Charlie Amatyakul, culinary expert and cookbook author, who said, "In Thailand, everybody is a chef."

Bangkok is a gastronomic paradise, indeed, and its surge to boost international tourism is so amazing, my family could be considered as regulars of this place.

Looking for an alternative from the humdrum Manila dining? Invite your couple friends or any other group to Circles and catch up. The new Circles Restaurant at Makati Shangri-la is the new "it" place! We invited our friends, Chip Locsin and Niña Montelibano to double ALL OUT with us.

Think of it as a melting pot of ice desserts. Uncle Stanly’s Malacca Desserts mixes traditional ice desserts from Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia and offers flavors partial to the Filipino taste bud, but still exotic and distinctly Malayan.