In My Basket

Afew days ago, we sent our cook-kasambahay Reine to the Sta. Rosa wet market with P1,000, with strict instructions not to overspend or make abono (from her own pocket). She came back with a salmon head, half a kilo of prawns, three pieces of tangingue steak, a pompano, all medium size, and vegetables for sinigang. Well done! In a supermarket she would have needed more money. Maybe we should send her to a wet market more often.

A sibling, on the other hand, was raving over the frozen pompano she bought for P200 at Alson’s on Pasong Tamo, in Makati. She cooked it as tinolang Bisaya, done with lots of tomatoes and onions. Super. She said we must visit that store one day.

On the sweet side, we made the acquaintance of a young lady chef-baker whose signature product is butter rum cake, a favorite of ours – Rhea CastroSycip and husband Jayjay, who is the chef at Discovery Country Suites in Tagaytay. While both are chefs, the lady chose to concentrate on baking, for which she took lessons from the masters. Actually her interest in baking started when an aunt gave her a steaming oven when she was 15. She has been baking (and conducting baking lessons) in the span of nearly 20 years.

She established Flour Pot specializing in cakes and desserts. Being meticulous with regard to balance of texture, color, flavor and sweetness, it took her a year to create the recipe for her butter rum cake, testing it over and over before putting it on the market.

The result is a soft, moist rum cake that made us give it our thumbs up. For this classic cake, Rhea uses ingredients which she gets from indigenous sources – local artisan rum, free range eggs and small batch unsalted butter from Bukidnon.

Likewise she considered the local taste, thus she gives it a subtle but still discernible rum flavor.

She has some other cakes with very intriguing names. Contact Flour Pot at hello.flourpot@gmail.com or cellphone number 0917-7892352.

Have a delicious meal today!