Brie: The King of Cheeses

Cheese.

Because the Philippines isn’t exactly dairy country like, say, Switzerland or even Japan (They make fabulous cheeses in Hokkaido, by the way.), most people look at it as something that comes in a rectangular blue box in the dairy section of their neighborhood supermarket, a gooey yellowish-orange concoction with pimentos in a jar. It is, to most people, something you stick or spread between two slices of bread for a sandwich, grate over spaghetti, or use to top a burger. That’s how most people in these parts look at cheese.

Then, they run into something like the Jindi Triple Cream Brie I bought at the Wine Depot last month.

Once they’ve sampled something like that, it changes the way they look at and feel about cheese forever.

Brie is a very soft cows’ milk cheese originally made in the French province of the same name. It is, like the Camembert, a wheel-shaped cheese characterized by an edible white mold and a soft, almost runny center. It was the favorite cheese of the Impressionist Master Pierre-Auguste Renoir who declared the Brie made just on the outskirts of Paris – the fabled Brie de Meaux – the veritable “King of Cheeses”.

You can’t blame Renoir for being moved to such praise as the cheese is truly delicious with a creamy, slightly nutty, highly savory flavor.

True French Brie, usually the mass produced ones, can be found in many supermarkets and is quite reasonably priced – which is why I wonder why many Filipinos haven’t gone and actually tried the stuff! Now, you can go ahead and call me a culinary heretic or Philistine, but the best Brie I have had so far happens to be Australian rather than French. This is the Triple Cream Brie from Jindi, an award-winning dairy farm that also produces top-quality Camembert and an amazingly fruity Morbier.

This particular Brie has a very rich flavor with a slightly garlicky tinge to the undertone. The aroma is also delicious with just the faintest hint of ammonia. While it is firm to the bite, it melts almost instantly in your mouth; it has an almost satiny texture in its molten state. While I seriously enjoy popping chunks of this into my mouth for a quick – yet elegant – snack, this also tastes gorgeous on hot toast, spread on sliced apples, or – most decadently – put atop slices of grilled beef tenderloin to make the most sophisticated cheese-steak sandwich ever.

Salmon + Cream Cheese: A Different Take on a Classic Combo

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Sandwich

It’s a rare person who doesn’t like the combination of smoked salmon and cream cheese.  Seriously: it’s one of those food pairings that has worked so well from the very beginning.

Most people, however, prefer the combo on bagels.  I, on the other hand, like it in panini form.  This particular bit of nosh is from Kenny Rogers Roasters and comes to the table with a side of spiced fries.  The steamed veg on the side is optional, but it makes this particular meal so much better. 

The Grown-up Mid-afternoon Milk Break Strikes Back

Truth be told, I find a glass of milk and a slice – or so – of cake in the middle of the afternoon a highly comforting experience.  More so, of course, if the cake just so happens to be chocolate and the milk is good and cold.  (I don’t mind warm milk, of course, but I get sleepy!)

I was at Seattle’s Best Coffee at Festival a few days ago and was feeling more than a little bummed out.  Lucky for me, I found a great milk-’n'-cake combo to cheer me up: an iced vanilla chai and a magnificently sticky chocolate lava cake.

I’ve long been a fan of SBC’s chai drinks: they aren’t very sweet and they are quite creamy, and the vanilla variant does not disappoint.  There’s the strong taste of good black tea in the background: just bold enough to make itself known, but not so strong as to be too harsh on the drinker’s palate.  Vanilla and cinnamon seem to be the predominant flavors in this drink, so I recommend it for those who are new to chai as it is more sweet than it is spicy.  There’s just enough milk, too, to cut through the brewed tea, giving the drink smoothness.

Now, tea isn’t exactly the drink people have in mind to go with chocolate cake, but I think that’s a matter of personal preference – and personally, I think milk tea goes beautifully with it.  The cake in this particular afternoon treat was, as I said earlier, gloriously sticky and fudgy.  Served warm, the solid sides will remind you of properly-baked brownies: just cakey enough to the bite with a pleasant bitter-sweetness.  The molten center, on the other hand, was truly decadent – not too rich enough to be cloying, but just gooey enough to satisfy even the most deep-seated cravings for fudge or ganache.

A Bit of Chocolate Indulgence

Oooh, cake!

I was at Secret Recipe about a week ago and found myself craving for something sweet as opposed to my usual laksa fix.  So, I found myself looking at the cake display and pondered on a classic question: Will it be cream cake today or cheesecake? Ahh, decisions, decisions…

What settled the question for me was this glorious, chocolate fondant-coated confection that goes by the fetching name Chocolate Indulgence.  What it is: chocolate cake layered with dark, milk, and white chocolate mousses.

That’s right: mousses – plural; three kinds of ‘em.

Looks tempting, doesn't it?

As pretty as this slice of cake looks, I’m all for the old adage about how the strength of a pudding lies in its eating.  I took a bite and I frowned at the texture of the cake part of this torte.  The chocolate sponge used was a tad on the dry side; quite disappointing because, having tried Secret Recipe’s cheesecakes, I was hoping that the sponge cakes they use for their cream tortes would be of a similar high caliber.

The mousses, on the other hand, were just delectable.  So, being the little chocolate fiend that I am, I quickly dispatched with the sponge cake (Waste not, want not! ) and left the mousse parts for last.  The white mousse is a milky delight – and I do not often say that about white chocolate desserts!  The chocolate mousse – the chocolate fondant! – made me sigh in sheer delight.

Honestly, save for the cake part, this is one dessert that really lives up to its name.

In Search of the Better Burger: Weekend Indulgence

I’ll be honest: I spent the previous weekend making a complete and utter pig of myself. 

Blame it on the chilly weather, blame it on being tied to my work desk for the better part of the past couple weeks.  You can even blame it on the fact that I spent part of Saturday afternoon in The Cheese Room at Westgate’s Wine Depot (more about that within the week); it was so darned cold that I started to crave something nice, warm, and – ultimately – fattening.

Lucky for me, a Brothers Burger branch was a short walk away: junk food fix, here I come!

So, what does a hungry girl pick from the menu?  Not wishing to be too much of a glutton, I opted for the Baby Brothers Burger (P 58.00) and had sauteed mushrooms (+ P 25.00) and blue cheese (+ P 50.00) thrown in.  Being pretty darned sick of fried potatoes thanks to a three-week glut of potato chips at the office, I went for the onion rings (P 60.00).  To round off my little weekend binge, I eschewed my usual soda and lemonade and went the whole hog (so to speak!) with a chocolate milkshake (P 100.00).  While I was slightly disappointed by my last Brothers experience, I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed at all this time. 

The burger came to the table hot of the grill (hence the greasy appearance of the wrapper).  While the mushrooms were obviously the canned sort, their innate meatiness and succulence was a match for the juicy, beautifully charred beef patty.  The blue cheese dressing (referred to as bleu cheese in the menu) provided a pungent kick, its high, funky aroma mingling with the smokiness of the grilled beef.  The salty tang was an excellent foil to the slight sweetness of the oatmeal bun and oozed so appealingly from the sandwich that I was swiping at the dribbles with the onion rings.

Speaking of the onion rings, the batter used to coat them was not the heavy, breadcrumb-y sort used by other premium burger joints.  Rather, the batter was flour-based the whole way through and spiced in such a way that it provided peppy heat to the munchies without getting too fiery.  Indeed, these onion rings were interesting both flavor-wise and texture-wise: crisp golden batter giving way to tender, translucent onion; savory spiciness balanced by a mild sweetness.

As for the milkshake, it was a little less thick than I expected but I did have a bit of a problem sucking it through the thin straw!  Brothers Burger uses ice cream from The Big Scoop; not exactly super-premium but certainly a better brand to use for shakes instead of the common supermarket variety.  Creamy, rich, chocolate-y to the last drop: not exactly perfect but certainly close to ambrosial.

Would I spoil myself this way again?  Oh, I definitely will.  In the meantime, however, I’m off to the gym.  I think I gained a couple pounds, but let me tell you: it was worth it.