Some of life’s most wonderful surprises happen when you least expect it. And that is what I experi-enced when I got off the wrong station in Singapore. The ever-changing landscape of this island nation can make navigation a challenge even for repeat travelers. on our way to orchard, we mistakenly got off at Somerset station, found our way out of the station by following the throng of people and ending up in one of the many malls that dot this stretch of Singapore. exhausted from too much commute and walking, as it was the last couple of days of our weeklong vacation, I just wanted to sit down. I was sitting by the curb as my Tita snapped photos. When I reviewed the pho-tos, my heart skipped a beat when I read the words on the poster behind me: Din Tai Fung at level B2. Can this be it? Can this be the elusive restaurant that friends from Shanghai have been raving about? I read and re-read the poster much to my heart’s delight and to my palate’s excitement. And so, without much thought or even asking for their approval, I dragged my Tito and Tita to the lower levels of the mall in my quest to finally meet food that many has simply described as ‘heavenly’. much has been said about Din Tai Fung and its world famous xiao long bao – a dimsum filled with meat and clear soup. oh, their vegetable dumplings are be-ing raved about, too. I was surprised to see the restaurant almost empty when I arrived, and I thought, can this be the right one? of course it was the right one. We just arrived a little early before the lunch crowd came in. And true enough, the tables began to slowly get filled with locals, tourists, and a couple more of Filipinos who have also heard of the restaurant. As for the taste, nothing is overrated about Din Tai Fung. The xiao long bao was beyond perfect. It has this certain lightness to it that I can still taste it and smell the aroma that wafts

through as you bit open the top part of the xiao long bao.

I am so bad with names that I can hardly recall the names of the other food

items that we ordered. But everything was just too pleasant, and yes, heavenly.

VOL.5 ISSUE 93 • JULY 12, 2012

EDGEDAVAOFOOD

Spoonful of heaven

Much has been said about Din Tai Fung and its world famous xiao long bao – a dimsum filled with meat and clear soup.

INdulge!

By Carlo P. Mallo

ENTERTAINMENTFOOD

A2 INdulge! EDGEDAVAO

Reading labels:What’s in a wine bottle?WIneS are complex drinks with many nuances and details that are enjoyable and enriching especially when you learn the details. To learn about a wine’s finer points, one can start by reading the label. This is my no frills guide to knowing what to expect in a wine.The cork most French and Ital-ian wines use traditional cork to seal the wine bottle and would cringe at plastic or twist caps. Although Chilean and Argentinean wines are considered new world wines, most wines com-ing from these con tries still use cork.The label The label of a wine clearly shows the brand name of the wine, the region where the wine originated. The terroir, or terrain, of the wine growing region influ-ences the quality as well as the nuances of the wine itself. A vineyard near the sea can produce a wine that tastes totally different from a wine grown on the hillsides, even though they have the same grapes and type of climate.The vinTage The vintage year is the year the when the grapes used for the making of the wine was picked. Some years may have a sweeter harvest than other years thanks to the changing climate and weather, hence the vary-ing tastes and quality of the wine year-on-year. Die-hard oenophiles, or wine connoisseurs, tend to research the weather and the conditions of when the grapes were picked as sweeter grapes tend to produce better wines. If a wine does not have a vintage year, then that normally means it its made up of grapes from several year’s har-vest.varieTal Although found mostly on new world wines, wines usually announce the kinds of grapes they are made from as each kind of grape produces totally different tasking wines. Pino noirs are light and crisp, merlots are rich, Cabernet Sauvignons produce bold flavors, and Syrahs are earthy

and peppery.TasTing noTes These are guides also

printed on a wine bot-tle to help the average drinker in pairing their wines with the kinds of food they plan to serve. I hope this little intro-duction will lead every-one to be a little bit more open and adventurous about wines. Follow me on twit-ter @kennethkingong for more foodie finds, travel thrills, and urban hap-penings in and around Durianburg.

THE LABEL

THE CORK

VINTAGE YEAR

VARIETAL

ENTERTAINMENTFOOD

VOL.5 ISSUE 93 • JULY 12, 2012EDGEDAVAO INdulge! A3

by bai Fauziah Fatima sinsuat ambolodto, Mba

PoPCorn is a pop-ular snack or food eat-en in movie houses, carnivals and sport-ing events. Usually, this “all-time-go-to” snack is served salted, buttered or (nowa-days) sweetened. Fla-vored popcorn sold in supermarkets and specialty shops are making a big wave in the market scene. In popcorn language, a popped kernel of corn is more commonly known as a ‘flake’. There are two shapes of a flakes : (1) BUT-TerFLY FLAKeS or those irregular in shape and have a number of protrud-ing ‘ends’; and (2) mUSH-room FLAKeS or those largely ball-shaped and with fewer wings compared to the first one. WArnInG It (popcorn) is actually included in the list released by the Ameri-can Academy of Pediat-rics, which is not safe for children less than four (4) years of age due to the risk of choking. For this week, let us get into the high vibe and cook popcorn three (3) ways. With the readily available popcorns in movie houses and department stores, I still believe it is much bet-ter to experiment and cook popcorn according to your taste. Thus, by the time you would have your friends over, they would be simply amazed. I have here three new recipes for our all time fa-vorite popcorn. Try them out and email me your comments.

FLAVoreD PoPPerSYield: 5 cups of poppers Line sheet trays with waxed paper and set aside. melt unsalted butter in a pot over medium heat and stir in brown sugar, curry powder, saffron powder and salt. Bring to a boil for 4 to 5 minutes. remove from heat. Add in vanilla extract and baking soda to the mixture. mix thoroughly until well combined. Place popped corn ker-nels in a pan and pour hot mixture over the popcorn. Coat evenly. Pour coated popcorn in lined sheet trays and cool completely. Serve. TIP You can spice and dress up your popcorn by

adding nuts or candies or even sliced chocolate bars. Your imagination is your limitation!

FLAVoreD PoPPeD BALLSYield: two (2) dozen balls depending on the size Combine ¼ cup light corn syrup (TIP: You can actually use Pancake Syrup or Honey), 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 cup of roughly chopped dates de-pending on your size pref-erence, 2 tablespoon cocoa powder (TIP: I used un-sweetened), 1 tablespoon cinnamon powder , ½ tea-spoon of cayenne pepper and 1 tablespoon of tepid water and bring to a boil in a pan, stirring occasionally. Add 2 tablespoon of va-nilla extract and a pinch of salt. remove from heat and set aside. mix in 3 cups of plain popcorn and add 1 more cup of marshmallows. TIP You can stir in nuts or pre-served fruits and the likes. Coat your hands in oil or butter and shape them into balls (size according to your preference). roll balls in cinnamon powder and nuts (3 table-spoon of cinnamon to ½ cup of powdered sugar)

PoPPIn’ KInILAW STYLe mUSHroom BALLSYield: a dozen balls

1 cup button mushroom, drained and coarsely chopped1 1/2 cups flour, sifted1 egg, beaten with salt and pepper3 cups popcorn, unsalted and roughly chopped1 tablespoon cumin pow-der

Salt and pepper to taste1 cup flour, for dustingoil for deep frying

In a bowl, combine mushrooms, flour, salt, pepper, cumin powder, egg and popcorn. mix thor-oughly. Add flour in case mixture does not hold to-gether. refrigerate for 30 minutes to well incorporate the ingredients. Form mixture in balls. Dust balls with flour to avoid sticking together. Deep-fry balls until

golden brown. Serve hot and with salsa. For the salsa: mix sliced and deseeded ripe tomato, minced native onion, cala-mansi juice, olive oil and salt and pepper. THAnK YoU for mak-ing me happy. I would love to hear from you. email me at iamtheroyalchef@gmail.com for your recipe ques-tions, kitchen suggestions , cooking comments or if you want your recipe to be featured. Happy Cooking!

Poppin’ corn!

ENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT

A4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 93 • JULY 12, 2012EDGEDAVAO

ThE Philippines’ King of Comedy, Dolphy (aka Rodolfo Vera Quizon Sr), passed away Tuesday, July 10, confirmed his partner Zsa-Zsa Padilla. he was 83.

When the laughter ends

Dolphy signs off at 83 The Makati Medical Center (MMC), where Dolphy had been con-fined since June, also confirmed he passed away at 8:34 pm. “We would like to in-form the public that Mr. Rodolfo ‘Dolphy’ Quizon, passed away... due to multiple organ failure, secondary to compli-cations brought about by severe pneumonia, Chronic Obstructive Pul-monary Disease (COPD), and acute renal failure,” it said in a statement. In a statement read outside MMC, actor-director Eric Quizon re-quested the public to pray for his father’s soul. “And in his honor, please smile at the person standing next to you,” he said. “The Comedy [King] is dead, but long live com-edy,” he added. Dolphy’s remains were brought to the heritage Memorial Park in Taguig City past midnight. Aside from Eric, Dol-phy’s other children Man-ny (Manny Boy), Salud (Sahlee), Rodolfo Jr (Dol-phy Jr), Freddie (Baby), Edgar, and Raul (Rolly) with Engracia (Gracia) Dominguez; Mariquita (Kaye), Carlos, Geraldi-

no (Dino), and Edwin with Gloria Smith; Ron-aldo (Ronnie), Madonna (Dana), and Jeffrey (Epi) with Pamela Ponti; Rom-mel with Evangeline Tugalao; Vandolph with Alma Moreno; and Ni-cole and Zia with Zsazsa Padilla continue to cele-brate his life with friends and fans. The King of Comedy starred in more than 200 films in his 66-year career, starting with a 1946 movie at 19 years old with Fernando Poe Sr, “Dugo at Bayan 1 (I Remember Bataan).” T h e ‘80s gen-eration would remem-ber him as John Purun-tong of “John en Marsha,” probably the most suc-cessful local comedy series in the history of Philippine TV. At least 8 film versions of the series were produced. Today’s generation saw him in various other roles — an actor, a fam-ily man, an endorser of products and politicians. At one point when he was being egged to run for president, he told reporters in his charac-

teristic self-deprecating humor: “What if I win?” Among the many roles he effectively portrayed, Dolphy was known for his notable portrayal of gay roles, whether come-dy or drama. he starred in Facifica Falayfay (1969), Fefita Fofongay (Viuda de Falayfay) (1973) and Sarhento Fofongay, A…ewan (1974). his last gay role was as Walterina Markova, in the movie Markova: Comfort Gay (2001). he played the same role with his sons

Eric and Jeffrey Quizon, and all won the Prix de la Meilleure Interpretation in Brussels, Belgium for their portrayal. his last film was Father Jejemon in 2010. On his 80th birthday, a biographical book, Dol-phy, hindi Ko Ito Narating Mag-isa (Dolphy, I Didn’t Get here All By Myself ) was launched by ABS-CBN. The book was com-pleted by film director Bi-beth Orteza, in the same period that the Dolphy

Aid Para sa Pinoy Founda-tion Inc, a non-profit and non-stock organization, was also being created. he received 21 recog-nitions in his career, but the most recent and spe-cial is the Grand Collar of the Order of the Golden heart, conferred on him by President Benigno Aquino III in November 2010. The award is the highest given to a private citizen by the President of the Philippines. Five years ago, Dolphy was

diagnosed with a lung disease, COPD, which be-came progressive over time. Dolphy son, Eric, lik-ened his father’s illness to cancer. he said it made it difficult for him to breathe and triggered bouts of pneumonia. Dolphy had been in and out of hospital since 2010. his latest confine-ment was on June 9. he died a month later. he would have turned 84 on July 25.