Chocolate for the Summer

Although I have already blogged on about seasonal chocolates, I think a chocolate without something behind is incomplete. This time I will let you decide on a perfect combination of chocolate for the summer and a summer heat reliever. The personal list that have here is all worth a try, and superb cooler.

No. 1 Smooth Cocoa with Ice and Buttery Biscuit in Chocolate Fillings.

I really like smooth cocoa, but lately Banana Frost was my indulgence. What is so amazing about cocoa is its stingy odor when it reaches your nostril. It should be topped with smooth cream and chocolate globules or shredded chocolates. I wont specifically recommend any butter biscuit since you can make it personally. Its up to your taste, and the available resources you have. Again don't think that making your chocolate summer would not be successful with a very simple, fun and inexpensive chocolate delights.








No. 2 Chocolate French Toast with Cappucino Cooler

The first time I tried french toast was superb food discovery. A friend of mine introduced like 2 years ago and I have been experimenting on it based on the available ingredients I have at home. When a chocolate package from my cousin arrived, I've tried filling it with chocolate and coated it with rich milk. It turned out to be extravagant.







Cappucino cooler has also been my favorite when I gone to coffee shop and chocolate bars. If you do it yourself, I recommend to sprinkle it with ground cinnamon to add up woody spell and of course the ever famous cinnamon taste. Do not forget as well the ice cream, vanilla will certainly do









No. 3 Chocolate Muffin and Malted Root Beer


Summer with a very cold beer is a relief. Added with vanilla ice cream and malted milk and syrup is even more. Try this one, its also easy but superb in taste.












My uncle cooked us this Muffin with granulated chocolates all over it. This really tasted good. This also best coupled with the malted root beer when I tried it at home. Best consume during warm night while looking at the starry sky and while listening jazz tempo or even your favorite summer music playlist.

What Is It Like To Be Legally Dependable?

Hoping that life will get better, career shift is I think a good way to do. Although my first choice is to take Masteral Degree in Econometrics this coming semester, I just felt that taking Law as well is a brilliant option.

What is it like to be a Dependable Legal Adviser, Defender and Friend?

If I were a person seeking for legal advices, I might choose the one who has a track record specific to my needs. But it is not my absolute requirement, my choice varies depending on my needs and lawyer must be dependable. Dependable means that lawyer is not just capable of winning the battle but finding truth without a burden of doubt and capable of accepting defeat in a justifiable manner. Winning is not all the truth in life, sometimes losing the battle gives us very important lessons to learn. Whatever our reasons are we always need advices and this is what Central Jersey Legal Services can provide. Central Jersey Legal Service provides wide array of legal service from personal injury lawsuit down to estate management. Since the demand for legal advices and services gone complex nowadays due to complexities of our legal system, it is just right to really evaluate dependable lawyers and legal services providers. I tell you choosing the right one is a tedious task, you don not just need right information but also a trust that is often time hardest to entrust with.

If time permits me to become a lawyer, then surely I will be a dependable one.

Knipschildt Chocolate

Forgive me guys, especially those who love their average chocolate because what I got here for you is the one and only Knipschildt Chocolate "Chocopologie". I never tried it myself but its the best in the world wide market. What makes it the best? It is just the world's most famous chocolate, not only that it holds the record of being the most expensive but it also holds acclamations and honor amongst many famous personalities and award giving bodies.

Mr. Fritz Knipschildt

I clearly remember when I walked into my first job in the restaurant business. I had just turned 13 and my sister was sick, so I filled in for her as a dishwasher at a local restaurant.It was a small kitchen full of chefs, a lot of noise, and steam everywhere. I guess I fell in love with all the activity and excitement. The owner was french and had four restaurants – The Plaza Hotel, Marie Louise, and 2 other excellent places; all with very disciplined kitchens and a truly “old school” approach.

In a short amount of time, I quickly advanced and with the opening of a new restaurant in the north of Copenhagen, I was incharge of the bistro kitchen. This was before I had even attended Chef school. After that I worked for another French gentleman at a small 30 seat restaurant called Le Provence. I finally went to hotel and restaurant school for 4 1/2 years in Denmark where I was born and raised.

After just a month of training at Hotel & amp; Restaurant School, I was selected to represent my town in the Danish championship for young Chefs. It was a great experience to compete against the best young Chefs across Denmark. After finishing school, I had the opportunity to work in the beautiful Mont Blanc area of France twice and also in southern Spain.

I would have to say that my love of food started at a young age. I was very fortunate to have parents that took my sisters and I on many trips throughout Europe where we were exposed to all different types of food at a very early age. My parents loved food and to travel. My father's side of the family are all artists and my mother's side of the family are all entrepreneurs. I guess a little bit of both rubbed off on me as I'm creative with food, but also interested in business.

By now, I was flourishing in the restaurant industry and at the same time, the chocolate industry was going through a radical transformation. We had access to the best raw chocolate and incredibly fresh ingredients. This was heaven for a young creative chef and I absorbed it all. With my background in the savory kitchen, I loved to experiment with sweet & savory flavors and I continued to do so with chocolate.

At that time, I moved to the USA as a private chef cooking for the rich and famous. After which I was sponsored by a french restaurant in New York. People were truly stunned when they tasted the infusions of chocolate and spices. They thought I was crazy, but as they tasted the chocolates, they soon realized that these combinations were true matches in heaven. It felt good to be a pioneer in the modern chocolate making and bring new spicy sweet experiences to people.

Whimsical Food! Is it decadence or decency?

Change is the only constant thing as we say, then it must be that we cannot avoid two opposing consequences. Since our obsession to changes is brimful, decadence and decency have become collateral. In technology for instance, the creation of radar has changed the way we communicate and the downbeat is its health disadvantages. The morality of change must be a field of good interest; it is where we can find value of man’s activities, the dynamics of it and how changes affects the way we live, and our philosophy in life.

My fascination to food innovation has led me to question the morality of change. Is decadence to food innovation a matter of moral arguments, or is it that its moral judgment lay down on personal indulgence? I have to admit that innovating is a necessity for us to be able to find better ways of doing things. However we have to be cautious about it as we often time lose the inherent and natural characteristics of it to what we expect it to be. Thus, resulting to decadence and losing food decency.

Whimsical food are food prone to erratic changes depending on geographical location since geographical ingredients differ from one place to another. It also dependent to food culture and belief. While inherent cultural taste often differ from one place to another and is also considered as factor that contributes to whimsical food.

The Mexican Taco Vs. Chocolate Taco Vs. Indian Tacos

In Mexico, the word taco is a generic term like the English word sandwich. A taco is simply a tortilla wrapped around a filling. Like a sandwich, the filling can be made with almost anything and prepared in many different ways (anything that can be rolled inside a tortilla becomes a taco). The contents of a taco can vary according to the geographical region you are eating them. The taco can be eaten as an entree or snack. They are made with soft corn or fried corn tortillas folded over. On the other hand, a chocolate taco is like a real taco only that it has chocolate poured over the top, and chocolate's a dairy product like the cheese in a real taco, has peanuts, which are in fact not nuts at all but legumes like beans, which people often eat with real tacos, it has vanilla ice cream, which could be said to slightly resemble a real taco's sour cream if you squint a little, has fudge striping that represents a meat.

Chocolate Taco....................................... Tacos de Asador:Mexico........................... Indian Tacos:Navajo Tacos

A Symbol of Courage Primarily used to identify soldiers during war or battle, the dog tag has become a symbol of courage and strength through the years.

Now, Ako Mismo is using the dog tag in its advertising campaign to identify the brave Filipinos who are taking a stand against apathy; those who have decided to fight the indifference that is plaguing our country. No more complaints, no more excuses. Wearing the Ako Mismo dog tag is a sign of the commitment to do something, big or small, for the country.

This is I think one provocative tag line that I will ever use in showing my eagerness to help change what has been plaguing my country. It shows a very strong conviction of self determination, self worth, self development and a drive to make oneself an instrument of change. Indeed it is about time to start a new era of better changes by challenging the current dreadful conditions.

Mga Filipino, ako mismo ang magsisimula ng pagbabago!

F3 Racing Car Powered by Chocolate

Racing industry conquers chocolate factory and even more titillating for environmentalist because of its eco-friendly advocacy.

Researchers in the UK have invented a world first, formula three racing car, powered by chocolate and steered by carrots.

Developed by Warwick's University's international automotive research centre, the vehicle is made almost completely from fruit and vegetable matter.

Making it even more environmentally friendly, its biodiesel engine is configured to run on fuel derived from waste chocolate and vegetable oil.

'The engine runs on biodiesel - now we can produce biodiesel a number of ways but we managed to take the waste product from chocolate which is cocoa butter and turn that into diesel,' Dr James Meredith said.

Formula three cars can't currently use biodiesel in competition.

But the car's inventors say motorsport will inevitably go 'greener' to survive.

'We have already seen formula one adopting some green technologies in the (KERS) - Kinetic Energy Recovery System - that we are seeing on cars this year which have actually have improved performance and making the sport more exciting,' Dr Steve Mags, a Warwick University engineer behind the project said.

'I am convinced that some of these technologies will be sustainable materials technology will see them on not just Formula one but other aspects of motorsport as well.'

Savoring Chocolate With All Of Your Senses

For a chocolate lover, the art of tasting—which is quite different from merely eating chocolate--- has the power to transform a casual nibble into a world of new pleasures. The seemingly formal protocol used by professional chocolate makers, and connoisseurs, to compare and evaluate chocolates is simply a way of focusing attention on the chocolate, with all of our senses. It’s also loads of fun, challenging, delicious and great for the vocabulary.

Anyone can easily learn to taste chocolate for pleasure. No expertise or equipment is required. Tasting can be done at home alone, with close friends after dinner, or you can make it a party.

How much do you know about chocolate? This handy primer will turn you into a chocolate impresario in no time!

The Primary Types of Chocolate

Bittersweet or Semi Sweet (Dark) Chocolate
Sweetened chocolate with a minimum cocoa bean or chocolate liquor content of 35% by weight, and which may contain up to 12% milk solids. Dark chocolate is the latest rage, often preferred by adults with equally sophisticated food palates. The current trend favors bittersweet and semi sweet chocolates with far more than the minimum required chocolate liquor content, and with little or no milk content, resulting in more intense chocolate flavor and complexity, and less sweetness.
Milk Chocolate
Chocolate that contains a minimum of 10% by weight of chocolate liquor, at least 3.39% milk fat, and a minimum of 12% milk solids (inclusive of milk fat). The current trend favors milk chocolates with more than the minimum of chocolate liquor, producing more chocolate flavor and less sweetness.
White Chocolate
A sweet ivory-colored confection that contains by weight at least 20% cocoa butter, at least 14% milk solids, and at least 3.5% milk fat, and no more than 55% sweeteners.

Chocabulary from A to Z

Alkalized or Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder that has been chemically treated (usually with potassium carbonate) to reduce acidity.

Aroma: The variety of scents given off by individual chocolate. Hold different kinds of chocolates to the nose and you’ll quickly see that each has an individual and distinctive aroma.

Bloom: Dullness, streaks, graying, or whitish discoloration on the surface of chocolate caused by poor tempering, temperature fluctuations and/or moisture in storage. Bloom is unattractive but not harmful.

Cacao: The defining ingredient in all chocolate and chocolate products. The term “cacao” refers to the tree and its fruit and the seeds (otherwise known as cocoa beans) inside the fruit, which are processed to make chocolate.

Varieties of Cacao

• Forastero: The hardiest and most productive of the three or four cacao varieties, Forastero is believed to have originated in the Amazon basin. Today it is grown around the globe and accounts for over 90% percent of the world’s cacao. Chocolate manufacturers value Forasteros for basic robust chocolate flavor.
• Criollo: Considered the rarest and most prized of the three or four recognized varieties of cacao, Criollo is native to either northern South America and or Mesoamaerica. Prized for their fragrance and delicate and complex flavor, criollos are “flavor beans” which account for less than 1% of the world’s cacao.
• Trinitario: One of three or four recognized varieties of cacao, Trinitario is a hybrid of the flavorful Criollo and hardy Forastero. Along with Criollos, Trinitarios are considered “flavor beans” and they account for less than 5% of the world cacao crop.
• Nacional or Arriba: The proposed fourth variety of cacao from Ecuador, otherwise considered a finer strain of Forastero.
• Theobroma Cacao: The botanical name for the tree, fruit, and seeds from which chocolate is made.

Cacao Beans/Cocoa Beans: Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which are the seeds of the fruit of the cacao tree.

Chocolate Liquor: Also known as unsweetened chocolate which is often used in baking, chocolate liquor is pure ground-up cacao nibs (see cocoa nibs). There is no alcohol in chocolate liquor however!.

Chocolate Truffle: A rich confection made from chocolate and cream (ganache), although it may contain butter, eggs, and other flavorings. Truffles may be dipped in chocolate and or rolled in cocoa powder. Although American-style chocolate truffles are larger and may be decorated, the original European chocolate truffle is bite-sized with a rough cocoa-y exterior.

Cocoa: The term cocoa is used in different ways. When it appears on a chocolate label with a percentage, it denotes the total cocoa bean (cacao) content of the chocolate and the term is sometimes used interchangeably with chocolate liquor, cacao, cocoa beans or cocoa solids. Not to be confused with Cocoa Powder.

Cocoa Powder: Used as an ingredient in baking, or the base for a hot beverage. Cocoa powder is chocolate liquor, which has been pressed to remove most of its fat, and then pulverized to a powder. High fat cocoa powders typically contain 22%-24% cacao fat; low-fat cocoa powders typically contain 10% or less cacao fat. Natural Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder that has not been “Dutch” processed or treated with chemical alkalis.

Cocoa Butter: The unique ivory colored fat that constitutes 50 to 54% of roasted cocoa beans. Cocoa butter has little flavor of its own, but it adds considerable richness and depth to the flavor of chocolate. Cocoa butter makes chocolate fluid when melted and crisp when hardened. Chocolate melts readily and luxuriously on the tongue because cocoa butter melts at body temperature. Cocoa butter contributes to the creamy smooth texture and the long finish that characterizes fine chocolate.

Cocoa Nibs: Pieces of hulled, roasted cocoa beans. Nibs are composed of fat called cocoa butter (50%-54%) and non-fat dry solids fat (46%-50%).

Cocoa Mass or Cocoa Masse: An alternate term for the total cocoa bean, cacao, chocolate liquor, or cocoa content of chocolate.

Conching: Conching is the prolonged heating, mixing and scraping or grinding process done during the last stages of chocolate manufacture. Conching produces both a smooth texture by reducing the size of the particles and mixing them, and a smooth flavor by driving off unwanted harsh flavors and aromas.

Couverture: Chocolate with a minimum of 32% cocoa butter. Most couverture these days contains even more than 32% cocoa butter!

Dry or Non-Fat Cocoa Solids: The non-fat portion of the cocoa bean.

Dutch Process Cocoa: cocoa that has been processed with alkali to reduce acidity (and darken color).

Ganache: A mixture of chocolate and cream used as the filling for chocolate truffles, but also for sauces, glazes and cake fillings.

Gloss: The satiny sheen or mirror-like shine on the surface of a perfectly tempered piece of chocolate.

Lecithin: A natural emulsifier added to chocolate to promote fluidity when the chocolate is melted. The lecithin used in chocolate manufacture is derived from soy.

Mouthfeel: The texture of a substance in your mouth; how the chocolate feels as it melts on your palate.

Notes: The variety of distinctive flavors or hints of flavor that one can pick up when tasting and appreciating an individual piece of chocolate. Chocolate, like fine wine, has a flavor profile that’s very individual. It’s common to pick up hints of smoke, coffee, cherry, vanilla, nuts or citrus in chocolate. Further, no two people will necessarily pick up the exact same notes in chocolate, depending on their experience savoring chocolate.

Percentage: The percentage label on chocolate bars indicates the total amount of the bar, by weight, comprised of cocoa beans (including added cocoa butter or dry cocoa solids). Dark chocolate generally features a higher percentage of cacao than milk chocolate. While a high cacao percentage (60% or more) is a sign of quality in dark chocolate, 90% cacao content in a bar is not necessarily “better.” This is because as the cacao percentage is increased, chocolate becomes more and more bitter in flavor to the point that it becomes unpalatable.

Snap: The sound and the feel of chocolate as it breaks or is bitten. A sharp, crisp snap indicates fine particle size, high quality cocoa butter, and good tempering. Dark chocolate generally has more “snap” than softer milk chocolate.

Tempering: The process of controlled heating, cooling and stirring that creates a stable structure of the cocoa butter (fat) crystals in chocolate. Tempering causes chocolate to harden uniformly with an even color, brittle texture (snap) and glossy surface.

White Confectionery Coating: Although apparently similar to white chocolate, white confectionery coating contains no part of the cocoa bean. It is made with sugar, milk and milk fat, vanilla, lecithin, and vegetable fats.

On My Silver Birthday: Is this a Form of Internet Begging?

A list of few wishes on my upcoming birthday. It is up to you to decide which one/two/three or for you'd like to give. So long as it reaches the person asking, then your kindness is much appreciated.

No. 1 Macbook Pro White

No. 2 iphone
No. 3 Sony Vaio AW Series

No. 4 Sony Digital Camera

Is this a form of internet begging?

Internet begging, cyber-begging, or internet panhandling is the online version of traditional begging, asking strangers for money to meet immediate and other needs (money, food, and shelter). Internet begging has the clear advantage to street panhandling in that it can be practiced with relative anonymity, thereby eliminating or reducing the shame and disgrace apparent of begging in public.

If you believe that it is not, then you may opted to grant my wish.

Happy Mama Day

The chocolate companies have been sending me their mother day special promos and it all sound so chocolatey.

Here is the list of a few.
1. L.A. Burdick
2. GODIVA
3. Cadburry
4. Chocopolognie
5. Suchard Tobler Vertriebs
6. Ghirardelli Chocolate

If you are interested the links are provided just on the right bar.
Give your mom a gift she cant forget. The love!

Happy Moothers Day!

Dinner Shawarma at TURQUOISE

The food scare sometimes is not enough halting factor for cravings when you have the passion for food and especially when the food your dying to indulge with is mediterraniane in flavor. Taste good right?

So I am giving you a mediterraniane inspired food called Dinner Shawarma of TURQUOISE restaurant located at SM Davao City. The restaurant offers variety of Turkish foods that are worth your penny.

What I love most about Dinner Shawarma is its Turkish rice. The rice really taste like milk with a very soothing effect. The garlic sauce is also excellent.