Poached Salmon for the Famished Laborer

Bizu Butter-Poached Salmon

March 6, 2010 – Bizu, Greenhills – Another perfect order of Butter-Poached Salmon. Poached salmon is easy enough to execute, but hardly anyone knows how it’s supposed to turn out. It’s such a delicate fatty fish it’s already perfect raw as sashimi. There’s nothing I revile more than overcooked salmon.

This particular dish was cooked all the way through, but not enough to render succulent, melt-in-your-mouth flesh into the consistency of eraser.

A good steak of salmon from Cold Storage is my indulgent quickie meal. I’d come home with just one of these after a long day for a quick lemon-butter steamed salmon dish.

Place the steak on foil; a smattering of butter and EVOO (extra virgin olive oil); the teensiest bit of salt and white pepper and dried thyme. Add the juice from half a lemon, but throw in the peels for added flavor (just remember to remove before serving). Fold the foil so the package is completely sealed, and poke a few holes to let steam escape. After 10-15 minutes in the oven toaster, it’s time to indulge!

Nothing can be simpler to prepare. It remains – to this day – my quickest “gourmet” meal.

Thanks to themarklim for Bizu food photos, and runfastrussia for the company.

Caesar Salads: The Point is in the Dressing

Bizu Caesar Salad

March 6, 2010 – Bizu, Greenhills – There are staples you order that never change. You get a shrimp Thermidor today. Salpicao, the next. Canard in a few more visits. Or a chicken dish further down. You thumb through the menu and promise – like I always do when I find a really good restaurant – to try everything until the list is exhausted and you move on. Doña Nena’s Caesar salad was that quintessential dish I kept coming back to.

Coddled eggs, a touch of acid (lemon juice and wine vinegar), olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, cheese and anchovies (how can anyone hate these?) are the only requisites for any true Caesar salad dressing. I order these excitedly, and the waiter comes in with a trolley of all these ingredients to show you just how a proper salad is made. Break some eggs in a wooden bowl, and add the other ingredients only at the right moment.

It’s been years since the restaurant ceased to be. I don’t see the trolley anymore. But I still order the same thing at every other restaurant looking for tell-tale signs of yolk from a real Caesar dressing. Today’s dressings are bottled with yogurt, artificial emulsifiers and non-fat subsitutes. White, healthy(?) and repulsive. Restaurants adorn their salad with chopped nuts, fancy croutons and shaved cheese, but I still taste the bottled dressing.

I came back from dinner at Bizu with runfastrussia and themarklim. Of course, we ordered the Caesar salad. I don’t know how it was made, but the dressing was yellow and heavenly.

Thanks to themarklim for contributing these photos, and runfastrussia for great conversations.

Bizu’s Quiches and My Salty Experiments

Bizu Quiche

March 6, 2010 – Bizu, Greenhills – It’s 7:30 in the evening. My trusty food sidekicks,themarklim and runfastrussia, watch wide-eyed as I order breakfast, lunch and dinner items one after the next. They’re obviously intimidated. “Are you eating all that?”

My nose buried at page six and staring at the quiche photos, I absently replied, “Well, I’m on a diet, but that’s why you’re both here.”

The last time I made a quiche Lorraine was in high school. The pastry was both flaky and tender. It was a pretty good turnout considering I hate baking – everything about it reminds me of the Chemistry class I barely passed. I got good marks for the pastry which was supposed to be the most difficult thing about the dish.

“Sa susunod, kapalan mo yung pastry para may pang salo sa alat ng filling mo,” said my professor.

Bizu’s quiche was resplendent – like mine. Flaky and tender – like mine. And incredibly salty – like mine. A caveat to the waiter before I order it again.

My thanks to themarklim for remembering to bring your camera, and runfastrussia for your appetite.

Happy Accidents and Bizu’s Failed Soufflés

Bizu Valrhona Souffle, Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

March 6, 2010 – Bizu, Greenhills – I haven’t had many soufflés in my life. Well, two if you want to get technical.

The first was a failed experiment at a flourless cake I learned from Oprah. Egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks, folded into melted 70 percent cocoa bar with sugar and some butter for richness. I baked the sludge until it slowly rose in its ramekin before dusting with confectioner’s sugar. Okay, so it wasn’t a soufflé but it looked enough like it to satiate my craving. In my mind’s eye, it was the happiest baking accident.

One of a few successful Bizu souffles.

The other one (and it’s enough for me) is the Valrhona chocolate soufflé served at Bizu. I just love the tufts of smoke that billow from a newly pierced soufflé. I break the center to show my friends what it was that made me giggle like a little girl with a crush the moment we stepped into the pâtisserie. Don’t hold your breath for a good one every time you visit Bizu. Nine of ten times I’ve been to the pâtisserie, they insist on serving a burnt, crusty, failed excuse for a soufflé. They churn out pretty good recipes, but the pastry chef definitely needs a LOT of work on his soufflés.

As it always is – when having meals in the company of good friends – there are those who enjoy the chance to bond and catch up, and those – like me – who just eats with gusto.

Thanks to themarklim – up and coming food photog (for me, at least) – andrunfastrussia for loving Goldilock’s chocolate rolls more than Valrhona soufflés. More for me!