DIET: Knorr Gastro Park - Keeping Your Palate on Trend

Unilever Food Solutions launches new kitchen innovations: 

Knorr® Golden Salted Egg Powder and Knorr® Rock Sugar Honey Sauce 

I one of the lucky people to get a chance to taste the recipes prepared by the chefs' in Knorr Gastro Park last Friday at BGC. 

In light of the demand and buzz for this new flavor that has made Southeast Asians crazy over salted egg chips and salted egg-filled custard buns, Unilever Food Solutions Philippines (UFS)—the maker of Knorr®, Lady’s Choice, Best Foods, and Lipton—brings to Manila the key ingredient in the latest trend taking over the commercial kitchens in Manila: Knorr® Golden Salted Egg Powder. Aside from this, making Asian sauces has also become easier with the availability of the highly versatile and premium Knorr® Rock Sugar Honey Sauce that gives dishes a nice sheen and aromatic sweetness.

“We at UFS understand the ever-changing palate of diners and the needs of our chefs and cooks across the country.  Because of this, we make sure to help them keep up in satisfying their diners’ cravings,” said Pat Mallari, Country Marketing Manager of UFS Philippines. “That is why we are happy to bring these latest innovations—the Knorr® Golden Salted Egg Powder and Knorr® Rock Sugar Honey Sauce—to our Filipino chefs to make sure that they stay ahead of the game in light of the growing demand for more creative and gastronomic dishes Filipinos are looking for.”

”We bring various kinds of kitchen staples from different parts of Asia closer to Filipino chefs because we want to break geographical barriers for them. We also want to enable them to bring to life their international concepts with ease and at most creativity for the delight of local diners,” she added.

Knorr® Golden Salted Egg Powder is a one-step solution for salted egg dishes. It is made only with the best quality egg yolks for better flavor, color, and aroma and to save on labor and time in the kitchen. Chefs and operators no longer have to deal with fluctuating supply or quality of salted eggs because of its consistent availability and quality.

Meanwhile, Knorr® Rock Sugar Honey Sauce is another kitchen delight as a premium one-step honey sauce that can be used on its own or as a base sauce. Made from premium yellow rock sugar and real honey, it saves time and labor, perfect for dishes like marmite chicken, glazed spareribs, or any new dish creations through the creativity and boldness of brilliant chefs.

Make sure your palate and menu are on trend. Visit www.ufs.com to get your hands on Knorr® Golden Salted Egg Powder and Knorr® Rock Sugar Honey Sauce and create exciting and gastronomic dishes.

The Chefs’ Takes on the Knorr® Salted Egg Powder and Rock Sugar Honey Sauce

The best part of this event is that we had a chance to taste all the food prepared by the Chefs' using Knorr Salted Egg Powder and Rock Sugar Honey Sauce. Guys, I will feel sorry in advance because all food are so delicious and I used Huawei P9 to take all of them!

To showcase the versatility of these products, Chef Alan Wong of UFS Malaysia showcased different ways to use these ingredients in his own recipes. For Hors D’oeuvre, he used the salted egg powder with his “Curry-Salted Egg Veloute”— a spanner crab salad with spiced chicharron. Meanwhile, the rock sugar honey sauce was used in his “Seventh Heaven Pork Belly Cooked Twice” dish, which was described as Gochujang Caramel Sauce, Pickled Daikon, and Korean XO Sauce.

Cathryn and I 

This is my favorite!

Aside from Wong, UFS Philippines Sous Chef Carlos “Pipo” Aluning also shared his own dishes. Inspired by the richness and soft consistency of the Knorr® Golden Salted Egg Powder and the sweet aroma and natural glaze that the Knorr® Rock Sugar Honey Sauce gives off, he prepared these irresistible dishes: Fried squid balls with ginger miso glaze and spicy honey glaze, Salted egg shrimp poppers, Salted egg ice cream topped with crumble and soured candy bits.

“It is important for chefs like me that the key ingredients in our kitchen enable us to flex our creative hats in innovating new and exciting dishes for our diners, help us be efficient in managing our time and resources, and most of all, guarantee consistent satisfaction of our diners’ evolving tastes,” said Chef Aluning. “This is why these new Knorr® Golden Salted Egg Powder and Knorr® Rock Sugar Honey Sauce are perfect additions to the kitchen staples today.”

Cathryn's favorite by Chef Wong

In addition to this, he has also prepared a Chinese Platter consisting of “Roulade of Pork Rind” (Chicken Oyster and Shrimp Stuffing, Asian Vinaigrette, Aromatic Salted Egg Gravy) and “Fragrant Glutinous Rice Pot Sticker (Pork Liver Pate, White Fish Paste, Bean Curd Skin, Fermented Kung-Po Sauce, Lardons). Wong is the Chef de Cuisine for Chinese Cuisine of UFS Malaysia and Lead Chef for Asian Sauces for UFS Southeast Asia. 

Congratulations Knorr and Chefs'  

Filipino Cuisine:  

Fernando Aracama, Executive Chef of Aracama

Pauline Benedicto, Executive Chef of Rekado Filipino Comfort Food

Western:

Joshua Boutwood, Executive Chef of The Bistro Group

Fusion:

Kenneth Cacho, Director for Culinary Arts of ISCAHM

Kimberly Solejon, Cucina Idol Grand Winnder and PCC 2016 Best Chef

Desserts:

Michael Miko Aspiras, Pastry Chef at Le Petit Souffle, Scout's Honor Cookies PH

Have a great day everyone! 

xx

Don’t Dream, Just Go - 3rd International Travel Festival

IDEAL tour destinations, both domestic and foreign, will be showcased anew this year when the 3rd International Travel Festival (ITF) reels off on July 15-17 at the Ayala Center Cebu.

We all do need a break sometimes and travel to places we never been to at least once a year and of course within our budget. Question is:

Are you dreaming going to: 

El Nido, Palawan

Vigan City

Boracay Island

Southern Leyte (my hometown)

Siargao Island

Hong Kong

or

Singapore

Don't Dream, Just Go! Make it happen guys! 

The 3rd International Travel Festival 2016 will be held in Ayala Center Cebu on July 15,16&17! 

With the theme: “Don’t Dream, Just Go” and organized by MyEventology, the three-day 2016 ITF brings together over 50 exhibitors including national tour operators, airlines, hotels, resorts, travel agents, financial institutions, and insurance agents.

The ITF was initially staged in 2014 and has attracted thousands of visitors as well as gained positive sales results for the exhibitors.

In the 2014 ITF, exhibitors earned a whooping P12 million from credit card sales, while the footcount reached about 270,000, according to Ayala Center Cebu’s matrix.

The regional tourism show eventually became a genuine meeting point for tourism stakeholders and consumers as it duplicated its inaugural success in the 2nd ITF last year.

“We are happy to note that our visitor rate has grown steadily and that we have provided positive results to our participating exhibitors,” said Stephanie Villahermosa, ITF project director.

“It’s really gratifying for us knowing that the show has not only generated sales for the exhibitors, but has likewise enabled them to reinforce their relationship proximity with their clients,” Villahermosa added.

Event organizers will also hold the 2nd Cebu Travel Exchange as a precursor to the 3rd ITF on July 14 at Radisson Blu Cebu.

The Cebu Travel Exchange (CTX) is a business-to-business session among ITF exhibitors from the airline industry, hotels, resorts, and travel agencies.

According to Villahermosa, the 2nd CTX promises to be much bigger affair as prospective international buyers from the different ASEAN countries, India, and the Middle East will be in attendance this year.

The one-day CTX session will be held at the Nina Ballrooms of Radisson Blu.

Mark your calendar! 

xx

IG and Snapchat: jewelclicks 

Coca-Cola Celebrates Taste the Feeling Festival in Cebu

photo from my instagram: @jewelclicks

There is no stopping Coca-Cola in reaching hearts and sharing feelings of excitement and happiness as the world-renowned beverage company visits the Queen City of the South – Cebu! 

Over 5,000 teens and those young at heart gathered at Cebu IT Park last June 23 as Coca-Cola celebrated its Taste the Feeling Festival, featuring the new Coca-Cola Emoticon Bottles. 

Loving Cebu. Cebu greeted the Coca-Cola Philippines President & General Manager Diego Granizo with a warm welcome

Strong partnerships. (L-R) Coca-Cola FEMSA Phils. VisMin Commercial Director Manrique Cerdas, Coca-Cola FEMSA Phils. Visayas Commercial Unit Associate Director Agustin Gatuslao, and Coca-Cola Phils.  Franchise Director for Sparkling Manish Chaturvedi with Coca-Cola Philippines President & General Manager Diego Granizo

Coca-Cola Taste the Feeling in Cebu! Send a kiss or a wink to someone special with the Coca-Cola Emoticon Bottles

With the power of emoticons, Coca-Cola gave everyone a fun and creative way to share their feelings using Coke Emoticons. Guests were offered a chance to express their feelings through personalizing the looks of the emoticons on their Coca-Cola bottles at the venue’s Share a Feeling booth, and through other available interactive booths that evoked fun, kilig, cool, gigil, and many more. 

with Janine and Emjae at the back. :D Photo by Kalami Cebu

Thousands of moments were captured in the digital interactive photo booths that allowed guests to pose with their squad and choose different “feel-ters” to edit their shots. They also got to feel creative at the coloring wall and feel wild with the free temporary tattoos and face paints. 

Coca-Cola Ambassadors Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza filled the event with fun and kilig as they joined the crowd in celebrating the festival. Teens, along with their family and friends, sang to the music of some of the well-loved bands of today such as Itchyworms and Rocksteddy, and partied on ‘til late with Dj Tom Taus.

“For us here at Coca-Cola, the simple pleasure of drinking and enjoying a bottle of Coke is always an experience. Today, we bring that experience to life by creating even more special moments with everyone through a one-of-a-kind, exciting Taste the Feeling Festival full of fun activities, music, feels, and of course, Coca-Cola emoticon bottles. With Coca-Cola emoticon bottles, there is always a sure way to communicate, start a conversation and share a feeling with a crush, a friend, a loved one”, shared Diego Granizo, President and General Manager of Coca-Cola Philippines.

Jive in with Itchyworms lead vocalist Jugs Jugueta

Rock on to the music of proud Pinoy band Rocksteddy

Party till dawn with DJ Tom Taus and his electric beats!

Making moments with Coca-Cola at the Taste the Feeling Festival is truly an experience made more special as couples, friends and families were able to create and share new memories, and express their feelings with the special people in their lives.

Personalize your Coca-Cola Emoticon bottles and start sharing your feelings. Check out the official Facebook page of Coca-Cola Philippines for the full mechanics and schedule of the Share the Feeling booth. You can also express yourselves more creatively using Coca-Cola Emoticon bottles available in stores and supermarkets nationwide or by downloading the free Coca-Cola emoticons available on Viber.

More photos in this gallery.

Photo by Emjae Fotos

PS: Here's Bae waved while I was recording a video.

Taste the Feeling, Share the Feeling with Coke.

Have a great day everyone!
xx