Meryenda with Gardenia : Toast Toppings Challenge

It's meryenda time! And make it even more delicious with Gardenia.

Among the most popular and widely available brands in the country, Gardenia is famous for its Classic White Bread, its signature product.

GARDENIA Classic White bread is not only known for its freshness, softness and oven-baked aroma but also for its nutritive value.

It is made with high-protein flour, is folate-enriched and has vitamins (A, B1, B2, B3 and C) and minerals (calcium, iron and iodine)

It is also cholesterol-free, has zero transfat, zero saturated fat and bromate-free!

And definitely, one loaf is not enough! So always stock up whenever you do your grocery shopping.

With a lot Gardenia breads in my midst (madamo gid nga salamat, Gardenia ), I decided to challenge myself in making some toast toppings with ingredients I could find in the fridge and in the cupboard.

And here are some of my favorites which are also very easy to make.

HAWAIIAN 🍍

What could be more tropical and distinctly Hawaiian than pineapples?

I just mixed crushed pineapples (and its juices) with fork-mashed cheese (to make it chunky) for this very delicious topping/filling. Try this one and it'll be your favorite too!

APPLE UPSIDE DOWN 🍎

One look at the apples in the fridge made me crave for an Apple Pie.

So with butter, granulated light brown sugar and cinnamon (just caramelize the apples in a frying pan), I satisfied my cravings as well as keeping up with the challenge!

SUNRISER 🍳

An all time favorite at home this is basically a mix of hard boiled eggs, cheese and your favorite mayonnaise or sandwich spread.

Make it more chunky by using fork to mash the eggs and cheese and be very generous with them too to have that savory flavor in every bite.

NAME THAT TUNA 🐟

Another classic and very easy to make as ingredients could just be lying around your kitchen.

Just mix your favorite canned tuna with chopped onions, pickled relish and mayo dressing for that familiar savory delicious topping. Top it your fave veggies!

CHEESE LANDING ON YOU 🪂

I might be on a Kdrama hiatus but I can't say no to Kim's Bob Kimchi every meal time. So why not have it with Gardenia too?!

I melted some cheese, mixed some cheese pimiento spread and finally the delicious kimchi - all on top of the toast! I'm sure Se Ri and Capt. Ri would approve!

TIME BOMB 💣

It's level up Dynamite - that cheese and finger chillies "lumpia" appetizer.

But this deconstructed version is without the springroll wrapper and is just made with cheesified pepper (fried or microwaved first) with some cheese pimiento spread! An explosion of flavors!

CHOCO-CONUT 🥥

Reminds me of the Ilonggo native delicacy - suman latik, but on a different level.

Good thing we have some bottle-stored bukayo in the fridge for this on the spot fusion creation. The chocolate syrup drizzled bukayo (young coconut strips cooked in muscovado sugar) is sweet and indulgent palate pleaser.

FRUGHURT 🍌

I had some banana slices but unluckily no peanut butter. Then the mango yoghurt in the chiller waved at me thus making this fruitty toast topping more on the lighter and healthier side.

Maybe some strawberry or mixed berries yoghurt next time. Or just plain yogurt with any fruit available!

S'MORES 🍫

This is the only one I had to do more than once since my first one was a (minor) disaster! Basically, I just topped the toast with marshallows and chocolate bar then microwave.

But I miscalculated the time that the mallows and chocolate melted into a gooey mess ( but still delicious). But the next few tries were good enough. Yummy!

From checking what's inside the fridge and making mental notes of the recipes to the toasting, topping making and making the finished products, an hour was just enough time.

But deciding which angle is best; checking the best corner for maximum lighting; arranging for best production design - almost took 3 hours after!

In the end, it was all worth it!

And during this time of pandemic, Health is Wealth! We must ensure a big part of what we eat is healthy and nutritious. Even breads...

And that's why it has to be GARDENIA!

This posting was for a Friday and since it is the Lenten Season, I opted for some no meat creations to pay respect to religious beliefs of the majority of Filipinos.

More about Gardenia

Gardenia Philippines offers a wide array of superior bakery products including white, wheat and health breads, flavored loaves, pandesal and snack items like snack cakes, muffins and toasts.

It pioneered a unique distribution system, ensuring that only fresh breads reach consumers every day as it strictly follows its international policy of keeping only fresh stocks on the store shelves.

As soon as products come out of the factory, delivery vans leave the production plant as early as 4 o’clock in the morning to bring the products to specific locations in the country.

Replacing unsold breads in store shelves with only freshly baked top-quality products during each day of delivery is a Gardenia practice unmatched in the industry.

It's taste and freshness guaranteed and thus, born its very popular tagline, "So good...you can even eat it on its own".

Ultimate Ilonggo Favorite: KBL Kadyos, Baboy, Langka

K.B.L. or Kadyos, Baboy, Langka is the ultimate favorite dish of most Ilonggos. It is also one of the most missed native dishes as kadyos and the souring ingredient, batwan , are hard to find when outside of the Ilonggo region. Basically, it is boiled/stewed pork dish owing its "deliciousness" to the combination of the soft and tender pork, the tamed sourness of batwan and the malinamnam na sabaw . One of the "secrets" of the malinamnamn na sabaw , is the fact that the pork, whether just the plain meat or pata (hocks) are first grilled or broiled. This gives the broth a rather smoky taste that makes it more appetizing.. Learn how to make the Ilonggo dish KBL (Kadyos, Baboy, at Langka) with the recipe below. Ingredients 1 kilo Pata (pork hocks) or pork cubes, GRILLED and sliced into bite size pieces 1 unripe Jack fruit, cubed 2 cups pigeon pea (kadyos) 6-8 pieces batwan fruit (or tamarind powder) 1 piece pork broth cube (

An Ilonggo favorite - Valenciana

Found in almost all occasions like fiesta, birthdays, reunions and others, Ilonggos really love valenciana because most if not all have grown accustomed of having it in special gatherings at home. A complete " go, grow and glow " dish because it has the carbohydrates, protein and vitamins and minerals in just one spoonful, Valenciana is really an " occasional dish ". Here's the recipe for Valenciana

Takway

The gabi (taro) is just one of those plants which is edible from "roots to tops". The most popular of which is the tuber part which is used in a variety of dishes and mostly in combination with coconut milk. Its leaves, of course, is the main ingredient of a Bicol specialty, laing . It is dried then chopped and sauteed with other ingredients including, again, coconut milk. Then there is takway . The local term for its tendrils/runner, that part which is torn between being a stem or a root for it neither grows upwards nor downwards - it grows sideways . Scraped off of its outer skin, takway is often a key ingredient in vegetable dishes like laswa and the gabi tuber with coconut milk and local snails know as bago-ngon . It is also popular when cooked adobo style with guinamos , the local bago-ong . It is very popular in the region that even big supermarkets sell takway in style - cleaned and plastic wrapped in styro with some additions to make it easier to prepare.

Batwan

Ilonggos know batwan or batuan by heart as the fruit is almost endemic to the Western Visayas. Its scientific name is Garcinia binucao, derived from the Tagalog name for the fruit, binukaw. It is a large green fruit with large seeds and its a favorite souring ingredient in most Ilonggo dishes especially KBL or kadyos, baboy, langka and the Ilonggo-style paksiw known as "pinamalhan". It is characterized by a tamed sourness compared to tamarind and kamias . The fruit is sold by pieces or kilo in wet markets and even big grocery stores. Batwan is the preferred souring ingredients for the Ilonggo favorite- KBL. The photo shows boiled batwan with skin and without skin (right) A favorite riddle when we were young - "Among the many fruits in the forest, but one (batuan) is the best. What is it?"

A cooking weed called Lupo

Lupo is a weed that is commonly found in ricefields and roadside in provinces. It is most prevalent in Ilonggo cooking compared to others as it is mostly the Ilonggos who can recognize lupo , though maybe called differently in other places. Most commonly used in laswa or monggo dishes to add greens like kamote tops, it also makes a good partner in sinabawan na isda recipes. It has hints of bitterness but don't expect it to be ampalaya-bitter like. It is mostly sold in wet local wet markets by the tumpok .

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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