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This has been long overdue, since Chinese New Year happened last week and this was an entry I was supposed to do for that event.  Work and school papers got in the way so…

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I had a minor dilemma.  My very nice boss, Dr. Paulino Y. Tan, president of Asia Pacific College, gave all his directors and assistant directors (I’m one of his lucky lucky assistant directors) a big box of that delicious brown tikoy from the Bueno Mano Hopia Factory.

Thing is, I live in busy Mandaluyong with my sister, who’s always out on shoots and events, being the aspiring stylist that she is. The dilemma: What do I do with a whole box of tikoy and a relatively empty pantry? I didn’t think I can finish the entire thing all by my lonesome and if I cooked it traditionally — dipped in egg then fried — and ate that everyday, I knew I’d be sick of it. As soon as I got home, I checked my cupboards for ingredients I could use, thinking that there had to be a creative way to prepare tikoy besides the obvious.

We had olive oil. Ok, I couldn’t imagine using olive oil on tikoy. Ick. So that was out of the question. No butter. No eggs either. There was milk. Hm. I heated a cup of milk in the pan, sliced 4 pieces of tikoy and bathed them in the milk. Thank goodness for nonstick pans. I was able to fish the slices out without difficulty.  Too bad I wasn’t able to take a photo, since it was only while I was stuffing myself silly did I get the idea of writing a blog entry about this dessert.

The next day, I went to the grocery. Bought eggs (just in case I wanted to go back to being traditional), cream and peaches. This time, I wanted to try tikoy in peaches and cream.

This experiment got me curious enough to want to try it without the cream. So I went for tikoy and peaches.  Was able to use pineapple tidbits on the next experiment, though it didn’t taste as good as when I used peaches. Then again, I’m extremely picky with my pineapples and it’s very seldom when they taste just right.

Okay, so on the next attempt, I decided to use plain ol’ eggs.  Without oil and without anything else. I scrambled up a couple, bathed 6 slices of tikoy in them and plopped the entire contents of my bowl into the pan.  The result actually tasted pretty good and it didn’t make me dizzy, the way traditional tikoy would make me feel after some time.

My last experiment had something to do with a combination of peach syrup, milk, honey and eggs.  I mixed them all together, shoved my remaining tikoy slices into the consistency and fried them in olive oil. Then prayed over them so I wouldn’t regret what I just did.  I was actually surprised that it didn’t taste icky. It tasted like your regular tikoy, without the added guilt (and headache) caused by regular cooking oil.

I tried making tikoy maruya (inspired by the thought of banana fritters), but I didn’t have enough ingredients in my cupboard so it ended in total FAILURE.  Oh, and I also had tikoy with peanut butter and rolled that on a bunch of sesame seeds. That was weird but it was good.

I asked around for other suggestions and a couple of my former students mentioned deep-fried lumpiang tikoy.  Hm, sounds good.  Someone else suggested I put melted cheese on it. Ew.  A former colleague (Jag Garcia) said I should try cooking it in “oil, glorious oil” sans the egg. Double Ew.

Thinking about this experiment led me to believe that:

1. I need a recipe book.
2. I need to find nutritious alternatives to fast food.

The second item, I cannot do anything about if I don’t have time to check out exotic grocery stores.  I only have time to do kitchen experiments like these when I’m locking myself up in the condo because I have to work on doctoral papers (the experiments happen during breaks). As I mentioned sometime before, I’m sick of eating cardboard-tasting wheat bread in the morning and I do so resent turning to instant pancit canton in the evenings.  I need variety but I also need to learn how to whip up dishes that are quick and easy to make. Not to mention, healthy.

The first item…well, it just so happens that Animetric’s World came up with a contest and a Yummy Cook Book Set happens to be one of her prizes. The timing couldn’t have been more impeccable!  I actually posted about this contest in an earlier entry, but since I had missed my self-imposed deadline for My Adventures with Tikoy, I figured I should just make this my official contest entry instead.  I do still want a Celeteque Advanced moisturizer and a Starbucks Clean and Green Tumbler but I suppose I have to eat. Survival deserves primacy.