Finally made one of my favorite Filipino street foods! Banana-cue! 🍌

Growing up, I remember paying 20 PHP (about $0.30 now) for a stick of banana-cue and was always in heaven. Banana-cue is made with saba bananas which is actually more of a tiny plantain than a banana. If you’ve never had it before, it’s essentially a deep fried plantain (similar to maduros) but coated with caramelized dark brown sugar and then skewered with bamboo sticks and served to-go. Think bananas foster but with a brown sugar candy coating. These are so ridiculously delicious and crispy and might be coming to a cocktail near you ;)

Also, can we just acknowledge the fact that I just made a cooking video??? Should I make more? If so, what do you want to see?

What if we made this iconic Filipino street food into a cocktail?

Together with my friends at @tanduayrum, I’ve taken one of my favorite Filipino street foods and found a way to make it into a cocktail. Banana-cue is an iconic Filipino dish made with Saba bananas, that are fried with dark brown sugar to form a crispy, caramel coating. The piping hot caramelized bananas are then skewered with bamboo and eaten to-go. It’s a sweet, savory snack that I figured would be fitting with Tanduay Gold Rum - an iconic Filipino rum thats been around so long that my dad used to drink it back in the Philippines when he was my age :D

This is one of the best cocktails I’ve made this year, and the secret (besides the rum) is the Saba banana oleo saccharum, if you want the recipe sent to your inbox, comment ‘OLEO’ and I’ll send it over in the form of a recipe card so you can save it to your camera roll.

Cheers y’all!

#ad21+ #TanduayPartner

This was a labor of love 🇵🇭🫰🏽

In my ongoing quest to make my childhood Filipino desserts into a cocktail, may I present the Buko Pandan — a coconut/pandan clarified daiquiri variation topped with an ube-coconut foam. This was a love letter to my childhood growing up in the Philippines and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to share it with those who attended this Kamayan for chswineandfood.

Note that the ube foam was a little trickier than I first intended, I wanted to make the foam float about the cocktail but had a hard time doing so without coagulation of the foam (since it was mostly dairy). Luckily, kevin_kos and jfdesfosses came to the rescue in the form of super foam which I incorporated into the iSi and it worked like a charm.

This was a fun (but labor intensive) drink to make so I included a single serving version below if you don’t feel like making 9L for your next event (unless you do, in which case, I included that batch recipe as well).

Big thanks to my friends at campari_southcarolina for graciously donating product for this event!

Cheers y’all.

It’s all in the details…

Big thanks to my friends at holycitystrawcompany for making these custom holycityhandcraft bamboo straws, perfect for Collins cocktails (they make shorter ones too!). Did you know bamboo straws are more sustainable than paper? Well now you do…

Anyway, figured the bamboo straws are a perfect accompaniment to this single malt highball recipe! Check it out below.

With Laphroaig - Always having lived in the south and tropical weather, its always acceptable to make and consume tropical cocktail year-round - and yes that includes the Holidays ☃️🥃

A light take on the classic for #NegroniWeek 🥃

“A lighter rendition of the classic, the Alive and Well is more of an “orange” Negroni. aromatic, floral, herbaceous, and slightly fruity backed with Campari’s signature bitterness; it’s a fun, late-summer sipper.”

Cheers y’all!

“A lighter rendition of the classic, the Alive and Well is more of an “orange” Negroni. aromatic, floral, herbaceous, and slightly fruity backed with Campari’s signature bitterness; it’s a fun, late-summer sipper.”

Don’t forget you can grab this cocktail at @beautiful_south__ this week! Cheers y’all!

¡Happy #CincoDeMayo, mis amigos!
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I’m happy to bring you one of the most unique recipes from the Copper Bar the @patron Hacienda last week. We liked it so much, both @highproofpreacher and I posted about it without even coordinating haha Thanks to our dude @gingerbartender for providing the recipe!
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A little background: The Charreada is a rodeo-like tradition dating back to the arrival of Spanish horsemanship to Mexico in the 16th century. Once a competition between Haciendas, it is now performed by teams of professional charros and is an important touchstone of Mexican culture. So there’s your fun fact for the day - now get out there and enjoy this day respectfully and responsibly, salud!

THE WORLD’S TINIEST DAIQUIRI 🍹

…lovingly nicknamed a ’Snaquiri’. This was the most requested cocktail for this #TinyCocktail series so I had to oblige. This rendition is made with fresh calamansi juice which is near and dear to my heart (since I am Filipino and all). If you haven’t had calamansi, I describe it as a cross between a bitter orange, lemon and yuzu. The addition of that grapefruit oil adds more of that citrus aroma but is optional.

NOTE: Replace “Parts” with Ounces below to make a full size Daiquiri.

Cheers y’all.

Kasama • (adjective) being together adv. in company with, along with

I was thrilled when this brand reached out to me last year, Kasamarum is a 7 year blended rum from my home country, The Philippines. So naturally, when the distribution reached SC, I couldn’t wait to sample it (thanks to the kind folks at Kasama).

The rum itself is naturally sweet from sugar cane and figured it would be perfect in a spin on a Daiquiri that I’m calling “LAHAT KASAMA” which translates to “we’re all together” in Tagalog. This rendition is made with fresh calamansi juice which is near and dear to my heart (since I am Filipino and all). If you haven’t had calamansi, I describe it as a cross between a bitter orange, lemon and yuzu - its amazing in cocktail and wish it was more mainstream. Cheers y’all.

Yeahhh, you’ll want to make this one 🥭

Mangos are near and dear to my heart just because it was so ubiquitous in the Philippines and I had it almost every day as a child. Whether it was fresh off a tree, or sliced unripened with a side of shrimp paste; I loved it in all its forms. I figured it was only fitting to make a non-alcoholic drink and pair it with Spindrift’s Mango Black Tea. It’s fruity, light and refreshing - hope you give this one a try! Cheers y’all!

An ode to my Filipino grandmother (Nanay) 🥃🇵🇭

You know when you try a particular food or drink it just takes you back to place and time in your life or childhood? This is it for me. This recipe’s flavors reminds me of my Nanay (Tagalog for ‘mom’ - she was everyone’s mom) and her famous leche flan. She would make this recipe for every special occasion and it was always a crowd favorite. What set it apart was the incredible amount of balance in flavors, between the massive amount of lime zest in the condensed milk custard (think souped up key lime) and a caramel sauce that was just brought past caramelization, bringing a sweet, but nutty element to table. I’m honored to be able to create something to pay homage to those flavor profiles and the nostalgia that comes along with it.

I’ve been covering the chswineandfood going on seven years, but this year but I knew this year was special when I was asked to be a participant for a signature dinner with my friends at @pinkbellies and the world famous @pawkhrua. I knew this had to make on the menu along with some other recipes that I can’t wait to show y’all. Our event is tomorrow, so make sure you’re following along on the accounts mentioned above and chswineandfood. If you’re going to make it to any other CHSWF events, let me know which ones!

Cheers y’all!